bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Conceptual Problems in the Development of a Psychological Notion of “Intuition”
Authors: Osbeck Lisa M.
Published: March 2003

Despite increased interest in “intuition” within cognitive psychology, the conceptual framework of this notion remains problematic. This paper argues that conceptual shortcomings stem from a tendency to ignore the philosophical heritage of intuition or to dismiss the relevance of this heritage to contemporary theory. The paper outlines major understandings of intuition within psychology and prominent philosophical traditions, highlighting important points of inconsistency in these and examining consequences of the inconsistency. It also considers psychological conceptions of intuition that more readily overlap with philosophical accounts and offers some suggestions toward a more philosophically informed notion of intuition relevant to contemporary psychological theory.
Theoretical and Methodological Problems in Cross‐Cultural Psychology
Authors: Ratner Carl , Hui Lumei
Published: March 2003

Carl Ratner and Lumei Hui, Theoretical and Methodological Problems in Cross‐Cultural Psychology, pp. 67–93.

Although cross‐cultural psychology has advanced our understanding of cultural aspects of psychology, it is marred by theoretical and methodological flaws. These flaws include misunderstanding cultural issues and the manner in which they bear on psychology; obscuring the relation between biology, culture, and psychology; inadequately defining and measuring cultural factors and psychological phenomena; erroneously analysing data and drawing faulty conclusions about the cultural character of psychology. This article identifies fundamental theoretical and methodological errors that have appeared in prominent cross‐cultural psychological research. Suggestions for overcoming them are then outlined.
Chances, Individuals and Toxic Torts
Authors: Parascandola Mark
Published: March 2003

We currently live in a world of silent risks caused by invisible agents acting through mechanisms poorly understood. It is not surprising that the resulting harms have led to litigation. Playing a visible role in all these cases is the ‘causation problem’; plaintiffs face sometimes insurmountable hurdles in providing evidence for causation. However, the fact that mechanisms are hidden does not mean that one cannot have reliable evidence and information about them.

In this paper I argue that the law has taken an ill‐founded, skeptical stance towards statistical evidence for causation in toxic tort cases, making the task of plaintiffs unjustly difficult. I address two frequently cited skeptical claims about statistical evidence and argue that they are unfounded as applied in tort law. I conclude that the skeptical stance results from a failure to distinguish physical chances from epistemic probabilities, and that such a distinction is necessary if plaintiffs are to have a chance of prevailing.
Euthanasia and the Slippery Slope
Authors: Clark Michael
Published: March 2003

Although those with liberal attitudes towards voluntary euthanasia are often castigated as crude consequentialists who give overriding value to social utility, two common arguments against permitting active voluntary euthanasia even in the most desperate of cases, the slippery‐slope argument and the argument that further research into terminal care and pain control will be discouraged, are entirely consequentialist, and to invoke them to justify withholding assistance in these desperate cases is to fail to respect patients as ends in themselves.
Political Theory and Political Practice
Authors: Graham Gordon
Published: March 2003

What is the role of political theory in the real world of politics? Opinions have varied about this, ranging from Plato’s arguments for philosopher‐kings to Marx’s relegation of political philosophy to the realms of mere ideology. This paper contrasts the competing claims of intellectualism vs pragmatism in politics. It explores the ends/means relation as one account of how ideas and actions might be connected. This relation is found to be inadequate, and with it the more ambitious claims of intellectualism. But an argument is advanced for the qualification of pragmatism with a more modest account of the role of ideas in politics.
Self‐defence Against the Innocent
Authors: Clark Michael
Published: March 2003

Do we have the right to defend ourselves against innocent aggressors? If I amattacked in a lift by a knife‐wielding lunatic, may I kill or maim him to protect my own life? On one view the insane man’s plight is his bad luck and I am under no obligation to let it be transferred to me. On the opposing view it is my bad luck to be under attack and I have no right to transfer it to an innocent man by killing him to protect myself. It is perhaps becauseneither of these opposing viewpoints is obviously preferable to the other that there is no consensus about the question. Nevertheless we can find considerations for favouring the first view over the second.
Outing and Virtue Ethics
Authors: Halwani Raja
Published: March 2003

The paper argues that the two dominant approaches towards the moral issues surrounding outing are too weak to handle the latter’s complexity and would benefit from being made part of a broader and richer framework, namely, that of virtue ethics. One dominant approach begins by arguing that people do not have the right to privacy in matters of sexual orientation (not behaviour), and so outing gay people does not violate such a right. It continues by arguing that living a dignified life requires the agent to refuse to keep secret the gay sexual orientation of others. The second dominant approach, opposed to the first, argues that gay people have a right to the privacy of sexual orientation, and so outing them is prima facie wrong. Both approaches, the paper argues, are too weak to handle the complexity of outing: the first suffers from emphasizing only one subset of the virtues (dignity, pride, and so on), while the second is too weak to explain fully why in some cases outing is permissible. Virtue ethics is a much richer framework from which to address the complexity of outing.
The Evisceration of Art Education?
Authors: Hughes Arthur
Published: March 2003

