Who Does the Public Trust? The Case of Genetically Modified Food in the United States

Trust is important for the perception of many types of risk, including those relating to genetically modified (GM) food. Who the public trusts in any given circumstance, however, is not well understood. In this study of public trust regarding GM food, an exploratory factor analysis with Promax rotation reveals public classification of three common institutional types-evaluators, watchdogs, and merchants. The structure of relationships among these stakeholders can act to enable or constrain public support for this new technology. Evaluators-scientists, universities, and medical professionals-are the most trusted. Watchdogs-consumer advocacy organizations, environmental organizations, and media sources-are moderately trusted. Merchants-grocers and grocery stores, industry, and farmers-are least trusted. While the federal government is seen as closest to being an evaluator, it is not highly correlated with any of the factors. The lack of trust in the organizations with the greatest resources and responsibilities for ensuring the safety of GM food should be seen as an important obstacle to the adoption of the technology.     

Analyzing agribusiness competitiveness: The case of the United States sugar industry

The U.S. sugar industry has historically been insulated from volatilities in the world sugar market through the use of an import quota. Recent occurrences in the international agricultural policy arena have brought the need to examine the competitiveness of the United States sugar industry to the fore. Developments with respect to international agricultural policies, combined with a restructuring of United States domestic agricultural policy will undoubtedly reshape the environment in which the U.S. Sugar industry operates. This paper seeks to answer how the various regions and sectors will be able to compete in the world market. This paper starts by outlining an analytical framework to examine the impact of various sources that influence competitiveness in the sugar industry and identify several indicators of competitiveness.     

Consumer Risk Perceptions Toward Agricultural Biotechnology, Self-Protection, and Food Demand: The Case of Milk in the United States

This study is an econometric systems approach to modeling the factors and linkages affecting risk perceptions toward agricultural biotechnology, self-protection actions, and food demand. This model is applied to milk in the United States, but it can be adapted to other products as well as other categories of risk perceptions. The contribution of this formulation is the ability to examine how explanatory factors influence risk perceptions and whether they translate into behavior and ultimately what impact this has on aggregate markets. Hadden's outrage factors on heightening risk perceptions are among the factors examined. In particular, the article examines the role of labeling as a means of permitting informed consent to mitigate outrage factors. The effects of attitudinal, economic, and demographic factors on risk perceptions are also explored, as well as the linkage between risk perceptions, consumer behavior, and food demand. Because risk perceptions and self-protection actions are categorical variables and demand is a continuous variable, the model is estimated as a two-stage mixed system with a covariance correction procedure suggested by Amemiya. The findings indicate that it is the availability of labeling, not the price difference, between that labeled milk and milk produced with recombinant bovine Somatotropin (rbST) that significantly affects consumer's selection of rbST-free milk. The results indicate that greater availability of labeled milk would not only significantly increase the proportion of consumers who purchased labeled milk, its availability would also reduce the perception of risk associated with rbST, whether consumers purchase it or not. In other words, availability of rbST-free milk translates into lower risk perceptions toward milk produced with rbST.     

Strategies of the United States Airlines

In this article the author examines the background of U.S. Airline operation and outlines the policies which have been adopted by the operators given that background.     

The Ombudsman Institution in Small States: The Case of Cyprus

Many small state constitutions provide for the establishment of an ombudsman. In the Cyprus case, the original constitution-makers were preoccupied with other things, and many years were to elapse before provision was made for the appointment of an ombudsman. While the office now plays an important part in the governance of the island, its provision needs to be viewed as part of this small state's preparation to become part of the European Union rather than as an accommodation to small state orthodoxy.     

Organizational Transformation and Top-Down Change: The Case of the NHS

This paper analyses the effects of government-sponsored attempts to change the way that the NHS, one of the largest employers in Europe, is managed. The theoretical issues raised relate to the concept of transformational change and attempts at public-sector restructuring, which set the context for the presentation of data. The empirical research, carried out over three years, examines the changes since the most recent reforms (the NHS and Community Care Act 1990).
The research considers the extent of organizational change which can be seen as the outcome of these reforms in relation to: a multiple and inter-related change agenda; the creation of new forms of organization; the creation of new roles; the reconfiguration of power relations; and the creation of a new culture, ideology and organizational meaning. These are presented as the key variables which could indicate whether transformational, rather than incremental, change has occurred. The focus of this analysis is at local board level.
This article concludes that earlier analyses of the limited success of administrative reform are no longer the case. Our analysis of the key variables suggests that what is occurring at least at local board level goes beyond incremental change and may represent the beginnings of an 'organizational transformation'. This contains unintended as well as intended elements as an unanticipated 'hybrid' form of management may be emerging.     

