PLANNING THROUGH COMPULSORY COMMERCIAL CLUBS: BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTS

Business improvement districts (BIDs) have proved successful in providing shared services for businesses within a district. They have made business areas more attractive as a result. This article analyses the origins and successes of BIDs and concludes with some further considerations for policy-makers in the development of the BID concept.     

Understanding Business Improvement District formation: An analysis of neighborhoods and boundaries

Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) provide supplemental services to urban commercial corridors using funds from member assessments. They have become a very popular urban revitalization tool, but their formation is still largely unexplained. Theory implies that BIDs will form if they add to aggregate welfare and if the marginal net benefit of membership is positive. I test this for the neighborhood overall and at the BID boundary. Using unique, micro-level and longitudinal data from New York City, I employ survival analysis methods to estimate the likelihood of a neighborhood forming a BID. I then estimate the likelihood of the marginal property’s BID membership by comparing the characteristics of properties located immediately inside and outside of the BID boundaries. I find that BIDs are more likely to form when there is more commercial space over which the BID benefits can be capitalized and when there is homogeneity in service and spending preferences across properties. BIDs also tend to form in neighborhoods that possess signs of appreciation and growth. Generally, BIDs are more likely to form in neighborhoods with higher valued properties with the exception of very wealthy areas. The BID boundary, however, is comprised of relatively less valuable properties.     

PURCHASING AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT: INTERACTIONS,POLICIES AND OPPORTUNITIES

The mechanisms are examined by which environmentally informed business practices and technologies may diffuse through industry as a result of the ‘greening’ of purchasing and supply. The efforts of official bodies in the UK to raise environmental awareness among industrial purchasers are reviewed. It is then argued that the supply chain model is an important way of interpreting the industrial landscape from a green perspective and that it is in some ways a more hopeful and positive starting point for achieving industrial transformation. The results of an analysis of some UK companies practices in using their purchasing policies to ‘green’ their supply chains are presented and opportunities for further research indicated.     

Housing, credit and the euro: the policy response

HM Treasury produced its long-awaited assessment of the five economic tests in June, having signalled the basic decision months in advance. The Treasury sees important impediments to adopting the Euro in UK housing and credit markets, and makes some proposals for further investigation and policy. In this paper, John Muellbauer considers the policy options.     

Societal effects meet sectoral effects: work organization,competencies and payment systems in the Volvo Commercial Vehicle Division

By comparing the development of competence payment systems in Volvo's Commercial Vehicle plants in Sweden, Belgium, and the UK, the paper seeks to explain some of the reasons why the UK is lagging behind in the development of innovative pay systems. In the Commercial Vehicle sector the reticence of UK-based assemblers such as Volvo and Leyland Trucks to introduce new forms of payment systems can be only partially explained with reference to societal factors. One has to look further, to the historical development of the UK automotive sector and the perception of management that the introduction of a payment system based upon individual effort would lead back to the restrictive practices and demarcation disputes which exemplified the employment relationship in the 1960s and 1970s.     

Cointegration,long-run structural modelling and weak exogeneity: Two models of the UK economy

Cointegration ideas as introduced by Granger in 1981 are commonly embodied in empirical macroeconomic modelling through the vector error correction model (VECM). It has become common practice in these models to treat some variables as weakly exogenous, resulting in conditional VECMs. This paper studies the consequences of different approaches to weak exogeneity for the dynamic properties of such models, in the context of two models of the UK economy, one a national-economy model, the other the UK submodel of a global model. Impulse response and common trend analyses are shown to be sensitive to these assumptions and other specification choices.     

Pareto's law of income distribution,or the 80/20 rule

Pareto's Law of Income Distribution forms the basis of the well-known, but often overlooked, ‘eighty-twenty’ rule. The implication is that a small proportion of customers (or donors) are accountable for a very large share of sales turnover or income. This paper examines the impact on fundraising of the pioneering work of Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923) concerning the distribution of wealth between groups in society, which was first published exactly one hundred years ago, in 1895. It discusses the relevance of Pareto's Law to contemporary fundraising, using case data from UK charities who have put Pareto's assertions to the test. The recognition of the Pareto principle is wholly dependent on data analysis and software tools to perform the calculations and then display Pareto-style reports. Such tools are beginning to be seen in UK and some overseas software packages and general tools, available in the UK nonprofit marketplace. Illustrations of software systems supporting Pareto-style diagnostic analysis are given. At its most basic, Pareto's principle compels fundraisers to look into their databases of supporters to identify the small but potent élite donating segments who always seem to exist among the general mass. The implications for fundraising that flow from such analyses are important and can be far-reaching. They allow fundamental supporter segmentation patterns based on historic donating history to be understood, and, if understood, managed productively. Finally, Pareto compels the decision to alter either fundraising management and allocation of resources, or to manage supporters, rather than appeals, which in the UK continues to be the most common management style.     

