Agency theory: A falsificationist perspective

The purpose of this paper is to examine the empirical testability of agency theory from a falsificationist perspective. Following a brief discussion of economic methodology, the paper examines three main classes of agency models with a view to identifying the scope for empirical testing. With regard to the basic single period agency model, the paper argues that empirical researchers should direct their attention to generating and testing the comparative static implications of the model. For agency models with post-decision information, it is argued that the scope for empirical testing is likely to be severely limited by the researcher's inability to validate the truth value of the auxiliary hypotheses needed to generate empirically interesting implications. In addition, it is argued that considerable care needs to be exercised when interpreting the results of tests of “if and only if” propositions. These difficulties of interpretation are illustrated by reference to two recent attempts to test Holmstrom's theory of relative performance evaluation. Finally, it is argued that agency models involving pre-decision information are practically devoid of empirical content.     

a lesson from all our yesterdays

The rise of unemployment to close to three million recalls memories of the dole queues of the 1930s. Kent Matthews, of the Cardiff Business School, explores the analogies between the unemployment of the 1930s and the 1990s.     

'Don't owe,won't pay!': A critical analysis of the Jubilee SA position on South African government debt

Jubilee 2000 (SA) supports the cancellation of South African national government (and other) debt on the grounds that it is odious debt from the apartheid years. The organisation has called for foreign creditors to cancel the debt voluntarily and has threatened to call for debt repudiation if such cancellation is not forthcoming. However, unlike voluntary debt cancellation, debt repudiation would probably have serious consequences for investment and growth. Furthermore, as most government debt has accumulated after the end of apartheid, and as most is domestic and marketable, the moral argument for repudiation is problematic. Jubilee 2000 (SA) is also calling for the government pension scheme (which owns a large proportion of the domestic government debt) to be restructured. Contributions to the pension fund may be excessive (as argued by Jubilee 2000), but the case is not clear. South Africa should publish a dual set of accounts in line with how other countries report their liabilities so as not to overstate the deficit in the eyes of investors.     

Changes in european defence procurement and industrial capabilities

The impact of defence procurement on a country's industrial and technological base can be considerable—among NATO countries, the USA, Britain and France stand out in this regard. Equally, concern is also often expressed about how to safeguard the civil technology base as a necessary foundation for security, broadly conceived. This article examines the changes taking place in the UK, and more broadly in Europe, regarding defence procurement: first, by examining arguments and events regarding defence R&D; and second, through analysing procurement issues relating especially to industrial structures and strategies. Much strategic repositioning by firms is currently taking place, often encouraged by governments, who seem to lack adequate means of regulating the restructuring, thereby creating unintended problems.     

Rewards and Sanctions and the Provision of Public Goods in One-Shot Settings

A burgeoning literature in experimental studies of the Voluntary Contribution Mechanism focuses on the ability of institutions that allow the monitoring, sanctioning, and/or rewarding of others to facilitate cooperation. In this paper rewards and sanctions are examined in a one-shot VCM setting that so far has been unexplored in the literature. The study finds that while some subjects are willing to reward and sanction others at a personal cost, the opportunity to reward or sanction is ineffective in facilitating cooperation relative to previous experiments in which a repeated game environment is employed. The study also compares behavior in an environment in which the imposition of rewards and sanctions is certain to an environment in which imposition is uncertain. The expected value of the reward or sanction is kept constant across environments to focus simply on the effect of uncertainty about imposition. Uncertainty does not change behavior in a significant way, either in the level of cooperation or the willingness of individuals to impose rewards or sanctions.     

The well-being of South African university students from low-income households

ABSTRACT

The role of higher education in development and social mobility is now widely acknowledged and globally recognised. In South Africa in particular, graduates have greatly increased employment prospects. This paper takes up the importance of addressing South African university students’ multi-dimensional well-being in the light of global higher education development agendas. Considering poverty and development in the space of higher education – specifically in the lives of youth from low-income households in South Africa – I draw on two waves of life history data from undergraduate students at five universities. Material-cultural conditions for a threshold of well-being emerged powerfully in every single student narrative, indicating a need for some rethinking of capability deprivation and poverty. This paper conceptualises three broad hardship categories specific to higher education, considering the multiplicity of factors and complexity of low-income in student experiences and achievements. Even though the theoretical framing draws on Sen’s capability approach and its attractive moral perspective, the paper also foregrounds students’ material well-being as significant in understanding how education can advance change, and not only reproduce social inequalities. The challenge remains, how do we reconcile resources and capabilities, and to link freedoms to financial analysis in evaluating the lives that students value?     

INTERACTIONS OF QUANTITY,PRICE AND POLICY: MILK AND DAIRY PRODUCTS

A combination of reasoning and simple regression equations are used to examine the recent history of some aspects of the dairy industry. Attention is dawn to some of the pitfalls in attempting to quantify dairy demand and supply relationships. Elasticities are generally confirmed to be low, with the exception of the demand for cream; though it is suggested that the supply of milk may be less unresponsive to price change than is often maintained. The results obtained are related to milk marketing policy.