A Different Perspective on the Evolution of UK Income Inequality

This paper scrutinizes the conventional wisdom about trends in UK income inequality and also places contemporary inequality in a much longer historical perspective. We combine household survey and income tax data to provide better coverage of all income ranges from the bottom to the very top (and make our estimates available to other researchers). We make a case for studying distributions of income between tax units (i.e. not assuming the full income sharing that goes with the use of the household as the unit of analysis) for reasons of principle as well as data harmonization. We present evidence that income inequality in the UK is as least as high today as it was just before the start of World War 2.     

Sexuality and holiday choices: conversations with gay and lesbian tourists

This paper is an exploratory investigation of the travel motivations of gay and lesbian tourists. Based on in-depth interviews and focus groups, it investigates the interrelationships between sexuality, tourism behaviour and tourism spaces. Given that public space is controlled and heterosexualized, the paper suggests that whilst gay and lesbian people are motivated to travel for a range of reasons, such is the power of the dominant heterosexual milieu that their sexuality has a critical impact on their tourism choices. The need for safety, to feel comfortable with like-minded people, and to escape from heterosexism – often to specifically gay spaces – emerge as key influences on their choice of holiday.     

Tobacco Advertising and Children

This paper expresses the results of an investigation of the influence of tobacco advertising on children's smoking. The investigation examined the existing body of evidence and literature on the subject including data obtained from empirical research carried out by the Children's Research Unit in London. Despite the speculation regarding the possible role of advertising in juvenile smoking, no evidence was found to link juvenile smoking initiation with tobacco advertising. On the contrary, the evidence suggests that smoking initiation is more dependent on family smoking behaviour and peer pressures. These factors emerged consistently as the major influences in smoking initiation throughout the literature and the range of countries investigated regardless of the extent of tobacco advertising permitted in each country. Advertising is not as influential as is often supposed. Psychological filter systems are employed by the consumer, who selects only that information which is of relevance or interest to him. Widespread awareness of the tobacco-health issue means that an additional barrier is formed in the case of cigarette advertisements. There is no evidence that tobacco advertising influences non-smokers (either children or adults) to take up smoking.     

Understanding 'individualization' in human resource management: the case of 'skill-based pay' in France

'Individualization' in personnel practices has long been considered as an essential component of 'modern' human resources management, but the empirical complexities of its definition, implementation and impact within firms have not been analysed in considerable depth. This paper adds to this analysis by reporting on research into one form of individualization - 'skill-based pay' - adopted in different sectors in France. The crucial institutional context for this adoption is explained and then it is shown how different models of skill-based remuneration have emerged as a result of both sectorial contingencies and specific industrial relations processes.     

Physical Activity of Remote Indigenous Australian Women: A Postcolonial Analysis of Lifestyle

In the context of rising chronic diseases amongst Indigenous peoples, there are calls for the adoption of more healthy “lifestyles.” In this context, this paper explores thoughts about physical activity from 21 Indigenous families through the voices of women and girls living in remote rural communities in the Torres Strait and Northern Peninsula Area, Australia. Speaking back to physical activity as a lifestyle “choice,” three consistent themes emerged: shame, gendered positioning, and welfarism. In conclusion, the perspectives of Torres Strait islanders and Northern Peninsula Area communities suggest that there are deeply embedded ways of thinking about the body, familial obligations, and the provision of and access to being active that are not consistent with Western health policies predicated upon individuals shouldering responsibility for “taking exercise.”     

Morgan Stanley's Risk‐Reward Views: Unlocking the Full Potential of Fundamental Analysis

Since 2008, Risk‐Reward Views have been the basis for the recommendations on all the stocks covered by Morgan Stanley's equity research analysts globally. The firm's analysts use this systematic approach to communicate a broader range of fundamental insights about expected returns and risks, and to articulate more clearly the logic underlying their price targets and calls, and the level of conviction associated with them. The rationale for this approach is to align the firm's research product with its clients' thinking and investment discipline while also creating a link between traditional equity analysis and widely accepted principles of modern portfolio management. Too many sell‐side analysts still try to manifest expertise and conviction with one‐sided investment theses backed by single‐point estimates and “table pounding.” That does a disservice to investors who are looking to sell‐side analysts for an ongoing dialogue about the future with experts on company fundamentals. Risk‐Reward Views are designed to produce a more complete view of the risk‐reward trade‐off in a given stock. They are meant to supplement the use of quant‐only risk models that, while offering at least the illusion of precision, are also often opaque and backward looking. The approach aims to increase transparency while avoiding unnecessary complexity by focusing on a handful of critical uncertainties and modeling a manageable number of coherent scenarios that are relevant to investor debates and cover a full range of plausible outcomes. This article focuses on the theoretical underpinnings of the department's Risk‐Reward initiative. For a more detailed discussion of the institutional setting and the processes followed to implement these ideas, readers are referred to the recently published Harvard Business School case study, “The Risk‐Reward Framework at Morgan Stanley Research” (Harvard Business School Case N9–111–011).     

Evaluating the Relative Impact of Fiscal Incentives and Trade Policies on the Returns to Manufacturing in Taiwan, 1955–1995*

In the present paper, an integrated cash flow model is developed to examine the relative impact of tax incentives, financial subsidies, and macroeconomic variables on the profitability of industrial investments. It allows for the variables in the model to interact with each other. An application of the model is carried out for Taiwan, which has implemented a variety of fiscal incentives over the past 40 years. The principal policy conclusion is that trade and macroeconomic policies are much more important than income tax incentives or subsidized finance policies in determining the success of Taiwan's industrialization process. The effects of all of the fiscal incentives are found to be much smaller than those of the trade policies or the fundamental trends in macroeconomic variables such as the movement of the real exchange rate and the real wage rate.     

Peri‐urban land tenure: Problems and prospects

Informal settlements in Natal are discussed. The need for and the reasons against informal settlement are examined. Means of overcoming the shortcomings of informal settlement are suggested and the need for security of tenure in order to promote ‘self‐help’ is highlighted.