Money Demand and Economic Liberalization in a Small Open Economy—Trinidad and Tobago

Economic liberalization creates potential instability in money demand. The introduction of liberalization in the early 1990s coincided with instability in the long-run demand for broad money (M2). OLS estimates confirm the presence of a structural break in the M2 model. Monetary policy should be based on a narrow definition of money. Moreover, the demand for money function must take explicit account of the openness of the economy. The results have important implications for policymakers in other Caribbean countries that are contemplating economic liberalization.     

The determination of transfer fees in English nonleague football

In recent years a number of studies have analysed the player transfer market in English professional football. This paper examines whether similar factors operate to determine transfer fees in the semiprofessional, or nonleague, game. An empirical model of the nonleague player transfer market is developed in which observed transfer fees are determined by player characteristics, time effects, selling-club characteristics and buying-club characteristics. Using data on 114 transfer fees covering the period 1988 to 1997, we find evidence that the data generating process for transfer fees is broadly similar in both professional and nonleague football.     

Buyer Power and its Impact on Competition in the Food Retail Distribution Sector of the European Union

In recent years, there has been significant consolidation and concentration in food retail distribution in the European Union, as our paper documents. We examine the implications of this from the social welfare viewpoint. Our focus is on buyer power, since a commonly held view is that, arising from increased concentration, it may be a buffer to significant manufacturer power. We investigate the issue both theoretically and through data and case study work. We suggest the market will develop into a concentrated pattern across Europe, but that the eventual impact on consumers will depend significantly on the nature and form of competition between large retail chains and how well buying groups ensure that even the smaller retailers can compete on an effective basis.     

Inequality, corruption and the informal sector

The marginal impact of corruption on income inequality is shown to be a linear function of the size of the informal sector. This implies that anti-corruption policies alone are unlikely to reduce inequality in countries with a large informal sector.     

Convergence or divergence in cross-country growth?

In the traditional empirical convergence literature, a negative coefficient on initial income in a cross-country growth regression is interpreted as evidence of poor countries growing faster than richer ones. A key assumption in this work is that the relationship between initial income and income growth is linear. The linearity assumption is challenged in some new growth theories, and studies adopting an alternative (semi-parametric or nonlinear) econometric methodology provide support for a nonlinear specification. This paper finds evidence for nonlinear convergence. Using semi-parametric estimation we find that convergence occurs among countries with very low and very high initial incomes, suggesting that convergence clubs characterize the cross-country growth process. Our results provide further evidence for multiple-regime steady states.     

The role of ethics in global corporate culture

Whatever ethnic, religious, or other cultural boundaries may have evolved through history, a global corporate culture is increasingly subsuming these traditional divisions. Multinational corporations, internationally linked securities markets, and omnipresent communication networks characterize this global corporate culture. The dynamics of corporate culture centres on the intricate web of contractual relations between stakeholders. This study addresses the question of how these stakeholder contracts can be most efficiently enforced. Three alternative contractual enforcement mechanisms are identified: the legal system, a generally accepted moral code, and stakeholders' desire to build and maintain reputations. Each alternative is critically evaluated and conclusions are drawn as to the relative feasibility and desirability of each enforcement mechanism. John Dobson is an Assistant Professor of Finance at The University of Mississippi. As a member of The Centre for Industrial Planning and Strategy (CIPS), he co-authored a study on the global man-made fibre industry. He has recently presented papers on reputation effects at the Southern Finance Association annual meeting, and has had articles and letters published in various academic journals including Business and Society and Financial Management. He is currently developing a curriculum for a course in Financial Contracting at the University of Mississippi. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1988 Southern Finance Association meetings in San Antonio.     

Aesthetics as a Foundation for Business Activity

This paper identifies the ultimate justification for business activity as an aesthetic justification. Aesthetics, loosely defined as the appreciation of beauty, subsumes both ethics and economics within an holistic justificatory mechanism for business decisions. Five essential qualities of aesthetic judgment are identified: disinterest, subjectivity, inclusivity, contemplativity, and internality. The quality of aesthetic judgment, exercised by the individual through the organization, will determine the extent to which business activity enhances quality of life. John Dobson is Professor of Finance at California Polytechnic State University. His primary area of interest is financial ethics, in particular how the theory of ethics relates to financial side of business activity. He has published articles on ethics and finance in various academic journals, and has published two books, both of which investigate the synthesis of finance and ethics. His current research focuses on the connections between psychology, finance theory, and moral philosophy.     

The impact of managerial change on team performance in professional sports

Over a quarter-century of match-level data are used to examine the effect of managerial change on team performance in English (association) football, using ordered probit regression. On average, teams that changed their manager within-season are found to under-perform over the following 3 months. Managerial change also increases the variance of the non-systematic component of performance in the short term. The high incidence of within-season managerial change in English football may be a consequence of team owners gambling that an increased variance may help produce an improvement in performance sufficient to stave off the threat of relegation.     

Local youth training initiatives

In April 1986, Leeds City Council staged a three day European Employment Conference on local employment initiatives involving Leeds and its twin cities Dortmund (Federal Republic of Germany) and Lille (France). High on the conference agenda was the problem of youth unemployment. This article discusses some of the local initiatives which were presented at the conference, against the background of various national education, training and employment creation schemes in operation in Germany, Britain and France. It is argued that although their overall impact on the youth unemployment problem is relatively small, the local initiatives described in this paper do provide training of a quality which is often lacking in many of the large-scale nationally based schemes.