University of Laneaster

L. J. White , The Automobile Industry since 1945, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, C. K. Rowley , Steel and Public Policy. London: McGraw-Hill, 1971 J. B. Heath (ed.), Department of Trade and Industry, International Conference on monopolies, mergers and restrictive practices, Papers and reports, Cambridge. 1969. London: C. F. Pratten , Economies of Scale in Manufacturing Industry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971 A. Singh . Takeovers, their relevance to the stock market and the theory of the firm. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971 D. Coombes , State Enterprise. Business or Politics? London: Allen & Unwin, 1971     

The impact of world manufacturing growth on Australia's trading position

Michal Kalecki's pricing analysis is found to provide a fruitful basis for an examination of the impact of world business cycles on Australia's international trade. Australia's terms of trade are found to move procyclically with world manufacturing production as implied by application of the analysis. Implications of the change in the terms of trade for domestic producers and consumers are developed by adapting Kalecki's analysis to an open economy context. Fluctuations in world manufacturing are found to have a negligible impact on Australia's export volume and a strong positive impact on her import volume as expected based on application of the adapted analysis.     

The demand for pay service on cable television

A probability model is developed for consumer choice among three television programming options, free over-the-air television, basic cable television service, and pay cable serve which consists of basic service plus a single channel of premium entertainment programming. Estimating equations for the demand for pay service are derived from the probability model and then estimated by applying regression techniques to data from a large sample of U.S. cable systems. The estimated parameters of the demand equation show that the demand for pay service is affected by the prices charged for both basic and pay service, by demographic characteristics of the households served by a cable system, and by the quality of programming offered on both basic and pay services. The demand estimates suggest that the introduction of pay service has substantially enhanced the likelihood of profitable operation for cable systems in major television markets.     

Challenges in quantitative economic analysis in support of multilateral trade negotiations

A wide range of economic analysis of agricultural trade liberalization was performed prior to and during the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations. Views differ as to the effectiveness of this research, although most would agree that it became less relevant as the negotiations progressed. This paper reviews the contributions of economists to the trade liberalization debate, with an emphasis on the quantitative assessment of multilateral agricultural trade liberalization. With a new round of agricultural trade negotiations scheduled to begin in 1999 it is crucial that the quantitative work required to support these negotiations begin in the near future. The authors conclude that the Uruguay Round outcome provides numerous challenges and opportunities in analyzing the traditional agenda of agricultural trade liberalization. In addition, new issues will be added to the agenda of the next round of negotiations. These include: trade and the environment, competition policy and intellectual property rights. It is important that economists begin to develop a research agenda that can address these issues and become activists in addressing these topics in public forums.     

SOME CONCEPTUAL DILEMMAS IN THE USE OF PRESENT NATIONAL ACCOUNTS

The following note is a very concise summary of a paper² that was presented at the 17th General Conference of the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth at Montvillargenne, August, 1981. As such it may be considered a new paper, although it contains practically all the conceptual issues of the original paper. As in the original paper its intention is only to place these issues before a wider audience, while specific solutions will have to wait for a more detailed treatment. All issues concern certain conceptual dilemmas, arising in particular in the use of national accounts when available concepts do not coincide with those for which data are sought. A decision to change the existing basic concepts would however require not only the support of the scholars in this field but also the co-operation of the users of national accounts. Due to extreme summarizing, certain statements are now fairly compact—compared with the original paper. It is nevertheless hoped that the basic problems still shine through. The following note gives instances in which the traditional national accounts, as established according to existing rules and statistics, may not suffice for actual data requirements, yielding differences in growth rates of several percentage points.     

Pricing over the Cycle

In recent studies, the cyclical behavior of markups is examined, but the role of costs in determining markups is ignored. Here, a pricing equation is estimated that implicitly measures the rate of change in markup as a function of aggregate demand growth, aggregate inflation and industry cost inflation. Results for 21 two-digit SIC industries in the U.S. over 1948 to 1979 show incomplete pass-through from cost into price, implying a negative relationship between cost and the markup. Aggregate inflation positively influences prices and markups. Aggregate demand negatively influences prices and markups in highly concentrated industries, but not otherwise.     

COMPETITION AND SOCIAL HOUSING IN EUROPE

This article discusses the application of the concept of competition to social housing in Europe. A distinction is made between competition amongst social housing suppliers and between social housing organisations and commercial suppliers of housing. The competitiveness of social housing is examined using evidence mainly from England and the Netherlands.