Bank computerization and organizational innovations: the long winding road to the bank of the future

Despite increasing customer orientation and a more proactive IT policy in the services offered by Dutch banks, organizational innovation has been partial and segmented. Changes in organizational structure are complicated by the current wave of mergers between banks and insurance companies.[1]     

Foreign Direct Investment and Exports with Growing Demand

We explore entry into a foreign market with uncertain demand growth. A multinational can serve the foreign demand by two modes, or by a combination thereof: it can export its products, or it can create productive capacity via foreign direct investment (FDI). The advantage of FDI is that it allows for lower marginal cost than exporting does. The disadvantage is that FDI is irreversible and, hence, entails the risk of creating under-utilized capacity in the case that the market turns out to be small. The presence of demand uncertainty and irreversibility gives rise to an interior solution, where the multinational, under certain conditions, both exports its products and does FDI.     

Reviews

LEARNING FROM THE USA.

Hambleton, R. and Taylor, M. (eds.) 1993: People in Cities: A Transatlantic Policy Exchange. Bristol: School for Advanced Urban Studies Publications, £12.95.

PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND URBAN DEPRIVATION.

Deakin, N. and Edwards, J. 1993: The Enterprise Culture and the Inner City. London: Routledge, £13.99, paper.

CULTURAL POLICY AND URBAN REGENERATION.

Bianchini, F. and Parkinson, M. (eds) 1993: Cultural Policy and Urban Regeneration. Manchester: Manchester University Press, £35.00 cloth.

PERSPECTIVES ON URBAN POLICY.

Atkinson, R. and Moon, G. 1994: Urban Policy in Britain: The City, the State and the Market. Hampshire: Macmillan, £11.99, paper.

EVALUATING URBAN POLICY.

Robson, R. et al. 1994: Assessing the Impact of Urban Policy; Inner Cities Research Programme. Department of the Environment, HMSO,

£40.

DEMOCRATIC CIVIC LEADERSHIP IN TACKLING URBAN PROBLEMS.

Stoker, G. and Young, S. 1994: Cities in the 1990s. Longman. £20, paper.     

Value conflicts in computing developments: Developed and developing countries

The author examines the value conflicts engendered by computing developments in two different institutional settings: electronic funds transfer systems and instructional computing in primary and secondary schools. While specific values depend upon culture and upon the character of the particular institutional setting studied, these two cases can serve as instructive points of departure for examining the value conflicts which generally accompany different modes of computerization in other developed and developing countries. In particular, computing developments in Brazil illustrate some of the parallels and contrasts between developed and developing countries.     

FOMC VOTING BEHAVIOR AND ELECTORAL CYCLES: PARTISAN IDEOLOGY AND PARTISAN LOYALTY

The influence of partisan and electoral considerations on the monetary policy voting behavior of Federal Reserve Governors is investigated in the context of a model permitting the estimation of reaction functions on the basis of FOMC voting records. The results suggest that once we have controlled for the state of the economy and for the prevailing stance of monetary policy, both partisan ideologies and partisan loyalties appear to play an important role in the Governors'voting calculus.     

Extinction of the human race: Doom-mongering or reality?

Summary In this paper a simple growth model is extended with an assimilation function that is founded on the natural sciences literature. Moreover, the possibility of a breakdown of the earth's life-support system, wich implies extinction, is explicity taken into account. Under the hypothesis of full information it is concluded that extinction can be an optimal policy. The market outcome is such that a breakdown of the life-support system is inevitable. However, if extinction is not optimal, the government may internalize the externality. It can do so by levying a traditional Pigouvian tax that must (in some cases) be accompanied by a new tax instrument, the overendowment tax.     

Loan officers and loan ‘delinquency’ in Microfinance: A Zambian case

The paper seeks to promote greater understanding of the importance of loan officers in group-based microfinance by explaining their actual roles, dilemmas and tensions when working with poor clients. Few existing studies have used data outside Bangladesh and most focus upon relatively well-performing institutions. Using data from Zambia this study focuses on the recent crisis of Christian Enterprise Trust of Zambia (CETZAM) and the effects of its practices for accounting for and dealing with defaulters. The findings firstly show that loan officers faced powerful hierarchical accountability pressures and pursued inappropriate methods to compel further repayments to resolve this crisis. Its approach to borrower default was found to be stressful for loan officers and potentially detrimental for CETZAM's own short and long-term survival by reducing client loyalty and trust.     

AGE analysis of the impact of a carbon energy tax on the Irish economy

A computable general equilibrium model with specific detail in taxation and energy use is developed in this paper to quantify the impact of the implementation of energy taxation to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Ireland. Benchmark data combining physical energy and emissions data and economic data in the form of a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) had to be compiled from various data sources, because energy and pollution accounts from the SEEA are not available for Ireland. We find that the reduction target for energy related CO₂ emissions in Ireland of 25.8% compared to 1998 levels can be achieved with a carbon energy tax of 10-15 euros per tonne of CO₂. Though fuel switching is important in meeting the target, this result is more sensitive to the possibilities for producers to substitute away from energy use. Welfare would fall but only by small percentages. Production and consumption patterns would change more significantly, with a shift in demand from fuels with a high emission factor to energy sources with a lower carbon-intensity and from energy to other commodities. This paper confirms that a carbon energy tax leads to greater emission reductions than an equivalent uniform energy tax. The latter has a stronger negative impact on the less polluting energy sectors whereas the carbon tax greatly stimulates the use of renewable energy and reduces the use of peat and coal. The new SAM, the model and the application to energy taxes contribute to a better informed debate on environmental policy in Ireland.     

The Influence of High-/Low-Context Culture on Perceived Ad Complexity and Liking

ABSTRACT

According to Hall's context theory, people from different cultures may react differently to complex messages. The current study is the first empirical examination of context theory's role on message comprehension and appreciation. In a comparative survey-based study (N = 289), Belgian and Dutch participants judged 12 complex product advertisements with visual metaphors. As expected by context theory, perceived complexity was lower for Belgian (a higher-context culture) than for Dutch participants (a lower-context culture), and participants' personal context culture score fully accounted for this difference. Similarly, ad liking was higher for Belgian than for Dutch participants, and again, this difference was explained by context score.