Exploring the paradox of unionised worker dissatisfaction

This paper explores the apparent paradox that while unions exist to promote the interests and well-being of their members, UK survey evidence consistently shows that union members report lower levels of job satisfaction than non-union workers. A review and further analysis of the evidence confirms that this difference persists after controlling for other factors such as type of work. If union member dissatisfaction reflects a form of voice, then we might expect to see resulting gains. An analysis of data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey indicates that any gains are modest. Evidence is presented to suggest that although management has become less hostile to trade unions, a degree of anti-union sentiment remains, sometimes leading to a muffling of the union voice, and this helps to account for some of the union member dissatisfaction.     

Ratings and confirmation

We present a formalism which makes explicit and precise the confirming effect of multiple observers and repeated trials on composite ratings, considering the relevant subjective inputs.     

Horizontal alliances and the merger paradox

Mergers and alliances are two organizational forms which allow firms to combine complementary capabilities to realize strategic goals; they are, in many cases, strategic substitutes. Managerial decision‐makers, therefore, require a framework for choosing between the two strategies. This paper contributes to this decision‐making process by highlighting one advantage of alliances over mergers. Specifically, while the profitability of a cost‐reducing horizontal merger is diminished by the resulting expansion of non‐merging competitor(s), an alliance, where partners collaborate to reduce costs but sell their product independently, enables its partners to realize the benefits of merging but avoid the problem of strengthening competitors. A model is developed which demonstrates the profitability of establishing such an alliance compared to a merger. The implications of this strategy for antitrust review are briefly discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The migration function and the Todaro paradox

"The purpose of this paper is to present a microeconomic foundation of the migration function and to discuss the impact of an increase in the job creation rate on migration and urban unemployment. Each rural worker must estimate his expected urban income on the basis of his own expected numbers of both newly created jobs and migrants during the coming period. Workers whose expected urban income is greater than the rural one decide to migrate, while those who estimate smaller urban income stay on." The geographical focus is on developing countries.     

A random walk through the Gibson paradox

Evidence to support the Gibson paradox is often given in the form of a simple correlation between the nominal interest rate and the log of price level, or in the form of a simple linear regression between these two variables. Authors then show, using standard procedures of statistical inference, that the price level possesses a significant coefficient. We argue that this class of evidence is spurious since the nominal interest rate and the price level (both integrated variables) do not form a cointegrated system.     

The commuting time paradox

We examine the conditions for the ‘commuting time paradox’ which states that the average commuting time does not vary between different periods. We develop therefore an equilibrium job search model with endogenously chosen commuting costs. Presuming wage bargaining between workers and firms, the optimally chosen maximum commuting costs jointly maximise the worker's and firm's payoffs. We demonstrate that when productivity levels increase over time, average commuting costs and average wages both increase, which affects the optimally chosen commuting time. We establish the conditions under which the paradox holds.     

对收入确认标准的几点认识

《企业会计准则--收入》不再对某项交易或事项规定具体的会计处理,而是给出确认和计量的判断标准,会计人员需依据这些标准做出职业判断.新收入确认标准对会计信息质量及企业经营产生了积极的影响.笔者根据对该准则的学习和工作实践,谈了自己的认识并提出了提高会计人员素质、会计工作水平和会计信息质量的举措.     

商誉的会计确认问题探析

本文论述商誉的概念、形成、特征和构成要素,通过对商誉会计处理方法的国际比较,对我国企业未确认自创商誉的问题进行了分析,提出了确认商誉的原则、标准、计算方法和账务处理的设想.     

The entropy paradox and the distribution of urban population

This paper presents an empirical application of an information theoretic approach to spatial hypothesis testing. Following the lead of Batty [1] this study employs the concept of expected information to test hypotheses concerning the distribution of urban population and population density in San Antonio for the years 1960 and 1970. Cast for the first time in a longitudinal context, major concerns of this work are the relative advantages, both theoretical and methodological, of certain entropy measures. Specifically, comparisons are made between the Shannon and the Kullback formulations. In this context of comparison, problems closely linked to what has been called the “entropy paradox” are identified and explained, suggesting important qualitative differences between these two measures.     

