bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Development of Judgment and Decision Making During Childhood and Adolescence
Authors: Jacobs Janis E. , Klaczynski Paul A.
Published: March 2003

Research on adult judgment and decision making has focused on deviations from normative models, demonstrating biases and reliance on heuristic shortcuts, thus presenting a very different picture than developmental theories that describe a unidirectional progression toward greater logic and efficiency. Recent research related to this apparent contradiction indicates that children develop competencies to reason effectively and make normative decisions, but also develop biased judgment strategies that are used inappropriately in some situations. We suggest potential explanations for the findings, highlighting the need to consider models that incorporate development in both experiential and analytic information processing systems.
Social Comparison: Why, With Whom, and With What Effect?
Authors: Suls Jerry , Martin René , Wheeler Ladd
Published: March 2003

Social comparison consists of comparing oneself with others in order to evaluate or to enhance some aspects of the self. Evaluation of ability is concerned with the question “Can I do X?” and relies on the existence of a proxy performer. A proxy's relative standing on attributes vis‐à‐vis the comparer and whether the proxy exerted maximum effort on a preliminary task are variables influencing his or her informational utility. Evaluation of opinions is concerned with the questions “Do I like X?”“Is X correct?” and “Will I like X?” Important variables that affect an individual's use of social comparison to evaluate his or her opinions are the other person's expertise, similarity with the individual, and previous agreement with the individual. Whether social comparison serves a self-enhancement function depends on whether the comparer assimilates or contrasts his or her self relative to superior or inferior others. The kinds of self‐knowledge made cognitively accessible and variables such as mutability of self-views and distinctiveness of the comparison target may be important determinants of assimilation versus contrast.
Infant Attention Grows Up: The Emergence of a Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective
Authors: Colombo John
Published: March 2003

Visual attention has long been regarded as a tool for studying the development of basic cognitive skills in infancy and early childhood. However, over the past decade, the development of attention in early life has emerged as an important topic of research in its own right. This essay describes recent changes in the methods used to study attention in infancy, and in the nature of inferences about the early development of attention, as both research and theory in the area have become progressively integrated with models of attention from cognitive science and neuroscience.
St‐Germain des‐Prés, St Vincent and the martyrs of Cordoba
Authors: Christys Ann
Published: March 2003

The Translatio Georgii, Aurelii et Nathaliae, in which Aimoin recounts the journey of Usuard of St‐Germain to Cordoba in search of relics, and the use which Usuard made of Spanish material in his Martyrology, reveal many inconsistencies. These are explained, by comparing these texts with Aimoins’s Translatio Beati Vincentii and other evidence for St‐Germain, as the result of attempts to bolster the monastery’s standing with Charles the Bald at a time of political difficulty.
Sigisvult the Patrician, Maximinus the Arian, and political strategems in the Western Roman Empire c. 425–40
Authors: Mathisen Ralph W.
Published: March 2003

This study investigates the roles played by the barbarian general Sigisvult and the Arian bishop Maximinus in western imperial politics during the reign of Valentinian III. In c. 426/7 Sigisvult was sent to North Africa to subdue the rebel Count Boniface. He was accompanied by Maximinus, who, in the course of the campaign, engaged in a celebrated debate with Augustine. Maximinus helped achieve a non‐violent settlement that returned Boniface and his German troops to the imperial fold. Sigisvult then returned to Italy and was appointed Patrician and Master of Soldiers after the assassination of Felix in 430. In 435, however, this position was transferred to Fl. Aëtius, who spent most of his time campaigning in Gaul. In 440, the Vandals attacked Sicily, and Sigisvult was placed in charge of the defence of the Italian coast. At the same time, an Arian bishop Maximinus, apparently the one who had debated with Augustine, was in contact with the Vandals. He may have planted disinformation that Sebastianus, the son of the now‐deceased Boniface, was about to invade Africa. This resulted in a Vandal withdrawal, and both Italy and Sicily were saved. Sigisvult last appears in the mid‐440s, and his subsequent demise, perhaps in the early 450s, may have resulted in the breakdown of a precarious balance of power and the murders of Aëtius and Valentinian in 454 and 455, which hastened the demise of the Western Roman Empire. In an appendix it is suggested that although Boniface called in Vandal auxiliaries in 427, he was not responsible for the Vandal crossing in 429.
Review article: early medieval rulers and their modern biographers
Authors: Hamilton Sarah
Published: March 2003

Books reviewed in this articles:

Richard Abels, Alfred the Great. War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo‐Saxon England

Gerd Althoff, Otto III

Roger Collins, Charlemagne
The temptations of cult: Roman martyr piety in the age of Gregory the Great
Authors: Leyser Conrad
Published: March 2003

