Personal and Corporate Saving in South Africa

Low domestic saving rates in South Africa may perpetuate a low-growthtrap. The decline in government satfing, a major reason forthe overall decline in saving, is now being reversed. However,personal saving rates have fallen since 1993, and corporaterates since 1995, and both may decline further with lower realinterest rates. It is important to understand both personaland corporate saving behavior in order to formulate policiesto raise the domestic saving rate in line with the needs ofeconomic growth. This article summarizes previous work on thehousehold sector, emphasizing the role of financial liberalization,assets, and income expectations, and explains sectoral linksand policy implications. Further, it analyzes South Africa'scorporate saving rate in detail. Models are developed both forthe share of profits in national income, including the rolesof the terms of trade, tax effects, and the price to unit laborcost ratio, and for the share of corporate saving in profits,which is found to depend on inflation, the real interest rate,dividend taxation, and financial liberalization. Corporate savingis remarkably underresearched, given its importance in manyeconomies. This research thus puts the saving and growth concernsof Kaldor into a modern empirical context.     

Scarcity effects on sales volume in retail

Prior research provides controversial findings as to whether products become more or less desirable when accompanied by product scarcity. As there are many options relevant for retailing to generate product scarcity, it seems beneficial to identify the conditions under which scarcity should be applied as an instrument for sales promotion. We differentiate our considerations by the type of scarcity, the product category and by the existence of other purchase arguments for the scarce product. The main result of our empirical investigations is that these three conditions are relevant factors which influence the direction of scarcity's effect on product desirability.     

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL GRANTS IN MITIGATING THE SOCIO‐ECONOMIC IMPACT OF HIV/AIDS IN TWO FREE STATE COMMUNITIES1

Social grants may play an important role in mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS. Eligibility for these grants is driven in part by the increasing burden of chronic illness, the mounting orphan crisis and the impoverishment of households associated with the epidemic. This article investigates the role of social grants in mitigating the socio‐economic impact of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, using data from a panel study on the household impact of the epidemic. Social grants reduce inequality and decrease the prevalence, depth and severity of poverty in affected households. However, these transfers also have disincentive effects on employment, while non‐uptake is in some cases higher amongst the poorest.     

Towards a framework for the study of the antecedents and consequences of information systems in organizations

Researchers and practitioners are increasingly emphasizing the need for the development of new forms of information systems to meet the changing requirements of their organizational users. If changes in information systems are to occur, they will need to be based on a comprehensive understanding of the antecedents and consequences of such systems within organizations. By focussing on the relationship which exists at the interface between information systems and their organizational context, the paper presents a framework within which systems can be studied and their consequences explained. In so doing, considerable importance is attached to the part played by the beliefs and expectations of those involved with both the development and use of information and control systems.     

Managerial Perceptions of Works Councils’ Effectiveness in the Netherlands

Although works councils have, by and large, equally extensive legal rights in Germany and the Netherlands, this is the first econometric analysis that investigates the influence of Dutch works councils on firm performance. We use a nationwide Dutch dataset with information on management’s perceptions of the works council’s impact on their establishments’ efficiency and innovation. Inspired by the German study of Jirjahn and Smith (2006, Industrial Relations 45:650–80), we analyze which determinants influence management’s attitude toward employee participation in the Netherlands. Owing to the specifics of our data, we are able to additionally include variables that measure the interaction between management and worker representatives. We establish a preponderant influence emanating from the works council’s role attitude and management’s leadership style.     

The Benefit Corporation and Corporate Social Responsibility

In the wake of the most recent financial crisis, corporations have been criticized as being self-interested and unmindful of their relationship to society. Indeed, the blame is sometimes placed on the corporate legal form, which can exacerbate the tension between duties to shareholders and interests of stakeholders. In comparison, the Benefit Corporation (BC) is a new legal business entity that is obligated to pursue public benefit in addition to the responsibility to return profits to shareholders. It is legally a for-profit, socially obligated, corporate form of business, with all the traditional corporate characteristics combined with societal responsibilities. Considering the history and perception of shareholder primacy in United States law, it is argued that this new business structure is an ethical step toward empowering socially committed commercial entities. The contribution of this research is to provide a fundamental base of knowledge about the new legal form of business, the BC, upon which further study may rely. First, the legal history of the corporation is briefly reviewed in order to provide context to the relationship of the corporate form to society, including exploration of the premise that shareholder wealth maximization is its best and only purpose. Second, the BC is described in detail, and state statutes are compared. Third, the BC is placed within the context of corporate social responsibility. Finally, opportunities for future research are discussed.     

Effective use of public funding in the Murray‐Darling Basin: a comparison of buybacks and infrastructure upgrades

Policy instruments designed to increase environmental flows in the Murray–Darling Basin are compared using TERM‐H₂O, a detailed, dynamic regional CGE model. Voluntary and fully compensated buybacks are much less costly than infrastructure upgrades as a means of obtaining a target volume of environmental water, even during drought, when highly secure water created by infrastructure upgrades is more valuable. As an instrument of regional economic management, infrastructure upgrades are inferior to public spending on health, education and other services in the Basin. For each job created from upgrades, the money spent on services could create between three and four jobs in the Basin.