The response of fertility to the expectations of death: implications for the demographic transition

The authors present an economic explanation for the first stage of events often experienced by a society entering the demographic transition, namely, declining death rates coupled with high or rising birth rates. The explanation is based on the response of fertility to the expectation of child death and on a distinction between actual and desired family size     

PERSISTENT DEPENDENCE IN GOLD PRICES

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the behavior of gold prices during the last dozen years. Instead of employing the traditional short-term analytical tools, however, rescaled range analysis is used to focus on what has become known as persistent or long-term dependence. This type of behavior reveals itself in the form of extensive periods of similar behavior, often described as nonperiodic cycles. It is found that gold prices do exhibit persistent dependence. This finding suggests that, to be successful, market participants must develop strategies to deal with this phenomenon.     

Congressional perceptions of emergent telecommunications

This paper presents the results of an interview survey of congressman and staff in regard to their perceptions and attitudes on the potential use of emergent telecommunications for communicating with constituents. Six channel configurations are identified as representative of emergent telecommunication characteristics. The paper describes the potential usefulness, advantages, and disadvantages of each emergent channel, as perceived by U.S. Representatives and senior staff in the stratified judgement sample taken from the 93rd Congress. The results indicate that as a group the respondents perceive cable television and information retrieval as potentially the most useful emergent channels, closed circuit television and the videoconference as somewhat useful, and cable TV polling and the video- phone as least useful. The effects of using emergent channels are perceived as being beneficial or detrimental, depending on the personal and political value judgements of the particular Representative or staff person, and on the specific conditions of use and applicable public policy assumptions. But because of the essential importance of constituent communication to congressman, both as politicians and public officials, many have favorable perceptions of new channels which offer a clear advantage over existing channels and which meet a well-defined need.     

Construction industry in developing countries

This paper provides a review of the construction capability available in the developing countries to meet the demand for shelter. It discusses the role of construction in the process of development and its importance to economic growth. It considers the issues facing the growth of a viable indigenous construction industry in the developing world within the context of the activities involved in the creation of constructed facilities – planning, design, construction and maintenance; it also examines the environment within which the industry has developed. For each construction activity the paper reviews available capabilities, the various resources needed for the development of an indigenous industry, and some possible means of accommodating these needs.     

TRENDS IN FOOD MARKETING IN THE UNITED STATES

This article discusses some major trends in food marketing in the United States, as revealed in a detailed study of food distribution undertaken by the National Commission on Food Marketing. Attention is focused on the growing industrialisation of farming and the consequent decline in terminal auction markets; the increasing role of new product development in ensuring profitability of food processors. Trends in the food retailing industry are also discussed and compared with conditions prevailing in Australia.     

Ethics in Small Minority Businesses

The management literature is replete with studies on business ethics. Unfortunately, most of these studies have dealt exclusively with ethics in large businesses. Although a handful of studies can be found on small business ethics, none has paid attention to the issue of ethics in small minority businesses. Similarly, several studies on ethics have utilized the Wood et al. (1988) 16-vignette ethics scale, although reliability and validity issues associated with the scale have never been fully addressed. In this study, a purification (via content analysis) of the above mentioned scale was performed. Three reliable factors were extracted from the purified scale. They were used to investigate the ethics in small minority businesses. The study found an association between business ethics and demographic and company-related variables. In the case of age of respondents, findings ran counter the usual relationship of age being positively related to ethical attitudes. The implications of these findings are also discussed.