Pope Gregory the Great (590–604) was arguably the most important Roman writer and civic leader of the early middle ages; the Roman martyrs were certainly the most important cult figures of the city. However modern scholarship on the relationship between Gregory and the Roman martyrs remains curiously underdeveloped, and has been principally devoted to comparison of the gesta martyrum with the stories of Italian holy men and women (in particular St Benedict) told by Gregory in his Dialogues; in the past generation the Dialogues have come to be understood as a polemic against the model of sanctity proposed by the Roman martyr narratives. This paper explores Gregory's role in the development of Roman martyr cult in the context of the immediate social world of Roman clerical politics of the sixth and seventh centuries. Gregory's authority as bishop of Rome was extremely precarious: the Roman clerical hierarchy with its well‐developed protocols did not take kindly to the appearance of Gregory and his ascetic companions. In the conflict between Gregory and his followers, and their opponents, both sides used patronage of martyr cult to advance their cause. In spite of the political necessity of engaging in such ‘competitive generosity’, Gregory was also concerned to channel martyr devotion, urging contemplation on the moral achievements of the martyrs – which could be imitated in the present – as opposed to an aggressive and unrestrained piety focused on their death. Gregory's complex attitude to martyr cult needs to be differentiated from that which was developed over a century later, north of the Alps, by Carolingian readers and copyists of gesta martyrum and pilgrim guides, whose approach to the Roman martyrs was informed by Gregory's own posthumous reputation.
Edgar and the eight kings, AD 973: textus et dramatis personae
Authors: Thornton David E.
Published: March 2003

The purpose of the paper is to examine in detail the alleged submission by Welsh, Scottish and Scandinavian rulers to the English king Edgar at Chester in 973, and particularly the claim made in a number of Anglo‐Norman chronicles that these rulers rowed Edgar up and down the River Dee as part of this submission. All relevant texts (both explicit descriptions and possible allusions) will be presented and analysed, and the identities of the Celtic and Scandinavian rulers will be considered. The paper will argue that the rowing episode is a post‐Conquest fictional embellishment based on earlier Old English material, and that the meeting at Chester in 973 was a ‘peace summit’ rather than a straightforward submission.
Illness, power and prayer in Asser's Life of King Alfred
Authors: Kershaw Paul
Published: March 2003

Asser's account of Alfred's mysterious illnesses is one of the most puzzling and most‐discussed passages in his Life. This article attempts to place this account in its contemporary setting, analysing its devotional, intellectual and political contexts, in order to argue that, far from being an anomaly, it reflects the cultural interests of the Alfredian court and the influence upon it of contemporary Carolingian notions of rulership. In the process, Asser is shown to be an author with a keen sense of the prevailing notions of royal authority, but one equally aware of the potential dangers such notions could bring, particularly when one key royal attribute, humility, could be seen as indicative more of weakness than fitness to rule. Taken as a whole, the ideas, allusions and influences present in the work allow Asser's Life to be seen not merely as a descriptive but also as a thematic portrait of the king's intellectual interests. Above all, the Life emerges as a work with strong resonances with the cultural preoccupations of the late ninth century.
History in fragments: Montecassino’s politics of memory
Authors: Pohl Walter
Published: March 2003

Most of what we know about the history of the Lombard principalities of southern Italy was preserved by the monks of Montecassino. Their perception of past and present from the ninth to the early eleventh century can be studied in three manuscripts that contain a variety of short texts with abundant corrections and marginal notes – a construction kit for the social memory of a monastic community that was never turned into a coherent narrative. Through examining these sometimes disparate fragments, we get a rare glimpse at the practices of writing in an early medieval monastery, and can begin to understand which texts mattered and why.
The transformation of kinship and the family in late Anglo‐Saxon England
Authors: Wareham Andrew
Published: March 2003

The development of the family into a small unit in which descent was traced almost exclusively through the male line is regarded as a major turning point in medieval European history. The early stages of the formation of agnatic kinship have usually been connected to strategies designed to preserve and retain control of patrimonies and castles, arising from the breakdown of public order. In this article it is suggested that the emergence of new kinship values was connected to the investment of aristocratic energy and resources in monastic programmes, and to subtle changes in lay involvement with the rituals associated with death and the salvation of souls.
The ins and outs of European Monetary Union: some public policy issues
Authors: Wood Geoffrey E.
Published: March 2003

This paper reviews the problems, other than the foregone benefits of EMU, that would face countries‐either EU members or non‐members closely associated with the EU‐as a consequence of staying outside EMU.

Problems both economic and political are discussed, but the primary focus is on economic issues.

It is concluded that there may be minor adverse consequences; but they are only a possibility.

What is clear is that claims that there will inevitably be major adverse consequences ‐ higher inflation or interest rates, or lower growth, for example ‐ are entirely without foundation.
The market for corporate control in professional football: is there an agency problem?
Authors: McMaster Robert
Published: March 2003

This paper identifies the nature of agency problems in professional football in the UK. Conflicting elements within director‐owners’objective functions combined with highly concentrated ownership rights are sources of agency problems, manifest by the poor financial performance of many clubs. Arguably, a club's supporters influence its output implying that supporters may be considered as an input.

