The Money Transmission System, Competition and the Banks

Sean Duggan and Jan Karpinski of the Bristol and West Building Society argue that the market in money clearing services is ripe for liberalisation.     

BOOKS

Book reviewed in this article:
THE NEW PALGRAVE DICTIONARY OF MONEY AND FINANCE Peter Newman, Murray Milgate & John Eatwell (Eds)
POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES ON THE INTERNATIONAL FOOD SYSTEM T. Marsden & J. Little Avebury
ROBERTSON ON ECONOMIC POLICY S.R. Dennison & John R. Presley (Eds)
ESSAYS ON ROBERTSON-IAN ECONOMICS John R. Presley (Ed.)
GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM ECONOMICS Robert E. Kuenne
TRANSFORMATIONAL GROWTH & EFFECTIVE DEMAND Edward J. Nell
THE ANATOMY OF THATCHERISM Shirley Robin Letwin
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES: VOLUME II: THE ECONOMIST AS SAVIOUR, 1920–37 Robert Skidelsky
PUTTING FOOD ON WHAT WAS THE SOVIET TABLE Michael P. Claudon & Tamar L. Gutner (Eds)
DRAGONS IN DISTRESS: ASIA'S MIRACLE ECONOMIES IN CRISIS Walden Bello & Stephanie Rosenfeld     

Using Jane Jacobs and Henry George to Tame Gentrification

The solutions that Jane Jacobs proposed to improve neighborhoods created a paradoxical problem: improvement increased demand for the amenities of the area, which caused land prices to rise. The net result was at least partial displacement of the old residents of the neighborhood with new ones. Jane Jacobs has been criticized for ignoring gentrification, but she was clearly aware of this process and tried to find means to counter it. By combining the ideas of Henry George about land taxation with the ideals of Jane Jacobs about neighborhood diversity, we can mitigate the negative effects of gentrification and direct the energy of market forces into producing a greater supply of desirable neighborhoods.     

Curing Slums: The Jane Jacobs Way and the Henry George Way

Henry George and Jane Jacobs were both self‐taught public figures who shared an appreciation of the density, productivity, diversity, and cultural creativity of big cities. A century separated them, during which architects and planners designed cities according to abstract principles, but George and Jacobs expected the creative potential of a city to emerge from its inhabitants, not from a central planner. Although the interests and concerns of George and Jacobs overlapped on only a few topics, they both believed that slum dwellers could solve their own problems, given the right tools. For Jacobs, the solution to dilapidated housing lay not in bulldozing neighborhoods, but in rehabilitating them through a process she called “unslumming,” a gradual process of self‐improvement that has at times been accused of being gentrification. Henry George offered a different solution, involving taxation of land values, one that did not focus on particular neighborhoods and thus avoided the paradox that local improvements would raise the price of real estate too high for local residents to stay. An example is given of how George's solution actually worked in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia. In this case, no change in tax policy was needed to bring about a local economic renaissance in the 1960s, merely the realignment of property assessments that correctly reflected the actual value of land.     

Book reviews

Jobs and Fairness: The Logic and Experience of Employee Ownership Robert Oakeshott Building Cross‐Cultural Competence — How to Create Wealth from Conflicting Values Charles Hampden‐Turner and Fons Trompenaars Career Front iers: New Concept ions of Working Lives Maury Peiperl, Michael Arthur, Rob Goffee and Tim Morris Pay in the Public Services 2000/2001 Incomes Data Services Developing Managerial Competence Jonathan Winterton and Ruth Winterton     

The Strategic Integration of Assessment and Development Practices: Succession Planning and New Manager Development

Christopher Mabey and Paul Iles review various dimensions of the ‘strategic’ integration of human resource policies and explore ways in which such integration might be promoted through a career management focus. the argument is illustrated with reference to the use of development centres in the National and Provincial Building Society and a new management development programme at Rank Xerox respectively. Christopher Mabey is Head of the Centre for Human Resource and Change Management at the Open University Business School and Paul Iles is Professor of Human Resource Development at the Liverpool Business School and Director of its Centre for Human Resource Development.     

Can industrial agglomeration achieve the emission-reduction effect?

This paper adopted the Meta-constraints efficiency model to measure the environmental efficiency of the industry in China, and then used the spatial panel model to analyze the impact of industrial agglomeration externalities on environmental efficiency. The study found that industrial agglomeration exerted an apparent spatial spillover effect. Different agglomeration degrees and means may be matched with different environmental effects. With the evolution of agglomeration, the balanced effects among negative externality of scale (pollution effect). Marshallian and Jacobs positive externality (self-purification effect) lead to a U-curved tendency between industrial agglomeration and environmental efficiency. Therefore, with the increase of industrial agglomeration degree, the environmental efficiency first decreases and then increases. The effect of industrial agglomeration in the Midwest on the environment is mainly presented as a negative externality of scale, situated in the descending phase of the U curve. However, the effect of eastern industrial agglomeration on the environment mainly manifested as Marshallian and Jacobs positive externalities and was situated close to the ascending phase of the U curve. All regions should fully utilize the “self-purification” effect of the Marshallian externality and the Jacobs externality on emission-reduction according to the different phases of industrial development.     

