Housing Transactions and the Changing Decisions of Young Households in Britain: The Microeconomic Evidence

In this second of two related papers in this issue, the causes of declining levels of housing transactions in Britain during the 1990s are explored. The lower transaction levels resulted partly from the changing behavior of young individuals. Both household formation and owner–occupation rates of these groups also fell sharply. Using panel data, we investigate the causes of reduced new household formation and owner–occupation, finding that changes in the income distribution away from young cohorts have been an important factor.     

Trading and Pricing in Upstairs and Downstairs Stock Markets

We provide empirical evidence on the economic benefits of negotiatingtrades in the upstairs trading room of brokerage firms relativeto the downstairs market. Using Helsinki Stock Exchange data,we find that upstairs trades tend to have lower informationcontent and lower price impacts than downstairs trades. Thisis consistent with the hypotheses that the upstairs market isbetter at pricing uninformed liquidity trades and that upstairsbrokers can give better prices to their customers if they knowthe unexpressed demands of other customers. We find that theseeconomic benefits depend on price discovery occurring in thedownstairs market.     

Do Unions Affect Employer Compliance with the Law? New Zealand Evidence for Age Discrimination

Over the last thirty years, collective rights to organize into unions, bargain collectively and strike have been weakened in both New Zealand and the UK. At the same time, individual rights to due process and to protection from discriminatory or unjust management decisions have been strengthened, leading some to conclude that collective and individual rights are unrelated, incompatible or mutually exclusive. On the contrary, we use evidence of employer compliance with anti‐age provisions in the New Zealand Human Rights Act to show that the two sets of rights can be highly complementary: the presence of unions strengthens individual protection from discriminatory treatment.     

Corporate Reporting and Urgent Issues Group Abstracts: The Impact of UIG 4 ON THE Australian Extractive Industries

The Urgent Issues Group (UIG) was established in 1994 to overcome the inability of Australian standard-setters to deal promptly with significant reporting issues. One of its first issues was accounting for restoration obligations, with the subsequent issue in August 1995 of UIG Abstract 4 Disclosure of Accounting Policies for Restoration Obligations in the Extractive Industries. This study reports on the effect of the introduction of UIG 4 on the reporting practices of companies in the extractive industries. Despite an increase in the number of companies disclosing their accounting policy and the level of information provided, the comparability, and therefore usefulness, of disclosure after the introduction of UIG 4 is still questionable.     

Unemployment,marginalisation and survival in Greater East London

This article draws on selected findings of one of a series of surveys conducted by the authors in the Eastern Cape province, dealing broadly with labour market issues. Particular attention is accorded to levels of unemployment, the extent of migrancy, the operation of extended networks of support, and survival strategies. This is followed by a brief look at perceptions of crime, and the extent to which crime is seen as an effective survival mechanism by the most marginalised. It is concluded that economic reconstruction in the province should take account of certain prevailing realities, including the operation of extended networks of support and the relative lack of mobility of the most marginalised, the limited capacity of the informal sector to absorb further numbers of the structurally unemployed, and the relative propensity of the most marginalised to engage in crime as a survival strategy.     

WORLD OUTLOOK

Events in the Gulf have finally brought an end to the world economic boom of the last eight years. The oil price shock itself is only partly responsible for the downturn. The previous tightening of monetary policy in the face of inflationary pressures and the end of a rapid period of credit and asset price expansion had severely weakened the ability of some economies to respond to the shock. This is reflected in the diversity of response, most obviously in the United States where Fed fine tuning and the credit crunch have already weakened the economy. The rise in oil prices has led to a sudden collapse in consumer confidence and a swift cutback in output. Although we do not expect the recession to be deep, the financial problems will delay recovery. The Japanese economy was already in financial difficulties before the shock, although the real economy was stronger and here we expect a sharp deceleration from almost 6 per cent growth last year to around 3.5 per cent. In contrast the German economy, partly shielded by the substantial appreciation of the DM over the last year, has been affected less by the oil price shock and we expect the consumer and investment boom to continue this year as the economies merge. This provides a welcome boost to other European economies.