The Newcastle employment bond: investing in local communities

Concern with social exclusion and neighbourhood renewal has often focused on economic regeneration and new ways of stimulating employment or self-employment in local economies. One recent initiative has been to raise private money through a bond with the social aim of creating local employment. This paper explores the Newcastle Employment Bond, its structure, the philosophy behind it and the motivations and expectations of the people and organisations who invested in it. The paper asks whether the Bond can be seen as a model of 'Third Way' thinking, providing an alternative to state funding of social exclusion and employment initiatives or reliance on purely profit-oriented economic regeneration.     

Race and gender in local government employment

Since the democratic elections of 1994, there have been significant shifts in the race and gender composition of the national and provincial spheres of the public service. Less attention has been focused on what has happened in local government employment. This article examines the results of a large sample survey of local governments conducted by the Central Statistical Service in December 1997. The analysis suggests that there are severe imbalances in respect of representivity in this third sphere of government.     

The state of construction training and employment in the local economy of Jersey

There is a crisis in the training and skills provision of the Channel Island of Jersey's construction industry that has similarities with the situation in Britain. The main problems relate to the unavailability, inappropriateness and narrow focus of skills, the demand-driven and task- or job-specific nature of training, the Jersey-born and male focus of recruitment, and the uncoordinated, traditional and short-term approach of the local construction firms towards promotion and financing of training provision. It is argued that a structured training policy incorporating the needs of both education and industry and holding a long-term vision should enable the construction industry of Jersey to reverse the downward spiral.     

对我国上市公司配股的财务行为分析

21世纪的企业竞争将是形象竞争 ,如何通过公关策划 ,针对企业发展的现状和特点 ,塑造其良好的企业形象 ,是企业在激烈的市场竞争中保持生机和活力的重要法宝。     

Internationalization of information technology services and public policy implications

World telecommunications traffic grew at a rate of over 15% a year in the 1980s, substantially faster than merchandise or service trade. The growth of such traffic is linked closely to the international flow of services and investment. Economizing on time, inventories and financial balances are important considerations in the use of international telecommunications networks. At the same time, network providers are engaging in international alliances to supply a variety of telecommunication services across borders. These alliances will influence strongly the further evolution of national and international regulatory regimes. An international regime more open in the trade of services and movement of investment is called for.     

The Great Depression and the rise of female employment: A new hypothesis

The life-cycle labor supply of women born at the turn of the 20th century diverged sharply from previous cohorts. Although they had similar participation rates in early adulthood, younger cohorts were significantly more likely to work at middle age. This paper documents a link between these changing patterns of female labor supply and the Great Depression. We find that the onset of the Great Depression led to an increase in young women's employment in 1930 via an added-worker effect. Cohorts induced into the workforce in the early 1930s had significantly higher employment rates through the 1940s and 1950s of up to 3 percentage points, suggesting a permanent impact of the Great Depression on women's lifecycle labor supply.     

The Scottish development agency: Market consensus, public planning and local enterprise

The absence of a coherent industrial strategy embracing sectoral enterprise development at the level of national government in the UK has meant a shift to regional and local levels as far as concerted intervention is concerned. But whilst there has been considerable interest in the activities of the local authority enterprise boards there has not been the same attention given to the regional development agencies like the SDA. The ideologies of intervention of this agency and GLEB, for example, are in theory very different, yet each confronts a series of opportunities and constraints at the level of economic sectors.     

Demographic changes and local public expenditure in a macroeconomic perspective. Some Norwegian examples

The impact of demographic aging and changes in the age structure on local government expenditures for social services in Norway is analyzed and projected. "To model the production of the local government sector, we have developed a macro model which reflects the coverage of different services according to demographic characteristics and standards defined as man-hours per client.... The results of a simulation show that demographic changes are of minor importance for local government expenditures in most sectors when compared to changes in standard and coverage rates....Results [also] indicate that a shift in standards and coverages in different client sectors would have rather important effects on the Norwegian economy."