The economic consequences of the Equal Pay Act 1970

Will the Equal Pay Act result in increased or decreased employment of women? How inflationary will it be and how much will individual firms suffer? Will it be easily evaded? Will it attack the fundamental problem of inequality of opportunity for women? These are some of the questions which the authors attempt to answer.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Economic Theory and Public Policy By GLENN E. HOOVER
Four Treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim Called Paracelsus. Edited, with a preface, by Henry E. Sigerist.
Democracy's Second Chance: Land, Work and Co-operation, By George Boyle.
The Franciscan Missions of California, By John A. Berger
Why the German Republic Fell and Other Lessons of War and Peace Upholding True Democracy Through Economic Freedom, Edited by A. W. Madsen.
Will the War Bring a Land Boom? By L. J. Norton     

The Strange Case of Tax-Cutting in Sweden

Will Sweden remain the most heavily taxed country in the OECD? Håkan Gergils reviews the current proposals for tax reform by the socialist Minister of Finance, Kjell-Olof Feldt and the author questions whether the proposed reform will be a step in the right direction.     

War and the global economy

Recent months have seen the adoption of an increasingly belligerent stance towards Iraq on the parts of the US and the UK in particular, signalling a shift from the policy of containment that has been in place since the last Gulf War, and towards a more aggressive policy. As yet, it is unclear whether this increased belligerence will culminate in a renewed full–scale military engagement with Iraq, to achieve the much vaunted 'regime change', or whether the outcome will be an agreement to a new programme of weapons inspections. But the risk of a military conflict appears to have increased. This article assesses the potential economic implications of such a conflict, exploring different scenarios for how it might evolve, and their impact on oil prices and global growth.     

现实主义视角下的“铁幕演说”文献解析

1946年3月5日,英国前首相丘吉尔在访问美国期间发表了题为《和平砥柱》的演讲,史称"铁幕演说"。"铁幕演说"在二战后历史中具有重要的文献价值,被认为是正式拉开了冷战的序幕,而其中的主要思想在一定程度上契合了现实主义国际关系理论的观点。     

The dual attitudinal dynamics of public opinion: an agent-based reformulation of L. F. Richardson’s war-moods model

This study proposes a new model of public opinion dynamics, focused specifically on attitudes toward war. The model consists of citizen-agents who have dual (public and private) attitudes. While they change the two levels of attitude according to different rules of two-layered interactions with neighboring agents, they also change their own attitudes internally. Our model shows that public opinion has “meta-stable” states, which generate overlapping, or two-valued, stable states. This characteristic can explain how public opinion responds to the outbreak and continuation of war very differently, not just in our model, but also in the opinions of European citizens on the First World War and those of American citizens on U.S. wars after the Second World War.     

Field vehicle fleet management in humanitarian operations: A case-based approach

Transportation is the second largest overhead cost to humanitarian organizations after personnel. Academic knowledge about fleet management in humanitarian operations is scarce. Using a multiple case research design we study Field Vehicle Fleet Management (Field VFM) in four large International Humanitarian Organizations (IHO): the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the World Food Program and World Vision International. Our field research includes more than 40 interviews at headquarters, regional and national level in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. The paper answers three research questions: (1) How do IHO manage their field vehicle fleets? (2) What are the critical factors affecting IHO Field VFM? (3) How does Field VFM affect in-country program delivery? The contribution of this research is twofold. First, it helps to fill the existing gap in the humanitarian literature regarding Field VFM. Second, it expands the fleet management literature to a new and virtually unexplored area.     

Price-level uncertainty and instability in the United Kingdom

Was UK inflation more stable and/or less uncertain before 1914 or after 1945? We address these questions by estimating a statistical model with changing volatilities in transient and persistent components of inflation. Three conclusions emerge. First, since periods of high and low volatility occur in both eras, neither features uniformly greater stability or lower uncertainty. When comparing peaks with peaks and troughs with troughs, however, we find clear evidence that the price level was more stable before World War I. We also find some evidence for lower uncertainty at pre-1914 troughs, but its statistical significance is borderline.     

The impact of monetary policy in the midst of big shocks

This paper studies the impact of Federal Reserve policies that created the largest deviations from price stability during the Fed׳s first 100 years: the post-World War I deflation, the deflation of the Great Depression, the inflation of World War II, and the Great Inflation of the 1970s. In terms of their macroeconomic impacts, I find that deflation was uniquely depressing in the 1930s because of cartel policies that prevented nominal prices and wages from adjusting to clear markets, and not because deflation is generically depressing. I find that the biggest impact of monetary policy during World War II was in debasing debt through inflation. I find that the main drivers of the 1970s economy were long-run changes in productivity and the labor market, and that there may have been little that the Fed could have done at this time to expand employment and output. More broadly, I find that macroeconomic performance would have been better over the Fed׳s first century had the Fed followed a monetary policy to deliver stable prices.     

国际贸易对气候变化的影响研究综述

随着世界贸易量的急剧增长,贸易自由化引起了一系列对气候变化问题的思考:贸易自由化是否导致温室气体排放的增加?贸易对气候变化影响的程度到底有多大?围绕这些问题,国内外学者进行了大量研究。文章在对国际贸易与气候变化关系的文献进行梳理后,侧重于分析贸易自由化对气候变化影响的研究,主要围绕三个方面对现有文献进行述评:对外贸易的环境效应、环境库茨涅茨曲线、国际贸易隐含碳。这些研究对我国减排目标和政策的制定都具有重要的启示。     

Rising costs, falling budgets and their implications for defence policy

The real unit costs of defence equipment have been rising persistently since World War II, much faster than national defence budgets. Most nations have adapted by buying fewer units in successive generations of each class of defence equipment, and ultimately by omitting some classes from their armed forces. However current decreases in defence budgets will soon force most NATO nations (including the UK) to adopt more closely coordinated policies for force planning and equipment procurement, in order to maintain NATO's military capabilities.     

