UK universities and the state: a Faustian bargain?

The universities are now‘one of the last seminationalised sectors of the British economy,’used by government as an instrument of social policy. This situation represents a‘Faustian bargain’which threatens both the quality and the prosperity of universities. One solution would be privatisation of some universities through public flotation. These universities could then contract with government to take state-funded students. Two objections are that the scheme would promote elitism and that it would encourage greater inequality between universities, but the relevant question is whether it would offer an improvement on the present regime.     

An input-output approach to forecasting gross domestic output and employment intensities by sectors

The purpose of this paper is to integrate two commonly known input-output models of Leontief and Stone for employment analysis. Although assumptions of Leontief model are somewhat different from Stone's model, the empirical analysis can be conducted ignoring the difference between competitive and noncompetitive imports in the initial stage. The Leontief model is used to make predictions of gross domestic output on the basis of predicted imports and final demand by sectors. The predicted output is used to derive employment by sectors for a target year and this in turn is used in Stone's input-output framework for the analysis of total labour intensity by sectors. The approach on the estimates of labour intensity by sectors is illustrated using Japan's input-output data.     

Transatlantic trade and investment partnership: sectoral and macroeconomic perspectives for Germany,the EU and the US

The EU and the US have started negotiations on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (TTIP) which could bring a considerable increase of exports and output as well as changes in the composition of output and employment. Thus export simulation studies in combination with input output analysis and employment analysis is useful. In the analysis presented the focus is mainly on sectoral output and employment effects where the key sectors are the automotive sector, chemical industry, information and communication technology production, pharmaceuticals and machinery and equipment. Backward sector links are analysed and found to be quite important in the automotive sector, the chemical industry, the machinery and equipment sector in both Germany and the US; in Germany also in ICT production. However, most of the observed sectors have weak forward linkage. Input output analysis is also used to identify employment effects in various sectors: the pure employment effect of a 20 % export expansion in Germany amounts to about 800 000 new jobs. Looking only at the US and German perspective turns out to be misleading—the high imports of intermediate inputs of German firms from EU partner countries suggests that a comparison EU-US is analytically required for some key issues and that considering the effects on EU partners is also useful. There is a host of key policy issues, including the issue of extended sustainability reporting.     

Nature-Based Tourism on the Edge of Urban Development

Urban sprawl in Australian cities is threatening a substantial number of pristine environments. Councils in Local Government Areas are attempting to meet the challenge of providing housing for increasing populations and preserving natural resources, many of which have tourism potential. This paper seeks to promote our understanding of the problems of balancing urban growth and the conservation of natural resources using Campbelltown, an outer suburb of Sydney, as a case study. The paper distinguishes five different types of tourists to highlight the appeal of Campbelltown's natural assets to different markets. A Market/Asset matrix is used to show how the existing level of development affects the expectations and needs of each different market. A framework based on the 'ecotourism paradigm' recently formulated by Ross and Wall (1999b) is used to identify the types of relationships which must exist in order for Campbelltown City Council to develop nature - based tourism in the area to its full potential.     

Tourism and poverty alleviation: perceptions and experiences of poor people in Sapa,Vietnam

This paper examines the perceptions and experiences of poor people in Sapa, Vietnam, regarding tourism as a means of poverty alleviation. Participant observations and semi-structured interviews were conducted with local people and key informants. The paper indicates that local people perceive poverty as a lack of rice and/or income and attribute it to both internal and external causes. The local tourism sector has primarily benefited the non-poor and tour operators, resulting in conflicts of interest among community members. However, more local people consider tourism a contributor to poverty alleviation than those who do not. All interviewees wish to become homestay owners or tourist guides. The most important barrier to the former is the lack of capital, while foreign language proficiency is the main hindrance to the latter. It is concluded that while an appropriate approach is required to involve local people in tourism, alternative livelihoods other than tourism are also needed. The study suggests that poor people's interpretation of poverty may be substantially different from that of academics and policy-makers. It argues that by valuing the perspectives of those experiencing poverty we can establish more meaningful approaches to alleviating poverty through tourism that are more likely to succeed.     

Coffee, money and inflation in Colombia

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between coffee, money, inflation and international competitiveness in Colombia. The basic hypothesis being investigated is that higher (lower) prices of coffee will tend to result, through the accumulation of international reserves, in higher (lower) inflation. In turn, this higher inflation will generate, for a given rate of devaluation of the nominal exchange rate, a reduction of the real exchange rate, with the consequent loss of competitiveness in the non-coffee tradable goods sector. A ‘Dutch-disease’ type of model is developed to discuss analytically the relationship between coffee prices, money creation and competitiveness in the short and long run. Empirical results for 1952–1980 are presented. These results support the hypothesis that there has been a positive relationship between the price of coffee, money creation and inflation in Colombia.     

What Is Supply-and-Demand? The Marshallian Cross Versus Classical Economics

This study argues that the supply-and-demand apparatus of the ‘Marshallian cross’ is an unsatisfactory representation of actual supply and demand forces, which are better characterized in the manner of the classical economists. Most particularly the rising supply function but also the conventional demand function, are shown to have no compelling general theoretical justification. There is no plausible basis for a presumption in favour of the former—other than the marginal productivity theory of factor pricing, which is itself unsatisfactory. Multiple reasons are suggested for the rise of the apparatus of supply-and-demand functions, notwithstanding its intrinsic implausibility. The classical conception of supply-and-demand is restated and reaffirmed.