Sustainable HRM: An extension of the paradox perspective

Sustainable human resource management (HRM), perceived as challenging the dominant models of strategic HRM, concerns the adoption of HRM strategies and practices to achieve simultaneously financial, social, environmental, and HR regeneration goals, to satisfy diverse stakeholders' competing demands and, increasingly, national legislative requirements of sustainability performance reporting. Tensions are placed at the centre of sustainable HRM's analysis, as stakeholders demands are contrasting, when seen individually, but yet interrelated, as part of an integrated whole. The paradox perspective of sustainable HRM is useful in identifying several HRM paradoxes and proposing different coping strategies. However, the role of organizational actors, their cognition and strategy-making action, has been completely ignored in a highly conceptual paradoxical analysis of sustainable HRM. Drawing on the cognitive theory (and cognitive framing) and the practice theory (and strategy-as-practice), this paper contributes by bringing organizational actors back into the analysis, proposing three interrelated processes, namely, activating individual cognitive frames, creating collective dominant frames, and strategizing through enacting strategy-making activities, to address the theoretical gaps and extend the paradox perspective of sustainable HRM.     

The paradox of China's growing under-urbanization

It is commonly believed that China began the socialist era as a very under-urbanized country relative to its level of development and that it has been eliminating this urbanization gap during the post-1978 period as a result of its economic reforms. Our reexamination of the relationship between per capita income and urbanization that underpins the conventional view suggests that China was not under-urbanized before or during the early period of the reform. Actually, China's urbanization gap appeared and grew in the late period of reform despite mass migration from rural to urban areas. This growing urbanization lag is mainly due to the slow pace in eliminating restrictions on rural–urban migration during a period of rapid economic growth. We call attention to this emerging urbanization lag as it entails significant economic costs in employment and retards economic growth.     

The paradox of inelastic sports pricing

Rodney Fort's (2004) article in Managerial and Decision Economics attempts to explain the recurrent phenomenon of inelastic ticket pricing in professional sports. In his explanation, Fort mistakenly substitutes the marginal revenue generated by the acquisition of talent for the marginal revenue generated by lowering the gate ticket price. This article corrects the mistake, pointing out that inelastic ticket pricing is still inconsistent with profit maximization. In addition, it is demonstrated that the marginal revenue generated by additional talent cannot be negative. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Welfare paradox in economic restructuring

It can be proved theoretically that, because of the previously existing price and structural distortion, a welfare paradox is possible in the former command economies during the transition period. This paradox refers to a situation in which a welfare gain is accompanied by a fall in the reported GNP figure.     

基于时间点的股票期权会计确认探讨

股票期权作为一种长期激励机制已得到广泛认可,但其会计处理程序却相对落后,这为高级经理人提供了以权谋私的机会.确认是会计处理的第一步,它决定了会计事项的属性.本文对国内外股票期权确认理论加以对比,结合会计确认的基础理论,分析不同时间点股票期权持有人在企业中的地位及其付出劳动的性质,提出了基于时间点的股票期权会计确认分析方法.     

A resolution of St. Petersburg paradox

The St. Petersburg paradox is the oldest paradox in decision theory and has played a pivotal role in the introduction of increasing concave utility functions embodying risk aversion and decreasing marginal utility of gains. All attempts to resolve it have considered some variants of the original set-up, but the original paradox has remained unresolved, while the proposed variants have introduced new complications and problems. Here a rigorous mathematical resolution of the St. Petersburg paradox is suggested based on a probabilistic approach to decision theory.     

Logic paradox under current corporate finance

The current corporate finance is based on the theory framework of new classical economics. Therefore, the main contents such as free cash flow, NPV method and capital structure decision-making are still based on the balanced price of product and capital markets, they still can＇t reflect the essential character of corporation. The logic paradox, causes the current corporate finance study under a more and more embarrassing circumstance in the front of enterprise financial management practice, with the feature of value management.