Redistribution and Subsidies for Higher Education

The financing of higher education through public spending imposes a transfer of resources from taxpayers to university students and their parents. We provide an explanation for this phenomenon. Those who attend institutions of higher education will earn more income in the future and will pay more taxes. People whose children do not receive higher education, however, should agree to help pay the cost of such education, providing that taxes are sufficiently high to ensure an adequate redistribution in favor of their own children at some time in the future.
JEL classification : D 71; H 21; H 52     

Export Credit Guarantees, Moral Hazard and Exports Quality

We analyse the role played by export credit guarantees (ECGs) in encouraging exports to developing countries. The existence of moral hazard on the side of the firm is introduced. We show that the inability of the exporter's government to verify the actual quality of the product will limit its ability to encourage trade through ECGs, once the coverage provided goes beyond a certain threshold. This result provides a rationale behind the limited coverage on ECGs.     

Factors Affecting Capacity Utilisation in English Channel Fisheries

The harvesting capacity of the European fishing fleet far exceeds the reproductive potential of the resource base. As a result, most European Union fisheries are both biologically and economically over‐exploited. A series of fleet‐reduction policies have been introduced in order to bring the harvesting capacity in line with target output levels. However, the existence of unutilised capacity may reduce the effectiveness of these schemes as the remaining vessels may increase their individual capacity utilisation (CU), thus offsetting the effects of fleet reduction. In this paper, the effects of stock abundance, output prices, fuel prices and fleet size on the rate of capacity utilisation are examined for a range of UK fleet segments operating in the English Channel. Estimates of CU are derived using data envelopment analysis. Results indicate that the average beam trawl vessel, using existing physical inputs, could potentially increase its revenue by a further 50%, assuming current fish stock levels and unrestricted access to resources. The average gill net vessel could similarly increase its output by 43%, scallop dredge by 28% and otter trawl by 14%. The results suggest that changes in stock abundance are the main factor affecting CU, with no significant trends being observed for the economic variables.     

A contango‐constrained model for storable commodity prices

This article presents a model of commodity price dynamics under the risk‐neutral measure where the spot price switches between two distinct stochastic processes depending on whether or not inventory is being held. Specifically, the drift of the spot price is equal to the cost of carry when the stock is positive. Conversely, whenever the drift of the spot price is less than the cost of carry, no inventory is being held. The properties of the spot price and the forward curves implied by this model are illustrated and analyzed with the use of numerical examples. A comparison with the single‐factor model by E. S. Schwartz (1997) is also provided. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 25:1025–1044, 2005     

Adjustment of Input–Output Tables from Two Initial Matrices

The compilation of the information required to construct survey-based input–output (I–O) tables consumes resources and time to statistical agencies. Consequently, a number of non-survey techniques have been developed in the last decades to estimate I–O tables. These techniques usually depart from observable information on the row and column margins, and then the cells of the matrix are adjusted using as a priori information a matrix from a past period (updating) or an I–O table from the same time period (regionalization). This paper proposes the use of a composite cross-entropy approach that allows for introducing both types of a priori information. The suggested methodology is suitable to be applied only to matrices with semi-positive interior cells and margins. Numerical simulations and an empirical application are carried out, where an I–O table for the Euro Area is estimated with this method and the result is compared with the traditional projection techniques.     

Women's Wealth and Intimate Partner Violence: Insights from Ecuador and Ghana

Intimate partner violence (IPV) by men against their partners is one of the most glaring indicators of women's lack of empowerment. Drawing upon the 2010 Ecuador Household Asset Survey (EAFF) and the 2010 Ghana Household Asset Survey (GHAS), nationally representative surveys for Ecuador and Ghana, respectively, this study investigates the relationship between women's ownership of assets and physical and emotional abuse by spouses against currently partnered women over the previous twelve months. It uses the value of a woman's total assets compared to those of her partner as the main proxy for a woman's bargaining power. Differentiating between physical and emotional violence in both countries, the study finds that women's share of couple wealth is significantly associated with lower odds of physical violence in Ecuador and emotional violence in Ghana. Moreover, the association between women's share of couple wealth and IPV is contingent on the household's position in the wealth distribution.     

It’s all at the mall: exploring adolescent girls’ experiences

While overall mall patronage in the United States has been declining for several years, patronage among U.S. adolescents (especially girls) has risen sharply. We describe a qualitative study that examines in-depth the young girl’s mall experience. A theoretical model was developed from the findings that includes some factors that have been examined in previous research, such as mall atmosphere and utilitarian and hedonic shopping motives. In addition, several new factors specifically relevant to girl shoppers, aged 12-19, also emerged, including education cohort, trend consciousness, comfort, safety, mall companion, freedom as a mall-patronage motivation, and accessibility issues. This insight into young girls’ patronage behaviors and motivations will provide academics, mall developers and retailers a richer understanding of the various components that contribute to the female adolescent mall experience, and allow them to more effectively study and market to this segment.     

Themed flagship brand stores in the new millennium: theory, practice, prospects

The flagship brand store is an increasingly popular venue used by marketers to build relationships with consumers. As we move further into an experience economy in the new millennium, retailers are refining the flagship brand store into new forms such as the themed retail brand store. This new form not only promotes a more engaging experience of the brand’s essence but also satisfies consumers looking for entertainment alongside their shopping. In this article, we conceptualize and explore themed flagship brand stores in terms of the mythological appeal of the narratives conveyed by their physical and symbolic structure. We utilize a field study of ESPN Zone Chicago to examine these features in a sports-themed retail brand store. Finally, we offer some projections, based on our research, of the possible transformations of the flagship brand store as the new century unfolds. We conclude that mindscape-related themes, which combine entertainment, therapeutics, and spiritual growth, are at the frontier of retail theming.     

Integrating ethics into the business school curriculum

A project on teaching business ethics at The Wharton School concluded that ethics should be directly incorporated into key MBA courses and taught by the core business faculty. The project team, comprised of students, ethics faculty and functional business faculty, designed a model program for integrating ethics. The project was funded by the Exxon Education Foundation.The program originates with a general introduction designed to familiarize students with literature and concepts pertaining to professional and business ethics and corporate social responsibility. This may be accomplished through orientation sessions, readings, packages, short classes and lectures.The key segment of the plan is to have ethics modules developed and systematically integrated throughout key business courses. In the project experiment, sample modules were developed for courses in introductory marketing, introductory management, corporate finance and business policy.The modules are designed to respond to the concerns of functional business faculty that they cannot be sufficiently authoritative in teaching ethics and that inserting coverage of ethics will displace critically important topics in their already crowded courses. On the other hand, the functional instructors found that, once encouraged, students were very willing to discuss ethical issues and that their sophistication increased throughout the course. Thomas W. Dunfee is the Kolodny Professor of Social Responsibility at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Author of numerous textbooks (Random House, Prentice-Hall, John Wiley), he teaches courses on business ethics and commercial law. He has published numerous articles in law reviews and business periodicals and has consulted to many corporations, government agencies and law firms. Currently President-Elect of the American Business Law Association, he is a former editor-in-chief of the American Business Law Journal. Diana C. Robertson is a Senior Fellow in Business Ethics in the Department of Legal Studies at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Her publications in business ethics include Corporate Restructuring and Employee Interests: The Tin Parachute, The Ethics of Organizational Transformation: Mergers, Takeovers and Corporate Restructuring, Quorum Books, 1988, Why Superimposing Ethics on the Corporation Won't Work, Corporate University Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1, July 1988, 18–23, and Work-Related Ethical Attitudes: Impact on Business Profitability with Thomas W. Dunfee, Business and Professional Ethics Journal, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Winter 1984), 25–40.