Variations in human resource management in Asian countries: MNC home-country and host-country effects

This paper investigates the determinants of HRM strategy in a random sample of firms operating in Korea and Taiwan. Both indigenous and foreign-owned firms are studied. HRM strategy is measured in terms of the company's reliance on high-performance, versus more traditional, HRM policies and practices in several different areas, including staffing, employee influence, employee rewards and employee autonomy. Independent variables include the firm's country or region of origin (USA, Japan, Europe, Korea or Taiwan), the host country (Korea or Taiwan) and the internal culture of the firm, as measured by upper management's perception that human resources constitute a significant source of value for the organization. Pronounced differences are found across countries of origin and between the two host countries. Managerial values and various organizational characteristics that serve as control variables are also found to impact on HRM strategy.     

Labour unions,globalization and deregulation in Thailand

This contribution traces the evolution of work systems and labour-management relationships in Thailand, with emphasis on the nature and role of unions in the Thai economy. We focus on issues that have emerged as a consequence of globalization and privatization (currently the most significant form of deregulation in Thailand). Labour unions are quite weak in Thailand, even in comparison to other rapidly developing countries in the region. Furthermore, unions have been weakened further in recent years as the consequence of government action, prompted both by globalization pressures and extensive privatization of state enterprises. The emergence of a democratic political system in Thailand has not served to reverse this trend. Indeed, a reversal of this trend does not seem likely in the foreseeable future.     

The UK demand for steel

The paper suggests a short-run model of the demand for steel that may be used for forecasting future trends. The paper commences with consideration of a long-run model which is estimated using cointegration analysis. An error correction model is then developed to depict the short-run movements to equilibrium. This can be used for the purpose of ex-post forecasting.     

HRM in Thailand: a post-1997 update

This essay updates an earlier study of human resource management (HRM) practices in Thailand, focusing specifically on HRM in the post-1997 Asian financial crisis. HRM in Thailand has undergone gradual, but significant, change, with movement away from more traditional styles of HRM and management rooted in personalism and social relationships, toward more flexible employment systems in which employment opportunities are based on merit and performance rather than connections and personal characteristics. These changes are clearly more pronounced in subsidiaries of multinational corporations, particularly those based in Western countries.     

Human resource management in developing economies: a comparison of India and Thailand

This paper reports the results of surveys of firms that were conducted both in India and Thailand. The surveys centred on a wide range of human resource management practices (staffing, training, compensation and evaluation). The sample consisted of both the subsidiaries of multinational corporations and locally owned companies. Statistical analysis suggests pronounced differences in employment practices between India and Thailand in some areas, while considerable similarities in other areas. The study controls for a variety of organizational factors (e.g., firm size, ownership (foreign versus domestic), union status).     

Heterogeneous private sector information,central bank disclosure,and stabilization policy

Conventional wisdom has it that a central bank that uses an informational advantage to undertake active policy intervention can do as well, at least so far as real outcomes are concerned, by making its information publicly available and abstaining from stabilization. This notion is examined using a framework incorporating heterogeneous private sector information concerning aggregate demand shocks. An activist regime, in which the central bank exploits its own information to engage in stabilization, is found to be unambiguously superior to a noninterventionist regime, where the central bank maintains a constant setting of policy but publicly discloses its own information.     

Note on the existence and modulus of continuity of the {\textit{SLE}}_8 curve

We review one method for estimating the modulus of continuity of a Schramm–Loewner evolution (SLE) curve in terms of the inverse Loewner map. Then we prove estimates about the distribution of the inverse Loewner map, which underpin the difficulty in bounding the modulus of continuity of SLE for $\kappa =8$ . The main idea in the proof of these estimates is applying the Girsanov theorem to reduce the problem to estimates about one-dimensional Brownian motion.