bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Relation Between Incremental Subsidiary Earnings and Future Stock Returns in Japan
Authors: Hermann Don , Inoue Tatsuo , Thomas Wayne B.
Published: March 2003

Japanese firms report both parent‐only and consolidated financial statements. Because of the unique business environment in Japan, there is a widely held view that parent‐only data provides a better means for assessing the value of the entire firm. We find that both parent‐only and subsidiary earnings are important in predicting future consolidated earnings. However, while stock prices accurately reflect the persistence of parent‐only earnings, the Japanese stock market appears to underestimate the persistence of subsidiary earnings, causing a significant positive relation between changes in subsidiary earnings in year t and stock returns in year t+1. This relation between subsidiary earnings and future stock returns does not persist beyond year t7plus;1. Taking a long (short) position in firms with large, positive (negative) changes in subsidiary earnings results in an average annual abnormal return of 7.06% with positive returns in 12 of the 13 years in the test period.
Modelling the Implied Volatility of Options on Long Gilt Futures
Authors: Brooks Chris , Oozeer M. Currim
Published: March 2003

This paper investigates the properties of implied volatility series calculated from options on Treasury bond futures, traded on LIFFE. We demonstrate that the use of near‐maturity at the money options to calculate implied volatilities causes less mis‐pricing and is therefore superior to, a weighted average measure encompassing all relevant options. We demonstrate that, whilst a set of macroeconomic variables has some predictive power for implied volatilities, we are not able to earn excess returns by trading on the basis of these predictions once we allow for typical investor transactions costs.
Corporate Ownership Structure and the Informativeness of Earnings
Authors: Yeo Gillian H.H. , Tan Patricia M.S. , Ho Kim Wai , Chen Sheng–Syan
Published: March 2003

This study extends prior studies by examining how managerial ownership and external unrelated blockholdings affect the informativeness of earnings. The results are in contrast to prior studies. A non–linear relation exists between managerial ownership and earnings informativeness. Earnings informativeness increases with managerial ownership at low levels but not at higher levels of managerial ownership where the entrenchment effect sets in. Consistent with the role of large shareholder monitoring, the evidence shows a strong positive relationship between external unrelated blockholdings and earnings informativeness. These results are supported when income–increasing and absolute discretionary accruals are used to measure the extent of earnings management
A Re–examination of the Effectiveness of the Bankruptcy Process
Authors: Platt Harlan D. , Platt Marjorie B.
Published: March 2003

As an increasing number of companies go bankrupt, society grows concerned with the process’s efficacy. In contrast to previous research, we find that relatively healthy companies emerge from bankruptcy as evidenced by their operating and equity performance post bankruptcy. While we find a substantial degree of variation in the forecast accuracy of sales, EBIT and net income, we find that forecast errors are not statistically significant and are smaller than had been thought. We provide evidence to support the argument that the economy’s health affects operating and equity outcomes post bankruptcy.
Reassessing Regimes: The International Regime Aspects of the European Union
Authors: Breckinridge Robert E.
Published: March 2003

In the debate over how best to describe the European Union (EU) in institutional terms, several scholars have argued that it cannot be considered a regime. However, these authors miss an important point in their discounting of regime analysis: that regardless of what type of institution the EU is, there is a regime associated with it.

While agreeing with those who describe it as an economic confederation, the argument is made that the European Union is embedded in a regime. Several regime aspects of the EU are outlined. Finally, several arguments are put forward supporting the appropriateness of using regime analysis when studying the EU.
When (and How) Do the Commission’s Preferences Matter?
Authors: Smyrl Marc E.
Published: March 2003

Regulatory innovations found in the EC’s Integrated Mediterranean Programmes can best be explained by a model informed by the study of public policy and historical institutionalism. In such an approach, preferences of the Member States are potentially endogenous. They can be altered by reasoned arguments presented by Commission experts. Similarly, the Commission’s formal agenda‐setting power is found to depend more on the short time horizon of Chiefs of Government than on imperfect or asymmetric information. Both of these findings suggest limits to the general applicability of rational choice inspired principal‐agent models of the European Community.
Housing Issues After Disasters
Authors: Comerio Mary C.
Published: March 2003

Since 1989, earthquakes and hurricanes in the United States have caused housing losses on the same scale as those typically experienced in disasters in under‐developed countries. While casualties in the American disasters have been low, the costs of reconstruction have been staggering. This paper documents the housing losses and recovery problems in the Northridge earthquake and compares that experience to other American urban disasters (the Loma Prieta earthquake, Hurricanes Hugo and Andrew), as well as with those in Mexico City and Kobe, Japan. The paper will demonstrate that the common denominator in urban disasters is housing and that recovery issues are quite different in cities than in rural areas, precisely because the losses are concentrated in densely populated areas and the housing loss not only represents a significant financial investment, but also a unique component of the urban infrastructure.
Public Organizations in an Emergency: The 1995 Hanshin‐Awaji Earthquake and Municipal Government
Authors: Hashimoto Nobuyuki
Published: March 2003

