CLASSROOM EXPERIMENTS: NOT JUST FUN AND GAMES

The impact of classroom experiments on student performance, attitudes towards economics, and retention is examined. Experiments increase cognitive gains overall but may be more helpful in teaching some topics than others. The size of the impact varies with preferred learning style. Multimodal and kinesthetic learners are significantly affected, while read–write learners fare just as well with the traditional lecture/discussion format. Attitudes towards economics and retention of economic knowledge are also improved by classroom experiments. The results indicate that the costs of implementing experiments in the classroom may very well be offset by the benefits to students. ( JEL A22, C90)     

What Is a Good Corporate Citizen?*

Au caeur du débat sur les corporations multinationales se trouve la question de déterminer si ces corporations agissent en « bons citoyens » Cependant, les critères à utiliser dans une telle analyse n'ont pas retenu l'attention des politicologues, économistes, sociologues et théoriciens en organisation. Certains des critères rencontrés dans les débats actuels et la situation de divers types de corporations par rapport à ces critères font l'objet de cette étude. Les donnés révèlent que, pour certain critères, la nationalité des propiétaires est importante mais que, pour d'autres critères, on observe davantage de variation entre types de corporation qu'entre propriétaires de différentes nationalités. Un nombre de questions sont soulevés au sujet de l'identification du critère le plus important et au sujet de la configuration de critères necessaires pour definir le « bon citoyen corporatif » Il s'agit d'une étude d'exploration visant à soulever des questions concernant un problème relativement peu travaillé en théorie de l'organisation. The question of what is “good corporate citizenship” is presently a central issue in the national debate regarding multinational corporations. However, the criteria used to answer this question have not been dealt with in detail by political scientists, economists, sociologists, or organizational theorists. Some of the criteria which have been raised in the current debate and the extent to which various types of corporations perform in terms of each criterion are examined. The data show that for some criteria the nationality of the corporate owners is important, but for other criteria variations occur between types of corporations rather than between the nationality of the owners. A number of questions are raised regarding which criterion is the most important and which combinations of criteria are necessary in order to determine “good corporate citizenship” in Canada. The paper is exploratory and intended to raise questions for discussion on this relatively unexplored problem in organizational theory.     

Generalization of Scott's Index of Intercoder Agreement

A generalization of Scott's (1955) index of intercoder agreementis proposed. The generalized index permits assessment of codingreliability based on the agreement of all or any size subsetof any number of independent coders.     

THE REACTION OF EXCHANGE RATES TO ECONOMIC NEWS

This paper examines the short-run responses of spot exchange rates to several types of economic news. Survey data are used to divide economic announcements into expected and unexpected components with the latter measuring news. The results indicate that exchange rates are systematically related to unexpected money announcements after the October 1979 switch in Federal Reserve operating procedures but not before. This response does not appear to have changed, however, after the October 1982 Federal Reserve regime change. Short-run exchange rate movements are not systematically related to news on inflation or real activity.     

DONOR PREFERENCES AND RECIPIENT FISCAL BEHAVIOR: A SIMULTANEOUS ANALYSIS OF FOREIGN AID

We theoretically develop and empirically estimate a preference model determining foreign aid donor behavior. Aid access and levels are separately determined by endogenous budgetary allocations, the international economic environment, the distribution of income between countries, basic human needs, the small country effect, and regional bias. We find fungibility of aid in recipient budgets is due to donor and recipient preferences. Despite the importance of other economic influences, we find a significant pro-poor country bias in aid allocations, although little aggregate influence of basic human needs or regional bias. The small country effect is significant for two (of six) donors. (JEL F35, O19, H 77)