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This study investigates how and to what extent mechanization in land preparation (MLP) can help improve irrigation water productivity (IWP) (measured as rice yield per unit volume of irrigation water). We employed an endogenous treatment regression model to estimate the 2021 China Land Economic Survey (CLES) data collected from Jiangsu province, China. The results reveal that MLP adoption increases IWP significantly; a higher IWP is determined by whether or not farmers adopt MLP rather than through which channel they access their farm machines; the effects of MLP adoption on IWP are monotonically increasing across the selected quantiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We administer a survey of economic policy preferences to a representative sample of the Turkish voting-age population. We show that policy preferences are distributed in non-linear ways that are at odds with what could be expected from a conventional left-right division. We find that while objective socioeconomic differences are bad at predicting economic policy preferences, the latter are distinctly associated with politically salient cleavages built on religiosity and ethnicity. We also examine how preferences of each party's voters compare with party programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Odisha, an eastern Indian state, has reported an increasing number of humanelephant conflicts in recent years. Odisha's economic survey (2014-15) reveals that, up until January 2014, about 42,371.86-hectares of forest land had been destroyed for developmental activities. The loss of natural habitat has increased the frequency of conflict. The household survey conducted in nine villages within the Nilagiri forest range, captured various costs of conflict such as crop damage, human fatalities and injury, property damage, and livestock depredation. Findings suggested that crop-raiding was persistent and severe, which threatened food security and livelihoods. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified factors influencing perceptions of the adequacy of compensation. Results show that respondents were less likely to say that compensation amounts were adequate if they had attended more than five years of schooling; if they had an annual family income greater than INR 13,500; and if the amount of compensation was more than INR 12,500. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Odisha, an eastern Indian state, has reported an increasing number of human-elephant conflicts in recent years. Odisha's economic survey (2014–15) reveals that, up until January 2014, about 42,371.86-hectares of forest land had been destroyed for developmental activities. The loss of natural habitat has increased the frequency of conflict. The household survey conducted in nine villages within the Nilagiri forest range, captured various costs of conflict such as crop damage, human fatalities and injury, property damage, and livestock depredation. Findings suggested that crop-raiding was persistent and severe, which threatened food security and livelihoods. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified factors influencing perceptions of the adequacy of compensation. Results show that respondents were less likely to say that compensation amounts were adequate if they had attended more than five years of schooling; if they had an annual family income greater than INR 13,500; and if the amount of compensation was more than INR 12,500. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study used data from the 2015 US Transgender Survey, which gathered information from the largest sample of trans individuals to date. High labor force participation rates and high unemployment rates were found for both trans men and women. However, women were more likely to be out of the labor force and less likely to be employed than men. The unemployment rate of trans women was greater than that of trans men with otherwise similar characteristics; these results are consistent with the existence of an additional labor market penalty for being female on top of a penalty for being transgender. While perceived gender incongruence (the ability of other people to identify transgender individuals as such) was more common among women, the relation of that variable with labor force status was stronger for men. There was no evidence that state-level employment non-discrimination laws were associated with improved labor force outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cadastral systems provide important information for the public and private sectors. To understand the functions and impacts of a cadastral system one needs to understand its development. The Norwegian cadastral system has its origins in the 1600s and is defined as a German-style cadastral system. In the early 1800s, an economic survey was initiated in the kingdom of Denmark-Norway to modernise the tax cadastres. After the defeat in the Napoleonic wars, Norway entered into a union with Sweden in 1814 and the survey was stopped. Consequently, cadastral mapping would not be introduced in Norway until 1960, and at that time photogrammetric methods with poor quality control were used. Land subdivisions were undertaken by laymen until 1980. The paper describes cadastral development in Norway, challenges that have arisen and how they can be addressed. Measures to improve the system are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how economic ideas have been shaped throughout history and the influence of these on the formulation of economic policy. We collect both quantitative and qualitative data from economists who are originally from the Middle East and North Africa region or working on the region. We find that economists and their ideas are more likely to be influenced by multiple schools of thought than adhere to one school. This multiplicity spills over into the type of solutions proposed to economic problems and thus policy implications. One of the main recommendations of this study is that there is a need for the development of economics and