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit one of the major metropolitan areas of Japan at 5:46 am on 17 January 1995. This paper examines the behaviour of public organizations during this event in four municipal governments. Opening and managing shelters, reception of relief goods and cooperation with volunteers are, especially, studied in detail. Some of the programmes implemented by the national government and Hyogo prefectural government are also studied. Based on these studies, characteristics of the organizations' responses during the emergency are analyzed. It is argued that the structure of organizations or the disaster response programmes are formulated or changed by using more stable structures or procedures.
Combating Corruption in Singapore: What Can Be Learned?
Authors: Quah Jon S. T.
Published: March 2003

Singapore is the least corrupt country in Asia according to the annual surveys recently conducted by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy and Transparency International. This article deals with the major causes of corruption in Singapore during the colonial period, it describes the features of Singapore’s anti‐corruption strategy, and identifies six lessons to be learned from Singapore’s experience in fighting corruption.
Project Development in Complex Environments: Assessing Safety in Design and Decision‐Making
Authors: Koppenjan Joop F. M.
Published: March 2003

How can we be sure that safety risks are adequately dealt with in the design of complex, innovative projects? In The Netherlands, a number of recent innovative project initiatives have made this a relevant question. These initiatives include projects such as the construction of tunnels using new technologies, the construction of underground facilities that combine several functions, i.e. shopping, parking and transport, and the development of a transport corridor in which rail, road and waterway have been or will be combined. These projects combine several functions and have been, or will be, realised in densely built and populated areas. Although safety regulations for products and systems have been institutionalised through legislation and professional design practices, recent project proposals link systems and their environment in new and complex ways. The risks evolving from these links are unknown and the extent to which they are covered by existing safety approaches is uncertain. In this contribution, we examine how the attention paid to safety can be increased and maintained in the design process of infrastructural projects. First, we discuss the need to reorganise the safety focus in the design process. Then we describe the role of the design process in decision‐making for major projects with regard to utility building, town planning and the construction of infrastructures. Third, we elaborate how the focus on safety can be organised within this context, given developments in the field of interactive decision‐making and the design and management of interaction processes. We then outline a safety risk management method that can be used to achieve this and, finally, address the conditions that influence the use of this method.
Biological, psychological and social processes in the conduct disorders
Authors: Hill Jonathan
Published: March 2003

Background: This paper reviews recent evidence on the causes and maintenance of aggressive and disruptive behaviours in childhood and adolescence. It considers the relative merits of several different ways of conceptualising such problems, in relation to the contribution of biological, psychological and social factors. Method: It focuses on conduct problems appearing in young childhood, which greatly increase the likelihood of persistent antisocial behaviours in adolescence and adult life in association with wider interpersonal and social role impairments. It considers the contribution of individual factors, including impaired verbal skills, deficits in executive functions, and an imbalance between behavioural activation and inhibition systems. These are viewed in interaction with commonly associated environmental disadvantages such as hostile or intrusive parenting. The roles of attributional biases, unrealistic self‐evaluations, and insecure attachment are considered in relation to affect regulation, and effective social action. The contributions of the wider social environments of peers, neighbourhood and socio‐economic conditions are evaluated. Conclusions: The paper concludes that, although considerable progress has been made over the past ten years, there is a need to further refine our conceptualisation of the behaviours to be explained, to develop a coherent theory of the causal and maintaining processes, and to carry out prospective studies with adequate numbers of high risk children.
Deviant partner involvement and offending risk in early adulthood
Authors: Woodward Lianne J. , Fergusson David M. , Horwood L. John
Published: March 2003

Background: This paper examines the effects of deviant and non‐deviant partner involvement at age 21 on patterns of continuity and change in offending between the ages of 18 and 21 years in a birth cohort of 983 young men and women. Results: Results showed that those involved with a non‐deviant partner had lower rates of offending at age 21 than those with no partner, whilst those without a partner had lower rates of offending at age 21 than those involved with a deviant partner. Associations between deviant/non‐deviant partner involvement and offending risk best fitted a main effects model in which both offending at age 18 and young people's partnership choices at age 21 made independent and additive contributions to the prediction of offending at age 21. There was no interaction between offending at age 18 and partner choice at age 21 in determining offending risk in early adulthood. In addition, the effects of deviant/non‐deviant partner involvement on patterns of offending were the same for men and women, and were found to persist even after extensive control for the confounding effects of a wide range of selection factors measured during childhood and adolescence. Conclusion: These results highlight the importance of partnership choices during early adulthood in determining young people's risk of offending as adults.
Evidence for a pure time perception deficit in children with ADHD
Authors: Smith Anna , Taylor Eric , Warner Rogers Jody , Newman Stuart , Rubia Katya
Published: March 2003

