Economic restructuring and emerging patterns of industrial relations

The Review of Black Political Economy -     

Changes in human nutrition and US exports

Changes in US nutrition could increase the availability of grains for world food use. This study examines such changes by means of a programming model which allows an optimal inter-regional allocation of grains while simultaneous shifts are made in consumer diets. The three alternatives examined include use of added US production potential for wheat production and exports, a substitution of 25% soy protein for meat and reducing the animal protein intake by 25%. Sizable increases in food exports could be made under each of the three alternatives. Of course, institutional means would need to be created to facilitate these shifts.     

TOWARD AN OPTIMAL POLICY OF SUPPLY CONTROL AND INCOME IMPROVEMENT*

This analysis provides a theoretical framework for a tax policy to reduce farm output, stabilize prices, and improve farm income. It is a policy that does not require production or marketing quotas, support prices, government subsidies, or commodity storage. It is proposed as an optimal supply-restraining, income-improving policy in terms of administrative economy and absence of treasury payments. The mechanism could be applied by the farmer's own marketing board or by government. It leaves freedom of decision (except for the payment of the tax that later increases income) to farmers. It eliminates restraints on intraregional efficiency and intercommodity barriers inherent in traditional supply control programs such as the administration of marketing quotas. The revenues from the tax collection, after expenses were paid, could be used in various ways to improve welfare and income distribution within the sector, thus improving the level of living of all farmers individually and as a group Cette analyse foumil une structure théorique d“un système ?impôts destinéà ralentir la production agricole, à en stabiliser le prix et à augmenter son revenu. C'est un système qui n'exige ni quotité (soit de production, soil de marché), ni support de prix, ni subvention fédérate, ni entrepôt de surproduction. On propose ce système comme le meilleur moyen de réaliser les buts ci-dessus mentionés, en dépit des économies administrates et du manque de subvention du Ministère des Finances. Ce procédé peut être mis en pratique, soit par le gouvernement, soit par la commission mercantile de ?exploitani agricole même, à qui reste seul la liberté de décision (sauf quand il s'agil du paiement de ?impôt qui sen plus lard à?ac-croissement des revenus.) Ce sont des restrictions à la compétence intrarégionale qui sont éliminées ainsi que des obstacles entre produils de consommation: obstacles particuliers aux plans traditionnels de contrôle de production, lets que ?institution de quotités de marché. Les revenus des impôts, les dépenses réglées, peuvent s'utiliser de plusieurs moyens à contribuer au bien-être général et à accroitre les revenus dans la région mème, améliorant, de cette façon, la condition du fermier: celle de ?individu ainsi que la condition collective du groupe     

The market for preferences

Learning processes are widely held to be the mechanism by whichboundedly rational agents adapt to environmental changes. Weargue that this same outcome might also be achieved by a differentmechanism, namely specialisation and the division of knowledge,which we here extend to the consumer side of the economy. Wedistinguish between high-level preferences and low-level preferencesas nested systems of rules used to solve particular choice problems.We argue that agents, while sovereign in high-level preferences,may often find it expedient to acquire, in a pseudo-market,the low-level preferences in order to make good choices whenpurchasing complex commodities about which they have littleor no experience. A market for preferences arises when environmentalcomplexity overwhelms learning possibilities and leads agentsto make use of other people's specialised knowledge and decisionrules.     

Research Round-up

Focus on themes; evolutionary change; teamwork; education; eclectic use of methods; devolution of the IS function: fuzzy and and informal? Perhaps. But these are six features of the 'organisational' approach to information systems strategy preferred, on balance, by companies interviewed for the research summarised in this article.