economists to recognize the impact of political and social issues that are not easy to grasp through modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, two questions are examined: Is India's definition of urbanization conservative? What would happen if India used a less restrictive definition? To answer the first question, a simple ordinary least squares model is estimated. For 50% of the comparable countries considered, including India, the actual level of urbanization is below the level predicted by the model, suggesting a conservative definition. To answer the second question, several scenarios are examined. Analysis of village-level results of the 2011 Census of India shows that a population density criterion yields a 69% urbanization rate and a population size criterion a 51% rate. These results are broadly consistent with recent findings from the Government of India's Economic Survey and other anecdotal evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamics of poverty has become a debatable issue and has emerged as one of the most common socioeconomic challenge across the developing world. The present research examines the issue of poverty in the multidimensional spectrum across the agro-climatic zones in Punjab Province of Pakistan on the basis of Pakistan Social and Living Standard Management (PSLM)/Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) data (1998–1999 to 2013–2014). The study employed Alkire and Foster methodology and analyzed that the dynamics of multidimensional poverty across agro-climatic zones exhibits mixed trends. Overall estimates designate a significant decline over the decade, whereas slower declining pace was mainly attributed to the wider deprivation of different socioeconomic spheres of well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the proposition that the process of migration and urbanization in India has opened up in recent years, enabling people to move freely and leading to labour market integration, using data from the population census and National Sample Survey (NSS). Based on a critical examination of methodological and data-related issues and the insights on migration gained from the recent Economic Survey and India Human Development Survey, it questions the thesis that mobility in general has gone up significantly notwithstanding the increased mobility and absorption of poor and unskilled women in low-level service sector jobs, particularly in urban areas. Taking the case of the Muslim population, it argues that migration of socioeconomically vulnerable sections of the population has gone down. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes life satisfaction in Russia's population over the last two decades, as well as its determinants, based on OECD methodology and data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey of the Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE). It shows that in Russia, which during its transformational period went through each phase of the business cycle with high oscillation amplitude, life satisfaction is more closely connected to the main economic indicators than in countries that have not experienced similar economic and social shocks. The way life satisfaction and its main determinants are correlated in Russia is similar to what we see in several other countries, but the specific values and forms of these connections depend on the particular motions of the economic cycle in any given country, as well as the previous path (model) of its development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluations of community-based antiretroviral therapy (ART) programmes have demonstrated positive outcomes, but little is known about the impact of tapering community-based ART. The objective of this study was to assess 24-month HIV retention outcomes of a community-based ART programme and its tapered visit frequency in Koidu City, Sierra Leone. This retrospective, quasi-experimental study compared outcomes of 52 HIV-infected persons initiated on community-based ART against 91 HIV-infected persons receiving the standard of care from November 2009 to February 2013. The community-based ART pilot programme was designed to strengthen the standard of care through a comprehensive, patient-centred case management strategy. The strategy included medical, educational, psychological, social, and economic support. Starting in October 2011, the frequency of home visits was tapered from twice daily every day per week to once daily three days per week. Outcomes were retention in care at 12 and 24 months and adherence to ART over a three-month time period. Participants who received community-based ART had significantly higher retention than those receiving standard of care. At 12 months, retention rates for community-based ART and standard of care were 61.5% and 31.9%, respectively (p < .01). At 24 months, retention rates for community-based ART and standard of care were 73.1% and 44.0%, respectively (p < .01). Significant differences in levels of adherence were observed when comparing community-based ART against persons receiving standard of care (p < .05). No differences in adherence levels were observed between groups of people receiving various frequencies of home visits. Our pilot programme in Koidu City provides new evidence that community-based ART has the potential to improve retention and adherence outcomes for HIV-infected persons, regardless of the frequency of home visits. Overcoming the barriers to HIV care requires a comprehensive, patient-centred approach that may include clinic-based and community-based interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we compare the estimates of earnings determinants based on the non-probabilistic WageIndicator web survey with those based on the widely used, representative EU Study of Income and Living Conditions survey. Using 10 years of Dutch data, we show that there exists an established segment of predominantly junior workers from which the respondents of the WageIndicator survey are disproportionally drawn. In consequence, the composition of WageIndicator sample tends to retain