Background: Deficits have been found previously in children with ADHD on tasks of time reproduction, time production and motor timing, implicating a deficit in temporal processing abilities, which has been interpreted as either secondary or primary to core executive dysfunctions. The aim of this study was to explore further the abilities of hyperactive children in skills of time estimation, using a range of time perception tasks in different temporal domains. Method: Time estimation was tested in a verbal estimation task of 10 seconds. Time reproduction was also acquired for two time intervals of 5 and 12 seconds. A temporal discrimination task aimed to determine the idiosyncratic threshold of minimum time interval (in milliseconds) necessary to distinguish two intervals differing by approximately 300 milliseconds. Twenty‐two children diagnosed with ADHD were compared to 22 healthy children, matched for age, handedness and working memory skills. Results: Children with ADHD were significantly impaired in their time discrimination threshold: on average, time intervals had to be 50 ms longer for the hyperactive children in order to be discriminated when compared with controls. Children with ADHD also responded earlier on a 12‐second reproduction task, which however only approached significance after controlling for IQ and short‐term memory. No group differences were found for the 5‐second time reproduction or verbal time estimation tasks. Conclusions: The findings suggest that children with ADHD perform poorly on time reproduction tasks which load heavily on impulsiveness and attentional processes and they also suggest that these children may have a perceptual deficit of time discrimination, which may only be detectable in brief durations which differ by several hundred milliseconds. A temporal perception deficit in the range of milliseconds in ADHD may impact upon other functions such as perceptual language skills and motor timing.
Parental expressed emotion in depressed adolescents: prediction of clinical course and relationship to comorbid disorders and social functioning
Authors: McCleary Lynn , Sanford Mark
Published: March 2003

Background: High expressed emotion (EE) predicts worse clinical course for a number of disorders. High EE is more frequent in parents of disordered children than normal controls. It is uncertain whether EE and its components are disorder‐specific, whether EE is more closely related to parent characteristics or child characteristics, and whether EE predicts clinical course independently of clinical variables that reflect severity of disorder. EE has not been investigated in adolescent depression. Method: The 57 participants in this study were a sub‐sample of a longitudinal study of the clinical course of depression. Adolescents and parents were recruited from consecutive referrals to all psychiatric outpatient clinics and inpatient units in a geographic catchment area. The association between EE and one‐year clinical outcome of major depressive disorder was tested and associations between EE and characteristics of the adolescent, the parent, and the family were examined. Results: EE was independent of socio‐demographic characteristics, comorbid diagnoses, and parental depression. High EE was associated with worse adolescent social functioning according to either adolescent or parent report. High EE was associated with the presence of more depression symptoms. Low EE predicted major depression remission in participants without comorbid attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but this association was not independent of the association between social functioning and depression remission. Conclusions: The findings indicate a need to examine possible protective effects of low EE. Relationships between EE, social functioning, and depression persistence and remission require further examination.
Gaze behavior of children with pervasive developmental disorder toward human faces: a fixation time study
Authors: Van Der Geest J.N. , Kemner C. , Verbaten M.N. , Van Engeland H.
Published: March 2003

Background: The abnormal gaze behavior of autistic children toward human faces, as observed in daily‐life situations, are investigated in two fixation time studies. It has been argued that faces are a special kind of stimuli for normal individuals and that this might not be the case for autistic children. Methods: A group of high‐functioning autistic children (including a group of sub‐threshold PDD‐NOS children) was compared with a group of normal children, with respect to their fixation behavior for photographs of human faces. Using an infrared eye‐tracking device, fixation times for the whole face and for the facial elements of faces were compared between the two groups. The first study dealt with faces having an emotional expression. The second study dealt with neutral faces presented either upright or upside‐down. Results: Results of the two studies showed that autistic children have the same fixation behavior as normal children for upright faces, with or without an emotional expression. Furthermore, results of the second study showed that normal children spent less time looking at upside‐down faces, but that the fixation times of autistic children were not influenced by the orientation of the faces. Conclusions: These results plead against the notion that the abnormal gaze behavior in everyday life is due to the presence of facial stimuli per se. Furthermore, the absence of a face orientation effect in autistic children might be a reflection of a lack of holistic processing of human faces in autism.
School‐based indicated prevention: a randomised trial of group therapy
Authors: McArdle Paul , Moseley David , Quibell Toby , Johnson Rob , Allen Ann , Hammal Donna , LeCouteur Ann
Published: March 2003

