A new interpretation on the optimal density regulations: Closed and open city

Optimality of urban density regulations differs between a closed city and an open city. We demonstrate, by examining optimal floor area ratio (FAR) regulation, how to control building size to mitigate traffic congestion externality in a monocentric city. Results show that a closed city requires not only downward adjustment to the market density at boundary locations using maximum FAR regulation but also upward adjustment at central locations using minimum FAR regulation. On the other hand, an open city requires only the former. The common practice of imposing only maximum FAR regulation is thus insufficient for closed cities although it is effective for open cities.     

Employment with connections: Negative network effects

In less developed countries, it is widely observed that employers hire workers through employee referrals. In this paper, we show an extension of this kind of networks that may decrease applicants' payoffs while a diversification of the networks can raise referred applicants' payoffs. We also discuss the effect of the extension of interlinked contracts on farmers' wages.     

Cordon Pricing and Land‐Use Regulation

This study explores the simultaneous imposition of cordon pricing and land‐use regulations in a continuous and closed monocentric city with homogeneous households. Results reveal the optimal level of a single cordon toll and its location and the optimal floor area ratio (FAR) regulation, clarifying what distortions remain in the existence of cordon pricing and FAR regulation. Among other results, this paper shows that, with an optimal cordon toll, FAR regulation should alternate between a minimum and a maximum regulation, both inside and outside the cordon line.     

Residential land use with demographic dynamics of young and old generations

Populations of many countries are expected to decrease rapidly, with a simultaneous increase in the proportion of elderly people. These population dynamics will affect residential location patterns of young and old people because of their different preferences for local (zonal) amenities. Using an overlapping generations model in a closed city with two zones, this paper demonstrates how younger and older generations reside in the two zones and classifies the residential patterns into three patterns. Results of analyses underscore how the three residential patterns arise according to the respective population dynamics and zone amenities. Furthermore, by exploring the equilibrium utility paths of young and old people for each residential pattern, we show that the change in the population dynamics can produce an unfair change over generations with different birthdates.     

Foreign Aid and Recurrent Cost: Donor Competition, Aid Proliferation, and Budget Support

Recent empirical studies reveal that effectiveness of aid on growth is ambiguous. The authors consider aid proliferation—excess aid investment relative to recurrent cost—as a potential cause that undermines aid effectiveness, because aid projects can only produce sustainable benefits when sufficient recurrent costs are disbursed. They consider the donor's budget support as a device to supplement the shortage of the recipient's recurrent cost and to alleviate the misallocation of inputs. However, when donors have self-interested preferences for the success of their own projects over those conducted by others, they provide insufficient budget support relative to aid, which results in aid proliferation. Moreover, aid proliferation is shown to be worsened by the presence of more donors.     

Basic psychological need satisfaction and affect within the leisure sphere

Research on leisure and well-being in non-Western contexts is rare. Our study addresses this issue by investigating whether satisfaction of three basic psychological needs – autonomy, competence and/or relatedness – influences four types of affective well-being – high-arousal positive (HAP) affect, low-arousal positive (LAP) affect, high-arousal negative (HAN) affect and/or low-arousal negative (LAN) affect – within the leisure sphere. Telephone survey data were collected from 583 Hong Kong Chinese employees. Structural equation modelling indicated that (1) autonomy, competence and relatedness need satisfaction were all significantly and positively correlated with HAP affect; (2) autonomy need satisfaction alone was significantly and positively related with LAP affect; and (3) autonomy need satisfaction alone was significantly and negatively associated with both LAN and HAN affects. Taken together, these results suggest that fulfilment of basic psychological needs, especially the need for autonomy, contributes to people’s overall affective well-being, within the leisure sphere. We discuss our findings in terms of two frameworks: basic psychological needs theory and the DRAMMA leisure model. We also explicate the practical implications of our study and provide future research recommendations.     

Economic and management implications of technological advances in the world steel industry

This article reviews recent and prospective major technological innovations in the world steel industry and assesses their probable effects on the production, cost, and export capabilities of established as well as of newly developing steel producing areas.     

Trends in Japanese Management: An Overview of Embedded Continuities and Disembedded Discontinuities

In this paper we consider the accounts of post-war Japan's economic development in terms of a consideration of the argument from embeddedness. We note the dangers implicit in approaches that tend to proffer over-socialized accounts of action and stress the importance of institutionally and organizationally specific levels of analysis. We establish the significance of the immediate post-war period for analysis of Japanese organizations, and look at the continuities and discontinuities in their development up to the present. The paper analyses continuities in terms of the maintenance of a long-term orientation and global vision and that organizations remain both competitive and cooperative. The discontinuities have emerged in the last decade, since the economic ills of Japan became evident. These include a shift from a growth emphasis to the balancing of multiple goals; the emergence of new forms of competitive strategy, in the form of: alliances and cooperation; changing conceptions of careers; relaxation of the centralisation of authority; a shift from lifetime employment to employability; larger differentiation of wages and promotion opportunities in the status ladder system, and the increased scope for initiative and consensus. We conclude with some implications of the analysis for future research.     

Are generics buyers deal-prone? On a relationship between generics purchase and deal-proneness

The research finding that deal-prone shoppers and generics buyers are similar to each other in profile, prompted the present study to address whether or not deal-prone shoppers are generic buyers and vice versa. Data were collected from a large Midwest metropolitan area. The factor anlaysis demonstrated that attitudinal differences between deal-prone and generics were significant. This study found that both deal-prone and generics shoppers are economy-minded in shopping. Dealprone prone shoppers, however, were found to be different from generics buyers in that they are more conservative, less confident and less innovative than the latter. Based on the findings, a number of recommendations are made to management of national brdand manufacturers and retailers.     

OPTIMAL ADJUSTMENT OF THE COMPOSITION OF PUBLIC EXPENDITURE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

This paper analyses how the composition of public expenditure should be adjusted to maximize the economic growth rate in developing countries. We first apply a theoretical framework to empirical data from 50 countries. We then demonstrate how each country should adjust public expenditure for the purpose of maximizing growth. Results show that developing countries in Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe have generally misallocated public expenditures in favour of defence, at the expense of public services. Other region‐specific results suggest that Asian developing countries should increase expenditure on education, and that Middle Eastern countries should decrease expenditure on education in favour of health.