AN EVALUATION OF THE USE OF HEDONIC REGRESSIONS FOR BASIC COMPONENTS OF CONSUMER PRICE INDICES

The importance of adjusting for quality changes in the measurement of consumer prices, and the role hedonic regressions can play in achieving this, is well recognised. However, the use of such regressions can take different forms, including (i) adjustments by statistical offices for non-comparable substitutions via the matched models method , (ii) direct estimates from the coefficients on dummy variables for time, and (iii) exact hedonic and superlative indices corresponding to a constant utility formulation from an economic theoretic approach. The literature on these approaches generally deals with each in isolation; the purpose of this paper is to outline and evaluate them in order to draw conclusions as to their practical suitability for the compilation of quality-adjusted consumer prices indexes. The case is argued for a move towards the last of these approaches, which developments in electronic data retrieval (scanner data) now make feasible. The paper concludes with the results of some empirical work comparing the results of the direct method with those from the exact, superlative, approach.     

Managing people across hospital networks in the UK: multiple employers and the shaping of HRM

Building on the insights from a growing number of studies on the HRM implications of inter-organisational relations, this article investigates the HR issues in two case studies of ‘best practice’, long-term collaborative working. It identifies three common challenges for HRM: (a) how to build employee commitment and identity to the partnership without putting at risk the employing organisation's goals; (b) how to establish attractive career pathways in a partnership context requiring some degree of sharing of skill standards and coordination of training provision; and (c) how to sustain partnerships in a changing policy and organisational context. The data point to inherent problems in managing employment when there is more than one employing organisation exercising influence. Differences in organisational goals and HRM approaches in hospital networks are an obstacle to long-term integration – especially in public–private arrangements where integration of goals and HRM is more difficult.     

The influence of inflation on differential price changes across European markets

This paper provides the results of an empirical study of the dispersion of consumer price inflation for each of 19 product groups across 11 European countries using monthly data covering the 1980s. The study relates the degree of inflation dispersion in a market to the mean inflation rate. Thus, we show how differential price changes across European markets are influenced by inflation. A model of asymmetric response of relative inflation variability to inflation is tested. Hypotheses are also tested regarding broad categories of traded, nontraded, and regulated products, and results are provided for individual product groups.     

Beyond the Anglo‐Saxon and North European models: social partnership in a Greek textiles company

Much of the literature examining social partnership focuses on either Anglo‐Saxon or North European countries, differentiating between liberal market economies (LMEs) and coordinated market economies (CMEs). These studies argue, quite correctly, that the institutional forces shaping partnership in the two types of economy differ markedly, with the consequence that partnership takes somewhat different forms at the workplace. By contrast, there is only limited research on social partnership in Mediterranean economies—such as Greece—even though there are strong reasons to suggest it may be quite different from both LMEs and CMEs because of relatively recent military influence at state level and less well‐developed systems of industrial relations at organisational level. This article examines the forces operating both at national and at local level that facilitate or hinder the development of social partnership. It is based on the results of interviews with government, industry and union officials and a case study of partnership in a textiles company in northern Greece. It concludes that institutional forces provided workers with more protection than they would have achieved in an LME but that ultimately competitive pressures and a lack of effective workplace representation limited the degree to which the state can influence the processes and outcomes of social partnership at local level.     

A Private-Sector Perspective

The Public-Private Partnership model is best placed as a means for delivering public infrastructure for government. However, the private sector needs to consider some issues if it is to encourage governments to use this model effectively. Specifically, for the public-private partnership model to be sustained and accepted by governments, the private sector needs to explain its benefits in a way that wins the trust of the community.     

Understanding Society: minimising selection biases in data collection using mobile apps

Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study has a programme of research and development that underpins innovations in data collection methods. One of our current focuses is on using mobile applications to collect additional data that supplement data collected in annual interviews. To date, we have used mobile apps to collect data on consumer expenditure, well-being, anthropometrics and cognition. In this paper, we review the potential barriers to data collection using mobile apps and experimental evidence collected with the Understanding Society Innovation Panel, on what can be done to reduce these barriers.     

A Role for Ethics Theory in Speculative Business Ethics Teaching

The paper discusses the role that ethics theory might play in business ethics teaching. It is noted that little attention is devoted to the explanation and application of ethics theory in business ethics textbooks, which suggests that ethics theory is held in low esteem by business ethics educators. This relative disregard has been justified by some critics on the basis of the limited usefulness of ethics theory to business ethics pedagogy. Notwithstanding these criticisms, the paper argues that ethics theory can play an important role in business ethics teaching which conforms to a speculative agenda. A speculative agenda is described, and a contribution that ethics theory can make to it is explained. This constitutes a form of immanent critique, which enables putative statements of business ethicality to be subjected to critique against the cultural values upon which their credibility rests. Ethics theory is offered as a mediating resource to facilitate such critique. Some criteria that the presentation of ethics theory needs to meet if it is to fulfill this speculative agenda are also outlined.     

Effects of cooperative learning on Chinese students performing a formal table setting for American style service

This study examined the effectiveness and self-efficacy of employees following a training session employing a cooperative learning (CL) model with Chinese students hired as foodservice employees for university dining services. More specifically, the study examined the effect of such a learning technique on potential foodservice employees’ accuracy, speed, and perceived self-efficacy when performing a foodservice task of table setting, as well as on their level of satisfaction with the overall training. It was found that speed and accuracy did improve significantly with the cooperative learning technique. Additional measures indicated higher perceptions of both self-efficacy and quality of the learning environment. The findings could have implications for how workers from Chinese cultures are trained in the North American hospitality sector.     

The bounded workplace: defence,development and domestication strategies amongst male shiftworkers

Unlike studies of women, studies of men in paid employment have tended to focus on them purely as workers, trade unionists and breadwinners, rather than on their roles beyond the workplace. This paper addresses this omission by exploring the relationship between paid work and aspects of family life amongst 69 male process workers from three manufacturing companies. It offers qualitative evidence to demonstrate that understanding men's wider domestic/familial roles and responsibilities is integral to analyses of their workplace behaviour. The conclusion from this study is that the boundary between home and work is selectively-permeable, and the workers took aspects of their domestic life into the workplace whilst seeking to prevent their paid work from intruding on family and domestic life.