Background: One hundred and twenty‐two children identified by teachers as at risk for behavioural or emotional problems were randomly allocated to drama‐group therapy or to a curriculum‐studies control, based in school. Methods: One hundred and seventeen completed the intervention phase of the trial, which comprised 12 hour‐long sessions. Post‐intervention self‐reports showed significant effects associated with both interventions. Results: However, there was a clear advantage of group therapy over both a waiting list control and curriculum studies, according to teacher reports. This was true also of categorical analyses focusing on those with the most severe symptoms. Conclusions: These analyses confirmed sustained teacher‐reported improvement over a year‐long follow‐up period.
Perceptions of stressful life events in Northern Irish school children: a longitudinal study
Authors: Muldoon Orla T.
Published: March 2003

Background:  Adults’ perceptions of stressful life events have been acknowledged as important moderators of the stress adjustment relationship. Until recently, however, there has been a lack of research on children's perceptions of negative life events. This study assesses children's own perceptions of the stressfulness of negative familial, academic and social events as well as events related to the political conflict in Northern Ireland.

Method:  Developmental changes in children's perceptions of events are traced over time. One hundred and sixty 8‐year‐old children completed a self‐report measure of the perceived stressfulness of a range of negative life events. The sample was drawn from schools in the Greater Belfast area to include children of both genders, primary religious affiliations in Northern Ireland (i.e., Protestant and Roman Catholic) and of varying socio‐economic status. Three years later, 113 of these children, then aged 11, were traced through the school system and completed the same measure.

Results:  Children's perceptions of stressful events are related to a host of social factors. Girls viewed many negative events as more stressful than their male counterparts. Roman Catholic and Protestant children differed in their perceptions of conflict‐related events. Perceptions of various types of negative experiences were differentially related to socio‐economic status and age.

Conclusion:  Personal, social and situational factors differentially determine children's perceptions of negative life experiences.
The pitch of maternal voice: a comparison of mothers suffering from depressed mood and non‐depressed mothers reading books to their infants
Authors: Reissland Nadja , Shepherd John , Herrera Eisquel
Published: March 2003

Background: Research suggests that storybook reading promotes language development and that there is a relationship between maternal affective responses in relation to infant affect and language development. The purpose of this study is to relate maternal paralinguistic and verbal behaviour during storybook reading to maternal mood state.

Method: Mothers (n=32) reporting depressed mood (as measured by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale) were matched on age of baby (mean age = 6 months, mean age = 10 months), sex of baby, educational status of mother and parity with 32 non‐depressed mothers. They were video‐ and audio‐taped in their homes while reading a picture‐book to their infants. Maternal textual and extra‐textual utterances were transcribed and analysed in terms of mean length utterance (MLU), fundamental frequency and pitch modulation.

Results: There was an interaction between psychological well being and age group with regard to MLU for text read. Non‐depressed mothers had a smaller MLU for younger babies in comparison with older babies, while depressed mothers showed no difference in their MLU. There was a main effect of psychological well being with depressed mothers speaking with a higher mean pitch and more modulations in their pitch, in comparison with non‐depressed mothers. Furthermore, there was a significant interaction of the psychological well being of the mother and the mean fundamental frequency used when reading the text and when speaking to their child during the picture‐book session.

Conclusions: These differences in maternal speech indicate that mothers who are depressed are less attuned to their infants which might force the infant into self‐regulatory patterns that eventually compromise the child's development.
Replication of the latent class structure of Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) subtypes in a sample of Australian twins
Authors: Rasmussen Erik R. , Neuman Rosalind J. , Heath Andrew C. , Levy Florence , Hay David A. , Todd Richard D.
Published: March 2003

Background: Previous efforts to subtype Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) using latent class analysis (LCA) applied to DSM‐IV symptom profiles of adolescent female twins from Missouri (USA) have identified distinct classes within the domains of inattention, hyperactivity‐impulsivity and combined‐type problems. The objective of the current report is to determine if the latent class structure of ADHD subtypes can be replicated in a culturally distinct sample of female and male Australian twins.

Method: LCA was applied to parent‐report DSM‐IV ADHD symptom profiles of N=2,848 child and adolescent Australian twins and compared to North American findings. Separate models were fitted for females (N=1,432) and males (N=1,416).

Results: The most congruent latent ADHD classes across samples included a non‐symptomatic class, three mild‐moderate and two severe classes. Also present within samples was a rare hyperactive‐impulsive class and a unique class, the structure of which was idiosyncratic across samples. Mean symptom endorsement and individual symptom endorsement probabilities for each of the stable classes were similar across samples. Consistent with previous findings, there was substantial overlap between the DSM‐IV inattentive and combined subtypes with the severe inattentive and severe combined latent classes. However, DSM‐IV inattentive and combined subtypes were distributed over several latent classes in each sample, and a substantial proportion of individuals with no DSM‐IV diagnosis were also assigned to these severe classes.

