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Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are considered important intermediaries between citizens and policymakers. They are assumed to function as transmission belts that filter societal preferences and channel them to policymakers. Although the ability of CSOs to connect civil society with policymakers has been put into question, it has rarely been theoretically specified and empirically tested. This paper develops a conceptualization of CSOs that examines their capacity to function as transmission belts. It does so by distinguishing two organizational dimensions related to member involvement and organizational capacity. The paper draws on a large survey of CSOs active at the EU to empirically assess these organizational dimensions and relate them to basic CSOs’ characteristics. The findings indicate that one out of three organizations approximates the ideal-type transmission belt. The findings contribute to a better understanding and assessment of CSO’s potential contribution to policy-making in representative democracies. [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]

This paper describes the development and application of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Statistical Business Register (SBR) guidelines at Statistics Mauritius and the Central Statistics Agency of Ethiopia. A novel approach was implemented to induce the adoption of the guidelines by first operationalising it in the form of a generic SBR system designed to be readily adapted to the context and needs of African National Statistics Offices (NSO). This generic system was based on an earlier SBR system developed at Statistics Mauritius which was redesigned to increase its adaptability and conform to the guidelines. This redesigned system was then adapted to the specificities of Statistics Mauritius, during which it underwent further changes and is currently being adapted to Ethiopia and Swaziland. This approach was instrumental in the swift and successful adoption of the guidelines at Statistics Mauritius and in enticing other African NSOs into adoption and conformance. Several challenges encountered during the application of the guidelines through this approach required various enhancements to be made to the generic SBR system which could eventually be of value in informing the elaboration of the next version of the AfDB guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a continued need to monitor the environmental impacts of agricultural systems while also ensuring sufficient agricultural production. However, it can be difficult to collect relevant environmental data on a large enough number of farms and studies that do so often neglect to consider the financial drivers that ultimately determine many aspects of farm management and performance. This paper outlines a methodology for generating environmental indicators from the Farm Business Survey (FBS), an extensive annual economic survey of representative farms in England and Wales. Data were extracted from the FBS for a sample of East Anglian cereal farms and south western dairy farms and converted where necessary to use as inputs in ‘Farmscoper’; farm-level estimates of nitrate, phosphorus and sediment loadings and ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions were generated using the Farmscoper model. Nitrate losses to water, ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions were positively correlated with food energy production per unit area for both farm types; phosphorus loading was also correlated with food energy on the dairy farms. Environmental efficiency indicators, as measured by either total food energy or financial output per unit of negative environmental effect, were calculated; greenhouse gas emission efficiency (using either measure of agricultural output) and nitrate loading efficiency (using financial output) were positively correlated with profitability on cereal farms. No other environmental efficiency measures were significantly associated with farm profitability and none were significant on the dairy farms. These findings suggest that an improvement in economic performance can also improve environmental efficiency, but that this depends on the farm type and negative environmental externality in question. In a wider context, the augmentation of FBS-type data to generate additional environmental indicators can provide useful insights into ongoing research and policy issues around sustainable agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research on the use of M-estimation methodology for detecting and treating verified influential values in economic surveys found that initial parameter settings affect effectiveness. In this article, we explore the basic question of how to develop initial settings for the M-estimation parameters. The economic populations that we studied are highly skewed and are consequently highly stratified. While we investigated settings for several parameters, the most challenging problem was to develop an "automatic" data-driven method for setting the initial value of the tuning constant φ, the parameter with the greatest influence on performance of the algorithm. Of all the methods that we considered, we found that methods defined in terms of the accuracy of published estimates can be implemented on a large scale and yielded the best performance. We illustrate the methodology with an empirical analysis of 36 consecutive months of data from 19 industries in the Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. Census Bureau is investigating nonrespondent subsampling strategies for use in the 2017 Economic Census. In previous research, we developed an optimized allocation procedure for subsampling nonrespondents that selects larger systematic samples in domains with lower initial response. This article expands on our previous research by exploring improvements to the optimal allocation method; we investigate refinements to the previous procedure that incorporate measures of respondent balance with respect to the original sample. The revised allocation procedures have simultaneous objectives of allocating high proportions of sample in domains that indicate potential nonresponse bias and of equalizing response rates across domains. We examine the effects of the alternative allocation approaches on Horvitz-Thompson estimates via a simulation study using data from the 2014 Annual Survey of Manufactures. [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]

