Article
Market size of the media industry and freedom of press: an empirical study
This paper empirically shows that the market size of the media sector is important for freedom of the press, in addition to the wealth of the country and type of political regime. I estimated freedom of the press using three variables: size of the media market, GDP per capita and the type of political regime. Freedom of the press was estimated using data for 48 countries from 2006 till 2009. The most important variable influencing freedom of the press is the type of political regime, but the size of the media market is also important. In countries with a larger media market, the press is freer
This paper investigates the effects on response and breakoff rates in Web surveys of e-mail invitation design elements including: subject line, estimated survey duration, and invitation length. The analysis is focused not only on the main effects, but also on an issue which has not yet been studied systematically: interaction effects between these design elements. A factorial complete block design Web experiment – among students, faculty, and administrative staff at the Higher School of Economics in Russia – varying the estimated length of the survey (10 vs. 20 minutes), subject line (formal “monitoring” vs. informal “help” request), and invitation length (short vs. long) was conducted. We discuss the results of the experiment and argue that we should not ignore interaction effects between design elements to understand response in Web surveys more thoroughly.
This paper explores the moderator effect of firm size on the relation between different intangible resources and companies' performance. By analysing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and large companies, the authors examine the differences in the employment of six types of intangible resources: human resources, management resource capabilities, innovation and internal process capabilities, customer loyalty and networking capabilities. Dummy regression is applied to establish the differential effect in the impact of these intangibles on firm performance, measured by return on assets (ROA). This study provides econometric justification using a database of more than 1,400 European public companies. The time period for the investigated data covers ten years, from 2004 to 2013. The findings revealed that SMEs have less endowment of almost all of the analysed intangible resources. At the same time, in comparison with large companies, SMEs benefit more from developing human resources, innovation and internal process capabilities.
The focus of this article is the methodological aspect of political activism determinants identifying; specifically variants of handling with categorical predictors which hypothetically explain the level of activism. When using regression for explaining the issue, one may transform such predictors into dummy variables. Such a popular solution makes the model bulky and causes troubles with assessing this model’s quality. Moreover, if a researcher wants to consider interaction effects of the mentioned predictors, the supernumerary combinations of the mentioned predictors values are pended because regression modeling does not take into account the degree of similarity of the mentioned predictors values’ effects. The article authors proposed CHAID as the alternative to the mentioned solution. The research’s aim was i) a comparison of the two mentioned methods leaning on their a priori known properties; ii) arguing CHAID’s some theoretical advantages comparing to logistic regression, iii) parallel implementing the two methods, iv) a comparison of gained empirical results and v) arguing that it is useful to examine multiple interaction effects when developing a predictive model. The raw data were extracted from ESS 2012. The dependent variable was Political activism; the hypothetical predictors belonged to the socio-economic bloc of the Panel.
Smoking is a problem, bringing signifi cant social and economic costs to Russiansociety. However, ratifi cation of the World health organization Framework conventionon tobacco control makes it possible to improve Russian legislation accordingto the international standards. So, I describe some measures that should be taken bythe Russian authorities in the nearest future, and I examine their effi ciency. By studyingthe international evidence I analyze the impact of the smoke-free areas, advertisementand sponsorship bans, tax increases, etc. on the prevalence of smoking, cigaretteconsumption and some other indicators. I also investigate the obstacles confrontingthe Russian authorities when they introduce new policy measures and the public attitudetowards these measures. I conclude that there is a number of easy-to-implementanti-smoking activities that need no fi nancial resources but only a political will.
One of the most important indicators of company's success is the increase of its value. The article investigates traditional methods of company's value assessment and the evidence that the application of these methods is incorrect in the new stage of economy. So it is necessary to create a new method of valuation based on the new main sources of company's success that is its intellectual capital.