Perspectives on the Development of Low-cost Airlines in South-east Asia

Low-cost airlines are seen by some as one of the best things that have happened within contemporary travel. The clever business idea of offering significantly lower prices by taking out all the extras in a short-haul flight, along with innovative cost-cutting measures, was successful in the USA as early as 1973 when South-west Airlines flew her first low-cost flight. This paper asks whether this scenario has potential in Southeast Asia. According to many analysts, the environment in South-east Asia is simply not suitable for budget carriers. Governments are still very protective of their flag-carriers, there is a lack of cheap, secondary airports, South-east Asians are not wealthy enough to fly, and other cost-cutting measures like Internet distribution cannot easily be replicated. This paper argues that the opposite is true. There might not be 'open-skies' in South-east Asia, but the governments appear willing to nurture low-cost airlines to coexist with their flag-carriers. The number of airports that could serve as gateways for these airlines is more numerous than expected. The South-east Asian population is getting wealthy enough to fly and there also exists a significant market if the low-cost carriers can take advantage of it.     

Unions and involuntary job separations

In contrast to the extensive literature on the effects of unions on wages, productivity and voluntary job endings, the effect of unions on involuntary job endings has received relatively little attention. This article demonstrates how unions alter involuntary job separation (redundancies, temporary job endings and dismissals) rates at different tenure levels using the British Household Panel Survey data from 1991 to 2008. A novel finding is that being a union member reduces a person's redundancy probability at low‐tenure levels, relative to an employee of a non‐unionised firm, but has no significant effect at high tenure levels. Union membership and union recognition are not related to different rates of temporary job endings.     

The genesis of the electricity supply industry in Britain: A case study of NESCo from 1889 to 1914

A study of the Newcastle upon Tyne Electric Supply Company (NESCo) provides a micro-history of the emergence of the electricity supply industry in Britain up to the First World War. This research examines the role of social capital in the establishment and growth of NESCo, the only financially successful British electric power company. Temporal bracketing was adopted to evaluate two distinct time periods: emergence from 1889 to 1899; and growth from 1900 to 1914. Family, business and social networks together with geographical and political factors secured the company’s dominant position. The structural relationship with Merz & McLellan contributed to growth through acquisitions, joint ventures, and access to new markets.     

Sharing Longevity Risk: Why Governments Should Issue Longevity Bonds

Government-issued longevity bonds would allow longevity risk to be shared efficiently and fairly between generations. In exchange for paying a longevity risk premium, the current generation of retirees can look to future generations to hedge their systematic longevity risk. Longevity bonds will lead to a more secure pension savings market, together with a more efficient annuity market. By issuing longevity bonds, governments can aid the establishment of reliable longevity indices and key price points on the longevity risk term structure and help the emerging capital market in longevity-linked instruments to build on this term structure with liquid longevity derivatives.     

NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT: The effects of contractualism and devolution on political control

This article analyzes effects and implications of New Public Management (NPM) when implemented in the civil service systems in New Zealand and Norway, focusing especially on the effects of devolution and contractualism on political control. Using a transformative perspective, we interpret these effects as a result of a melding of environmental factors, polity features and national historical-institutional constraints. Norway scores low on both environmental and internal factors enhancing administrative reform, furthering a soft version of NPM and small changes in political control. In contrast a combination of external pressure, weak countervailing cultural forces and ‘elective dictatorship’ in New Zealand produces a radical version of NPM, resulting in a weakening of central political control.