key characteristics over the years, even though it lacks a probabilistic sampling frame. We show that the estimates produced on the basis of an extended Mincerian earnings model using the two data sources are qualitatively similar. In line with much of the literature, however, the two sets of estimates do not pass the formal statistical test of equality. Nonetheless, when we examine only the subsample of junior workers, the statistical testing does not detect a statistically significant difference between the two datasets in many instances. To our knowledge, ours is the first paper showing such statistical evidence for comparability of a web survey based with a widely used representative data source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our objective in this paper is to apply behavioral economic theory and evidence from market actor perception surveys to the housing industry to demonstrate a new measure of homebuilder confidence. From the literature, we identify the factors that likely influence this confidence. Then, using pilot survey data on new homebuilders, as well as renovation and replacement contractors, we generate a new metric. The results suggest that this measure is associated with measures of housing market activity in the short term. The initial data is limited. Future research should examine the durability of these relationships over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes small area estimation (SAE) of proportions under a spatial dependent generalized linear mixed model using aggregated level data. The SAE is also applied to produce reliable district level estimates and mapping of incidence of indebtedness in the State of Uttar Pradesh in India using debt and investment survey data collected by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) and the secondary data from the Census. The results show a significant improvement in precision of model-based estimates generated by SAE as compared to direct estimates. The estimates generated by incorporating spatial information are more efficient than the one generated by ignoring this information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the link between attitude formation at the national and the supranational level of the European Union (EU). While the existing studies have provided strong evidence that attitudes towards national institutions fundamentally condition attitudes towards the EU, the mechanisms through which these spillovers occur are not clearly spelled out. Our main contribution is to theorize the complex ways in which the national politicization of the European integration process affects support for the EU by focusing on critical moments in the EU integration process and the electoral fortunes of the political parties doing the cuing. To test our theoretical claims, we employ multilevel models using six rounds of the European Social Survey combined with party-level data from Chapel Hill Expert Survey, and various country-level data. The analyses show that spillover effects are crucially conditioned by the level of politicization of European integration at the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A context of increased competition between higher education institutions (HEIs) for attracting potential national and international students has led universities to implement marketing communication strategies. Those strategies which are used to some extent include, among others, interactive inbound marketing. The purpose of the present exploratory study is to identify how HEIs can develop to improve their image and awareness by using new interactive marketing communication tools mediated by the student’s decision-making process. To conduct our investigation, we used both a qualitative (seven semi-structured interviews) and a quantitative survey (n = 121) methodology. Based on data analysis, we found that among the areas investigated, interactive marketing communication tools have a great impact on postgraduate students’ decision-making process with a corresponding change of perception of the university and attitudes towards the brand. Therefore, even unknown universities with a limited budget can increase their brand awareness and brand image for prospective and current students by using such tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In large-scale surveys, it is common to use a multistage sampling design, where the first-stage units are selected with varying probability without replacement and the second-stage units are selected according to the systematic sampling procedure. It is however well known that this sampling design makes it impossible to find unbiased estimate of the variance of the estimate of the population total. In this paper, a few methods of variance estimation in multistage sampling involving systematic sampling design have been proposed to overcome the problem discussed. The proposed variance estimators are compared with the few conventional methods, for example, Random group, Jackknife, as well as the method used by the Central Statistical Office (CSO) using the live data based on Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) 2002/03, Botswana, collected by CSO. It is found that all the proposed methods and Jackknife method perform better than the method used by CSO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the implications of using survey response scales with 10 or more categories which are often analysed using factorial techniques such as principal components analysis. Although it is the type of metric that determines the choice of this method of analysis, these scales, despite being considered metric, lack some metric properties, such that a score of 10 in a satisfaction survey, for example, does not represent twice the satisfaction of a score of 5. Their ordinal nature also means they cannot be treated as purely categorical. Thus, having both metric and categorical properties, they allow the use of different factor analysis techniques. The second objective is to apply different factorial techniques to a given test item in order to detect potential differences