Testing the restrictions implied by the rational expectations hypothesis

The nature and form of the restrictions implied by the rational expectations hypothesis are examined in a variety of models with expectations and the properties of appropriate test statistics are analyzed with Monte Carlo evidence. Specifically, we consider the implications of lagged variables, simultaneous equations, and future period expectations upon the number and functional form of the rational expectations restrictions. Two asymptotically equivalent test statistics — a likelihood ratio and a Wald test — are available for implementing a test of these restrictions. Monte Carlo evidence is offered to provide a comparison between the properties of the alternative test statistics in small samples.     

Coping with poverty in international assistance policy: An evaluation of spatially integrated investment strategies

International assistance agencies have turned increasingly to integrated rural development policies in an attempt to ameliorate the inequitable distribution of economic growth plaguing Third World nations since World War II. This paper reviews the functionally and spatially integrated investment strategies of the World Bank, USAID and the United Nations, outlines their objectives, perceptions of the problem, basic assumptions and programmes, and evaluates them in terms of potential difficulties for implementation. Those factors crucial to making integrated development policies operational — knowledge of human ecosystems in rural areas, analytical ability, operational procedures, arrangements for local participation, subsistence systems indicators and administrative capacity of local and national governments — are discussed and assessed.     

Wages,Health Insurance and Pension Plans: The Relationship Between Employee Compensation and Small Business Owner Income

Small business owners claim that their ability to provide higher wages and more frequent employee health insurance and pension benefits is severely constrained by the profitability of their firms. This paper examines the proposition that employee wage levels, provision of employee health insurance, and sponsorship of an employee pension plan are associated with small business owner income. A large trade-association survey supplies the data for the inquiry. Regression analysis (OLS and logistic) demonstrates that all three forms of employee compensation are tied to business owner income. Further, the business owner income variable "washes out" the generally accepted relationship between size of business and wages, though not the relationships between size of the business and the presence of health insurance nor between the size of business and the presence of pension benefits. The regressions also indicate that unit costs of health insurance and pension benefits are higher for those employing 10 or fewer and 20 or fewer respectively compared the other small businesses.     

Married couples’ involvement with family vacations

Abstract

The involvement construct has received a great deal of attention in recent years. However, the majority of research on this topic has focused on the individual and has ignored spouses’ shared leisure involvement. In addition, little work has been done on involvement in the product‐class context of family vacations. This study examined the underlying dimensions of married couples’ involvement with family vacations and how these dimensions relate to selected personal variables. Factor analysis revealed two underlying dimensions. Stepwise multiple regression revealed that pleasure‐importance was positively related to gender role ideology and education and negatively related to presence of children in the home. A positive relation existed between the second dimension, sign value, and age. The study provides insight into both the nature of the involvement construct and how it might be used in future research.     

What is professional attire today? A conjoint analysis of personal presentation attributes

Personal presentation attributes have long been understood to affect perceptions of competence and capabilities. To that end, this study investigates seven attributes associated with favorable interview presentation, including overall physical attractiveness, neatness and grooming, clothing color, conservative versus trendy attire, professional versus casual attire, and body modification (including tattoos and piercings). Participants (n = 108), including students, faculty, and hospitality industry professionals, sorted an orthogonal array of 16 full-color, laminated cards that contained photos so that respondents could see levels of clothing color, clothing conservativeness, and degree of professional attire. The remaining attributes and their corresponding levels were shown on respective analog indicators. The conjoint analysis results indicate that grooming and professional attire are the most important attributes in shaping favorable perceptions. Furthermore, faculty perceived conservative clothing to be better while students and industry professionals indicated that trendy clothing creates a more favorable presentation on the part of a job candidate.     

Modelling the volatility of commodities prices using a stochastic volatility model with random level shifts

We use the approach of Qu and Perron (Econom J 16(3):309–339, 2013) for the modeling and inference of volatility of a set of commodity prices in the presence of random level shifts of unknown timing, magnitude and frequency. Our approach contributes to the study of commodities in several aspects. First, we test for the presence of a genuine long-memory process in the volatility of commodities. Second, we determine that the random level shifts are certainly the main source of variation in the commodity price volatility. Finally, we estimate the volatility and its components as latent variables, thereby making it possible to evaluate their level of correlation with macroeconomic variables in small open economies such as Latin-American countries where the dependence on commodity price volatility is high. We use six commodity series: agriculture, livestock, gold, oil, industrial metals and a general commodity index. All series cover the period from January 1983 until December 2013 in daily frequency. The results show that although the occurrence of a level shift is rare, (about once every 1.5 or 1.8 years), this component clearly contributes most to the variation in the volatility. Furthermore, isolating the level shift component from the overall volatility indicates a strong relationship of this component with a set of business cycle indicators of several Latin American countries.     

Taking the “Q” Out of Research: Teaching Research Methodology Courses Without the Divide Between Quantitative and Qualitative Paradigms

The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence that the debate between quantitative and qualitative is divisive and, hence, counterproductive for advancing the social and behavioral science field. We advocate that all graduate students learn to utilize and to appreciate both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. As such, students will develop into pragmatist researchers who are able to utilize both quantitative and qualitative techniques when conducting research. We contend that the best way to accomplish this is by eliminating quantitative research methodology and qualitative research methodology courses from curricula and replacing these with research methodology courses at different levels that simultaneously teach both quantitative and qualitative techniques within a mixed methodological framework.An earlier version of this article received the 2003 Southwest Educational Research Association (SERA) Outstanding Paper Award.     

Generalization practices in qualitative research: a mixed methods case study

The purpose of this mixed methods case study was to examine the generalization practices in qualitative research published in a reputable qualitative journal. In order to accomplish this, all qualitative research articles published in Qualitative Report since its inception in 1990 (n =  273) were examined. A quantitative analysis of the all 125 empirical qualitative research articles revealed that a significant proportion (i.e., 29.6%) of studies involved generalizations beyond the underlying sample that were made inappropriately by the author(s). A qualitative analysis identified the types of over-generalizations that occurred, which included making general recommendations for future practice and providing general policy implications based only on a few cases. Thus, a significant proportion of articles published in Qualitative Report lack what we call interpretive consistency.