A Comparative Cost Disadvantage Driven By Foreign Competition

This study focuses on the impact of foreign physical steel imports on the output of the US steel industry.  This industry faces a comparative disadvantage in costs and from reduced utilized capacity in steel making. The strong desire of many foreign steel producers to export steel to the US lucrative market led to their plant modernization with the associated economies of scale.  This led to steel import surge in America.  The imposed trade restrictions had mixed outcomes.  The domestic steel output is modeled as function of steel imports and from the size of the economy addressed by shipments.  The OLS estimate of steel imports is insignificant and this could be explained by the ineffectiveness of the various instituted trade instruments, from increased foreign prices of steel, and from depreciated dollars at some points in time during the period in study.  As expected the measure of the economy—shipments variable has a positive impact on steel production

Labor Adjustment Patterns In The U.S. Steel Industry

This study examines labor demand in the U.S. steel industry.  During the period of 1963-1988, the industry witnessed a tremendous decline in its output and employment.  This decline has been particularly severe in the 1980s.  The overall goal of this study is to estimate models of labor demand for the industry. The study makes two main contributions.  First, the study constructs a new high-frequency monthly data set on steel output and factor prices.  Hamermesh (1993) notes that most studies of labor demand rely on annual data or quarterly data which is too intertemporally aggregated to model short-run labor adjustment.  Second, labor demand in the industry is modeled as a function of the unfilled orders variable.  This variable is included as a measure of future demand for the industry's output.  The main challenge of this study is to deal with a number of econometric modeling issues.  Recognizing that the industry's output demand is potentially an endogenous variable, the output is instrumented with a set of demand related variables including controls for various steel protection regimes.  This study also corrects for serial correlation in these data through differencing and Hatanaka’s autocorrelation procedures.  The main results of the study are fourfold.  First, as in previous studies, the Instrumental Variable (IV) estimates show that the real wage rate and output are the key variables for explaining the fluctuations in employment.  Second, the IV results do suggest that endogeneity of output is a problem and that the OLS results are biased downward.  Third, the unfilled orders variable increases the demand for labor.  However, this result is somewhat sensitive across specifications.   Lastly, the study finds a fast short run employment adjustment period of 1.6 months.  A final note of caution concerns serial correlation.  Serial correlation is relatively severe in the data.  The study solves this problem through both differencing and autocorrelation corrections.  However, the success of these procedures proved to be mixed.  Thus, the estimates reported herein vary across different estimation approaches

Sources, Stigmatization, And Alleviation Of Poverty In Albany/Dougherty, Georgia

The objective of this study is to highlight the impacts of and solutions to the major sources of poverty in the City of Albany and Dougherty County, Georgia. White, as well as Black middle class residents, are leaving the City of Albany and Dougherty County to the other Albany MSA counties that are experiencing increase in commercial activities and median family incomes. This movement seems to reflect increasing City vices and very low educational achievements from the public school system. These along with a low consideration of the county for professional careers, lead to depressed business opportunities that cause exit of businesses. Cautiously speaking, depressed employment and a low real average weekly wage earning, a proxy for poverty, explain the poverty. There is a need for specialized micro financial lending especially in the impoverished areas of the county. Poverty is being addressed by some temporary measures. In the long run, individuals’ understanding of how market economy works would resolve poverty

Real Wage Rate And Productivity Relationship In The Declining U.S. Steel Industry

This study examines the relationship between the real wage rate and productivity in the U.S. steel industry in the critical period of 1963-1988.  This period witnessed a declining steel output and employment, increasing productivity, and a slight increasing real wage rate.  The severity of the decline was felt in the 1980s.  The popular explanation focuses on the nominal wage rate relative to productivity (non-nominal value).  The study is based on high-frequency monthly data set on output, employment, productivity, wage rate, factor prices, and national unemployment rate.  Also control factors are constructed for the steel import protection and non-protection regimes.  Some econometric modeling issues are addressed.  Recognizing that productivity is stochastic and is potentially an endogenous variable, it is instrumented with a set of productivity-related variables including controls for various steel protection and non-protection regimes.  Third, the wage in the industry is modeled as a function of exogenous productivity, price of steel products, national unemployment rate, and real interest rate.  Serial correlation characterizes the data, and this is corrected with inter-temporal effect of the real wage rate, and with a differencing model.  The main results of the study are threefold.  First, OLS and Instrumental Variable (IV) estimates show that productivity is the key variable for explaining the real wage rate.  Second, like in the literature, the study finds that heavy and autonomous capitalization has an impact on the rising productivity.  Third, the study identifies an inter-temporal high real wage rate as the driving factor for explaining the short run real wage rate.  These results are somewhat sensitive across specifications

Translog Model Of Employment Substitution And Economies Of Scale In The U.S. Steel Industry, 2003

The period of 1963-1988 witnessed a tremendous decline in U.S. steel employment while the real wage rate increased slightly in the industry.  There is a popular notion that the nominal wage rate is the major factor in explaining the declining steel employment.  This study examines the decline in a system of input demand equations based on time series data.  The study identifies a heavy cap-italization in the industry as the driving factor for the steel employment decline.  This result supports the claim that the high wage rate in the industry is backed up by high productivity and therefore is not responsible for the steel employment decline.  Also, the study finds a lot of input substitutions.  The study finds diseconomies of scale in the industry, which may explain the decline of the industry

