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While behavioral economic experiments have uncovered a wealth of insights concerning how people decide in the face of risk and uncertainty, the implications of these insights for the demand for agricultural insurance are under-explored. The purpose of this paper is to report on results from two recent field experiments that measure the extent to which farmer behavior departs from the predictions of expected utility theory and derives the implications of these departures for insurance demand.

Framed behavioral field experiments were played with random samples of West African Cotton farmers who lived in areas that were being incorporated into a cotton insurance pilot program.

Substantial numbers of farmers depart from expected utility behavior in ways that predict excess sensitivity to uncovered basis risk in insurance contracts; and, the fact that insurance premiums are typically framed as certain and unavoidable, while benefits are unknown and stochastic.

Using novel field experimental methods, the work summarized here indicates that more careful design of index insurance contracts in conformity with the findings of behavioral economics could result in larger contract uptake and, ultimately, larger development impacts.

Examines the cost performance of various strategies for managing foreign exchange risk in international sourcing. The strategies represent a broad spectrum of approaches to exchange risk, ranging from naïve to active. Of particular interest is the comparison of those strategies which use exchange rate forecasts with those which do not. Focuses on movements in the German mark/US dollar exchange rate for the period January 1986 through December 1990. Employs a historical simulation methodology to compare the performance of various strategies over this time frame. The results suggest that active approaches to exchange rate management warrant further attention.

Treating people with alcohol problems can be very expensive. Hospital‐based community focused treatment has been a traditional response. However, treatment for this client group has developed into a very cost effective treatment option. Alcohol is exacting a heavy financial burden upon the limited resources within health care provision (Royal College of Physicians, 2001). The heavy burden placed upon primary care is reflected in the data. General practitioners make the highest number of referrals to the Specialist Alcohol Service (72%). The link to policy is clear with the Welsh Assembly placing greater focus on a condition specific specialist response (Welsh Assembly, 2001). Comparison with patients presenting to a 24‐hour emergency psychiatric assessment service at the district general hospital help define the alcohol service user group. Data confirms that a community‐focused response by specialist community psychiatric nurses is a cost effective and appropriate alternative to hospital admission.

Briefly outlines the history and background of the Employee Retirement and Income Security Act (ERISA) and the key bodies involved. Provides details of the Savings are Vital to Everyone’s Act including the purpose and the choices for individuals. Discusses the healthcare issues and potential conflicts between federal and state responsibilities. Concludes that ERISA is too vague and open to dispute and needs to be refined over the coming decades.

Sympathy for the technical colleges. Three Vice‐Chancellors in one week commenting on technical colleges! They have never had it so good, particularly as some of these comments showed some understanding and sympathy of their problems. Carter of Lancaster and Topping of Brunel are educationalists first, and academics second; if there is hope that apartheid in higher education can wither away it derives support from the fact that such men can now become university Vice‐Chancellors. Dr Sloman of Essex should take some tuition from them before he speaks again about technical colleges. His reported comments about the polytechnics are among the least helpful which have been made and are especially dangerous because they coincide with the views of the faction in the Department of Education and Science which is struggling to castrate the polytechnics at birth.

The place of G. H. Mead’s works in symbolic interactionism is both central and paradoxical. It stands at the very foundation of Hebert Blumer’s initial invention of symbolic interactionism with respect to Mead’s social behaviorism and has been discussed and debated ever since because of the problems caused by such a presumed direct filiation. Returning to Mead in order to broaden the perspective offered by Blumer is a must and has to face some fundamental issues raised in this context. This article starts by examining the ontogenetic and phylogenetic processes involved in Mead’s concept of society, in order to show the multiple dimensions involved in significant symbols. An illustration of Mead’s wider perspective is given in reference to the feminist movement as analyzed first by Mead’s student, Jessie Taft, and goes back to the origin of the movement with Mary Wollstonecraft. This leads to the analysis of the debate about the place of power in symbolic interactionism, initiated by Peter M. Hall, and addresses the alternative between domination and emancipation. This alternative has been worked out by Lonnie Athen’s radical symbolic interactionism analysis of domination on the one side, and by Kathy Charmaz and Norman K. Denzin on the other side of emancipatory symbolic interactionist practices. Another solution is proposed to this alternative, with the analysis of power being intrinsically constituted by domination and emancipation, in their respective contribution to the understanding of the symbolic dispositions of autonomy – a concept that remains relatively undeveloped in Mead’s works.

Reports on the difficulties currently faced by department stores. Argues that a return to a true service orientation is needed. Discusses consumer attitudes towards the service offered in such stores via the results of a focus group interview, ranking and perceptual mapping of store services. Offers managerial guidelines for implementing a successful service strategy.