Given this, theory suggests that efficiency may be enhanced if supporters possess more property rights in their respective clubs.
Regulation of the broadcasting of sporting events
Authors: Cameron Samuel
Published: March 2003

Sports broadcasting has been thrown into turmoil in recent years by technical change. This is likely to continue in the future with the emergence of digital broadcasts. There has been widespread concern over the regulation of broadcasts of sporting events. This paper reviews the grounds for regulation and concludes that there is little case for stronger government intervention.
A better auction mechanism, and why governments should sell futures rather than debt
Authors: Wiseman Julian D. A.
Published: March 2003

The mechanism by which governments sell debt at auction imposes unnecessary risks on primary dealers, who charge for these risks by bidding less. A better auction mechanism would increase the price at which governments sell their debt. Further, selling a specially designed futures contract would reduce dealers’balance sheet usage, again increasing revenue, and would also permit the authorities to match cash inflows with cash outflows.
Road pricing in a free society
Authors: Roth Gabriel
Published: March 2003

Improved road pricing would be an indispensable element in a road system run on commercial principles, with charges for road use not co‐mingled with taxes, and with no discrimination against private road providers. But pricing imposed by a monopoly supplier, to ‘restrain’ motorised mobility, is unacceptable in a free society.
Trust in life assurance
Authors: Simpson David
Published: March 2003

Pervasive regulation has diminished the importance of trust within corporate cultures by making every company appear equally trustworthy in the eyes of the uninformed consumer. In an unregulated global market corporate trustworthiness may once again become a critical competitive asset.
Trust, Titmuss and blood
Authors: Shearmur Jeremy
Published: March 2003

Richard Titmuss challenged the market‐based approach to social problems in the case of blood supply. His criticisms can, however, be answered if a system of strict liability is in place and if commerce works effectively with charitable activity. It is false to draw a dichotomy between markets and narrow self‐interest, on the one hand, and mechanisms that make for the well‐being of others, on the other.
‘Any schmuck can consume’: a response
Authors: Kirzner Israel M.
Published: March 2003

Murray Rothbard misunderstood what Mises meant by‘consumer sovereignty’. But Rothbard fully understood how producer decisions are shaped by the desire to anticipate the preferences of consumers.
Currency options: Hayek and competing currencies
Authors: Steele G. R.
Published: March 2003

While monetary theory indicates the advantages of a single currency, there are compelling arguments for the UK to remain outside the euro‐zone.
How necessary are universities?
Authors: Peacock Sir Alan
Published: March 2003

The paper discusses whether universities can continue to be the ‘template for the extension and transmission of knowledge.’ Technical and social changes are already undermining the universities' previous near‐monopoly of delivery of higher education. Alternative delivery methods ought to be considered on their own merits and barriers to entry should be removed. The ideal form of higher education is not necessarily residence combined with traditional teaching and associated research.
WHITHER UK PENSIONS POLICY?
Authors: Baron Richard
Published: March 2003

While the UK may be facing much less serious pension difficulties over the next 50 years than other countries, the issue should not be ignored. Increasing the retirement age would be possible, but funded pensions are also an important option. The UK government has used marketing to encourage funded pensions, but policy changes would also help. Ultimately, the basic state pension could become funded.
THE ENTERPRISE ACT:ASPECTS OF THE NEW REGIME1
Authors: Morris Derek
Published: March 2003

The forthcoming Enterprise Act makes the Competition Commission (CC) determinative in relation to merger and market inquiries. It also introduces new competition‐based tests, the rationale for which is examined. Several procedural aspects of the new regime are explored, in particular the need for economic guidance to be published on the application of the new tests. A number of key economic considerations are then examined, including market definition, oligopoly pricing, entry and the scope for different perspectives as between economic analysis and business practice.
Migration as a Strategy of Accumulation: Social and Economic Change in Eighteenth‐Century Savoy
Authors: Siddle D.J.
Published: March 2003

Migration from the mountain areas of pre‐industrial Europe has been seen as the product of poverty. While hardship controlled the strategies of the more marginalized households, better placed families used their migration experience to establish themselves in commerce. Over generations they used contacts and kinship systems to develop important informal trading networks. It is difficult to establish the effects of this hidden activity on local mountain economies, but dowry payments and post mortem inventories are used to expose the impact of inflowing capital and its circulation.
The Nineteenth‐Century Allotment: Half an Acre and a Row
Authors: Archer John E.
Published: March 2003

