bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Value‐relevance of Geographic Segment Earnings Disclosures Under SFAS 14
Authors: Thomas Wayne B. 
Published: March 2003

This study examines whether geographic segment earnings as reported under the requirements of SFAS 14 provide value‐relevant information. The FASB recently issued SFAS 131, which drastically changes the segment reporting requirements for US firms. Firms are required to disclose segment information by operating segment. For those firms that define operating segments along industry lines, disclosure of geographic segment earnings is no longer required. If geographic segment earnings provide value‐relevant information, a potentially valuable source of information may be lost.In this study, geographic segment earnings coefficients are estimated by (1) regressing unexpected security returns on unexpected geographic segment earnings and (2) regressing leading‐period returns on current geographic segment earnings. Leading period returns involve extending the return interval to include the returns for prior years. The results show that unexpected geographic segment earnings relate differentially to unexpected security returns. For the leading‐period returns model, little significant evidence is found for the market's differential valuation of geographic segment earnings coefficients for one‐ and two‐year return intervals. When the return intervals extend to three years or more, significant evidence is found that the market values geographic segment earnings differently, which suggests that such disclosures reflect information used by market participants in setting security prices. The FASB may want to reconsider or amend its segment reporting requirements.
The Competitive Order or Ordered Competition?: the ‘UK Model’ of Utility Regulation in Theory and Practice
Authors: Burton John 
Published: March 2003

This article contrasts the principles and prescriptions behind the UK model of utility regulation in the post–privatization period with its workings in actual practice, focusing in particular on the case of the telecommunications services industry as an exemplar of the broader picture.It diagnoses that the system has not evolved, as its primary architect (Littlechild) prescribed, into the rule – where feasible – of the competitive order in UK utility industries. Instead it has metamorphosed into a different system that Hayek termed ordered competition. The unintended consequences of this miscegenation are then evaluated.The conclusion is that a fundamental policy choice remains to be made as to the basic form of the system in the future: whether it should continue as a system of ordered competition as now, or whether it should become a regime characterized by open and effective competition (where feasible) as envisioned by Littlechild originally.
Public service responsiveness to users’ demands and needs: theory, practice and primary healthcare in England
Authors: Sheaff Rod , Pickard Susan , Smith Keri 
Published: March 2003

Analyses and policy statements about publicly funded services frequently distinguish ‘demands’ from ‘needs’. The distinction has been challenged, calling into question the coherence of formulating welfare policy and evaluating public services in terms of needs. This paper explicates the conceptual distinction between demands and needs in terms of derived demand and information asymmetry. ‘Needs’ can be defined as ‘rational demands’, where ‘rational’ means ‘consistent and evidence–based’, and ‘demands’ as ‘desires’ rather than ‘effective (i.e. economic) demand’. On that basis, practical demand management in needs–based public services would require:1. Knowledge of users’ demands for services;2. Content analyses of users’ demands to identify any misinformed demands;3. Conversion of any misinformed demands into evidence–based specifications of needs;4. Formulating coherent, evidence–based demands on behalf of users who cannot to do so themselves.A study of English NHS Primary Care Groups explores the problems which authorities responsible for publicly funded services face in undertaking these activities. Demand management receives low priority in terms of the incentives and intellectual resources applied to it. Needs assessment has higher priority but is regarded as a branch of evidence–based professional practice, controlled by professionals rather than responsive to users. This separation tends to defeat the purposes of needs–based public services.
Commitment to Innovation: The Impact of Top Management Team Characteristics
Authors: Daellenbach Urs S. , McCarthy Anne M. , Schoenecker Timothy S. 
Published: March 2003

Many organizational and environmental factors influence a firm’s commitment to innovation. Among the organizational factors, the perceptual lens of the top management team and the team’s dynamics are posited to have a significant direct impact on the firm’s commitment to innovation. This study revisits the classic arguments of Hayes and Abernathy and empirically examines several of their propositions.The results clearly indicate a positive relationship between the technical orientation of the TMT/CEO and above‐average R&D intensity. This effect remains even after controlling for the impact of performance in prior periods and firm diversification. Overall, these results suggest that establishing a high level of commitment to innovation will be promoted or impeded in many organizations because of the predispositions of the CEO and top management team.
How Will EMU Affect Inflation and Unemployment in Europe?
Authors: Grüner Hans Peter , Hefeker Carsten 
Published: March 2003

