Individualism and collectivism revisited: a study of black and minority ethnic women

This article seeks to add discussion of the intersection of gender and ethnicity to the debates on individualism and collectivism. In doing so, it challenges the prevailing view, in these debates, of the rise of individualism and the decline in collectivism. Through a study of black and minority ethnic women trade unionists, it shows how a differentiated workforce, rather than leading to individualism at work, may contribute to union renewal and inspire more creative forms of collectivism.     

Gearing up for the 1990s

It would be difficult to address personnel issues in this article, due to the complexities inherent in staffing requirement. However, the approach discussed here is to keep systems simple yet controlled, and to make information available to reduce orientation and training time. By having many of the systems discussed in place, materiel management should be able to react quickly to the hospital's changing needs. In addition, controlling qualitative assets and measuring performance is accomplished, allowing feedback to administration from both a performance and a potential standpoint. By ensuring that the present system is working as efficiently as it was designed, and by having key indicators in place to monitor that performance, the foundations will be in place to react to changing demands on space, inventory investment, and staffing. Having the proper tools to react to these pressures in a professional manner will be necessary to ensure that the logistical systems meet the requirements of the institution as it approaches the 21st century.     

The Regulatory Crisis of the 1990s: Some Solutions

Much of the regulatory crisis arises from over-zealous enforcement. Most methods of countering it are unsatisfactory and expensive. Self-inspection, as under the 'Hoists and Lifts' model, would be much cheaper and more effective.     

Shop stewards in the 1990s: a research note

Evidence suggests that the unions suffered badly during the 1980s, but how has this affected the lynch-pin of workplace industrial relations, the shop steward? The evidence of this research is that the shop stewards of the 1990s display remarkable stability in their influence and role when compared to earlier surveys.     

UK Consumer Spending: Prospects for the Late 1990s

Over the last eighteen months, strong growth of personal consumption has fuelled the growth of the UK economy raising fears of a 1980s style consumer boom. The boost to consumption provided by "windfall gains" from building society conversions has added to these fears. In this article, Guglielmo Maria Caporale, Andrew Sentance and Geoffrey Williams discuss the forces behind this recent pick-up in consumption and assess the prospects for consumer spending in the late 1990s.     

Flexibility and labour management: Chinese manufacturing enterprises in the 1990s

The rapid economic growth and structural reform that have taken place in China over the past two decades have had a substantial impact on the system of labour management in Chinese manufacturing enterprises. The purpose of this article is to document and analyse the nature of these changes in state-owned enterprises and joint venture companies. The effect of these changes on work relations, employment relations and industrial relations will form the basis of the analysis. The emphasis in the analysis will be on how work, employment and industrial relations have accommodated the demand for greater flexibility. Labour management in six manufacturing firms in the Shanghai region will be examined. This research is a pilot project for a larger-scale research in 1999. While no attempt is made to generalize the research findings, the research clarifies the extent and limits of flexibility in the current Chinese economy.     

An Economic Programme for the 1990s

Outlines how a refurbished Medium-Term Financial Stralegy could restore economic stability and remove the necessity for (fallible) economic forecsting by the Treasury.     

Value relevance and the dot-com bubble of the 1990s

During the dot-com bubble of the 1990s, equity market valuation was a popular topic for investors, financial analysts and academics. Some questioned whether traditional accounting and financial information had lost its value relevance, as stocks traded at multiples of earnings well in excess of historic levels, leading Alan Greenspan to caution against “irrational exuberance.” This study examines the relation between market valuation and traditional accounting/financial information before, during and after the bubble. We confirm previous research that documents a decline in the relation between market value and traditional accounting information leading up to the bubble period. However, we also document that after the collapse of the bubble in 2000 this trend reverses. We also examine two related metrics that may provide a rational explanation for this phenomenon, including the quality of earnings, and the aggressiveness of financial analysts’ forecasts, finding some support that earnings quality may contribute to the changes in value relevance, but not the aggressiveness of analyst forecasts.     

Homeworking in Britain: the national picture in the mid-1990s

Previously published research on homeworking in Britain has been locally specific or dated. Yet this form of working is an area of current policy-making concern. By providing national data on the extent and characteristics of homeworking in Britain in the mid-1990s, this article aims to plug the gap.     

Desperately seeking capitalism: Solidarity and Polish industrial relations in the 1990s

This article examines the contradictory and complex role played by Solidarity in the transformation of Poland since 1989. The organisational and ideological development of Solidarity is traced from 1980 through to 1994 in an attempt to explain an approach best described as ‘desperately seeking Polish capitalism’.     

Labour management during recessions: Japanese manufacturing enterprises in the 1990s

In the first half of the 1990s Japan experienced a prolonged recession. How have Japanese firms reacted to the changed economic context? Using identical surveys administered in 1991 and 1995 this article examines changes in labour management and strategy and concludes, despite some significant modifications, that the basic configuration of Japanese labour management has remained intact.     

Reallocation and productivity growth in Japan: revisiting the lost decade of the 1990s

Hayashi and Prescott (Rev Econ Dyn 5(1):206–235, 2002) argue that the ‘lost decade’ of the 1990s in Japan is explained by the slowdown in exogenous TFP growth rates. At the same time, other research suggests that Japanese banks’ support for inefficient firms prolonged recessions by reducing productivity through misallocation of resources. Using the data on large manufacturing firms between 1969 and 1996, the paper attempts to disentangle the factors behind the slowdown in productivity growth during the 1990s. The main results show that there was a significant drop in within-firm productivity, the component that is not affected by reallocation of input and output shares across firms over time, during the 1990s. Although we find that misallocation among large continuing firms represents a substantial drag to overall TFP growth for these firms throughout the sample period, the negative impact of misallocation was least visible during the 1990s. The significant reduction in within-firm productivity growth suggests that, as the Japanese economy has matured, a policy which fosters technological innovations via greater competition, R&D, and fast technological adoption may have become increasingly important in promoting economic growth.

The Reassertion of Economics: 1990s Gentrification in the Lower East Side

This article utilizes property tax arrears data to trace the contraction of gentrification at the end of the 1980s and its resurgence in the 1990s in New York City’s Lower East Side. Contrary to the claims made during the recession about the end of gentrification, this article provides an important historical record of the resurgence of gentrification in the 1990s. The paper also argues that this new ‘third round’ gentrification has to be seen as a dramatic reassertion of economics in the central urban land market. That this shift is also expressed within the popular cultural discourses accompanying the process reveals an altered relationship between economics and culture in fin de siècle gentrification. Cet article utilise les données sur les arriérés des impôts sur la propriété pour retracer le déclin de l’embourgeoisement á la fin des années quatre-vingt et son renouveau dans les années quatre-vingt-dix dans le Lower East Side de New York City. Contrairement á ce qui fut dit sur la fin de l’embourgeoisement durant la récession, cet article fournit un dossier historique important qui montre le renouveau de l’embourgeoisement dans les années quatre-vingt-dix. Cet article soutient aussi que ce nouveau ‘troisième tour’ d’embourgeoisement doit ? tre regardé comme une réaffirmation dramatique de l’économie politique dans le marché foncier urbain central. Le fait que ce changement est aussi perceptible dans les discours de la culture populaire qui accompagnent ce processus révèle une relation changée entre l’écomonie politique et la culture dans l’embourgeoisement de fin de siècle.