By taking East Anglia as a regional case study this article places the allotment in a social and parochial context. It therefore challenges some of Moselle’s assumptions and economic reductionist conclusions by arguing that landlords and clergymen were the main providers and, as a consequence, this created farmer antipathy. It maintains that issues relating to paternalism, social control, the gift relationship and, most importantly, rural unrest need to be examined in order to understand the conflicting attitudes of labourers, farmers, and landlords.
Market and institutional forces in industrial relations: the development of national collective bargaining, 1910–1920
Authors: Adams Tony
Published: March 2003

This article reviews recent trends in the historiography of British industrial relations, and highlights a growing emphasis on the influence of employers and impersonal economic forces. In response, the article argues for a renewed recognition of trade unions as a proactive force in the development of industrial relations systems. This view is supported by analysis of the influence of market and institutional forces upon the spread of national collective bargaining. The conclusion is that commercial pressures on employers were relatively unimportant in a process driven by human agency, institutional forces, and wider economic pressures.
The decline of child labour: labour markets and family economies in Europe and North America since 1830
Authors: Cunningham Hugh
Published: March 2003

This survey of the ‘adulting’ of national and family economies argues that understanding of the segmentation of labour markets and of the male breadwinner has been impoverished by a failure to consider age alongside gender, and that we are at best in a situation where contextualized studies may provide some insight into reasons for the decline of child labour. With respect to family economies, there has been very little study of the timing or cause of the diminution of children's contributions, or of how, if at all, that decline is related to the rise in married women's participation in the labour force.
Towards the ‘cult of the equity’? Insurance companies and the interwar capital market
Authors: Scott Peter
Published: March 2003

This article examines the ways in which insurance companies modified their investment policies during the interwar years, arguing that this period marked the start of the transition from ‘traditional’ to ‘modern’ investment practice. Economic and financial conditions raised considerable doubts regarding the suitability of traditional insurance investments, while competitive conditions forced insurance offices to seek higher‐yielding assets. These pressures led to a considerable increase in the proportion of new investment devoted to corporate securities, including ordinary shares. Meanwhile new insurance investment philosophies began to be advocated, which accorded both legitimacy and importance to the role of ordinary shares in insurance portfolios.
The wheels of a command economy: allocating Soviet vehicles
Authors: Lazarev Valery , Gregory Paul R.
Published: March 2003

Using original archival sources, this article traces the allocation of vehicles by the Soviet economy and shows the complicated reality of the system’s operation. ‘Planned’ distribution was anything but orderly as decrees overturned quarterly plans, wholesalers ignored planning instructions by keeping vehicles for themselves or redirecting them to others, and the producer intervened through its control of the planning ‘aftermarket’. Existing stocks of vehicles were redistributed by administrative mobilizations that were resisted and thwarted by those losing vehicles. Behind the scenes, ‘grey’ markets reallocated used vehicles.
Mortality in the North Dublin Union during the Great Famine
Authors: Guinnane Timothy W. , Gr´da Cormac Ó
Published: March 2003

Debate about the adequacy of public action during the Great Irish Famine is hampered by a lack of detailed information on its impact at local level. This study addresses the question of local agency with a case study of the North Dublin Union, which was responsible for administering the Irish poor law in the northern half of Dublin city. We use workhouse records to study the Union's functioning during the famine. High mortality of workhouse inmates mainly reflected the crisis outside its walls: the guardians and the managers did reasonably well in preserving human life in difficult circumstances.
The Possibility of Welfare Gains with Capital Inflows in a Small Tariff‐Ridden Economy
Authors: Sen Partha , Ghosh Arghya , Barman Abheek
Published: March 2003

Capital inflows with full repatriation give rise to welfare improvement possibilities in a small tariff‐distorted economy when imperfect competition and increasing returns are allowed for in one sector of a two‐sector model. This is in contrast to the Brecher–Alejandro proposition that capital inflows with full repatriation are necessarily immiserizing for a small tariff‐ridden economy. We find that welfare gains chances are greater (a) the higher the expenditure share of the capital‐intensive differentiated good; (b) the lower the substitutability between brands; and (c) the lower the share of tariff revenue in national income.
Defense Spending in a Neo‐Ricardian World
Authors: Seiglie Carlos
Published: March 2003

This paper shows that Ricardian equivalence no longer holds once we recognize that government acts as an intermediary between generations in the provision of national defence. Consequently, the level of public debt is positively related to defence spending since this component of government expenditures insures the transferability of bequests, as well as protecting savings. It is shown that defence spending has an adverse effect on both national saving and the saving rate that has not been considered in the economic growth literature. More generally, the paper emphasizes that in developing a positive theory of taxation, the composition of government spending plays an integral role.
Testing Alternative Explanations of Cyclical Choices
Authors: Starmer Chris , Sugden Robert
Published: March 2003

