Valuing a Change in a Fishing Site without Collecting Characteristics Data on All Fishing Sites: A Complete but Minimal Model

Resource economists are often asked to value a proposed change at one, and only one, recreational site; the model we develop and estimate is applicable for those cases. The application is valuing the elimination of fish consumption advisories on a large bay on Lake Michigan. The model is minimal but complete: complete in that the choice set is not restricted, minimal in that only two conditional indirect utility functions are estimated. It is utility-theoretic and one does not have to collect characteristic data on all of the other fishing sites in the region. Data include the number of trips each individual currently takes to Green Bay, answers to "would you prefer to fish Green Bay under conditions A or B?" and how often each angler says they would fish Green Bay under different sets of conditions.     

Virtual Reality and Innovation Potential

This article examines how companies can harness virtual reality (VR) technology to help make themselves more innovative. VR has some unique characteristics which, taken together, can help companies to develop three features common to many innovative organisations: a capacity to experiment in depth; involvement of all in the innovation process; and an ability to capture ideas generated in the innovation process. However, some obstacles need to be overcome before VR fulfils this potential.     

Analysis of divisional profitability using the residual income profile

This paper describes the residual income profile which is a graphical method that summarizes the profitability characteristics of a division of a firm and illustrates the relationship between return on investment and residual income. In addition, the residual income profile shows the sensitivity of residual income to changes in interest rates.     

STRUCTURAL POLICIES FOR AGRICULTURE IN THE E.E.C.

The outcome of the Common Agricultural Policy, with its “managed” market for farm products, has been high prices and surplus production, the disposal of which incurs a heavy expenditure on market support. At the same time, structural changes have been relatively insignifcant in the absence of a coherent E.E.C. programme, and, farms remain predominantly small and uneconomic. Financial and social pressures have compelled the Comission of the E.E.C. to admit that the Common Agricultural Policy needs to be radically re-appraised. In December 1968, far-reaching proposals, the so-called “Mansholt Plan”, were put forward by the Comission. This paper outlines and compares the structural policies of E.E.C. member States, and considers their impact upon the structure of farming. An assessment is also made of the measures included in the Mansholt Plan and in subsequent Community proposals designed to raise farmers' living standards and to reduce the cost of the Common Agricultural Policy.     

Compensating Wage Differentials with Unemployment: Evidence from China

We estimate the economic value of mortality risk in China using the compensating-wage-differential method. We find a positive and statistically significant correlation between wages and occupational fatality risk. The estimated effect is largest for unskilled workers. Unemployment reduces compensation for risk, which suggests that some of the assumptions under which compensating wage differentials can be interpreted as measures of workers’ preferences for risk and income are invalid when unemployment is high. Workers may be unwilling to quit high-risk jobs when alternative employment is difficult to obtain, violating the assumption of perfect mobility, or some workers (e.g., new migrants) may be poorly informed about between-job differences in risk, violating the assumption of perfect information. These factors suggest our estimates of the value per statistical life (VSL) in China, which range from approximately US$30,000 to US$100,000, may be biased downward. Alternative estimates adjust for heterogeneity of risk within industry by assuming that risk is concentrated among low-skill workers. These estimates, which are likely to be biased downward, range from US$7,000 to US$20,000.      

Self-Efficacy Toward Service, Civic Participation and the Business Student: Scale Development and Validation

This paper presents the development andvalidation of new measurement tools to exploreself-efficacy toward service and toward civicparticipation. We developed and administereda survey to 851 students in an AACSB-accreditedcollege of business at a comprehensive publicuniversity located in the Midwest. Traditionalscale development methodologies plusconfirmatory factor analysis and simultaneousfactor analysis in several populations wereused to analyze both a primary sample and aholdback sample. Results strongly support thevalidity and reliability of the surveyinstrument. Future use for the instrumentincludes verification of the effectiveness ofpedagogies designed to increase self-efficacytoward service and motivation for civicparticipation in business students.