The article discusses the results of the American Veterinary Medical Association's (AVMA) economic survey conducted by the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP). Topics include the reasons for the decrease in the number of young veterinarians in the equine practice, effect of the student loans in U.S., and strategies to increase employment of veterinarians.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine the effect of employment security on moonlighting in Ghana as a means to inform policy on enforcing issues of employment security.Design/methodology/approach The paper followed the work of Shishko and Rostker (1976) by applying their approach to the sixth round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey data. The paper created an employment index from four variables and used the ordered logit as the main estimation technique.Findings The findings indicated that, as a person with a single job becomes more secured in employment, the likelihood of moonlighting is decreased by 0.03, while for those with two and three or more jobs, the likelihood of moonlighting increased by 0.0297 and 0.0008, respectively, with increasing employment security. This implies that, workers can be made to stick to single jobs by providing them with higher levels of employment security, but once they take on two or more jobs, providing them with employment security will engender the tendency to increase their moonlighting behavior the more.Originality/value With the current harsh economic conditions in the country and the urgent need for multiple jobs (moonlighting) as a risk coping mechanism, little has been done on the role employment security plays as a catalyst or otherwise. This paper fills the gap by employing a comprehensive index on employment security in the case of Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Using the 2010 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) survey data, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the contributing factors of entrepreneurial propensity among males and females in Ghana.Design/methodology/approach Using a measure of entrepreneurial propensity that takes into account individuals who are involved in starting a new business (nascent entrepreneurs) as a dependent variable and socio-demographic characteristics, and perceptual variables as explanatory variables, the study adopts robust empirical estimation techniques to examine how these variables influence the probability of starting a new business among men and women in Ghana.Findings The probability of being a male nascent entrepreneur is significantly dependent upon a wide range of factors including demographic, economic, perceptual and contextual elements, albeit with important variations across gender. An individuals’ subjective assessment of fear of failure in starting a business and of having the requisite entrepreneurial capabilities; the age of the individual; gender of the individual; work status and contextual factors matters for entrepreneurial propensity in Ghana. However, important differences exist in the drivers of entrepreneurial propensity for males and females with females’ entrepreneurship attributed largely to conditions of necessity relative to their male counterparts.Originality/value The main value of this paper is to use the GEM survey (which is nationally representative) for Ghana to analyze the contributing factors of the entrepreneurial propensity among men and women in Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Member participation in decision-making is a critical part of resource co-management. However, little is known about the welfare consequences of participation. This paper analyzes the impact of cooperative member participation in decision-making on their incomes, using data from 364 members of China's land cooperative program. We distinguish two levels of participation in decision-making – voting and obtaining financial information – and use a bivariate probit model and propensity score matching to estimate their impact. The results indicate that household head's age, gender and education and family size, wealth, and political affiliation determine participation in decision-making. Participation in either voting or obtaining financial information has a positive impact on cooperative members' land income. There is also a strong joint effect of voting and obtaining information, with an increase in land income of > 16%. We conclude that broad participation can ensure more equitable access to land income for members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The available evidence from numerous studies suggests that overconfidence varies significantly across countries. We develop a model that endogenizes these differences and examines their economic consequences. A crucial determinant of differences in overconfidence is the degree of expected stability of the environment, with greater changefulness giving rise to more overconfident beliefs. When stability is endogenized, multiple equilibria can emerge, “dynamism” and overconfidence reinforcing each other in one case, stability and realistic self-assessment in another. Evidence from 38 countries is consistent with this relationship. Our model also sheds light on differences in overconfidence across individuals. We conduct a large-scale survey in China and find evidence consistent with the model's cross-sectional implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate and adjust for nonresponse bias in household surveys, many social science studies conduct follow-up surveys with nonrespondents. By recruiting additional respondents, the goal of nonresponse follow-up (NRFU) surveys is to reduce nonresponse bias and make the respondent pool more representative of the characteristics of the sample as a whole. Often a change of data collection mode or a shorter questionnaire is implemented to increase response rates. However, whether these design features actually reduce nonresponse bias is usually