Trends in undergraduate economics degrees: 1991–2015

Undergraduate degrees awarded in economics by U.S. colleges and universities were stagnant from 2009–10 through 2012–13, but have increased rapidly (almost 14 percent) over the two years from 2012–13 through 2014–15.     

The impact of implicit and explicit communications on frontline service delivery staff

Using structural equation modelling employing partial least-squares estimation, data from staff in the consumer transport industry were analysed to explore the role of implicit and explicit communications on their service delivery behaviour. Both implicit and explicit communications were found to impact service delivery. Explicit communications had a direct impact on service delivery, whilst implicit communications (in the form of internal market orientation) operated through affective commitment and customer orientation. This study provides quantitative evidence of the roles of implicit and explicit communications on staff attitudes and behaviours, and offers insights into the management of communications with employees to ensure effective service delivery.     

Confirmatory tetrad analysis in PLS path modeling

The authors propose a CTA-PLS assessment routine for measurement models. This routine applies confirmatory tetrad analysis (CTA) in a manner which is consistent with partial least squares (PLS) path modeling assumptions. The conceptualization employs a bootstrapping procedure to accomplish an appropriate statistical test examining vanishing tetrads in CTA-PLS. The approach allows distinguishing a formative indicator specification from a reflective indicator specification. Applications using experimental and empirical data demonstrate the usefulness and effectiveness of CTA-PLS. As a means of evaluating PLS path modeling results, the routine assists researchers in avoiding potentially unrepresentative consequences of measurement model misspecification.     

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Measuring market shares for the analysis of a consummated merger

This paper asks how market shares should be computed for analysis of a consummated merger. It is argued that pre-merger market shares adjusted for the direct effects of the merger should be used. The actual post merger market shares (which are available only for consummated mergers) should not form the basis of an analysis of the competitive effects of the merger because they may reflect confounding factors, such as entry, exit, or a change in capacity of third-party rivals, unrelated to the merger.     

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Eucken's 'Social Market Economy' and Its Test in Post-War West Germany

A bstract . Walter Eucken's paradigm of a "social market economy" and "Ordnung" provides a framework for a functional free-market mechanism, which not only accommodates development and change, but which also assures human dignity and freedom, as cornerstones of the Kantian moral universe. Eucken places special emphasis on the integration of economics with "order" and "Justice ," in a synthesis of negative liberty and positive freedom and of Rawls' and Nozick's theories of justice. Adam Smith's laissez faire economy does not assure a competitive economy, he holds, and will evolve into monopolistic practices, interventionism , and distortions of price relationships; but "structural" and "regulating" principles will facilitate a functionally competitive economy with a compatible social policy, characterized by a flexible price mechanism and stable policies. This "social market economy" would provide goods and services efficiently and also eliminate poverty and the maldistribution of income and resources.