When Boards Matter: The Case of Corporate Social Irresponsibility

While academic research has made remarkable progress in understanding corporate social responsibility (CSR), we have scant understanding of corporate social irresponsibility (CSiR). This paper adopts a stakeholder‐agency perspective towards CSiR to ask two related questions: (1) What board‐level structures can monitor management to reduce CSiR? and (2) What are the conditions that render board monitoring more effective? Employing a unique objective measure of CSiR and a sophisticated system generalized method of moments with dynamic panel model on a sample of publicly listed firms in the USA between 2002 and 2015, this paper demonstrates how firms with a specific board‐level governance bundle (i.e. a large, more independent board, with a board CSR committee, a higher proportion of women within boards with frequent director activity) are better equipped to reduce irresponsible behaviours, both in terms of number of irresponsible incidents as well as in terms of their economic costs to the firm. Moreover, the effectiveness of this governance bundle sustains under conditions of high institutional ownership and high board remuneration. This paper has implications for CSR and corporate governance literatures, as well as for managers and policymakers.     

Druz’ia ponevole: Rossiia i bukharskie evrei, 1800–1917 [Reluctant Friends: Russia and Bukharan Jews, 1800–1917]

Jewish Themes in Contemporary Hungarian Literature

Avraham Bogatir. Napja (Seven Days in the‐ Life of Abraham Bogatir), by György G. Kardos. Budapest, Magvetö, 1968 and 1969. 427 pp. Ft. 1950.

Hova Tuntek a Katonak? (Where Did All the Soldiers Go?), by György G. Kardos. Budapest, Magvetö, 1971. 282 pp. Ft. 15.00.

Varakozok Lakomaja (The Banquet of Those that Wait), by Imre Keszi. Budapest, Magvetö, 1969. 214 pp. Ft. 17.50.

Soviet Yiddish Book on the Kaunas Ghetto

Zeyere. Blikn Hobn Zikh Bagegnt (Their Eyes Met), by Meyer Yelin.¹ Moscow, Sovetsky Pisatel, 1972. 382 pp.

An Opportunity Missed

The Jews of Poland, by Bernard D. Weinryb. Philadelphia, The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1973. xvi, (2) 424 pp. $10.00.

A Source of Holocaust History

Wicher Wolnosci. Dziennik Powstanca, by Waclaw Zagorski, London 1957 (English edition, Seventy Days, translated by D. J. Welsh, London 1957, 2nd ed. 1959). 391 pp.

Wolnosc W Niewoli (Freedom in Captivity), isdem, London 1971. 543 pp.

Useful Compendia on Communism

Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern, by Branko Lazitch in collaboration with Milorad M. Drachkovitch, Stanford, California, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, 1973. xxxxii, 458 pp. $15.00.

World Communism: A Handbook 1918–1965, ed. by Witold S. Sworakowski, Stanford, California, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, 1973. xv, 576 pp. Appendix. Index of Persons. Index of Subjects. $25.00.

A Soviet Exposition of Extremist Views

Istochnik Opasnogo Krizisa (Rol Sionizma V Razzhiganii Konflikta Na Blizhnem Vostoke) — The Source of a Dangerous Crisis (The Role of Zionism in Unleashing the Middle East Conflict), by V. P. Ladeykin. Moscow, Izdatelstvo Politicheskoy Literatury, 1973. 296 pp. 1 r. 08 k.     

Effective International Tourism Management: A Strategic Approach

The objective of the study was to explore the relationship between international tourism indicators, crime rate, and vulnerability in a panel of 16 tourist-oriented countries over the period of 1990–2014. The study constructed a vulnerability index by using three socioeconomic factors, (1) poverty, (2) income inequality, and (3) unemployment rate. The results show that crime rate and vulnerability both decreases international tourism demand, which were mediated through inadequate education and health resources. Trade openness moderately supported the international tourism demand under the crime rate and vulnerability index. The results confirmed the crime Kuznets curve that turned into inverted U-shaped relationship between crime rate and per capita income, while this relationship was not confirmed for vulnerability index. The panel causality relationships confirmed the unidirectional causality between crime-vulnerability and international tourism. Growth-fueled tourism demand was analyzed under a crime and vulnerability index. The study concludes that international tourism is an implied solution to reduce human costs by involving tourists to in pleasure activities to at tourists’ destinations.     