unknown. What is also unknown is the effect of NRFU studies on measurement error, particularly when interviewer and self-administered modes are used to administer sensitive questions susceptible to misreporting. Few studies have explicitly examined the joint impact of nonresponse and measurement error bias in NRFU surveys due to the lack of auxiliary validation data about the respondents and nonrespondents. We overcome this deficiency in an economic survey initially administered by telephone with mail nonresponse follow-up and administrative validation records available for the entire sample. This situation permits the estimation of both nonresponse and measurement error bias before and after the NRFU. We find that the NRFU survey succeeds in bringing in respondents who differ from the telephone respondents, but that these additional respondents are not always representative of the final nonrespondents. This results in reduced nonresponse bias for some items, but increased nonresponse bias for others. We also find that combining the mail NRFU respondents with the telephone respondents reduces measurement error bias for economic estimates. Lastly, we report a paradoxical finding in which adding NRFU respondents to the respondent pool produces greater total bias in some survey estimates despite reducing both nonresponse and measurement error bias separately. We conclude with a discussion of the practical implications of these findings and speculate on their possible causes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European railways have been shaped by multiple reforms since the mid-1990s, covering industry structure, market opening and economic regulation. However, the literature has given little attention to the latter; namely the evolution and impacts of regulatory reforms amongst Europe's railways. This paper fills this gap by providing an up-to-date, bottom-up assessment of current rail regulatory practice in Europe. We develop a survey of economic regulators across Europe, thus complementing top-down studies of the impact of economic regulation by enabling a richer insight into regulatory activity and its impacts. The questionnaire is based on a review of the literature on ideal regulatory characteristics across multiple industries. Our results show that European rail regulators, in general, exhibit many of the features of ideal regulation; in particular around key features such as independence, resourcing, longevity and expertise, transparency and in turn stability and predictability. However, we find that rail regulatory bodies could take a more proactive role in shaping track access charges, given their importance in respect of efficient use of the network and maintaining non-discriminatory access. Importantly, there is also scope for regulators to play a greater role in regulating the efficiency and quality of infrastructure managers, and potentially becoming more involved in the designing stages of passenger market opening as it emerges; and these changes could deliver substantial beneficial impacts for rail users and funders across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with volunteer statisticians Monica Dashen and Rachel Green at the Statistics without Borders is presented. Topics mentioned include their volunteer service at the organization's Haitian Aid/Hurricane Matthew Aftermath Survey Project during the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew in Haiti in October 2016, the circumstances and background of Hurricane Matthew, and its damage. They also discuss the development and methodology of the study, initial results, and their recommendations.

Personal data lie at the forefront of different business models and constitute the main source of revenue of several online companies. In many cases, consumers may have incomplete information or may be inattentive about the digital transactions of their data. This paper investigates whether highlighting positive or negative aspects of online privacy policies, thereby mitigating the informational problem, can affect consumers’ privacy actions and attitudes. Results of an online survey experiment indicate that participants adopt a more conservative stance on disclosing sensitive and identifiable information, even when positive attitudes of companies towards their privacy are made salient, compared to when privacy is not mentioned. On the other hand, they do not change their attitudes and social actions towards privacy. These findings suggest that privacy behavior is not necessarily sensitive to exposure to objective threats or benefits of disclosing personal information. Rather, people are inattentive and their dormant privacy concerns may manifest only when consumers are asked to think about privacy. [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]

In this review, the effect of organic solvents on microalgae cultures from molecular to industrial scale is presented. Traditional organic solvents and solvents of new generation-ionic liquids (ILs), are considered. Alterations in microalgal cell metabolism and synthesis of target products (pigments, proteins, lipids), as a result of exposure to organic solvents, are summarized. Applications of organic solvents as a carbon source for microalgal growth and production of target molecules are discussed. Possible implementation of various industrial effluents containing organic solvents into microalgal cultivation media, is evaluated. The effect of organic solvents on extraction of target compounds from microalgae is also considered. Techniques for lipid and carotenoid extraction from viable microalgal biomass (milking methods) and dead microalgal biomass (classical methods) are depicted. Moreover, the economic survey of lipid and carotenoid extraction from microalgae biomass, by means of different techniques and solvents, is conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section offers news briefs of interest to members of the Missouri Bar as of January 1, 2022. The bar association has released the 2021 version of its "Economic Survey." Members can sign up for a no-cost standard membership with Affinity Insight. A calendar of events of interest to lawyers is presented which include a webinar on preparing demonstrative evidence.