This is an edited and slightly redrafted version of the oral presentation of the NSEAD Presidential Address given at the Society’s Annual Course and Conference at Bretton Hall in late 1996. It pulls together and summarises evidence that points to areas of concern for art and design education at all levels of theory and practice.
Public Art: The Problems and Potential of Multiple Meanings
Authors: Holman Valerie
Published: March 2003

Public art is not just sculpture and mural painting: it can take the form of stained–glass windows, textile wall–hangings, mosaic pavements and works of art that are not even designed to be long–lasting or permanent. It is found in city squares, and secluded countryside; in National Health Service hospitals and the national headquarters of major companies. Public art can now be studied at any level from primary to postgraduate, and because art and its context are so closely related in these settings beyond the gallery, it affords a particularly rich object of analysis for all age groups.

What has so far received relatively little attention is the way in which public art is read. An examination of works of art from France and America reveals that visual literacy cannot be seen in isolation, for how we read depends as much on what we bring to our reading as it does on the text or image we seek to understand.
Born Again or ‘Dumbing Down’? Cultural Trends in the 1990s
Authors: Selwood Sara
Published: March 2003

A person who everyday looks upon a beautiful picture, reads a page from some good book, and hears a beautiful piece of music will soon become a transformed person – one born again [Labour, 1997].

Across the world, music audiences are being eroded by an array of domestic electronic attractions. Habitual concertgoers fear to venture into the inner city after dark, or get deterred by traffic jams and parking restrictions. A new generation raised on television soundbites and instant hamburgers has been jaggedly desensitised to the stately magniloquence of an hour‐long symphony. The sharing of music within families has been blighted by the decline of the nuclear family. Music teaching, insofar as it is still provided in public school systems, has been rendered almost worthless by a politically correct tendency to treat all musics as equal – the primitive with the refined, the commercial with the spiritual [Lebrecht, 1996].
In Praise of Art Schools
Authors: Talbot Patrick
Published: March 2003

Art schools in France have undergone a profound transformation. From being once considered havens of Bohemia with teaching based firmly on the rapport established between master and pupil in the studio, they have become multi‐disciplinary with studio practice established in and augmented by art theory as taught by historians, critics, and philosophers. This pedagogical approach is without doubt a challenging and positive way of encouraging students to pursue their artistic ambitions in an atmosphere of personal experimentation that Universities often deprecate. At this time a School of Art is by definition in an unstable state of equilibrium since it must at the same time restrain itself and maintain a margin of discretion whilst opening its doors to outside influences. In a time therefore of mutation and crisis the training of individuals and encouraging originality is professionally suitable and socially essential, as without the awareness and contemplation of that which gives each one of us our unique particularity, nothing of value can be undertaken. How could it be otherwise when, against the prevailing trends in our media‐dominated systems, we know that art is a major form of thought, as powerful and productive as science and philosophy.
The Body Frontier
Authors: Barron Marjukka , Kastinen Mirka
Published: March 2003

The Finnish Art Teachers’ Society celebrated its 90th anniversary in 1996 with an exhibition `Picturing a Century’. In connection with this occasion, four students of the University of Art and Design Helsinki (Marjukka Barron, Mirka Kastinen, Iris Kärner‐Kupiainen and Elina Heikkilä) organised a course ‘The Body Frontier’ involving 25 upper secondary school pupils from four Helsinki schools. One of the aims of the course was to bring forth the many possibilities art education offers, another was to expand the anniversary exhibition outside the museum walls, reaching people who do not usually go to museums. The course first examined different views of the body and studied historical and philosophical aspects as well as contemporary media images, and secondly the study of one’s own body; e.g. its form and the space it holds. The pupils made paper sculptures using their own body as a mould. The sculptures and a short video about their making were exhibited in the central shopping arcade Forum, adjacent to the museum with the main exhibition. The course instructors approached people in the arcade and discussed feelings and ideas evoked by the work. The process itself and the pupils’ ideas were documented in the museum with the main exhibition.

