The Fort McMurray demonstration project in social marketing: Health- and safety-related behaviour in a prosperous industrial community

Abstract

This is the first in a series of surveys conducted in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, as part of the Fort McMurray Demonstration Project in Social Marketing. The Project is a community-based, cooperative program designed to demonstrate and to evaluate the application of social marketing and community animation to health- and safety-promoting interventions. This baseline survey was for the purpose of planning specific interventions and to support evaluation of the impact of these interventions. In 1992, a survey of Fort McMurray residents was conducted by telephone. Respondents to the survey tended to be disproportionately women (60%) and aged 30 to 44 (men 55%, women 54%). Most of the findings reported describe a generally affluent community with good self-reported health status and satisfaction in the quality of life. Occupational and personal health-and safety-related behaviours showed some contradictions. Both hearing protection and eye protection are much more frequently practiced at work than at home by both men and women. Protection from ultraviolet radiation, in the form of sunscreens or clothes cover, is practiced with about the same frequency at home or at work, suggesting that this behaviour is conditioned by lifestyle attitudes. Warm-up exercises are much more commonly practiced by both men and women before exertion at home than at work. We conclude that safety-related practices at home and at work are often at variance. The strategy of encouraging generalization of safety-related behaviours, to be practiced consistently both at home and at work, seems to hold promise for achieving greater compliance and promoting both community and workplace safety.     

Does Real Exchange Rate Volatility Affect Foreign Direct Investment? Evidence from Four Developed Economies

This study examines the impact of shocks to exchange rate uncertainty (volatility) on foreign direct investment (FDI) in Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The analysis is conducted using vector autoregressive models that contain the price level, real output, the real exchange rate, the volatility of the real exchange rate, the interest rate, and FDI. The results from variance decompositions yield public policy implications. In Canada, Japan, and the United States, innovations to exchange rate uncertainty explain significant portions of the forecast error variance in FDI at longer time horizons. The impulse response functions indicate that, to the extent that shocks to exchange rate volatility have an impact on FDI, the impact is positive and takes place with a lag.     

Selling the Farm Silver? Understanding Water Sales to the Australian Government

In 2007?C2008 the Australian federal government committed $3.1?billion over 10?years to purchase water from irrigators in the Murray-Darling Basin and to deliver this water to key environmental assets. Given that water entitlements often represent one of the most valuable assets owned by irrigators, this study investigates irrigators?? willingness to sell water, and their actual water sales, to the government. It uses 1,570 surveys from 2008?C2009 and 2010?C2011 in the southern Murray-Darling Basin. Water sales can be classified as either last resort or strategic. Overall, the results suggest that farmers who do not hold strong traditional farming attitudes, and have higher debt, lower farm income, larger high security water entitlements, lower water allocations over the past 5?years, and those who have been net sellers of water allocations are more likely to have sold water or are thinking of selling water to the government. A dynamic comparison of how water sale preferences change, and an estimate of the total amount of water entitlements irrigators are willing to sell, indicates that it is probable that there will be enough water offered to the program in the future, at least to meet initial minimum environmental water targets. However, other concerns indicate that a potential restructure of the program may be required.     

The valuation and reliability implications of FIN 46 for synthetic lease liabilities

We examine whether adoption of FASB Interpretation No. 46/R (FIN 46), Consolidation of Variable Interest Entities–an Interpretation of ARB No. 51, changed the market valuation and related measurement reliability of synthetic lease liabilities. Adopted in 2003, FIN 46 requires financial statement recognition of many previously off-balance sheet structures, including synthetic leases. Synthetic leases are hybrid financing structures that, prior to FIN 46, allowed firms to maximize the benefits of asset ownership for tax purposes while retaining operating lease treatment within the firm’s financial statements. We identify a sample of 125 synthetic leasing firms impacted by FIN 46. Utilizing methodology consistent with Dhaliwal et al. (2011), we constructively capitalize these lease liabilities in the period preceding FIN 46 and compare market valuation of these liabilities with capitalized leases after adoption of the standard. We find that the market places greater weight on synthetic lease obligations recognized within the body of the financial statements than it does liabilities disclosed within the associated notes. Finally, we rely on econometric procedures developed in Barth (1991) and extended in Choi et al. (1997) to examine whether the differential market valuation of lease liabilities post FIN 46 is due in part to perceived differences in measurement reliability. The results indicate there is a post FIN 46 reliability effect for all lease liabilities examined. However, while the synthetic lease amounts are the most unreliable examined, they also experience the greatest increase in reliability post FIN 46, indicating that perceived measurement reliability explains in part differential market valuation associated with FIN 46. Our findings have the potential to inform the ongoing standard setting debate surrounding the possible capitalization of all leases. Further, our study also has economic implications for managers concerned with the potential constraints on asset financing options imposed by accounting regulation.     