Conclusions: Results from LCA using an Australian twin sample replicate six of the eight latent class subtypes previously reported using Missouri female twins and extend the findings to male twins. LCA and DSM‐IV systems of ADHD classification identify different phenotypic groups, and the basis of this disparity merits further investigation. LCA: latent class analysis; ADHD: Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
‘This we will Maintain’: Gender, Ethno‐Nationalism and the Politics of Unionism in Northern Ireland
Authors: Racioppi Linda , O'Sullivan See Katherine
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the gendering of unionist national identity in Northern Ireland through an analysis of organizations that are central to unionist politics today. While the commonplace observation that unionist women are ‘tea‐makers‘ conveys a critical dimension of the gender order within unionism, it does not fully capture the significance of women's contributions to the establishment or maintenance of unionism. The article analyzes how Stormont constituted an ethno‐gender regime, examines unionist women's political engagement during the Stormont era and under direct rule, investigates how the peace process and Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement have affected the unionist ethno‐gender order and the gender politics of unionism, and explores the possibilities for political transformation.
Mapping the nation: street names and Arab‐Palestinian identity: three case studies
Authors: Azaryahu Maoz , Kook Rebecca
Published: March 2003

The naming of streets is part of the ongoing process of mapping the boundaries of the nation. This article examines three sets of Arab‐Palestinian street names – pre‐1948 Haifa and Jerusalem and post‐1948 Umm el Fahm – as locally constructed ‘texts of identity’ in the historical and political context of their official creation. The investigation aims at charting the ideological orientations represented and the political messages entailed in these three different textual manifestations of Arab‐Palestinian national identity. The analysis focuses on notions of historical and cultural heritage as expressed in the choice of street names. Finally, it offers an interpretative evaluation of this process, placing it within broader ideological and historical contexts.
A model of smooth pursuit eye movement deficit associated with the schizophrenia phenotype
Authors: Thaker Gunvant K. , Avila Mathew T. , Hong Elliot L. , Medoff Deborah R. , Ross David E. , Adami Helene M.
Published: March 2003

Smooth pursuit eye movement (SPEM) abnormalities in schizophrenia, although well described, are poorly understood. SPEMs are initiated by motion of an object image on the retina. During initiation, the eyes accelerate until they approximate target velocity and a state of minimal retinal motion is achieved. Pursuit is maintained through predictive eye movements based on extraretinal signals and corrections based on deviations from the fovea. Here, initiation and predictive pursuit responses were used to estimate the contributions of retinal and extraretinal signals to pursuit maintenance in schizophrenia patients' relatives. Relatives exhibited normal initiation, but had lower predictive pursuit gain compared with controls. Relatives had normal gain during pursuit maintenance, presumably by greater reliance on retinal error. This was confirmed by group differences in regression coefficients for retinal and extraretinal measures, and suggests that schizophrenia SPEM deficits involve reduced ability to maintain or integrate extraretinal signals, and that retinal error may be used to compensate.
Family Forms and Member Well-Being: A Research Agenda for the Decade of Behavior
Authors: Steil Janice M.
Published: March 2003

Few institutions have changed as much in the past quarter-century as have American families. What are the factors affecting change? What are the conditions under which different family forms might best serve the interests of their members? What further changes are required? In this paper societal inequalities manifested within and between two family forms, heterosexual marriage and single-parent families, are reviewed, and a research agenda to assess the conditions under which these different family forms might best serve the interests of their members is posed.
Factorial and Construct Validity of the Body Parts Satisfaction Scale-Revised: An Examination of Minority and Nonminority Women
Authors: Petrie Trent A. , Tripp Margaret M. , Harvey Pejcharat
Published: March 2003

In this two-part study, the psychometric properties of the Body Parts Satisfaction Scale, an extensively used body image attitudes measure, were tested. In Study 1-A, the two-factor structure of the Body Parts Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BPSS-R)—Satisfaction With Body and Satisfaction With Face—was established through exploratory procedures with a racially diverse sample of women (66.7% White American, 17.6% African American, 6.3% Mexican American, 5% Asian American, 0.6% Native American, and 3.8% unreported). In Study 1-B, the two-factors were validated through confirmatory procedures with a matched racially diverse sample of women (71.9% White American, 14.0% African American, 5.3% Mexican American, 4.7% Asian American, 1.2% Native American, and 2.9% unreported). Correlational analyses supported the construct and concurrent validity of the factors. To learn more about body image attitudes within racial/ethnic minorities, Study 2 examined the two-factor solution and psychometric properties in an independent sample of Mexican American women. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the two-factor solution fit the data, and correlations with other psychological and eating disorder measures supported the factor's construct and concurrent validity. Further, the two factors were unrelated to a measure of acculturation and to generational level living in the U. S., which suggests that body satisfaction may be independent of the acculturation process.
Effects of Gender, Age, and Education on Assertiveness in a Nigerian Sample
Authors: Onyeizugbo Eucharia U.
Published: March 2003

