I. Introduction In a recent issue of this Journal, G. Briscoe and D.A. Peel present novel estimates of the relationship between aggregate excess labor demand and the rate of…
Abstract
I. Introduction In a recent issue of this Journal, G. Briscoe and D.A. Peel present novel estimates of the relationship between aggregate excess labor demand and the rate of change of nominal wages. While I agree with their view that in explaining wage changes a more direct measure of excess labor demand than the unemployment rate would be preferred, I feel their method for calculating this measure is seriously flawed. While the authors explicitly hypothesize a disequilibrium process generating wage changes they ignore the implications labor market disequilibrium has for the estimation of their labor demand curve. I discuss below the implications of labor market disequilibrium for the Briscoe‐Peel method of estimating excess labor demand.
Hana Bin Mohd Zaini, Mohd Dona Bin Sintang, Yi Ning Dan, Noorakmar Ab Wahab, Mansoor Bin Abdul Hamid and Wolyna Pindi
The purpose of this paper is to determine the physicochemical and sensory properties of fish patties added with banana peel powder (BPP), Musa balbisiana.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine the physicochemical and sensory properties of fish patties added with banana peel powder (BPP), Musa balbisiana.
Design/methodology/approach
Four different fish patty formulations were produced containing 0 per cent (BPP0) (Control), 2 per cent (BPP2), 4 per cent (BPP4) and 6 per cent (BPP6) of BPP (M. balbisiana).
Findings
The addition of BPP was shown to improve the hardness, cooking yield, water holding capacity (WHC) and redness (a* value) as well as the dietary fibre (DF) content (p<0.05). The BPP, however, also turned the fish patties darker (lower L*) (p<0.05). Sensory evaluation showed that fish patties with a concentration of 2 per cent BPP had the highest overall acceptability, whereas the concentration of 6 per cent BPP was found to be unacceptable compared to that of control sample (p<0.05). The declining sensory acceptability of fish patty with 6 per cent BPP is related to the harder texture and the darker color of the patties compared to the control sample (BPP0).
Originality/value
The addition of BPP can potentially improve the quality of fish patties in terms of textural properties (hardness) by increasing their WHC, reducing the cooking loss and enhancing the DF content.
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This paper investigates the role of competitive balance among teams in a league in predicting attendance at spectator sporting events. It also controls for the demographic and…
Abstract
This paper investigates the role of competitive balance among teams in a league in predicting attendance at spectator sporting events. It also controls for the demographic and economic characteristics of the league's markets, and changes in the number of teams in the league. The research relies on a sample that includes 707 non-major professional team seasonal win-loss records (12,956 games) from five sports, aggregated into 75 seasons to develop a model consistent with extant literature. The authors find that competitive balance and average income in the league's markets are significant predictors of leaguewide attendance.
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Erkki K. Laitinen and H. Gin Chong
This paper presents a model for predicting crises in small businesses using early‐warning signals. It summarises the results of two separate studies carried out in Finland (with…
Abstract
This paper presents a model for predicting crises in small businesses using early‐warning signals. It summarises the results of two separate studies carried out in Finland (with 72 per cent response) and the UK (26 per cent) on the decision process of corporate analysts (Finland) and bank managers (UK) in predicting the failure of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Both studies consist of seven main headings and over 40 sub‐headings of possible factors leading to failure. Weighted averages were used for both studies to show the importance of these factors. There are significant similarities in the results of the two studies. Management incompetence was regarded as the most important factor, followed by deficiencies in the accounting system and attitude towards customers. However, low accounting staff morale was considered a very important factor in Finland but not in the UK. Unlike Finland, the UK results emphasised the importance of accounting systems and internal control. These two studies differ from previous studies as managerial auditing elements like the importance of internal control departments (UK evidence) and budgetary control systems were included. Similarities in the results of these surveys conducted under two separate EU environments imply that it would be interesting and beneficial to extend these studies to other member states.
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A. Bezuidenhout, C. Mlambo and W.D. Hamman
In financial analysis, forecasting often involves regressing one time series variable on another. However, to ensure that the models are correctly specified, one needs to first…
Abstract
In financial analysis, forecasting often involves regressing one time series variable on another. However, to ensure that the models are correctly specified, one needs to first test for stationarity, co‐integration and causality. In testing for causality, the variables should be stationary. If non‐stationary, one can estimate the model in difference form, unless the variables are co‐integrated. This article determines whether cash flow and earnings variables are stationary, and which variable causes the other, using econometric analysis. In most cases, cash flow variables are found to cause earnings variables. This is so when the models are estimated in levels. However, when estimated in first differences, the causal relationship tends to be reversed such that earnings cause cash flows. Further study is recommended, whereby panel data could be used to improve the power of the tests.
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The purpose of this article is to provide some further empirical evidence on the ex ante forecasting performance of the three major independent modelling groups in the United…
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to provide some further empirical evidence on the ex ante forecasting performance of the three major independent modelling groups in the United Kingdom, namely, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NI), the Centre for Economic Forecasting of the London Business School (LBS) and the Liverpool Modelling Group (LI). The motivation for our analysis is threefold. First is the fact that according to many forecasting practitioners, the ultimate test of an econometric model is its predictive ability.
Panayiotis F. Diamandis, Anastassios A. Drakos and Georgios P. Kouretas
The purpose of this paper is to provide an extensive review of the monetary model of exchange rate determination which is the main theoretical framework on analyzing exchange rate…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an extensive review of the monetary model of exchange rate determination which is the main theoretical framework on analyzing exchange rate behavior over the last 40 years. Furthermore, we test the flexible price monetarist variant and the sticky price Keynesian variant of the monetary model. We conduct our analysis employing a sample of 14 advanced economies using annual data spanning the period 1880–2012.
