Taxing a Commodity with and without Revenue Neutrality: A Calibrated Theoretical Consumer Equilibrium Model

It has long been recognized that taxing a commodity that generates negative externalities can be used to reduce its consumption. One way to do this is to impose revenue neutrality but that may alter the tax rate required to meet a consumption reduction target. We explore the relationships among the commodity tax rate, the demand and supply elasticities, and the revenue offsets by calibrating a theoretical consumer equilibrium model and then recalibrating it with alternative parameter configurations. For each configuration we simulate equilibrium for three policy scenarios: no neutrality, neutrality achieved by subsidizing other commodities, and neutrality achieved by income transfer.     

Local Bargaining in the National Health Service: New Approaches to Employee Relations

This research uses the establishment of local bargaining arrangements in the National Health Service (NHS) to examine managerial employee relations objectives. It finds a continued commitment to pluralism and a rejection of an HRM approach. Change is taking place, possibly involving a shift towards a consultative style, in a traditional industrial relations framework.     

Effects of selected emulsifiers,enzymes and a carbohydrate-based fat substitute on physical and sensory characteristics in a low-fat muffin

Abstract Selected emulsifiers, enzymes and a carbohydrate-based fat substitute were incorporated into a standard muffin recipe, and their effects were compared with a full-fat counterpart. The control muffin had a significantly (P<0·01) more yellow crumb, was less firm (P<0·01) and contained less moisture (P<0·01). Sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate (SSL) and diacetyl tartaric acid methyl esters (DATEM) contributed to a less firm crumb (P<0·01) and helped to maintain moisture (P<0·01) in the fat-reduced muffin. Sensory analysis yielded complementary results to the physical data with respect to crumb firmness and crust colour. However, the full-fat muffin was significantly (P<0·01) moister. The emulsifiers along with the enzymes were found to be responsible for reducing crumb size (P<0·01).     

A cluster analysis of commercialisation of farmers in developing rural areas of South Africa

The purpose of this article is to classify farmers in developing rural areas according to their commercial orientation and to evaluate their distinguishing characteristics. Farmers in these areas use both farm and non‐farm activities to commercialise to some degree. The aim of the commercialisation strategy is to generate income for acquiring other basic goods and services. A cluster analysis of 392 households surveyed in 1987 in the former KaNgwane identified seven groups of farming households: very low commercial households, moderately commercial households, high agricultural commercial households, livestock commercial households, non‐farm income households, non‐farm and agricultural commercial households and highly commercial households. The characteristics of four of these groups were investigated further. The current status of the commercialisation process suggests several policy directions: food security programmes should be aimed at those lacking resources, who may also be threatened by food shortages; emerging farmers with limited resources should be encouraged to diversify their income‐generating activities ‐ they should be given support (including access to land, markets, credit and management) to encourage them to prosper; and the progressive farmers require enhanced programmes to sustain their competitiveness.     

Training in the new private sector in Russia

The growth of the new private sector in Russia has been associated with the expansion of trade and services, requiring a labour force with different occupational and skill characteristics from those of the Soviet economy. This paper reports on the first research ever undertaken on training practices in the new private sector in Russia. The analysis is based on forty case studies of new private enterprises and a large-scale household survey in four relatively prosperous Russian cities carried out in the first half of 1998. The paper shows that the old system of vocational retraining has largely collapsed, but very little has arisen to take its place. The majority of new private employers make little provision for the training of their employees, relying heavily on training provided by previous state employers or on the motivation of their own employees or prospective employees to undertake training on their own initiative, at their own expense and in their own time. At the same time, the availability of appropriate training is limited and it is extremely expensive in relation to the resources available to new private employers. Nevertheless, those who undertake training experience significant increases in earnings.     

Value-oriented brand positioning

The objective of brand positioning is to place a brand that is clearly distinguishable from competitors' brands on the market. The principal aim is to ensure that the brand occupies a unique position on the market and that it is endowed with a precisely defined profile with clear-cut contours. The basic idea underlying this analysis is that consumers' perceptions of the various brands can be conceived as a multidimensional space in which individual brands are positioned. A product's positioning is determined from its position on the relevant dimensions of the perceptual space, its position on the various product attribute vectors and its position with respect to other brands. This paper uses correspondence analysis to reconstruct a space, in order to connect the relevant brand attributes with the drivers of behaviour, such as utility components and individual values. An empirical investigation shows the usefulness of this approach for product and advertising policy.     

Characterising equilibrium selection in global games with strategic complementarities

Global games are widely used to predict behaviour in games with strategic complementarities and multiple equilibria. We establish two results on the global game selection. First, we show that, for any supermodular complete information game, the global game selection is independent of the payoff functions chosen for the game?s global game embedding. Second, we give a simple sufficient criterion to derive the selection and establish noise independence in many-action games by decomposing them into games with smaller action sets, to which we may often apply simple criteria. We also report in which small games noise independence may be established by counting the number of players or actions.