Using Industry-Sponsored Game Nights to Educate About Risk and Insurance

As educators in the field of risk management and insurance, we see know- ledge of risk management and insurance as a core business function. However, some colleagues and students see insurance as cold-call sales or companies with a lot of money that continue to raise their prices. So we have to find ways to make our public aware of the usefulness of risk management and insurance in the business world and in private life and of the opportunities that having such knowledge presents to all business majors and business people. One method that is beginning to show dramatic improvements in at least our students' perceptions of the field and the major involves industry-sponsored game nights. While not an academic endeavor nor strictly risk management education, we believe the idea provides a useful tool for opening students' eyes to the need for knowledge of risk management and insurance and of the opportunities that are available in the insurance industry and its related fields. This article discusses the history of such an event at Appalachian State Univer- sity, the current status of the North Carolina Surplus Lines Association (NCSLA) event, and the benefits of the event.     

Do Unions Affect Employer Compliance with the Law? New Zealand Evidence for Age Discrimination

Over the last thirty years, collective rights to organize into unions, bargain collectively and strike have been weakened in both New Zealand and the UK. At the same time, individual rights to due process and to protection from discriminatory or unjust management decisions have been strengthened, leading some to conclude that collective and individual rights are unrelated, incompatible or mutually exclusive. On the contrary, we use evidence of employer compliance with anti‐age provisions in the New Zealand Human Rights Act to show that the two sets of rights can be highly complementary: the presence of unions strengthens individual protection from discriminatory treatment.     

WORLD OUTLOOK

Events in the Gulf have finally brought an end to the world economic boom of the last eight years. The oil price shock itself is only partly responsible for the downturn. The previous tightening of monetary policy in the face of inflationary pressures and the end of a rapid period of credit and asset price expansion had severely weakened the ability of some economies to respond to the shock. This is reflected in the diversity of response, most obviously in the United States where Fed fine tuning and the credit crunch have already weakened the economy. The rise in oil prices has led to a sudden collapse in consumer confidence and a swift cutback in output. Although we do not expect the recession to be deep, the financial problems will delay recovery. The Japanese economy was already in financial difficulties before the shock, although the real economy was stronger and here we expect a sharp deceleration from almost 6 per cent growth last year to around 3.5 per cent. In contrast the German economy, partly shielded by the substantial appreciation of the DM over the last year, has been affected less by the oil price shock and we expect the consumer and investment boom to continue this year as the economies merge. This provides a welcome boost to other European economies.     

Economic Outlook 1991–1995: The London Business School with Gower Publishing: Forecast Release: THE CHANCELLOR'S ECONOMIC ADVICE

Within the last month the Chancellor has made two important speeches on macroeconomic policy. The first, to Surrey businessmen in June, pledged the UK to the French route to a ‘virtuous circle of low inflation, rising competitiveness and increasing market share’; the second, in July to the European Policy Forum, vigorously defended his present policy against the alternatives, which he dismissed as ‘illusory or destined to fail’, of devaluation or cutting interest rates. On both occasions Mr. Lamont placed the permanent conquest of inflation at the centre of his policy, arguing that holding sterling at its present central parity of DM 2.95 is the only way to achieve this objective. In his view the consequence of any of the alternative proposals would be ‘either higher interest rates, higher inflation, or most likely both’. In this Forecast Release we consider these claims and the economic advice on which it is based. On the latter we would surmise that the thrust of the advice which Mr. Lamont is receiving is that he has the opportunity to deliver a sustainably low inflation rate and that this requires a stable pound within the ERM. The alternatives involve a sterling devaluation which, no matter how obtained, would obstruct the goal of permanently low inflation in return for only transient benefits on output and unemployment. But the price of defeating inflation has been high and is not yet fully paid. Moreover the goalposts have been moved: to reach the French position on competitiveness, which underpins their gains in market share and which has taken the best part of a deeade to achieve, requires a still better inflation performance on the part of the UK and while this is being achieved, adjustment costs will persist. It is partly in defence of his own policies and partly in an attempt to moderate the already-high adjustment costs that Mr. Lamont has adopted a more combative stance. His advice is that to compete with Europe, we cannot award ourselves pay increases far in excess of European levels, indeed we need a period of below-average pay rises.     

More on the correct use of omnibus tests for normality

This Monte Carlo study compares the small sample properties of some commonly used omnibus and directional tests, based on the standardized third and fourth moments, for assessing the normality of random variables: the omnibus D'Agostino K² test and the directional components, and three versions of the Jarque–Bera test.     

The Impact of Regulation Fair Disclosure on Information Asymmetry and Trading: An Intraday Analysis

This study examines the impact of Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD) on liquidity, information asymmetry, and institutional and retail investors trading behavior. Our main findings suggest three conclusions. First, Regulation FD has been effective in improving liquidity and in decreasing the level of information asymmetry. Second, retail trading activity increases dramatically after earnings announcements but there is a significant decline in institutional trading surrounding earnings announcements, particularly in the pre‐announcement period. Last, the decline in information asymmetry around earnings announcements is closely associated with a lower participation rate in the pre‐announcement period and more active trading of retail investors after earnings releases.     

Recreation Demand and Residential Location

We use the properties of competitive location equilibrium to study the demand for recreation and the choice of primary residence location. Location-specific recreation and employment lead to pooling equilibria in which consumers reside according to their preference for recreation. In general, the stronger the taste for recreation, the greater the attraction of living close to the recreation site and the lower the demand for other goods, including housing. We explore the effects of trip frequency, trip length, and recreation cost on the spatial distribution of consumers. We also consider the effect of the wage rate on recreation and location demands.