Reviews

“Urban unemployment”

Hasluck, C., 1987: Urban Unemployment: Local labour markets and employment initiatives. London, Longman, £6.95 paper.

“Property and industrial development”

Fothergill, S., Monk, S. and Perry, M. 1387: Property and Industrial Development London: Hutchinson, £12.95 paper.

“High-tech”

Breheny, M. J. and McQuaid, R. W. 1987: The Development of High Technology Industries: An International Survey. London: Croom Helm, £35.00.

Monde, C. (ed), 1986: Science Parks -- Their Contribution to Economic Growth. Birmingham: UK Science Parks Association, £15.00 paper.

“American perspectives”

Bergman, Edward M. Editor 1986: Local Economies in Transition: Policy Realities and Development Potentials. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, $40.00 cloth, $16.95, paper.

“Marginal regions”

O'Cearbhaill, D. and Cawley, M. (editors) 1986: New approaches to the development of Marginal Regions, 8th International Seminar on Marginal Regions in association with University College Galway, 3 Vote: no price stated.

“Training without jobs”

Finn, Dan 1987: Training Without Jobs:New Deals and Broken Promises:From Raising the School Leaving Age to the Youth Training Scheme. London: Macmillan £6.95.

“The coopera tive workplace”

Rothschild, J. and Whitt, A. J. 1986: The Cooperative Workplace: potentials and dilemmas of organizational democracy and participation. USA: American Sociological Association Rose Monograph Series, Cambridge University Press. No price stated.

“Opposition to plant closures”

Maunders, A. 1986: A Process of Struggle. Aldershot: Gower £20.00 cloth.

“Property data”

Investment Property Databank, 1987: The IPD Annual Review 1987 London, £45.

“Urban economic development”

Hausner.V. A. (editor) 1987: Critical Issues in Urban Economic Development. Volume II. Oxford: Clarendon Press, £22.50 hardback.     

Are employers pursuing value-based purchasing?

Some employers have begun to undertake a variety of initiatives, collectively termed value-based purchasing (VBP), which aim at factoring quality into the purchasing decision-making process when negotiating costs with providers and insurers. There is evidence that the VBP movement has begun gaining momentum; yet it is unclear whether employers are firmly committed to VBP principles. By surveying a national sample of employers, this study investigates the extent to which employers are currently engaged in VBP activities and also increases our understanding of barriers hampering the broader implementation of these activities.     

A tactical retreat? Conceptualising the dynamics of European grocery retail divestment from East Asia

The internationalisation of the firm is a highly dynamic process, in which periods of investment and expansion intermingle with periods of divestment and retrenchment. Academic research to date has focused on identifying the reasons for and the processes of divestment. Empirical studies either evidence generic pressures or provide case studies of specific incidents. There few longitudinal studies of international divestment, consequently the dynamic interactions between host market, home market and firm level factors, and how the institutional context changes over time is underplayed. This paper seeks to rectify this gap in our understanding.We explore the rationale and evolving dynamics of European grocery retail divestment in East Asia over a thirty year period. Taking an inductive approach and drawing on analysis of contemporary narratives drawn from company documentation, trade journals, newsfeeds and market reports, three phases can be identified characterised by specific factors and combinations of factors which intersect to provide the key pressures and stimuli for divestment. We conclude that at different time periods, different internal and external contextual influences manifest themselves through different priorities within the firm’s strategy – marked by a switch from local (host) market, to regional, to global firm-centric considerations. Longitudinal analyses allow a greater recognition of this dynamic interplay of factors, and the changes in these relationships, and provides a more nuanced understanding of the international divestment process.     

Physical and Economic Consequences of Sea-Level Rise: A Coupled GIS and CGE Analysis Under Uncertainties

This paper develops a modelling framework that links GEMINI-E3, a multi-regional, multi-sectoral computable general equilibrium model with a cost-benefit analysis approach at local level using geographical information system tools to assess the physical and economic consequences of sea-level rise (SLR) in the twenty first century. A set of future scenarios is developed spanning the uncertainties related to global warming, the parameters of semi-empirical SLR estimates, and coastal developments (cropland, urban areas and population). The importance of incorporating uncertainties regarding coastal development is highlighted. The simulation results suggest that the potential development of future coastal areas is a greater source of uncertainty than the parameters of SLR itself in terms of the economic consequences of SLR. At global level, the economic impact of SLR could be significant when loss of productive land along with loss of capital and forced displacement of populations are considered. Furthermore, highly urbanised and densely populated coastal areas of South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand are likely to suffer significantly if no protective measures are taken. Hence, it is suggested that coastal areas needs to be protected to ameliorate the overall welfare cost across various regions.     

Endogenous R&D networks when labour unions have preferences over wages and employment

We develop a model to analyse the pattern of R&D network formation when unions have relative preferences over wages and employment. Within a three-firm industry, we show that when the unions place a low weight on wages and technological spillovers are low, a partial R&D network that includes two firms but excludes the third emerges in equilibrium. In contrast, when the unions care a lot about wages, a complete R&D network that includes all firms emerges. For all other intermediate levels of union preferences over wages, there is no strong stable equilibrium network. Empirical implications emerge from these findings, which are also discussed.     

Local economic development strategies for the UK computer services sector

This article considers ways in which local economic policy makers can best proceed with respect to the development of the computer services industry, one of the fastest-growing sectors of the British economy. I suggest that knowledge of the structural and locational dynamics of the industry is necessary before effective interventions can be made. My analysis indicates that while policies focusing on the attraction of investment from outside the local area, or on infrastructural and communications upgrading may well be ineffective, the provision of seed funding and advice for new and recent start-ups, in conjunction with attempts to stimulate the local market for computer services, may have positive impacts.     

Delay and Settlement in Litigation

Delay in litigation is a policy concern in many jurisdictions. Little evidence is available on the causes of such delay, however. We present a version of Spier's (1992) bargaining model of litigation and derive directly a functional form for the conditional probability of case settlement. We then estimate this and test predictions about the effects of legal costs and uncertainty over damages and liability on the conditional probability of settlement, using data from negligence claims against several NHS Trusts. Our results provide a direct test of the model and shed light on the causes of settlement delay in England.     

Understanding urban tourism: London in the early 1990s

Using London as an example this paper demonstrates that the idea of tourism as ‘pleasure and recreation’ is wholly inadequate for an understanding of the published evidence on tourism in major cities. In the UK this results directly from the definition adopted by the main statistical sources such that tourists become travellers, irrespective of purpose, who stay overnight at their destination. In so doing the paper highlights two areas for future research, the growing trend in short‐distance tourism and the increasing importance of visiting friends and relatives. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.