Policy advice by the OECD has long been at the heart of academic debates on welfare state reform, with frequent claims questioning the ideological orientation of recommendations. This paper constructs an indicator of perceived reform need for 24 countries, quantifying the policy advice contained in the OECD Economic Surveys around 1985, 1995, and 2005. These recommendations describe a policy consensus that is based on competition, work incentives, monetary reform, fiscal discipline, and labor market reform. Empirically, perceived need for reform is well explained by preceding levels of economic freedom. In particular, countries with more government intervention, lower property rights protection, and more regulation are perceived to have a bigger reform need. In turn, perceived reform need has no explanatory power for subsequent changes in social expenditure and welfare state entitlements. Only in countries with right wing governments, perceived reform need might be followed by marginal reductions in welfare state entitlements, but definitely not in social expenditure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Justice Brennan's exhortation-now forty years old-for lawyers and judges to rediscover protections for individual rights in state constitutions was a timely reminder of the importance of state constitutions in our system of federalism. Justice Brennan issued this call at a time when he believed the U.S. Supreme Court was retreating from the protection of individual rights under the U.S. Constitution. It is doubtful that Justice Brennan meant to include economic liberty-the right to earn a living free from oppressive government regulation-in his "new federalism." But economic liberty is a nearly textbook example of an individual right that the U.S. Supreme Court had once vigorously protected but had retreated from by the late 1970s. The pattern of meaningful protection for economic liberty fading into nonprotection was repeated at the Arizona Supreme Court. The change in Arizona jurisprudence, however, happened at a different time than in the federal courts and has never been adequately explored or explained-either by the courts or commenters. Neither have the "early" Arizona economic liberty cases-which actually span the decades between the 1920s and 1970s-been given credit for their consistency and sophisticated understanding of the police power, individual rights, and the threat of government-created monopoly. A comprehensive survey of these early cases demonstrates a tradition under the Arizona Constitution of providing more meaningful judicial protection for economic liberty than under the U.S. Constitution. This tradition was seemingly abandoned as the Arizona Supreme Court embraced-without explanation-a "lockstep"approach to economic liberty by adopting federal jurisprudence to interpret the relevant provisions of the Arizona Constitution. But this lockstep approach cannot be squared with the original cases, ignores unique aspects of the Arizona Constitution, and leads to incorrect results. As other states have begun to explore the greater protections for economic liberty in their constitutions, Arizona courts need to rediscover the same in our Constitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: Nutrition transition is rapid in developing countries, but Nepalese transition is relatively unknown. This study aimed to describe nutrition transition in Nepal over the past 40 years by identifying the shifts in the Nepalese diets and nutritional status and the underlying shifts associated with this.Methods and Study Design: Popkin's framework was used to identify shifts in Nepalese diet and the inter-relationship of diet with epidemiological, demographic and economic shifts. The current study used quantitative methodology including secondary data analysis based on food balance sheets, economic surveys and the government databases.Results: The Nepalese diet is shifting away from agricultural staple based foods to modern processed foods with higher total energy, total fat, and sugar. The prevalence of overweight/obesity and diet related non-communicable diseases are increasing. Urbanisation is rapid and nutrition transition already advanced in urban area. The Nepalese economic structure has also changed shifting away from agricultural food supply system towards modern processing based food supply system. These changes in the Nepalese diet are triggered by income and urbanisation. The trade liberalisation has made processed foods, edible oil and sugar easily available at supermarkets and fast food outlets.Conclusion: It is clear that Nepal has now entered into the fourth stage of nutrition transition according to Popkin's framework. As a result, overweight, obesity and the prevalence of many noncommunicable diseases are all rapidly growing. A further study is recommended to identify whether urban versus rural, rich versus poor and educated versus uneducated families are experiencing the transition in similar way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The informal economy is an important part of urban economies in the global South. Almost half of Colombia's working population relies on the informal economy to obtain income. This study examined street vendors in downtown Cali, Colombia. A recent survey of 527 street vendors provides the basis for a detailed analysis of who works as street vendors, how much they earn, aspirations and perceptions of their work, and how closely they resemble the rest of the working population. The presented data also show the links between this sector and the formal economy. Connections between people working in this sector and the State were also examined, and welfare payment flows from the State to the sector were revealed. This study shows how the informal sector is closely tied to the formal economy and the State's welfare functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use a novel design to identify how dishonesty changes through a broad reward range that, at the high end, exceeds participants’ average daily wages. Using a sample of online Indian workers who earn bonuses based on six simultaneous coin flips, we