In two previously reported experiments, Loomes, Starmer and Sugden have found that choices are systematically non‐transitive, following a pattern of ‘cycling asymmetry’ predicted by regret theory. However, there are other potential explanations for these observations. This paper reports four experiments designed to discriminate between alternative explanations. There are three main findings. First, when the original experiments are replicated, the same cycling asymmetry is found. Second, this pattern is not the result of event‐splitting effects. Third, both the frequency and the asymmetry of cycles are greater when choice problems are presented in act/event matrices than when the options are described separately.
What’s Mine is Yours? The Influence of Male and Female Incomes on Patterns of Household Expenditure
Authors: Phipps Shelley A. , Burton Peter S.
Published: March 2003

This paper uses microdata from the 1992 Statistics Canada Family Expenditure Survey to provide evidence that male and female incomes do not always exert identical influences on household expenditures. The novelty of the paper lies in its demonstration that, while incomes may be pooled for some categories of consumption (e.g. housing), the income pooling hypothesis must be rejected for others. We also go beyond simply rejecting the pooling hypothesis to ask how male versus female income is used. Our results stress the on‐going importance of traditional gender roles. For example, we find that expenditures on child care increase only with women’s incomes_higher male income is not associated with higher expenditure on child care even when both spouses are full‐time, full‐year paid workers.
Unpaid Work
Authors: Bell David N. F. , Hart Robert A.
Published: March 2003

A substantial number of employees work additional non‐contract hours for no pay. We advance several economic explanations for this phenomenon. Empirical work is based on the UK Labour Force Survey for 1993/94. We establish the quantitative importance of unpaid work on overtime hours and hourly earnings for both males and females. We demonstrate, via Mincer wage growth equations, that accounting for unpaid work leads to significantly revised estimates of returns to education, experience and tenure. We test a number of hypotheses arising from our economic discussion using Tobit regressions of unpaid overtime. For comparative purposes, we also estimate equations of paid overtime.
The Roots of Entrepreneurship and Labour Demand: Individual Ability and Low Risk Aversion
Authors: Van Praag C. M. , Cramer J. S.
Published: March 2003

This paper develops a model as a means to explain business formation and the labour demand of entrepreneurs. An individual will become an entrepreneur if the expected rewards surpass the wages of employment, and the expected rewards depend on an assessment of individual ability and on risk attitude. Actual ability determines success and hence the demand for wage labour of the firm. In equilibrium these factors govern the distribution of a given workforce over entrepreneurs and employees. The model is fitted to Dutch survey data. The empirical results confirm the importance of both risk‐taking and ability for successful entrepreneurship.
Endogenous Obfuscation in Injury Investigations
Authors: Hartigan James C.
Published: March 2003

Eligibility for public benefits may require an injury investigation. The thoroughness of the investigation is a policy decision of the government. An investigative authority chooses the optimal effort to infer from a noisy signal (business plan) the quality of management and market conditions when a firm petitions for benefits. Under plausible conditions, firms will underperform to raise the probability of an affirmative verdict, and the authority will expend low investigative effort. Good and bad managers will obtain relief under adverse market conditions. This is preferred by good managers, as they do not have to separate by sending a costly signal.
Unemployment Incidence in Interwar London
Authors: Hatton Timothy J. , Bailey Roy E.
Published: March 2003

The causes of unemployment incidence in interwar Britain have been the subject of much debate since Benjamin and Kochin claimed that it was due largely to generous unemployment benefits. We use the records for 30,000 workers from the New Survey of London Life and Labour (1929–31) to estimate the determinants of unemployment incidence. We find no significant effects of the benefit–wage ratio on the unemployment probability for adult males when we allow for skill and industry effects. Separate regressions for younger males and for females also fail to reveal significant effects from unemployment benefits on the pattern of unemployment incidence.
An Empirical Analysis of the Political Economy of Tariffs
Authors: Srinivasan Krishna
Published: March 2003

We seek to analyze the determinants of senatorial response to “generic” trade bills that seek to impose restrictions on the lowering of tariffs. The analysis is based on the response of senators to the trade expansion acts of 1962 and 1974. In the recent past these have been the only bills that are “generic” in nature since they are not targeted at any particular industry. Within the same framework we also examine the issue of “legislator shirking”, a term used to imply the response of senators based on pure personal ideology rather than the interests of the constituents. Regression results show the growing influence of state specific factors and the diminishing role of party and personal ideology on senatorial response. Interestingly, we find that despite the similar generic nature of the two bills examined, the influence of personal ideology on the response of senators varies across the two bills examined.
Corruption, Income Distribution, and Growth
Authors: Li Hongyi , Xu Lixin Colin , Zou Heng‐fu
Published: March 2003