in the analytical information obtained by each method. Finally, we will discuss their relative advantages and disadvantages for use with this type of survey question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there has been much discussion in the literature about the impacts of farmland loss (due to urbanization) on household livelihoods, no econometric evidence of these effects has been provided thus far. This paper, hence, is the first to quantify the effects of farmland loss on household livelihood outcomes in peri-urban areas of Hanoi, Vietnam. Our study found no econometric evidence for negative effects of farmland loss on either income or expenditure per adult equivalent. In addition, the results show that farmland loss has an indirect positive impact on household welfare, via its positive impact on the choice of nonfarm-based livelihoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the health consequences of financial strain are well documented, less is understood about the health-protective role of social capital. Social capital refers to a sense of community embeddedness, which is in part reflected by group membership, civic participation, and perceptions of trust, cohesion, and engagement. We investigated whether perceptions of social capital moderate the relation between financial strain and health, both mental and physical. This longitudinal study surveyed adults in two communities in rural Ontario where significant job losses recently occurred. Data were collected on financial strain, social capital, perceived stress, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and physical health on three occasions over 18 months (N's = 355, 317, and 300). As expected, financial strain positively related to perceived stress, poor physical health and symptoms of anxiety and depression, whereas social capital related to less stress, better physical health, and fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression. Effects of financial strain on perceived stress and depressive symptoms were moderated by social capital such that financial strain related more closely to perceived stress and depressive symptoms when social capital was lower. The findings underscore the health-protective role of community associations among adults during difficult economic times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to investigate the energy consumption of the residential sector in Cyprus and identify policy areas for intervention in view of the overall European Union legislation framework and the related Energy Performance Building Directive. Initially, we provide an overview of the energy system of Cyprus and the existing energy policies and measures. Subsequently, a questionnaire-based energy survey is developed and applied in order to obtain data regarding residential energy consumption. Data collection and analysis is organized around an Index System, tailor-made for the case of Cyprus, which allowed us to improve the understanding of household energy use in order to propose policies and measures for energy efficiency and energy savings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of some public policies for innovation is recent in Brazil, for example, the automatic tax incentives and the direct subvention program to enterprises went into effect in 2006. This study obtained quantitative information on the implementation of tax incentives and economic subvention and qualitative information on the use of these tools based on surveys conducted at enterprises from São Paulo State. The data demonstrated that the lack of monitoring after approval and release of funds is a disheartening factor for the use of resources, while bureaucracy for project requirements, technical language, managerial inexperience, and contrast required are the main factors hindering access to the public policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides an update of the survey focusing on estimating the contribution of transport infrastructure to productivity and economic growth. The central questions addressed are possible reasons behind the conflicting results reported in the literature on the elasticity of economic output with respect to transport infrastructure investment. After providing a systematic review of recent empirical studies on the effects of transport infrastructure on productivity and economic growth, the paper notes that controversial results can be attributed to ten causes (grouped into three categories for distinguishing): (1) related to different contexts: research period, geographical scales, and country's capability in enabling economic development; (2) related to different phenomena that are being measured: different economic sectors, different types of transport infrastructure, and different quality levels of transport infrastructure; and (3) related to distinct ways of measuring a similar phenomenon: measures used to describe the dependent variable and explanatory variable, functional specification, and estimation method of the econometric model. Strong network externalities of transport infrastructure may result in nonlinearity of the relationship between transport infrastructure and economic growth. Moreover, the absence of spatial concerns in infrastructure's impacts is another important source of inconclusive results. Finally, building on recent literature, the paper has discussed policy implications and identified several research avenues for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses whether and how intra-household remittance volumes vary with the length of a migrant's absence, and whether the drivers and dynamics of remittance decay depend on the migrant's destination. We address these questions by using data from the 64th round of the Indian National Sample Survey, conducted between July 2007 and June 2008. We find that the average intra-household remittance function follows a curvilinear trajectory that is best approximated by a quartic (M-shaped) specification. The volatility of intra-household remittances is distinct across migration destinations, with international remittance flows