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The purpose of the present study is to report the initial analyses of relationships between various components of the learning patterns exhibited by a group of 1,572 post‐secondary students in Hong Kong as operationalized via the Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS), a quantitative instrument developed by Vermunt originally for the Dutch higher education context.

The ILS was adapted and translated into Chinese for the new response‐context. After validation of the ILS scales (results reported in another paper), the possible direct, indirect, or spurious effects among the learning constructs operationalized by these scales were explored using a general theoretical model proposed by Richardson, according to the exhibited statistical significance and magnitude of the beta weights derived from multiple regression analyses.

Empirical support was found in this new Chinese response‐context for the theoretical model that underpins the ILS. In particular, the findings confirm the central explanatory role of regulation strategies in students’ learning patterns, as originally hypothesized by Vermunt.

The present study contributes to the ILS literature by expanding the application of the instrument to a new Chinese response‐context. It is also believed to be the first attempt to adapt Richardson's general theoretical model to analyse the relationships between the ILS components.

The SERVPERF (for Service Performance) and the HEdPERF (for Higher Education Performance) are two questionnaires for collecting customer/student feedback on service quality that have been tested and used mainly in non‐Chinese contexts. The purpose of this paper is to adapt and initially validate a Chinese translation of these two instruments for application in the context of post‐secondary education in Hong Kong.

Given that a Chinese translation of the two questionnaires concerned has not been tested in this new response‐context, an exploratory approach was adopted by examining the psychometric properties of the SERVPERF scales and the HEdPERF scales via scale alpha, item‐correlation analysis and exploratory factor analysis using valid responses collected from 271 students.

The alpha values of both the SERVPERF scales and the HEdPERF scales are good or acceptable, with the latter better than the former in general. In the present study, the validity of employing the SERVPERF in the targeted response‐context is supported as all the five SERVERF dimensions have been cleanly identified in the exploratory factor analysis. However, only three out of the five HEdPERF dimensions were identified in the present study, and two of the identified dimensions are complex concepts with each of them exhibited as two factors in the exploratory factor analysis, casting doubt on the appropriateness of the direct employment of the HEdPERF in the targeted response‐context for the measurement of service quality.

The students who participated in the present study were pursuing Project Yi Jin, which was a special one‐year post‐secondary programme in Hong Kong.

Taking both reliability and validity issues into consideration, this initial investigation indicates that the SERVPERF may be a more appropriate instrument than the HEdPERF for supporting quality assurance in the context of Hong Kong post‐secondary education, especially when multiple questionnaires will be used for collecting students' feedback on their various experiences at different levels, where it is important for these questionnaires to be, as much as possible, simple and non‐overlapping.

The Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) is a quantitative instrument for collecting student feedback on programme quality that has been tested and practically used in Western university response‐contexts. The purpose of this paper is to adapt and partially validate a Chinese translation of the CEQ, for application in the new context of post‐secondary education in Hong Kong.

From a population of about 2,515 students in six institutions, 1,572 responses were obtained, representing a response rate of 62.5 percent. Given that a Chinese CEQ has never been tested in this new context, an exploratory approach was adopted by examining the psychometric properties of the CEQ constituent scales and their underlying factor structure as exhibited via item‐correlation analysis and exploratory factor analysis.

The alpha values of the CEQ scales in the present study are generally lower than those of the other reported studies. The results of exploratory factor analysis indicate that the degree of overlap among the constructs as measured by the CEQ scales is more extensive than most other reported studies, resulting in only four factors being explicitly indicated, with some constructs being overshadowed by other more salient constructs and failing to exhibit in the factor structure.

While broadly supporting the potential of CEQ‐type surveys in informing the quality endeavour, the findings of the present study (and those of some related tests on Chinese students that have recently been reported) suggest the need for further development of the CEQ for application in the Chinese context in general, and the context of Hong Kong post‐secondary education in particular.

The paper cross‐validates the CEQ in a new context.

The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.

In order to succeed in an action under the Equal Pay Act 1970, should the woman and the man be employed by the same employer on like work at the same time or would the woman still be covered by the Act if she were employed on like work in succession to the man? This is the question which had to be solved in Macarthys Ltd v. Smith. Unfortunately it was not. Their Lordships interpreted the relevant section in different ways and since Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome was also subject to different interpretations, the case has been referred to the European Court of Justice.

The Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into operation on 29 December 1975) provides for an “equality clause” to be written into all contracts of employment. S.1(2) (a) of the 1970 Act (which has been amended by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) provides:

This paper shows how a shorter fecundity horizon for females (a biological constraint) leads to age and educational disparities between husbands and wives. Empirical support is based on data from a natural experiment commencing before and ending after China’s 1980 one-child law. The results indicate that fertility in China declined by about 1.2–1.4 births per woman as a result of China’s anti-natalist policies. Concomitantly spousal age and educational differences narrowed by approximately 0.5–1.0 and 1.0–1.6 years, respectively. These decreases in the typical husband’s age and educational advantages are important in explaining the division of labor in the home, often given as a cause for the gender wage gap. Indeed, as fertility declined, which has been the historical trend in most developed countries, husband-wife age and educational differences diminished leading to less division of labor in the home and a smaller gender wage disparity. Unlike other models of division of labor in the home which rely on innately endogenous factors, this paper’s theory is based on an exogenous biological constraint.