This paper uses an encompassing framework developed by Murphy et al. (1991, 1993) to study corruption and how it affects income distribution and growth. We find that (1) corruption affects income distribution in an inverted U‐shaped way, (2) corruption alone also explains a large proportion of the Gini differential across developing and industrial countries, and (3) after correcting for measurement errors, corruption seems to retard economic growth. But the effect is far less pronounced than the one found in Mauro (1995). Moreover, corruption alone explains little of the continental growth differentials. In countries where the asset distribution is less equal, corruption is associated with a smaller increase in income inequality and a larger drop in growth rates.
Competition, entry and the social returns to infrastructure in transition economies
Authors: Aghion Philippe , Schankerman Mark
Published: March 2003

This paper presents a simple model for analysing the contribution of investments in physical and institutional infrastructure to the transition process. In addition to the direct cost savings, infrastructure investment generates important indirect effects, or transition impacts. The model shows that, by reducing transaction costs, infrastructure intensifies product market competition. This leads to more effective weeding out of the existing high‐cost firms in the market. In this model, infrastructure also increases the incentives for low‐cost firms to restructure which generates additional efficiency gains, but exacerbates the existing cost asymmetry in the economy. Finally, infrastructure investment enhances the incentives for relatively low‐cost firms to enter the market, and thus improves the efficiency of the entry process. The importance of these transition impacts of infrastructure is dependent upon features of the economy, such as the degree of cost asymmetry among firms, the proportion of high‐cost firms, the cost of restructuring and entry costs for new firms.

JEL classification: L1, O1, P2.
The gender pay gap in Russia during the transition, 1992‐96
Authors: Reilly Barry
Published: March 2003

This paper explores the link between rising wage dispersion in Russia over the transitional period and the gender pay gap. The work of Blau and Kahn (1996) emphasized a role for ‘wage structure’ in the determination of the gender pay gap, although some interpretational issues concerning their methodology have been raised recently by Suen (1997). The unadjusted gender pay gap between 1992 and 1996 exhibited some degree of stability, but the analysis presented identified increased wage dispersion as a modest agent for the widening of the gap in Russia. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimates for an equation pooling observations from both gender groups, registered no statistical difference in the mean ceteris paribus gender pay gap between the two years. To complement the mean regression approach, quantile regression procedures were also employed. Although the median regression provided evidence of a statistically significant temporal increase in the gender pay gap, this finding was not supported at other chosen quantiles of the wage distribution. This result was taken to highlight the possible sensitivity of the OLS procedure.

JEL classification: J16, J31, P23.
Explaining the increase in inequality during transition
Authors: Milanovic Branko
Published: March 2003

This paper attempts to explain the increase in inequality that has been observed in all transition economies by constructing a simple model of change in composition of employment during the transition. The change consists of the ‘hollowing‐out’ of the state‐sector middle class as it moves into either the ‘rich’ private sector or the ‘poor’ unemployed sector. The predictions of the model are contrasted with the empirical evidence from annual household income surveys from six transition economies (Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Russia and Slovenia) over the period 1987‐95. We find that the most important factor driving overall inequality upwards was increased inequality of wage distribution. The non‐wage private sector contributed strongly to inequality only in Latvia and Russia. Pensions, paradoxically, also pushed inequality up in Central Europe, while non‐pension social transfers were too small everywhere and too poorly focussed to make much difference.
Financial crisis in the Russian Federation: Are the Russians learning to tango?
Authors: Buchs Thierry D.
Published: March 2003

The paper presents some evidence about the rise and fall of financial markets in Russia in the course of 1998, and discusses the causes and likely consequences of the crisis for the Russian economy. It also discusses some important policy issues regarding the effects of global financial integration. The central message is that the Russian financial disaster is a typical example of crisis contagion, although the underlying vulnerability of the economy was a problem which no investor could ignore. In particular, financial stabilization remained extremely fragile owing to the deterioration of the fiscal situation and the vulnerability of the banking system.
Intervention, Corruption and Capture: The Nexus between Enterprises and the State
Authors: Hellman Joel , Schankerman Mark
Published: March 2003

We study the nexus between enterprises and the state in transition countries, using new enterprise survey data. We examine the quality of governance, state intervention in enterprise decision‐making, state benefits to firms, and corruption payments. The quality of governance varies both across countries and across different dimensions of governance within countries. Economic reform improves governance in countries with a low degree of ‘state capture’ by vested interests, but not in high‐capture countries. Despite reform, state intervention in firm decisions continues, but it varies substantially across firms. At the micro level (within a country), there is clear substitution between the degree of state intervention, state benefits to firms, and corruption payments, which is consistent with a bargaining model of politicians and firms. But at the macro level (across countries) these elements are complementary, suggesting that politicians, perhaps under pressure from captor firms, have some control over the scope of regulation and intervention.
The Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in the CEECs: New evidence from sectoral patterns
Authors: Resmini Laura
Published: March 2003

