Cities,market integration,and going to sea: stunting and the standard of living in early nineteenth‐century England and Wales1

A new source, 1840s Admiralty seamen's tickets, is used to explore three anthropometric issues. First, did being born in a city, with its associated disamenities, lead to stunting? Second, did being born near a city, whose markets sucked away foodstuffs, lead to stunting? Third, did child labour lead to stunting? We find that only those born in very large cities suffered a level of stunting that contemporaries could have observed. Being born near a city, which gave parents opportunities to trade away family calories, and perhaps increased exposure to disease, did not cause stunting. Britain was a well‐integrated market; all families, whatever their locations, had options to trade and faced similar disease environments. Finally, although adults who had gone to sea young were shorter than those who did not enlist until fully grown, going to sea did not stunt. Instead, plentiful food at sea attracted stunted adolescents, who reversed most of their stunting as a result. But child labour at sea was different from other forms of children's work because wages were largely hypothecated to the child as food and shelter onboard. In contrast, where wages were paid to the child or his parents in cash, they became submerged in the household economy and their benefits were shared with other family members.     

Water Trade in the Southern Murray–Darling Basin

In this paper, we use TERM-Water, a bottoms-up regional computable general equilibrium model of the Australian economy, to examine the regional effects of expanding trade of irrigation water in the southern Murray–Darling basin. We find that water trading dampens the impact of water allocation cuts on gross regional product (GRP). The benefits of introducing trading within irrigation districts are greater than those of a further expansion of trade between regions. Permitting trade of seasonal allocations allows irrigators to reallocate water in reaction to climatic conditions and water availability; and it is this flexibility that enables GRP reductions to be minimised.     

A Profile of Contemporary Accounting Research: Fall 1984—Spring 1994*

Abstract. During the first 10 years of Contemporary Accounting Research (CAR), Fail 1984 through Spring 1994, 313 articles and discussions were published. The main research methods reported in these articles were empirical data analysis, analytical modeling, and behavioral experimentation. The main topic areas were financial accounting, managerial accounting, and auditing. CAR considers for publication any papers of interest to the Canadian accounting research community, so this mix of methods and topics is not surprising and reflects the mix of papers submitted to CAR over the years. The articles and discussions in CAR represented 523 listed authors. A number of authors have appeared more than once, with the result that, over the 10 years, 358 different authors from 142 institutions have contributed to CAR. The great majority of the authors were university professors; at the time of authorship, slightly more authors were assistant than full or associate professors. Eighty-eight percent of the authors were male, but the percentage of female authors has steadily increased. CAR serves the Canadian accounting research community through the array of articles and discussions it publishes. Additional aspects of its Canadian service are the facts that 26 percent of the authors of the articles and discussions were resident at Canadian institutions, 17 percent of the articles dealt explicitly with a Canadian accounting issue or used Canadian data, and French abstracts of all articles plus articles completely in French represent 9 percent of the total pages of articles. As of June 1994, 696 members of the Canadian Academic Accounting Association and subscribers to CAR, as well as 286 institution libraries received the journal, representing 408 institutions. The majority of the individual member/subscribers were resident in Canada; the majority of the institutions were outside Canada. Résumé. Au cours de ses dix premières années d'existence, de l'automne 1984 au printemps 1994, Recherche comptable contemporaine (CAR) a publié 313 articles et analyses critiques. Les principales méthodes de recherche utilisées par les auteurs sont l'analyse de données empiriques, l'élaboration de modèles d'analyse et l'expérimentation comportementale, et les principaux sujets abordés relèvent de la finance, de la comptabilité, de la comptabilité de management et de la vérification. CAR s'intéresse à tout texte présentant un intérêt pour la communauté canadienne des chercheurs en comptabilité, de sorte que cette diversité de méthodes et de sujets n'est pas étonnante et reflète la variété des articles soumis à la revue au cours des années. Les articles et les analyses critiques publiés par CAR sont l'?uvre de 523 auteurs répertoriés. Bon nombre d'entre eux ont contribué à la revue à plusieurs reprises, si bien qu'en 10 ans, 358 auteurs différents provenant de 142 établissements ont collaboré à la revue. La grande majorité des auteurs sont des professeurs d'université; au moment de leur collaboration, les auteurs étaient un peu plus fréquemment professeurs adjoints que professeurs titulaires ou professeurs agrégés. De ces auteurs, 88 pour cent sont des hommes, le pourcentage d'auteurs féminins ayant cependant augmenté régulièrement. CAR s'adresse à la communauté canadienne des chercheurs en comptabilité en offrant à ses lecteurs un vaste éventail d'articles et d'analyses critiques. Mais elle offre à ses lecteurs canadiens des services qui se distinguent à d'autres égards: 26 pour cent des auteurs des articles et des analyses critiques résidaient, au moment de leur collaboration, dans des établissements canadiens, 17 pour cent des articles portent explicitement sur des questions comptables d'intérêt canadien ou font usage de données canadiennes, et les résumés français de tous les articles ainsi que les articles qui sont publiés intégralement en français représentent 9 pour cent du total des pages consacrées aux articles. Au mois de juin 1994, 696 membres de l'Association Canadienne des Professeurs de Comptabilité et d'abonnés à la revue CAR, représentant 408 établissements, ainsi que 286 bibliothèques d'établissements d'enseignement ou d'entreprises, recevaient la revue. La majorité des membres et abonnés à titre personnel résidaient au Canada, et la majorité des établissements étaient étrangers.     

