THE ANSWERING MACHINE POSES MANY QUESTIONS FOR TELEPHONE SURVEY RESEARCHERS

The proliferation of the telephone answering machine raisesa number of questions about the continued efficiency of thetelephone as a data-gathering mechanism. The most critical ofthese is what effect the use of these machines might have onestablishing contact with potential respondents. If individualsroutinely use these machines to screen calls, then their accessibilityto telephone survey researchers will be restricted. A secondquestion is the degree to which respondents who own answeringmachines and are reachable are likely to participate in a survey.A third question is the extent to which the incidence of theanswering machine as a response disposition might vary by thetime of calling and the respondent's place of residence. Thefindings of this study, based on a nationwide survey, pointto a significant proportion of answering machine owners beingreachable and willing to participate. Furthermore, the answeringmachine appears to be in use more on weekends than on weekdayevenings and in more urbanized areas than in areas with fewerinhabitants.     

Not playing around: global capitalism,modern sport and consumer culture

Abstract The development of modern sport is bound up with processes of economic and cultural transformation associated with the global diffusion of capitalist forms of consumption. In this article I draw attention to aspects of the globalization of modern sport that were becoming apparent towards the close of the nineteenth century and then move on to consider the factors that contributed to sport becoming a truly global phenomenon in the course of the twentieth century. Consideration is given to the development of international sport and sports goods companies, the growth in media interest and the increasing significance of sponsorship, consumer culture and sporting celebrities. The global diffusion of modern sport that gathered momentum in the course of the twentieth century involved a number of networked elements, including transnational communications media and commercial corporations for which sport, especially through the iconic figure of the transnational celebrity sport star, constitutes a universally appealing globally networked cultural form. Association with sport events and sporting figures through global broadcasting, sponsorship and endorsement arrangements offers commercial corporations unique access to global consumer culture.     

AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF ASYMMETRIC BEHAVIOR IN CORPORATE DIVIDEND POLICY

Employing three alternative measures of ability to pay, we find support for the Lintner hypothesis that firms pursue a long-run target payout ratio and also that current earnings better explain long-run dividends than cash flows or stock prices. The evidence further indicates that corporations adjust dividends with a ratchet effect, raising them more readily than they lower them. More specifically, when dividends are below target levels, firms move toward equilibrium by increasing them, but when dividends are above target levels, firms approach equilibrium by restricting dividend increases as earnings rise.     

The International Economy and Presidential Approval

There is widespread consensus that the state of the economymatters for presidents' standing in public opinion. To thispoint, however, the economy that has been taken to influencepresidential approval has been exclusively domestic. We showthat the domestic economy continued to matter in the 1990s,but so too did America's international economic performance,as measured by the national trade balance and inflation in theprice of imported goods. We further show that not all tradingpartners are equal in their implications for the president'spublic standing. Disadvantageous trade relations with Canadahave no effect on the president's approval ratings, while similarrelations with Japan depress them significantly. We explainthis difference by patterns of media coverage, showing thatthe volume of media coverage of trade relations with the twocountries has contrasting effects on presidential approval ratings.     

SOME ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF ANTICIPATING TECHNICAL ADVANCE

Using a simple model of a long run profit maximizing firm, we investigated the consequences of foreseeing future technical advance upon the adoption of new technology, scrapping of old, and for price and output of the firm's product. To simplify the analysis and highlight the conclusions, we assumed all technologies embodied in equipment and all equipment infinitely durable. It was shown that the often-used formulas for the unit cost of using capital over a finite (rkj/(l — a^T)) or infinite (rkj) life are appropriate only if the equipment does not become outmoded during its economic life and if there are no demand shifts in that time interval. Otherwise, the current cost of using capital (ex ante) must reflect future lesser or greater earning power of that capital due to outmodedness or demand shifts. Anticipation of technical advance tends to delay scrapping of old equipment and retard installation of new, with current output smaller and price higher than if technology is stagnant. Selection among currently competing technologies is also affected by the course future technical advance is expected to follow. The economic lifetime of capital equipment is independent of the elasticity of demand for the firm's output. On the other hand anticipation of demand expansion tends to partially or wholly offset the effect of anticipating future technical advance, while expected demand decline tends to reinforce it. Uncertainty about when improved technology will appear tends to retard adoption of current best practice technology, to retard scrapping of outmoded technology, restrict output and elevate price, in comparison with pptimal policy when the time of availability is believed known. The optimal policy is unaffected when it is the magnitude of the improvement rather than its timing which is unknown.     

WHY CHINA INDUSTRIALIZED AFTER ENGLAND

Although industrialization first occurred in England, it is thought that China, not England, may have been the world leader in technology at the time. Yet, China did not industrialize until 150 yr after England and nearly a century after less advanced European countries. This represents a puzzle because two‐sector neoclassical growth models, such as Hansen and Prescott (2002) , that accurately match industrialization, require that more technologically advanced countries industrialize at an earlier date. I find that a model that accounts for cross‐country heterogeneities in population density accurately predicts the timing of industrialization in China. (JEL F43, N10, N30, O11, O14, O41)     

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche's Contribution to Promoting Tibetan Buddhism in the West

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche was a key figure who transmitted Tibetan Buddhism to the West.This paper focuses on an introduction to his extraordinary life and his teachings of Buddhism in the West.