This paper investigates the determinants of European Union FDI in the CEECs at sectoral level. The aim is to understand whether and to what extent FDI undertaken in different sectors reacts to the characteristics of the host countries. The analysis is based on a dataset created specifically for this purpose. It concentrates on the manufacturing sectors, classified according to the Pavitt taxonomy. Firstly, data summarizing the recent trend of FDI in the CEECs is presented and then empirical evidence given to account for differences between sectors. The estimated model is a generalization of a three‐way fixed effect model incorporating ‘classic’ variables, such as labour costs as well as country‐specific variables, i.e., the stage reached in the transition process. The results confirm the presence of heterogeneity at sector level.
Financial market spillovers in transition economies
Authors: Gelos R. Gaston , Sahay Ratna
Published: March 2003

This paper examines financial market comovements across European transition economies and compares their experience to that of other regions. Correlations in monthly indices of exchange market pressures can partly be explained by direct trade linkages, but not by measures of other fundamentals. Higher‐frequency data during three crisis periods reveals the presence of structural breaks in the relationship between exchange‐, but not stock markets. While the reaction of markets during the Asian and Czech crises is muted, the pattern of high‐frequency spillovers during the Russian crisis looks very similar to that observed in other regions during turbulent times. With greater financial market integration, the financial markets of the more advanced transition economies can be expected to behave more and more like their Asian and Latin American counterparts.
The evolution of market integration in Russia
Authors: Berkowitz Daniel , DeJong David N.
Published: March 2003

We use a statistical model of commodity trade to measure the extent of integration between regional commodity markets within Russia. Monthly time‐series data on regional commodity prices spanning 1994 through 1999 indicate substantial fluctuations in integration over this period: an initial period of widespread integration gradually gave way to a period of disconnectedness in 1995 through 1997, which seems to have subsided by mid‐1998. These fluctuations exhibit strong statistical relationships with a host of aggregate variables; most notably, internal integration exhibits a strong negative relationship with international trade.
The effect of reforms on employment flexibility in Chinese SOEs, 1980–94
Authors: Bodmer Frank
Published: March 2003

This paper tries to document the increased flexibility in employment relations in Chinese SOEs until 1994, as well as the effects this had on productivity and on the allocation of workers. A number of measures were introduced to enhance such flexibility, such as autonomy in the decision to hire and fire workers, and a new contract status which could at least in theory be terminated. This was aimed at improving the motivation as well as the allocation of workers across firms. Both should have improved the productivity of SOEs. The evidence found, however, indicates that these measures had few effects. This conclusion is based first on turnover data where hardly any change is found. Estimates of productivity and allocative efficiency gains lead to the same conclusion. This confirms the view that the Chinese state sector reforms regarding employment decisions remained very limited in scope until 1994.

JEL classification: P23, P31, J63.
Price Interactions in a Sequential Global Market: Evidence from the Cross‐listed Stocks
Authors: Eun Cheol S. , Jang Hoyoon
Published: March 2003

In this paper, we investigate the pattern of dynamic interactions among the prices of those stocks that are cross‐listed on the three major stock markets of the world, i.e. New York, London and Tokyo. Major findings are: first, regardless of the nationality of stocks, innovations in the ‘home’ market returns are always fed into the returns in the ‘overseas’ markets, with the former causing the latter in the Granger sense. However, innovations in the New York market returns of foreign stocks are fed back into their respective home markets, contributing to the price discovery there. Second, the ‘succeeding’ overseas market, which operates immediately after the home market, plays a dual‐role: it conducts the home market innovations to the next‐opening overseas market, as well as adds its own innovations. Third, the exchange rate changes substantially influence the overseas market returns, but not the home market returns. The exchange rates appear to play a role in the transmission mechanism mainly via the inter‐market price parity.
Financial Systems, Corporate Finance and Corporate Governance
Authors: Schmidt Reinhard H. , Tyrell Marcel
Published: March 2003

Financial systems of industrialised countries are usually classified as being either capital market‐ or bank‐dominated. This paper tries to shed some light on the validity of this distinction. In order to do this, it analyses two specific roles of the financial sector vis‐à‐vis the enterprise sector: the role of financing or funding business and the role of capital markets and banks, respectively, in the context of corporate governance. Our analysis of the relevant findings in the literature shows that financing patterns are quite similar between countries, while corporate governance systems are quite dissimilar. The paper discusses how these divergent findings could be made compatible with existing theories and what implications they may have for the question of whether there is a tendency for corporate governance systems in different countries to become as similar as corporate financing patterns seem to be.
Stock Exchange Reforms and Market Efficiency: the Italian Experience
Authors: Majnoni Giovanni , Massa Massimo
Published: March 2003

