Introducing ‘Journeys Home’

Homelessness, despite being a major social policy issue in Australia, is an area that is not well served by data. Most sorely lacking is any large‐scale panel study that follows a broad sample of persons with recent experience of homelessness and unstable housing histories. In 2010, the Australian Government set about rectifying this deficiency when it commissioned the Melbourne Institute to undertake a new panel study, now known as ‘Journeys Home’. This study draws its sample from the population of Centrelink income‐support recipients, targeting persons identified in the administrative data as having recent experience of homelessness, as well as others with similar characteristics who may be vulnerable to housing difficulties in the future. This article summarises the design of this new study and reports on fieldwork outcomes from the first two waves of data collection.     

The political economy of Zimbabwean Urban informality since 2000 – A contemporary governance dilemma

ABSTRACT

The article explores the urban informality dilemma in Harare through the lens of a political economy theory. It examines the typologies of urban informality, the influence of political economy on urban informalities, and informs decision-making to address the urban informality dilemma. A qualitative approach was used where secondary data were collected through document analysis and primary data from interviews with 20 purposively selected key informants. Surveys and in-depth interviews were conducted with 585 individuals engaged in informal activities. It emerged that urban informality in Harare takes on different forms and aside from the economic crisis, politics played a role in the emergence and proliferation of urban informality. The article provides insight into, and raises awareness with regard to key areas of concern on how power influences decision-making relating to urban informality. Therefore, the article provides a basis for policy formulation and institutional reforms for effective measures to curb urban informality.     

The Relationship Among Union Membership, Facets of Satisfaction and Intent to Leave: Further Evidence on the Voice Face of Unions

This study examined the impact of union membership on employees’ intent to leave their jobs across a number of facets of satisfaction, as a further test of unions’ voice face. Among the findings were that there were significant relationships between job, compensation, benefits, working conditions, and immediate supervisor satisfaction and intent to leave one’s job for nonunion employees. In contrast, only the relationship between job satisfaction and intent to leave was significant for union employees. Finally, over the facets of satisfaction where one would expect unions to have the most influence, the relationship between intent to leave one’s job and satisfaction was greater for nonunion employees than for union employees. These results provide a great deal of support for the effect of unions’ voice face.

The effect of globalization on union bargaining and price-cost margins of firms

In recent years, Europe has witnessed an accelerated process of economic integration. This paper analyzes how increased economic integration has affected labor and product markets. We use a panel of Belgian manufacturing firms to estimate price-cost margins and union bargaining power and show how various measures of globalization affect them. Import competition puts pressure on both markups and union bargaining power, especially when there is increased competition from low wage countries. This suggests that increased globalization is associated with a moderation of wage claims in unionized countries, which should be associated with positive effects on employment.

下个十亿市场

事实上,下一代新兴市场可以定夺许多产业中的胜利者和失败者,且是下一个崭新商业巨人的崛起之处。     

Justice Failure: Efficiency and Equality in Business Ethics

This paper offers the concept of “justice failure,” as a counterpart to the familiar idea of market failure, in order to better understand managers’ ethical obligations. This paper takes the “market failures approach” (MFA) to business ethics as its point of departure. The success of the MFA, I argue, lies in its close proximity with economic theory, particularly in the idea that, within a larger scheme of social cooperation, markets ought to pursue efficiency and leave the pursuit of equality to the welfare state. As a result, the core ethical responsibility of business actors is to avoid profiting off of market failure. After reviewing this approach I challenge its emphasis on efficiency. I argue that just as we note the suboptimal efficiency of actual markets (market failure), we should also take seriously the suboptimal equality of actual welfare states (what I call “justice failure”). Taking this idea seriously results in a whole other set of ethical responsibilities for businesses to take into account; in addition to market imperfections and regulatory lacunae, managers should also avoid profiting from, and exacerbating, structural inequalities and injustices. I offer an outline of the kinds of injustices and inequalities that would have bearing on business ethics, and the kinds of ethical responsibilities that this approach suggests that business actors should take into account.     