Elicitation of irrigators' risk preferences from observed behaviour

Water trading in the Murray–Darling Basin of Australia has developed to the point where it is a common adaptation tool used by irrigators, making it an apt case study to elicit the marginal value of irrigation water and irrigators' risk preferences in two key industries with differing levels of water dependence. Our data come from large‐scale and representative surveys of irrigated broadacre and horticultural farms in the Murray–Darling Basin over a 6‐year period. The marginal contribution of irrigation water to profit is estimated at $547 and $61/ML on average in horticulture and broadacre, respectively. Horticultural irrigators are found to be averse to the risk of large losses (downside risk) while broadacre irrigators are averse to the variability (variance) of profit.     

Book reviews

MARKETING FOR THE SMALL FIRM by Rick Brown (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985), 184 pages, £5.95. ISBN 0–03–910616–0.

THE SELLING OF BRITISH TELECOM by Karin Newman (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1986), 176 pages, £15.95. ISBN 0–03–910639–1.

ADVERTISING WORKS 3 edited by Charles Channon (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985), 317 pages, £20.00. ISBN 0–03–910619–5.

BASIC MARKETING 2nd ed. by Tom Cannon (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1986), 369 pages, £7.95. ISBN 0–03–910603–9.

TRAINING SALESMEN ON THE JOB 2nd Edition by John Lidstone (Gower Press, Aldershot, 1986), 180 pages, £25.00. ISBN 0–566–02414–4.

STRATEGIES FOR INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL MARKETING edited by Peter W. Turnbull and Jean‐Paul Valla (Croom Helm, London, 1986), 310 pages, £29.95 hardback. ISBN 0–7099–2494–1.

PRACTICAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: WHAT WORKS WHAT DOES NOT by Peter M. Kraushar (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, London, 1985), 180 pages, £15.95 hardback. ISBN 0–03–910614–4.     

The role of dryland cotton as a source of household income in two magisterial districts of KwaZulu

The aim of this paper is to illuminate certain economic aspects of the production of dryland cotton among rural households in the Ubombo and Hlabisa magisterial districts of KwaZulu. In order to assess the viability of the household cotton enterprise, its contribution to household income and the producers' perceived constraints to production, an interview survey was conducted among 100 cotton‐adopting households in the two study areas. Multi‐stage sampling techniques were employed to facilitate the study.

Results show that the Ubombo region's inherent climatic suitability, combined with extensive support services, has benefited the dryland producer and resulted in a lucrative on‐farm enterprise. Cotton contributed an average of 62 per cent to annual household income in this district

In the climatically less suitable Hlablsa district, where producers are limited by lack of finance and small land sizes, wage labour was found to be the prime source of cash income for the household, while cotton contributed an average of 17 per cent towards annual household income.

Producers in both areas are cost effective relative to the white commercial farmer while mean yields and net incomes indicate that dryland cotton has the potential to contribute much to the development of certain areas of KwaZulu. Overspending on chemicals may indicate the need for increased extension into complex pest control management procedures.     

Supervisors and their response to poor performance: A study of disciplinary decision making

This study examines how first-level supervisors make disciplinary decisions when faced with a performance problem. Using a policy-capturing design, subjects (supervisors from a nonunion financial services organization) were asked to make disciplinary decisions about cases that varied in terms of six different factors: magnitude of the performance decrement, documented warning, waiver, tenure, past performance, and the manner of the employee. The impact of these factors was examined in order to gain insight into the degree to which key social and institutional norms impact disciplinary decisions and, in turn, generate nascent rights for employees. The findings are suggestive as to the relative importance of these norms within the sample as a whole as well as for individual managers within the sample. The implications for our understanding of the role of nascent rights within disciplinary systems are discussed.     

Is the world economy more integrated today than a century ago?

This paper evaluates whether economies have become more internationalized: the integration hypothesis. Unlike previous studies, the current study addresses the integration hypothesis by analyzing the impact on the U.S. of economic shocks from the rest of the world. This analysis includes data beginning in the 1870s. Most previous studies have examined only the post-World War II period. Variance decompositions derived from vector autoregressive models indicate that the U.S. economy has become more vulnerable to international events over time, suggesting that the world economy is more integrated today than a century ago.