REACTOR SAFETY AND RISK ISSUES

This paper surveys trends and conclusions in federally sponsored studies of nuclear reactor safety and their implications for nuclear regulation. The paper finds that recent studies do not rule out the possibility of light water reactor accidents equal to or even larger in size than the 1986 Chernobyl accident. The probability of such an event – involving both core melt and prompt containment failure – is quite small, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) estimated probability of core melt is significantly higher. The paper reviews the NRC's use of these findings through a probabilistic cost-benefit framework, and it concludes that a greater and focused NRC commitment to risk reduction is justified.     

UNEMPLOYMENT AND CONSUMPTION

In this paper we argue that the aggregate unemployment rateis a valuable measure of aggregate income uncertainty. Accordingto the theory of precautionary saving, an increase in incomeuncertainty would be expected to increase saving. We use U.S.quarterly data on the consumption of motor vehicles first toexamine whether unemployment has a negative effect on consumptionand then to differentiate between the various explanations forthis phenomenon. We conclude that the negative relationshipbetween unemployment and consumption is due in large part toprecautionary saving motives.     

Material and moral resources: the 1984–5 miners' strike in Scotland

This article contributes to debates about the economic framework of industrial politics by examining aspects of the 1984–5 miners' strike in Britain, focusing on developments in Scotland. It focuses on strike endurance and pit‐level variations in strike endurance by examining the contrasting quantity and quality of the material and moral resources available to the strikers at different collieries and in different communities. Powerful local variables in building or inhibiting strike commitment included pre‐strike pit‐level production, industrial relations, and the impact of debates about the economics and finances of coal‐getting; incomes gained for households during the strike by married women in part‐time and full‐time employment; expenditure saved by households in local authority housing where rents were in effect deferred by sympathetic local authorities; communal attitudes to pits, jobs, and redundancies; the character and weight of political tradition; and the cultural as well as economic role of women. By focusing on developments at community and colliery level the article challenges dominant narratives of the strike, which remain wedded to high politics, the strategy of the union leadership, changes in energy supply and policy, and public order.     

The Effects of Formal and Informal Contracting in Credit Availability

This paper investigates how the use of collateral (formal contracting), along with the market power of banks (which facilitates relational contracts), affects the availability of credit for business firms. Using loan data from the Spanish Credit Register, we show that the average credit quality of borrowers in a provincial market decreases with market concentration and the availability of collateral. Additionally, the marginal effect of each variable decreases with the higher values of the other variable. We also find that credit line interest rates increase with the availability of collateral, although the increase is lower for banks operating in more concentrated credit markets. Therefore, market power (relations) and collateral (formal contracting) act as substitutes to increase the availability of bank finance under asymmetric information.