Showing papers on "Negative relationship published in 1996"

Research Assessing the impact of integrating business planning and IS planning

Abstract: One of the key elements of strategic planning for information systems (IS) is the integration of IS planning (ISP) and business planning (BP). Although this issue has received significant attention in recent years, empirical research focusing specifically on it is still relatively sparse. Here, BP-ISP integration is considered in four ways (administrative, sequential, reciprocal, and full integration), reflecting various degrees of BP-ISP integration. The relationships between these and organizational impact (measured in terms of the extent of ISP problems and the extent of IS contributions to organizational performance) are investigated through the analysis of data gathered in a "matched pair" field survey of business planners and IS executives. The results empirically validate the importance of BP-ISP integration, since it was found to have a significant positive relationship with IS contributions to organization performance and a significant negative relationship to the extent of ISP problems.

Investment and Demand Uncertainty

Abstract: Theoretical models of investment under uncertainty predict that the sign and the strength of the investment-uncertainty relationship is in principle ambiguous and can vary greatly across groups of firms depending on the degree of irreversibility of investment and the market power of the firm. This paper investigates the effects of uncertainty on the investment decisions of a sample of Italian manufacturing firms, using information on the subjective probability distribution of future demand for firms' products according to entrepreneurs. The results support the view that uncertainty slows down capital accumulation. Consistent with the predictions of the theory, there is considerable heterogeneity in the effect of uncertainty on investment: it is stronger for firms that cannot easily reverse investment decisions and for those with substantial market power. We show that the negative effect of uncertainty on investment cannot be explained by uncertainty proxying for liquidity constraints, credit rationing being more likely among riskier firms. Evidence of a negative effect of past uncertainty on hours currently worked reinforces the conclusion of a negative relationship between uncertainty and investment.

Scale, performance and the new public management: an empirical analysis of local authority services

Abstract: New public management (NPM) arguments on strategy and structure suggest that performance is enhanced if large organizations are disaggregated into smaller units. the NPM perspective reflects the views of public choice theorists who claim that big organizations are unresponsive to public needs, inefficient and fail to achieve their formal goals. These arguments have underpinned many recent changes in the structure of public services at both central and local levels. This paper uses data on six local government services to test the NPM hypothesis that there is a negative relationship between scale and performance. Five dimensions of performance are analysed: service coverage, quality, speed of provision, efficiency, and administrative effectiveness. Scale is measured through indicators of service output, caseload and needs. the impact of scale is tested in multivariate statistical models which control for other potential influences on variations in performance across local authorities. Only around half of the statistical evidence suggests that the smallest local units are the best performers. In addition, even when performance does decline with scale, this trend is reversed in the very largest units. Thus, contrary to NPM arguments, the biggest organizations are seldom the poorest performers.

Unemployment and consumption

Abstract: In this paper we argue that the aggregate unemployment rate is a valuable measure of aggregate income uncertainty. According to the theory of precautionary saving, an increase in income uncertainty would be expected to increase saving. We use U.S. quarterly data on the consumption of motor vehicles first to examine whether unemployment has a negative effect on consumption and then to differentiate between the various explanations for this phenomenon. We conclude that the negative relationship between unemployment and consumption is due in large part to precautionary saving motives.

Unexpected Inflation and Stock Returns Revisited - Evidence from Israel

Abstract: This paper examines the effects of unexpected inflation on stock prices using Israeli data that provide a direct market-based measure of unexpected inflation: the price reaction of CPI-linked bonds following the CPI announcement. The results show that stock prices have a strong negative relationship with unexpected inflation. The Israeli setting rules out a number of hypotheses advanced in the United States to explain this relationship, such as nominal contracting, inflationary taxation, wealth transfer, and money illusion. This suggests that the negative effect of unexpected inflation is due to its negative association with real activity and its real economic cost. Copyright 1996 by Ohio State University Press.

Negative dependence through the FKG Inequality

Abstract: We investigate random variables arising in occupancy problems, and show the variables to be negatively associated, that is, negatively dependent in a strong sense. Our proofs are based on the FKG correlation inequality, and they suggest a useful, general technique for proving negative dependence among random variables. We also show that in the special case of two binary random variables, the notions of negative correlation and negative association coincide.

The hidden cost of reproduction : reduced food intake caused by spatial constraints in the body cavity

Abstract: Investment in reproduction is thought to draw energetic resources away from other investments, namely growth and energy storage. Those interested in documenting this negative relationship often assume that a fixed pool of resources in excess of those needed for maintenance are divided up among growth, storage and reproduction, and thus increased investment in one of these "surplus" compartments reduces the potential for investment in the other two compartments. However, in a series of experiments I document a negative relationship between investment in reproduction and the amount of food consumed caused by a volumetric constraint of the body cavity. This negative relationship indicates that reproductive investment actually reduces the total pool of resources available to reproductive individuals. Considering this volumetric constraint may prove important to those interested in documenting trade-offs in life history traits, in that negative correlations between reproduction and growth or fat storage can be the indirect result of reduced overall energy budgets rather than the direct result of partitioning a fixed energy pool.

Troublesome Relationships: A Part of Human Experience:

Abstract: In a study of troublesome relationships, 343 university students and employees were surveyed. Issues addressed were the frequency, nature and precursors of negative relationship experiences. Over half of the respondents (55.7%) reported a very troublesome relationship within the previous 5 years. These were most often close relationships that deteriorated markedly as a result of the experience. Negative relationship involvement was related to insecure styles of attachment. Those with an insecure-avoidant attachment style were also more prone to use alcohol or drugs to cope with the troubled relationship and they were more likely to end the relationship. The results support the view that a history of poor attachment relations may compromise later relationships. However, the attachment effects were modest and the pervasiveness of troublesome relationship encounters suggests that these are an ubiquitous part of the human experience.

