Convergence of consumption patterns during macroeconomic transition: A model of demand in Ireland and the OECD

This study uses country-level panel data on consumption in Ireland and seven other OECD countries to examine the evolution of Irish consumption patterns as Ireland underwent rapid macroeconomic growth. Consumption levels obviously increased due to substantially higher incomes, but it is less clear how the shares of different types of goods purchased have changed or whether Ireland's consumption mix has converged with that of other high-income countries. Rankings based on a simple distance measure of consumption similarity suggest that Ireland moved from a “low-income” pattern similar to Portugal or Greece to a “high-income” pattern like that of Canada between 1995 and 2003. Using static and dynamic Almost Ideal Demand System models, we first estimate long- and short-run Irish price and income elasticities for nine categories of commodities between 1976 and 2003. These results provide evidence of substantial habit formation in aggregate consumption. We then estimate a long-run cross-country model covering six aggregate commodity groups between 1975 and 2003. The analysis shows that Ireland's demand parameters remain more similar to those of Greece than to higher-income OECD countries in the sample. Although Ireland has overtaken most other OECD countries in per capita income, it is still converging to a higher-income consumption pattern. We foresee further convergence of Irish expenditure patterns towards a pattern typical of high-income countries.     

Mutual Fund Investment in Emerging Markets: An Overview

International mutual funds are key contributors to the globalizationof financial markets and one of the main sources of capitalflows to emerging economies. Despite their importance in emergingmarkets, little is known about their investment allocation andstrategies. This article provides an overview of mutual fundactivity in emerging markets. It describes their size, assetallocation, and country allocation and then focuses on theirbehavior during crises in emerging markets in the 1990s. Itanalyzes data at both the fund-manager and fund-investor levels.Due to large redemptions and injections, funds' flows are notstable. Withdrawals from emerging markets during recent criseswere large, which is consistent with the evidence on financialcontagion.     

Why executives won't talk with their people

Three years ago Robert Saltonstall, Jr., Associate Vice President for Operations at Harvard University, faced an increasingly common problem in business and institutions today when he severed 68 long-service, wage employees to solve a problem of low productivity in a particular trade group. He did this using relatively conventional and creative techniques. But now three years later, he asked Nona Lyons of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, who is researching the ethical dimensions of executives' decisions, to assist him in evaluating how these employees felt about the process. The employees' loyalty in spite of everything has caused Saltonstall to rethink the ethics of both his decision and its execution. In this article Saltonstall asks and answers many of the questions executives face when challenged to handle work reduction decisions in a more ethical way. And Lyons assists him with commentary on some of the current research on moral decision-making which will help executives to understand why they find some of their decisions to be moral dilemmas. The article challenges executives to think about reorganization decisions in a participative way and suggests seven central issues executives should consider before commencing a participative approach. The article reaches no specific conclusion, but introduces some new ways to think about lay-off decisions and their ethical implications for those affected.Nona Lyons is a Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research interests link moral and developmental psychology with education. A former school administrator, Lyons returned to graduate study in a mid-career professional change. Her doctoral research involved developing a methodology that made possible the first systematic identification of two moral considerations in peoples' thinking about their real-life moral conflicts, that is, traditional considerations of justice and more recently revealed considerations of care. In 1987, Lyons was awarded a Spencer Fellowship to explore and document how teachers come to change their practices as well as the values dimensions of their work. In all, Lyons has been concerned to connect research with new ways to think about the education of professionals.Robert Saltonstall, Jr. is currently Associate Dean for Harvard Medical School Operations. From June, 1981 to November, 1987 he was Associate Vice President of Operations for Harvard University. In that capacity he handled the subject matter for this article. Prior to his university work Saltonstall served in the commercial sector as General Manager of a resort, and President of a boat manufacturing company. He also held various manufacturing positions in the packaged food industry. He holds an MBA from Harvard (1964) and an A.B. in math from Brown (1957).     

The travel behaviour intentions of young people in the context of climate change

This article examines the factors influencing the future travel behaviour intentions of young people (aged 11–18), with specific attention given to how climate change considerations affect these. Overall it is found that the participants’ travel behaviour intentions are dominated by a desire to drive and that their values relating to identity, self-image, and social recognition (at the expense of their environmental values), as well as their affective attitudes towards transport modes, are key influences on this. Although they are aware of climate change, the participants’ understanding of the link between transport and climate change was weak. At the same time, they illustrated an apathy towards climate change – in part due to the timing and intangibility of its associated impacts and their lack of self-efficacy with respect to tackling this issue. However, despite claiming that their current environmentally friendly travel behaviours (such as walking or cycling to school) are not influenced by the issue of climate change, a number are accepting of the idea of enforced travel behaviour change – away from use of the car, towards more ‘environmentally friendly’ modes. This acceptance was in part due to their belief that such action would remove the influence of the ‘social dilemma’, where their own efforts to tackle climate change may be rendered worthless by the inaction of others.     

Development in Fujian: A county-level perspective

This research note describes a county-level data set for Fujian province. The set includes several hundred thousand observations on a wide range of social and economic attributes, for the period 1978–1993. The set also includes digitized maps showing prefecture and county boundaries, rivers, roads, rail lines, and county seats. This data set is available to all interested researchers, and is currently being used to investigate such issues as the spatial diffusion of new technologies, changes in the branch structure of industry during the reform era, and intercounty disparities in output and consumption.     

Housing Prices,Yields and Credit Conditions in Dublin since 1945

The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics - Housing is central to the broader economy, as highlighted by the Great Recession of 2007–2009, yet few reliable long-run series exist for...