Friday, December 4, 2009

The Econometrics of Corporate Governance Studies or Good But Not Perfect

The Econometrics of Corporate Governance Studies

Author: Sanjai Bhagat

A vast theoretical and empirical literature in corporate finance considers the interrelationships of corporate governance, takeovers, management turnover, corporate performance, corporate capital structure, and corporate ownership structure. Most of the studies look at two variables at a time. In this book, Sanjai Bhagat and Richard Jefferis argue that from an econometric viewpoint, the proper way to study the relationship between any two of these variables is to set up a system of simultaneous equations that specifies the relationships among the six variables. The specification and estimation of such a system of simultaneous equations, however, is nontrivial.

The authors illustrate their argument with a discussion of the impact of corporate anti-takeover measures on takeovers and managerial job-tenure. During the past two decades, an overwhelming majority of publicly held US corporations have adopted anti-takeover measures. The authors show that, contrary to expectation, defense measures are ineffective in preventing takeovers and the frequency of CEO departures is unrelated to takeover defenses. At firms with poison pill defenses, however, there is a statistically significant relationship between management turnover and company performance.



Table of Contents:
1Introduction1
2Econometrics of corporate governance studies9
3Sample construction and data43
4Joint distribution of takeovers, managerial turnover, and takeover defense55
5Bootstrap regression results65
6Probit models75
7Summary and conclusions89
AppSensitivity analysis93

Go to: Signspotting or CDC Health Information for International Travel 2010

Good But Not Perfect: A Case Study of Managed Care

Author: Maxine W Epstein

Written in an intriguing narrative format, this book demonstrates the skills necessary for effective social work practice in managed care settings. Centered around the case study of a professional ballet dancer who is admitted to a rehabilitation unit following a cerebral stroke, Good But Not Perfect follows the struggles of the patient and her health care team as they confront changes in the health care delivery system. This story-line approach engages the interest of the reader as it demonstrates the application of theories and the real-life impact of the managed care model. At the end of each chapter, the story is analyzed using conceptual knowledge, and critical thinking is encouraged in practice exercises. Throughout the book, readers are guided through the processes of effective patient assessment, diagnosis, treatment planning, discharge, and rehabilitation. They will learn the issues surrounding managed care and will be provided with the skills necessary to function as part of an interdisciplinary health care team. For anyone interested in social work or managed health care.



Thursday, December 3, 2009

Clinical Research in Allied Health and Special Education or Introduction to Operations and Supply Chain Management

Clinical Research in Allied Health and Special Education

Author: Franklin Stein

This remarkable text helps readers analyze and design a research study. It presents a comprehensive approach to quantitative and qualitative research and includes step-by-step procedures in parametric and nonparametric statistics. A new chapter, Scientific Writing and Thesis Preparation, guides readers in preparing an original research proposal.

Keywords: Occupational Therapy, Occupational Therapist, OT

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Gary Kielhofner, DrPh, OTR(Univ of Illinois at Chicago Coll of Associated Health Professions)
Description:In this book on research methods, the authors review different research approaches and methods and their application to the fields of allied health and special education.
Purpose:The purpose is to describe the background, logic, and methods of research in two related fields. A secondary purpose is to demonstrate the relationship between research and practice.
Audience:The book appears to be written for allied health and special education students at the graduate level.
Features:The book includes a historical overview of the development of the scientific method in healthcare. It is mainly illustrated and supported by examples of most of the concepts and techniques. It includes discussions of all aspects of research, including such things as research ethics, literature searches, and the format of the research paper.
Assessment:This book merits an average rating. On the plus side, the book does touch upon all major topics, and most of these are clearly defined. There are ample illustrations and examples that make the text more comprehensible. A wide range of resources is provided. The weaknesses of the book are that many concepts and issues are treated in the most superficial manner. Also, the authors present some research approaches in ways that not all researchers would agree with. For example, qualitative research is presented as a model of application of scientific method in biomedicine, whereas much qualitative literature views this approach as an alternative to the assumptions andapproaches of a biomedical-based scientific method. Sometimes the text does not flow because the authors use more of an outline approach rather than a narrative approach to presenting concepts. The book is probably a stronger text for undergraduate rather than graduate students.

Booknews

Provides health researchers with a perspective on the history of medical research and the methods of scientific inquiry, of interest to researchers in settings such as rehabilitation, residential treatment facilities, and special education classrooms. Outlines the scientific method and eight research models, then covers research design and methodology; test instruments; and scientific writing. This third edition updates health statistics, expands treatment of research models, and incorporates technological advances. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)



See also: IP Telephony Using CallManager Express Lab Portfolio or Pro Perl Parsing

Introduction to Operations and Supply Chain Management

Author: Robert B Handfield

Introduction to Operations and Supply Chain Management, 2/e is the first text to provide an integrated and comprehensive treatment of both operations and supply chain management. In the 2nd edition, the authors provide deeper coverage of important topics while maintaining a trim, integrated book.  It now provides substantial coverage of the major operations management topics and tools, while extending coverage to include core supply chain management issues. 

