Revitalising local democracy: A social capital analysis in the context of a New Zealand local authority

Using an exploratory case study, we assess whether markets and strategic performance management systems (SPMS) enhanced social capital of a local authority in New Zealand and its capacity to foster democracy. We found that SPMS enhanced the interaction among managers and between managers and residents and provided residents with opportunities to participate in local authority decision-making. Market forms of management however, promoted individualism and the pursuit of narrow departmental goals. There was increased control by managers and greater reliance on experts which diminished local people's participation (and the role of councillors) in local affairs. The pairing of contradictory discourses based on efficiency, markets and participatory democracy promoted an overly rational form of democracy inimical to a deliberative democracy. The relations between staff were in a state of continuous tension. The paper contributes to an understanding on how the interaction between the state and local authorities affects local authority social capital and the potential effects on community social capital and local democracy. This paper demonstrates a need for greater attention to the contest between different discourses in the construction and sustenance of social capital and the pursuit of democracy.     

Wage setting in the Colombian manufacturing industry

We show that wage setting in the Colombian manufacturing industry is not fundamentally driven by labour productivity in contrast to the standard theoretical prediction. On the contrary, internal institutional arrangements – payroll taxation, the minimum wage or the price wedge between manufacturing and consumption prices – together with a higher exposure to international trade – connected to the increasing globalization of the Colombian economy – appear as the crucial drivers. These findings lead us to question the political strategy followed to attain cost competitiveness in a context of growing exposure to international trade. Implementation of a true wage bargaining system is suggested as a critical policy target to prevent the disruptive economic consequences of the current wage‐setting mechanism and help rebalance the trade deficit.     

Labor Reform in Mexico,Analysis of Principal Changes and Method of Recruitment

Actually, the country＇s development aims to achieve higher levels of productivity, so it had to adapt to international standards. This has served to ease the hiring of both operational and managerial controls, giving emphasis on training and allowing the pairing boss-worker to take the productivity like benchmark. The labor reform allows companies to make changes with their workers; such changes must be reflected in lower costs for businesses, by labor input and increased competitiveness, however, two years ago this guideline was implanted and society asks if the results are congruent, because Mexican society is undergoing economics problems issue as well as a deficit in generating jobs. Therefore, analyzing whether modifications made to the federal labor law （FLL） are designed to optimize safety of workers and enterprises in which they work is the subject of this research. The corresponding analysis was performed using the deductive method.     

On the puzzling slowdown of wage and productivity growth in Taiwan: evidence from a comparison with South Korea

Since the early 2000s, the growth rate of real wages in Taiwan has been very low, even negative for high‐skilled workers. This paper sheds light on the potential causes of this puzzling development through a comparison of Taiwan's performance with that of South Korea. In many dimensions, most notably wages and labour productivity, both economies developed quite similarly between 1995 and 2001–02, but diverged thereafter. We relate the development of wages and labour productivity in the two economies to sectoral structural change and to sectoral differences in labour productivity growth, skills upgrading, and foreign trade.     

Derived Demand for Refrigerated Truck Transport: A Gravity Model Analysis of Canadian Pork Exports to the United States

Gravity models have a long history in the empirical analysis of trade flows and market penetration, but lack a strong economic foundation. This paper demonstrates that the gravity model can be reconciled with existing economic theory within the framework of an interregional trade model. An empirical gravity model of interregional trade is specified for Canadian pork exports to the United States. The estimated results show that, among other things, demand for transport is highly elastic, suggesting that pork producers and truckers have a mutual interest in exploring means to lower freight costs. Finally, the gravity model is used to identify potential markets for each of the five major exporting provinces. The Canadian pork industry has its best opportunity for further penetration in Illinois, Texas, New York and New Jersey.     

An analytic approach to the study of gun control policies

This paper explores the theoretic and policy implications of the assumption that the objective of gun ownership is to enhance the security of gun owners and their associates. Security is defined as the probability of not being victimized in a criminal assault and not suffering accidental injury or death in a gun-related incident. An elementary mathematical model is constructed and analyzed. This model and controversial data currently available lead to the conclusion that the percentage of the population owning guns should be larger than now it is. This result does not imply that gun ownership should be made more accessible. Gun ownership may be one possible way to reduce crime. Other ways to achieve this objective are better police control, education, socio-economic justice, etc. The possibility that these alternatives are more effective crime deterrents is not explored in this paper, nor in the studies that provided the data. This evaluation is needed before deciding whether increased gun ownership is the policy that should be adopted in order to reduce crime.     

The psychological and social variables determining education

The object of the paper is to logically integrate in a single frame of reference the studies of the psychological and sociological determinants of achievement and acculturation of the students.

The education or socialization process is defined as the process of social interaction that has as its object the teaching-learning of culture.

The two main instruments used for the analysis of education are a model of social interaction, and, since the characteristics of any social interaction depend upon the way in which the actors in it peform their roles, a model of the performance of any activity.

The model of social interaction, applied to classroom interactions, gives the basis determining the main elements of the roles of teachers and students. The influence that the performance of these roles has on the indoctrination and achievement of the students is studied with the model of the performance of any activity. Finally it is assumed that the levels of achievement and indoctrination attained by the students determines whether or not they remain in the educational system.     

Are the antiglobalists right? Gains-from-trade without a Walrasian auctioneer

We show that the “fear” of globalisation can be rationalised by economic theory in the standard AD/AS equilibrium model, if we substitute the coordinational role of the Auctioneer by an implementation device based on learning (Guesnerie in Am Econ Rev 82, 1254–1278, 1992). When endowing producers with a learning ability to forecast market prices, individual profit-maximizing production decisions become interdependent in a strategic sense (strategic substitutes). Performing basic comparative statics exercises, we show that “competitiveness” matters in a precise sense: as foreign producers gain access to the home market, home producers’ ability to forecast market prices is undermined, so being their ability to forecast the profit consequences of their production decisions. A standard open economy exercise shows that the efficiency gains triggered by increased competition have to be traded-off against higher uncertainty (a lower likelihood to coordinate upon the welfare enhancing free-trade equilibrium). We interpret it as a new rationale for the existence of barriers to trade targeting coordination, rather than protecting mere inefficient sectors or industries (political economy driven). Finally, we show that classical measures evaluating ex-ante the desirability of economic integration (net welfare gains) do not always advice free trade. I wish to specially thank Roger Guesnerie, Thierry Verdier and an anonymous referee for their helpful suggestions. Comments by Facundo Albornoz, Pol Antràs, Gregory Corcos, Maurice Kugler, Robin Mason, Victor Norman, Emmanuel Ornelas and Susanna Thede are sincerely acknowledged. Audiences at the U. of Alicante, U. Autonoma de Barcelona, ETSG 2005 (Dublin), FGV-EPGE (RJ, Brazil), LACEA 2005 (Paris), the Miwest Trade Meeting at Minneapolis 2007, the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), SBE 2005 (Natal, Brazil), U. of Southampton and T2M 2005 are acknowledged. The contents constitute chapter 4 of my PSE-EHESS PhD thesis, extended while I visited the NYU Economics department, sponsored by A. Bisin. Financial support from the Bank of Spain and CNRS is sincerely acknowledged.