The two‐way interaction between globalization and labour market policies

Labour market and social policies both affect and are affected by the process of trade liberalization and globalization. This two‐way interaction and the feedback effects are the focus of this paper. The analysis is mainly conceptual—but examples are illustrated throughout, based mainly in the context of labour markets in North America, Latin America and the Caribbean basin. Attention is paid to outlining the mechanisms whereby globalization and trade liberalization affect labour market and social policy initiatives, and the extent to which these pressures will lead to a harmonization of legislative and policy initiatives, and if that harmonization will necessarily be downward to the lowest common denominator. The paper concludes that: (1) the pressures will lead towards policy harmonization; (2) the harmonization generally will be downwards; (3) such harmonization is not always negative as generally perceived; (4) efficient regulatory and social policy initiatives will survive and indeed expand, with the “rent‐protecting” ones under most pressure to dissipate; and (5) pure distributional or equity‐oriented initiatives that have no positive feedback effect on efficiency, unfortunately, will also be under jeopardy to dissipate, and this is a serious policy concern. Alternatives for addressing this concern are discussed, as are their associated problems.     

Where have all the traditional classroom settings gone?—The use of large scale, public sector projects to illustrate a multidisciplinary approach to problem solving

This work describes the evolution and potential of an elective course for students who have already been exposed to the standard techniques of problem solving as presented in traditional courses. Students apply these techniques to large scale problems in directed mullidisciplinary project teams. In doing so, they are provided with a unique learning experience allowing them to serve as a resource to the community. Course projects described here include the promotion of a railing retail district; the formulation, implementation and monitoring of litter reduction strategies; the economic evaluation of using inmate labor to clean public areas; and economic comparisons of recycling strategies for used tires.     

LETTING THE GOOD TIMES ROLL

Kenneth Clarke must wonder what is so difficult about being Chancellor of the Exchequer. Since he took over at the Treasury in May 1993, the UK economy has grown at an annual rate of 3.5-4.0% and unemployment has continued to fall. Underlying inflation has remained around the middle of the government's 1–4% target band. And the current account deficit on the balance of payments has shrunk. True, the Chancellor had to bring in a tax-raising Budget in November, though even here much of the hard work had been done by his predecessor. The policy decisions over the next year or so will prove much more tricky, however. The Chancellor faces pressure to relax fiscal policy in the Budget. And he will almost certainly have to raise interest rates - possibly before the end of this year. In this Forecast Release we look at what the outlook for the economy now implies for the policy judgements that the Chancellor must make over the remainder of this year.     

Soldiers don't go mad: Shell shock and accounting intransigence in the British Army 1914-18

This research examines intransigence in accounting systems. Using historical research methods and archival sources, it explores intransigence in the Royal Army Medical Corps’ accounting systems in the context of the incidence of shell shock among British Army soldiers fighting at the battlefront during the First World War. The Army did not recognise shell shock as a medical condition and made few changes to its medical accounting systems for soldiers with shell shock. The four factors of system stability of the AGIL scheme (adaptation, goal attainment, integration, latency) are used to understand the limited medical accounting response to shell shock. This research indicates that in addition to historical and internal political reasons for intransigence, intransigence will occur unless a factor in the AGIL scheme is sufficiently impaired to make the accounting system unstable and force system change. This research finding has contemporary relevance, explaining accounting intransigence in response to issues of social concern.     

Cross-border insolvency law in India: Are the principles of comity of courts and inherent common law jurisdiction relevant?

Deliberations are in the final stages for enacting a cross-border insolvency law in India based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross Border Insolvency 1997 (‘Model Law’). The cross-border insolvency regime in India will provide an avenue for recognising foreign insolvency proceedings in India. Although it is a matter of time before India adopts the Model Law, it is important to examine whether there remains an independent basis in addition to the Model Law for recognising and providing assistance to cross-border insolvency proceedings in India. This is crucial on account of the following reasons: first, the Model Law does not provide that it is the exclusive pathway for foreign creditors to seek remedies under domestic law. The Model Law, as reflected in Article 7, was intended by its drafters to be an additional gateway to those provided under local laws. The proposed Indian law in Article 5 of Draft Part Z of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 also does not depart expressly from this principle. Second, there may be instances where neither the ‘Centre of Main Interests’ nor an establishment of a corporate debtor is situated in India; therefore, assistance and cooperation in respect of such cross-border insolvency proceeding can only be based on the inherent common law jurisdiction, if available. Third, the cross-border insolvency framework in India will be premised on the requirement for reciprocity and, therefore, countries that do not meet the reciprocity requirement may find it beneficial if such an independent basis for recognition exists in India. This article argues that foreign representatives should be encouraged to explore the possibility of seeking assistance from the commercial courts in India under the common law principles governing cross-border insolvency and that the courts in India should be open to this possibility.     

Portfolio Capital Flows: Hot or Cold?

A distinction is often made between short-term and long-termcapital flows: the former are deemed unstable hot money andthe latter are deemed stable cold money. Using time-series analysisof balance of payments data for five industrial and five developingcountries, we find that in most cases the labels "short-term"and "long-term" do not provide any information about the time-seriesproperties of the flow. In particular, long-term flows are oftenas volatile as short-term flows, and the time it takes for anunexpected shock to a flow to die out is similar across flows.long-term flows are also at least as unpredictable as short-termflows, and knowledge of the type of flow does not improve theability to forecast the aggregate capital account.     

Activity-Based Costing and Central Overhead Cost Allocation in Universities: A Case Study

This article examines the development of ABC in university accounting and assesses the contribution it might make to solving the problems associated with central overhead cost allocation systems. A case study using an ABC methodology was developed and applied to library services at the University of Southampton. The results showed substantial differences in the allocation of the central overhead costs as between academic faculties using the model and the existing system. The authors argue that although the ABC approach may overcome some of the problems of overhead allocation and improve the economic efficiency of organizations, there are significant problems with its practical application.     

Foundations of Technical Analysis: Computational Algorithms, Statistical Inference, and Empirical Implementation

Technical analysis, also known as 'charting,' has been a part of financial practice for many decades, but this discipline has not received the same level of academic scrutiny and acceptance as more traditional approaches such as fundamental analysis. One of the main obstacles is the highly subjective nature of technical analysis—the presence of geometric shapes in historical price charts is often in the eyes of the beholder. In this paper, we propose a systematic and automatic approach to technical pattern recognition using nonparametric kernel regression, and we apply this method to a large number of U.S. stocks from 1962 to 1996 to evaluate the effectiveness of technical analysis. By comparing the unconditional empirical distribution of daily stock returns to the conditional distribution—conditioned on specific technical indicators such as head-and-shoulders or double bottoms—we find that over the 31-year sample period, several technical indicators do provide incremental information and may have some practical value.