The Quality of Industrial Relations and Labour Market Performance

Abstract. Using data from 19 industrial countries for the period 1985–2002, this paper analyses whether the quality of industrial relations affects unemployment and employment rates. To measure the quality of industrial relations, we use the results of surveys in which senior business executives characterized the industrial relations of their countries. Controlling for the impact of major labour market institutions, the business cycle, the level of economic development, unobserved country effects, as well as endogeneity, we find that cooperative industrial relations are likely to lower unemployment and to increase employment. The effects appear to be large, particularly among young people.     

The Changing Character of Regulation: A Comparison of Europe and the United States

European and U.S. regulatory policies have changed considerably over the past 30 years. In Europe, since the mid-1980s, consumer and environmental regulation has become more politically salient and regulations have by and large become stricter. On the other hand, in the United States consumer and environmental issues have become less salient and contentious, and regulations have not become (comparatively) stricter. This apparent "flip-flop" of regulatory systems has not been analyzed in much detail to date. This perspective is an attempt to analyze some examples in which it has occurred and identifies one possible cause--namely, credibility.     

The Financial Impact of FSC Certification in the United States: A Contingency Perspective

This article focuses on an important and emergent standard for sustainable operations management: the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. Unlike similar certifications, its focus is on the entire upstream supply chain, reflecting the criticality of supply chain management to ensure sustainable products. We investigate the financial impact from FSC certification, offering valuable decision support for managers considering this certification. Taking a contingency perspective, we view a firm's supply chain position and its prior certification to the ISO 14001 standard as influencing the results. Drawing on signaling theory, we suggest that firms farther downstream in the supply chain realize significantly greater abnormal financial performance benefits than firms upstream in the supply chain. We further hypothesize that firms that were not ISO 14001 certified at the time of FSC certification realize significantly greater abnormal financial performance benefits than firms that did have the ISO 14001 certification. To test these hypotheses, we utilize financial data of all publicly traded firms in the United States that have obtained the FSC certification, and assess whether FSC certification leads to abnormal performance benefits considering the above contingencies. Data collected from the FSC Certificate Database and Compustat, employed in an event study, provide support for our hypotheses. Overall, our findings contribute to research on decision making in the context of sustainable operations management, and offer a plausible explanation for contradictory results in prior studies. We highlight the applicability of signaling theory to decision sciences research, and stress the need to consider contingencies in sustainability management research.     

Canadian collections in the United States

The purpose of this article is to identify the libraries in the United States with collections of Canadian materials, the extent of the collections and some of the problems encountered in collecting Canadian publications. Questionnaires were sent to 49 selective and full depositories of Canadian federal documents and 306 depositories of United States federal documents, drawn from theList of Depository Libraries by random sample. It was found that those libraries not already designated as Canadian federal depositories in the United States for the most part either do not collect Canadian materials at all or have very limited collections. A directory of the Canadian depository libraries is included.In selecting Canadian publications, one person usually handles the federal documents while other publications are primarily selected by subject area. Thus it is understandable that upon receiving Canadian publications libraries primarily class some documents by catalogue number and integrate others into the library's main collection.Bibliographic control has improved greatly since 1927 with many changes in the public printing law and concerted attempts by concerned librarians and the Canadian Library Association.     

National planning in the United States

This paper is concerned with the relatively new interest in national planning in the United States. The effects of the Arab oil embargo and price increases, impending scarcities of minerals, inflation, unemployment, and other problems seem to be reversing the American public's negative views of planning by the Federal government. Assuming that negative sentiments are still strong and aware of the difficulty of institutional change, the authors submit a modest proposal for initiating a formal system of indicative national planning.The proposal is based upon an analysis of the economic challenges facing the United States and the apparent inability of the Federal government to respond effectively to change. The solution is seen as the need for an economic intelligence activity coupled to the formulation of ‘inventories of policy alternatives’, with a minimum of structural change or expansion in governmental structure.The recent Humphrey-Javits proposal for national planning is discussed briefly and critically.     

美国经济衰退原因及前景预测

美国经济在经过短暂的衰退之后出现了复苏迹象,但对于美国经济的发展前景,仍然是众说纷纭.试从美国发生经济衰退的原因入手,详尽地分析现阶段影响美国经济运行的各种因素,并对美国经济未来的发展做出预测.     