Modelling Customer Relationships as Hidden Markov Chains

Models in behavioural relationship marketing suggest that relations between the customer and the company change over time as a result of the continuous encounter. Some theoretical models have been put forward concerning relationship marketing, both from the standpoints of consumer behaviour and empirical modelling. In addition to these, this study proposes the hidden Markov model (HMM) as a potential tool for assessing customer relationships. Specifically, the HMM is submitted via the framework of a Markov chain model to classify customers relationship dynamics of a telecommunication service company by using an experimental data set. We develop and estimate an HMM to relate the unobservable relationship states to the observed buying behaviour of the customers giving an appropriate classification of the customers into the relationship states. By merely accounting for the functional and unobserved heterogeneity with a two-state hidden Markov model and taking estimation into account via an optimal estimation method, the empirical results not only demonstrate the value of the proposed model in assessing the dynamics of a customer relationship over time but also gives the optimal marketing-mixed strategies in different customer state

An Investigation Of Institutional Enhancement Factors On Student College Success

This study focuses on the importance of student’s hard work and institutional factors? technology, advising, mentoring, and tutoring on student’s academic performance.  It is important for institutions to emphasize both student’s hard work and effective institutional factors that will have positive impact on student success

Real Wage Rate And Productivity Relationship In The Declining U.S. Steel Industry

This study examines the relationship between the real wage rate and productivity in the U.S. steel industry in the critical period of 1963-1988.  This period witnessed a declining steel output and employment, increasing productivity, and a slight increasing real wage rate.  The severity of the decline was felt in the 1980s.  The popular explanation focuses on the nominal wage rate relative to productivity (non-nominal value).  The study is based on high-frequency monthly data set on output, employment, productivity, wage rate, factor prices, and national unemployment rate.  Also control factors are constructed for the steel import protection and non-protection regimes.  Some econometric modeling issues are addressed.  Recognizing that productivity is stochastic and is potentially an endogenous variable, it is instrumented with a set of productivity-related variables including controls for various steel protection and non-protection regimes.  Third, the wage in the industry is modeled as a function of exogenous productivity, price of steel products, national unemployment rate, and real interest rate.  Serial correlation characterizes the data, and this is corrected with inter-temporal effect of the real wage rate, and with a differencing model.  The main results of the study are threefold.  First, OLS and Instrumental Variable (IV) estimates show that productivity is the key variable for explaining the real wage rate.  Second, like in the literature, the study finds that heavy and autonomous capitalization has an impact on the rising productivity.  Third, the study identifies an inter-temporal high real wage rate as the driving factor for explaining the short run real wage rate.  These results are somewhat sensitive across specifications

Lived Experiences of Diabetic Patients and Access to Care Information in Nigeria

AbstractStudies have shown that chronic diabetes can be managed throughout a lifetime, despite the numerous health, social and economic consequences of the disease. Nevertheless, researchers have yet to establish the efficacy of access to diabetic information on care and family needs in relation to living with diabetes in a developing country like Nigeria. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences, including both barriers and needs regarding access to information and care, of diabetic patients in Abuja Municipal Area Council, Nigeria. The study used the Social-Ecological Model as a framework for analysis. Adopting the phenomenological research method, six Type II diabetes patients and five community health workers were studied: interviewed and engaged in in-depth discussion during which data were collected. Data were analyzed and interpreted using the Van Kaam approach, and nine themes were generated. The result of the study shows that while diabetic care information is available in healthcare facilities, access was constrained by factors such as out-of-pocket cost, patient’s level of education and literacy, physician referral, and other family needs. These factors were shown to create in participant’s adverse sick-roles such as avoidance of care facilities, susceptibility to fake drugs, and mixing modern and traditional medicines. The study highlighted the increasing importance of literacy, financial capacity, family support, and the need for community-based diabetic associations. Thus, the recommendations that there is a strong rationale for the formation of diabetes patients’ associations with both national and international outlook to coordinate and support care needs in patients in Nigeria. Nigeria’s Ministry of Health and Information needs to collaborate towards information dissemination on diabetes conditions and care

Exploratory Study Of The Relationship Between Poverty And Crimes In Albany/Dougherty, Georgia

Both the crime andpoverty rates in Albany/Dougherty County, Georgia, are substantially high.  Therefore, the objective of this study is tohighlight the sources of the relationships between poverty and crimes in thisarea.  The paper makes additionalcontributions by exploring the impact of non-market factors of segregation anddiscrimination on poverty in the remote Dougherty County that is also characterizedby both dualistic and restricted environments. The crimes seem to be driven by poverty that is characterized by otherfactors - the remoteness of the county, exit of some big establishments, decliningurban education, increasing unemployment rate, non-harmonized economic environments,and by the presence of teenage pregnancy.  These prevailing adversities have cumulativelysuppressed the real average weekly wage rate, proxy of poverty.  Crimes and poverty control measures areincluded in the study