 

 

 



Table of Contents:
1Introduction to operations and supply chain management1
2Operations and supply chain strategies21
3Business processes43
4Managing quality71
5Managing projects119
6Developing products and services145
7Process choice and layout decisions in manufacturing and services167
8Managing capacity207
9Forecasting243
10Sourcing decisions and the purchasing process291
11Logistics335
12Sales and operations planning (aggregate planning)373
13Managing inventory throughout the supply chain411
14Managing production across the supply chain451
15JIT/lean production489
16Managing information technologies across the supply chain509

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Managerial Accounting or Women and Economics

Managerial Accounting: Manufacturing and Service Applications

Author: Arnold Schneider

The text contains material on product costing, cost allocation, cost estimation, cost-volume-profit analysis, budgeting, activity-based costing, standard costing, decision-making, financial and non-financial performance evaluation, and capital budgeting.



Table of Contents:
PART 1: MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING FRAMEWORK. 1. Managerial Accounting and Management's Need for Information. 2. Cost Concepts. 3. Cost Estimation and Cost-Volume-Profit Relationships. PART 2: PRODUCT COST FRAMEWORK. 4. Product Costing: Attaching Costs to Products and Services. 5. Product Costing: Job and Process Costing. 6. Activity-Based Costing and Just-in-Time Costing. PART 3: PLANNING AND CONTROL FRAMEWORK. 7. Budgeting for Operations Management. 8. Cost Control Through Standard Costs. 9. Profit Analysis: Variances and Variable Costing. PART 4: DECISION-MAKING FRAMEWORK. 10. Managerial Decisions: Analysis of Relevant Information. 11. Capital Investment Decisions. 12. Capital Investment Decisions: Additional Issues. 13. Analysis of Decentralized Operations. PART 5: EXTENSION IN MANAGERIAL ANALYSIS. 14. Costs of Quality and Other Cost Management Issues. 15. Financial Performance Analysis.

See also: France and the Dreyfus Affair or Gorgias

Women and Economics

Author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman

This masterpiece of social science explores the evolution of women's economic reliance on men. Gilman discusses the limitations in intellectual and emotional development inherent in this convention and its injurious effects on both sexes. A classic of feminist theory, this work still resonates a century after its initial publication.



Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Complete Interview Procedures for Hiring School Personnel or Sexual Harassment and the Law

Complete Interview Procedures for Hiring School Personnel

Author: Robert H Palestini

Most school districts do not have a full time human resources administrator to conduct interviews and this important task most often becomes the responsibility of the building principal or a department head. Here is a guide designed for hiring employees, both professional staff as well as non-professional, in public, parochial, or private schools. It offers more than one thousand interview questions in forty-eight employment categories ranging from superintendent and business manager to security officer and parent volunteer. It includes discussion about the hiring process and the different types of interviews that will be particularly useful to educators trying to develop guidelines and procedures for hiring personnel. Jobseekers, too, can use the questions to help them prepare for career-making interviews.



See also: Go Green Live Rich or Its Called Work for a Reason

Sexual Harassment and the Law: The Mechelle Vinson Case

Author: Augustus B Cochran

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act may have outlawed sex discrimination, but it did not address the sexual harassment of women in the workplace-behavior that courts did not deem illegal until well into the era of the modern civil rights and women's movements. Mechelle Vinson's lawsuit against her employer, Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (1986), changed all of that. Adopting the legal theory pioneered by feminist Catharine MacKinnon that sexual harassment was indeed discriminatory, the Supreme Court's opinion, authored by one of the most conservative justices, brought the problem of sexual harassment into the spotlight and placed power relations between men and women at work squarely on the public agenda.Plaintiff Vinson claimed that she had submitted to the unwanted sexual advances of her supervisor in order to hold onto her job. Although her supervisor denied her charges and the bank he worked for disavowed any knowledge of misbehavior, her suit finally reached the Supreme Court after six years of litigation, where a unanimous Court determined that the creation of a "hostile work environment" through sexual harassment was a form of sex discrimination—and that such harassment could be actionable even without economic injury to the plaintiff. Augustus Cochran reexamines the origins, contexts, and impact of this landmark decision and introduces readers to the main actors in the drama: bank teller Vinson, her boss and alleged harasser, and a changing cast of jurists. Cochran traces the case from the lower court's ruling in favor of the bank through the appellate stage overturning that ruling to the Supreme Court's holding that sexual harassment violates Title VII. He analyzes the decision's contentious legacy, charting the course of issues raised in the case—hostile environment, unwelcomeness, employer liability—as they have played out in later cases. He also examines new and related legal developments since 1986 and explores the opinions of those who think the laws have gone too far, and of others who think they haven't gone far enough. The Supreme Court's ruling has had far-reaching implications in the workplace and also influenced such high-profile controversies as the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings, the Tailhook scandal, and the Clinton impeachment. In telling this story, Cochran has written a definitive work on sexual harassment and the law that will fascinate and inform all concerned with equal rights and the empowerment of women. This book is part of the Landmark Law Cases and American Society series.



Table of Contents:
Editor's preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction : "there oughta be a law"1
1Work, women, and the law : sex discrimination becomes illegal7
2Naming sexual harassment : sexual harassment becomes sex discrimination25
3Making a claim : Mechelle Vinson's day(s) in court57
4Deciding the case : in the Supreme Court of the United States91
5Filling the gaps : evolving issues in the wake of Vinson128
6Extensions and retractions : related developments since Vinson147
7Judging the results : the social impact of Vinson166
Conclusion : law and social change191
Chronology209
List of relevant cases213
Bibliographical essay215
Index219