Positioning Southwest Airlines through employee branding

As the field of employee branding has begun to unfold, more and more executives have become interested in how this process can help them achieve a competitive advantage for their organizations. This article explains how employee branding works and how it can be utilized to position the organization in the minds of customers, employees, and other stakeholders. A contextual analysis of its use as a source of sustainable competitive advantage at Southwest Airlines is presented. Finally, key success factors are identified for those who wish to make employee branding a strategic focus within their organizations.     

Economic Implications of European Demographic Change

This article uses a model of the economy where people of different ages interact in financial markets and in the labour market and where governments set taxes to balance receipts against pension spending. The model suggests that demographic changes will have major macroeconomic impacts.     

An analysis of asymmetric demand response to price changes: The case of local telephone calls

Asymmetric demand responses to price changes are not an observable implication of classical demand theory, which predicts that consumers will react to a small price increase in much the same way as they do to a small price decrease. Yet applied researchers have long speculated that consumers are more sensitive to price increases than they are to price decreases. In addition, recent empirical studies generally support the theory of asymmetric demand responses. We construct a dynamic model based on data gathered from monthly telephone bills for 128 New York Telephone customers over a five-year period. Our results support the conclusion that customers react more quickly and strongly when prices go up than they do when prices go down.We would like to thank Manny Haas and Bernie Reddy for their comments and suggestions.     

The missing equation: The wedge model alternative

This article develops an alternative method for solving the problem of the “missing equation” by including the market-nonmarket decision for factors and capital-labor mix decision for producers. The result is a wedge or supply-side model of the economy. This general equilibrium macro model describes the interaction between the product and factor markets, describes both the income and substitution effects of government actions, and provides new insights into the full impact of the government sector.     

Development,distribution and the future

The distribution of world output between countries, and between social groups within countries, is central to long-term development prospects. Unequal shares mean unequal influence over the future direction of world affairs. The level and structure of demand are conditioned by the distribution of financial resources; while the power to influence the course of development is itself tied to the resources that can be marshalled in support of one's objectives. Two forecasting techniques, scenario construction and global modelling, are used to assess these relationships and explore the consequences of one possible ‘future history’ in which distribution worldwide does eventually begin to improve. Striking limitations to most development strategies are identified; without a wide-ranging set of changes, the prospects for improved distribution—and relief of poverty—are bleak.     

DIVERSIFICATION IN THE REAL ESTATE PORTFOLIO

This study investigates primarily the relationship between portfolio size and the reduction of return variation in real estate portfolios and attempts to provide some notion of what represents an “adequate” level of naive diversification. The study also examines the proportional components of the total risk in real estate investment. The results provide information on the relative percentage of total risk accounted for by systematic or “market” factors.     

A two-sector model of production and trade with variable factor supplies

Zusammenfassung Produktion und internationaler Handel in einem Zwei-Sektoren-Modell mit variablem Faktorangebot. — In diesem Aufsatz wird untersucht, wie sich in einem Modell mit variablem Faktorangebot die Ergebnisse und Folgerungen aus dem traditionellen 2 x 2-Modell einer offenen Volkswirtschaft ver?ndern. Eine Produktionsfunktion des Haushaltssektors wird entwickelt, um ein variables Arbeitsangebot in das Modell einbeziehen zu k?nnen. Dann wird die neue Beziehung zwischen der Produktion des Marktsektors und den Ver?nderungen des Verh?ltnisses von Lohn und Kapitalrendite, die entsprechende Ver?nderungen des Arbeitsangebots auf dem Marktsektor bewirkt, n?her untersucht. Schlie\lich wird dargestellt, warum unter einigen sehr allgemeinen Annahmen die Kurve, die die Beziehung zwischen den beiden unter marktm?\igen Bedingungen produzierten Gütern darstellt, nicht mehr konkav zum Ursprung verl?uft. Dieses scheinbar perverse Ergebnis findet eine sehr rationale Erkl?rung und liefert die Grundlage für eine plausible alternative Erkl?rung des Leontief-Paradoxons.

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Résumé La production et le commerce international dans un modèle aux deux secteurs et à l’offre variable de facteurs. — Dans cet article les auteurs examinent comment le modèle à l’offre variable de facteurs change les résultats et les implications d’un 2 x 2 modèle traditionnel de l’économie ouverte. Une fonction de production pour le secteur de ménage est introduite afin de créer une offre variable de maind’∄uvre. Puis l’auteur examine la relation nouvelle entre la production du secteur de marché et les changements en rapport salaire/rendement de capital qui causent des changements correspondants en offre de main-d’∄uvre dans le secteur de marché. Finalement, les auteurs exposent pourquoi sous quelques conditions très générales la courbe qui illustre la relation entre les deux biens produits sur le marché n’est plus concave vers l’origine. Ce résultat apparemment pervers a une explication très rationnelle et donne la base pour une explication alternative et plausible du paradoxe de Léontief.

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Resumen Un modelo de dos sectores de producción y comercio con ofertas de factores variables. — En este artículo se examina cómo el modelo de oferta variable de factores altera los resultados e implicaciones del modelo tradicional 2 x 2 en una economía abierta. Se introduce una función de producción doméstica como un medio para generar nuestro modelo de oferta variable de trabajo. En seguida se examina la nueva relación entre el mercado de producción y cambios en la relación salario-renta, que da cuenta de cambios correspondientes en la oferta laboral con respecto al sector de mercado. Finalmente, se expone por qué bajo ciertas condiciones muy générales, la relación entre los dos bienes producidos en el mercado no es cóncava con respecto al origen. Este resultado aparentemente perverso tiene una explicación muy racional y proporciona la base para una explicación plausible y alternativa para la paradoja de Leontief.

     

ALTERNATIVE MEASURES OF THE AVERAGE DURATION OF UNEMPLOYMENT

Four alternative measures of the average duration of unemployment are examined with the intention of illustrating: (1) the biases inherent in the average incomplete duration of unemployment, a statistic that is often the only one reported by many statistical agencies; and (2) the robustness of the average complete duration of unemployment to a host of assumptions underlying its derivation by non-parametric methods. Canadian data are employed, but the results offer a guide to the construction of the average complete duration of unemployment that may have broader applications.