being more volatile than internal intra-state or inter-state flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Car use per person has historically grown year-on-year in Great Britain since the 1950s, with minor exceptions during fuel crises and times of economic recession. The ‘Peak Car’ hypothesis proposes that this historical trend no longer applies. The British National Travel Survey provides evidence of such an aggregate levelling off in car mileage per person since the mid-1990s, but further analysis shows that this is the result of counter trends netting out: in particular, a reduction in per capita male driving mileage being offset by a corresponding increase in female car driving mileage. A major contributory factor to the decline in male car use has been a sharp reduction in average company car mileage per person. This paper investigates this aspect in more detail. Use of company cars fell sharply in Britain from the 1990s up to the 2008 recession. Over the same period, taxation policy towards company cars became more onerous, with increasing levels of taxation on the benefit-in-kind value of the ownership of a company car and on the provision of free fuel for private use. The paper sets out the changes in taxation policy affecting company cars in the UK, and looks at the associated reductions in company car ownership (including free fuel) and patterns of use. It goes on to look in more detail at which groups of the population have kept company cars and in which parts of the country they have been most used, and how these patterns have changed over time. A preliminary investigation is also made of possible substitution effects between company car and personal car driving and between company car use and rail travel. Clearly, the role of the company car is only one of many factors that are contributing to aggregate changes in levels of car use in Great Britain, alongside demographic changes and a wide range of policy initiatives. But, company car use cannot fall below zero, so the effect of declining year-on-year company car mileage suppressing overall car traffic levels cannot continue indefinitely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The government of Ireland, like many European countries, is currently under severe pressure from external forces to grow the economy. One possible way to maintain and grow its economy is through the production of a highly educated and globally competitive workforce. In an effort to develop such a workforce, the government, through the Department of Education, is considering ways to increase accountability in its schools. This paper examines value-added accountability systems used in the USA and raises critical questions about their perceived value for Irish schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to bring together different specifications for copula models with time-varying dependence structure. Copula models are widely used in financial econometrics and risk management. They are considered to be a competitive alternative to the Gaussian dependence structure. The dynamic structure of the dependence between the data can be modeled by allowing either the copula function or the dependence parameter to be time-varying. First, we give a brief description of eight different models, among which there are fully parametric, semiparametric, and adaptive methods. The purpose of this study is to compare the applicability of each particular model in different cases. We conduct a simulation study to show the performance for model selection, to compare the model fit for different setups and to study the ability of the models to estimate the (latent) time-varying dependence parameter. Finally, we provide an illustration by applying the competing models on the same financial dataset and compare their performance by means of Value-at-Risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the British economists survey on the forthcoming accession of Russia to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its implications for the country's economy. The survey describes the commitments of Russia undertaken in non-tariff and tariffs barriers, and openness to inward investment. It mentions that the accession indirect benefits will depend on the scale and state of domestic reform policies launched in support of WTO compliance.

The objective of the present article is to explore responses to survey questions concerning subjects' perceptions as to what people in various occupations do and should earn. The data come from an ongoing Polish panel study (POLPAN) and cover the period 1988-2003. The analysis is concerned with trends, if any, in consensus in the responses and the evaluation of fairness of the earnings. As for the former, individual assessments of the earnings turn out to be fairly consistent with one another. Interestingly, there is much more consensus on assessments of occupational earnings than on assessments of occupational prestige, as reported by other studies. Moreover, this consistency in regard to evaluation of earnings was increasing in the period under analysis. As regards fairness, low-status occupations tend to be perceived as increasingly underrewarded, and high-status occupations as increasingly overrewarded. Recommendations as to future research on this topic are given in the closing section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the incidence and correlates of employment instability in Poland, using individual-level retrospective career data from the 1998, 2003, and 2008 POLPAN surveys. It uses a new instability indicator, which takes into account the length of workers' consecutive employment spells: A respondent is considered to be in unstable employment if he or she had not held a single regular job lasting three years or longer within a ten-year period. The findings suggest that employment relations in Poland are generally stable, consistent with the results of earlier studies of worker mobility. A comparison of instability rates between two ten-year periods (1993-2003 and 1998-2008) did not confirm the expected growth in the incidence of