The course was a successful experiment in co‐operation between schools and a university, financing itself largely through commercial sponsorship. The exhibition provoked discussion about the dividing line between art education and `art proper’, and the public presentation of pupils’ work.
Portfolio Development in a Secondary Teaching Credential Art Programme
Authors: Cho Mika
Published: March 2003

This paper describes portfolio development by pre‐service art teachers in a secondary teaching programme at California State University, Los Angeles, USA. A portfolio reflects knowledge, skills, and beliefs about teaching in general and teaching art specifically. It displays one’s learning experiences as they are collected, organized, and refined to provide a critical framework and rich portrayal of one’s best work. The article addresses the questions of what a portfolio in art education is, what its goals are, how one creates a portfolio, how one assesses portfolios once they are developed, what the issues and challenges surrounding the use of portfolios as assessment tools are, and finally, some likely future developments of portfolio assessment in teacher education.
An Art Education Network: A Brazilian Experience
Authors: Bay Dora Maria Dutra
Published: March 2003

Art in School Network links 18 universities and other cultural institutions in all Brazil to promote visual literacy and analytical skills among primary and secondary school students. Since 1989 it has operated through partnerships with academic and cultural institutions in developing teacher training programmes and distributing art documentaries on videotape. Over 7 years it has reached 15 million students in Brazil. Dr Ana Mae Barbosa is the consultant for the network. In Catarina State, the network links 5 universities and is based on studies of the life and work of local artists as a prelude to the Triangular Proposal (criticism, history and art production).
Postmodern Feminisms: Problematic Paradigms
Authors: Burgess Lesley , Reay Diane
Published: March 2003

In 1995 Frances Borzello claimed that feminist art criticism had ‘just touched the national curriculum with its fingertips.’ [1] Over the last five years constant challenges to curriculum provision have all but resulted in a loss of contact as educators pull back into ‘safe’ places and away from the edges where feminist art practices were just starting to take hold. Clinging to ‘safe’ practices has meant the affirmation of formalist modernist orthodoxies which have fostered a restricted canonical patriarchal approach to the subject. The recent publication of the ‘Manifesto for Art’ 1999 which calls for a postmodern view of art with an emphasis on ‘difference, plurality and independence of mind’ can, all too easily, be read as a panacea ‘a post modern solution to a postmodern situation.’ [2] However, embracing postmodern pluralism creates as many problems as it solves. Postmodernism often renders any feminist intervention superfluous in spite of new feminist art criticisms’ insistence that the politics of feminism remains a vital element of both artistic practice and critical discourse. While agreeing that art education urgently needs to review its complicity with high Modernist values, we suggest that there are dangers in uncritically accepting a postmodern view of education. Surely postmodernism renders any blueprint for change problematic. This paper does not provide answers, rather it raises questions in order to encourage teachers to reflect upon existing practices with a view to identifying what is still missing and why. It sets out to interrogate implications for pedagogy, educational policy and social transformation of the contemporary academic preoccupation with postmodernism.
Talismans of the Carpatho‐Rusyn Woman: The Ritual Practices and Symbol System in the Art of Pysanky
Authors: Danko‐McGhee Katherina
Published: March 2003

This paper provides an historical review of the art of Rusyn Easter Eggs. The use of symbolism, colour, and the talismanic qualities of each design will be discussed along with the ritualistic practices adhered to in the making of these egg designs. Pysanky making in the past had been a ritual, handed down from mother to daughter, where codes of conduct were practised and traditional symbols and colours were used to create the designs on each egg. After the pysanky were made, they were used in traditional Easter festivities. While pysanky are still made by Carpatho‐Rusyn women today, their magical qualities have been lost. Old symbols continue to be used along with new designs, techniques, and colours.
Education, Art and Ecology during Summer Camps in Romania: A Local Experience
Authors: Lungu Viorel
Published: March 2003

Environmental education is the most powerful tool for changing human values in the use and protection of the natural environment. Its development has been slow in the Black Sea region. Under‐financed schools with crowded curricula are limiting progress in this field. The enthusiasm of a number of pioneers in the region is now beginning to make a change to public awareness.
Inclusion through Distinction
Authors: Hall Roz
Published: March 2003

The focus of this presentation will be on issues arising from a three year action research project, exploring young people's creative uses of digital technology, outside of formal education. The project, based at the University of Central England in Birmingham, and Jubilee Arts in Sandwell, has sought to both engage young people in a creative process, and provide access to digital technology. The research was formulated as a means of exploring the ways in which young people might utilise digital technology creatively, given access, outside of formal education.
A Critical Study of Comics
Authors: Adams Jeff
Published: March 2003

The paper describes a project for Liverpool John Moores University PGCE Art and Design students in which they carried out practical research into comics and graphic novels as part of their preparation for teaching. The students were encouraged to investigate the history of the genre, its formal properties as well as its potential as a vehicle for social realism. The practical task was to prepare a single comic book page design, in the course of which they explored a range of possibilities from imaginative children's stories to serious issues such as illness and abuse. They took the opportunity to investigate the potential of this sequential medium to construct narratives using devices such as sequence, repetition and multiple perspectives as well as the juxtapositions of image and text. The paper contains examples of students' work where the investigations yielded interesting and innovative results.
Briefing Illustrators: Revisiting the Value of Sketch Images
Authors: Garner Steve
Published: March 2003

