Job quality and the economics of New Labour: a critical appraisal using subjective survey data

This paper assesses the record on job quality during the earlyterm of office of the New Labour government by interpreting,from a political economy perspective, changes in a variety ofsubjective measures of job quality taken from several differentdata sources. We find some improvements in job quality overthe period 1998–2004; however we argue that these improvementshave arisen not because of New Labour's policies towards theworkplace but because of low and falling rates of unemployment.Despite recent improvements, a large number of workers in Britainremain in low quality jobs and, without a radical change ofpolicy direction, sustained and substantial progress in thequality of work will remain elusive.     

Exporting and Productivity in the USA

Exporting is often touted as a way to increase economic growth.This paper examines the interaction between exporting and productivitygrowth in US manufacturing. While exporting plants have substantiallyhigher productivity levels, there is no evidence that exportingincreases plant productivity growth rates. The higher productivityof exporters largely predates their entry into exporting. However,within the same industry, exporters do grow faster than non-exportersin terms of both shipments and employment. Exporting is associatedwith the reallocation of resources from less efficient to moreefficient plants. In the aggregate, these reallocation effectsare quite large, making up over 40 per cent of total factorproductivity growth in the manufacturing sector. Half of thisreallocation to more productive plants occurs within industriesand the direction of the reallocation is towards exporting plants.     

Household factors and discrimination in housing consumption : Further developments in the analysis of tenure choice within housing careers

The decision of households regarding housing consumption should be viewed as decisions within an overall housing career. A model of household residential mobility is derived which may be empirically investigated through a generalisation of competing risk analysis. It is explained how the effects of omitted variables may be dealt with by means of a non-parametric characterisation of their multivariate distribution within a marginal likelihood framework. The problem of initial conditions is discussed in relation to the design of the analysis. The model is applied to the residence histories of a sample of households from the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics     

The normal, the natural, and the harmonic

Use is made of rigorous definitions for the terms normal, natural, and harmonic to reveal a number of unfamiliar aspects about them. The Gaussian distribution is not sufficient to determine who is normal, and fluctuations above or below a natural-growth curve may or may not be natural. A recipe for harmonically sustained natural growth requires that the overlap during the substitution process must be limited. As a consequence the overall growth process must experience good as well as bad “seasons”.     

Types and functions of social relationships in the organizing of an international joint venture

This paper examines the use of social relationships in the organizing of a business network in the case of an international joint venture (IJV) developing over time. The organizing process and the multicultural setting of the international joint venture emphasize the actions of and interactions between individuals from various organizations. The IJV-managers' use of their social relationships in business organizing is explored through analysis of narratives of IJV-managers in a longitudinal single case to provide empirically grounded theory. From the in-depth interviews with IJV-managers the business relationships are identified as characterized by four possible levels of interpersonal relationships whose type influences the functions of the relationships and visa versa. One business relationship may contain only one or many of these interpersonal levels and an effective business relationship contains the appropriate interpersonal level for the business issue at hand.     

Real estate issues in corporate relocation in Western Europe

If you plan to relocate an office or plant in Europe to take advantage of Europe 1992, you need some understanding of European real estate markets and their effects on corporate relocation decisions.     

Productivity and the crisis of Fordism

The paper examines the claim by the regulation school of French economists that the slackening of productivity growth in the advanced capitalist countries reflects the erosion of the ‘Fordist’ system of production. Productivity trends are analysed for the biggest six OECD countries for the period prior to the 1974 oil shock. There are definite indicators of slackening productivity growth, either for labour productivity or for the output-capital ratio, for most of the countries examined. But a disaggregated analysis, and assessment of the relative productivity levels in the countries concerned, does not support the idea that a whole system of technologies and work organization was reaching inherent limits. It is suggested, rather, that the productivity problems reflected the power of the boom of the 1950s and 1960s in eroding the reserves of surplus labour and increasing workers' organizational strength.