Are Consumers Disadvantaged or Vulnerable? An Examination of Consumer Complaints to the Better Business Bureau

Questions have emerged recently about the appropriateness of defining disadvantaged consumers based on their membership in certain demographic categories, such as income, age, education, and race. This study assessed whether these traditional classifications are useful for understanding consumer complaining behavior with the Better Business Bureau. Results of analysis of more than 24,000 consumer complaints filed with a local BBB office during a 13-year period do not provide consistent support for this disadvantaged consumer perspective. Instead, the emerging vulnerable consumer perspective may provide a more promising basis for future research

Gender Differences in Pay of Young Management Professionals in the United States: A Comprehensive View

We conduct a comprehensive examination of the gender differences in pay focusing on multiple perspectives emanating from economics, social psychology, and gender studies. Data are drawn from surveys of MBA students conducted by the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Although women in both samples earn significantly less on average than men, when the effects of the study’s variables are considered via multiple regression analysis, no significant difference in annual salary is observed. Our results show the importance of simultaneously considering the impact of human capital, job and firm characteristics, demographics, and cognitive skills. Structural differences are noted in the models estimated separately for men and women. However, the results from decomposing salary differentials are quite consistent with estimates from the single-equation models

Gender Composition of Occupations and Earnings: Why Enter a Female Dominated Occupation?

Given the inverse relationship between the proportion of females employed in an occupation and earnings, why enter a female-dominated occupation? It has been argued that an individual’s total compensation from work is a combination of wage compensation plus non-pecuniary compensation associated with job characteristics, and when choosing an occupation, one selects the utility-maximizing combination of wages and job characteristics. Our findings support the theory that employee and job characteristics are rewarded differently in non-female dominated (NFD) and female dominated (FD) occupations, and that people choose occupations that reward their attributes more or penalize them less. Comparison of the variables significantly related to salary among FD occupations, NFD occupations and the full sample reveals that 9 of 13 variables significantly related to salary among NFD occupations are also significantly related to salary, with the same sign, among the full sample. However, none of these 13 variables is related to salary among FD occupations. This suggests that an individual’s labor force attributes are rewarded differently in FD occupations compared to NFD occupations and therefore any individual with a particular set of attributes can expect to be rewarded differently in a NFD occupation than in a FD occupation

The effects of gender on salary-at-hire in the academic labor market

This paper uses data compiled from faculty files at a private, doctoral-granting research university to investigate whether or not there are gender-related differences in salary offers at the time of initial appointment. The investigation uses single- and multiple-equation regression models that control for gender, date of hire, experience and degree attained, rank, characteristics of the position being filled, inflation, and academic department. The study finds an unexplained and statistically significant differential in salary-at-hire between men and women of from 2.9% to 8.4%, and it finds that the unexplained male–female differential in salary-at-hire has increased since 1990

Optimal Currency Basket Pegs for Developing and Emerging Economies

The exchange rate arrangement represents an important policy choice for emerging and transitional economies as they strive to become stable and market-driven. A wide variety of arrangements have emerged, ranging from currency boards, basket-currency pegs and single-currency pegs to floating rates. Recently the IMF has recommended that, if the exchange value of a currency is to be pegged, it is better to peg to a basket of currencies rather than a single currency. Nonetheless, there has been little theoretical research on the management and optimal design of basket-peg arrangements. In this paper we extend the small-country macroeconomic model of Turnovsky to show that an optimally designed basket-peg arrangement can minimize the variance in domestic consumer prices as well as the variance of foreign reserves. The model highlights the importance of the money and bond markets and, therefore, the importance of various interest rate channels. Additionally we show that a trade-weighted currency basket is not only suboptimal, it is at odds with increasing capital market integration. Further our solutions illustrate that the optimal weights will evolve as the domestic economy integrates with the global market for goods and services, and financial instruments

Capitalism or socialism?

КАПИТАЛИЗМ ИЛИ СОЦИАЛИЗМ? Все экономические системы включают элементы капитализма и социализма. Они различаются степенью интеграции капиталистических и социалистических принципов. Государственное управление характеризуется централизованностью, иерархичностью и принудительностью. Капиталистическое управление на конкурентных рынках обычно децентрализовано и основано на добровольном взаимовыгодном обмене. Общества нуждаются как в предоставлении общественных благ посредством государственного управления, так и в продвижении частного предпринимательства посредством капиталистических рыночных институтов. Подходящее сочетание государственного и частного управления зависит от проблем, с которыми сталкивается общество, и, поскольку эти проблемы меняются со временем, соответствующее сочетание государственного и частного управления также меняется со временем.Секция 1_ДРАЙВЕРЫ ИНКЛЮЗИВНОГО ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКОГО РОСТА: ПРАКТИЧЕСКИЙ ОПЫТ РЕСПУБЛИКИ БЕЛАРУСЬ И МИРОВОЙ ОПЫТСборник включен в Государственный регистр информационного ресурса. Регистрационное свидетельство № 3061815625 от 23.05.2018