Two hundred fourteen (214) married persons, 101 men and 113 women aged 20–60, with at least high school education, participated in the study which investigated the effects of gender, age, and educational attainment on assertiveness among married persons in Nigeria. The Assertive Behavior Assessment scale (ABAS; Onyeizugbo, 1998 ) was used to measure assertiveness. It was hypothesized that persons with higher educational attainment will report more assertiveness than persons with lower educational attainment. Results supported the hypothesis. In addition, interactions between gender and age, and gender and educational attainment were found. Younger men reported more assertiveness than younger women whereas older women reported more assertiveness than older men. Also, women participants of lower educational attainment reported more assertiveness than their men counterparts whereas men of higher educational attainment reported more assertiveness than their women counterparts. Results of this study suggest that women in Nigeria may become more assertive with age.
Recent Trends in Pay Equity: Beyond the Aggregate Statistics
Authors: Whitehouse Gillian
Published: March 2003

The earnings gap between men and women has remained comparatively stable at an aggregate level over the 1990s in Australia. From one perspective, this is a reminder of the considerable difficulty of addressing wage differentials once the most overt forms of wage discrimination have been removed, and of the limited impact of most policy initiatives. From another, it may be seen as evidence that dire predictions about the effects of decentralisation on the earnings gap have failed to materialise. In this paper, I use Australian Bureau of Statistics data to show that a number of different trends are evident underneath the relatively static picture shown by the aggregate statistics, particularly as wage dispersion has increased. The data suggest not only that the prospects for pay equity are far from benign, but also that in the current labour market the issue of gender pay inequality cannot be effectively addressed separately from wage inequality more generally.
The Australian Labour Market
Authors: Burgess John , Mitchell William
Published: March 2003

The Australian labour market is at its healthiest condition for over a decade. Strong employment growth since 1993 has led to a systematic decline in the unemployment rate. We review the developments in the Australian labour market over this recovery period, noting the sectoral and spatial dimensions of the additional jobs generated. In addition, we emphasise the continued presence of considerable labour underutilisation, despite the strong employment growth. This period has also seen the continued growing share of non-standard employment arrangements. The review considers whether one of these non-standard employment types, casual employment, has been overstated in the labour force data. Finally, we highlight another striking development over the recovery period, the diminishing public sector employment share and relate it to the failure of the economy to achieve full employment. This is the first annual survey of the Australian labour market to be included in the yearly reviews published by the Journal of Industrial Relations. As such, we are honoured to present this survey and hope that we can establish a benchmark for future reviews of the Australian labour market. By its nature this survey will cover a longer time-period than 1 year as we do not have the previous year’s review to reference. We hope to establish a labour market context for industrial relations in the 2000s.
Flexibility at Work? The Feminisation of Part-Time Work in Japan
Authors: Broadbent Kaye
Published: March 2003

Atkinson’s flexible firm model analyses the segmentation of the workforce utilising the concepts of core and periphery. This model offers a starting point for examining the segmentation of Japan’s labour market but provides little direction in the exploration of why women are predominant in the part-time workforce. The disparity in employment conditions between female and male workers in the periphery is fostering the development of a gender hierarchy in Japan’s non-full-time workforce resembling that existing in ‘lifetime’ employment practices. This raises questions which challenge the applicability of a model for analysing part-time work in Japan, which ignores a consideration of the gender contract.
Employee Responses to High Performance Work System Practices: An Analysis of the Awirs95 Data
Authors: Harley Bill
Published: March 2003

Since the early 1990s, there has been increasing academic interest in a range of labour management practices labelled variously as ‘high commitment management’, ‘high involvement management’ and ‘High Performance Work Systems’ (HPWS). Such sets of practices - which include performance-related pay, various employee communication mechanisms, training and team-based work- when used in combination, are said to be mutually reinforcing and to generate superior organisational performance. Advocates of HPWS argue that improvements in organisational performance are generated because these practices enhance employee discretion which, in turn, flows into improved attitudes to work. Conversely, critics suggest that HPWS practices lead to work intensification, with any gains in discretion being marginal. In spite of the volume of literature in this area, there are few studies that have examined the impact of HPWS on employees. This article seeks to remedy this gap by reporting results of analysis of the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey 1995 (AWIRS95) data aimed at assessing the associations between HPWS practices and employee outcomes. The analysis suggests that there are few such associations, and those that exist are weak, which calls into question the claims of both advocates and critics of HPWS.
Experts, dialects, and discourse
Authors: Bhatt Rakesh Mohan
Published: March 2003

