THE ESTIMATED EFFECT OF CATHOLIC SCHOOLING ON EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES USING PROPENSITY SCORE MATCHING

This paper examines the effect of attending a Catholic high school on educational outcomes. The statistical analysis is based on data obtained from the US National Educational Longitudinal Study. Using propensity score matching methods to control for selection bias, we find that Catholic schooling improves maths test scores, with stronger effects for males than for females, but appears to have little effect (if any) on reading scores. Catholic schooling also raises high school graduation rates and substantially increases the likelihood of enrolment in a 4‐year college. Use of the difference‐in‐difference method suggests that the effect of Catholic schooling on changes in maths scores is more muted, though still statistically significant.     

Towards Economic Literacy

Following Fred Hankins's initial article on the approach to economics teaching in schools, two educational specialists involved in the 14—16 Project for school economics curricula, outline their approach to the fostering of economic literacy.     

SELECTIVITY,MARKET TIMING,AND RANDOM BETA BEHAVIOR OF MUTUAL FUNDS: A GENERALIZED MODEL

This paper presents a generalized varying parameter model to investigate the performance of mutual funds. The model allows beta nonstationarity to include both market timing and random beta behavior; therefore, it can be regarded as a general case of previous research. Forty-three funds with a wide range of objectives are examined. The generalized varying parameter results indicate that about 30 percent of the funds show selectivity, 19 percent have random betas, and 14 percent indicate significant, yet negative, market timing performance. Therefore, mutual funds, as a group, show no market timing ability. The apparent ability to select undervalued securities, however, seems to conflict with the efficient markets hypothesis.     

Employee empowerment in manufacturing: a study of organisations in the UK

Based on a postal survey and interviews, this paper analyses employee empowerment in the UK manufacturing industry, including how it is pursued and perceived, and the key factors that determine success. Success seems to depend on far-reaching changes in procedures, hierarchies and reward structures. This need to mobilise individual agents and structure reconfirms the agency-structure duality.     

Pure Altruism,Consumer Behavior and Choice Modeling*

An important assumption underlying non‐market valuation is that it is not the environment but the human preference that is valued. This paper attempts to test whether individual consumer behavior is influenced by a purely altruistic motive, examining the attitude of hikers towards the hypothetical removal of the Muju ski resort from the Mount Togyu National Park in South Korea. Data were collected from samples of hikers and skiers who visited the national park. The respondents were forced to consider trade‐offs between the recovery of the lost environmental assets in the Muju ski resort area, skiers’ additional travel time, and willingness‐to‐pay amounts for the hypothetical environmental improvement. It was found that hikers did not take into account skiers’ disutility represented by additional travel time.