show that the relationship between dishonesty and financial rewards depends on the incentive range. We find two novel effects as incentives exceed those used in most prior research. First, dishonesty increases and reaches its maximum as rewards increase from $0.50 to $3 per reported head and as earnings reach $15, indicating that rewards can indeed motivate more cheating when large enough. More importantly, we show that dishonesty declines at the highest reward levels (up to $5 per head) as individuals appear to engage in lower magnitudes of dishonesty. We detail how our results could be explained by a reference-dependent utility with internal costs of dishonesty that are convex in the magnitude of the lie, and show survey and simulation-based evidence that support this explanation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South African industry faces immense global competition from developed countries such as Germany probably because of the adoption of lean manufacturing techniques by the latter. This study is a survey on publications concerning implementation and adoption of lean manufacturing in South Africa. To assess South Africa with regards to research publications on lean manufacturing, a benchmark exercise was conducted with Germany for the period 2014 to 2015. The study concludes by highlighting the gaps identified during this survey and recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Longitudinal Annual Survey of Manufacturers for Canada, this paper aims to better understand the productivity dynamics of entrants and exits as well as the factors associated with their productivity performance. It shows that entrants and exits are lower in labour productivity relative to continuing plants partly because they are smaller in size, less capital intensive, and less associated with exporting, being foreign-controlled and belonging to multi-plant firm structure. It also finds that after controlling for those factors, surviving entrants are less productive when they enter and that they improve their productivity over time to become as productive as continuing plants by around year five after entry. Exits, on the other hand, are found to be less productive than continuing plants after controlling for those factors, and the gap becomes larger as they get closer to exit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand consumers' investment decisions, national surveys such as the Health and Retirement Study elicit consumers' expectations about stock market movements. Analyses of stock market expectations show substantial heterogeneity between consumers. It is commonly speculated that this heterogeneity reflects variations in the beliefs underlying consumers' stock market expectations, that is, their 'mental models.' In an online survey of American adults, we find that consumers think about different economic and political issues when generating stock market expectations for the next year. Regardless of the specific issues on which consumers focused, however, their assessments of the issues seemed to reflect a single underlying perception of changes in economic conditions. Regression analyses show that variation in stock market expectations is related to consumers' overall assessments of economic developments. We discuss the implications of these results for economic surveys and investment communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Income inequality has been contentious for millennia, a source of political conflict for centuries, and is now widely feared as a pernicious “side effect” of economic progress. But equality is only a means to an end and so must be evaluated by its consequences. The fundamental question is: What effect does a country's level of income inequality have on its citizens' quality of life, their subjective well-being? We show that in developing nations inequality is certainly not harmful but probably beneficial, increasing well-being by about 8 points out of 100. This may well be Kuznets's inverted “U”: In the earliest stages of development some are able to move out of the (poorly paying) subsistence economy into the (better paying) modern economy; their higher pay increases their well-being while simultaneously increasing inequality. In advanced nations, income inequality on average neither helps nor harms. Estimates are from random-intercept fixed-effects multi-level models, confirmed by over four dozen sensitivity tests. Data are from the pooled World Values/European Values Surveys, Waves 1 to 5 with 169 representative national samples in 68 nations, 1981 to 2009, and over 200,000 respondents, replicated and extended in the European Quality of Life Surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we shall survey some aspects of our recent (or related) constructions of derived equivalences for algebras and rings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper is designed to estimate the income inequality of rural region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Province, Pakistan. This study utilized cross sectional data of House Hold Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) collected by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics to obtain the income and expenditure level of sampled House Hold. The HIES data set of year 2011-12 for KP Province was comprised of the total of 1352 sampled House Hold. However, the sampled rural House Hold was 926. The statistical framework comprised of Lorenz curve and Gini Coefficient to gauge the income inequality in the study area. To assess the income inequality both income and expenditure approaches are employed to construct the Lorenz Curve and Gini Coefficient values. The major finding of this study divulge that the Gini Coefficient value through income approach of rural region of KP province is 0.35 which illustrates that there is 35% of income inequality in rural region of KP. While, the Gini Coefficient value through expenditure approach was observed as 0.30. These results confirm the expected statistical discrepancies between income and expenditure approach. The results were further elaborated through deciles under both income and expenditure