BOOKS IN REVIEW

A Guide to the Industrial Relations Act by C. G. Heath Guide to the Industrial Relations Act by N. M. Selwyn Managing Shiftwork by Robert Sergean An Employer's Guide to the Industrial Relations Act by Peter Paterson Trade Unions and Technological Change by J. E. Mortimer Exploring the Industrial Subculture by Barry A. Turner The Sociology of Industry by S. R. Parker, R. K. Brown, J. Child and M. A. Smith Status, Productivity and Pay: a major experiment by Ronald S. Edwards and R. D. V. Roberts The Nylon Spinners: A Case Study in Productivity Bargaining and Job Enlargement by Stephen Cotgrove, Jack Dunham and Clive Vamplew The Techniques of Production Management by R. Wild SHORT REVIEWS: The New Anatomy of Britain by Anthony Sampson SHORT REVIEWS: Capital, Inflation and the Multi-Nationals by Charles Levinson SHORT REVIEWS: Flexible Working Hours by J. Harvey Bolton SHORT REVIEWS: Labour Market Issues of the 1970's edited by D. J. Robertson and L. C. Hunter     

Graduate Engineers and British Trans-National Business: Elite Human Resource Or Technical Labourers?

Bryn Jones, Peter Scott, Brian Bolton and Alan Bramley discuss the results of their cross-sectoral study of manufacturing firms in the UK. They find that policy of treating graduate engineers as an elite human resource is mostly confined to consortia having international cooperative links and to companies with ‘central interventionist’ HRD policies. the high degree of decentralisation characteristic of UK-owned companies, however, combined with the disproportionate recruitment of non-engineer managers, restricted the career development of engineers. All four authors are from the University of Bath. Bryn Jones and Peter Scott are from the School of Social Sciences. Brian Bolton and Alan Bramley are from the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering and the School of Mechanical Engineering.     

Jane Jacobs' ‘Cities First’ Model and Archaeological Reality

In The Economy of Cities, Jane Jacobs conjectured that the world's first cities preceded the origins of agriculture, a proposition that was most recently revived by Peter Taylor in the pages of this journal. Jacobs' idea was out of line with extant archaeological findings when first advanced decades ago, and it remains firmly contradicted by a much fuller corpus of data today. After a review of how and why Jacobs formulated her ‘cities first’ model, we review current archaeological knowledge from the Near East, China and Mesoamerica to document the temporal precedence of agriculture before urbanism in each of these regions. Contrary to the opinions of Jacobs and Taylor, archaeological data are in fact sufficiently robust to reconstruct patterns of diet, settlement and social organization in the past, and to assign dates to the relevant sites. Our response illustrates how generations of archaeological discoveries have yielded solid empirical foundations for the evaluation of wider social scientific debates.     

MUTUALITY,PERFORMANCE AND EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION†

ABSTRACTS The determinants of CEO compensation within the UK Building Society sector are investigated. Using an unbalanced panel data set for the period 1986–90, we find only weak support for the existence of a positive link between performance and CEO remuneration. In contrast we find age to be an important determinant of CEO pay increases. This finding reinforces the oft noted potential for inefficiencies in mutuals. Given that alternative market based control systems are absent, our results suggests that there is a lack of any mechanism to align owner and manager interests in the UK building societies.     

Book reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Privatisation and Employment Relations: The Case of the Water Industry Julia O'Connell Davidson Mansell The Trade Union Question in British Politics Robert Taylor Trade Union Behaviour, Pay Bargaining and Economic Performance Robert J. Flanagan, Karl Ove Moene and Michael Wallerstein Dock Strike: Conflict and Restructuring in Britain's Ports Peter Turnbull, Charles Woolfson and John Kelly Avebury/Gower Building the union: Skilled Workers and Anglo-Gaelic Immigrants in the Rise of the UAW Union Business: Trade Union Organisation and Financial Reform in the Thatcher Years P. Willman, T. Morris and B. Aston Power and Profit: Politics, Labour and Business in South Africa Duncan Innis, Matthew Kentridge, Helene Perold, (Eds.) Japanization At Work John Bratton Retraining - not Redundancy: Innovative approaches to industrial restructuring in Germany and France Gerhard Bosch International Institute for Labour Studies Labour Law and Industrial Relations in Great Britain (2nd Ed.) Bob Hepple and Sandra Fredman Industrial Law (5th edition) I T Smith; John C Wood Labour Law: Management Decisions and Workers' Right     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Hazzard, John and Holliday, Ruth Organization-Representation. Work and Organizations in Popular Culture Wigan, Rolf; Picot, Arnold and Reichwald, Ralf Information, Organisation and Management Clarke J. and Newman, J. The Managerial State: Power, Politics and Ideology in the Remaking of the Welfare State. Rinehart, J.; Huxley, C. and Robertson, D. Just Another Car Factory? Lean Production and its Discontents Huemer, Lars Trust in Business Relations. Economic Logic or Social Interaction? Mabey, C.; Skinner, D. and Clarik, T.A.R. Experiencing Human Resource Management. Mansell, Robin and Silverstone, Robert Communication by Design. The Politics of Information and Communication Technologies.     