Design/methodology/approach
The theoretical background of the paper relies on the monetary model to the exchange rate determination. We provide a thorough econometric analysis using a battery of unit root and cointegration testing techniques. We test the price-flexible monetarist version and the sticky-price version of the model using annual data from 1880 to 2012 for a group of industrialized countries.
Findings
We provide strong evidence of the existence of a nonlinear relationship between exchange rates and fundamentals. Therefore, we model the time-varying nature of this relationship by allowing for Markov regime switches for the exchange rate regimes. Modeling exchange rates within this context can be motivated by the fact that the change in regime should be considered as a random event and not predictable. These results show that linearity is rejected in favor of an MS-VECM specification which forms statistically an adequate representation of the data. Two regimes are implied by the model; the one of the estimated regimes describes the monetary model whereas the other matches in most cases the constant coefficient model with wrong signs. Furthermore it is shown that depending on the nominal exchange rate regime in operation, the adjustment to the long run implied by the monetary model of the exchange rate determination came either from the exchange rate or from the monetary fundamentals. Moreover, based on a Regime Classification Measure, we showed that our chosen Markov-switching specification performed well in distinguishing between the two regimes for all cases. Finally, it is shown that fundamentals are not only significant within each regime but are also significant for the switches between the two regimes.
Practical implications
The results are of interest to practitioners and policy makers since understanding the evolution and determination of exchange rates is of crucial importance. Furthermore, our results are linked to forecasting performance of exchange rate models.
Originality/value
The present analysis extends previous analyses on exchange rate determination and it provides further support in favor of the monetary model as a long-run framework to understand the evolution of exchange rates.
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G. BRISCOE and D.A. PEEL
Whilst it is generally agreed that the key determinant of the current money wage inflation is anticipated increases in prices, there remains a significant role for excess demand…
Abstract
Whilst it is generally agreed that the key determinant of the current money wage inflation is anticipated increases in prices, there remains a significant role for excess demand variables. Many of the studies on inflation which have appeared following the original expositions of the Phillips curve relationship have been concerned with producing efficient measures of excess demand variables. In the basic model developed by Phillips and Lipsey, the key determining variable of the rate of growth of money wages was taken to be the percentage rate of unemployment in the labour force. However, several recent contributors to the literature on this type of relationship have challenged the efficiency of the level of unemployment as a measure of excess demand for labour and specifically they have produced evidence which contradicts the central assumption of stability between unemployment and aggregate excess demand. In the U.K. it has been observed how since the end of 1966, Phillips type relationships between levels of unemployment and the rate of change of money wages appear to have broken down and apparent ‘discontinuities’ in the aggregate unemployment series have been noted. All these findings taken together with some earlier U.S. studies which found poor relationships between changes in wages and unemployment levels (see, for example, the discussion in) have concentrated attention on the search for superior measures of excess demand.
This paper aims to examine the role of “restructuring” in confronting the challenges facing contemporary high streets in the devolved UK. It complements three articles concerned…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the role of “restructuring” in confronting the challenges facing contemporary high streets in the devolved UK. It complements three articles concerned with repositioning, reinventing and rebranding and illustrates the multi-faceted approaches involved in addressing retail change and town centre transformations. This paper emphasises the role of planning and governance in effecting change.
Design/methodology/approach
Informed by a literature review, action research involved inter-related interventions in selected locations, and associated workshops with engaged practitioners and community actors.
Findings
The findings highlight that the “resilience” of contemporary town centres demands resisting efforts to return to the status quo and necessitate forms of adaptive management. Understanding high street degeneration and the limitations of a retail-only led policy focus as a “wicked issue” further demands socially constructing town centres as an ecosystem requiring a holistic response. New forms of joint-working involve selecting appropriate models, attending to relational aspects and defined roles and responsibilities. Land use planning, including masterplanning and creating evidenced policy options, provides an important democratic space for legitimising action, offering leadership and extending participation to new change agents.
Practical implications
Restructuring of governance is an essential prerequisite in effecting change.
Originality/value
The originality of this study lies in the application of the restructuring element of the 4 Rs Framework which enables a focus on the governance dimensions of town centre and high street regeneration. The findings are enhanced through the experiential evidence which stresses both the importance of place-based diversification and value of prioritising holistic and joint actions developed through participatory visioning exercises.
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According to officially published statistics, there began in the UK during 1979 some 2,080 stoppages of work due to industrial disputes, involving 4.584 million workers and…
Abstract
According to officially published statistics, there began in the UK during 1979 some 2,080 stoppages of work due to industrial disputes, involving 4.584 million workers and resulting in 29.474 million working days lost (Department of Employment Gazette, 1980, p. 874). The purpose of this article is to summarise some of the main developments which have occurred over recent years in the economic analysis of strike activity and to illustrate some of the insights provided by economic theories of the collective bargaining process and its breakdown. We begin with a brief survey of the literature which provides a discussion of its major findings and of the limitations of existing studies. In subsequent sections, some basic theoretical concepts are introduced and after a brief discussion of some important elements of bargaining theory these are used in the construction of an alternative model of the breakdown of the collective bargaining process and the occurrence of strikes. In the penultimate section, this alternative model is tested against UK data and in the final section the main findings are summarised.