National technological styles explained in terms of stakeholding patterns, enfranchisement and cultural differences: Britain and Japan

The process of technological innovation poses three challenges to a financial system: novelly, visibility, and approapriability. Its capacity to cope with these challenges is a function of which groups/organizations are stakeholders in innovatio and to what extent; and in what way and to what extent they are enfranchised. From this point of view, the British and Japanese financial systems differ very sharply. So do British and Japanese culture, in relevant ways. The steel, fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals industries show the effects of these differences in practice. The importance of novelty, visibility and appropriability differs among them, as does the value of certain culturally-influenced features of innovative behaviour. Steel (and even more so engineering, into which the Japanese steel companies have diversified) appears well suited to Japanese characteristics, with fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals well suited to British characteristics. This accounts well for the two countries' comparative advantage in these area, in technology and trade.     

INCOME ELASTICITIES OF DEMANDS FOR FOODS IN GREAT BRITAIN

This paper describes analysis of data from the National Food Survey to determine the influences of household income and composition on household demand for foods in 1974, 1979, 1980 and 1982. The paper focuses on fats, cheese and carcase meats. The analysis uses household level data, regarding zero expenditures as arising because of infrequent purchasing and the expenditure-income relationship used in the Almost Ideal Demand Model. This is in contrast with the analysis reported by the National Food Survey Committee which uses a constant elasticity model and averaged income and expenditure data.     

通胀难题席卷全球

几年的相对稳定期过后，价格上涨风潮现已横扫全球。 它来得很不是时候。一段时间以来美国联邦储备委员会（Fed）连续大幅下调利率，Fed之所以与治理通货膨胀的常规策略背道而驰，为的是防范房产市场崩溃和信贷危机演化成为经济的长时间严重衰退。这就使得这场针对通货膨胀的全球战役变得更加艰难和复杂。     

The development of mass media in Asia-Pacific

This continues the extract from the book From Mao to the Millennium: Chinese Television in Transition, written by Andrew Green, covering the history of media in the Asia–Pacific region, of which the first part was published in the last issue.     

周小川提议创造新的国际储备货币

【美国《华尔街日报》3月24日】中国呼吁创造一种新的国际储备货币，最终取代美元。这种提出大规模改革国际金融体系的做法反映出发展中国家对美国在世界经济中所扮演角色的不满。     

Exploring an alternative direct mail fundraising approach for a cancer research charity: a case study

The Association for International Cancer Research (AICR) successfully uses sweepstakes techniques to generate funds to support cancer research projects. These methods have taken AICR to the top 80 of UK charities, in terms of gross voluntary income. It is recognised, however, that this approach only motivates one constituency of potential supporters among the population. Recently AICR tested an alternative approach, designed to appeal to a different constituency of support. This paper summarises the thinking behind the trial programme and presents some of the initial findings. It also considers the fulfilment requirements and how they were addressed. Copyright © 1999 Henry Stewart Publications     

The British and American Rules: an Experimental Examination of Pre-trial Bargaining in the Shadowof the Law

A commonly held view is that the frequency and value of pre-trial settlements in civil disputes are greatly influenced by the cost allocation regime that is in place if the case goes to trial. There is a large and growing theoretical literature on this subject but almost no empirical evidence. This is due simply to the scarcity of relevant data owing to the confidentiality generally associated with such matters. However, the area is an ideal one to analyse experimentally. In this paper we consider the effect of the British and American rules for cost allocation using such an experimental methodology. We find that the two rules produce no difference in the frequency of pre-trial settlements but that the British rule produces higher settlements (pro-pursuer) if the probability of the pursuer winning is large.