Change in the size distribution of UK firms

This paper examines the extent of change and stability in the population of UK firms through time in terms of its size distribution, as defined by number of employees. It was empirically found that the distribution of employment by firm size remained surprisingly constant over the 1987–1989 period. A major implication of this finding is that in times of very high net job creation (involving high gross job creation and loss), factors are at work in the economy to keep the population distribution of firms (in terms of employment concentrations) more or less stable. It is hypothesised that a natural concentration exists for each different size band, and that as change takes place, the proportion of total employment based in the size band will tend towards this natural level.The rise in the proportion of employment in small firms, and the comparatively high job creation ability of small firms in recent times has come about in part because of negative rather than positive macro-economic influences. In recession, small firms in aggregate in spite of their individual volatility, are the most resilient. In prosperous times they do not increase their proportion of employment share, while in times of recession they do. Our results imply that large firms have a very significant, if not the most significant, bearing upon aggregate employment trends. On the other hand, small firms inherently have more potential to create jobs than large firms.The majority of public expenditure and legislative support for UK business is directed at large firms, as a result of culture and tradition. Even with the benefit of this support, large firms in recent decades have still performed badly, in job generation terms. In contrast, small firms have shown an inherent advantage in their ability to create jobs. A shift of government expenditure and legislative support from large to small firms would further enhance and realise the potential of small firms to benefit the economy and create jobs.     

Is Background Music Effective On Retail Websites?

Web designers often advise online retailers against incorporating background music on websites. However, the effect of music in brick-and-mortar retail settings has generally been found to be favorable. The research on the effects of music has been mixed. Our study aims to examine whether congruent music on the website homepage influences online consumers. Using the responses of 290 visitors to two different commercial websites, we test the influence of background music on consumers’ arousal and pleasure perceptions. The results indicate congruent background music on a website's homepage will generate positive affective responses of arousal and pleasure within users, and will enhance users’ perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment as well. The findings reveal the effects of respondent’ affective responses to the music differed by gender. Website music produces significant affective and cognitive responses in high web skill/low web challenge users and explains more of website enjoyment.     

Escaping a silent world: profound hearing loss,cochlear implants and household interaction

For some people with profound hearing loss, cochlear implants offer a way back to patterns of communication that most of us take for granted. Travel, shopping and work contexts are largely dependent on the ability to recognize and respond to speech. This study examined implant user and partner perspectives on problems and coping strategies. The aim was to map the experiences of adults and their hearing partners living with deafness; and the changes brought about by cochlear implant use. Information was gathered by means of recorded joint interviews in a semi‐structured form with implant users and their partners. Interview themes including social isolation, employment difficulties and loss of confidence emerged as main difficulties prior to implantation. All participants were positive regarding the use of cochlear implants and, after implantation, benefits accrued in communication and social interaction. Provision of multidisciplinary support and consumer information for severe/profoundly hearing impaired adults was seen as problematic. Sample size – six couples – reflected the limited number of adult cochlear implant operations performed in Scotland. However, the results indicate their interactional experiences to be worthy of further investigation on a larger scale.     

Modernizing times: UK hearing‐impaired consumers at the policy crossroads

Although there is now a long‐standing belief in the UK that free consumer choice improves market efficiency, the supply of some consumer products and services remained controlled by the state. In the interests of consumers, it regards as vulnerable to misdirection and malpractice or unlikely to have the technical expertise to make informed decisions. Historically, the supply of hearings aids has been restricted to the National Health Service and specific licensed practitioners in the independent sector. Recent changes to both product and service provision have brought about a radical alteration to this situation, and to the framework of control. This case study of a changing healthcare system demonstrates more generally the difficulties experienced by people trying to improve or maintain auditory functions for speech communication. Access to appropriate technological solutions may be precluded by cost, distribution arrangements or lack of knowledge. Overarching these difficulties, regional health policy variations within the UK mean that consumer experiences vary according to where they live. Consumer influence over the direction and scope of changes to the hearing aid market is limited despite the rhetoric of choice. This article examines the emerging ‘liberalized’ market and its contradictions.     

Inflation Expectations in Manufacturing Industry

Firms' expectations regarding the future are useful in understanding economic behaviour and can be used to produce short term forecasts. In this article, Paul Robson examines how price expectations can be derived from business surveys and uses survey data from the CBI Industrial Trends Survey to generate a measure of manufacturers' price expectations. This series can be used to tell us how the view of firms about future inflation trends has been changing and how firms are now responding to the strength of the pound.     

World energy prices

Futures Dossiers present concise articles that summarize recent developments in major areas. They are intended for the interested non-specialist and contain suggestions for further readings. The first article in the series examines the historic trends and recent changes in the general level of world energy prices, discusses the range and effect of possible future price movements, and highlights the importance of the rate of increase over the actual level.     

A note on operating conditions and technology in African textile production

This note presents and discusses data on machine and labour requirements to produce cotton cloth in six African textile factories (three from each of two countries). The findings confirm the view that more use has to be made of machines and labour in Africa than in Europe to obtain the same output. They also reveal marked differences between the two countries, and - in one country - among factories.     

Technology and employment in the production of cotton cloth

This paper makes use of two well-known UN studies of the integrated spinning and weaving of cotton cloth in order to examine the relationship between technology and employment in developing countries. In particular the paper: (a) considers the choice of technology in the production of a given volume of cotton cloth in Western Europe, Latin America and Africa; (b) estimates and discusses the elasticity of capital-labour substitution in such production: and (c) examines some aspects of job creation, factor prices and economic efficiency. The variation in ‘optimal’ technology choice across wage areas is found to be rather narrow and to lie in the upper part of the capital-labour spectrum. The variation in profitability across technologies, however, is found to be much less than that of employment in all three areas. The limited range of ‘optimal’ technologies is partly explained by the elasticity of substitution which lies between 0.2 and 0.25 for Europe; 0.25 and 0.33 for Latin America; and 0.33 and 0.50 for Africa. A certain prodigality in the use of both men and machines in the developing regions is also part of the explanation of the relative similarity in optimal technology choice in the three wage areas considered. In the light of this prodigality and the low elasticity, consideration is given to the question of increasing developing country employment in a state enterprise and a private firm respectively. Not surprisingly, it is found that it would pay to exploit the scope for substitution in the state factory if more employment were sought, although the difference in total costs by ignoring such scope could be relatively small. It is further found that the magnitude of factor price changes required to induce a profit-maximizing businessman to provide the required volume of employment could be dauntingly large. It is noted that increased efficiency in the developing textile industry could result in increased unemployment.