In 1990 Steve Garner produced a school text book titled Design Topics: The Human Factors of Design. He briefed the various graphic artists engaged by the publishers, Oxford University Press, via nearly 140 thumbnail sketches. A comparison of these sketches with the final illustrations reveals important values of drawing. Not only do the comparisons enable the viewer to see something of the intent of the sender, they reveal processes of interpretation, selection, rejection and development, which are normally not available to examination. The paper seeks to contribute to substantiating the value of sketches to these processes of design team working. Since the author is also the originator of the sketches an additional level of insight and commentary is made available to the reader via a process of reflection.
On Drawing, Visual Language and the Pictorial Image: An Interview with John Willats
Authors: Tormey Jane , Whale George
Published: March 2003

The editorial team of TRACEY, an online drawing journal hosted by Loughborough University School of Art & Design, was interested to learn more about John Willats’s current thinking on the subject of drawing and to put to him a number of specific questions to do with the functions of drawn marks, notions of pictorial syntax, the role of ambiguity and imprecision in drawing and future directions for drawing research. He kindly agreed to an interview, which took place in his Somerset studio on Thursday 6th December 2001. The following is an edited version of that interview.
Transition Period of Mandated Accounting Changes — Timing of Adoption and Economic Consequences: The Case of SEAS No. 13
Authors: El‐Gazzar Samir M. , Jaggi Bikki L.
Published: March 2003

This study examines the economics of the timing of adoption of SFAS No. 13, Accounting for Leases by Lessees. We analyzed actual debt contracts of the affected firms to determine whether they were based on GAAP or Non‐GAAP accounting rules. We also examined what actions were taken by management to alleviate the negative effects of complying with SFAS No. 13. The results indicate that late adopters had a higher percentage of debt convenants based on GAAP measures, and that the late adopters would have experienced significant increases in closeness to default had they adopted SFAS No. 13 early. The results also indicate that by choosing late adoption, the firms were able to reduce the expected negative effects of the new accounting standard on financial statements.
The Robustness of the APT to Alternative Estimators
Authors: Clare Andrew , Priestley Richard , Thomas Stephen
Published: March 2003

We test the robustness of the APT to two alternative estimation procedures: the Fama and MacBeth (1973) two‐step methodology; and the one‐step procedure due to Burmeister and McElroy (1988). We find that the APT is indeed sensitive to the chosen estimator and assumptions about the factor structure of stock returns. We believe that our findings have implications for the estimation of asset pricing models in general.
Corporate Sales, Predisclosure Information and Return Variability
Authors: Blazenko George W.
Published: March 2003

This paper investigates the determinants of return variability between accounting report and non‐report periods. A model of information dissemination in financial markets is developed which shows that if corporate sales activity is a source of predisclosure information, the ratio of return variability between accounting report and non‐report periods decreases in contribution margin per dollar sales. Greater contribution margin increases that portion of cash flow variability which is predictable by investors' observation of sales activity and, therefore, contribution margin indexes the informativeness of sales‐related predisclosure information. Greater informativeness increases return variability in the predisclosure period relative to the accounting report period. Supporting evidence for this prediction is presented.
Share Valuation under Geometric Brownian Motion with a Poisson Imputation Tax Change
Authors: Pointon John
Published: March 2003

A share valuation model is developed on the basis of dividends following a geometric Brownian motion. An imputation tax system is chosen, although this can be collapsed into a classical system. The possibility of changes in tax rates and shareholder tax credits is introduced by means of a Poisson jump. Capital gains are assumed to be tax‐free through either annual or other exemptions. Using Itô’s Lemma, a new share valuation formula is derived. This is recast in terms of the cost of capital and the mean time to the fiscal shock.
The Determinants of the Intermediary Spread: Evidence from Australian, UK and USA‐based International Equity Funds
Authors: Klumpes Paul J.M.
Published: March 2003

This paper develops and tests a new measure of mutual fund performance, based on Brennan's (1993a) equilibrium model of the pricing of retail financial products, which assumes that search costs of investors are non‐trivial and cause the demand for mutual funds to be inelastic, thus creating an intermediary spread. This implies that the marginal costs of the intermediary spread in the form of expenses and sales load must be explicitly traded off against the marginal benefits in terms of the fund's return relative to a benchmark. The measure is used to evaluate the performance of twelve USA, eight UK and five Australian‐based internationally diversified equity funds over the period 1982–95, and provides new insights into their performance in ways that are not revealed by the Jensen measure.
Systematic Risk and Empirical Research
Authors: Ashton David , Tippett Mark
Published: March 2003

