The paper examines the processes underlying economic fluctuations by investigating the volatility moderation of U.S. economy in the early 1980’s. We decompose the volatility decline using a dynamic factor framework into a common stochastic trend, common transitory component and idiosyncratic components. We find that the moderation of business cycle was a result of the moderation in transitory a...

We resurrect the question if improved business practices contributed to increased macroeconomic stability since the 1980s – the Great Moderation. While previous studies on the issue are limited to examining inventory management, we analyse the role of better supply chain management on enhancing firms’ ability to coordinate their production. By investigating ordering and backordering behaviour i...

Investigating the fit of an information technology to a user’s task, known as task-technology fit (TTF), is a frequent focus of HCI/MIS research. In such research, “fit as moderation”, one of Venkatraman’s (1989) six conceptualizations of fit, is common. This conceptualization assumes two variables, e.g., task and technology, and an outcome variable. Task and technology, however, have multiple ...

I revisit the Great Inflation and the Great Moderation for nominal and real variables. I document a dichotomy in the evolution of the cyclical volatility of financial variables since the mid-1980s. While financial price variables are smoother during the Great Moderation, financial quantity measures experience an immoderation. A model with financial frictions and financial shocks allowing for st...

We examined 120 Cyberball studies (N = 11,869) to determine the effect size of ostracism and conditions under which the effect may be reversed, eliminated, or small. Our analyses showed that (1) the average ostracism effect is large (d > |1.4|) and (2) generalizes across structural aspects (number of players, ostracism duration, number of tosses, type of needs scale), sampling aspects (gender, ...

As commonly known, a tutor’s role changes when teachers appoint her/him as an etutor. A requirements analysis carried out at our university shows that more and more teachers believe that e-tutors have to be soft skilled particularly in e-moderation and online communication skills. To account for such requirements, existing university e-tutoring curriculums have to be adopted. This paper describ...

More and more teachers are developing complex e-learning designs including online communication and online co-operation during two lessons. The intensive use of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) tools in lessons and seminars at brick and wall universities requires a complex set of skills from students and teachers. As of the intensive use of new technologies and social media technologies ma...

Procedures for examining whether treatment effects on an outcome are mediated and/or moderated have been well developed and are routinely applied. The mediation question focuses on the intervening mechanism that produces the treatment effect. The moderation question focuses on factors that affect the magnitude of the treatment effect. It is important to note that these two processes may be comb...

1. When expert judgment is employed in the SBA moderation process for a HKDSE subject, a representative sample of student works is obtained from each school, which will then be re-assessed. The average score of the re-assessed student works could be used to reflect the school performance level on SBA. Such a measure would be adopted in the sample review for HKDSE Liberal Studies, which is used ...