Explaining the Vacancy Rate-Rent Paradox of the 1980s

Abstract: Theory and most empirical evidence point to a negative relationship between vacancy rates for rental housing and changes in real rent. This paper highlights and explains the absence of the expected...

A negative relationship between religion and the percentage of women state legislators in the United States

Abstract: State contextual variables strongly associated with the percentage of women state legislators include the percentage of Christians and political culture. The percentage of Christians is inversely r...

The quantity/quality of children hypothesis in developing countries: testing by considering some demographic experiences in China, India and Africa.

Abstract: Initially a general regression equation is estimated, making use of cross-country data, relating the level of the total fertility rate to a range of variables, including the level of per capita real income. There is a statistically significant negative relationship between the level of the total fertility rate and real income per capita. Once the theory of the quantity-cum-quality of children hypothesis is set out formally, and in a flexible form, it is clear that this statistical relationship is not inconsistent with this theory. However, this relationship is not a strong, or convincing, test of this hypothesis. To provide more satisfactory tests of this hypothesis, additional relevant information from various developing countries is used. Information on recent demographic changes in China provides a comparatively powerful, direct test of the theory. More indirect tests of the theory are provided by drawing on data for India in the 1960s, and for sub-Saharan African countries in the 1980s and early 1990s. These various tests suggest that the quantity-cum-quality hypothesis, in its flexible form, appears to explain some of the changes in fertility rates observed in various developing countries in recent decades. The quality-cum-quantity of children hypothesis states that as the real income that a couple receives increases they invest more resources into increasing the quality of the children they have acquired instead of allocating these resources to acquiring more children. This assumption has been called upon to explain, in part, a constant relationship that has been observed during the demographic transition experienced by many communities; namely, that the level of the total fertility rate (TFR) for a community tends to fall as the level of mean real income for this community rises. This relationship tends to be confirmed by recent cross-country data on the total fertility rate and mean real incomes measured at international prices. As is shown in the next section, based on these cross-country data and after allowing for a range of other relevant considerations, there is a statistically significant negative relationship between the total fertility rate and appropriate measures of mean real incomes. The existence of this relationship is not, however, direct confirmation of the quality-cum-quantity of children hypothesis. What is more, there are alternative statistical results to be found in the relevant literature which imply that the quality-cum-quantity of children hypothesis may not explain any of the variation to the TFR across communities. In the attempt to resolve this matter attention first turns to con sidering some appropriate theory of household behaviour. When this theory is set out in a comparatively general and flexible form, to allow for a range of considerations, it becomes clear that the observed statistical relationship mentioned in the previous paragraph could be explained by either the quality-cum-quantity of

Investment and Demand Uncertainty

Abstract: Theoretical models of investment under uncertainty predict that the sign and the strength of the investment-uncertainty relationship is in principle ambiguous and can vary greatly across groups of firms depending on the degree of irreversibility of investment and the market power of the firm. This paper investigates the effects of uncertainty on the investment decisions of a sample of Italian manufacturing firms, using information on the subjective probability distribution of future demand for firms’ products according to entrepreneurs. The results support the view that uncertainty slows down capital accumulation. Consistent with the predictions of the theory, there is considerable heterogeneity in the effect of uncertainty on investment: it is stronger for firms that cannot easily reverse investment decisions and for those with substantial market power. We show that the negative effect of uncertainty on investment cannot be explained by uncertainty proxying for liquidity constraints, credit rationing being more likely among riskier firms. Evidence of a negative effect of past uncertainty on hours currently worked reinforces the conclusion of a negative relationship between uncertainty and investment.

Strikes and profits: considering an asymmetric information model

Abstract: The Hayes asymmetric information model of strike activity predicts a negative relationship between actual firm profits and strike frequency, and a positive relationship between the trade union's expectations of firm profitability and the duration of strikes. Results from the application of the model presented in this paper provide only limited support: the relationship between strike behaviour and profits is found to be more complex than the model allows for and exploring other variables which are expected to influence strike activity leads to more satisfactory results.

Economic Growth of OECD Countries: Focusing on Canada

Abstract: This paper reinvestigates factors that are related to economic growth based on Summers-Heston's cross-sectional and time-series data of the 24 OECD countries over the 1950–1988 period. The paper then focuses on Canada's growth performance in the context of the OECD countries. It is found that there is a significant negative relationship between the initial level of income and the rate of per capita growth. The speed of catch-up is, however, very slow meaning that it would take a long time for a poor country to catch-up to a rich country. This catch-up process disappears when the length of the data is shortened to the last two decades. But the level of inflation, the ratio of debt to GDP and the ratio of investment to GDP all consistently show up as variables that are significantly related to growth. [O4,O5]

Modernization, Dependency, and the State in Asia, Africa, and Latin America

Abstract: A regression analysis of 92 Asian, African, and Latin American countries during 1970-85 produced the following results: (1) The effect of external debt on industrial growth is positive and statistically significant at high levels of state coercive capacity. (2) This effect is negative and statistically significant at low levels of state coercive capacity. (3) At middle levels of state coercive capacity external debt registered no effect. Based on these findings this paper puts forward the following three arguments: First, the "modernization" hypothesis of a positive relationship between external debt and industrial growth is more likely if state institutions are strong and capable. Second, the "dependency" hypothesis of a negative relationship between external debt and industrial growth is more likely when state institutions are weak and relatively incapacitated. Finally therefore, these two perspectives may be studied as special cases of a grander theory of development.

Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Study

Abstract: We use a panel data set of 46 countries over the 1970¨C1989 period to investigate the relationship between fiscal decentralization and economic growth. We find a negative relationship between fiscal decentralization and growth in developing countries, but none in developed countries. Several explanations are offered for our findings.