This paper explores how European Monetary Union will change the wage setting behavior of national labor unions. We derive the impact of national inflation aversion and labor militancy on the performance of national labor markets under different monetary arrangements. A common central bank raises inflation and unemployment if it acts as conservatively as national central banks. However, unemployment falls in countries that previously tied their monetary policy to the Bundesbank. We also examine the composition of EMU and the influence of national labor market legislation. JEL Classification: E24; F02; F33
Schooling, Training, Growth and Minimum Wages
Authors: Ravn Morten O. , Sørensen Jan Rose 
Published: March 2003

We examine how the long‐run growth performance of an economy is affected by a labor market distortion. In our model, growth occurs through skill formation, and skills are generated through schooling and training of unskilled workers. We analyze how a minimum wage legislation affects long‐run growth. In general, the effects are ambiguous. The reason is that while a minimum wage discourages training, it also encourages schooling. The net effect then depends on whether training or schooling dominates the long‐run increases in labor productivity. JEL classification: I20, J31, O40
Constructing Bounds on Per Capita Income Differentials across Countries
Authors: Hill Robert J. 
Published: March 2003

The results of purchasing power parity (PPP)‐based comparisons of income across countries can be quite sensitive to the choice of index number formula. Tighter bounds on per capita income differentials can be constructed either by assuming homothetic preferences, or by estimating a demand system. Both approaches are used to construct bounds on per capita income differentials across the OECD countries. The paper concludes by discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.JEL Classification C43; F31; O47
Shaken or Stirred? Financial Deregulation and the Monetary Transmission Mechanism in Norway
Authors: Bardsen Gunnar , Klovland Jan Tore 
Published: March 2003

Is there a credit channel for monetary policy? Has the deregulation of financial markets had any temporary or permanent effects on the monetary transmission mechanism? We present empirical evidence on these issues for Norway by estimating a dynamic system of money, credit, real income and inflation. We find that the deregulation process has not caused any permanent shifts in the long‐run demand functions. Within a small simultaneous dynamic model, there is some evidence for the credit view of the monetary transmission mechanism, as both credit and money exhibit strong and stable effects on aggregate demand. JEL classification: E50; E44; C51
Equal Pay for Equal Work? Evidence from Sweden and a Comparison with Norway and the U.S.
Authors: Meyersson Milgrom Eva M. , Petersen Trond , Snartland Vemund 
Published: March 2003

Using a new data set covering most privately employed workers in Sweden, we compare gender wage differences to those previously reported for Norway and the U.S. The central finding is that the wage gap is small when comparing men and women working in the same type of occupation for the same employer. Segregation of men and women by occupation accounts for more of the gap in Sweden than in the other two countries. In all three countries, we find that segregation by occupation explains more than segregation by establishment, and that institutional changes over the past two decades aimed at improving the status of women had little effect on the gender wage gap. JEL classification: J16; J71
Mutual Contributions of Individuals, Partners, and Institutions: Planning to Remember in Girl Scout Cookie Sales
Authors: Rogoff Barbara , Topping Karen , Baker‐Sennett Jacquelyn , Lacasa Pilar 
Published: March 2003

AbstractThis paper argues that planning entails distributed, mutual contributions of individuals, their social partners, and their community institutions. We suggest that these mutually involved contributions can be viewed through shifts in focus of analysis, contrasting with analyses of cognitive development that treat individuals as though they exist apart from their social and cultural worlds.We illustrate this argument with a study examining the distributed nature of planning to remember in a complex everyday task. We investigated the personal, interpersonal, and institutional cognitive contributions of 16 Girl Scouts, their mothers and customers and other companions, and institutions (the national organization and the cookie company) in keeping track of deliveries and planning collection of money in Girl Scout cookie sales and deliveries. The article also discusses an analytic methodology (Functional Pattern Analysis) for abstracting findings from the details of rich ethnographic data.Individual scouts, their mothers, customers, and the scouting organization and cookie company all played significant roles in keeping track of progress. In particular, tools and supports provided by the cookie company played a key role in organizing the cognitive tasks, and the scouts collaborated in planning with other people (usually their mothers and customers). Our findings illustrate the importance of examining contributions beyond those of the individual, while still recognizing the active roles of individuals in thinking. We argue that conceiving of individual, interpersonal, and institutional/cultural contributions as mutually constituting aspects of cognitive activities supports this aim beyond the usual focus on separate individual and ‘external’ factors.
The Nature and Effects of Young Children's Lies
Authors: Wilson Anne E. , Smith Melissa D. , Ross Hildy S. 
Published: March 2003