This paper examines “expert” discourse – complexes of signs and practices that organize and legitimize social existence and social reproduction – to demonstrate the ideological processes involved in the manufacture of Standard English ideology and its continual duplication as necessitated by the three axiomatic conceptions of the English‐sacred imagined community (cf. Anderson 1991). It is argued that the hierarchical structure needed to sustain the sacred imagined community can only be guaranteed if Standard English is accepted by all members as inevitable and the speakers of this standard accepted as uncontested authorities of English language use. How is this ideological manipulation and indoctrination in fact accomplished? This paper focuses on two sites of ideological manipulation – the learning and teaching of English in post‐colonial contexts – and argues that expert promulgations enable what Foucault has called régimes of truth to be organized around the language. Expert discourse establishes a habit of thought which makes the standard variety of English (British/American) desirable, necessary, normal, natural, universal, and essential, and all other varieties instances of deficit and deviation. The key ideological process is a naturalizing move that drains the conceptual of its historical content, making it seem universal and timelessly true (Woolard & Schieffelin 1994).
On Output Processes of Synchronization Queues
Authors: Osawa Hideo
Published: March 2003

We consider synchronization queues with finite or infinite buffers. There is one flow of tokens for each buffer. The input flow to each buffer, called a stream, is assumed to be a point process with finite intensity. Tokens arriving at each buffer have to wait to form a synchronized group and depart the system. We are concerned with output processes in this queue. The output processes of synchronization queues with some buffers having infinite capacities are studied. Further, we consider synchronization queues with two finite buffers and discuss the system state at output points in time. For these problems, some results that are already known are reviewed and some new results are introduced.
Derivative Free Optimization in Higher Dimension
Authors: Ahmed Shamsuddin
Published: March 2003

Non‐linear optimizations that do not require explicit or implicit derivative information of an objective function are an alternate search strategy when the derivative of the objective function is not available. In factorial design, the number of trials for experimental identification method in Em is about (m+ 1). These (m+ 1) equally spaced points are allowed to form a geometry that is known as regular simplex. The simplex method is attributed to Spendley, Hext and Himsworth. The method is improved by maintaining a set of (m+ 1) points in m dimensional space to generate a non‐regular simplex. This study suggests re‐scaling the simplex in higher dimensions for a restart phase. The direction of search is also changed when the simplex degenerates.

The performance of this derivative free search method is measured based on the number of function evaluations, number of restart attempts and improvements in function value. An algorithm that describes the improved method is presented and compared with the Nelder and Mead simplex method. The performance of this algorithm is also tested with artificial neural network (ANN) problem. The numbers of function evaluations are about 40 times less with the improved method against the Nelder and Mead (1965) method to train an ANN problem with 36 variables.
On Serial and Parallel Implementations of the Erlang Fixed‐Point Iteration Scheme
Authors: Hart Andrew G.
Published: March 2003

The blocking probability of a route in a loss network is the probability that a call arriving at that route is rejected due to there being insufficient resources available on it. The blocking probabilities, also known as loss probabilities, are often used as a measure of network performance. Closed‐form expressions for these are easy to write down, however they cannot be evaluated in polynomial time, even for small networks. Consequently, there has always been an enormous interest in developing efficient methods for approximating them. Arguably, the most important of these is the Erlang fixed‐point approximation (EFPA), which teletraffic engineers were using long before rigorous results justifying its use in various circumstances were proved. This article demonstrates that care must be exercised when using the standard Jacobi iteration scheme employed in serial implementations of the EFPA, as it may not converge. A number of modifications to the EFPA, which appear to be more stable and able to avoid pathologies such as limit cycles, are presented. Of particular interest is the Jacobi iteration scheme modified so that each new update is a weighted average of the new and old iterates. We show that convergence of this method is always guaranteed by an appropriate choice of the weighting constant. Finally, a comparison between the serial implementation and a number of parallel implementations of the EFPA is presented.
The Tricriteria Two‐Machine Flowshop Scheduling Problem
Authors: Allahverdi Ali
Published: March 2003

