Measuring the Performance Drivers of a Pilot Implementation of a Purchasing Card System

Corporate purchasing cards have been offered as an efficient means of maintaining control over purchasing while reducing the administrative cost associated with the acquisition of low-dollar items. However, despite its growing popularity, there has been little systematic research on the use of this technology. This study uses archival data and a survey of users from a single large organisation to describe the nature of purchasing card technology and to investigate the consequences of its implementation. The card was found to be more positively accepted by younger, more committed employees who had shorter periods of tenure at the organisation studied, but who had received higher levels of supervisory encouragement, and who had more experience with credit cards.     

Australia and the Pacific Economy*

The industrialization and growth of East Asian countries has shifted the centre of world trade and economic activity towards the Pacific. There has already been a huge redirection of Australia's trade and external economic interests towards the region, based importantly on the emergence of Japan as a major economic power. Australia's future economic prospects will be significantly determined by how it manages its trade policy interests in the context of continuing East Asian industrialization. The most promising Australian trade policy approach is one which allies Australia's trading interests to those of East Asian countries in seeking to maintain an open non-discriminatory trade regime, supportive of the transformation of trade specialization necessary to the industrialization of resource-deficient countries, and which marries that objective to the liberalization of her own and Pacific country markets.     

Are Social Forums the Future of Social Movements?

Social Forums, modeled on the World Social Forums, are not social movements in the classic sense. They are not, and do not purport to be, the organizational form through which basic social change will be achieved, or can best be pursued. But they do bring together elements of many social movements, afford an opportunity for coalition‐building among them, frequently around urban issues, and thus make a significant contribution to achieving such change. Conceivably they may be the foundation for an international social movement for change, but if so it is likely to coalesce about a specifically political program. Some concrete suggestions are made which might enhance their effectiveness. Les Forums sociaux, sur le modèle des Forums sociaux mondiaux, ne sont pas des mouvements sociaux au sens traditionnel. Ils ne sont, ni ne sont censés être, la forme d’organisation permettant d’atteindre ou de mener au mieux un changement social fondamental. Cependant, ils réunissent des composantes de nombreux mouvements sociaux, leur offrent une possibilité de créer une coalition (souvent autour de problèmes urbains) et contribuent ainsi fortement à l’évolution visée. En théorie, ils peuvent servir de base à un mouvement social international en faveur d’un changement, quoique ayant alors tendance à s’unir sur un programme politique. Les suggestions concrètes qui sont formulées peuvent en améliorer l’efficacité.     

MEASURING THE BUSINESS STEALING,CANNIBALIZATION AND MARKET EXPANSION EFFECTS OF ENTRY IN THE U.S. MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITION MARKET*

Using a large and comprehensive theater level database covering over $18 billion in theater revenues over a five year period, I document the extent and nature of business stealing, revenue cannibalization and market expansion that occurred during the height of the 1990's boom in movie theater construction.     

Communication in Multiperiod Agencies with Production and Financial Decisions*

Abstract. This paper examines a two-consumption date principal/agent model in which the manager receives private information at the first date. After observing his private information, the manager (agent) selects both the capital and personal effort he will invest in production. Operating cash flows are realized at both dates and any uninvested funds at the initial date are either paid out as a dividend to the equityholders (principal) or invested in zero net present value investments that require no effort. The aggregate cash flow at the second date is paid out as a dividend to the equityholders. The compensation contract specifies the manager's compensation as a function of the information available at the two dates. The key issue is whether it is valuable to have the contract based on the agent's communication of his private information. As in a single-consumption date model, communication may permit the implementation of more efficient incentives with respect to the manager's action choices. In addition, communication can facilitate the smoothing of the manager's consumption over the two dates. Direct communication can have positive value, but the analysis identifies a number of factors that can result in communication having no value. These factors include no direct preference for effort, public reporting of the private information at the second date, access to personal investments, and access to a dividend policy that will costlessly convey the private information through first-date dividends. Although access to personal investments may make communication redundant (since it is an alternative means of smoothing consumption), the analysis identifies conditions under which the equityholders would prefer to use communication and restrict the manager's access to personal investments (since it can have a negative effect on incentives). Résumé. Les auteurs examinent un modèle mandant-mandataire à deux dates de consommation dans lequel le gestionnaire reçoit de l'information privilégiée à la première des deux dates. Après avoir observé l'information privilégiée, le gestionnaire (c'est-à-dire le mandataire) sélectionne le capital et l'effort personnel qu'il investira dans la production. Les flux monétaires provenant de l'exploitation sont réalisés aux deux dates, et tous les fonds qui ne sont pas investis à la date initiale sont soit versés sous forme de dividendes aus. actionnaires (c'est-à-dire les mandants), soit investis dans des placements à valeur actualisée nette nulle et qui n'exigent aucun effort. Les flux monétaires totaux à la seconde date sont versés sous forme de dividendes aux actionnaires. Selon le contrat de rémunération, la rétribution des gestionnaires est fonction de l'information disponible aux deux dates. Le principal problème consiste à déterminer si le fait de baser le contrat sur la communication par le mandataire de l'information privilégiée dont il dispose présente un intérêt. Comme dans un modèle à une seule date de consommation, la communication peut permettre la mise en place de stimulants plus efficients en ce qui a trait au choix du gestionnaire concernant son plan d'action. En outre, la communication peut faciliter le nivellement de la consommation du gestionnaire entre les deux dates. La communication directe peut avoir une valeur positive, mais l'analyse permet de cerner plusieurs facteurs qui peuvent retirer toute valeur à une communication. Au nombre de ces facteurs figurent: l'absence de préférence directe pour l'effort, la communication publique de l'information privilégiée à la seconde date, l'accès aux placements personnels et l'accès à une politique de dividendes qui livrera sans frais l'information privilégiée par le truchement du versement de dividendes de la première date. Bien que l'accès aux placement personnels puisse rendre la communication redondante (puisqu'il s'agit d'un moyen de rechange de niveler la consommation), les auteurs définissent les conditions dans lesquelles les actionnaires préféreraient utiliser la communication et restreindre l'accès du gestionnaire aux placements personnels (puisqu'ils peuvent avoir un effet négatif sur les stimulants).     

IMPACT OF CHILD QUALITY ON EARNINGS: THE PRODUCTIVITY-OF-SCHOOLING HYPOTHESIS

This paper investigates the relationship between average earnings, education (measured by years of schooling), and rates of return to education for major racial/ethnic groups in the United States. It considers the effect of including previously omitted "productivity-of-schooling" (also referred to here as "child quality") variables. An upward-sloping average education, rate-of-return-to-education profile exists for His-panics, blacks, and whites. Productivity-of-schooling (i.e., child quality) measures– including family size, family composition, ability, and parental inputs–significantly affect earnings and rates of return to education. The results here are consistent with Chiswick (1988). Conditions within the family play a larger role in determining the value of education for minority males than for white males, a conclusion of obvious interest to policymakers.