THE SUSTAINED IMPACTS OF TAXI DEREGULATION

The Irish High Court decision in 2000 to deregulate entry to the taxi sector brought a large increase in taxi numbers and reduced waiting times for customers. These developments were sustained through to 2008 with increased output and reduced waiting times. In view of these lasting successes, arguments that taxi deregulation is unwise and unsustainable are examined.     

出租车数量管制对社会福利的影响

运用经济学的研究方法对出租车行业的数量管制问题进行了考查。研究发现,由于出租车行业具有很强的竞争性,单纯依靠市场的自发调节就能够实现该行业的资源优化配置;对出租车行业的数量管制,不但影响了出租车行业的自身发展,而且造成了社会福利损失。事实上,管制的重要原因是为了获得管制租金而不是增进社会福利。因此放宽对出租车行业的数量管制才是增进社会福利的有效选择。     

Deregulation and labour earnings: Three motor carrier industries in Japan

We empirically examine the effect of product market deregulation on wages. The difference-in-difference approach is used with wage data from three motor carrier industries (the taxi, bus and trucking industries) in Japan to obtain the following findings. First, deregulations in the 1990s and 2000s caused the relative wages of taxi and bus drivers to decline, but this was not the case for truck drivers. Second, the large decline in the relative wages of taxi drivers can be explained by the deterioration of economic conditions; their wages are more sensitive to labour market conditions than those of drivers in other industries.     

Deregulation and institutional conversion in the Greek hotel industry: an employment relations model in transition

Before the debt crisis of 2010 forced Greece into almost permanent austerity, its hotel workers enjoyed wages and conditions (through a sector collective agreement) similar to those in other economic sectors. This was against the international trend where low wages and poor conditions were standard. Sweeping deregulation by Greek governments has brought much of the hotel industry into line with other countries. The sector agreement, now covering a much smaller proportion of the workforce, survived but has experienced ‘institutional conversion’, delivering a much poorer outcome. Despite buoyant tourism, institutional deregulation and derogation have delivered the employers' major objective of matching the workforce to the fluctuating demand for labour.     

Deregulation initiatives in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, after its smooth establishment as a Special Administrative Region, there is a major deregulation effort. A deregulation committee is pursuing cases of unnecessary red tape and the private sector is becoming more involved in the delivery of public services. Hong Kong is the best place in Asia to do business.     

The Effect of Financial Liberalization on the Efficiency of Financial Institutions: The Case of Jordanian Commercial Banks

SUMMARY

Jordan undertook major financial sector liberalization starting in the early of 1990s. The effect of this reform on the efficiency of the banking sector is evaluated. A non-parametric method of Data Development Analysis (DEA) has been used to arrive at the efficiency scores for a panel data sample covering eight Jordanian commercial banks over the period 1984 to 2001. The findings suggest that liberalization program was followed by an observable increase in efficiency. Another finding of the study is that large banks demonstrated the faster productivity growth during the liberalization. The study has important implications such as guiding the government policy regarding deregulation and liberalization.     

The Swedish model and the future of labour standards after Laval

This article reflects on the European Court of Justice ruling in the case of Laval, involving Latvian posted workers in Sweden. It analyses the implications of the ruling and ensuing debate over the Laval case for the future of the ‘Swedish model’ and labour standards. It suggests that profound dilemmas now face trade unions both at Swedish national and European level as to appropriate strategies to adopt to defend national pay and working conditions in the light of the European Court decision and especially in the Swedish context due to the subsequent ruling by the Swedish Labour Court. Nevertheless, a human rights discourse is emerging in which the European Court of Human Rights may act as a counterbalance to the European Court of Justice, especially in the context of the Lisbon Treaty.     

愤怒的哭墙

温州金融改革,被赋予"打破金融垄断"之重望。但正如中国民营企业联合会会长保育钧4月3日在博鳌亚洲论坛"民间金融与银行业的开放"分论坛上的发言所称——"吴英案的根源是金融垄断,是银行机构不合理,监管不到位的结果"。接下来,让我们看看案件主角的父亲,是如何煎熬度日的——"对于世界你是一名士兵,对于母亲你是整个世界。",很多人将吴英的命运和改革、体制、国家等大词联系在一起,但作为父亲,吴永正不关心这些,他只关心女儿的生死     

Constitutional Confusion: Slavery,Abortion, and Substantive Constitutional Analysis

A comparison of two U.S. Supreme Court cases about fundamental rights, one on slavery, the other on abortion, sheds light on constitutional law and the principles undergirding liberal constitutional democracy. The Dred Scott case in 1857 denied constitutional rights to enslaved Africans and their descendants living in the United States. The Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 created a constitutional right to abortion that denied constitutional personhood to human beings prior to birth. Both cases involved applications of what legal scholars call “substantive due process”—that is, a substantive interpretation of the constitutional requirement that governments provide persons with “due process of law” that moves beyond procedural formalism. Although many constitutional scholars deny the legitimacy of substantive due process as a legal doctrine, this article proposes that the judicial system cannot ultimately avoid substantive moral questions in constitutional interpretation. In both cases examined here, the crucial question was about who counts as part of the people whom the Constitution protects, and that question could not be answered in purely formal terms. Both Dred Scott and Roe v. Wade erred not by engaging substantive moral questions but rather by denying, in different ways, the natural rights of human persons.     

Virginia's New Ban on Public Employee Bargaining: A Case Study of Unions, Business, and Political Competition

This article explores the reasons why the Virginia General Assembly passed a law prohibiting public employee bargaining some 16 years after the Virginia Supreme Court had clearly ruled that such bargaining was impermissible absent express statutory authority. The impetus for this legislation apparently was a series of actions by Governor L. Douglas Wilder's administration involving payroll deductions for state employees. The Virginia case is compared and contrasted to the findings of recent aggregate quantitative studies of the determinants of public sector labor relations legislation, illustrating the relative influence of organized business interests over those of labor.     

