Varietal Licensing Standards and Canadian Wheat Exports

Canada's wheat grading system is largely based on visual criteria and it is based on relatively high quality standards. A strict varieties licensing system exists to maintain the integrity of the grade standards. One of the consequences of the licensing system is that higher yielding, lower or different quality wheats have not been grown in Canada until recently. The basic objective of this paper is to examine some of the consequences of the regulatory strategy of limiting wheat production to the traditional high quality wheats. This question is analyzed in the context of important changes in the international grain markets. Using a partial equilibrium trade model this paper estimates that if higher yielding wheats were permitted to be grown, annual producer gains would be 5 to 17 percent of current net farm income.
Le classement des blés au Canada est basé sur des critères visuels qui sont de hautes qualités. Le système actuel d'homologation des variétés est tel que l'intégrité de ce système est maintenue. En conséquent, ce système n'a pas encouragé la cultivation des blés de hauts rendements ou des varietés différentes que tout récemment. L'objectif principal de cette étude est d'examiner quelques unes des conséquences de la stratégic de la réglementation visant à limiter la production du blé aux variétés de hautes qualités. Cette question est adressée dans le contexte des changements importants qui ont eu lieu dans le marché international des grains. A l'aide d'un modèle d'équilibre partiel des échanges, la présente étude démontre gu'en permettant la production des blés de hauts rendements, le gain annuel aux producteurs serait de 5 à 17 pourcent du revenue agricole net.     

Do Small Banks have an Advantage in Lending? An Examination of Risk-Adjusted Yields on Business Loans at Large and Small Banks

Consolidation in the banking industry has sparked concern about the survival of small banks, particularly as it relates to the availability of credit to small businesses. However, if small banks have an advantage in processing credit information, compared to large banks, they should continue to survive in a competitive environment. We evaluate risk-adjusted commercial loan yields (gross yields less net charge-offs and the risk-free rate of return) at small and large banks for the period of 1996 through 2001. Our primary finding is that, after controlling for market concentration, cost of funds, and a variety of other factors that might influence yields, smaller banks earn greater risk-adjusted yields than larger banks. This result suggests that small banks make better choices from the available small business loans and is consistent with the notion that these banks have an information advantage in evaluating credit.     

Workers' comp derailment: expectations not met

Two years ago RIMS formed the Risk Management Roundtable to identify trends and issues affecting the field and to develop mechanisms to broadly disseminate views and concerns. In March 1990 Risk Management published the Roundtable's first article, "The 1990s: The Decade of Risk Management," developed by its "new risk team." Focusing on how the risk management function is performed and how it is perceived, particularly by senior management, the article generated ample discussion. In this issue the Roundtable's workers' compensation team explains how the system's original intent has been eroded. The team also offers advice on how various players, including workers, employers, doctors, lawyers, insurers, regulators and legislators, can help cure the system.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Does Hedging Affect Firm Value? Evidence from the US Airline Industry

Does hedging add value to the firm, and if so, is the source of the added value consistent with hedging theory? We investigate jet fuel hedging behavior of firms in the US airline industry during 1992–2003 to examine whether such hedging is a source of value for these companies. We illustrate that the investment and financing climate in the airline industry conforms well to the theoretical framework of Froot, Scharfstein, and Stein (1993). In general, airline industry investment opportunities correlate positively with jet fuel costs, while higher fuel costs are consistent with lower cash flow. Given that jet fuel costs are hedgeable, airlines with a desire for expansion may find value in hedging future purchases of jet fuel. Our results show that jet fuel hedging is positively related to airline firm value. The coefficients on the hedging variables in our regression analysis suggest that the “hedging premium” is greater than the 5% documented in Allayannis and Weston (2001), and might be as large as 10%. We find that the positive relation between hedging and value increases in capital investment, and that most of the hedging premium is attributable to the interaction of hedging with investment. This result is consistent with the assertion that the principal benefit of jet fuel hedging by airlines comes from reduction of underinvestment costs.     

Learning Styles,Motivation, and Career Choice: Insights for International Business Students From Linguistic Inquiry

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop a model of motives and career choice based on learning styles in order to apply the model in teaching business. Although the relationship between learning and McClelland’s (1961) three motives (achievement, affiliation, and power) as confirmed that motives are “learned,” little research has examined if learning styles are the key factor to classify motivation into three different implicit motives and whether those motives affect students’ career choice.

Design: The article first examines the Kolb’s (Kolb, 1984, 1999; Kolb & Kolb, 2005) learning styles including active experimentation (AE), reflective observation (RO), abstract conceptualization (AC), and concrete experience (CE). It then measures the learning styles and Holland’s (1985) six career types including realistic, investigative, artistic, conventional, enterprising, and social by the three McClelland (1985) motives including achievement, power, and affiliation using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) 2015 software (Pennebaker, Booth, Boyd, & Francis, 2015). Finally, the article compared the factors of learning styles and career types against each other based on the three motives in order to discuss the teaching strategies for students in their career choice.

Methodology: The study has used LIWC 2015 (Pennebaker et al., 2015) software to find the scores of achievement, power, and affiliation motives in the four Kolb’s learning styles (Kolb, 1984, 1999; Kolb & Kolb, 2005), and the six career interests (Holland, 1985). Correlation analysis was conducted among the motive values to find the relations among the learning styles, motives, and career choice.

Findings: (a) The two learning styles of AC and AE stimulate the need for achievement; (b) the learning style of RO stimulates the need for power; (c) the learning style of CE stimulates the need for affiliation; (d) people with a high achievement motive would be fit in artistic, investigative, and realistic careers; (e) people with a high power motive would be fit in conventional and enterprising careers; (f) people with a high affiliation motive would be fit in a social career.

Originality of the research: Efficient teaching techniques applied based on the study findings indicate that (a) teaching high achievement students will use more challenge techniques such as assignments and projects for thinking and doing training, (b) teaching high power students will use more control techniques such as discussions and presentations for observation training, and (c) teaching high affiliation students will use more socially oriented techniques such as writing tasks for emotion training.     

Correcting the t statistic for measurement error

Studies in marketing often involve application of multi-item scales to measure latent constructs. Once the psychometric properties of a scale have been assessed, responses to individual scale items are often summed to form a composite score, which then is compared across groups by performing statistical tests such as a t test. In this note, we draw researchers?? attention to an often overlooked fact that the t test is attenuated by imperfect measures. As a solution, we propose the disattenuated t statistic and discuss how it would increase accuracy of estimates and affect decisions in the marketing discipline.     

The public R&D and productivity growth in Australia's broadacre agriculture: is there a link?

This paper investigates the dynamic relationships between research and development (R&D) expenditure and productivity growth in Australian broadacre agriculture using aggregate time series data for the period 1953 to 2009. The results show a cointegrating relationship between R&D and productivity growth and a unidirectional causality from R&D to TFP (total factor productivity) growth in Australian broadacre agriculture. Using the dynamic properties of the model, data from beyond the sample period are analysed by employing the variance decomposition and the impulse response function. The findings reveal that R&D can be readily linked to the variation in productivity growth beyond the sample period. Furthermore, the forecasting results indicate that a significant out‐of‐sample relationship exists between public R&D and productivity in broadacre agriculture.