Ethics in Higher Education: A Study of the Perceived Ethical Climate of Administrators and Faculty at a Higher Education Institution

Ethical transgression is an ongoing problem in higher education. There is a relationship between the perceived ethical climate of an organization and the ethical behavior of its employees, and that ethical climate can be a predictor of ethical behavior. The ethical climate types are: egoistic, deontological, and utilitarian. This quantitative study measured and identified the perceived ethical climate of administrators and full-time faculty at a higher education institution, and then compared the results to determine if there was a significant difference in perception. Given that administrators and faculty are critical and influential employees, predicting their ethical behavior is beneficial for higher education institutions and their leadership. This study used a survey instrument to measure the perceived ethical climate. The findings revealed that the deontological climate was the prevailing perceived ethical climate for both administrators and full-time faculty in the studied higher education institution. A deontological ethical climate positively correlates to good ethical behavior. Measuring of ethical climate is suggested and should be conducted as a common practice in higher education institutions to proactively manage the perceived ethical climate. This practice could help college and university leadership predict unethical behavior, and it would prompt the leadership to take the necessary actions to promote a positive ethical climate. Continual research is also suggested of ethics in higher education as it is critical to understanding what may cause ethical transgressions, and it would be an avenue to better manage the ethical behavior of employees to prevent future ethical transgressions

Equity Returns and Business Cycles in Small Open Economies

This is the first paper in the literature to match key business cycle moments and long-run equity returns in a small open economy with production. These results are achieved by introducing three modications to a standard real business cycle model: (1) borrowing and lending costs are imposed to increase the volatility of the intertemporal marginal rate of substitution; (2) investment adjustment costs are assumed to make equity returns more volatile; and (3) GHH preferences are employed to smooth consumption. We also decompose the contributions of productivity, the world interest rate, and government expenditure shocks to the equity premium. Our results are based on data from Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.Asset Pricing; Equity Returns; Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Model; Real Business Cycle; Small Open Economy.

A reappraisal of parity reversion for UK real exchange rates

We apply a new approach to test the long-run purchasing power parity theory of real exchange rate movements for the UK. The question of whether real exchange rates have a unit root or are mean reverting is set in the more general framework of fractionally differenced time-series models. Our results suggest that in the current period of floating rates, UK real exchange rates return to parity in the long run.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

FURTHER EVIDENCE ON THE ASYMMETRIC BEHAVIOR OF UNEMPLOYMENT RATES OVER THE BUSINESS CYCLE

unemployment ; business cycles ; manufacturing ; behaviour

Deep determinism and the assessment of mechanistic interaction between categorical and continuous variables

Our aim is to detect mechanistic interaction between the effects of two causal factors on a binary response, as an aid to identifying situations where the effects are mediated by a common mechanism. We propose a formalization of mechanistic interaction which acknowledges asymmetries of the kind "factor A interferes with factor B, but not viceversa". A class of tests for mechanistic interaction is proposed, which works on discrete or continuous causal variables, in any combination. Conditions under which these tests can be applied under a generic regime of data collection, be it interventional or observational, are discussed in terms of conditional independence assumptions within the framework of Augmented Directed Graphs. The scientific relevance of the method and the practicality of the graphical framework are illustrated with the aid of two studies in coronary artery disease. Our analysis relies on the "deep determinism" assumption that there exists some relevant set V - possibly unobserved - of "context variables", such that the response Y is a deterministic function of the values of V and of the causal factors of interest. Caveats regarding this assumption in real studies are discussed.Comment: 20 pages including the four figures, plus two tables. Submitted to "Biostatistics" on November 24, 201

Recognition of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest during emergency calls - a systematic review of observational studies

BACKGROUND: The medical dispatcher plays an essential role as part of the first link in the Chain of Survival, by recognising the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) during the emergency call, dispatching the appropriate first responder or emergency medical services response, performing dispatcher assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and referring to the nearest automated external defibrillator. The objective of this systematic review was to evaluate and compare studies reporting recognition of OHCA patients during emergency calls. METHODS: This systematic review was reported in compliance with the PRISMA guidelines. We systematically searched MEDLINE, Embase and the Cochrane Library on 4 November 2015. Observational studies, reporting the proportion of clinically confirmed OHCAs that was recognised during the emergency call, were included. Two authors independently screened abstracts and full-text articles for inclusion. Data were extracted and the risk of bias within studies was assessed using the QUADAS-2 tool for quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies. RESULTS: A total of 3,180 abstracts were screened for eligibility and 53 publications were assessed in full-text. We identified 16 studies including 6,955 patients that fulfilled the criteria for inclusion in the systematic review. The studies reported recognition of OHCA with a median sensitivity of 73.9% (range: 14.1–96.9%). The selection of study population and the definition of “recognised OHCA” (threshold for positive test) varied greatly between the studies, resulting in high risk of bias. Heterogeneity in the studies precluded meta-analysis. CONCLUSION: Among the 16 included studies, we found a median sensitivity for OHCA recognition of 73.9% (range: 14.1–96.9%). However, great heterogeneity between study populations and in the definition of “recognised OHCA”, lead to insufficient comparability of results. Uniform and transparent reporting is required to ensure comparability and development towards best practice

CHARACTERIZATION OF THE TIME IRREVERSIBILITY OF ECONOMIC TIME SERIES: ESTIMATORS AND TEST STATISTICS

econometrics

Equity Returns and Business Cycles in Small Open Economies

This is the first paper in the literature to match key business cycle moments and long-run equity returns in a small open economy with production. These results are achieved by introducing three modications to a standard real business cycle model: (1) borrowing and lending costs are imposed to increase the volatility of the intertemporal marginal rate of substitution; (2) investment adjustment costs are assumed to make equity returns more volatile; and (3) GHH preferences are employed to smooth consumption. We also decompose the contributions of productivity, the world interest rate, and government expenditure shocks to the equity premium. Our results are based on data from Argentina, Brazil, and Chile