Capital Market Experience for Financial Accounting Students*

Abstract. In this paper we present an innovative teaching tool for introductory financial accounting students that promotes active learning using methods at the frontier of market research. We describe the implementation of an asset market where students assume the role of traders in order to learn the role of information in price formation. We discuss the pedagogical questions which are addressed in the design of this market, and we relate the responses to questionnaires distributed to students at the end of the quarter. When we control for prior grade point averages (GPAs) of students, we find that those who participate in the market had better classroom performance. Résumé. Les auteurs présentent ici un instrument pédagogique innovateur, à l'intention des étudiants des cours d'introduction à la comptabilité financière, favorisant l'apprentissage dynamique grâce à l'utilisation de méthodes voisinant de près l'étude de marché. Ils décrivent la mise en place d'un marché de biens où les étudiants assument les fonctions de négociateurs en vue d'apprendre quel est le rôle de l'information dans la formation des prix. Ils analysent les questions pédagogiques que soulève la conception de ce marché et font état des réponses des étudiants aux questionnaires qui leur sont distribués à la fin du trimestre. Lorsqu'ils contrôlent les notes moyennes antérieures des étudiants, les auteurs constatent que ceux qui ont participé au marché font preuve d'un rendement supérieur en classe.     

How skilled were English agricultural labourers in the early nineteenth century?1

Using the wage accounts of two different farms in the 1830s and 1840s, matched with census records to determine the age of the workers, this article estimates age‐wage profiles for male and female agricultural labourers. Females earned less than males, and had less wage growth over their life cycles. Male wage profiles peaked at age 30–5, earlier than the wage profiles of workers today. Before the age of 30 wage growth was more rapid than increases in strength, but less rapid than wage growth among factory workers. If wage increases after the age of 20 indicate skill acquisition, then male agricultural labourers acquired a significant amount of skill, but less skill than contemporaneous factory workers.     

Double‐Cola and Antitrust Issues: Staying Alive in the Soft Drink Wars

This case study is the story of the underdog in the soft drink wars. It is a testament to the meaning of brands and the lengths that loyal consumers go to for Double‐Cola, one of many small regional brands that struggle to compete against industry giants. It also offers insights into current antitrust issues within the regulatory environment and the lack of protection given to small brands in their fight to stay alive. Consequences for consumers, bottlers, and small manufacturers are explored.     

The wages and employment of female day‐labourers in English agriculture, 1740–18501

Using a new sample of farm accounts from 84 farms throughout England, this article provides measures of regional variation and changes over time in female wages and employment in agriculture. Female wages were not fixed, but changed over time and responded to high demand for female labour. The female‐male wage ratio fell between 1750 and 1850, except in the industrial north west. In 1851 approximately 19 per cent of agricultural day‐labourers were female. In the industrial north west, opportunities for factory employment reduced the supply of females to agriculture, but elsewhere the relative demand for female labour in agriculture declined.