approaches. The lower poorest category estimated through deciles contributes 2.78% to the overall rural region's income. However, the upper richest category shares 30.06% to the aforementioned income. The deciles measured through expenditure approach revealed that the lower poorest category and upper richest category contributes 3.13 and 25.59, respectively. The study concludes that the contribution of poorest category is pretty less in overall income and expenditure of KP Province. This study recommends that the Government of KP province may provide more employment opportunities to the poorest category of KP so that their contribution to overall income and expenditure can be escalated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflation expectations, both their median and dispersion, are of great importance to the effectiveness of monetary policy. The goal of this paper is to examine the impact of the global financial crisis on dispersion of inflation expectations in the European Union. Using European Commission's survey data, we find that in the early phase of the crisis the dispersion dropped rapidly but then, after Lehman Brothers' collapse, the trend reversed and these fluctuations cannot be explained by movements of inflation rates and other commonly used factors. We also observe that, in the new European Union member states, the initial drop of the dispersion was weaker whereas the subsequent rise was stronger as compared to the old member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the Tunisia Labor Market Panel Survey (TLMPS) of 2014, the first round of a publicly available nationally representative longitudinal household survey. We provide a description of the sample and questionnaires. We discuss a number of data collection issues, such as non-response, as well as what was done to address these issues. The construction of sample weights is detailed. A comparison of the TLMPS to other Tunisian datasets is conducted to illustrate the representativeness of the data in terms of key demographic and labor market measures. Key features of the Tunisian labor market and potential avenues for research using the TLMPS are discussed. JEL Classification: J00, C81, C83 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Franchise literature disputes how the relationship between franchisors and franchisees develops over time. Traditional lifecycle theory views relationships following an ascendant curve, in which relationship quality and performance strengthen over time. Another perspective better reflects the peculiarities of the franchisor-franchisee relationship, indicating that relationship quality in franchise systems follows a U-shaped curve. There is also limited research on the moderating effect of time on the relationship between relational variables and outcomes. This study sheds light on the influence of relationship duration on relationship quality and financial performance in the franchisee-franchisor relationship. Using a self-report survey from a sample of 342 franchisees, mean and regression analyses are conducted to test relationships. Results confirm the time effect on franchisor-franchisee relationship quality and performance, but the hypothesized shape of relationship phases is only partially confirmed. Moreover, time has a positive moderating effect on the impact of relationship quality on financial performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We estimate the relative importance of ethnicity and individual characteristics, such as personality and cognitive skills, in determining social connections by using survey data on seven-year-old children from multi-ethnic schools (N = 453). We find that friendships are based mainly on common play, and are independent of the need to find help for school activity and homework. Friendship networks among children arise on the basis of their sex, but also according to affinity of personality and cognitive skills, as much as on ethnic background. These findings are worth considering when multiculturalism is chosen as the foundation of the immigration policies. Rather than emphasizing what makes the individuals in an ethnic group different, a farsighted policy could try to point to the elective affinity among individuals. However, since differences in individual characteristics may be systematically associated with ethnic background, this finding may point to a lasting reason for a lack of cohesion in multiethnic societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We find that people with higher confidence in their own financial literacy are less likely to seek financial advice, but no relation between objective measures of literacy and advice seeking. The negative association between confidence and advice seeking is more pronounced among wealthy households. We base these findings on the analysis of two rich data sources from the Netherlands: the DNB Household survey and a sample of investors from a large Dutch retail bank. Our results imply that policy makers should be careful to put financial advice forward as a mechanism to curb the ill effects of low financial literacy and that steering people towards more accurate self-assessments seems a more promising route. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The Italian Workers’ Compensation Authority (INAIL) carried out a national survey to investigate the employer’s perception and awareness about Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) implementation. The aim of this study is to point out if there is any difference in employer’s perceptions on OHS management with respect to different firms sizes. Methods: The study has been conducted on a sample of 1010 employers. All measures were self-reported through a computer-assisted-telephone-interview (CATI). Results: Employers of microenterprises resulted less persuaded of the usefulness of occupational risk assessment and management activities. Employers of microenterprises more often perceived OHS as a law duty than an added value if compared with large ones (OR = 7.09, CI 95%: 1.80–27.95). About 56% of employers in our sample found the levels of OHS increased after the enforcement