Industry structure and labor market flexibility in the South African manufacturing sector: A time series and panel data approach

This paper presents a joint analysis of labor market flexibility and product market structure. Our investigation confirms earlier results of imperfect competition in South African manufacturing where we find an average mark-up of 50% for the period 1970 to 2004 that is without consistent trend over time. The contribution of the paper is to provide a theoretically grounded means of linking output market conduct to labor market flexibility. We infer the proportion of labor associated with rigidities in the labor market from the mark-up, and find that two thirds of total labor employed in South African manufacturing is associated with rigidities. We find that this proportion falls during the 1980s and rises during the 1990s, suggesting an increase in labor flexibility followed by a decrease.     

Explaining the variation in household recycling rates across the UK

Household waste recycling rates vary significantly both across and within regions of the UK. This paper attempts to explain the variation by using a new data set of waste recycling rates and policy determinants for all of the UK's 434 local authorities over the period 2006Q2 to 2008Q4. Our results suggest that the method of recycling collection chosen by policy makers is an important factor influencing the recycling rate. We also find an inverse relationship between the frequency of the residual waste collection and the recycling rate.     

Business angel early stage decision making

Using 150 interactions between entrepreneurs and potential investors, we study early stage business angel decision making. We show that contrary to the majority of past research that suggests they should, angel investors do not use a fully compensatory decision model wherein they weight and score a large number of attributes. Rather, they use a shortcut decision making heuristic known as elimination-by-aspects to reduce the available investment opportunities to a more manageable size. If an opportunity is diagnosed with a fatal flaw, it is rejected in the first stage of the decision making process, but all opportunities with no fatal flaws do progress beyond that stage.     

Canonical Valuation of Mortality‐Linked Securities

A fundamental question in the study of mortality‐linked securities is how to place a value on them. This is still an open question, partly because there is a lack of liquidly traded longevity indexes or securities from which we can infer the market price of risk. This article develops a framework for pricing mortality‐linked securities on the basis of canonical valuation. This framework is largely nonparametric, helping us avoid parameter and model risk, which may be significant in other pricing methods. The framework is then applied to a mortality‐linked security, and the results are compared against those derived from other methods.     

Comparing pension systems in the circular flow of income

The neoliberal consensus is that state funded pensions are not sustainable in the long term, due to declining fertility and longevity. In response, policymakers have pointed to the advantages of privately funded pension systems. This article compares the social provisioning of these two systems using the circular flow of income as an organizing framework. A series of pitfalls in the private model are examined, including inequality of provision, mis-selling of investment products, and punitive charges.