Information technology and rural development: unique opportunity or potential threat? *

The less deterministic view of the potential contribution of information technology to rural development suggests a range of possible outcomes including centralization and decentralization. Evidence from the Republic of Ireland indicates a weak trend towards rural areas benefiting from the new technologies, and an expansion of the information economy in the urban core.     

Union organising and Full‐time Officers: acquiescence and resistance

In the mid‐1990s, the TUC relaunched itself with a strategy for renewal labelled ‘new unionism’. The strategy had two strands: partnership with employers and the promotion among affiliate unions of grassroots union organising. The latter, heavily influenced by US and Australian experience, saw possibilities for a more radical trade unionism in the UK. This article draws on a case study of Unison to analyse the organising strand of new unionism. It identifies how top‐down approaches to organising are distorted by union bureaucracy for the priority of recruitment, not only limiting the possibility of emerging union radicalisation but also restricting the ability of trade unions to represent their members. The article also identifies that the position of union Full‐time Officers is complex and not necessarily within a uniform union bureaucracy juxtaposed to and restraining a more radical union rank and file.     

Structural Breaks,Biased Estimations,and Forecast Errors in a GDP Series of Canada versus the United States

International Advances in Economic Research - A structural break was suspected for the Canadian gross domestic product (GDP) time series when the reporting system switched from the Standard...     

A Note on the Pythagorean Theorem of Baseball Production

Recent analyses of baseball managers' performances have employed the so-called ‘Pythagorean Theorem’ of baseball. This ‘theorem’ states that the ratio of wins to losses can be approximated by the square of the ratio of team runs scored to opposition runs scored. Recent publications assume this approximate relationship can be used to evaluate managers; implicit is the additional assumption that the Pythagorean relationship constitutes a production process. It does not. This paper derives the exact relationship between the wins, losses, runs scored and runs allowed. The result is an identity. We conclude that application of the ‘Pythagorean Theorem’ for manager evaluation is inappropriate. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Give it to us straight (most of the time): Top managers’ use of concrete language and its effect on investor reactions

Research Summary : Building on the communications and linguistics literatures, we explore the language attributes managers use in interactions with investors and the subsequent reactions of investors. Specifically, we hypothesize that top managers’ use of concrete language attributes in communication with investors broadly associates with positive investor reactions. We further posit that this relationship will be moderated by the level of firm risk. Our results support our hypotheses and, thus, offer important insights to the impression management literature. First, subtle elements of managerial communication can have significant impression management consequences. More specifically, language concreteness is a key language attribute that generally induces positive investor responses. Finally, the effectiveness of language concreteness is conditional on the informational environment of the firm. Managerial Summary : How can managers communicate in a way that presents the firm more positively or reduces the negativity associated with perceived firm risks? Our findings indicate that choosing appropriate persuasive language features in interactions with investors can help a firm manage its impressions. Specifically, we find that top managers’ use of concrete language that provides details and specific information in communication with investors, in general, garners positive investor reactions. Further, the effectiveness of top managers’ use of concrete language depends on investor concerns. More specifically, we find that when a firm is seen as having a riskier profile, using concrete language helps induce a more positive investor response; while when a firm is seen as low risk, using abstract language may be more beneficial.     

Demographic determinants of the distribution of income

This paper explores both theoretically and empirically the effects of fertility, mortality, migration, household structure and other demographic factors on income distribution. A conceptual framework for income distribution analysis is developed and the direct and indirect effects of demographic factors on this framework assessed. Both partial and systems approaches to empirical analysis are explored. The conclusion is that relationship are complex and the net outcome of demographic changes on distribution cannot be fully understood outside a systems framework.