Antecedents and outcomes relating to public and private nurses’ use of intuition in England

This paper examines public and private sector nurses’ use of intuition in England using structural equation modeling. Leader–member exchange (LMX) and perceived organizational support (POS) correlated positively with nurses’ perception of discretionary power and use of intuition. Nurses’ perception of discretionary power and use of intuition were positively correlated with their engagement. Further, differences were identified between private sector and public sector nurses in relation to the impact of workplace relationships (POS and LMX) and intuition onto perceived discretionary power and employee engagement. The results are important for all hospital managers seeking to foster employees’ use of intuition, perception of discretionary power, and engagement.     

At‐home meat consumption in China: an empirical study*

The remarkable economic changes occurring within China since 1978 have resulted in a striking alteration in food consumption patterns, and one marked change is the increasing consumption of meat. Given China’s large population, a small percentage change in per capita meat consumption could lead to a dramatic impact on the production and trade of agricultural products. Such changes have major implications for policy makers and food marketers. This paper concentrates on meat consumption patterns in the home in China. A censored linear approximate almost ideal demand system model was employed in the study, and major economic parameters were estimated for different meat items. Data used in this study were collected from two separate consumer surveys – one urban and one rural in 2005.     

A Characterization of Robust Sunspot Equilibria

In nonconvex environments, a sunspot equilibrium can sometimes be destroyed by the introduction of new extrinsic information. We provide a simple test for determining whether or not a particular equilibrium survives, or is robust to, all possible refinements of the state space. We use this test to provide a characterization of the set of robust sunspot-equilibrium allocations of a given economy; it is equivalent to the set of equilibrium allocations of the associated lottery economy. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: D51, D84, E32.     

Constructing identities in Indian networks: Discourses of marketing management in inter-organizational relationships

This paper explores business-to-business (B2B) marketing values and knowledge systems in India and their impact on identity construction in industrial networks. Our study moves methodological approaches into more interpretive territory by acknowledging the processes of social construction in networks as articulated by the IMP Group. We bring an interdisciplinary perspective to B2B marketing studies by recognizing cultural influences on managers' constructions of Indian modernity and explore what these linguistic moves may mean for the management of buyer–seller relationships. We highlight the dexterity with which individual actors discursively position themselves, their (and other) firms and countries by drawing upon a range of interpretive repertoires in their accounts of relationship management. Our chief contribution is to conceptually synthesize some of the discursive forces at work in identity processes within Indian business networks and to empirically illustrate the inherent tensions within managers' talk as they construct individual, organizational and national identities.     

Three Pillars of Conventional Wisdom

This paper considers three pillars of contemporary economic wisdom that form part of the so-called 'Washington consensus': that free markets work best; that price stability is a good thing; and that deregulated financial markets work best. We argue that these propositions apply in certain circumstances, but do not have general validity. After discussing the circumstances in which these propositions do not hold we suggest how the conventional policy wisdom should be revised.     

An overview of probability,expectations, uncertainty and rationality in Keynes's conceptual framework 1

Keynes's writings on the cognate topics of probability, expectations, uncertainty and rationality exhibit considerable complexity. This paper seeks to provide a clarifying overview of his position on these topics, both in his main philosophical workThe treatise on probability, and his main economic workThe general theory. It is argued that the most useful approach for understanding the deeper structure of Keynes's thought in each work is by means of a two-dimensional, two-domain analysis.Such an analysis helps demonstrate some of the ways in which the conceptual framework of The treatise on probability provides an essential part of the philosophical foundations of The general theory, while at the same time recognizing some of the key differences between the two works. It also illuminates Keynes's non-neoclassical theorization of rationality, and his path-breaking attempt to develop a theory of rationality under irreducible uncertainty.     

The New Institutional Economics

Current English policy towards general practice is ambivalent between developing new forms of contractual governance and constructing more hierarchically organized bodies. NHS policy documents say that Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) will contract some primary care services and directly manage others. Depending on the balance, PCTs could either organize general practice through practice-based contracts or start developing into hierarchies (albeit with some subcontractors for the time being).

New Institutional Economics, in particular Williamson's version, defines conditions where hierarchies are likely to be more efficient than markets (in terms of what welfare economics recognizes as allocative efficiency) and conditions where the reverse holds. This article considers the implications of the New Institutional Economics (NIE) for redesigning the governance of publicly financed services such as general practice which allow direct public access, in which it is difficult to define and manage service quality, and which have a professionalized but fragmented workforce. In contrast to their alleged implications for the hospital sector during the 1990s, NIE theories imply that for publicly funded professional services such as general practice there are stronger economic arguments for constructing hierarchies than for reconstructing quasi-markets at local level.     

Second contribution to the ENE critique: Reply to Davidson,part 1

On first encounter, the ergodic/nonergodic (ENE) approach has apparent plausibility. Although concerned by some of its problems for many years, it was only after more concentrated reflection on both its parts and their combinations that I became aware of its manifold deficiencies, some of which I outlined in my previous critique (O’Donnell, 2014 ———. “A Critique of the Ergodic/Nonergodic Approach to Uncertainty.” Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 2014, 37 (2), 187–209.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). In this paper, facilitated by Davidson’s (2015b ———. “A Rejoinder to O’Donnell’s Critique of the Ergodic/Nonergodic Explanation of Keynes’s Concept of Uncertainty.” Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 2015b, 38, 1–18.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) rejoinder, these criticisms are deepened, broadened, and strengthened. Because the debate deals with fundamental matters in several disciplines, a considerable amount of investigation, unpacking, and logical dissection is required to clarify the argumentation beneath the compressed and seemingly smooth surface of the ENE position. For this reason, my reply is divided into two parts. This contribution primarily examines the central role of framing in ENE arguments, and clarifies the various misunderstandings and misrepresentations to which it leads. The subsequent contribution provides more detailed discussion of mathematical, stochastic, and methodological issues.     

Decentralizing lottery allocations in markets with indivisible commodities

Summary In economies with indivisible commodities, consumers tend to prefer lotteries in commodities. A potential mechanism for satisying these preferences is unrestricted purchasing and selling of lotteries in decentralized markets, as suggested in Prescott and Townsend [Int. Econ. Rev.25, 1–20]. However, this paper shows in several examples that such lottery equilibria do not always exist for economies with finitely many consumers. Other conditions are needed. In the examples, equilibrium and the associated welfare gains are realized if consumptions are bounded or if lotteries are based upon a common sunspot device as defined by Shell [mimeo, 1977] and Cass and Shell [J. Pol. Econ.91, 193–227]. The paper shows that any lottery equilibrium is either a Walrasian equilibrium or a sunspot equilibrium, but there are Walrasian and sunspot equilibria that are not lottery equilibria.This paper is based on Chapter 3 of my doctoral dissertation, written while I was a student at Cornell University. I thank Larry Blume, Yue Yun Chen, David Easley, Aditya Goenka, John Marshall, Bruce Smith, John Wooders and an anonymous referee. I am particularly grateful to Karl Shell and Cheng-Zhong Qin. I thank the Academic Senate at UCSB for financial support.