Lean Production and Beyond: the System,Its Critics and the Future

Peter Wickens, who is Director of Personnel and Information Systems of the Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd, puts ‘lean production’ in its historical context, examines some of the criticisms of the system and considers some of the changes taking place in Japan. He goes on to suggest possible ways forward and makes the case for a system of ‘lean production’ managed by people who care about people.     

International Comparisons of Labour Productivity in Transport and Communications: The US,the UK and Germany

We construct benchmark estimates of labour productivity covering the transport and communications sectors for the US, UK and Germany for 1992 and 1993. The US lead is substantial in rail and trucking, even after adjusting for differences in stage length, but Britain leads in air transport and all three countries have similar productivity levels in local transport. In telecommunications and postal services the US enjoys a large lead over both the UK and Germany. We compare these estimates based on industry data with ones derived from the national accounts and find them similar in communications but not in transport. For 1973–96, and also 1989–96, productivity was growing slower in the US, hence some of the gap has been closed.     

THE ECONOMY AT A TURNING POINT

In this Forecast Release we assess the evidence from the economic indicators and the latest official statistics for the view that the economy is at a turning point. We conclude that, while last year's rapid decline in UK output is coming to an end, a broadly-based recovery of the UK economy is unlikely until the world economy starts to grow again. The business surveys suggest that the upturn in European economy is less well established than the UK recovery. It may also be delayed further by high interest rates. The world turning point is thus likely to be some months later than die UK turning point, despite the strong upswing in the US. This implies that the UK recovery could be somewhat hesitant in the coming months.     

The UK and EMU: Lessons from Europe

Her Majesty's Treasury is due to report in June 2003 on the economic case for the UK adopting the Euro. One criterion concerns the extent of economic convergence between the UK and the European Union countries. Differences in financial, credit and housing institutions between countries present one important subset of constraints to sustained convergence (Maclennan et al, 1998) - largely neglected in the economic literature on common currency areas. These types of differences create tension within the Eurozone. Empirical evidence supporting these concerns has emerged in signs of overheating in the Netherlands, UK and some of the fringe economies, and in the relative stagnation of Germany and Italy. The UK's buoyancy, however, is accompanied by serious economic imbalances, with consequent risks of instability. These would be exacerbated should the UK be prematurely locked into an exchange rate and interest rate regime unresponsive to domestic conditions. There is much to learn from European experience: from Germany and Italy, on the consequences of illiberal economic structures; from The Netherlands, on some of the risks of liberal credit markets; and from Denmark, with a liberal credit market but rational property taxation. In this paper, John Muellbauer argues that convergence does not have to be fully achieved, if there is a counterbalancing policy instrument to mitigate some of the effects of these slow-to-dissipate differences. Specifically in the UK, a reformed system of property taxation would contribute greatly to long-term stability and the preservation of economic balance.     

基于规划调控的英国住房保障措施研究

英国是住房保障体系比较完善的西方国家,也是最注重城乡规划调控的国家之一,自20世纪中期开始形成了一套以规划手段为基础的住房保障措施.论文的主旨是对英国基于规划调控的住房保障措施进行综述,并结合我国当前非常突出的城市住房问题进行针对性剖析,使之成为我国住房政策的借鉴和参照.文章首先介绍了英国通过规划进行住房调控的背景,然后对四种主要措施--所有权控制、使用变更控制、贡献和义务机制和规划特例机制的操作方法、实施效果、相关配套政策法规等进行分析,最后结合英国经验对我国当前城市住房的规划调控措施存在的问题进行评述,提出改善我国规划调控方法的建议,为住房问题研究和政策制定提供参考.     

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.     

What will be the impact on future legacy campaigns of changing demographic,economic, cultural and religious trends?

