Are multi‐resort ski conglomerates more efficient?

This paper compares the efficiency of large ski resort conglomerates with independent ski resorts using data on four countries (Canada, France, United States, Switzerland). Using the stochastic frontier production approach, I find that ski resorts that are owned and managed by the Intrawest group are significantly more efficient than independent ski resorts. The efficiency gap is about nine percentage points on average. The remaining ski resort conglomerates (American Skiing, Vail Resorts Inc., and Compagnie des Alpes SA) do not operate more efficiently than independent ski resorts. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multiple wage-bargaining systems in the single European currency area

Little attention in the EMU literature has been paid to theinteraction between central bank monetary rules and systemsof collective wage bargaining. Analytically and empirically,coordinated wage-bargaining systems respond with real wage restraintto non-accommodating monetary policy. Since wage determinationis dominated by collective bargaining in all the EMU memberstates and wage coordination within the member states has grownsince 1980, this is a topic of potential importance. In particular,the replacement of the Bundesbank, directly targeting Germaninflation, by a European Central Bank (ECB) targeting Europeaninflation will remove a major institutional support of wagerestraint in Germany. The consequences of this for EMU are workedout under two scenarios, that inflation expectations will begenerated by ECB monetary policy and that they will reflectGerman inflation outcomes. Possible institutional developmentsare discussed including government union bargains. The Bundesbankalso played a major role in maintaining fiscal rectitude: forunderlying structural reasons, therefore, it is possible thatGermany will move to a period of fiscal activism with wage restraintand low inflation purchased through social contract negotiations.     

Assessing Benefits from Department of Health and National Health Service Research & Development

Public services in the UK are increasingly expected to account for their outputs and performance. This article describes a retrospective evaluation of the benefits from the R&D funded by a regional office of the NHS Executive. The methods adopted enabled the various elements of the region's R&D portfolio to be examined and provided a basis for the development of a plan for regular monitoring. The proposals for implementation are now also feeding into a debate as to how health services R&D might best be monitored nationally in a way that is compatible with the norms and practices of research in other contexts.     

American economic relations with the Federal Republic of Germany and with Japan

Disagreement on appropriate policies to reduce the American balance of payments deficit has been a major source of friction between the US, on the one hand, and the Federal Republic of Germany and Japan, on the other. Against this background Professor Bronfenbrenner Presents a theoretical analysis of how deficit countries may proceed to solve their problems, passing on to point out, in terms of this general analysis, what the US is doing and what Germany and Japan would like it to do.

     

A simulation model for evaluating a set of emergency vehicle base locations: development, validation, and usage.

This paper describes our experiences in developing a simulation model for evaluating a set of emergency response vehicle base locations. The project was undertaken jointly by the University of Arizona and the Tucson Fire Department. The issues of model development, data collection, model validation, and experimentation are discussed. The critical nature of the problem and the clients' lack of experience with mathematical models, made model validation the major step in gaining user acceptance. We show that looking solely at standard performance statistics such as the calls successfully serviced, may lead to the acceptance of an invalid model. We also show that the high level of detail used in many simulation models for evaluating base locations is unnecessary in the current case. An analysis evaluating two alternative sets of locations for the Tucson system is discussed.