Supporting Rural Labour Markets

Deprivation and disadvantage in rural areas is often thought to be "hidden" from official statistics largely because people in rural areas are dispersed into small, scattered settlements. This paper draws on research undertaken in two contrasting rural areas to explore one aspect of disadvantage, the labour market, and goes on to consider possible policy mechanisms which might be able to address rural deprivation. In particular, it examines the potential for more flexible policies, which appear to have been successful in urban contexts, but which are targeted at areas with high concentrations of deprivation so that rural areas do not qualify.     

Choosing Winners and Losers in a Classroom Permit Trading Game

This paper presents a classroom game in which students trade pollution permits. By changing the distribution of permits across firms, the game shows students how the allocation of property rights determines the winners and losers in the permit trading system but does not affect the efficiency of the system. This game can be used in a variety of classes, including principles or environmental economics, and can be conducted in a 50-minute class period with follow-up discussion in the next class.     

Tailored to the extremes: Quantile regression for index‐based insurance contract design

A new approach for weather index‐based insurance design based on Quantile Regression (QR) to condition the yield‐index dependency is developed and compared to standard regression technique. Three conceptual different risk measures, i.e., Expected Utility, Expected Shortfall and a Spectral Risk Measure, are used to evaluate the risk reducing properties of these contracts. Our findings show that QR is much more powerful in establishing the yield‐index dependency and lead for all risk measures to a higher risk reduction than the standard technique ordinary least squares (OLS). Thus, QR leads to a more efficient contract design, which is beneficial for both, the insurer (smaller remaining risk) and the insured (higher demand and willingness to pay). Our empirical application is based on a 31 years long time series of wheat yield data from Northern Kazakhstan.     

Recognition versus Disclosure: An Investigation of the Impact on Equity Risk Using UK Operating Lease Disclosures

This study examines the equivalency of accounting recognition versus disclosure. OLS regression analysis is used to determine whether there is an association between equity risk and an adjustment to financial risk for off-balance sheet operating leases. Two methods of adjustment are considered: constructive capitalisation and a simple factor method. The observation of a reliably positive association suggests that UK investors/analysts view operating leases from a property rights perspective rather than an ownership perspective. This supports the argument for recognition of all lease rights and obligations 'on-balance sheet', as proposed in the recent G4+1 discussion paper ASB (1999).     

Attitudes towards business ethics held by South African students

This study uses the ATBEQ, as published by J.F. Preble and A. Reichel (1988) to measure attitudes towards ethical business attitudes held by final year South African Bachelor of Commerce students at Rhodes University. Three samples of students were assessed over three consecutive years of 1989, 1990 and 1991, and results are compared with samples (1988) of American and Israeli students and a sample (1991) of Western Australian students. A significant difference in attitudes was found to exist between the Israeli and South African samples. A factor analysis of the questionnaire identified eleven factors of which seven are theoretically labelled. A revised version of the ATBEQ is suggested which excludes the poorly performing questions.Robert S. Moore, is a lecturer in the Department of Management at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. His research interest is in the area of business ethics mainly related to commerce students.Sarah E. Radloff is a senior lecturer in the Department of Mathematical Statistics at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. Her research interest is in data analysis and she is the statistical consultant for many departments at the University.     

Investing in Eastern Europe: Two case histories

This feature is in three parts: the first two are case histories of the contrasting experiences of two Western companies which expanded abroad for the first time in the mid-1990s, into different countries in Eastern Europe. One is so far successful, the other not. The third section draws out the implications of these experiences: although still quite risky, investment in Central and Eastern Europe can already be made to pay by firms that enter as part of a well-conceived and financed global strategy. Particular benefits are lower labour costs and access to untapped markets.     

Auctioning Horizontally Differentiated Items

This paper analyzes competition between two sellers that offer horizontally differentiated items at competing auctions. Three possible outcomes can arise in equilibrium. For substantially differentiated items the monopoly reserve prices form an equilibrium, and the market is not entirely covered. When products become closer substitutes, a non-empty interval of types becomes valuable to both sellers. When transport costs are low, and virtual valuations are high, sellers compete for these bidders and set their reserve prices below the valuation of the marginal bidder. In equilibrium all types enjoy participation rents. For intermediate levels of transport costs it is not worth competing for runaway bidders. In this case, there is a continuum of equilibria. In each equilibrium sellers adjust their reserve prices so that the marginal bidder gets no rents.     

团体项目教学法与会计教学策略

团体项目教学法在美国会计教学中已得到广泛使用.经过二十多年的教学实践,该教学法已趋成熟.实践证明,在会计课程中采用团队项目教学法所培养出的学生团队协作精神更强,受到用人单位欢迎.本文研究和分析了团队项目教学法兴起的背景,基本理论以及运用过程中可能遇到的问题,进而就如何在中国会计课程中开展团体项目教学法,为教师和学生提出了可行的运用指南.     

Self-Policing in a Targeted Enforcement Regime

This paper adds to the debate over whether self-policing can increase environmental protection by considering an issue that has been ignored in previous models—that self-policing may influence future enforcement. The model combines self-policing with targeted enforcement and allows for both deliberate and inadvertent violations. As expected, rewarding self-policers with more lenient future enforcement increases auditing, remediation, and disclosure of inadvertent violations. Self-policing can also serve as a complement to deliberate compliance and can thus further increase environmental performance. However, under reasonable conditions, self-policing can be a substitute for deliberate compliance and could therefore be detrimental to environmental protection.