employment instability. Unstable work histories were found to be more frequent among individuals with the weakest position on the labor market: the least educated, in low-level occupations, and in secondary-sector industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims. To assess safety and efficacy of valsartan/amlodipine combination in hypertensive Taiwanese patients. Methods. This 12-week, multi-center, prospective, observational, post-marketing study enrolled 1029 patients to receive valsartan/amlodipine combination alone or as add-on to other antihypertensives. Efficacy was evaluated by blood pressure (BP) control rate (in mmHg; non-diabetics, < 140/90; diabetics, < 130/80) at Week 12 and BP-lowering ability at Weeks 4 and 12. Additionally, responder rate (sitting-SBP < 140 for baseline SBP ≥ 140 or sitting-DBP < 90 for baseline DBP ≥ 90, or SBP reduction > 20 or DBP reduction > 10 from baseline) was determined. Major findings. Adverse events (AEs) were reported in 12.15% patients; dizziness, cough, and peripheral edema were the most commonly reported AEs. Overall BP control rate was 48.27%. Greater BP reduction was noted at Week 12 than at Week 4 between all groups and subgroups. Greater SBP/DBP reduction was observed in patients with stage 2 hypertension than stage 1 hypertension at baseline. The overall responder rate was 78.52%. Subgroup analysis showed greater BP reduction in non-diabetics than diabetics; only SBP reduction reached statistical significance (− 13.7 [18.3] vs. − 10.7 [17.4] mmHg; p < 0.0093). Principal conclusion. Valsartan/amlodipine combination was well tolerated, with no safety concerns identified and an effective treatment option for hypertensive Taiwanese patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many finance and economics courses as well as in practice, the concept of risk aversion is reduced to the standard deviation of returns, whereby risk-averse investors prefer to minimize their portfolios' standard deviations. In reality, the concept of risk aversion is richer and more interesting than this, and can easily be conveyed through theoretical or applied examples. The authors offer an example of a 2-asset choice problem in which risk-averse investors ought to prefer the asset with not only a higher standard deviation but also a lower expected return. A corresponding survey of 131 respondents confirmed this preference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the results of an economic survey in 2007 which was conducted in ten countries in Eastern and Central Europe. The direct survey, Special Eurobarometer No. 284, found that one-in-five workers are part of the hidden or second economy and receive their wages in under-the-table payments. The countries are Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Romania. The research methodology, the distinction between undeclared jobs and under-declared jobs, and the statistics for the nine industrial sectors, workers' gender, occupation, and age are mentioned.

In the United States, a recent spate of popular media attention has focused on whether mothers, especially highly educated mothers in their thirties, are increasingly "opting out" of employment. This paper uses data from the Current Population Survey's Annual Social and Economic Survey (ASEC) to examine whether children cause women to exit employment. This paper finds that the "child effect" on women's employment has fallen since the end of the 1970s. The child effect was -21.8 percentage points in 1979 and has fallen consistently over the last two decades to -12.7 percentage points in 2005. Between 2000 and 2005, the child effect grew from -11.1 to -12.7, but the change was statistically insignificant. Recent declines in women's employment may be more an effect of the weak labor market for all women, mothers and non-mothers, rather than an increase in mothers voluntarily choosing to exit employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data on Russia's competitiveness collected by our research team as part of the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report (GCR), literature on competitiveness, in particular Michael Porter's theories on economic development and competitiveness, and benchmarking data from the global competitiveness project for other countries, this paper analyzes Russia's comparative strengths in its macro and microeconomic competitiveness. We investigate Russia's movement in ranks over a three-year period, discussing Russia's strengths in its macroeconomic climate and the weaknesses of its institutions. We illustrate the effects of these on three-key growth industries in Russia: oil, IT outsourcing, and the food sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We surveyed National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded research in Mississippi to determine the economic extent of research damage and delays due to Hurricane Katrina. While several facilities were physically damaged, we found that the largest effects were time delays and missed opportunities. While psychological factors were not part of the original economic impact study, it became clear that they played an important role. Specifically, the Principal Investigator's (PI's) attitude of "just another delay" was one cultural barrier to fully accounting for the cost of these research delays. We concluded that Principal Investigators, with the assistance of funding agencies, should be better trained to measure time and opportunity costs associated with their research, so future disaster recovery efforts can more fully address those needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender is both an archetypal and adaptive dimension of the urban condition and, thus, remains a key moving target for planning practitioners and scholars alike. This is especially true of women's growing, if not revolutionary, involvement in the economy. A familiar exception is the trip linking work and home, which has been consistently and persistently shorter for women than men. That said, new reports suggest that the gender gap in commuting time and distance may have quietly