Inequality and Union Membership: The Influence of Relative Earnings and Inequality Attitudes

Using surveys from the International Social Survey Programme covering the period 1985–2002 for seven European countries (West and East Germany, Sweden, Norway, Italy, the Netherlands and Great Britain), we examine the effect of relative earnings on union membership and show that union density is higher among workers in the intermediate earnings group than among low or high earners. Next, we examine the association of inequality attitudes with union membership and demonstrate that union membership is not only motivated by instrumental considerations related to relative earnings, but also by normative concerns about inequality. We interpret our findings suggesting that rising earnings inequality is in itself a source of union decline.     

Unemployment levels of Black people in Natal census districts according to the 1985 census

The basic needs approach to development is based on the premise that all people are entitled to adequate consumption goods (nutrition, shelter, clothing) and state‐provided infrastructure (health care, education, potable water, sanitation and transport). Consumption needs are financed (in the absence of a well‐developed social welfare system) largely by income from employment. The black population in employment as a percentage of the economically active, in the 1985 census districts in Natal, black population in employment as a percentage of the economically active age cohort and the employed as a percentage of the total population were calculated in order to establish the census districts (and the urban and non urban sectors of these census districts) where employment levels are lowest. It is possible on the basis of this data to target employment creation at the census districts where it would be most beneficial.     

Buy or wait,that is the option: the buyer's option in sequential laboratory auctions

We report results from an experiment on two‐unit sequential auctions with and without a buyer's option (which allows the winner of the first auction to buy the second unit). The four main auction institutions are studied. Observed bidding behavior is close to Nash equilibrium bidding in the auctions for the second unit, but not in the auctions for the first unit. Despite these deviations, the buyer's option is correctly used in most cases. The revenue ranking of the four auctions is the same as in single‐unit experiments. Successive prices are declining when the buyer's option is available.     

Heterogeneous preferences for altruism: gender and personality,social status,giving and taking

Some of the earliest work on heterogeneity in social preferences focuses on gender differences in behavior. The source of these gender differences is the main interest of this paper. We report on dictator game experiments designed to identify heterogeneity of other-regarding preferences according to personality, gender, status, and whether the choice is framed as giving or taking. We find that the effect of gender on giving is more subtle than previously understood, and is explained collectively by various personality factors. We also find that women, high status treatment individuals, and individuals in the giving language treatment give less, and are also less sensitive to the price of giving.     

The Emergence of Industrial Relations in Regional Trade Blocks — A Comparative Analysis

This article analyses the emergence and institutionalization of regional industrial relations arrangements in six regional integration agreements (European Union, North American Free Trade Association, Mercado Común del Sur, Economic Community of West African States, Southern African Development Community, Association of Southeast Asian Nations). In each, the article investigates human and social rights, labour standards, residence and social security rights of migrants, regional union and employer organization, and provisions for social dialogue. The article tries to explain the comparative differences in emergent regional industrial relations by testing four competing hypotheses based on integration and institutional theories specified at the regional and national level.     

A short review of the historical critique of usury

Usury - lending at interest or excessive interest - has, according to known records, been practised in various parts of the world for at least four thousand years. During this time, there is substantial evidence of intense criticism by various traditions, institutions and social reformers on moral, ethical, religious and legal grounds. The rationale employed by these wide-ranging critics have included arguments about work ethic, social justice, economic instability, ecological destruction and inter-generational equity. While the contemporary relevance of these largely historical debates is not analysed in detail, the authors contend that their significance is greater than ever before in the context of the modern interest-based global economy.     

Free movement,equal treatment and workers' rights: can the European Union solve its trilemma of fundamental principles?

This article analyses the trilemma the EU is facing concerning three fundamental principles on which the Community rests: free movement of services and labour; non‐discrimination and equal treatment, and the rights of association and industrial action. With rising cross‐border flows of services and (posted) labour after the Eastward enlargement, the conflict between these rights has triggered industrial disputes and judicial strife. In the view of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), highlighted in the Laval Quartet, some principles are more fundamental than others. Tracing the ‘dual track’ along which European integration has evolved, whereby supranational market integration has been combined with national semi‐sovereignty in industrial relations and social policies, our claim is that the supremacy of free movement over basic social rights implied by the ECJ judgments is leading Europe in a politically and socially unsustainable direction. To prevent erosion of the European Social Models and of popular support for European integration, the politicians have to reinsert themselves into the governance of the European project. A pertinent start would be to ensure that the rising mass of cross‐border service workers in Europe become subject to the same rights and standards as their fellow workers in the emerging pan‐European labour market.     

Keynes en de neoklassieken: Een herinterpretatie

Summary Following the examples of Hicks and Modigliani, most economists treat neoclassical and Keynesian theories as special cases of a more general model. In the opinion of Clower, Leijonhufvud and Shackle, Keynes differs from the neoclassics in assuming incomplete information. An analysis of non-tâtonnement pricing shows that the positive correlation between unemployment and real wage rates, still adhered to by Keynes, need not exist. With non-tâtonnement pricing and an-product economy, idleness of capital goods can be explained. The macro-economic production function, implying as it does a one-product, one-producer economy, is misleading.