We show here that risky asset returns generating processes stated in terms of factors which include both accounting and non‐accounting based measures of risk (e.g. book to market ratios) imply, under fairly standard regularity conditions, that the Sharpe‐Lintner‐Black asset pricing model beta is a ‘sufficient’ statistic in the sense that it captures all important attributes of the returns generating process in a single number. We then derive the parametric relationship between betas based on inefficient index portfolios and betas based on the market or tangency portfolio. We demonstrate that the relationship between risky asset expected returns and betas computed on the basis of inefficient index portfolios is both consistent with the predictions of the Capital Asset Pricing Model and the multi‐factor asset pricing models of Fama and French (1992, 1993, 1995 and 1996). The ‘trick’ is to realise that inefficient index portfolios are composed of the market portfolio and a collection of inefficient but self financing ‘kernel’ or ‘arbitrage’ portfolios. It then follows that there is a perfect linear cross sectional relationship between risky asset expected returns, betas based on inefficient index portfolios and the arbitrage portfolios. Hence, if we happen to stumble across variables that span the same subspace as the vectors representing the arbitrage portfolios, it is easy to create the illusion that risky asset expected returns depend on variables other than ‘beta’.
Is the European Capital Market Ready for the Single Currency?
Authors: Bowe Michael , Mylonidis Nikolaos
Published: March 2003

This paper defines, and investigates the extent of, capital market integration in the European Ecu government bond market sector utilising Johansen’s (1992) multivariate analysis. Evidence suggests the yield system is driven by a unique common trend, although we reject the zero‐sum restriction on the cointegrating vector. The former finding is consistent with our definition of full Ecu capital market integration, the latter is not, although it is explainable by failure of the expectations hypothesis. Our results support market utilisation of the extant Ecu yield curve as the initial benchmark for pricing euro‐denominated debt securities following stage III EMU.
Are There Hot Hands Among Mutual Fund Houses in Hong Kong?
Authors: Cheng Louis T. , Pi Lynn K. , Wort Don
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the short‐term performance persistence of thirty‐two fund houses in Hong Kong during January 1986 to December 1995. We compute fund house returns using averages of all equity funds in each house. Then we evaluate their hot hand performance using the median return as benchmark on a rolling monthly basis. The results show that there were only two ‘hot hand’ fund houses. Findings using annual returns confirm the non‐existence of a hot hand phenomenon. However, we find a strong correlation between conditional and unconditional probabilities of winning repeatedly in consecutive months
A Test of the Persistence in the Performance of UK Managed Funds
Authors: Allen D. E. , Tan M. L.
Published: March 2003

We employ a United Kingdom data set of weekly returns from a sample of investment trust companies available on the Datastream database. We analyse the relative performance of the funds and determine whether a ‘good’ (above‐median), past‐performance is indicative of future performance. Our study focuses on within sample relative performance. We examine persistence in performance in the short and long run based on a number of tests. Overall we find that both raw and risk‐adjusted returns exhibit evidence of persistence in performance in the long run but not in the very short run.
Value Relevance of Mandated Comprehensive Income Disclosures
Authors: Cahan Steven F. , Courtenay Stephen M. , Gronnewoller Paul L. , Upton David R.
Published: March 2003

This study provides some market based evidence on the usefulness of comprehensive income disclosures in a Statement of Changes in Equity (SCE). Using a sample of listed New Zealand firms, we find no evidence that separate disclosure of the comprehensive income items provides any value relevant information above and beyond the aggregate comprehensive income figure. Likewise, in the post‐SCE period, we find no evidence of an increase in the incremental value relevance of the comprehensive income items over net income. While our results are sensitive to outliers, they suggest that standards requiring disclosure of a SCE may not be necessary.
Are Golden Parachutes an Optimal Contracting Response or Evidence of Managerial Entrenchment?: Evidence from Successful Takeovers
Authors: Subramaniam Chandra
Published: March 2003

Two models that attempt to explain the adoption of golden parachutes are examined. The first model views golden parachutes as an optimal contracting response to a takeover, the other perceives them as an outgrowth of severe managerial entrenchment that results in contracts for the benefit of managers. Using a sample of 169 successful acquisitions of NYSE targets from 1981 through 1989, I document that targets that have adopted golden parachutes experience significantly higher excess returns around the announcement of a takeover than targets without these contracts. I find similar increased excess returns for the bidder/target portfolios. In addition, bidder excess return is independent of the existence of golden parachutes in targets. Additional results suggest that golden parachutes do not reduce managerial resistance to takeovers. The results are consistent with the managerial entrenchment hypothesis and inconsistent with the optimal contracting hypothesis. Sensitivity tests confirm these results.
Initial Technical Violations of Debt Covenants and Changes in Firm Risk
Authors: Fargher Neil L. , Wilkins Michael S. , Holder‐Webb Lori M.
Published: March 2003

