Whatever happened to the pub crawl? — a change in attitude to charitable fundraising

This paper argues that there needs to he greater clarity in the role of today's charities and calls for structured research and evaluation of modern fundraising techniques and strategies, particularly to help smaller charities. It also blames the many councils of voluntary organisations and umbrella associations supporting the smaller charities for failing to provide adequate information and training in fundraising.     

What happened to the work I was doing? Sociomateriality and cognitive tensions in technology work

In recent times, there is growing recognition that the implications of technology are not a given; they result from how the social and technical interact to redefine work-related expectations. The sociomateriality lens highlights the inseparable and relational aspects of the social and technological systems. We draw upon sociomateriality to highlight cognitive tensions that technology work generates through two case studies. Based on these insights, we provide suggestions to practitioners to mindfully examine their digital transformation efforts and identify plans to mitigate the tensions.     

Health care's future? Look to the past

Although health care is changing, and probably always will be subject to change, there are certain basic themes present at the founding of the U.S. health care system that remain important today. Although these themes could be seen as working against each other, proper attention to both might lead to a "marriage" that could optimize the system and provide, if not a solution, at least a workable system for health care.     

Is the housing market set to fall?

Some analysts have suggested that house prices are set to collapse, particularly in the London area. These conclusions are generally based on a rather simple analysis of house price to income ratios. We argue that this is misleading and there is little evidence to suggest a collapse in the market.     

Will the US overcome austerity to lead the world recovery?

Global growth is weak but may be at a turning point in the G7. Europe will soon return to growth, with a weak recovery set to develop. This reflects an improvement in exports as the US economy accelerates and emerging markets gradually improve after a soft patch. Furthermore, with the worst of the Eurozone crisis over, companies and households should be more willing to spend. The recovery would be stronger were there an easing of austerity and action by the ECB to ease credit constraints; simulations using Oxford Economics' Global Economic Model suggest that halving the currently planned austerity measures would raise the level of Eurozone GDP relative to our baseline by 0.2% in 2013 and by a further 0.7% in 2014…     

Has the Bank Done Enough to Contain Inflation?

In this article James Nixon urges the Monetary Policy Committee to pay attention to the longer term fundamentals driving the UK economy when setting interest rates. While current demand pressures may produce an inflationary ‘blip’, too myopic a focus on the UK's short term prospects may prompt a significant slowdown in 1998. This in turn would spell an unnecessary increase in unemployment, curtailed investment plans and a reduction in the economy's future growth prospects.     

Is the secondary loan market valuable to borrowers?

In recent years, the secondary loan market has developed into an over-the-counter market where loans are not only sold but also subsequently traded. This shift away from traditional banking is altering the business of lending. Loan sales are valuable to banks because they free up capital, generate fee-based income and facilitate risk management; but they may be costly to borrowers because they negatively affect bank monitoring incentives. In this paper, however, we argue that there is another potential benefit to borrowers from loan sales. Borrowers with trading loans, in particular those with liquid loans, may “demand” a share of bank benefits from loan sales when they take out new loans as it will be easier for banks to sell these loans afterwards. We investigate this potential benefit of the secondary loan market by comparing the interest rates borrowers pay before their loans start to trade with the interest rates they pay on loans originated post-trading. Our results show that, on average, borrowers pay higher spreads on the loans they take out after the onset of trading on their loans. Importantly, our results also show that borrowers with liquid trading loans are able to borrow at lower interest rates after the onset of trading on their loans. Thus, while the banks’ decision to sell loans may initially impose a cost on borrowers, those whose loans enter the secondary loan market and become liquid benefit from an interest rate discount on their subsequent loans.     

Skill: the solution to low wage work?

During the UK Labour government's 13 years in power, raising skill levels was seen as the principal mechanism to improve the position of workers stuck in low wage jobs. This article draws together research undertaken in low wage sectors to question the assumptions that underlay Labour's approach to low pay.     

Are emergers a threat to the global recovery?

