Telecom Regulation: Lessons from Independent Central Banks

Consumers do not choose their preferred central bank base rate in the way that they buy, say, telephone services from one of a number of competing companies: independent central banks (ICBs) and utility regulators have different tasks. However, those concerned with the emerging field of utility regulation can still learn much from research on ICBs, not least because, for historical reasons, there is much more of it. The authors of this article argue that the key to the success of both ICBs and utility regulators is proper governance arrangements. They reject the arguments for procedures that are totally rule-based with little or no discretion. Within clear rules, they say, both ICBs and regulators should be given discretion combined with high accountability.     

Free Trade Agreements and Governance of the Global Trading System

This article explores how far free trade agreements (FTAs) have strengthened or weakened global governance of the trading system. We open with an analysis of the altered political and economic context within which countries have come, in recent years, to assign a new importance to regional and bilateral trade agreements in their trade policies. We then consider each of the main provisions included in FTAs and comment on how these may separately affect the management of trade relations. We conclude with some observations of the broader trends affecting global governance that are associated with the spread of trade agreements as a whole.     

The Information Content of Comparative Magazine Advertisements

Abstract

The existing research on comparative vs. noncomparative advertising has resulted in a great deal of conflict and confusion concerning its effectiveness. However, little attention has been directed toward examining the informational nature of the ads themselves. The current investigation examines the question of whether comparative advertisements actually contain more objective information cues than their noncomparative counterparts. The results indicated that comparative ads did indeed have greater information content than noncomparative ads. Additional informational dimensions of comparative ads are explored.     

Business Media Segmentation for Services Marketers: Education and the Gender Gap

An exploratory study of mâle and female business media use was undertaken to ascertain whether education has levelled sex differences. Social changes in women's work status and access to higher education cause similar needs for financial information. Prior research on business media use presents conflicting evidence about male and female habits. Findings reveal four segments based on sex and education, for education has only partially levelled sex differences. Higher-educated men make greater use of business television than higher-educated women. Lower-educated men rely on print media, and lower-educated women use all business media least. Marketing implications for financial and related services are suggested to appeal to the segments.     

Elizabeth Fones-Wolf. Waves of Opposition: Labor and the Struggle for Democratic Radio

Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1950s and early 1960s,I often turned on the TV on a weekend morning or afternoon.Surfing the three available channels, I sometimes stumbled ontotalk shows featuring large men wearing ill-fitting suits discussingissues of work, contracts and employment in the community andnation. Such a labor-oriented, weekly, network-affiliated localtalk show is all but impossible to find today. The few thatexist are on local access cable TV. Labor is, of     

Financial literacy amongst elderly Australians

Financial illiteracy is widespread amongst the elderly. Financially illiterate people are more likely to experience asset loss and outlive their savings after retirement. This paper measures financial literacy of elderly Australians using Item Responses Theory. Using a Lasso regression, we find that younger, married males with higher income and greater net wealth are more likely to be financially literate. Better financial literacy is also associated with good health, higher educational attainment, better occupation and outright home ownership. Our findings suggest policy‐makers take action and we make informed and practicable policy recommendations.     

Lag length selection and p -hacking in Granger causality testing: prevalence and performance of meta-regression models

The academic system incentivizes p-hacking, where researchers select estimates and statistics with statistically significant p-values for publication. We a