This paper discusses some key issues that will have dramatic effects on legacy/bequest income over the next 30 years. Economic, demographic, cultural and religious changes will mean that all nonprofits will have to adapt their legacy campaigns to meet emerging community and lifestyle trends. Campaigns will have to target the particular attitudes, motivations and expectations of each community if legacy income is to rise rather than fall. To date, little research has been completed in the UK to ascertain what the likely outcomes will be. This paper alerts fundraisers to some of the key issues. Copyright © 2000 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Structural change and economic behaviour: The case of UK exports

In this paper Stephen Hall, Giovanni Urga, and John Whitley apply a new econometric technique to date unknown breaks in UK export behaviour. They show how the evidence points to a structural shift in 1979. Although there is some support for a supply-side interpretation in that there have been changes in the behaviour of prices, there has also been a shift in the underlying demand for UK exports. They also find that variables which proxy changes in the quality of UK exports, or other supply-side influences, do not properly account for the observed structural break in UK export performance.     

Management buy-outs,trade unions and employee ownership

Management buy-outs developed rapidly throughout the 1980s in the UK and continental Europe. The shift to managerial and employee ownership involved, has major implications for trade unions and industrial relations. This article examines these issues using survey and case study evidence from the UK.     

How tight is the UK labour market?

With the unemployment rate touching 25-year lows and some signs of a pick-up in earnings growth, concern has again focussed on how much scope the labour market has to meet the requirements of the above-trend growth forecast for the UK. This article by David Tinsley reviews some of the evidence for how 'tight' the UK labour market is. It suggests that, although the labour market has probably tightened over the last year or so, the headline figures give a somewhat misleading picture. It goes on to argue that there are a number of other margins for adjustment by which the demands of the robust growth forecast for the UK over the next few years can be met without igniting significant inflationary pressure.     

Workplace Performance,Worker Commitment,and Loyalty

Using matched employer–employee level data drawn from the 2004 UK Workplace and Employee Relations Survey, we explore the determinants of a measure of worker commitment and loyalty (CLI) and whether CLI influences workplace performance. Factors influencing employee commitment and loyalty include age and gender, whilst workplace level characteristics of importance include human resource (HR) practices. With respect to the effects of employee commitment and loyalty upon the workplace, higher CLI is associated with enhanced workplace performance. Our findings that workplace HRs influence CLI suggest that employers may be able to exert some influence over the commitment and loyalty of its workforce, which, in turn, may affect workplace performance.     

High-capacity vehicles: an investigation of their potential environmental,economic and practical impact if introduced to UK roads

In the UK, the length of a goods carrying vehicle is limited to a maximum of 16.5 m for a standard articulated vehicle and 18.75 m for a draw-bar combination. This research has investigated the environmental, economic and practical impacts of expanding the volumetric carry capacity by increasing maximum length of vehicles to 25.25 m, while maintaining the maximum gross weight at the current UK limit of 44 tonne. The scope is limited to the consideration of 25.25 m vehicle variants that are currently in use in the Netherlands. The investigation was based on a variety of techniques that included bench research and case study modelling. It concludes that, although the picture is complex and there are a number of operational issues to be addressed, the introduction of high-capacity vehicles (HCVs) to the UK would yield valuable environmental and financial benefits at vehicle and operator level, provided that vehicle utilisation levels do not deteriorate as compared with current fleet. At the national level, financial benefits would be partially offset by infrastructure costs and there is some risk of environmental benefits being partially eroded by modal shift – but on both measures a net benefit is highly likely to remain. In addition, provided that appropriate risk control measures are adopted, use of HCVs is highly unlikely to have an adverse impact on road safety.     

International mergers and acquisitions in the UK 1985-94: a comparison of national HRM practices

The paper investigates HRM practices adopted by companies from the USA, Japan, Germany and France in UK companies that they have acquired. UK/UK acquisitions are used as a control. The research is based on a survey instrument applied to 201 companies and interviews with forty. It notes that there is some convergence of HRM practices, in that, for example, all countries researched employ performance-related pay and increase the amount of training in their new subsidiaries. It finds, however, that there is a distinct difference in the HRM practices employed by companies from each of the countries, influenced by the characteristic HR practices common to companies in the country of origin of the parent.