THE 364 ECONOMISTS AND THE 1981 BUDGET: AN EXAMINATION OF THE EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

Earlier this year we passed the 25th anniversary of the letter to The Times from 364 economists protesting about government economic policy in general and the 1981 Budget in particular. In a recent publication, Stephen Nickell, then a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, defended the letter. This article contends that Nickell's argument was wrong. This is not merely a matter of historical interest, it is important that the issues are understood if mistakes are not to be made in economic policy in the future.     

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURING: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIPS AND DIMENSIONS OF STRUCTURES IN CERTAIN FINNISH COMPANIES

The relationships of structure and structural factors at a general level are examined on the basis of data from a Finnish sample of mostly small and medium-sized industrial organizations. the sample, which consists of shoe and clothing firms, is homogeneous in terms of basic technology and industrial environment. the structural relationships are analysed from the point of view of size so that the interaction or concurrence of size and specialization is seen as a primary determinant of the systems of structural relationships. Some additional contextual variables are included in the analysis. Further, the factors or dimensions of structure reported are built on the basic variables of coordination and control. the factors are managerial supervision, the administrative component in general, including the clerical component, which is of particular importance, and impersonal mechanisms.     

THE SUBSTITUTABILITY OF STRATEGIC CONTROL CHOICES: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY*

In one stream of literature, organizational control has been observed to have two types - bureaucratic and cultural - and to be related to strategic adaptation. In another stream of literature, societal culture has been discussed as influencing the choice of organizational control types. This empirical study combines these two streams of literature. Drawing on Child (1981) we argue that the choice of organizational control types is a cultural choice. Within this context, the substitutability of one organizational control type for the other is examined using data from two culturally distinct sets of organizations - Japanese and American. The results of canonical correlation analysis suggest that the substitutability hypothesis is supported in only a very limited sense and that the relationship between the two control types may be better viewed as balanced. Implications of these results for strategic managers are discussed.     

SCALE, PERFORMANCE AND THE NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF LOCAL AUTHORITY SERVICES

New public management (NPM) arguments on strategy and structure suggest that performance is enhanced if large organizations are disaggregated into smaller units. the NPM perspective reflects the views of public choice theorists who claim that big organizations are unresponsive to public needs, inefficient and fail to achieve their formal goals. These arguments have underpinned many recent changes in the structure of public services at both central and local levels.
This paper uses data on six local government services to test the NPM hypothesis that there is a negative relationship between scale and performance. Five dimensions of performance are analysed: service coverage, quality, speed of provision, efficiency, and administrative effectiveness. Scale is measured through indicators of service output, caseload and needs. the impact of scale is tested in multivariate statistical models which control for other potential influences on variations in performance across local authorities.
Only around half of the statistical evidence suggests that the smallest local units are the best performers. In addition, even when performance does decline with scale, this trend is reversed in the very largest units. Thus, contrary to NPM arguments, the biggest organizations are seldom the poorest performers.     

AN EMPIRICAL GROWTH MODEL FOR MAJOR OIL EXPORTERS

This paper develops a long‐run output relation for a major oil‐exporting economy where the oil income‐to‐output ratio remains sufficiently high over a prolonged period. It extends the stochastic growth model developed in Binder and Pesaran (1999) by including oil exports as an additional factor in the capital accumulation process. The paper distinguishes between the two cases where the growth of oil income, g^o, is less than the natural growth rate (the sum of the population growth, n, and the growth of technical progress, g), and when g^o ≥ g + n. Under the former, the effects of oil income on the economy's steady growth rate will vanish eventually, while under the latter oil income enters the long‐run output equation with a coefficient which is equal to the share of capital if it is further assumed that the underlying production technology can be represented by a Cobb–Douglas production function. The long‐run theory is tested using quarterly data on nine major oil economies. Overall, the test results support the long‐run theory, with the existence of long‐run relations between real output, foreign output and real oil income established for six of the nine economies considered. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于核心竞争力提升的人力资源管理外包决策及其评价体系

随着市场环境的不断变化,低效的传统人力资源管理模式已经不能满足企业日益增长的追求核心竞争力提升的需求。为了提高管理效率、降低管理成本、提升人力资源管理的战略价值,越来越多的企业选择进行人力资源管理外包。人力资源管理是一个包括多个职能、多个管理项目的复杂系统。面对众多的管理项目,如何选择应该进行人力资源管理外包的项目并确定外包项目的优先顺序,这是保证人力资源管理外包决策成功的重要问题。本文在对人力资源管理外包的基础理论进行回顾和总结后,探讨了如何运用熵值组合赋权模型和灰色关联度分析判别模型相结合的方法进行人力资源管理外包项目的选择和排序,并结合某A公司的人力资源管理外包决策进行了应用分析。     

AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE GERMAN BUNDESBANK AFTER 1983

A cointegrated VAR model describing a small macroeconomic system consisting of money, income, prices, and interest rates is estimated on split sample data before and after 1983. The monetary mechanisms are found to be significantly different. Before 1983 the money supply is controllable and expansion or contraction of money supply has the expected effect on prices, income, and interest rates. After 1983 the conventional mechanisms no longer seem to work. The empirical analysis points to the crucial role of the bond rate in the system, particularly for the more recent period.     

