Gender Differences in Economic Knowledge: A Reevaluation of the Evidence

This study examines the importance and significance of male-female differences in understanding and learning economics and attempts to assess whether the use of multiple choice questions, rather than essay questions, contributes to these measured differences. Do multiple choice questions favor men with their possibly superior spatial and numerical skills? Do essay questions favor women with their possibly superior verbal skills? Evidence based on a study involving 589 students using an examination including both types of questions is analyzed in this article.     

How to take customers into consideration in service innovation projects

At a time of great change within the higher education sector, this paper focuses on the challenges facing marketers in the UK's higher education industry. Specifically, the research identifies the extent to which university marketing managers are conscious of the importance of market segmentation particularly with regard to the growing mature learner segment, and to what extent such marketers are using the web to engage and influence this older segment. The evidence presented in this study suggests that the sample universities display an inadequate state of readiness to respond to the marketing challenges arising in the changing environment and that the opportunity to influence the growing and affluent mature learner market through online communication remains largely unexploited. A general lack of a marketing orientation within the sector prevails.     

Two‐level CES Production Technology in the Solow and Diamond Growth Models*

The two‐level CES aggregate production function—that nests a CES into another CES function—has recently been used extensively in theoretical and empirical applications of macroeconomics. We examine the theoretical properties of this production technology and establish existence and stability conditions of steady states under the Solow and Diamond growth models. It is shown that in the Solow model the sufficient condition for a steady state is fulfilled for a wide range of substitution parameter values. This is in sharp contrast with the two‐factor Solow model, where only an elasticity of substitution equal to one is sufficient to guarantee the existence of a steady state. In the Diamond model, multiple equilibria can occur when the aggregate elasticity of substitution is lower than the capital share. Moreover, it is shown that for high initial levels of capital and factor substitutability, the effect of a further increase in a substitution parameter on the steady state depends on capital–skill complementarity.     

A Framework for Reconsidering the Lake Wobegon Effect

The Lake Wobegon Effect (LWE) describes the potential measurement-error bias introduced into survey-based analyses of education issues. Although this effect potentially applies to any student-report variable, the systematic overreporting of academic achievements such as grade point average is often of preeminent concern. This concern can be easily circumvented if official records data are available; however, many researchers can only access student-reported data. In this article, the authors examine whether using student-survey data in place of official records data meaningfully biases regression estimates. They motivate their contribution by noting a useful statistical feature of overreporting on bounded variables such as grade point average. Specifically, the misreports will be negatively correlated with the true grade point average, yielding a form of nonclassical measurement error that actually counteracts the bias. The authors connect this observation to reliability ratios used in labor economics, which are simple ways to adjust for attenuation bias, when needed. In two applications, we find that it is unnecessary to correct for the LWE bias because it is so small.     

HOUSEWORK VS. MARKETWORK: SOME EVIDENCE HOW THE DECISION IS MADE

Empirical research using the opportunity cost approach to estimating the value of non-market work of women tends to focus on the value of actual or potential output produced at home and expected or actual earnings, and assume that a rational decision involves choosing the higher one. Evidence derived from data on young married women suggests that full-time homemakers frequently are unable to provide estimates either of their potential earnings or of the lowest wage they would accept to enter the labor market, and that such estimates as they do provide are not soundly based. We also found that using wages of women in the labor market to estimate the value of the home time of full-time homemakers involves upward bias. We conclude that there are good reasons for caution in using the opportunity cost approach.     

South African Exporters and the Global Crisis: Intensive Margin Shock,Extensive Margin Hangover

This paper examines how changes at the intensive (established exporters exporting existing products to established markets) and the extensive (new exporters, products or markets) margins contribute to South African export growth and how this was affected by the global financial crisis. We find that the intensive margin is the more important contributor to export growth, contributing more than three quarters of observed growth. The intensive margin contracted significantly during the global financial crisis of 2009 but bounced back to pre‐crisis levels quickly. However, the impacts on the extensive margin persisted after the crisis with lower levels of entry of firms, new products and new destinations. The short‐term impact of the crisis was mitigated by the concentration of South African exports among larger, more productive super‐exporters. However, the fall in entry of new firms, products and destinations as a result of the crisis may mean that this concentration persists, and, at least over the next few years, South Africa does not diversify and broaden its exports.     

The Ethics of Slotting: Is this Bribery, Facilitation Marketing or Just Plain Competition?

The practice of manufacturers' payments of fees to retailers for the display and sale of their products has become a common practice. In the grocery retail business, the fees paid by manufacturers are called slotting fees, or a payment made for a slot on the shelf. The same practice is used now in the retail book industry. Large book chains command high fees from publishers for the prominent display of books. Entrepreneur's products are often precluded from stores and markets because slotting fees are prohibitive. The fees are non-uniform and often paid in cash, creating an atmosphere that has already spawned illegal activity on the part of retail executives. This article examines the ethics of slotting fees.