vanished in some areas. To explore this possibility, I use panel data from the American Housing Survey to better measure and explain commute trends for the entire United States from 1985 through 2005. They overwhelmingly indicate that differences stubbornly endure, with men's and women's commuting distances converging only slowly and commuting times diverging. My results also show that commuting times are converging for all races, especially for women, and women's trips to work by transit are dwindling rapidly. Thus sex continues to play an important role explaining travel, housing, and labor market dynamics, with major implications for planning practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impacts of OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) environmental and economic country reviews are compared in light of their capacity to enhance environmental policy integration (EPI). Employing a policy-making network perspective, genuine EPI is presumed to require complex learning -'paradigmatic change'. Impacts of reviews on four functions of EPI - agenda-setting, horizontal communication, capacity-building, and policy-learning - are analysed. Environmental Performance Reviews have greater potential to enhance EPI than the experiment in which a sustainable development section was included in a full cycle of Economic Surveys during 2001-04. Lack of political commitment and the strength of prevailing OECD discourse - dominated by mainstream economics - explain much of the failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology managers are faced with identifying emerging technologies with the greatest economic potential. Text mining of technical information sources has great potential for structuring and analyzing the vast amounts of information that is available today. There are tools available capable of analyzing patents and publication databases for trends, identifying emerging activity, and monitoring competitors. However, a disconnect between managers' information needs and the analysts' information provides a significant challenge. Additionally, technology managers are not accustomed to processing derived knowledge obtained through text mining. Thus, analysts must present information to managers so that they can easily and accurately interpret it. This paper investigates an approach that presents derived information in the context of stated information needs by technology managers. Those information needs are assessed via survey, applied to a sample technology record set, and evaluated according to stated criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes service quality and customer satisfaction as causal factors of relationship quality, and discusses the impact of relationship quality on customer loyalty and customer commitment in Australia. A hypothesis was formed that links the relationship quality, service quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer commitment. Findings and recommendations of the empirical investigation are also presented.

The article endeavors to derive an understanding of the profile of buyers of pirated products in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Several issues were examined including, buyers' purchasing behavior, materialistic attitudes and conformity motivation. The author also investigates the two major categories of pirated products, pirated VCDs, and pirated clothing and accessories. Based on the survey, Shanghai tended to have a higher number of buyers of pirated products than Hong Kong.

This article provides a critique of South Africa's attempt to transform apprenticeships using data from the 2004 Baseline Survey of the Learnership Programme in South Africa. The data suggests that Learnerships provide important opportunities for those in work to learn new theoretical and practical capabilities and thus deepen the skills base of the South African economy. They also provide key avenues for unemployed people to gain skills and work experience and improve their employability. Moreover, incentives have been set sufficiently high to encourage employer participation. However, this high overall level of satisfaction with the Learnerships may mask some of the underlying differences in levels of satisfaction across the different strata of the South African labour market. Without controlling for other factors, there were substantial differences in the levels of satisfaction with Learnerships across the employed versus unemployed and National Qualifications Framework (NQF) level divides. This suggests that a number of key challenges remain which the architects of the policy need to urgently address, including a more equitable spread of Learnerships across both spheres of the dual economy and strengthening the administrative and oversight capacity of SETAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African workforce is characterised by racial, gender, occupational and sectoral unevenness in the distribution of skills, employment and training opportunities. This article considers how enterprise training in South Africa contributes to ameliorating, sustaining or exacerbating such inequalities. Using data from the National Skills Survey of 2003, it explains these features with reference to a tension between the distorted apartheid training legacy and the inherent unevenness of training-related policy implementation after 1994. Unevenness will be a feature of any national workplace training environment and is not necessarily a sign of dysfunction. In South Africa, unevenness in the pattern of access to training opportunities may reflect legitimate treatment of workers who were previously disadvantaged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantifying how international trade affects poverty in developing countries is currently an area of intense research activity. This paper surveys the developments taking place, identifies four major methodological groupings, and summarizes preliminary findings from this literature. Methodologies currently used include 'bottom-up' approaches based on detailed household expenditure data, and 