Abstract Children's use of deception in a naturalistic setting was observed longitudinally in 40 families when children were 2 and 4 years old, and again two years later. Goals included describing children's lying behavior and parents’ reactions to lies, and comparing lies to other false statements. Lies were commonly told to avoid responsibility for transgressions, to falsely accuse siblings, and to gain control over another's behavior. Unlike children's other false statements (e.g., mistakes, pretense), lies were distinctly self‐serving. Parents rarely addressed the act of lying itself but often challenged the veracity of lies or addressed the underlying transgression. Older siblings lied more often than younger ones, and parents who allowed older siblings to lie at Time 1 had children who lied more often at Time 2. Results are considered from a speech‐act perspective and in terms of children's developing understanding of mental states.
Structure and Meaning in Multidisciplinary Teamwork
Authors: Cott Cheryl 
Published: March 2003

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between structure and meaning in multidisciplinary long‐term care teams. In‐depth semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 26 staff working on five multidisciplinary teams in the same long‐term care facility in Metropolitan Toronto. Staff in different structural locations have differing meanings of work and teamwork. Direct caregiving nursing staff have simple role‐sets, minimal involvement in team decision‐making and ritualistic orientations towards their work and teamwork.Multidisciplinary professionals have complex role‐sets, greater involvement in team decision‐making and organic orientations towards their work and teamwork. Supervisory nurses are in a contradictory structural location and shared aspects of both orientations to teamwork. The lack of shared meanings results in alienation from work and teamwork for staff in lower structural positions which, in turn, has considerable implications for team functioning.
Reporting the dawn of the post‐genomic era: who wants to live forever?
Authors: Smart Andrew 
Published: March 2003

AbstractOn the 26 June 2000 the teams involved in mapping the human genome announced to the world's media that they had completed the ‘first draft’. This paper is a content analysis of UK press coverage of the announcement, particularly of the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSIs) contained therein. Widespread and highly visible coverage of the completion of the Human Genome Project (HGP) was characterised by press ambivalence towards, on the one hand, the optimistic future of post‐genomic medicine and, on the other hand, the pessimistic vision of post‐genomic society. Coverage of the positive medical implications characteristically echoed the exuberance felt by the champions of human genetic research, focusing on longevity and a cure for cancer. Articles on ELSIs either repeated long‐standing concerns about genetic discrimination and the redesign of human life, or introduced more novel topics such as the commercialisation of genetic science, genetic determinism and ‘living forever’. Press reports on the more novel ELSIs addressed the political and economic context of the science, its ‘social value’ and its complexity, issues that have often been lacking in media coverage of human genetics. However, as a contribution to public awareness and policy frameworks surrounding human genetic science, press coverage was deficient in important respects. The HGP's proponents were the press's key source of information about its ELSIs. Journalists addressed only a limited number of ELSIs, focusing on issues that were ‘manageable’ by regulation or legislation rather than concerns such as risk, clinical utility or opportunity costs. Furthermore, those articles that addressed the more novel concerns were often presented using sensationalist news values. As a media representation of science, coverage of the ‘first draft’ in the UK press demonstrated both ‘source dependence’ and a bias toward the legitimacy of science, although the coverage of the more novel ELSIs indicated some mistrust toward scientific governance.
Standard English: Discordant Voices
Authors: Davies Alan 
Published: March 2003

Standard English, belonging as it does to the optimistic rationality of the Enlightenment, has reached the nadir of all grand meta‐narratives, of being quotation marked. This fate may rile liberal humanists such as Randolph Quirk (1985: 6: ‘I hold that the stated or implied orthodoxy of regarding the term “standard” as fit only for quotation marks is a trahison des clercs’). But of course liberal humanists do not (yet?) accept that it is time to surrender to post modernism. If they do, then the relativizing of Standard English (as of other languages) seems inevitable: Lyotard (1984) reminds us that the post‐modern age is characterised by a loss of faith in all grand meta‐narratives, while Hobsbawm (1994) epigrammatizes that all postmodernisms ‘tended to a radical relativism’. This relativizing push has four major sources:1. the general attack on all Enlightenment certainties;2. the political (Marxist and feminist) critique against hegemony (‘what passes for standard so‐called correct English is not what is spoken by millions of people, Black or white, but what a small group of often unprincipled people speak’ (Smitherman, cited in Kramarae and Treichler, 1985: 431);3. the argument from diffusion – with the global spread of English, how many standard Englishes are there? One consequence has been the claim that English language tests are unfair because they use Standard English or an inappropriate Standard English;4. linguists' claim that all languages are equal, the very trahison des clercs that Quirk refers to.Honey's (1997) defence of Standard English against its enemies turns the apophthegm ‘language is power’ on its head by arguing that Standard English does not disempower the weak, as its critics maintain, but rather empowers them. The status of the native speaker is examined in relation to the standardisation claims of the New Englishes and International English and it is then argued that in the institutional settings in which applied linguistics operates, the imperative to make decisions with regard to language policy, curriculum planning, text‐book and examination models etc. means that the lack of clarity about Standard English does not diminish its authority.
Exploring the effects of talking book software in UK primary classrooms
Authors: Lewin Cathy 
Published: March 2003

