Hillary Seizes the Moment

When news of the Bear Stearns firesale hit on Mar. 17, it didn’t take long for reaction to come in from the campaign trail.     

The Fiscal Consequences of Privatisation: Australian evidence on privatisation by public share float

Privatisation has become a common government policy in many countries. This paper summarises the salient features of privatisations by public share float in Australia during the period 1989 to 1997. The costs associated with these privatisations are examined, including both direct costs and the opportunity cost of Australian governments selling assets cheaply. Furthermore, the impact that such sales have on the net worth of the public sector is estimated. The results suggest that there is a cost of underpricing. There is also some evidence that the effect on the public sector net worth may be negative. However, in some cases where the enterprise sold is inefficient the government may realise a gain.     

The FairWear Campaign: An Ethical Network in the Australian Garment Industry

In many parts of the world, homework is a form of labour characterised by precariousness, lack of regulation, and invisibility and lack of protection of the workers who are often amongst the world’s poorest and most exploited. Homework is spreading, due to firm practices such as outsourcing. The analysis and understanding of complex corporate networks may assist with the identification and protection of those most at risk within the supply chain network. It can also expose some of the key ethical issues and dilemmas of supply chain management and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Based on a case-study of the Australian FairWear Campaign (FWC), this article identifies an ethical network that aims to increase corporate accountability (CA) via greater transparency in corporate supply chains and improve work conditions for homeworkers and increase their recognition in the supply chain.     

Factors Affecting Employee Satisfaction with Disability Accommodation: A Field Study

We developed and empirically tested a model for employee satisfaction with disability accommodation (our criterion). Our sample consisted of 333 employees who had requested and received a disability accommodation. We found support for most, but not all, of the links in our model. As hypothesized, employees whose input was sought by the organization and employees who received the requested accommodation were significantly more satisfied with their disability accommodation; employee race/ethnicity was indirectly related to employee satisfaction with disability accommodation. Contrary to our model, employee gender was not related to employee satisfaction with disability accommodation. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2006 annual convention of the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), Dallas, TX. We thank Jim Breaugh for his helpful comments. The order of the authors was determined alphabetically. Deborah B. Balser and Michael M. Harris contributed equally to the paper.     

The relationship between land use and groundwater resources and quality

Groundwater has three major roles in our environment: providing the baseflow that keeps most rivers flowing all year long, maintaining good river water quality by diluting sewage and other effluents, and as an excellent source of water supply, providing over 75 per cent of the potable supply in some regions. Groundwater is intimately connected with the landscape and land use that it underlies, and most of the landscape and is vulnerable to the anthropogenic activities on the land surface above. Land use affects groundwater resources through changes in recharge and by changing demands for water. Inappropriate land use, particularly poor land management, causes chronic groundwater quality problems. Acute groundwater quality problems are common and arise from unsuitable land use and control, notably through point sources of hazardous chemicals. Current land use instruments have only been designed to address quality issues in groundwater and do not consider recharge. These instruments have been largely ineffective in protecting groundwater from diffuse pollution for several reasons including fragmentation, their general absence of teeth, and their lack of integration into the land use planning system. This paper argues for a more radical approach which would zone land according to its overall vulnerability and resilience to anthropogenic and climatic influence in order to sustainably support the ecosystem services it can deliver. Land use would be matched with the vulnerability of the soil, with geology and water, and with the whole ecosystem. The Water Framework Directive offers a mechanism to do this, but there is no evidence of enough political will to tackle the long-term conflicts between land use and groundwater.     

Capitalising on learning: an exploration of the MBA as a vehicle for developing career competencies

This article reports the findings of a study of Canadian MBA graduates that explores the skills, knowledge and capabilities which they gained from the programme within the context of a career‐competency framework. It concludes that the development of knowing‐why career competencies (relating to career values, meanings and motivations) were the most important outcome of the course for the graduates. Knowing‐how career competencies (relating to skills and job‐related knowledge) were also valued highly. Increased self‐confidence was a valuable form of career capital for the graduates, although the antecedents and consequences of this appear to be somewhat different for men and women.     

Stock price clustering and discreteness

Stock prices cluster on round fractions. Clustering increaseswith price level and volatility. and decreases with capitalizationand transaction frequency. Clustering is pervasive. Price clusteringwill occur if traders use discrete price sets to simplify theirnegotiations. Exchange regulations require that most stocksbe traded on eighths. Clustering on larger fractions will occurif traders choose to use discrete price sets based on quarters,halves, or whole numbers. An econometric model of clusteringis derived and estimated. Projections from the result suggestthat traders would frequently use odd sixteenths when tradinglow-price stocks, if exchange regulations permitted tradingon sixteenths.     

The role of voluntary sport organisations in leveraging the London 2012 sport participation legacy

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to understand the perceptions of national Voluntary Sport Organisations (VSOs) managers towards a mega sports event and identify the components they felt enhanced or inhibited their organisations capacity to implement a sport participation legacy. London 2012 was the first Olympic Games to explicitly attempt to deliver this type of legacy, and an exploratory, online mixed-method survey examined the perceptions of 105 senior managers from 37 VSOs, post-event. Principal Component Analysis identified four distinct factors: ‘objectives, standards & resources’, ‘event capitalisation & opportunities’, ‘monitoring & evaluation’ and ‘club engagement & implementation’, explaining 51.5% of the variance. Also, relevant organisational characteristics such as sport type, funding and sport size were examined to investigate the influence this had on their capacity. From these findings, the main recommendations are that future mega sport event hosts should: 1) Engage and consult with multiple stakeholders to engender sustained sport participation. 2) Set clear and monitorable objectives. 3) Establish funding and support mechanisms relevant to each sport. 4) Engage non-competing sports in the leveraging process. 5) Finally, event organisers should try to ensure personnel consistency.     

Multiple Information Signals in the Market for Charitable Donations

We find evidence indicating that donors use third‐party rating information when they donate to U.S. nonprofit organizations (nonprofits). Specifically, using a sample of over 3,800 unique nonprofits rated by the three largest charity rating organizations in 2007, and over 12,000 unrated control nonprofits, we find that rated nonprofits have significantly higher direct donations than unrated charities. We also hypothesize and find that nonprofits with ratings from multiple rating organizations receive incrementally higher levels of donations. In addition, although charities that receive a positive rating have higher levels of donor support than those receiving a negative rating, both positively and negatively rated nonprofits receive a higher level of direct donations than unrated nonprofits. Finally, we find that nonprofits with consistently good ratings receive higher donations than those with mixed or consistently negative ratings, indicating the donor community values consistency across the three rating agencies.