This paper examines whether the reforms introduced by the Italian Stock Exchange from 1991 to 1994 (creation of specialised intermediaries, obligation to trade on the official markets, screen‐based trading and cash settlement) did increase market efficiency. The issue is addressed using both the traditional information efficiency model, which tests market efficiency by verifying the predictability of prices conditional on some information subset, and a microstructure approach that measures efficiency as the distance of the price movements from their efficient components, represented by a random walk process. The joint analysis of daily and intraday data on prices and volumes validates the hypothesis that most of the reforms have increased market efficiency over the sample period, except for cash settlement, which appears to have substantially reduced it.
Binomial Option Pricing Biases and Inconsistent Implied Volatilities
Authors: Lekvin Brent J. , Tiwari Ashish
Published: March 2003

We evaluate the binomial option pricing methodology (OPM) by examining simulated portfolio strategies. A key aspect of our study involves sampling from the empirical distribution of observed equity returns. Using a Monte Carlo simulation, we generate equity prices under known volatility and return parameters. We price American–style put options on the equity and evaluate the risk–adjusted performance of various strategies that require writing put options with different maturities and moneyness characteristics. The performance of these strategies is compared to an alternative strategy of investing in the underlying equity. The relative performance of the strategies allows us to identify biases in the binomial OPM leading to the well–known volatility smile. By adjusting option prices so as to rule out dominated option strategies in a mean–variance context, we are able to reduce the pricing errors of the OPM with respect to option prices obtained from the LIFFE. Our results suggest that a simple recalibration of inputs may improve binomial OPM performance.
Board Overlap, Seat Accumulation and Share Prices
Authors: Loderer Claudio , Peyer Urs
Published: March 2003

We examine the board overlap among firms listed in Switzerland. Collusion, managerial entrenchment, and financial participation cannot explain it. The overlap appears to be induced by banks and by the accumulation of seats by the most popular directors. We also document that seat accumulation is negatively related to firm value, possibly because of the conflicts of interest that multiple directorships induce and the time constraints directors face. Contrary to popular beliefs, however, the directors of traded firms do not generally hold more than one mandate in other traded firms. They do hold multiple seats in non‐traded firms.
Extracting Information from Options Markets: Smiles, State–Price Densities and Risk Aversion
Authors: Pérignon Christophe , Villa Christophe
Published: March 2003

In this paper, recent techniques of estimating implied information from derivatives markets are presented and applied empirically to the French derivatives market. We determine nonparametric implied volatility functions, state–price densities and historical densities from a high–frequency CAC 40 stock index option dataset. Moreover, we construct an estimator of the risk aversion function implied by the joint observation of the cross–section of option prices and time–series of underlying asset value. We report a decreasing implied volatility curve with the moneyness of the option. The estimated relative risk aversion functions are positive and globally consistent with the decreasing relative risk aversion assumption.
Meaning and Truth in Habermas's Pragmatics
Authors: Cooke Maeve
Published: March 2003

The article examines Habermas’s formal‐pragmatic theory of meaning from the point of view of his attempt to defend a postmetaphysical yet context‐transcendent conception of validity. It considers his attempt to develop a pragmatic account of understanding utterances that emphasises the mediation of knowledge through socio‐cultural practices while simultaneously stressing that understanding has a cognitive dimension that is inherently context‐transcendent. It focuses on his recent “Janus‐faced” conception of truth, looking more briefly at his purely epistemic conception of moral validity. It raises three objections: the first to his attempt to maintain a notion of “unconditionality” that has no otherworldly origins but is purely immanent to this world, the second to the alleged non‐arbitrary status of his conception of truth, and the third to his rejection of metaphysical thinking. It concludes that the objections, if valid, have profound implications for Habermas’s postmetaphysical enterprise and for his programme of formal pragmatics.
Kant, Quasi‐Realism, and the Autonomy of Aesthetic Judgement
Authors: Hopkins Robert
Published: March 2003

Aesthetic judgements are autonomous, as many other judgements are not: for the latter, but not the former, it is sometimes justifiable to change one’s mind simply because several others share a different opinion. Why is this? One answer is that claims about beauty are not assertions at all, but expressions of aesthetic response. However, to cover more than just some of the explananda, this expressivism needs combining with some analogue of cognitive command, i.e. the idea that disagreements over beuaty can occur, and when they do it is a priori that one side has infringed the norms governing aesthetic discourse. This combination can be achieved by reading Kant’s aesthetic theory in expressivist terms. The resulting view is a form of quasi‐realism about beauty. The position has its merits, but cannot ultimately explain the phenomena which motivate it. This conclusion generalises to quasi‐realism about other matters.
Experiencing the Production of Sounds
Authors: Nudds Matthew
Published: March 2003

It is often supposed that our experience of sounds is as of things distinct from the material world of sight and touch: reflecting on the character of our auditory experience might seem to confirm that. This paper describes the features of our auditory experience that can lead one to think of sounds in this way. It then describes a way we can experience sounds as being part of the material world. Since this is a kind of experience that essentially involves more than one sense, the paper ends by drawing some conclusions about how we should think about the senses.