Structure and Ownership of East German Enterprises

This paper investigates the process by which East German enterprises have been privatized and their resulting ownership and control structure. A corporate system with a very high level of concentration of ownership has been created. This is particularly closely associated with ownership and direct control by West German companies. The paper argues that this has allowed East German enterprises to gain access to finance, markets, and managerial skills which they might otherwise have been denied. The resulting "insider" system of corporate control will over time allow East German companies to participate in the control of their own and West German companies. The Treuhandanstalt has organized the privatization process to achieve certain industrial and social objectives. It has broken up the large multiplant enterprises to an extent that East German enterprises are now smaller than their West German counterparts. It has used informal liquidations rather than formal bankruptcies to be able to achieve its objectives. Privatizations have not involved the flotation of companies on the stock market. Instead, the Treuhand has arranged share and asset transfers on a scale which is in excess of merger activity commonly observed in the West. J. Japan. Int. Econ., Dec. 1995, 9(4), pp. 426–453. University College London, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, and CEPR; Oxford University and CEPR     

The Impact of Two Decades of Reform of British Public Sector Industrial Relations

The results of some 20 years of industrial relations reform in the British public sector are assessed, along with current trade union responses and future prospects for industrial relations in the public services. The author pinpoints limitations in the perspectives that have driven reform processes in labour practices, and in the outcomes achieved, and concludes that the process of convergence that is often assumed to have occurred between public and private sector industrial relations arrangements may be more apparent than real.     

Total factor productivity in South African agriculture, 1947‐91

Indices of total factor productivity (TFP) measure aggregate output per unit of aggregate input, providing a guide to the efficiency of agricultural production. This article outlines the relationship between production functions and TFP indices. Then, an index is constructed for South African agriculture for the period 1947‐91. The index shows that TFP grew at an average rate of 1,3 per cent per annum. However, TFP growth has increased since the reforms of the early 1980s. Since capital has been more realistically priced relative to labour, greater productivity growth has gone together with increasing employment, which must have improved social welfare.     

The involvement of trade unions in quality: evidence from EC enterprises

In 1987–88 a large attitudinal survey covering all 12 Member States of the European Community was carried out by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions in Dublin which focused on various aspects of participation by employee representatives in new information technology. This paper presents evidence on one important aspect of technological change—that of participation in product and service quality.