The impact of tariffs on profits in the United States and other major trading countries

Zusammenfassung Die Auswirkungen von Z?llen auf die Gewinne der Unternehmen in den Vereinigten Staaten und anderen gr?▾eren Handelsl?ndern. - In diesem Aufsatz wird das Michigan-Modell benutzt, um die Auswirkungen der Protektion auf die gesamten Gewinne und die Stückgewinne in den USA und anderen wichtigen Handelsnationen zu untersuchen. Es ergibt sich, da▾ die Protektion die Gewinne in den Exportsektoren st?rker verringert, als sie die Gewinne derjenigen Sektoren verbessert, die mit Importen konkurrieren. Allerdings bleiben die Gesamtgewinne aus der Kombination von exportorientierten und importsubstituierenden Unternehmen im allgemeinen von den bestehenden Z?llen unbeeinflu▾t. Au▾erdem finden die Gewinntransfers zwischen Exporteuren und importsubstituieren-den Unternehmen meistens innerhalb der gleichen Branche und nicht zwischen verschiedenen Branchen statt. Deshalb erh?hen allgemeine tarif?re Ma▾nahmen kaum die Gewinne von US-Industrien. Nur Tarife, die auf bestimmte Produktgruppen gerichtet sind, k?nnten derartige Wirkungen haben.

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Résumé L’effet des droits de douane sur les profits dans les Etats Unis et des autres pays principaux commer?ants. - Dans cet article le modèle Michigan de production mondiale et de commerce est appliqué pour analyser l’effet de la protection sur les profits totaux et par unité dans les Etats Unis et des autres pays principaux commer?ants. Les auteurs trouvent que la protection réduit les profits dans les secteurs exportatrices plus qu’elle stimule les profits dans les secteurs en concurrence avec les importations. Cependant, les profits totaux des entreprises exportatrices et en concurrence avec les importations ensemble ne sont pas affectés par des droits de douane existants. De plus, la majorité des transferts des profits entre les entreprises exportatrices et en concurrence avec les importations se passe dans la même industrie au lieu d’entre des industries. C’est pourquoi, il est conclu que des mesures générales tarifaires probablement n’augmentent pas les profits des industries des E.U. Ce ne sont que les droits de douane sur des groupes des biens spécifiques qui exercent un tel effet.

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Resumen El impacto de los aranceles sobre los beneficios en los Estados Unidos y otros países de importancia en el comercio international. - En este trabajo se utiliza el modelo de productión y comercio mundiales de Michigan para analizar el impacto de la protectión arancelaria sobre los beneficios totales y por unidad en los Estados Unidos y otros países de importancia en el comercio international. Los resultados indican que la protectión disminuye los beneficios en los sectores de exportatión y estimula los beneficios en las industrias que compiten con las importaciones, superando el primer efecto al segundo. Los beneficios totales de las empresas de exportatión y sustitución de importaciones juntas, empero, generalmente no son afectados por los aranceles existentes. Además, la mayor parte de la transferencia de beneficios entre exportadores y empresas de sustitución de importaciones tiene lugar dentro de la misma industria y no entre industrias diferentes. Por ello, medidas arancelarias de tipo general no son susceptibles de mejorar los beneficios de las industrias de los EE UU. Solamente aranceles que afecten a determinados grupos de productos podrían tener ese efecto.

     

Towards a microscopic analysis of industrial innovations: From diffusion curves to technological integration through participative management

This paper traces the development of ever more microscopic analyses of the industrial innovation process and presents these as progressive stages in a gradual coming to terms with the real-life complexities of this process. Begining with the macroscopic, diffusion perspective inherited from rural sociology, it reveals how more user-centred models have emerged. The changing image of the user is traced from “passive adopter” to “managerial problem solver” and finally, to “innovative designer”. The paper then turns to the difficulties involved in understanding the nature of the firm's infrastructure and the implications it has for innovation management and industrial relations problems. Research in this area is identified as a crucial source of the new management tachniques that are required to solve the growing problems of resistance to technology implementation. A socio-psychological analysis drawing upon the concepts of the ethogenic approach is proposed and seen to recommend a participative management style similar to that used so successfully by the Japanese.