Recreational benefits from a marine protected area: A travel cost analysis of Lundy

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been proposed in many countries as a means of conserving parts of the marine environment. In some cases, MPAs may also confer recreational benefits. In this paper, a travel cost model is used to estimate the non-market recreational benefits arising from the Lundy Island Marine Nature Reserve (MNR). The estimated mean consumer surplus for visiting Lundy was found to range from £359 to £574 per trip. The designation of No Take Zone (NTZ) has also contributed to higher consumer surplus values. This result provides a strong economic justification for the designation of MPAs for recreational as well as conservation purposes.     

Asset pricing with partial-moments

I bridge the current pricing kernel framework with the early partial-moment pricing models of the beta framework, thereby reconciling and clarifying these bodies of literature. I argue for the inclusion of powers of min and max functions within a generalized kernel, and form a generalized beta model. Polynomial kernels and the kernel underpinning the partial-moment analogue of the Sharpe-Lintner CAPM are nested. I derive the partial-moment analogue to the Black CAPM, thus completing a theoretical parallelism, and compare the kernel-implied and canonical risk-neutral probabilities. A new model involving both lower and upper partial-moments, accommodating various kernel shapes present in the literature, is developed in the context of preference regularity conditions.     

Corporate Community Involvement: a case for regulatory reform

The central thesis of this paper is that Corporate Community Involvement (CCI) is not a neutral activity with positive and mutual benefits for all involved. Rather, it is a much more complex activity which may also have negative impacts. Using Donaldson and Preston's (1995) explanatory model of the stakeholding concept as a framework, this paper explores: (1) the practice of CCI in the UK (with some reference to US experience from which UK firms have drawn extensively), (2) the grounds on which it is justified, and (3) the material consequences of such activity for corporate governance. It concludes by arguing that there is a case for a review of the law on CCI to assess the need for fuller public disclosure so as to allow shareholders and other interested groups the opportunity to assess the impact and effectiveness of CCI more thoroughly.     

Restricted electricity use among poor urban households

For a variety of reasons, this article argues, electricity must be seen by policy‐makers in South Africa not as the sole provider of all future household energy needs, but rather as one component of an energy mix which includes such ‘transitional’ fuels as coal, gas and paraffin. The reasons for this are that electricity is expensive for poor households; it is subject to power failures and disconnections for non‐payment; the poor find it difficult to monitor and to control their consumption; appliances are expensive and several are required to make best use of electricity; people prefer other fuels because they are familiar and have strong personal and cultural associations, and because Eskom is not trusted owing to its past ties to illegitimate local authorities and misunderstanding of electricity and how its use is monitored and charged for. Further, it is mistaken to equate ‘development’ with total electrification: most developed countries have fuel mixes which include gas and coal, particularly for cooking and heating. Accepting an affordable fuel mix for the poor in particular would focus attention on the problems currently associated with paraffin, gas and coal, namely fires, poisoning and air pollution.     

F. L. McDougall: Éminence grise of Australian Economic Diplomacy

This paper examines the principal economic ideas of F. L. McDougall, a largely forgotten, sometime government official and 'amateur' economist who exercised an enigmatic influence upon Australia's economic diplomacy in the interwar years. Beginning with his conception of 'sheltered markets', the international manifestation of the Bruce Government's vision for Australia of 'men, money, and markets', the paper explores McDougall's later advocacy of a 'nutrition approach' to world agriculture and its extension into 'economic appeasement'. McDougall's ideas were theoretically unsophisticated, and realized little in the way of immediate achievements. In the longer run they could be viewed more favourably. Naive perhaps and idealistic certainly, McDougall's ideas were part of a broader movement that, after the Second World War, redefined the role of international economic institutions. If nothing else, McDougall's active proselytizing of his ideas lent Australia an unusual 'voice' in international forums at a time when it was scarcely heard.     

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE VALUE OF CROSS‐DOCKING FOR SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Cross‐docking is the practice of transferring materials from an incoming shipment directly to an outgoing shipment without storing them at the transfer point. This essentially eliminates the inventory‐holding function of a warehouse and can reduce supply chain costs. We investigate the value of one type of cross‐docking in a variety of supply chain environments.     

Why Are Managed Care Plans Less Expensive: Risk Selection,Utilization, or Reimbursement?

This article develops a new method of decomposing the cost difference between HMO and non‐HMO plans into observed risk selection, unobserved risk selection, utilization differences, and differences in provider reimbursement rates. We implement this method using a large national sample of employer‐sponsored health insurance enrollees from the Community Tracking Study Household Survey. We find no evidence that HMO plans attract a disproportionate share of low‐risk enrollees; the US$188 difference between HMO and non‐HMO medical expenditures per enrollee can be explained by the relatively low provider reimbursement rates paid by HMO plans. This indicates there may be little need for employers to risk adjust insurance premiums or otherwise restrict employee choice of plan types.     

Mind the Gap: A Journey to Sustainable Supply Chains

Many companies still view Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as solely philanthropy rather than addressing their material issues. A few companies that have began to see the strategic advantages of being socially responsible and addressing their social, environmental and economic challenges. Developing an effective strategy can reward companies with reputation enhancement, license to operate, avoiding litigation, recruitment and retention of employees and developing process, product and strategic innovations. One company who has realized the value of investing and integrating CSR into the business model is the apparel retailer Gap Inc. This article will examine the evolution of Gap Inc. and its work developing an effective labor standards assurance program and stakeholder engagement strategy transformed historically adversarial relationships with key stakeholders into collaborative multi-stakeholder partnerships. Particular attention is put towards Gap Inc.’s learnings in the process and how these new insights innovated the company’s CSR strategy over time. An erratum to this article can be found at     

George Hudson's financial reporting practices: putting the Eastern Counties Railway in context

George Hudson was the most important railway promoter of his time. He had a particular aptitude for visualizing and arranging spectacular company and line amalgamations and his activities helped to bring about the beginnings of a more modern railway network. In 1849 he exercised effective control over nearly 30 per cent of the rail track then operating in the UK, most of it owned by four railway groups, the Eastern Counties Railway, the Midland, the York, Newcastle and Berwick, and the York and North Midland, before a series of scandalous revelations forced him out of office. The economic, railway and accounting literatures have treated George Hudson as an important figure in railway history, although concentrating largely on the financial reporting malpractices of the Eastern Counties Railway, while Hudson was its chairman, which were incorporated into the influential Monteagle Committee Report of 1849. Relatively little attention has been paid, however, to events at Hudson's other major companies. This paper analyzes the available evidence, particularly that produced by the Committees of Investigation established at all four railway groups, in order to provide a more balanced assessment of George Hudson's approach to financial reporting and thereby place events at the Eastern Counties Railway in a broader context.