Socioeconomic Determinants of Child Health: Empirical Evidence from Indonesia

This paper characterizes the socioeconomic determinants of child health using height‐for‐age z‐score (HAZ), a long‐run measure of chronic nutritional deficiency. We construct a panel data that follows children between ages 3 and 59 months in 1993 through the 1997 and 2000 waves of the Indonesian Family Life Survey. We use this data to identify the various child‐level, household‐level and community‐level factors that affect children's health. Our findings indicate that household income has a large and statistically significant role in explaining improvements in HAZ. We also find a strong positive association between parental height and HAZ. At the community level, we find that provision of electricity and the availability of paved roads are positively associated with improvements in HAZ. Finally, in comparison to community‐level factors, household‐level characteristics play a large role in explaining the variation in HAZ. These findings suggest that policies that address the demand‐side constraints have greater potential to improve children's health outcomes in the future.     

Experience with a simulator for training ammonia plant operators

A computer-based simulator was used for training operators prior to the start-up of a new fertilizer complex which includes a 1,350-MTPD ammonia plant, two 1,100-MTPD urea plants, and a steam and power generation plant with two 18-MW gas turbines. The simulator offered many benefits, which can be used for continued education of operators and engineering studies.     

Economic and Environmental Benefits of Eliminating Log Export Bans – The Case of Costa Rica

An increasing number of tropical timber‐producing nations have enacted bans on export of logs arguing that this will reduce deforestation, expand downstream wood processing and improve the scale efficiency of domestic processing, create jobs and retain more value‐added nationally. The theoretical literature is clear that trade restrictions are generally welfare reducing (except in special cases such as when there is a potential for an optimal export tax). At best, a log export ban is a second‐best policy tool for reducing deforestation and addressing the associated environmental externalities. In overall terms, the suggestion that log export bans can achieve the objectives expected of them is dubious. However, very little quantitative evidence exists to demonstrate this claim and the paper attempts to address this gap by looking at the economic and environmental impacts of eliminating a log export ban in Costa Rica. The authors argue that eliminating the export ban is Pareto improving and could generate economic gains as high as $14 million per annum with the possibility of relatively modest environmental benefits.     

Long-term impact of investments in early schooling — Empirical evidence from rural Ethiopia

We examine the cumulative impact of early schooling investments on later schooling outcomes using enrollment status and relative grade attainment as short-run and long-run measures of schooling. Using a child-level longitudinal data set from rural Ethiopia, we estimate a dynamic conditional schooling demand function where the coefficient estimate on the lagged dependent variable captures the impact of all previous period schooling inputs and resources. We find that a child who is enrolled in the prior period is 33 percentage points more likely to be enrolled currently. These lagged effects are stronger for girls and for children from higher income households.     

Democracy,visibility and public good provision

We examine the role of visibility in influencing government resource allocation across a multiplicity of public goods. We show that a “visibility effect” distorts governmental resource allocation such that it helps explain why governments neglect provision of essential public goods, despite their considerable benefits. We show that greater democratization widens the gap in resource allocation between more visible (such as famine prevention) versus less visible (such as malnutrition prevention) public goods, up to an intermediate level of democracy. Beyond this level, this gap decreases. Furthermore, public goods with low visibility are prone to multiple equilibria in resource allocation, with voter expectations being shown to be important.     

Effects of offline ad content on online brand search: insights from super bowl advertising

Individuals watch TV shows while simultaneously and/or immediately searching online. Thus, the content of offline TV ads can affect online brand search, a key predictor of sales. Yet there are few insights on the effect of offline ad content on online brand search. We develop hypotheses relating the informational and emotional content of TV ads on online brand search, independently, and in conjunction with two attentional content elements of the ad campaign, prior media publicity and brand website prominence in the TV ad. We test the hypotheses using a quasi-experimental study, the telecast of TV ads on the annual Super Bowl event between 2004 and 2012 (n = 293 observations). We measure online brand search by online brand search lift, i.e., the growth in online brand search following the telecast of the brand’s ad on Super Bowl. The findings indicate that the informational content of the TV ad increases online brand search, while both attentional content elements decrease this effect. We find no support for the effect of emotional content of the TV ad on online brand search. Our findings extend marketing theory on online search and generate managerial implications for designing TV ads to increase online brand search.     

New Evidence of Psychological Barrier from the Oil Market

The authors examine how stock returns were affected when the oil price reached the psychological barrier of US$100 per barrel for the first time in history. Using an event study approach, 4 key results emerge. First, the authors show that a psychological barrier event in the oil market does affect stock returns. Second, they show that a psychological barrier event in the oil market is a source of return drift—a phenomenon well explained and understood with respect to nonoil news events. Third, the psychological barrier affects small/medium-sized stocks and not large stocks. Last, the authors show that successful trading strategies can be devised based on the information that the oil price psychological barrier significantly impacts the market and that it contributes to return drift.     

Creative Problem Solving in GSS Groups: Do Creative Styles Matter?

Creative groups drive innovation and organizational change and collaborative systems can be used to pool creative team members across the globe. How individual creative preference impacts the group’s creative performance across different creative problem solving phases in a GSS environment is not well understood. The objective of this exploratory study was to understand if there are differences in group performance when groups with varying member creative styles interact solely via GSS. We conducted a quasi-experimental study that compared the performance of groups with two alternate member styles interacting only via group support systems during a creative problem solving process. Ideator and Evaluator groups were compared on their divergent and convergent phase performance. Significant differences were found between the Ideator groups and Evaluator groups on idea fluency, idea flexibility, idea novelty, idea elaboration and solution cost-effectiveness. No significant differences were found between the performance of the two groups on solution feasibility and novelty. Results indicate that member creative styles play an important role in determining the performance of technology-supported groups. These results aid researchers and practitioners by improving their understanding of the performance of creative teams interacting solely via collaborative support systems for creative problem solving tasks.     

Impact of privacy concerns on resistance to smart services: does the ‘Big Brother effect’ matter?

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to provide a better understanding of the factors that explain consumer resistance to smart services from a privacy perspective. To this end, an exploratory qualitative study and a quantitative study were carried out. 653 French consumers answered an online questionnaire regarding smart services in the banking sector. Structural equation modelling was used to test the conceptual model. The findings show that information privacy, the unauthorised secondary use of personal information and perceived intrusion have an impact on consumer resistance to smart services. Moreover, our research highlights the major role of the ‘Big Brother effect’ as an antecedent to these various privacy concerns.     

Self-consciousness and emotions driving femvertising: A path analysis of women’s attitude towards femvertising,forwarding intention and purchase intention

Femvertising is making huge waves as large numbers of brands are launching campaigns marketing feminism. While promoting products brands are selling empowerment to women through marketing campaigns. As women purchasing power is increasing they provide bigger opportunity to marketers, this is the reason femvertising is the hottest trend used by advertisers to attract women customers. This study investigates the influence of self-consciousness and Need for Emotion on Attitude towards femvertising. It further sheds light on the effect of Attitude towards femvertising on forwarding intention of ad and purchase intention of the advertised brand. ANOVA was conducted to analyze the relationship between demographic profile of women respondents with their attitude towards femvertising, forwarding intention and purchase intention. Results show that individuals Private & Public self-consciousness and need for emotion influence their attitude towards femvertising. Positive attitude towards femvertising influence their forwarding intention of ad but does to lead to purchase intent. The findings revealed that intention to forward and purchase intention varies across different age groups.