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This paper aims to develop a methodology to accurately and timely measure movements in housing markets by constructing a continuously estimated house price index.

The continuous index, which is extracted from an additive model that includes the temporal and the locational effects as smooth functions, can be interpreted as an extension of the classical hedonic time-dummy method. The methodology is applied to housing sales from Sydney, Australia, between 2001 and 2011, and compared to three types of discrete indexes.

Discrete indexes turn out to approach the continuously estimated index with decreasing period lengths but eventually become wiggly and unreliable because of fewer observations per period. The continuous index, in contrast, is stable, has favourable robustness properties and is more objective in several ways.

The resulting index tracks movements in the housing market precisely and in “real-time” and is hence suited for monitoring and assessing housing markets. Because turbulence in housing markets is often a harbinger of financial crises, such monitoring tools support policymakers and investors in tailoring their decisions and reactions. Additionally, the index can be evaluated arbitrarily frequently and therefore is well suited for use in property derivatives.

The purpose of this paper is to present a register‐based index that could provide a practical tool for gathering information and increasing our knowledge on gender equality at organizational level.

Based on Swedish gender policy and information available in public registers, six variables were chosen. For each variable, a gender gap was calculated as the ratio between the sexes, with the larger figure always treated as numerator. The study population consisted of 11,471 persons in 46 companies working in the computer sector, and 32,151 individuals in 77 companies employed in the grocery production sector.

The results show indices of 1.43‐2.09 for the computer sector and of 1.13‐2.14 for the grocery production sector, both with a normal distribution (one is considered fully gender equal and three least gender equal). Added together, the selected variables provide results that are sufficiently different to enable ranking. The variables vary in importance in the two sectors compared. The smallest index variation was for education and salaries; the largest was for parental leave and the number of men and women employed at the companies.

The index is based on public registers, treats men and women symmetrically, and the results generated by the index are easy to communicate to all stakeholders. This research could provide a useful tool for investigating the extent to which men and women differ in certain variables at company level.

Recent news articles about pension funding issues highlight the importance of transparent financial reporting and disclosures for defined benefit pension plans. Using pension-related data for local governments in Michigan and Pennsylvania, we provide descriptive evidence regarding the actuarial methods and assumptions adopted and the factors that explain a government’s propensity to adopt optimistic actuarial methods and assumptions that reduce the annual required contribution. Our descriptive data suggests that actuaries are making aggressive assumptions for some governments' pension benefits. Our regression results also suggest there is an association between monitoring mechanisms, fiscal constraints, and socioeconomic factors and the choice of optimistic actuarial methods and assumptions that reduce the annual required contribution. The GASB should consider our findings as they determine whether existing standards should be clarified or whether allowable actuarial methods and assumptions should be restricted.

The importance of gender equality is reflected not only in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but also in the World Bank’s Gender Action Plan launched in 2007 as well as in other treaties and actions undertaken at regional and international levels. Unlike other gender poverty works, which are mostly based on monetary measurement, the purpose of this paper is to adopt a non-monetary approach.

The present study makes use of a counting approach to examine gender issues in Burkina Faso and Togo using household surveys, namely Enquête Intégrale surles Conditions de Vie des Ménages (2009/2010) and Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire (2011), respectively. It focusses on six dimensions (housing, basic utilities, assets, education, employment and access to credit) largely recognized as MDG targets.

Main findings indicate that overall individuals are the most deprived in education in Burkina Faso, while the reverse situation is true in Togo. Gender inequality is observed in all dimensions since women always seem to be more deprived than men. The situation is also marked by regional disparities. Moreover, the assessment of dimensional contributions shows different patterns for each country. While employment proves to be the main contributor of gender inequality in Burkina Faso, three dimensions (assets, access to credit and employment) account together for most of the total contribution to gender inequality in Togo.

The main contribution of the paper is to use a multidimensional method (counting approach) to assess gender deprivation, with countries comparison. It also proposes an interesting combination of the decomposition by dimension with the subgroup’s decomposition in order to determine the largest contributor to gender inequality.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the outcomes of a workplace learning intervention on organizational learning and to identify factors influencing the creation of organizational learning in residential care of older people.

The study consisted of a quasi‐experimental intervention for outcome evaluation. In addition, a case study design was used to identify factors influencing organizational learning. Outcomes were evaluated using the validated Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire at three time points, and interviews were conducted with nursing staff and managers.

The intervention had some effects on the individual level, but no improvements in organizational learning were found. Hindering factors for creating organizational learning were poor initial learning climate, managers' uncertainty about their role, lack of ownership and responsibility among staff and managers, managers' views of personality being a more important component than staff development in older people's care, and a lack of systems for capturing acquired knowledge.

The study offers suggestions for the transfer of individual‐level learning to organizational learning in older people's care.

Despite intense debates about the outcomes of large-scale agricultural investment in developing countries, gender issues and employment effects of such investment on women empowerment are very thin in the literature. The main purpose of this article is, therefore, to examine the effect of women's access to income-earning jobs on their empowerment.

The authors used a quasi-experimental research design and a mixed research approach. The authors collected primary data from 65 employed and 85 unemployed women and ten key informants. Principal component analysis (PCA) and propensity score matching (PSM) techniques were used to construct indexes and assess employment effect.

The article finds that consistent with the argument of the resource in culture theory, women's employment in large-scale commercial farms does not have an effect on their empowerment level.

The result implies that the government should strengthen gender sensitization programs and facilitate the formation of well-organized and profitable alternative income generating activities for women in such ways that improve their empowerment.

This article assesses the effect of women employment on their empowerment and contributes to filling gaps in the empirical and theoretical literature. It could also contribute to academic and policy debates in the area of large-scale commercial farming based on the actual evidence.

The Ethiopian government is promoting large-scale agricultural investment in lowland regions of the country, claiming that the investment could improve livelihoods of the local people. The outcomes of the investment, however, have been a controversial issue in public and academic discourses. Particularly, studies that quantify the impact of such investment on the asset base of local people are extremely limited. The main purpose of this study is, therefore, to investigate the actual effect of the investment on the asset of the local people and inform policy decision.

This study employs a quasi-experimental research design and a mixed research approach. Data were collected from 342 households drawn through a systematic sampling technique and analysed by using multiple correspondence analysis and propensity score matching.

The study finds that the investment has a significant negative impact on the wealth status of affected households and deteriorated their asset base.

The results imply that inclusive and fair business models that safeguard the benefits of the investment hosting community and encourage a strong collaboration and synergy between the community and private investors are needed.

This study analyses the impact of large-scale agricultural investment on the asset of affected community based on various livelihood capital. In doing so, it significantly contributes to knowledge gap in the empirical literature. It also contributes to the ongoing academic and policy debates based on actual evidence collected from local community.