初探“军事物流”概念

军事物流的概念及理论体系是为适应现代高技术局部战争后勤保障的客观要求,落实“保障有力”的总要求而逐步建立起来的。军事物流在现代高技术局部战争中发挥着越来越重要的作用。而且战争实践的不断演变,必然促进军事物流概念、理论的丰富和发展。本文拟从新形势下军事物流发展的角度,从新审视和思考其概念,用7R定义法初步进行定义,以使军事物流的概念更准确、更贴近新时期我军物流建设与发展的客观实际。     

Collectivism versus individualism in Dutch employment relations

From a very centralistic and collectivistic tradition after World War Two, Dutch employment relations now show a trend towards radical decentralisation and individualisation. What might be the consequences of this trend for labour relations? Do developments still fit within a movement towards ‘organised decentralisation’ or will the existing system of labour relations be hollowed out and destroyed? And what will be the consequences for ER management at company level? We present empirical data on how companies deal with their decentralised and individualised employment relations. It appears that, in the main areas such as labour contracts, working time arrangements, reward systems and development plans, decentralisation and individualisation are taking place. It has also become clear that management as well as workers support this and that a new form of negotiation between them is developing at workplace level, resulting in what we call ‘third contracts’ that are additional to the initial labour contract and the collective agreement. Our results also highlight the pragmatic way in which companies deal with these decentralised and individualised employment relations, which, nevertheless, remain linked to the national and collective levels of bargaining. Within the multilevel system of Dutch employment relations a new balance between collectivism and individualism is emerging.     

从伊拉克战争看军事物流的发展趋势

伊拉克战争中的美军军事物流，呈现出现代军事物流新的发展趋势：规模化、一体化、精确化、专业化。     

Adjusting to the Oil Price Fall

In his Budget speech last March Mr. Lawson said “If we can survive unscathed the loss of half our North Sea oil revenues in less than 25 weeks, then the prospective loss of the other half over the remainder of the next 25 years should not cause us undue concern.” In this Viewpoint we ask whether Mr. Lawson's optimism was premature. Although we continue to believe that the fall in oil prices will have favourable effects on the UK economy, there will be problems of adjustment which could be painful. We ask the following questions: (a) What adjustment to the balance of payments is needed to compensate for the fall in oil prices? (b) How will the adjustment occur? (c) How far can the recent weakness of sterling be explained by the fall in oil prices, or is there a more alarming explanation?     

大规模定制生产与规模经济思辨

大规模定制生产作为未来的主流生产方式成为管理学者关注和研究的热点之一，本文从几个方面探讨了大规模定制生产对原有规模经济概念产生的影响，提出新生产方式下规模经济的新特征。     

The impact of voluntary environmental protection instruments on company environmental performance

In the last decade there has been increasing emphasis on the use of voluntary environmental protection tools such as corporate environmental reporting (CER) and environmental management systems (EMSs). There has been relatively little research, however, on the impact of these tools on the actual environmental performance of companies. This paper presents the findings of a survey of 40 companies operating in Western Australia to determine the extent to which the implementation of two voluntary instruments has influenced company environmental performance. The research considered four questions: To what extent have CER and EMSs influenced the environmental performance of companies operating in Western Australia? What are the characteristics of these influences? How does the influence of EMSs on environmental performance compare to that of CER? Have other external factors concurrently influenced environmental performance? In general, most respondents indicated that EMSs had influenced environmental management practices to some extent. On the other hand, CER was seen more as a public relations exercise and had less impact on company practices compared with EMSs. Other factors that influenced environmental performance included pressure from clients, senior management, the public and regulators; corporate culture; and cost savings. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

EDITORIAL: The economy,unemployment and industrial relations.

In analysing and criticising current UK economic strategy Brian Towers comments that the present level of mass unemployment is the most serious economic, social and political problem to face the developed countries—and with devastating consequences for the Third World—since the end of the Second World War. Yet a large part of the explanation for the deepening recession lies in the policies of individual states with support from several international economic organisations, notably the IMF.     

The impact of national culture and type of entrepreneurs on outsourcing

In this paper, we seek to address two important questions. First, why do companies outsource to countries with intensive entrepreneurial activities? Second, we examine the relationship between entrepreneurs and outsourcing success. We argue that national cultures determine the types of entrepreneurs that are more common in a country. We contend that the type of entrepreneurs, promoters versus trustees, influences outsourcing success. Specifically, we propose that promoters tend to outsource more and find an exit strategy faster, but are also more likely to select the wrong vendor than trustees.     

Materiality in integrated and sustainability reporting: A paradigm shift?

This paper investigates the implementation of integrated reporting (IR) by Generali, one of the most important listed companies in Italy. The research questions we aim at answering are the following: Is the IR approach to materiality inherently different from the sustainability reporting (SR) approach? Does IR lead to the identification of different material topics than does SR? On the one hand, institutional theory suggests that IR and SR material topics are going to be significantly different because IR is mainly driven by a market logic, whereas SR is inspired by a stakeholder logic. On the other hand, organizational change theory predicts there will be some resistance to change by the organization, therefore leading to IR and SR topics being similar. In order to answer our research questions, we implement two empirical analyses. First, we propose and develop an innovative methodological approach on the basis of content analysis, which allows measuring the materiality of different issues under the IR approach. Second, we rely on evidence obtained through interviews, which suggests that IR and SR approaches to materiality are inherently different.