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether initial technical debt covenant violations are associated with significant increases in the equity risk of violating firms. Our results indicate that first‐time violations are associated with significant increases in both systematic and unsystematic risk. The increase in systematic risk is attributable primarily to rising levels of financial leverage as opposed to changes in the underlying asset beta. We also find that the change in unsystematic risk experienced by first‐time debt covenant violators is a significant predictor of future exchange delisting, even after controlling for other factors typically associated with increasing financial distress.
Factors Associated with Differences in the Magnitude of Abnormal Returns Around NYSE Versus Nasdaq Firms’ Earnings Announcements
Authors: Cheon Youngsoon Susan , Christensen Theodore E. , Smith Bamber Linda
Published: March 2003

This study provides an explanation for the ‘exchange effect’ puzzle documented in prior accounting research. Grant (1980) finds that the magnitude of earnings announcement week abnormal returns is higher, on average, for firms traded over‐the‐counter than for NYSE firms. Atiase (1987) shows that this incremental ‘exchange effect’ persists even after controlling for firm size. We investigate potential explanations for this incremental exchange effect. We first show that even after controlling for differences in firm size, Nasdaq firms have less rich information environments and enjoy greater growth opportunities than NYSE firms. We then investigate whether differential predisclosure information environments and/or growth opportunities can explain the incremental exchange effect. The results indicate that although the absolute magnitude of the earnings announcement‐related abnormal returns is inversely related to proxies for the amount of predisclosure information, the incremental exchange effect cannot be explained by differences in the predisclosure information environment. In contrast, after controlling for differences in growth opportunities across NYSE versus Nasdaq firms, and investors’ heightened sensitivity to Nasdaq firms’ growth opportunities in particular, there is no significant incremental exchange effect (whether or not we control for predisclosure information). These results suggest that the incremental exchange effect puzzle documented in prior research is more likely to reflect growth‐related phenomena than differences in the predisclosure information environment.
Trade Credit Terms Offered by Small Firms: Survey Evidence and Empirical Analysis
Authors: Wilson Nicholas , Summers Barbara
Published: March 2003

Trade credit has been shown to be an important source of short‐term finance for smaller firms but small firms are also suppliers of trade credit. There is little empirical evidence on the credit granting decisions of small firms. Previous empirical work (Petersen and Rajan, 1997; and Ng, Smith and Smith, 1999) has focused on credit granting and investment in accounts receivable in larger firms. In this paper we look at the influences on credit granting for the smallest firms, using a sample of firms with an average of 10 employees. As in previous studies we find that product and demand characteristics influence credit terms. Moreover, we find evidence that firm size affects credit extension choices directly by setting limits on the possibilities for economies of scale, but it also impacts indirectly by affecting the firm's access to finance and its bargaining strength vis‐à‐vis suppliers. The dominant position of larger customers in bargaining with small suppliers constrains the impact of other factors on the firm's choice of credit terms. Small firms are also under pressure to conform to industry norms, although lack of resources can be a limiting factor. Constrained firms may make use of two‐part terms in an attempt to improve their cashflow.
Is the Adverse Selection Component Really Higher on the NYSE/Amex than on the Nasdaq?
Authors: Van Ness Bonnie F. , Van Ness Robert A. , Warr Richard S.
Published: March 2003

Affleck–Graves, Hegde and Miller (1994) find that the adverse selection component of the bid–ask spread is higher for NYSE and Amex stocks than for Nasdaq stocks. Using the model of Huang and Stoll (1997), we revisit their study and find the opposite to be true – the adverse selection component is actually higher for Nasdaq stocks than for NYSE and Amex stocks. The economic magnitude of this additional adverse selection cost is very significant. Our results have important implications for the understanding of information production in dealer versus auction markets, and the costs of trading on such markets.
Financial Rating of European Technology Companies: An International Comparison
Authors: Laitinen Erkki K.
Published: March 2003

The purpose of this study is to investigate possibilities to uniform financial rating of technology companies in Europe from the perspective of a potential investor. The data consist of financial statements of 6,370 companies from seventeen European countries and the US in 1993–1996. The data from 1994–1996 are used to measure three–year success and the data from 1993 to predict this success. Success is measured by the principal factor of six performance measures. Country risk, percentage change in GDB, size, and eight financial ratios calculated for 1993 are used as predictors of success in the binary logistic analysis.
Time Varying Market Leverage, the Market Risk Premium and the Cost of Capital
Authors: Lally Martin
Published: March 2003

This paper shows that, when as usual the market portfolio is proxied by a share portfolio, then the conventional Ibbotson (1999) estimator of the market risk premium violates Miller–Modigliani (1958 and 1963) propositions II and III. A new estimator of the market risk premium is proposed which is free of these defects. In addition, across the range of market leverages experienced in the US in the period 1952–1997, it generates estimates of the market risk premium that differ from those generated by the Ibbotson methodology by up to 2.5 percentage points, and weighted average costs of capital for firms that differ by up to 2.6 percentage points.
Law and the Other Europeans
Authors: Ward Ian
Published: March 2003

