Cooperative unionism and employee welfare

Using British national survey data, this article assesses the impact of unions on management practices to reduce labour costs, implement high‐performance work systems, and make employee welfare provisions. Relative to non‐union workplaces, those with unions are found to have practices which are consistent with ‘mutual gains’ outcomes.     

PAYING FOR CROSSRAIL : THE BUSINESS CASE

A new railway is being planned across London. Incremental fares revenue will only pay about a quarter of the £10 billion¹ expected cost, so the Greater London Assembly (GLA) is considering 'alternative funding mechanisms'. These include new taxes on businesses that are presumed to benefit from the scheme. Taxes would deter the very investment Crossrail is supposed to support. The GLA would do better to change the scheme to reduce the need for subsidy and strengthen the business case.     

Henry George and Nineteenth-Century Economics

A bstract . Despite Henry George's great gifts as an economist and a social critic, he failed to take into account the momentous changes that were underway. As a result, his quaint faith in a combination of land reform and competition was unwarranted.     

Movement Towards Market-based Banking in Bosnia-Herzegovina

MOCT-MOST: Economic Policy in Transitional Economies -     

Teaching the coase theorem: Are we getting it right?

The authors examine current textbook representations of Coase's analysis of negative externalities [Coase, 1960]. Standard treatments identify Coase's ideas with Stigler's Coase Theorem: a zero transaction cost world in which efficient solutions emerge automatically, regardless of legal rules and the initial allocation of rights. Yet Coase's seminal paper breaks from this mode of analysis. The authors use this intellectual history to distinguish two approaches to negative externalities: blackboard (Pigou, Stigler, Samuelson) and Coasean. They survey 45 microeconomics textbooks and find that 80 percent misrepresent Coase's arguments. They argue that a Coasean approach increases students' critical thinking skills by challenging them to move beyond simple laissez faire or interventionist solutions.     

How Critical is Employee Orientation for Customer Relationship Management? Insights from a Case Study

abstract    This paper explores the interface of employee orientation and the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) process based on an in-depth case study of a leading firm in the UK automotive services sector. Employee orientation is embedded in the Organizational Culture (OC) of the firm and manifested through its key elements, notably assumptions, values, behaviours and artefacts. CRM consists of four organizational activities: strategic planning, information, value creation, and performance measurement sub-processes. Based on the case study evidence, the widely postulated link between CRM success and employee orientation is empirically supported and the mechanisms underlying this association elucidated.