Relative Wage Variation and Industry Location in the United Kingdom*

This paper shows that both relative wages and industry structure vary considerably across regions of the United Kingdom. In accordance with the neoclassical model of trade, regions abundant in a factor (i) exhibit lower relative prices of that factor than regions scarce in the factor, and (ii) tend to specialize in a mix of industries intensive in the use of the factor. We show that this specialization leads UK regions to be asymmetrically exposed to external macroeconomic or international trade shocks.     

The Separation of Banking and Commerce in the United States: An Examination of Principal Issues

Banking law and regulation in the United States have customarily restricted the nonbanking activities of banks and the banking activities of nonbanking firms, producing a separation of banking from commerce. While such separation is surprising in a free market system that, in general, permits private firms to engage in any lawful business, it is understandable in an historical and institutional context. Proposals for change raise a wide range of economic and other issues. This paper identifies, catalogues, and elaborates these issues to provide a framework for informed judgment and further investigation. It begins with a review of early restrictions on bank activities in the United States and contrasts U.S. developments with those in several other countries in which banks have not been separated from commercial and industrial firms. It, then, reviews relevant issues arising in the financial sector, commercial sector, related to central banking and supervision, and socio‐political concerns. It concludes that limited banking, as it exists in the United States, and universal banking, as it exists in other countries, have differential benefits and costs. Summary evaluation based on standard cost benefit analysis, however, presents serious difficulties. Considerable uncertainty remains about effects in a number of areas. Many of the costs and benefits are not quantifiable, and some that are quantifiable are incomparable. A careful review of all existing evidence, identification of gaps, and further investigation is needed.     

The marginal pricing rule revisited

The purpose of the paper is to introduce a tighter definition for the marginal (cost) pricing rule. By means of an example, we illustrate the improvements that one gets with the new definition with respect to the former one using Clarke’s normal cone, and we discuss its consequences in terms of the existence of equilibria.      

Managing your most loyal customer relationships

Conventional wisdom regarding customer relationships suggests that a company should strive to deepen the loyalty of its customer base. While multiple approaches have been suggested, each approach advocates moving a subset of the customer base from one level of affinity (e.g., neither satisfied nor dissatisfied) to a higher one (e.g., satisfied). While seemingly appropriate, this approach assumes that moving customers up to higher categories is important and should be the focus of a firm’s efforts. Instead, we recommend an approach that involves focusing a firm’s resources disproportionately on its most satisfied customers. This approach provides two major benefits relative to conventional approaches. First, it focuses a firm’s resources on a narrow segment of customers. Hence, it requires significantly less financial outlay and associated financial risk than any approach that is aimed at all or even a majority of customers. Second, as we demonstrate, the financial benefit from leveraging high satisfaction levels among a subset of the current customer base significantly exceeds the financial benefit of other strategies (e.g., moving customers up from neutral to satisfied). We present the results from two case studies that illustrate our main points and provide useful examples of how to leverage a firm’s highly satisfied customers.     

Equilibrium in Insurance Markets: An Empiricist’s View

Empirical models of insurance markets would greatly enhance our ability to understand policy-relevant questions. Yet they are still quite rare. This paper sketches such a model and surveys its basic elements. While much progress has been made in recent years in our understanding of insurance demand in particular, the most crying need is for market-wide data.     

Low-Cost Online Searching Techniques

This is a companion piece to the authors' article in the Journal of Economic Literature (December 1985) that explained online searching techniques for research. This article is written for teachers and provides a practical how-to guide for using low-cost online searches to prepare lectures and reading lists and for obtaining up-to-date data.     

Rituals in managing extrabusiness relationships in international project marketing: a conceptual framework

The current craze for the so-called relationship marketing in business markets must not mask the fact that, beyond economic and technological interdependencies between companies, business relationships are also made up of social interactions. This social dimension often escapes the attention of marketing theorists although it is of major importance in the management of business relationships. On the basis of an investigation into international project activities, this article develops a ritual approach for managing the extrabusiness phase of business relationships. This ritual approach allows us to build a framework designed to encapsulate and, possibly, manage the many faces of the social dimension of business relationships.     

Employment and training solutions for the economically disadvantaged: An essay

Conclusion The persistence of urban poverty and the presence of economically disadvantaged families in our cities is a continuing challenge to national aspirations for equal opportunity and economic justice. A continuing bifurcation of society between those who enjoy an increasing share of economic prosperity and others who are stuck on the lowest rung of the economic ladder should be unacceptable. The search must continue for ways to improve the productivity and earning power of those who need assistance in getting a foothold on the escalator to a middle-income standard of living. Employment and training programs remain one of the options necessary to achieve that goal. While past programs have not been a panacea, they have contributed to a modest improvement in income among many who participated in them. In the choice of weapons required to combat urban poverty, employment and training programs should be part of the arsenal. The experience of the past, while limited, justifies continued investment in the employment and training option, and the continued experimentation with programs to address the needs of specific target groups. Only by testing new and increasingly comprehensive training models will we find the right mix to accelerate the decline in urban poverty. To achieve success in reducing urbna poverty, it is important to maintain steady, balanced economic growth, and persist in the experimentation with job training models.