Kathryn A. Boys

Agricultural Trade and the GATT/WTO: Does Membership Make a Difference?

Recent empirical studies have estimated the trade flow effect of membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). One important, although largely untested, conclusion from this literature is that the GATT/WTO works well if we ignore trade in agriculture - one of the institutions seemingly apparent failures. This article investigates this conclusion using a large panel of agricultural and non-agricultural trade flows. The results are impressive: the multilateral institution has delivered significant positive effects on members agricultural trade despite its sensitive nature and the reluctance of members to undertake serious reform. These findings are robust to various slices of the data and recent advances in the specification and estimation of the gravity equation to account for sample selection issues and the extensive margin of trade. Copyright 2012, Oxford University Press.

Improving integration of human resources into quality management system standards

Purpose – Little attention has been paid to how quality management systems (QMSs) are optimized by supportive employee behavior. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of the literature on the inclusion of human factors in the ISO 9000 family of standards, identify deficiencies in the standards current treatment of these issues, and offer recommendations on how human resources (HRs) can be better integrated into these business management standards. Design/methodology/approach – This concept paper presents a survey of both academic and practitioner literature on the topic of HR and its treatment in quality standards. The focus is restricted to consideration of human factors that are specifically identified in the ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 9004:2009 standards. Findings – ISO 9001 and 9004 include some HR topics, but their treatment is insufficient to meet the demands of todays business environment. The recent addition to the ISO 9000 family, ISO 10018 – Quality Management – Guidelines on Pe...