Book Reviews

Richard Higgott and Richard Robison (eds), Southeast Asia: Essays in the Political Economy of Structural Change, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985. £18.00 (cloth)

John Wong, The Political Economy of China's Changing Relations with Southeast Asia, London: Macmillan Press, 1984, pp. xvi + 246.

Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, Perdagangan dan Industri dalam Pembangunan [Trade and Industry in Development], Jakarta: LP3ES, 1985, pp. 133.Thee Kian Wie

Masyarakat Indonesia, 12(3), Jakarta: LIPI, December, 1985. Special issue edited by Thee Kian Wie, entitled 'Kaitan-Kaitan Vertikal Antar-perusahaan dan Pengembangan Sistem Subkontraktor di Indonesia: Beberapa Studi Kasus' [Vertical Linkages between Firms and the Development of the Subcontracting System in Indonesia: Several Case Studies].

D. B. G. Denoon, Devaluation under Pressure: India, Indonesia and Ghana, Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1986, pp. xi + 260. US$28.75

John W. Mellor and Gunvant M. Desai (eds). Agricultural Change and Rural Poverty, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985, pp. xix + 233. US$27.45.

'Indonesia's Transmigration Programme: A Special Report', The Ecologist, Vol. 16, No. 2/3, 1986. £4.00     

The Potential and Limitations of Self-Targeted Food Subsidies

Can self-selection ofsubsidized commodities be used as a mechanismto transfer income to the poor? Evidence from two self-targetingprograms, one in South Africa and one in Tunisia, shows thatalthough self-targeting can clearly improve the distributionof food subsidies to the poorest members of society, its powerto alleviate poverty and reduce income disparities is limitedby preference patterns, income inequality, and the size of theindividual subsidies. Self-targeting through quality and productdifferentiation can be a useful means to reform existing universalsubsidy schemes, but it should be considered a transitionaltool while the capacity for implementing more precise mechanisms is developed.      

Technological innovation and the long wave theory revisited

The pattern of basic innovation clustering associated with Kondratieff long wave downswings raises questions when we consider the 4th downswing. There is increasing concern expressed that we may be facing “innovation starvation” or “innovation stagnation”. Among the questions: Is the internet a cluster of one? Or should the smartphone, ipad, Facebook, icloud, etc. be considered basic rather than improvement innovations as well because of their huge societal impact? Is the long wave pattern exhibited for the past two hundred years continuing or is it breaking down?     

Counter intuitive results in a simple model of wage negotiations

Summary. Short-term contracts and exogenous productivity growth are introduced in a simple wage bargaining model. The equilibrium utilities corresponding to militant union behaviour are independent of the contract length. Necessary and sufficient conditions for monotonic convergence to a unique steady state are derived. Otherwise, cyclic behaviour of wage shares is inevitable. A wage decrease can occur if strike is credible, but never when strike is not credible. In the limit, as time between bargaining rounds vanishes, this paradox survives. Received: September 3, 1998; revised version: February 10, 2000     

The impact of age on the ability to perform under pressure: golfers on the PGA tour

This paper is about aging and the ability to perform under pressure on the PGA tour. Performance increases with golfing skill, but may first increase and then decrease with age as experience interacts with changes in physical condition. Similarly, mental fortitude or the ability of a golfer to perform under pressure may first increase and then decrease with age as experience interacts with changes in the ability to concentrate. Net performance on the tour is the result of both physical golfing skill and the ability to perform under pressure. We control for changes in physical skill and focus on the mental side of the game. The role of experience suggests an inverted U shaped relationship between age and mental performance that could vary significantly across golfers. We use Order-m FDH to calculate a measure of performance under pressure, and we confirm an inverted U-shaped curve with age. Along the way, we examine the ability to perform under pressure at the level of the individual golfer.     

Social Costs and the Automobile Industry: A Challenge to National Planning

Neoinstitutional thought is based on an integration of Thorstein Veblen's evolutionary theory of institutional change and John Dewey's theory of instrumental valuation. It offers a coherent methodology that guides both economic analysis and policy formation. Neoinstitutionalist methodology differs from mainstream economic methodology in its rejection of the normative-positive dualism. It denies that "objectivity" requires that science be wertfrie, arguing instead that normative propositions based on instrumental valuation are the foundation of scientific objectivity. The analytical focus of neoinstitutional economics is the process of institutional change which it treats as a change in the value structure of the institution.     

Measuring Deal Premiums in Takeovers

We investigate whether the merger announcement dates provided in the Securities Data Corporation (SDC) database are handled correctly by researchers performing event studies. We find that in 24.1% of deals, the popular choice of using the SDC's “Date Announced” field as the event date leads to biased estimates of target firm abnormal returns because of earlier abnormal price movements due to merger‐related events such as merger rumors or search‐for‐buyer types of announcements. We hand collect the merger‐related events from news sources and make the complete data set publicly available at the Financial Management website.