Drug testing in the transportation industry: The maritime case

The maritime industry provides an interesting case study of the design and implementation of drug-testing programs in the transportation industry during the 1980s. It is clear that such programs were designed and implemented less because of empirical evidence of safety problems than for political reasons. The results in the maritime industry are indicative of a program that is expensive to operate, intrusive with regard to employee privacy, and which will have little or no impact on safety. Focusing such programs on the issue of impairment rather than on the issue of drug usage per se is likely to improve the outcome of the programs. Although, despite common belief, there is little evidence that drug usage or the “drug problem” in U.S. society as a whole had gotten worse in the preceding years (Schonsheck, 1989, 250–251).     

Legalization of drugs: Effects on the workplace

In the last few years bipartisan support for legalizing drugs has grown to a surprising level. Because of the lack of involvement of the business community in this debate, we surveyed the human resource managers of 127 firms about their perceptions of the effects of legalization. Their responses were uniformly negative, with expectations that drug use, absenteeism, worksite crime, and liability costs would increase, while the quality and quantity of work would decline. They also forecast increases in drug testing, performance monitoring, and education and rehabilitation programs as a result.     

WTO与西部大开发战略的几个问题

中国加入WTO后，西部大开发战略的许多问题亟须在理论上深化，比如：西部大开发战略在中国加入WTO的前后是否有所不同，西部大开发的根本目标和实质会发生什么变化，东西部地区之间的差距会不会进一步扩大，西部开发的手段主要有哪些，西部地区能不能接替东南沿海地区淘汰的资本密集型和劳动密集型的产业，等等。     

污泥资源化利用标准发展趋势探讨

对比各种污泥处理处置方式,污泥资源化利用是有巨大发展前途的一种,是提高污泥资源化水平、促进循环经济和可持续发展、建立节约型社会的有效手段。通过对现行污泥利用标准的分析和与国外相关法规及标准的对比,结合我国污泥的产生、理化性质等特征,讨论了现行标准存在的不足,探讨了未来的发展趋势。     

拜泉县农业持续发展的生态经济系统分析

通过对黑龙江拜泉县农业生态经济系统进行以能流分析、物流分析和价值流分析为主要内容的系统诊断,提出该县通过生态经济综合建设,实现农业持续发展的方向与对策,并证明它是促进农村经济持续发展的一种有效方法。     

大型企业增长过快对我国消费和就业的不利影响

资本有机构成的提高,造成了劳动所得所占份额的相对减少,从而使得消费性需求相对不足,阻碍了经济稳定增长。我国大型企业的资本有机构成,无论从绝对数量还是从增长率上看都要高于中小企业,这种现象在工业企业中表现的尤为突出,而在建筑业和第三产业中则不是特别明显。所以我国有必要大力促进中小企业的发展,促进第三产业的发展,以防止我国出现最终产品的使用结构失调和就业不足的现象,从而保证经济稳定高速的增长。     

野生纤维之王——罗布麻

文章阐述了罗布麻纤维的物质组成、形态结构,探索了提取罗布麻纤维的初加工工艺流程,分析了其药用价值和纺织保健开发价值。     

Organic Food at the Point of Purchase: Understanding Inconsistency in Consumer Choice Patterns

The organic food category, while still small in terms of world food production, has continued to grow in many markets in the developed world. This article focuses on understanding the barriers and facilitators to purchasing organic food at the final hurdle: the point of purchase (POP). A qualitative study has identified seven factors that influence buyer behavior at the POP, and these are consumer intention to purchase organic food when entering the retail outlet; habit; availability; false assumptions; visibility and access of organic food; visual and olfactory cues; and price. These can often be the final hurdle to consumers choosing (or not) organic food at the POP.     

Are international environmental policies effective? The case of the Rotterdam and the Stockholm Conventions

This is the first paper to show that participation in an international environmental agreement has some effectiveness. Our identification strategy consists of applying difference-in-differences techniques in a panel data framework to various levels of data aggregation. We find that ratification of the Rotterdam Convention (RC) and the Stockholm Convention (SC) leads to a reduction in trade of hazardous substances from OECD to non-OECD countries. In particular, we find that when the exporter ratifies the RC, there is a reduction in the import of hazardous chemicals of about 7 percent. In the case of the SC, the results show significant reductions of around 16 percent in trade shipments of persistent organic pollutants. This reduction is more than double the effect found for the RC, which was expected due to a more restricted obligation imposed by the SC convention.     

Factors Influencing Organic and Fair Trade Coffee Growers Level of Engagement with Cooperatives: The Case of Coffee Farmers in Mexico

We study the factors influencing the percentage of organic and fair trade certified coffee sold through a cooperative by growers of five cooperatives in Mexico. The percentage of coffee sold through the cooperative was used as a proxy of growers’ engagement with a cooperative. Using factor analysis and a fractional probit regression, we evaluated the proposition that the level of engagement can be explained by transaction cost economics, social norms and connections, and farmer and farm business characteristics. We found that farm size, uncertainty regarding cooperative time of payment to the members and cooperative commitment on price to be paid negatively influence the level of engagement. In contrast, asset specificity, relational commitment, and price have a positive impact on engagement. Our results may help cooperatives and policy makers to build strategies aiming to increase this level of engagement. This is relevant because lower grower engagement has been found to be positively correlated with weak performing cooperatives.