The purpose of this article is to emphasize the role that the law plays in determining who is ‘European’ in the new Europe, and who is not. The first part of the article introduces a critical commentary on the present state of EC law with regard to non‐EC nationals. Necessarily, this also includes a discussion of the role of the European Court of Justice, and such instruments as the Schengen Convention. Having discussed the situation of those who are excluded once ‘in’ the Community, it then moves to discuss the fate of those excluded from the Community itself. It suggests that the procedures for controlling immigration flows are essentially extra‐legal, and themselves in breach of Community and international law. The second part of the article introduces a theoretical framework for a discussion of ‘otherness’, applying the writings of such as Julia Kristeva and Hannah Arendt to the particular European situation. It suggests that such writings strike a chord with a number of themes common in critical legal studies literature on exclusion and inclusion. In conclusion, the article suggests that the new Europe must adopt a distinctively post‐modern approach to ‘otherness’, which moves away from established theories of citizenship and human rights, and which is instead based on the kind of ‘humane’ human rights recently advocated by such as Richard Rorty and Joseph Weiler.
Who are EU? Ambiguities in the Concept of Competitiveness
Authors: Strange Susan
Published: March 2003

Borrowing the title from Robert Reich’s 1990 article, ‘Who is US?’, I argue that it is first necessary to clear up some of the ambiguities in the current debate about European competitiveness if we are to develop a coherent and effective industrial and macroeconomic policy for Europe. Reich was adamant that the foreign‐owned firms (FOFs) that located production – and increasingly their research and design teams – in America were doing more for the American people (and, in the long run, for the American economy) than firms registered and headquartered in the US but whose output, and employees, were largely located elsewhere. Now that Asian firms as well as American ones are increasingly locating production in Europe rather than at home, the same argument holds good for Europe.

Second, in order to determine and adopt the policies appropriate to making national societies, rather than national firms, competitive and viable, it is necessary to clear up some of the confusion concerning the causes of increased competition among states and among firms. It is argued that these causes are structural and (since the end of the Cold War) global. The most important of these are the accelerating rate of technological change and its escalating capital costs and, as auxiliary factors, the added opportunities for internationalizing production opened up by the increased mobility of capital, the improved efficiency of transport and communications and the general liberalization of the global trading system.

Third, if the conclusions of the first and second part are accepted, the crucial political issue concerns the choice of means appropriate in a world market economy to the chosen end of European competitiveness in terms of societies rather than of firms. The third part of the argument therefore discusses some of the relevant policy issues: trade and investment policies, EU enlargement, the common currency, social rules and charters, and welfare issues like health and education.
Assessing Democracy in a Contested Polity
Authors: Lord Christopher
Published: March 2003

After reviewing difficulties with the literature on the democratic deficit, this article concludes that a method is needed for assessing democracy in a political system where there is fundamental agreement on what would constitute adequately democratic institutions. It then goes on to explore two suggestions for such a method: the development of well‐specified indicators of democratic performance for contrasting ideal‐types of Euro‐democracy; and the attribution of self‐ and peer assessments to institutional actors with competing perspectives on democratic standards in the EU.
Book Review
Authors: Buijs Frank J.
Published: March 2003

Charters, David A. (ed.) The Deadly Sin of Terrorism: Its Effects on Democracy and Civil Liberty in Six Countries
Participative Decision Making as a Strategic Response to Decline: Flexibility, Rigidity or a Mixture?
Authors: Rosenblatt Zehava , Nord Walter
Published: March 2003

The ‘rigidity ’ versus ‘adaptation ’ (‘flexibility ’) approaches in organizational response to decline are challenged in this paper. Re‐analysis of studies reporting on participative decision making (PDM) responses suggests that organizations respond not with flexibility, as could be expected, but with a mixture of both flexible and rigid elements. A ‘mixture model ’ is advanced, postulating three critical organizational concepts that need to be considered: pre‐decline institutionalized PDM, PDM information, and PDM internal inconsistencies.
Recovery Policy in Crisis Areas: The Risk Management Concept Versus Normative and Administrative Approaches to Rehabilitation of the Radioactively Contaminated Areas in the Former Soviet Union
Authors: Porfiriev Boris
Published: March 2003

The ‘rigidity’ versus ‘adaptation’ (‘flexibility’) approaches in organizational response to decline are challenged in this paper. Re‐analysis of studies reporting on participative decision making (PDM) responses suggests that organizations respond not with flexibility, as could be expected, but with a mixture of both flexible and rigid elements. A ‘mixture model’ is advanced, postulating three critical organizational concepts that need to be considered: pre‐decline institutionalized PDM, PDM information, and PDM internal inconsistencies.
Review Essay
Authors: Jacobs Brian
Published: March 2003

Books reviewed in this article:

