THE FUTURE ROLE OF THE LAW

1. All individual labour relations disputes arising out of breach of contract of employment including unfair dismissal should be capable of being settled by the relatively rapid, inexpensive and informal procedures of the industrial tribunals with further appeal on points of law; 2. The minimum condition of legal recognition for the closed shop should be the effective strengthening in law of protection for the individual union member or prospective member, subject to discretion concerning ‘disruptists7rsquo; 3. In the central area of collective labour relations, the following policy suggestions are made: a) criminal or civil sanctions against individual employees are impractical and best forgotten. Sanctions can only be realistically considered in relation to leaders and organisations; b) the objective for a rational law of strike action (or other forms of direct action) should be limited if it is to be realistic, i.e., not the chopping down of managerial or trade union or shop floor power but insistence on a reasonable degree of orderliness and time for second thoughts in the run up to direct action; c) it is an ancient truth that only fair and reasonable laws will command respect. Disputes procedures are a kind of quasi-law. To command respect and to justify sanctions for its breach, a disputes procedure should be independently certificated as fair and reasonable in accordance with modern labour relations standards. The C.I.R. is at present the obvious body in which to vest this certificating power; d) where adequate procedures and principles are provided by the law to deal with an identified class of industrial dispute, the use of private power, including private collective power, to impose a solution should be legally discouraged.     

Monetary policy in a channel system

Channel systems for conducting monetary policy are becoming increasingly popular. Despite its popularity, the consequences of implementing policy with a channel system are not well understood. We develop a general equilibrium framework of a channel system and study the optimal policy. A novel aspect of the channel system is that a central bank can “tighten” or “loosen” its policy without changing its policy rate. This policy instrument has so far been overlooked by a large body of the literature on the optimal design of interest-rate rules.     

Optimal pricing of payment services

Payments are increasingly being made with payment cards despite the fact that the cost of clearing a card payment usually exceeds the cost of transferring cash. We examine this puzzle through the lens of monetary theory. We consider the design of an optimal card-based payment system when cash is available as an alternative means of payment. We find that a feature akin to the controversial “no-surcharge rule” may be necessary to ensure the viability of the card payment system. This rule states that merchants cannot charge a customer who pays by card more than a customer who pays by cash.     

Shareholder Behaviour in the New Issue Market-A Preliminary Report

The compulsory use of IFRS for the consolidated statements of listed companies in the EU and elsewhere, and the convergence of IFRS with US GAAP, might imply the end of ‘international accounting’ as an important field of study. However, there are motives and opportunities for international differences of practice to exist within IFRS usage. Some of the original motives for international accounting differences may still be effective in an IFRS context, though in different ways. The opportunities for different IFRS practices are divided into eight types. Hypotheses relating to each of these are proposed, and some ways of testing them are suggested. Some implications of the existence of different national versions of IFRS are noted.     

Teacher Training and Teacher Optimism about the American Economic System

The amount and type of economic-education training teachers receive have predictable effects on the teachers' optimism about the future of the American economic system.     

Corporatisation and Corporate Governance in China's Economic Transition

China has sought to improve enterprise performance not through privatisation as in other transition economies, but through corporatisation as means of improving corporate governance. Actual governance practices of corporatised Chinese firms are however seriously defective, characterized by excessive power of CEOs, insider control and collusion, lack of safeguards for minority shareholders and weak transparency. These shortcomings are attributable to factors such as cultural and political traditions, uncompetitiveness of markets, poor legal enforcement, weak debt and equity markets, but above all to continued state dominance in ownership and control of the corporate sector and listed companies. Corporatisation, nevertheless, has created a regime conducive to implementing measures for improving corporate governance.     

Strategic brand management for higher education institutions with graduate degree programs: empirical insights from the higher education marketing mix

ABSTRACT

Intense competition for student enrollment has created a strong need for higher education institutions, especially those that offer graduate degree programs, to differentiate themselves. This article introduces the concept of strategic brand management as an avenue for higher education differentiation and discusses how higher education institutions with graduate degree programs can strategically manage their brands (i.e. corporate and product) through the higher education marketing mix (i.e. prominence, prospectus, program, price, people, premium, and promotion). Using a closed-ended survey and partial least squares structural equation modeling of a sample of students enrolled in a graduate degree program (e.g. MBA), the study finds that the utilitarian elements (i.e. prominence, prospectus, program, and price) of the higher education marketing mix have a positive direct impact on the product brand (e.g. MBA brand) and an indirect impact on the corporate brand (e.g. university brand) of these types of higher education institutions. However, hedonic elements (i.e. people, premium, and promotion) of the higher education marketing mix do not produce any significant impact on either the corporate or product brands of these institutions. Implications from these findings to theory, practice, and future research avenues conclude.