Henry George,Jane Jacobs,and Free Trade

Henry George and Jane Jacobs were both journalists and made a contribution to economics based on their commitment to the original version of free trade, as understood by 19^th‐century liberals, rather than the late 20^th‐century version. The distinctive concept of free trade, as originally understood, was as an instrument for small‐scale producers to break up entrenched monopolies and serve the interests of the ordinary citizen. That was how Cobden used it in the debates over the Corn Laws in the 1840s, and how Ruskin, Gesell, Chesterton, and other critics conceived of economic liberation. In debates over free trade in recent decades, that term has come to mean a defense of power and privilege, the exact opposite of the intent of 19^th‐century liberals. George and Jacobs sought to restore the original meaning by developing theories of development and distribution that would enable the market system to benefit everyone.     

城乡关系的“自然顺序”之争及其透视

亚当·斯密的"自然顺序"强调了从乡村到城市的发展顺序及城乡发展成比例的原理,雅各布斯却对此进行质疑,并试图推翻它.通过理论分析和历史论证,亚当·斯密的自然顺序对乡村到城市发展顺序的判断是正确的.     

ON MATTERS METHODOLOGICAL IN ECONOMICS

Books reviewed in this article: Lawrence A. Boland (1989) The Methodology of Economic Model Building: Methodology after Samuelson. J. C. Glass and W. Johnson (1989) Economics: Progression, Stagnation or Degeneration? Arjo Klamer, Donald N. McCloskey and Robert M. Solow (eds.) (1989) The Consequences of Economic Rhetoric. Brian J. Loasby (1989) The Mind and Method of the Economist: A Critical Appraisal of Major Economists in the 20th Century. John Pheby (1988) Methodology and Economics: A Critical Introduction.     

Henry George and Jane Jacobs on the Sources of Economic Growth

Henry George and Jane Jacobs shared a remarkably similar vision of the economic functioning of cities and of the sources of the economic growth of cities, despite having differing primary objectives. George wrote Progress and Poverty and subsequent works to persuade the public of the equity and efficiency of public capture of economic rents of land and other natural resources and elimination of taxes on labor and capital. Jacobs acquired fame for The Death and Life of Great American Cities in which she challenged the prevailing orthodoxy of the urban planning profession. Both saw the density and diversity of economic and cultural activities in cities as a facilitator of innovation and entrepreneurship in all aspects of civilization. Both also recognized the power of the price system in coordinating the activities of independent decision makers and the importance of trade for economic growth.     

Research orientation and agglomeration: Can every region become a Silicon Valley?

Not only success stories, such as Silicon Valley, but also non-success stories can inform regional innovation policy. In order to provide a benchmark for regional innovation systems we compare both success and non-success stories. Regional innovation systems differ in structural and functional requirements, because development processes are path dependent. We suggest that regions’ development paths emerge from agglomeration patterns and research orientation. Accordingly, we have developed a typology of regions including (1) their agglomeration patterns (either MAR or Jacobs’ type) and (2) the degree to which their research is predominantly oriented towards obtaining fundamental understanding or addressing considerations of use. We combine qualitative and quantitative data on thirty-six European regions to categorize them according to research orientation and agglomeration, thereby developing a typology. We use this typology and some basic quantitative economic data to see how success and non-success regions are distributed. Our results indicate that a better understanding of how to combine agglomeration patterns with research orientation can guide context-sensitive policy.     

QCOS在扭矩质量过程监控中的运用

在发动机装配及汽车零部件装配上螺栓紧固是最重要、最典型的一种连接方式。螺栓的紧固质量主要通过扭矩来确保,文章从人、机、料、法、环5个方面介绍了影响扭矩的因素,并说明如何使用QCOS工具对扭矩进行监控,以及提出了有效的扭矩过程控制方法。     

QCOS在扭矩质量过程监控中的运用

在发动机装配及汽车零部件装配上螺栓紧固是最重要、最典型的一种连接方式。螺栓的紧固质量主要通过扭矩来确保,文章从人、机、料、法、环5个方面介绍了影响扭矩的因素,并说明如何使用QCOS工具对扭矩进行监控,以及提出了有效的扭矩过程控制方法。