Job market for tourism graduates: A case of Michigan State University

This article discusses the four-year tourism program of Michigan State University and describes the job market for the tourism graduates. Further, it cites the types of employment opportunities presently available and predicts their increased in the future.     

Dietary intake and the contribution of snacks among adolescents during the summer months

Abstract Adolescent diets are often cited as nutritionally inadequate, possibly because of their reported snacking habits. This study examined 48 adolescent diets using a 24-h diet recall and a 2-day food record during summer months. Total intake and snacks identified by the subjects were analysed for energy and nutrient content. Male and female subjects reported similar intakes of fat, cholesterol and sugar. Ninety-eight per cent of subjects reported at least one snack daily. Snacks contributed 25% to the total energy, vitamin C, calcium and magnesium intakes. Although these subjects were not adhering to national recommendations for fat and sugar, the snacks they consumed contributed positively to the nutrient content of adolescent diets.     

Estimation and inference in unstable nonlinear least squares models

There is compelling evidence that many macroeconomic and financial variables are not generated by linear models. This evidence is based on testing linearity against either smooth nonlinearity or piece-wise linearity, but there is no framework that encompasses both. This paper provides an econometric framework that allows for both breaks and smooth nonlinearity in between breaks. We estimate the unknown break-dates simultaneously with other parameters via nonlinear least-squares. Using new central limit results for nonlinear processes, we provide inference methods on break-dates and parameter estimates and several instability tests. We illustrate our methods via simulated and empirical smooth transition models with breaks.     

The Pagan revival and its prospects

In this article, the author surveys the history of Neo-Paganism from the Romantic movement to the 20th-century revival of Witchcraft, Druidism, Asatru and other forms of Pagan religion. He then discusses the future prospects of Paganism, examining various social and cultural factors that work in its favour and others that work against it. He concludes that Paganism will be one of the religions of the future, although probably not the dominant one.     

Absenteeism in the workplace: results from Danish sample survey data

Absentee data is analyzed using a worker environmental survey carried out in 1995. In a model which distinguishes between discretionary and involuntary absences individuals are assumed to maximize expected utility. This generates a probability distribution of days absent per year which is a mixture of two negative binomial distributions representing the behaviour of two unknown types of agent. This distribution is estimated separately for men and women. For each gender the number of days absent is quite small relative to what researchers have found in other countries. In the empirical model we identify different effects of the explanatory variables for workers with low rates of absenteeism and workers with high rates of absenteeism.     

Scale Efficiency in Canadian Trust Companies

A new method for estimating a relative scale function is derived which does not require the specification or estimation of the firm's cost function. The method is applied to a panel of Canadian trust companies for the years 1985–1988. Results show that the industry scale function is convex with respect to firm size, as measured by the firm's assets. The method avoids a number of shortcomings associated with traditional studies of scale economies in financial institutions.     

Pesticides,Preference Heterogeneity and Environmental Taxes

In this paper we present results from two choice experiments (CE), designed to take account of the different negative externalities associated with pesticide use in agricultural production. For cereal production, the most probable impact of pesticide use is a reduction in environmental quality. For fruit and vegetable production, the negative externality is on consumer health. Using latent class models we find evidence of the presence of preference heterogeneity in addition to reasonably high willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for a reduction in the use of pesticides for both environmental quality and consumer health. To place our WTP estimates in a policy context we convert them into an equivalent pesticide tax by type of externality. Our tax estimates suggest that pesticide taxes based on the primary externality resulting from a particular mode of agricultural production are a credible policy option that warrants further consideration.     

Primary and secondary pest management in agriculture: balancing pesticides and natural enemies in potato production

Natural enemies (NEs) provide an important ecosystem service by preying on variety of pests in agricultural crop production systems. Current management practices of both primary and secondary pests in agricultural production principally rely on the use of pesticides with associated negative social and environmental consequences/externalities. Excessive use of pesticides against primary pets can remove NEs from the agro‐ecosystem and amplify susceptibility of the system to outbreaks of secondary pests. The combined effect of NEs on primary and secondary pests has received limited attention. This study uses an intraseasonal bioeconomic model to explicitly take into account biological interactions among primary pests, secondary pests, and NEs assuming decision makers’ profit maximizing behavior. The model explicitly captures the opportunity cost of injury to NE in terms of both primary and secondary pest suppression by NE. The results show that in the context of the green peach aphid (primary pest) and two‐spotted spider mite (secondary pest) in potato production, inclusion of NE into pest mitigation strategy can increase returns by 2%.     

The Balassa–Samuelson Hypothesis in the Asia‐Pacific Region Revisited*

In a study of nine Asia‐Pacific countries' real exchange rates, Chinn (2000) finds some evidence in support of the Balassa (1964) and Samuelson (1964) hypothesis. His findings, however, are based on the application of a model containing several potentially restrictive simplifying assumptions to a dataset of limited span. Consequently, we look to assess the effect on Chinn's findings of considerably increasing the sample size and relaxing these assumptions. We find a comparable level of evidence for the Balassa–Samuelson hypothesis when applying Chinn's model to the larger sample, but obtain significantly greater support when a less restrictive approach is adopted.     

Measuring and assessing the impact of basic skills on labour market outcomes

Although there has been a considerable amount of research relatingmeasures of schooling years, qualifications, or training spellsto workers' labour market success, there has been very littleassessment of the role of more basic literacy and numeracy skills,largely due to problems with measurement and data availability.Yet it is obviously crucial, in an era of apparently risingdemand for skills, that we have evidence on the labour marketvalue of the full range of worker skills, including basic literacyand numeracy. This paper therefore uses data from the NationalChild Development Study and the International Adult LiteracySurvey to fill this gap. Specifically, we use test scores achievedby respondents in both surveys to measure their basic literacyand numeracy skills. We then evaluate the impact of these skillson workers' labour market outcomes, and find clear evidenceof a substantial wage return to such basic skills.