'top-down' approaches based on national accounts data. The survey's general conclusion is that any analysis of trade and poverty needs to be informed by both perspectives, and indeed, an increasing number of studies do so in what can be labelled 'micro-macro' synthesis. Future work should be directed towards improving the treatment of factor markets, domestic marketing costs, taxes and transfer payments, as well as devoting more attention to the reconciliation of household survey with national accounts data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the composition of customer relationship management (CRM) in e-business by examining the possible elements that determine different aspects of the relationship between customers and e-businesses. A web-based CRM survey of 38 items, constructed from SERVQUAL (service quality instrument), SITEQUAL (website service quality instrument) and literature findings, was completed by 200 customer contact professionals. Results of a factor analysis indicated three main customer relationship attributes of e-business, which are: general CRM (accounting for 51% of the total variance); personalization (accounting for 9% of the total variance); and privacy (accounting for 7% of the total variance). Results of a stepwise regression indicated that these customer relationship attributes significantly predict customer attitude (83% of the explained variance). Within the general CRM dimension, website content organization correlated highly with customer attitude (65% of the explained variance). The results of the study indicate that customers perceive three main dimensions of relationship attributes of e-business (general CRM, personalization and privacy) and that all three significantly contribute to customer attitude. These findings support the importance of including relational-type e-business attributes when investigating interactions between customers and e-business. The study concludes with related implications and design guidelines to enhancing customer perception of e-business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Survey sampling textbooks often refer to the Sen—Yates—Grundy variance estimator for use with without-replacement unequal probability designs. This estimator is rarely implemented because of the complexity of determining joint inclusion probabilities. In practice, the variance is usually estimated by simpler variance estimators such as the Hansen—Hurwitz with replacement variance estimator; which often leads to overestimation of the variance for large sampling fractions that are common in business surveys. We will consider an alternative estimator: the Hájek (1964) variance estimator that depends on the first-order inclusion probabilities only and is usually more accurate than the Hansen—Hurwitz estimator. We review this estimator and show its practical value. We propose a simple alternative expression; which is as simple as the Hansen—Hurwitz estimator. We also show how the Hájek estimator can be easily implemented with standard statistical packages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports from a broader study of development of technological capability in the Indonesian electronics industry with particular focus on local companies. The article discusses the concept of 'technological capability'. An operationalization of the concept is proposed and a model of capability development at the firm level devised. An empirical survey of the industry was carried out on these bases. The Indonesian electronics industry is conventionally depicted as being 'dual' but this study establishes that not just two but a larger number of qualitatively different industrial segments should be recognized. Capabilities and the ways capabilities are developed are analysed for companies belonging to these different segments. An important finding is that local companies in several respects come out as more technologically capable than usually assumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of eight factors that affect the prevalence and incidence of housing affordability problems: geography, demography, migration/immigration/ ethnicity, income recipients, income source, employment and education. It develops bivariate probit models that use the 1991 and 1996 Canadian census public use microdata to predict the joint probability that a household spends more than half of its income on housing and that its income is below the poverty line. The conclusions show that city and regional differences are negligible after the effects of the factors common to all the cities have been accounted for. Changing employment levels and sources of household income are the most important factors explaining the prevalence and growth of housing poverty. While single parents have the highest incidence, the growth of the problem is mostly in the young non-family households. Migration, immigration and ethnicity play a role that is independent of the other factors. Education has almost no effect. The changes are in the underlying structures and in the variable profiles that differ remarkably across the factors. There were minor adjustments in the demographic and occupational profiles that would tend to reduce the problem but these are unlikely to stem its growth in the foreseeable future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two political geographers survey Kyrgyzstan's increasingly less democratic trajectory over the 12 years since independence in 1991, despite initial promises of fair government, open media and a liberal economy accessible to all groups within the country. Although Kyrgyzstan is increasingly racked by poverty as well as regional, ethnic and religious rivalries, the paper demonstrates that the country has some of the most active and dynamic social movements in Central Asia. The authors examine the level and type of non-governmental organizations as an index of civic engagement, one of the foundations of sustainable democracy. Their survey of activists revealed a group that strongly supported democratic norms but also revealed significant distrust of many governmental institutions.