An evaluation of socio-economic classification systems : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Studies at Massey University

This thesis evaluates some commonly used socio-economic classification systems. Some of the systems evaluated have been used for many years in the market research industry in New Zealand whilst others are recent additions or are more commonly used in the United Kingdom. The main objective of this study was to test the ability of the systems to predict purchasing levels of consumer products and services. The second objective was to evaluate how well the various systems predict brand choice. A sample of 1596 respondents was provided by AGB McNair from their media survey database. Multiple regression was used to predict the level of usage of each product, with the adjusted R valua of the equation as the measure of the power of the classification system. Nominal variables, such as brand last used, were crosstabulated against the classification categories, and Lambdas calculated. A further measure of the ability of the classification systems to predict brand choice was obtained by performing discriminant analysis, which generated classification tables. The percentage of cases correctly classified provided a further measure of performance. The various classification systems were not very good at predicting purchasing behaviour. The better systems accounyted for about 2% or 3% of the variation in quantities purchased. The various classification systems were also not very good at predicting brand choice. Even though the various classification systems explained little of the variation in quantities purchased and brand choices, they are still very useful. The socio-economic classification systems can be used as a starting poing from which better preditors of purchasing behaviour can be developed

The economy and the banking system

Excerpt from a speech made to the Assembly for Bank Directors, Harbour Castle, Toronto, Canada, June 7, 1979

What is happening to the U.S. dollar?

Excerpts from an address at the meeting of the International Trade Club of Chicago, February 9, 1978

Adaptive feature thresholding for off-line signature verification

This paper introduces Adaptive Feature Thresholding (AFT) which is a novel method of person-dependent off-line signature verification. AFT enhances how a simple image feature of a signature is converted to a binary feature vector by significantly improving its representation in relation to the training signatures. The similarity between signatures is then easily computed from their corresponding binary feature vectors. AFT was tested on the CEDAR and GPDS benchmark datasets, with classification using either a manual or an automatic variant. On the CEDAR dataset we achieved a classification accuracy of 92% for manual and 90% for automatic, while on the GPDS dataset we achieved over 87% and 85% respectively. For both datasets AFT is less complex and requires fewer images features than the existing state of the art methods, while achieving competitive results

The Cost of Climate Change in 19th Century Europe.

What should we do about climate change? This commonly asked question is predicated on answers to other questions, such as: Is climate change happening? If so, is that a bad thing? If so again, how bad of a thing is it? Sadly, the public and scientific discussion on this topic has produced far more heat than light. This paper is an attempt to shift that balance slightly towards light by providing an analysis of the economic cost of climate change across 19th century Europe. The term "climate change" has partially displaced the term "global warming" in public and scientific discourse. The two terms are used interchangeably, but in a literal sense have very different meanings. Global warming means, obviously, that the temperature of the globe is rising. Climate change, however, does not specify a direction of change, although increase is generally implied. I attempt here to quantify the economic cost of environmental temperature change separate from direction of that change

Does Bribery Grease the Wheels of Economic Growth?

This paper examines whether corruption can be an efficiency enhancing adaptation to poor institutional environments. Prior research on this question has not taken into account the heterogeneity of corruption or the possibility that petty bureaucratic corruption in the form of bribery may grease the wheels of an economy at the same time that grand political corruption such as diversion of state funds may sand the wheels of economic growth. By differentiating between grand and petty corruption and narrowly framing poor institutional quality as the burden of regulation on economic activity, I am able to show that bribery is not an efficiency enhancing adaptation to poor regulatory environments. To the contrary, given the specific type of corruption and institutional environment most conducive to an efficiency enhancing effect, the opposite effect was found

Do Corporate Name Changes Affect Share Price? An Event Studies Analysis of Corporate Rebranding on the NYSE

I conduct an event studies analysis of the effect of corporate name changes on short-term stock price movements for companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Using the NYSE Composite Index as a baseline for comparison, I find that changing corporate name has a small positive effect on share price over the subsequent thirty days

Decomposing Altruism - An Experiment to Measure Motivations for Giving by Demographic Group

I conduct an on-line experiment to decompose giving in a dictator game into amounts motivated by pure altruism and amounts motivated by the warm glow of giving as defined in Andreoni (1989). By manipulating the price of benefit to the recipient while holding the price of the act of giving constant, I estimate separate values for giving motivated by warm glow and giving motivated by pure altruism,. I find significant evidence of both pure altruism and warm glow as motivations for the amounts sent to an anonymous recipient. However, I also find a large gender difference in the motivation for giving. Females are significantly less sensitive to the price of benefit to the recipient than are males, suggesting females are motivated relatively more by warm glow and relatively less by pure altruism, while men display the opposite behavior

Hidden Risk: Detecting Fraud in Chinese Banks’ Non-performing Loan Data

Using self-reported data from banks in mainland China, I apply a technique used in forensic accounting based on Benford’s Law to detect fraudulent manipulation of non-performing loan (NPL) figures. I find large data anomalies consistent with false reporting in mainland banks that do not appear in an identically structured survey of Hong Kong banks. A comparison of different types of data from mainland banks shows no statistically significant anomalies in data for total deposits from customers, operating expenses, net interest income, or non-interest income

On-campus and online : the lived experiences of students enrolled in the online courses of a major research university

textOnline education’s potential to “scale-up” the traditional lecture-based, face-to-face course while maintaining or improving the quality of instruction attracts the attention of university administrators, faculty, and policymakers interested in opening access to higher education and expanding access to faculty experts. However, previous research has focused on distance education and not online education offered through campus-based institutions. As such, this dissertation used a qualitative, phenomenological approach to examine the lived experiences of students enrolled in online courses offered through a major research university (MRU). This study employed student engagement and developmental ecology theories to present the perspectives of 11 students through the analysis of student interviews, journals, and questionnaires; course syllabi; and faculty interviews. The significance of this study lies in its capacity to capture student perceptions and behaviors to better understand how online courses, and specific components of such courses, promote or discourage undergraduate student engagement in the modern research university. The interview and journal data indicated that online courses have the capacity to promote active and collaborative learning, academically challenge students, and contribute to a supportive campus environment at an MRU. Students related an enhanced sense of being independent and responsible for their own learning to online courses’ physical and transactional distance. Further, they considered anonymity as crucial to honest interactions with peers and teaching assistants and strengthened their commitment to one another. With regard to student-faculty interactions, students in the synchronous courses tended to form meaningful connections with faculty through intimate, face-to-face interactions rather than through online activities. The study also found that the perception held by some students that online courses equate to an “easy ‘A’” and mandated course enrollment negatively influenced participants’ investment of time and effort in their online courses. Given these findings, this dissertation calls for instructors and policymakers at major research universities to integrate key online and face-to-face components into online course designs and dedicate the necessary resources to engage students across the physical and transactional gap. For their part, students may consider how settings beget certain behaviors in their selection of physical workspaces and strategically utilize in- and out-of-class activities as active and collaborative learners.Educational Administratio