觊觎美国会计准则制定权的各利益集团的较量

由于会计准则"经济后果"的存在,会计准则的制定过程日趋复杂化.美国会计准则制定机构的反应是让不同利益集团参加他们的委员会,从而展开了一场关于准则制定权的各利益集团的较量.本文阐述了这场较量产生的原因、各利益集团的表现以及这场较量的热点问题,认为各利益集团在准则的制定过程中应做好技术性和社会性这两方面的权衡,从而使得在各利益集团的较量中产生高质量的会计准则.     

Retrospective Cost-Effectiveness Analyses for Polio Vaccination in the United States

The history of polio vaccination in the United States spans 50 years and includes different phases of the disease, multiple vaccines, and a sustained significant commitment of resources. We estimated cost-effectiveness ratios and assessed the net benefits of polio vaccination applicable at various points in time from the societal perspective and we discounted these back to appropriate points in time. We reconstructed vaccine price data from available sources and used these to retrospectively estimate the total costs of the U.S. historical polio vaccination strategies (all costs reported in year 2002 dollars). We estimate that the United States invested approximately US dollars 35 billion (1955 net present value, discount rate of 3%) in polio vaccines between 1955 and 2005 and will invest approximately US dollars 1.4 billion (1955 net present value, or US dollars 6.3 billion in 2006 net present value) between 2006 and 2015 assuming a policy of continued use of inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) for routine vaccination. The historical and future investments translate into over 1.7 billion vaccinations that prevent approximately 1.1 million cases of paralytic polio and over 160,000 deaths (1955 net present values of approximately 480,000 cases and 73,000 deaths). Due to treatment cost savings, the investment implies net benefits of approximately US dollars 180 billion (1955 net present value), even without incorporating the intangible costs of suffering and death and of averted fear. Retrospectively, the U.S. investment in polio vaccination represents a highly valuable, cost-saving public health program. Observed changes in the cost-effectiveness ratio estimates over time suggest the need for living economic models for interventions that appropriately change with time. This article also demonstrates that estimates of cost-effectiveness ratios at any single time point may fail to adequately consider the context of the investment made to date and the importance of population and other dynamics, and shows the importance of dynamic modeling.     

Governance Implications of the Global Financial Crisis: United States Experience

In the financial debacle, public and private organizations failed to protect owners and stakeholders from calamity. Given the immense financial bubble, could improved governance have made a difference? Many large complex financial institutions may not be sufficiently governable to avoid unpleasant major surprises. Ponderous processes of enacting laws and regulations, and the substantial influence of powerful stakeholders in those processes, mean that fluid markets are likely to mitigate or even avoid the impact of regulatory improvements that policymakers suggest. Better information must flow to decision makers, but the dynamics of a bubble may impede effective risk management by financial firms and government.     

Assessing Potential Human Health Hazards and Benefits from Subtherapeutic Antibiotics in the United States: Tetracyclines as a Case Study

Many scientists, activists, regulators, and politicians have expressed urgent concern that using antibiotics in food animals selects for resistant strains of bacteria that harm human health and bring nearer a “postantibiotic era” of multidrug resistant “super‐bugs.” Proposed political solutions, such as the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA), would ban entire classes of subtherapeutic antibiotics (STAs) now used for disease prevention and growth promotion in food animals. The proposed bans are not driven by formal quantitative risk assessment (QRA), but by a perceived need for immediate action to prevent potential catastrophe. Similar fears led to STA phase‐outs in Europe a decade ago. However, QRA and empirical data indicate that continued use of STAs in the United States has not harmed human health, and bans in Europe have not helped human health. The fears motivating PAMTA contrast with QRA estimates of vanishingly small risks. As a case study, examining specific tetracycline uses and resistance patterns suggests that there is no significant human health hazard from continued use of tetracycline in food animals. Simple hypothetical calculations suggest an unobservably small risk (between 0 and 1.75E‐11 excess lifetime risk of a tetracycline‐resistant infection), based on the long history of tetracycline use in the United States without resistance‐related treatment failures. QRAs for other STA uses in food animals also find that human health risks are vanishingly small. Whether such QRA calculations will guide risk management policy for animal antibiotics in the United States remains to be seen.     

销售人员的薪酬机制设计研究综述

本文综述了关于销售人员最优报酬机制设计的代理理论模型及相应的实证分析,并结合契约理论的最新进展提出今后进一步研究的方向.