The literature on the two‐machine flowshop scheduling problem reveals that the problem has been addressed with bicriteria of either makespan and mean flowtime or makespan and maximum tardiness (lateness). This paper extends the problem to all the three criteria (tricriteria) where the objective is to minimize a weighted sum of makespan, mean flowtime, and maximum lateness. A dominance relation and a lower bound are established. The dominance relation and the lower bound are used to develop a branch‐and‐bound algorithm. The dominance relation is also used to develop several heuristics. An extensive computational analysis is conducted to evaluate the performance of the dominance relation and the heuristics. The analysis shows that the dominance relation is effective. The analysis also shows that the heuristics are quite efficient, and some heuristics have an error of less than 1%. Moreover, these heuristics have the desirable property that the error does not increase by the number of jobs.
Capacity Planning in a Transitional Setting with Simulation‐based Modeling: A Case Study
Authors: Von Lanzenauer Christoph Haehling , Eschen Erik , Pilz‐Glombik Karsten
Published: March 2003

Significant progress has been made in the development of modeling and analysis frameworks for the purpose of supporting senior executives in their task of strategy formulation and evaluation. Using the case study British Synthetic Fibres Ltd, the important strategic task of capacity planning is addressed in a transitional setting. The paper illustrates the use of influence diagrams, the development of a spreadsheet model in a language facilitating easy communication with senior management, and the strength of risk analysis as effective tools for managing the capacity‐planning process. Special emphasis is placed on the benefits and insights to be gained from this approach in evaluating strategic options in the context of the case study.
Parallel Algorithms for Dynamic Shortest Path Problems
Authors: Chabini Ismail , Ganugapati Sridevi
Published: March 2003

The development of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and the resulting need for the solution of a variety of dynamic traffic network models and management problems require faster‐than‐real‐time computation of shortest path problems in dynamic networks. Recently, a sequential algorithm was developed to compute shortest paths in discrete time dynamic networks from all nodes and all departure times to one destination node. The algorithm is known as algorithm DOT and has an optimal worst‐case running‐time complexity. This implies that no algorithm with a better worst‐case computational complexity can be discovered. Consequently, in order to derive algorithms to solve all‐to‐one shortest path problems in dynamic networks, one would need to explore avenues other than the design of sequential solution algorithms only. The use of commercially‐available high‐performance computing platforms to develop parallel implementations of sequential algorithms is an example of such avenue. This paper reports on the design, implementation, and computational testing of parallel dynamic shortest path algorithms. We develop two shared‐memory and two message‐passing dynamic shortest path algorithm implementations, which are derived from algorithm DOT using the following parallelization strategies: decomposition by destination and decomposition by transportation network topology. The algorithms are coded using two types of parallel computing environments: a message‐passing environment based on the parallel virtual machine (PVM) library and a multi‐threading environment based on the SUN Microsystems Multi‐Threads (MT) library. We also develop a time‐based parallel version of algorithm DOT for the case of minimum time paths in FIFO networks, and a theoretical parallelization of algorithm DOT on an ‘ideal’ theoretical parallel machine. Performances of the implementations are analyzed and evaluated using large transportation networks, and two types of parallel computing platforms: a distributed network of Unix workstations and a SUN shared‐memory machine containing eight processors. Satisfactory speed‐ups in the running time of sequential algorithms are achieved, in particular for shared‐memory machines. Numerical results indicate that shared‐memory computers constitute the most appropriate type of parallel computing platforms for the computation of dynamic shortest paths for real‐time ITS applications.
A Dynamic Inspection Model for Wearing Production Systems
Authors: Braglia Marcello
Published: March 2003

The aim of this paper is to correlate the deterioration process of a production system with the items control process and, as a consequence, with the equipment inspection policy. The objective is to consider how the wear of the manufacturing system influences the values of the control process parameters and how these parameters have to be changed in accordance with the need to maintain optimal (working) conditions. Adopting a Weibull failure‐time distribution, it is shown how these parameters must be changed (at different times t) in order to maintain optimal working conditions. To test the inspection model, a weighted cost function dependent on the time loss for the production of defective units and for the production shut‐down (in order to make an inspection to control the state of the system) is developed.
Negotiations with Incomplete Information
Authors: Wang Muhong , Liu Renjing , Wang Yingluo
Published: March 2003

In recent years, bargaining and negotiations have become areas of growing interest to researchers in business, management, and international trade. Decision‐makers in negotiations often do not have complete information about the situation and, therefore, may misunderstand the true intention of their opponents. In this paper, the negotiations on an international economic zone development project are modeled as hypergames, and analyzed by various solution concepts to study the role of misperception in negotiation interactions. Multiple levels of hypergame and sensitivity analysis are explored to find the best strategy that may help the parties to overcome their mistrust and reach the best cooperative solution.
Sadat Peace Lecture: Negotiating Hard Cases
Authors: Mitchell George J.
Published: March 2003

Senator Mitchell is a former member (D‐ME) and majority leader of the U.S. Senate. The following is the text of his lecture sponsored by the Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland on June 13, 2001. (The text of the “Mitchell Report” is reprinted in this journal.)