Last year the emergers led the global recovery with the advanced economies lagging, but in recent months there has been a range of positive indicators across the advanced economies, most notably the PMI surveys, with the US non‐manufacturing index reaching an eight‐year high in August and the UK composite index recording its highest ever reading in the same month. By contrast, the indicators from emerging economies have been more mixed and while some of the Chinese data have been better in recent months, the PMI surveys point to stagnation or contraction across a number of other emergers. While emerging economies will continue to make a large contribution to world growth, the global upturn is now being driven by strengthening domestic demand in the advanced economies.…     

A resolution to the NPV–IRR debate?

Two criteria for choosing between capital investment projects are net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR). Sometimes they provide inconsistent rankings. This inconsistency sparked a debate about which criterion is better. The debate has lasted more than 100 years.This paper describes a new approach to the debate. The time value of money equation is a polynomial, and a polynomial of order n does not have a single root. It has n roots. The result of taking into account the n solutions for IRR is a new equation for NPV that suggests a resolution to the debate.     

What happened when the Americans took over Britain's electricity industry? Exploring trans-national sector effects on employment relations

Pressures stemming from the country of origin are seen increasingly as the single most important influence on multinational companies, and American managements are famed particularly for their marked preferences for non-unionism and for pay systems linked to performance. The dramatic inflow of American investment into the British electricity industry from 1996 onwards provides an opportunity to observe the development of these influences. In fact, employment relations reform was not driven by the concerns of American owners to any significant degree, but tended to follow patterns already very well established in the utilities sector in the UK. This can only be understood in the context of similar developments in sector-level governance in both countries, and the processes through which this drove international strategies at higher levels, affecting investment and organizational structure.     

Is It Time to Revisit the Savings Rate Floor in the ECCU?

Member states of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) experienced a secular decline in growth following the great recession circa 2008, resulting in increased unemployment and social dislocation. Given the ECCU's currency board arrangement and current fiscal challenges, policy options for resuscitating growth are limited to supply‐side adjustments. This paper contends that the 3 per cent interest rate floor on savings deposits has contributed to higher lending rates and lower levels of capital formation. Ultimately it is a drag on growth and a threat to the banking sector's health as it has resulted in reduced risk compensation when default and other banking sector risks have risen. Revisiting the floor is advocated as an integral component of this structural adjustment policy response.     

Do policymakers need to cool the UK housing market?

The combination of government schemes and a recovery in the wider economy underpinned a robust pickup in housing transactions and house prices through 2013. But there is no evidence of a housing bubble across most of the country. Across the majority of regions prices are still below previous peaks in nominal terms and much lower still in real terms. Meanwhile measures of affordability and indebtedness are in a much better state than they were prior to the financial crisis. The exception is London, where supply shortages and strong demand have pushed both the price‐to‐income ratio and average income multiple back to previous highs. An improving macroeconomic backdrop and ongoing support from Help to Buy should ensure that demand continues to strengthen, supporting further growth in transactions. There has been a strong supply response over the past nine months and this should continue, which will help to keep a lid on price growth. Divergent macroeconomic prospects across the regions will lead to a wide variation in house price growth, with London expected to lead the way. We do not see a case for changing the terms of Help to Buy, particularly given that the most likely source of a bubble is London, where the impact of Help to Buy is likely to be small. In our view, the average income multiple is crucial and macro prudential tools should be used if it continues to rise above previous peaks in any regions. The most likely cause of a bubble at the national level would be an inadequate supply response. Alongside its policies to support demand, the government should implement a series of measures aimed at increasing supply, including planning reform, and it could also consider using its low borrowing costs to fund public sector house building.     

Why is the payoff to schooling smaller for immigrants?

To answer the question, this paper uses the Over-Required-Under Education technique, a new decomposition methodology and data on adult men from the 2000 US Census. Using the 510 three-digit occupational categories, similar patterns emerge whether the mean or mode of education in the occupation is used as the typical (required) level. The partial effect of the occupation's typical schooling level is the same for immigrants and natives. About two thirds of the smaller effect of schooling on earnings is attributable to differences by nativity in the payoffs to over/under education. The remainder is largely due to the different distributions by nativity of over/under education. Favorable immigrant selectivity, especially among the least skilled, and to a lesser extent, limited transferability of foreign schooling, is largely responsible for these patterns. A variety of tests of robustness are performed, including separate analyses for child and adult immigrants.