THE VALUE OF CLEANER AIR: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH

Policymakers in the legislative and regulatory arenas face increasing public expectations that authorities will both promulgate and implement strict environmental programs. At the same time, the aggregate cost of such programs is rising and is impacting economic sectors previously untouched. In this context, a major study used an integrated interdisciplinary perspective to determine what economic benefits would result from air pollution controls. Specifically, the study developed estimates for the health benefits of reducing ozone and fine particulate matter concentrations in the nation's most polluted region—the South Coast Air Basin centering on Los Angeles. This paper presents the economic methodologies and results of that study. It also discusses how health and atmospheric sciences informed the economic assessment.     

Satisfaction with current commuting expense as related to the relative fuel efficiency of a desired car purchase

Although projecting the demand for cars in North America has been the subject of research for almost half a century,^1–6 increases in the price of petroleum and petroleum products during the 1970s prompted an interest in projecting the demand for fuel-efficient cars. The purpose of this paper is to assess factors affecting the relative fuel efficiency of a desired car purchase among households with at least one individual employed outside the home. In addition to socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the household, sex of the worker, distance to work and satisfaction with the expense involved in the journey to work are used to predict relative efficiency of a potential car purchase. The analysis is not intended to follow the lines of a traditional economic analysis. Rather, its purpose is to add other dimensions to such analyses.     

CLOTHES-CARE SYMBOLS: ARE THEY UNDERSTOOD?

This brief paper is a report of an investigation into the acceptability of modern clothes care symbols carried out by third-year psychology students who have been following an option in consumer psychology in their course.     

MOISTURE STUDIES IN THE DOMESTIC ENVIRONMENT

In an attempt to ascertain the measure of agreement as to what constitutes dryness in textile goods following laundering and during domestic storage, a series of trials were carried out employing a large sample of testers. Each was asked to register a decision, whether damp or dry, for articles in wool, cotton and poly-cotton (67% polyester, 33% cotton). These articles were of known moisture contents, measured as percentage moisture regains, following exposure to controlled atmospheres ranging between 0 r.h. and 95% r.h. Considerable variations in dampness perception were recorded between individual testers and results differed with the fibre content; poly-cotton presented the most difficulties. Nevertheless it was possible to discern for each textile, a moisture content band below which goods could be declared acceptably dry. Implications for the indoor drying and storage of laundered articles were reviewed. Dryness acceptable to the majority (90% of the sample) could be achieved within a normal indoor atmosphere (50% r.h., 20°C) for poly-cotton but not for wool or cotton. For these, a reduced humidity or an elevated temperature would be required, necessitating the expenditure of energy such as is commonly available in the domestic airing cupboard. Results were applied to a psychometric chart to make recommendations for effective temperatures within such cupboards.     

Reading the wind: how middle managers assess the context for selling issues to top managers

Issue selling is an important mechanism for creating change initiatives in organizations. This paper presents two studies that examine what middle managers think about as they decide whether or not to sell strategic issues to top management. In Study 1 middle managers identify themes that indicate a favorable or unfavorable context for issue selling. Top management’s willingness to listen and a supportive culture were the most often named contributors to context favorability, while fear of negative consequences, downsizing conditions and uncertainty were thought to signal that a context was unfavorable for issue selling. Study 2 identifies factors that middle managers associate with image risk in the context of issue selling. Violating norms for issue selling, selling in a politically vulnerable way and having a distant relationship with top management were regarded as major contributors to a middle manager’s level of image risk. Both studies enrich our understanding of the social psychological mechanisms that undergird the strategic change process. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Trade-Offs Between Purchased Services and Time in Single-Parent and Two-Parent Families

This research examines the influence of marital status on the demand for services using a model in which the demand for market services and mothers' time spent in related household activities are jointly determined. Three specific areas of market services are investigated: meals prepared away from home, child care, and housekeeping. In multivariate systems analyses in which mothers' household work time and purchased services were simultaneously determined, families headed by single mothers were found to (a) purchase more meals prepared away from home and (b) be more likely to purchase child care and housekeeping services than their two-parent counterparts holding income and other factors constant.     

VALUING HEALTH EFFECTS: THE CASE OF OZONE AND FINE PARTICLES IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

This study presents a conservative estimate of the health benefits that would result from attainment of the federal ozone and fine particle (PM_2.5) standards in the South Coast Air Basin of southern California. A three‐stage approach is used that links pollution exposures to adverse health outcomes to economic values. The annual value of the aggregate health benefits approaches $500 million (with a range of $295–$646 million) for ozone and exceeds $21 billion (with a range of $12.85–$34.22 billion) for fine particles. Such results are useful to regulatory agencies and other policy makers when evaluating the merits of various air pollution reduction strategies. (JEL Q51, Q53)