PRIVATISATION AND EFFICIENCY IN THE UK WATER INDUSTRY: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS*

ABSTRACTS The post-privatisation structure of the UK water industry involves the separation of environmental services from other outputs previously produced under an integrated system by the publicly-owned water authorities. This paper examines the extent to which the integrated authorities benefitted from joint production. Estimating a dynamic multi-product cost function from pooled cross-section, time-series quality adjusted data drawn from the accounts of the water authorities for the period 1979/80–1987/88, prior to privatisation, significant elements of joint production are found. Divestiture of the industry, arguably justified on other criteria, implies the loss of substantial areas of cost complimentary.     

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE? AN EMPIRICAL APPLICATION OF THE COROLLARY OF THE COASE THEOREM

Applying the corollary of the Coase Theorem to the development market developed in Lai et al. (2007a) , we evaluate the proposition that procedural steps to use resources are not contingent on property rights assignment, unless the associated transaction costs are positive or property rights are ambiguous. Using aggregate statistics regarding planning applications for residential use, property prices, construction costs, share prices, interest rates, and application success rates in Hong Kong from 1985 to 2005, we evaluated, using regression techniques, the null hypothesis that there was no change in the relationship between readiness for submission of planning applications and property prices in response to changes in the time limits imposed on planning permissions . The relationship was more pronounced or strengthened (less obvious or weakened) when time limits were first imposed and shorter (longer). This can be explained in terms of the transaction costs of switching resource allocation according to the time limit.     

THE SYMBOLIC IMPACT OF DOUBLE BIND LEADERSHIP: DOUBLE BIND AND THE DYNAMICS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

They are playing a game. They are playing at not playing a game. If I show them I see they are, I shall break the rules and they will punish me. I must play their game, of not seeing I see the game (Laing, 1971). Members of an organization are supposedly led, but very often they do not see the way. On the contrary, they are exposed to conflicting management signals and caught in double bind situations. Double bind connotes a situation where conflicting messages occur, but where it is vitally important to discern what message is being communicated, and where the individual is unable to comment upon the ambiguity. The result is that the individual is not capable of meta communication and thus incapable of learning about the situation. We presume that the double bind phenomenon can often be found in organizations. In extreme cases this creates ‘double bind organizations’ in which the members are continuously confronted with double bind situations. The members become incapable of exploring the existing models of organizational behaviour. Organizational dynamics emerge ‘behind the back’ of people in the organization. The organization's meaning horizon is narrowed due to a lack of authentic dialogue. Attempted changes of organizational direction are experienced as just another double bind, and attempted changes of the double bind patterns become victims of the logic they attempt to alter. In such cases, the organization could be said to be characterized by a form of institutionalized learning incompetence. Understanding the double bind phenomenon should be seen as being important for managing organizations in general, and for the change and the management of change in particular.     

THE DECOUPLING OF EMERGING ECONOMIES: THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL PUZZLE

With the growing importance of the emerging economies (EEs) in the international scene, a lively debate has begun on whether the national economic cycles are converging or the cycles of EEs and advanced economies (AEs) are becoming disconnected, the so-called ‘hypothesis of decoupling of EEs from the AEs’. Given the important practical implications that decoupling could have, for example, on the definition of national and international economic policies and on business strategies aimed at investment diversification and risk management, the question kindles not only the interest of academics but also policymakers and practitioners are very interested in the issue. The decoupling question has been long debated in different circles and from different points of view. This survey aims to retrace the steps of this debate and to provide some suggestions for future empirical researches.     

AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF MARKET STRUCTURES

The concept of market structure is at the heart of economic theory. Yet the construct has been largely neglected in marketing. Part of the reason is that it has never been effectively operationalized. In examining the implications of market structure empirical researchers have tended to use single indices for an essentially multidimensional construct. Here we show how markets can be classified objectively using the three key dimensions of structure: market concentration, product differentiation and barriers to entry. The methodology proposed should provide a more reliable base for research into strategic and competitive implications of marketing structure. The purpose of this paper is to develop an operational measure of market structure. The concept of market structure is important both in marketing and economics. Yet empirical work has produced disappointing results.¹Both economists and managers have stressed the need for new definitions and measures if useful generalizations are to be developed and the concept is to provide a valuable basis for government regulation over market competition.