of Legislative Decree n. 81/2008, even if micro and small businesses more frequently than others reported it to be unchanged (OR = 2.07, CI95%: 1.19–3.58). Conclusions: These findings may drive policy implementation at national level in order to improve OSH in SMEs, taking into account their structural, economic and productive characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a huge variation in the size of labor supply elasticities in the literature, which hampers policy analysis. While recent studies show that preference heterogeneity across countries explains little of this variation, we focus on two other important features: observation period and estimation method. We start with a thorough survey of existing evidence for both Western Europe and the USA, over a long period and from different empirical approaches. Then, our meta-analysis attempts to disentangle the role of time changes and estimation methods. We highlight the key role of time changes, documenting the incredible fall in labor supply elasticities since the 1980s not only for the USA but also in the EU. In contrast, we find no compelling evidence that the choice of estimation method explains variation in elasticity estimates. From our analysis, we derive important guidelines for policy simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to address the increasing need for improved linkages between different value perspectives, we examine the possibility of integrating two valuation methods: the non-monetary softGIS and monetary hedonic pricing. We find them compatible and their output more comprehensive compared to traditional valuation based on one value perspective. The public participatory softGIS survey delivers information on the perception of urban green spaces, which we use as a criterion for dividing green space categories in a hedonic pricing model. We find that the perception expressed in the survey is generally consistent with the impact on property prices in the case of formal green spaces. However, it is inconsistent when it comes to informal ones: places identified as lacking well-maintained greenery exert a positive influence on property prices, while positively evaluated informal green spaces had no impact at all. We identify the latter as a typical trade-off between different value perspectives: informal green spaces are perceived differently following a monetary and a non-monetary approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We chart the moral space of Earth measurement with the aim to develop practical tools to evaluate and improve Earth measurement frameworks (including environmental-economic accounting and ecosystem services). Based on a survey of environmental ethics, we develop four concepts that are fundamentally important to fostering agreement in debates over Earth measurement frameworks among stakeholders with diverging belief systems. The four concepts can thus be used as criteria to evaluate the completeness and defensibility of existing measurement frameworks. The first two concepts, the consideration of broad human values and long time frames follow the landmark work by Bryan Norton. We further propose the adoption of the capital approach and precaution as the third and fourth concept, respectively. We conclude with suggestions for how current frameworks could be rendered more complete, defensible and internationally acceptable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents the results from a survey of landowner interest in a propositional payment modality for Costa Rica's Pagos por Servicios Ambientales (PSA) program that is based on a sliding-scale payment scheme. This payment scheme would transition from higher monetary payments per hectare per year for the first units of land invested, to lower payments per hectare per year for additional units of land invested; however, as payments per hectare decrease, monetary payments would be supplemented with non-financial rewards. This program structure is designed to 1) offer higher per-hectare financial incentives to smaller-scale landowners, who would otherwise face steep trade-off costs by transitioning to conservation-based land-use, and 2) offer greater non-financial incentives to larger-scale landowners, who face less sharp trade-off costs, and who might be more interested in prestige- and status-based non-financial incentives than the currently meager PSA payments. I found support for the proposed program modality across all classes of landowners. Interest in PSA participation by small- and medium-scale landowners showed sensitivity to proposed payments, with landowners indicating a strong desire to participate in conservation land-use as soon as the proposed financial incentives were sufficient to cover their opportunity costs. Large-scale landowners showed little sensitivity to payment size, and in general—with mode=10 and median=7 responses on a 10 point Likert-scale—indicated strong willingness to participate in the PSA program under the proposed structure, even if financial incentives per hectare were decreased significantly for large investments of land, but prestige- and status-based awards were introduced. These results are discussed in the context of an emerging literature on signaling theory, conspicuous conservation, and the interaction of financial incentives and social norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across a range of disciplines and issues, experimentalism has emerged as a prominent approach for addressing environmental problems. Yet the meaning of “experiment” varies markedly across these domains. We survey the diversity of experimentation, identifying three distinct experimental logics—controlled, Darwinian, and generative. Building on Pragmatist philosophy, we argue that each of these logics has different strengths and weaknesses, but taken together they offer a valuable experimentalist approach to environmental problem-solving. However, from a transdisciplinary perspective, it is important to recognize the different values, purposes, and stances toward knowledge that they entail. Controlled experiments primarily aim to isolate causality, while Darwinian experimentation