A new look at gender effects in participation and occupation choice

The growth in female labour participation and occupational attainment represents the most dramatic feature of labour markets in the second half of the twentieth century. This has been due in part to developments in social attitudes and the consequent changes in the prices attached to women's characteristics, and in part to changes in those characteristics themselves. This paper analyses these issues by constructing models of participation and occupational choice for the years 1970 and 1990, and then by evaluating which participation and occupation regimes would have been selected by respondents with the characteristics of women observed in 1970 had they faced the coefficients which obtained in 1990. It is established that changing prices accounts for a substantial part of the improvement in women's fortunes in the labour market. To provide a basis of comparison, the model is also estimated for men. Choices concerning occupational and labour market participation are modelled using both the standard multinomial

Statistical modelling to predict corporate default for Brazilian companies in the context of Basel II using a new set of financial ratios

This paper deals with statistical modelling to predict failure of Brazilian companies in the light of the Basel II definition of default using a new set of explanatory variables. A rearrangement in the official format of the Balance Sheet is put forward. From this rearrangement a framework of complementary non-conventional ratios is proposed. Initially, a model using 22 traditional ratios is constructed. Problems associated with multicollinearity were found in this model. Adding a group of 6 non-conventional ratios alongside traditional ratios improves the model substantially. The main findings in this study are: (a) logistic regression performs well in the context of Basel II, yielding a sound model applicable in the decision making process; (b) the complementary list of financial ratios plays a critical role in the model proposed; (c) the variables selected in the model show that when current assets and current liabilities are split into two sub-groups - financial and operational - they are more effective in explaining default than the traditional ratios associated with liquidity; and (d) those variables also indicate that high interest rates in Brazil adversely affect the performance of those companies which have a higher dependency on borrowing

Household technology acceptance heterogeneity in computer adoption

Technology policy analysis and implementation relies on knowledge and understanding of the "adoption gap" in information technologies among different groups of consumers. Factors that explain the residential "digital divide" also need to be identified and quantified. Through the application of survey data we provide an enhanced understanding of the key factors involved in the choice of residential computer adoption. These choices are analysed using a discrete choice model that reveals that sociodemographic factors strongly influence the adoption of the residential computer. Moreover, we apply the basic findings of the Technology Adoption Model (TAM) into the discrete choice framework heteroscedastically to deepen our understanding of why some households choose not to have computers; above and beyond what may be explained by socio-demography alone. Generally, we find that computer adoption is sensitive to household digital division measures and that the model fit improves with the heteroscedastic addition of the TAM factors. These findings are important for market planners and policymakers who wish to understand and quantify the impact of these factors on the digital divide across different household types, as defined by the TAM model

Internet Usage and Online Shopping Experience as Predictors of Consumers’per Preferences to Shop Online Across Product Categories

This paper studies how adoption and usage behaviour of the Internet and online shopping respectively influence the preference to use electronic commerce to purchase different types of products. We empirically model the preference for electronic commerce when consumers have to buy different types of products and thus face different types of risks (Cox and Rich, 1964). Unlike previous research, we find that consumers who have previously shopped online display stronger preferences to buy products on the Internet irrespective of the perceived level of product specific risks of online shopping. This paper provides an interesting and novel insight into how both adoption and usage of electronic commerce impact on the attitude and risk perception of buying less predictable (more risky) products on the Internet

Bridging the digital divide: the growth implications of e-commerce for small and developing states

The significant growth of the Information & Communication Technology (ICT) sector has created a widening gap in productivity between the leading industrialised and developing economies. The emergence of a digital divide constitutes a critical constraint on the potential for the future growth of many developing economies. This is because they lack of a critical mass of physical infrastructure to support dynamic e-commerce and capture some of the growth spillovers from these activities. ICT and the expansion of e-commerce is an opportunity for many developing economies to overcome the spatial barriers to international economic interaction that have, in the past, constrained growth because of their economic peripherality and isolation from key regional and global markets. This paper is concerned with potential of ICT to promote economic growth in developing countries. It makes particular reference to the impact of ICT on small states since the empirical literature highlights the critical role of human capital-intensive economic activities in their growth performance. The paper provides a synthesis of the disparate theoretical literatures on the growth implications of ICT and e-commerce with that on the growth of small states in order to derive critical growth policy implications with applications to developing countries generally. The paper also proposes an agenda for further research on this important area of investigation

A new look at gender effects in participation and occupation choice

The growth in female labour participation and occupational attainment represents the most dramatic feature of labour markets in the second half of the twentieth century. This has been due in part to developments in social attitudes and the consequent changes in the prices attached to women's characteristics, and in part to changes in those characteristics themselves. This paper analyses these issues by constructing models of participation and occupational choice for the years 1970 and 1990, and then by evaluating which participation and occupation regimes would have been selected by respondents with the characteristics of women observed in 1970 had they faced the coefficients which obtained in 1990. It is established that changing prices accounts for a substantial part of the improvement in women's fortunes in the labour market. To provide a basis of comparison, the model is also estimated for men. Choices concerning occupational and labour market participation are modelled using both the standard multinomia