Regional deregulation and entrepreneurial growth in China's transition economy

Despite a less favourable national institutional environment, the private entrepreneurial sector has developed rapidly in China's transition economy. To resolve this puzzle, this study argues that regional deregulation plays a significant role in China's entrepreneurial growth because it stimulates free markets and lifts predatory and discriminatory regulatory policies affecting entrepreneurship. I use provincial-level panel data (1998–2003) for hypothesis testing. The results, based on fixed effects estimation, suggest that deregulation indeed has a significantly positive effect on entrepreneurial growth within regions. In addition, this effect is found to be stronger in earlier years, as well as among less developed, inland regions.     

Business dynamics statistics of High Tech industries

Modern market economies are characterized by the reallocation of resources from less productive, less valuable activities to more productive, more valuable ones. Businesses in the High Tech sector play a particularly important role in this reallocation by introducing new products and services that impact the entire economy. In this paper we describe an extension to the Census Bureau's Business Dynamics Statistics that tracks job creation, job destruction, startups, and exits by firm and establishment characteristics, including sector, firm age, and firm size in the High Tech sector. We preview the resulting statistics, showing the structural shifts in the High Tech sector over the past 30 years, including the surge of entry and young firm activity in the 1990s that reversed abruptly in the early‐2000s.     

Exploring the impact of deregulation on HRM: the case of the Norwegian energy sector

The traditional HRM system has been job-based and has reflected a bureaucratic model of organizing work. Such job-based personnel management systems have shown a tendency to break down under deregulation and exposure to competitive market situations. The study reported here suggests that, after the deregulation of the Norwegian energy sector, the industry was forced to change its primary focus from engineering and technical problems to a critical concern for customers, service, operational costs and productivity. In addition, due to increased work interdependence, numerous centralized operational units have developed in the companies. The relevance of operational knowledge was found to increase, together with the establishment of work groups. This also created a shift from a job-related performance management system to a more person-related system. Organization-specific competence was emphasized as well as increased attention to customer interface issues. Market orientation was reflected in the need to introduce pay-for-performance systems. These changes in HRM systems developed on an ad hoc basis. Due to lack of relevant knowledge on the changes occurring and clear management direction HRM adaptation was, however, slow. Implications are highlighted.     

The End of the Milk Marketing Boards

Are the Milk Marketing Boards about to collapse? Linda Whetstone, a farmer, suggests that recent decisions by the courts could lead to the end of the Milk Marketing Boards. A final decision by the European Court is expected shortly.     

出租车特许经营权管制评析

我国政府对出租车行业实行严格的准入管制,但基于自然垄断特性而对出租车行业进行准入管制的理由是不充分的。在特许经营权收益绝大部分分配给了出租车公司的情况下,政府管制使出租车公司获得垄断高价,并侵害到出租车司机与乘客的权益;出租车公司的高额利润导致非法营运增多,显然其收益与贡献是极其不匹配的。深层次原因是市场需求与准入管制的时滞性矛盾、出租车数量在空间分布上的不均衡及政府将新增道路上出租车的特许经营权完全无偿赋予了出租车公司。现阶段,在促进有效竞争的基础上实行管制创新就成为一个必然的选择。     

A STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVE OF BANK FINANCIAL CONGLOMERATES IN LONDON AFTER THE CRASH

The deregulation of financial markets has led to severe challenges for bank management and banking strategy. Investment banking is a sector that has experienced important and well-publicized changes. London's celebrated ‘Big Bang’ helped to stimulate new banking strategies that were characterized by the formation of so-called ‘bank financial conglomerates’. The October 1987 stock market crash, however, has precipitated strategic and organizational crises for many of these banks active in securities business and capital market products. This article re-examines investment banking strategies in London and some of the lessons associated with the crash experiences.     

机场场面飞机滑行调度优化问题的MILP模型及算法

本文考虑了顺序约束、安全约束、起始与终止时间约束和速度约束四种约束,建立了以总滑行时间最小为目标函数的机场场面飞机滑行调度优化的MILP模型。该模型求解分解为两步,先用遗传算法求解各航班经过交叉点的顺序,然后再求解各航班到达各节点的时间。最后结合国内某枢纽机场的航班信息,对模型进行仿真实验,结果表明本文提出的MILP模型有效解决了滑行冲突。     

当前影响出租汽车行业稳定与发展的相关问题分析

出租汽车服务行业稳定已经成为各方关注的焦点.影响稳定的原因错综复杂,发展面临挑战.从对巡游服务、服务对象、政府管制、行业定位等分析,提出服务水平和服务质量是行业发展的永恒的主题.通过出租汽车需求分析,认为影响稳定的核心因素是出租汽车经营权.现行对行业的保护使运力供给与服务严重不平衡,并促成出租汽车经营权高价格,出现新的不稳定因素.管制政策需要强化和调整,尽快投放运力、实施运价顺价政策、取消经营权和产权分离的挂靠的公司形式等是当前管制政策的首要任务,及相应的行业稳定与发展的对策建议.     

审判黄光裕

黄光裕曾经熟悉的那个商业世界正在远离他,不确定的刑期,可能把这个昔日首富跟这一切隔得更远一条红地毯指引着旁听者走向北京市第二中级人民法院第二法庭的门口,只是这一次,红地毯代表的不是关于荣耀和富贵,而是对于财富的质疑和拷问。时间是4月22日。紧闭的大门内,昔日的中国首富、前国美集团董事局主席黄光裕正在接受法庭的审判。