INACTIVITY AND LABOUR MARKET ATTACHMENT IN BRITAIN

This paper examines the transitions between the labour market and inactivity in Britain between 1995 and 2004. A substantial degree of behavioural heterogeneity exists between inactive individuals, and the social security system appears to influence both the timing and probability of moving between labour market states. The results presented here suggest that policy makers should not be misled by the term ‘hidden unemployment’, into thinking that substantial spare capacity exists on the periphery of the labour force. In light of recent proposals to reduce the number of Incapacity Benefit claimants, it is important to note a high degree of detachment among the long‐term sick and disabled, reinforced by duration dependence and poorer educational attainment.     

Attitudes of food entrepreneurs towards two grant schemes under the first England Rural Development Programme, 2000–2006

Grant schemes introduced under the first England Rural Development Programme (ERDP) (2000–2006) have been subjected to limited academic research and this paper aims to fill this gap by examining the attitudes of food entrepreneurs in two contiguous English regions to two key elements of the ERDP: the Processing and Marketing Grant (PMG) and the Rural Enterprise Scheme (RES). It does this through a qualitative analysis of data gathered from interviews with 20 ‘adopters’ and 20 ‘non-adopters’ of the two schemes in the South West and West Midlands regions of England. The analysis reveals that, despite the rural development rhetoric, neither the PMG nor the RES was particularly effective at funding enterprises beyond the farm gate; both schemes also appeared to attract what can be described as ‘serial adopters’ and to discriminate against those without experience of applying for government grants. Nevertheless, indirectly they did provide opportunities to safeguard and expand local and regional food production, processing and retailing in the two regions.     

From Decision Support to Decision Automation: A 2020 Vision

The authors discuss the long-run future of decision support systems in marketing. They argue that a growing proportion of marketing decisions can not only be supported but may also be automated. From a standpoint of both efficiency (e.g., management productivity) and effectiveness (e.g., resource allocation decisions), such automation is highly desirable. The authors describe how model-based automated decision-making is likely to penetrate various marketing decision-making environments and how such models can incorporate competitive dynamics. For example, the authors foresee that close to full automation can ultimately take place for many decisions about existing products in stable markets. Partial automation could characterize decision making for new products in stable markets and existing products in unstable markets.     

Utilizing Ultrasound Technology to Improve Livestock Marketing Decisions

This study estimates the value of using ultrasound technology to improve cattle marketing decisions by optimally choosing a particular marketing method. For the particular group of cattle analyzed, results indicate that using ultrasound information to selectively market cattle could have increased revenue by $25.53/head, $4.98/head, or $32.90/head, compared with simply marketing all animals on a live weight, dressed weight, or grid basis, respectively. Even if producers incorporate such information as placement weight, days on feed, and breed into their expectations about final carcass characteristics, our results indicate that ultrasound measures could improve average revenue by $4.16/head.     

Did the Retreat of UK Trade Unionism Accelerate during the 1990–1993 Recession?

It is widely believed that recessions are periods of accelerated structural change, with major reorganizations or adjustments being made under intense pressure. These changes are made to ensure the survival of firms, exploit opportunities created by difficulties facing other firms, or take advantage of temporary falls in the opportunity cost of initiating and carrying out changes. This line of argument suggests that we should expect to see firms making major changes in their investments in human capital, and in their industrial relations practices. Our results are only partially consistent with this view. What seems to be clear from the data generated by our surveys is that firms are not reluctant to make changes in their bargaining strategies and industrial relations systems. This should be no surprise. Unlike investments in plant and equipment, these changes do not require much cash, and the opportunity cost of making them is much lower in recessions than in booms. However, the observed changes in union recognition have not occurred primarily in firms that were severely affected by the recession. Increases in pay decentralization and reorganization of work-force arrangements were no more likely to be initiated by distressed firms than by firms only moderately affected by the recession. It follows, then, that the retreat of UK unionism observed during the 1990–3 recession was, in the main, a continuation of existing secular trends. The mild acceleration in the pace of change revealed by our survey may be cyclical, but the trend is unlikely to be reversed as recovery gathers pace.     

Corporate Restructuring in the UK during the Recession

This paper reports the results of a large scale survey of how UK firms are coping with the recession. Only a relatively small number of firms report being "extremely severely" affected by the recession, and these were firms with highly dispersed ownership structures, firms that grew unusually fast in the mid to late 1980s and holding companies. Among the responses to the recession identified by the survey was a substantial degree of organizational choice, effected mainly by closing plants. The most stable organizational form seemed to be the functional organization, while holding companies were the least.     

Changes in Wage-setting Arrangements and Trade Union Presence in the 1980s

In this paper we detail the results of a retrospective survey of changes in trade union and wage-setting arrangements in the 1980s for a sample of 558 UK companies. Our key findings are as follows. (1) Complete derecognition of unions in a firm was rare even in firms with low trade union density. (2) Partial derecognition in multi-plant firms was more common. Some 13 per cent of companies with recognized unions in 1984 had had at least partial derecognition by 1990. (3) Large falls in trade union density within a firm have also been rare, though small but observable declines have been commonplace. (4) The coverage of the closed shop has substantially declined, and this decline has been most marked in the last five years. Around one-quarter of firms with recognized unions in 1990, however, still had closed-shop arrangement for at least part of their work-force. (5) There has been no clear decline in the prevalence of multi-unionism or multiple bargaining units. (6) There has been a significant move away from national/industry-wide bargaining, towards negotiations at the individual company or more often the establishment level. (7) In the absence of collective bargaining there have been clear moves away from wage-setting by formal external links, such as wages councils and multi-employer agreements, and even away from worker consultation towards more managerial discretion. (8) In deciding wage settlements, managers are increasingly influenced by company performance and less by multi-employer wage settlements.