Exchange rate regimes and the cross-country distribution of the 1997 financial crisis

We study variations in the severity of the 1997 financial crisis in a sample of 25 developing countries. We use both currency depreciation and stock market returns as crisis measures. Our key findings are that countries that started 1997 with an exchange rate peg experienced significantly greater currency depreciation and significantly lower stock returns than would be predicted from the levels of various macroeconomic indicators.     

Product value matrices help firms to focus their efforts

In management theory a gap seems to exist between consumer buying behaviour and the economic life cycles of products. This gap is the subject of this paper using product value matrices (PVMs). Brought together in this paper are some well-known theories dealing with consumer behaviour, buying behaviour and product life cycles (PLCs), in a manner that provides useful information to all firms. Too often it is found that these theories are elegant in isolation, but provide little help in focusing a company's efforts. Consumer behaviour has been researched for many decades, as has product life cycles, but the link between consumer buying behaviour and economic life cycles of products is mystical, with most chief executive officers (CEOs) believing it occurs like magic. The paper initially develops frameworks describing the economic life cycles of products and consumer buying behaviour. The paper then links the frameworks with the product value matrix and illustrates how they can be used in focusing a firm's efforts.     

Workplace discrimination and HIV/AIDS: the national EEOC ADA research project

This article utilizes data from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Integrated Mission System database to document the levels of employment discrimination involving individuals with HIV/AIDS. The researchers explore the theory that the nature of HIV/AIDS related employment discrimination is rooted in deeper stigmatization than discrimination against other disability groups. Researchers compare and contrast key demographic characteristics of Charging Parties and Respondents involved in HIV/AIDS related allegations of discrimination and their proportion of EEOC merit resolutions to those of persons with other physical, sensory, and neurological impairments. Findings indicate that, in contrast to the general disability group, HIV/AIDS was more likely to be male, ethnic minorities, between the ages of 25-44, in white collar jobs, in the South and West and to work for businesses with 15 to 100 employees. Additionally, the allegations in HIV/AIDS were more likely to receive merit resolution from the EEOC by a large difference of ten percent.