Philip Scraton, Ann Jemphrey and Sheila Coleman, No Last Rights

Steve Frosdick and Lynn Walley (Eds), Sport and Safety Management
The Global Resurgence of Infectious Diseases
Authors: Noji Eric K.
Published: March 2003

In an increasingly interdependent world, we face an array of new global challenges that transcend the traditional definition of national security. One important example is the resurgence of infectious diseases. In the 1960s and 1970s, powerful antibiotic drugs and vaccines appeared to have banished the major plagues from the industrialized world, leading to a mood of complacency and the neglect of programs for disease surveillance and prevention. Over the past few decades, however, infectious diseases have returned with a vengeance. Many factors, or combinations of factors, can contribute to disease emergence. New infectious diseases may emerge from genetic changes in existing organisms; known diseases may spread to new geographic areas and populations; and previously unknown infections may appear in humans due to changing ecological conditions that increase their exposure to insect vectors, animal reservoirs, or environmental sources of novel pathogens. Reemergence may also occur because of the development of anti‐microbial resistance in existing infections (e.g., malaria) or breakdowns in public health measures for previously controlled infections due to civil conflict (e.g., cholera, tuberculosis). Not only does the re‐emergence of infectious diseases threaten health directly, but devastating epidemics such as AIDS are spawning widespread political instability and civil conflict. This instability, in turn, will contribute to humanitarian emergencies and economic crises.
Stress and psychopathology in children and adolescents: is there evidence of specificity?
Authors: McMahon Susan D. , Grant Kathryn E. , Compas Bruce E. , Thurm Audrey E. , Ey Sydney
Published: March 2003

Research on the relations between specific stressors and specific psychological outcomes among children and adolescents is reviewed. Specificity, the notion that particular risk factors are uniquely related to particular outcomes is discussed from a theoretical perspective, and models of specificity are described. Several domains of stressors are examined from a specificity framework (e.g., exposure to violence, abuse, and divorce/marital conflict) in relation to broad‐band outcomes of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Studies that tested for specificity conducted within the past 15 years are examined, and definitional problems are highlighted. Little evidence for specificity was found. Methodological problems in the literature and the lack of theory‐driven specificity research are discussed, and directions for future research are identified.
The appropriation of the Phoenicians in British imperial ideology
Authors: Champion Timothy
Published: March 2003

The Phoenicians played ambivalent roles in Western historical imagination. One such role was as a valued predecessor and prototype for the industrial and maritime enterprise of nineteenth‐century imperial Britain. Explicit parallels were drawn in historical representations and more popular culture. It was widely believed that the Phoenicians had been present in Britain, especially in Cornwall, despite a lack of convincing historical evidence, and much importance was placed on supposed archaeological evidence. Ideological tensions arose from the need to reconcile ancient and modern Britain, and from the Semitic origin of the Phoenicians. This example shows the power of archaeological objects to provide material support for national and imperial constructions of the past.
Post–national Spain? Post–Spanish Spain?
Authors: Resina Joan Ramon
Published: March 2003

The term ‘post–nationalism’ has been proposed to designate the emergence of political bodies in the wake of economic globalisation. However, not only is the ‘post–national landscape’ strongly redolent of nationalism, but nations themselves continue to correlate with the political subject in ways that cannot be dismissed. In Spanish political debates the notion of ‘post–nationalism’ has been deployed along with the concept of ‘patriotism of the constitution’, vulgarising their original philosophical use. In this context both terms do ideological duty against the peripheral nationalities in an effort to relegitimise the centralised control of the state. In this article I ‘deconstruct’ the self–serving duality between ‘constitutionalists’ and ‘nationalists’ by showing that traditional state nationalism overlaps with the ‘constitutionalist’ position. Subsequently, I consider whether some form of Habermasian detachment of nation from state can be contemplated for Spain.
Frontal EEG asymmetry and the behavioral activation and inhibition systems
Authors: Coan James A. , Allen John J. B.
Published: March 2003

Two studies have examined whether there exists a relationship between resting frontal alpha asymmetry and the Behavioral Inhibition and Activation Scales (C. S. Carver & T. L. White, 1994), which are based on Gray's Behavioral Inhibition and Behavioral Activation Systems. Findings suggest that greater relative left frontal activity characterizes individuals higher in self–reported behavioral activation sensitivity (E. Harmon–Jones & J. J. B. Allen, 1997; S. K. Sutton & R. J. Davidson, 1997), and, in one instance, lower behavioral inhibition sensitivity (S. K. Sutton & R. J. Davidson, 1997). In the present study, relatively greater left frontal activity correlated positively with behavioral activation scores. No significant relationship between resting frontal alpha asymmetry and the behavioral inhibition score emerged. These data suggest that relatively greater left frontal activity is indeed an index of approach oriented, appetitive motivational tendencies, whereas the relationship between relative right frontal activity and the behavioral inhibition system is likely to be complex and not accounted for by behavioral withdrawal alone.