endeavors to enhance systemic innovation and generative experimentation seeks to generate new solution concepts. Appreciating these differences allows us to be more reflexive about an experimentalist agenda, illuminating the appropriate role of these logics and suggesting possibilities for fruitfully combining them. To advance this reflexive agenda, we also distinguish between epistemic and political learning and argue that experimental approaches to environmental problem-solving may benefit from being more sensitive to this distinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In France, agricultural land abandonment constitutes a critical issue. Mountains, in particular, are reckoned to be particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon; therefore, several policy measures attempt to maintain agricultural activities in mountains. In addition to the role of targeted subsidies in reducing abandonment of mountainous areas, we contend that place attachment helps explain the permanence of economic activity in these areas. By using survey data and controlling for several variables likely to influence place attachment, we investigated the relationship between place attachment and living in high or lower altitude mountains in a sample of livestock farmers in the French Southern Alps. Applying an ordered probit model, we found high-mountain farmers to be relatively more attached to their place compared to medium-mountain ones. Our findings also suggest that social relations at the family and neighborhood levels, satisfaction at work, and the distinctiveness farmers assign to a place are important factors of attachment. However, we found no significant association between place attachment and farm profitability. Several policy implications regarding agricultural abandonment and support for mountain livelihoods are derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International volunteering has become a complex field in the context of globalization. Within the discourses of international volunteering and development programs as well as in the voices of volunteers, the field can be understood as one of unpaid transnational labor, as social activism and altruism, and as a new 'soft power' post-colonial agenda. Many studies contend in this context that international volunteers need better training for intercultural understanding amidst these disparate frameworks, to make meaning out of their service and effectively contribute to communities they serve. This study examines the motivations, experiences, and challenges of US volunteer teachers in China's Yunnan Province as reported within a survey implemented in 2012. Findings elaborate on the challenge volunteers face reconciling cross-cultural views of education while working in post-colonial global contexts, and suggest that intercultural training is necessary to prepare volunteers for related global work practices in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does studying economics have an effect on molding the values and attitudes embodying the trust-building processes of a democratic society? Mainstream economics teaching, based on the self-interest model of rational, maximizing, individualistic “representative agent”, may well cause indoctrinating effects, creating or reinforcing political free-marketeering, as well as selfishness values, attitudes, and behaviors among economics students. In this paper a contribution is made for these discussions, based on the results of a survey performed in Portugal in three years (2006, 2009, and 2012) addressed to a considerably diverse sample of respondents (economics students, other students, and common citizens). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, an increasing number of nationally representative surveys in the social sciences and economics have implemented the Big Five model of personality. While many personality inventories were originally developed in the context of self-administered questionnaires, they are often used by large surveys in face-to-face interview settings instead. Drawing on an experimental research design, we studied the effect of this switch in the method of data collection on measurement invariance as well as measurement error and interviewer effects in the Innovation Sample of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP-IS). Although in some cases we found slightly stronger associations between interviewer and respondent personality in face-to-face settings, the results generally suggested strict measurement invariance–and therefore full comparability–across methods of data collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Campus sustainability is an effort taken by universities almost throughout the world to ensure mutual prosperity in the future. Similarly, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) has initiated efforts to achieve a sustainable campus at the university level. This article aims to develop a framework for a manual on campus sustainability assessment suitable for UKM. This framework will be developed based on several well-known sustainability frameworks such as the Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework (CSAF), Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System (STARS), Green Matrix UPSI, and Sustainable UKM. These frameworks include various types of assessment elements, its sub-elements, and indicators. Meanwhile, based on the results of previous studies, the researchers have developed a more concise framework for assessing the elements of sustainability in UKM in terms of economy, design, and social. This framework includes three main elements and seven sub-elements of Economy (energy management, water management, waste management), Design (infrastructure and facilities, transportation), and Social (landscape and recreation, and safety). This framework can be used to assess whether the facilities or services provided on the UKM campus ensures sustainability. Furthermore, a survey was conducted to test the knowledge and practice of campus sustainability as a part of the formation of this assessment manual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]