Combined estimating function for random coefficient models with correlated errors

ABSTRACT

Estimating functionshave been shown to be convenient to study inference for non linear time series models. Recently, Thavaneswaran et al. (2012 Thavaneswaran, A., Liang, Y., Frank, J. (2012). Inference for random coefficient volatility models. Stat. Probab. Lett. 82(12):2086–2090.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) used combined estimating functions to study inference for random coefficient autoregressive (RCA) models with generalized autoregressive heteroscedasticity errors. While most RCA modeling assumes that the random term and the error are independent, Chandra and Taniguchi (2001 Chandra, S.A., Taniguchi, M. (2001). Estimating functions for nonlinear time series models. Ann. Inst. Stat. Math 53(1):125–141.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) studied inference for RCA models with correlated errors using linear estimating functions. In this paper, we derive the quadratic estimating functions for the joint estimation of the conditional mean, variance, and correlation parameters of the RCA models with correlated errors.     

Sexual and reproductive health knowledge and information-seeking behavior among middle eastern female university students: a systematic review

Objectives: The objective of this study was to collate the level of sexual and reproductive health knowledge, awareness, attitudes, and behavior among female university students, in addition to identifying their sources of information in Middle Eastern and North African countries. Methods: A systematic review was conducted with a search in Medline, EMBASE, Web of Knowledge, PsycINFO, and CINAHL from inception to February 2013. Included were studies in any language describing sexual and reproductive health knowledge and attitudes among female university students. Results: Nine studies were included, and all were cross-sectional surveys. There was a general lack of knowledge of sexual and reproductive health. The highest knowledge levels reported were for HIV. Conclusions: There are deficiencies in sexual and reproductive health knowledge and behavior in Middle Eastern and North African countries. Studies are needed to evaluate how to provide culturally sensitive sexual and reproductive health information.     

The Impact of Trade and Exchange‐rate Policy Reforms on North African Manufactured Exports

Three indicators capture the impact of exchange‐rate policy in fostering manufactured exports from North Africa: changes in the real effective exchange rate (REER), its volatility, and its misalignment. The impact of trade policy is examined using a trade liberalisation indicator. Export supply equations are estimated for three manufacturing industries: textiles, chemicals, and food. The results suggest that trade and exchange‐rate policies matter for export performance, as is evidenced by the negative influence exerted independently by real exchange‐rate misalignment and volatility and by the positive influence of trade liberalisation.     

Modified ratio estimators using robust regression methods

When there is an outlier in the data set, the efficiency of traditional methods decreases. In order to solve this problem, Kadilar et al. (2007) adapted Huber-M method which is only one of robust regression methods to ratio-type estimators and decreased the effect of outlier problem. In this study, new ratio-type estimators are proposed by considering Tukey-M, Hampel M, Huber MM, LTS, LMS and LAD robust methods based on the Kadilar et al. (2007). Theoretically, we obtain the mean square error (MSE) for these estimators. We compared with MSE values of proposed estimators and MSE values of estimators based on Huber-M and OLS methods. As a result of these comparisons, we observed that our proposed estimators give more efficient results than both Huber M approach which was proposed by Kadilar et al. (2007) and OLS approach. Also, under all conditions, all of the other proposed estimators except Lad method are more efficient than robust estimators proposed by Kadilar et al. (2007). And, these theoretical results are supported with the aid of a numerical example and simulation by basing on data that includes an outlier.     

Projection de hájek et polynômes de bernstein

Under the hypothesis of white noise, the authors derive the explicit form of the asymptotic representation of linear rank statistics resulting from Hájek's (1968) celebrated projection lemma for linear rank statistics in the so‐called approximate score case. This representation based on Bernstein polynomials is better, in the quadratic mean sense, than the traditional one due to Hájek (1961, 1962). The polynomial representation allows for a new derivation of classical asymptotic results (asymptotic normality, Berry‐Essten bounds). Moreover, a simulation study shows that the quality of the polynomial approximation to the exact finite‐sample distributions of rank statistics is sizeably better than that resulting from the traditional approach.     

Modified regression estimators using robust regression methods and covariance matrices in stratified random sampling

Abstract

This article proposes new regression-type estimators by considering Tukey-M, Hampel M, Huber MM, LTS, LMS and LAD robust methods and MCD and MVE robust covariance matrices in stratified sampling. Theoretically, we obtain the mean square error (MSE) for these estimators. We compare the efficiencies based on MSE equations, between the proposed estimators and the traditional combined and separate regression estimators. As a result of these comparisons, we observed that our proposed estimators give more efficient results than traditional approaches. And, these theoretical results are supported with the aid of numerical examples and simulation based on data sets that include outliers.