This paper reports on an exploratory study concerning the effectiveness of specific design features in talking book software. Talking book software has the potential to complement current approaches to literacy instruction. In addition to common features such as word pronunciations, the implementation included sub‐syllabic word pronunciations, hints to encourage independent word identification and activities to reinforce specific reading skills. Two versions of the software were compared using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. One software version had minimal functionality (‘Basic’) and the other incorporated all design features (‘Enhanced’). Each version of the software was used daily for a period of four weeks by 16 children, aged 5 to 6 years.The findings of the study were complex due to variations in learner preferences and reading abilities. Nevertheless, it seems that electronic books can complement teaching approaches in infant classrooms and can positively affect both cognitive and affective learning outcomes. It is evident that children beginning to recognise words can benefit from common features alone. Those children using the Enhanced software who had already acquired a limited sight vocabulary can benefit from exposure to reinforcement activities. Children with more advanced reading skills may benefit from hints to support independent word identification.
A Method for Estimating Age-Specific Reference Intervals (‘Normal Ranges’) Based on Fractional Polynomials and Exponential Transformation
Authors: Royston Patrick , Wright Eileen M. 
Published: March 2003

Summary
The age-specific reference interval is an important screening tool in medicine. Put crudely, an individual whose value of a variable of interest lies outside certain extreme centiles may be suspected of abnormality. We propose a parametric method for constructing such intervals. It provides smooth centile curves and explicit formulae for the centile estimates and for standard deviation (SD) scores (age-standardized values). Each parameter of an exponential–normal or modulus–exponential–normal density is modelled as a fractional polynomial function of age. Estimation is by maximum likelihood. These three- and four-parameter models involve transformations of the data towards normality which remove non-normal skewness and/or kurtosis. Fractional polynomials provide more flexible curve shapes than do conventional polynomials. The method easily accommodates binary covariates facilitating, for example, parsimonious modelling of age- and sex-specific centile curves. A method of calculating precision profiles for centile estimates is proposed. Goodness of fit is assessed by using Q–Q-plots and Shapiro–Wilk W-tests of the SD scores, and likelihood ratio tests of the parameters of an enlarged model. Four substantial real data sets are used to illustrate the method. Comparisons are made with the semiparametric LMS method of Cole and Green.
An Experiment in Primary Health Care Provision
Authors: Longford Nicholas T. 
Published: March 2003

Summary
Missing data and, more generally, imperfections in implementing a study design are an endemic problem in large scale studies involving human subjects. We present an analysis of an experiment in the interaction between general practitioners and their patients, in which the issue of missing data is addressed by a sensitivity analysis using multiple imputation. Instead of specifying a model for missingness we explore certain extreme ways of departing from the assumption of data missing at random and establish the largest extent of such departures which would still fail to supplant the evidence about the studied effect. An important advantage of the approach is that the algorithm intended for the complete data, to fit generalized linear models with random effects, is used without any alteration.
The Relationship between Crime, Punishment and Economic Conditions: Is Reliable Inference Possible When Crimes are Under-Recorded?
Authors: Pudney Stephen , Deadman D. , Pyle D. 
Published: March 2003

Summary
We investigate the estimation of dynamic models of criminal activity, when there is significant under-recording of crime. We give a theoretical analysis and use simulation techniques to investigate the resulting biases in conventional regression estimates. We find the biases to be of little practical significance. We develop and apply a new simulated maximum likelihood procedure that estimates simultaneously the measurement error and crime processes, using extraneous survey data. This also confirms that measurement error biases are small. Our estimation results for data from England and Wales imply a significant response of crime to both the economic and the enforcement environment.
Investigating Disease Clusters: Why, When and How?
Authors: Wartenberg Daniel 
Published: March 2003

Summary
The investigation of disease clusters, aggregations of a few to several cases of disease, remains a controversial issue in epidemiology and public health. Reported at the rate of more than three per day nationally, a response commands substantial resources. This paper considers whether scientists or public health officials should investigate disease clusters, when they should, and, if so, how. Part of the disparity in opinions arises from differing goals: trying to identify new carcinogens versus identifying situations in which people are at risk. There are also differences in investigation strategies: passive versus active. This paper suggests that a more active surveillance programme with occasional investigation may best meet the needs of the public while accommodating the limited resources of public health officials and some of the concerns of epidemiologists.