Output and employment changes in a “trade sensitive” sector: Adjustment in the U. S. footwear industry

Zusammenfassung Ver?nderungen von Produktion und Besch?ftigung in einem ?au\enhandelsempfindlichen? Sektor: Der Anpassungsproze\ in der Schuh-industrie der Vereinigten Staaten. — In diesem Aufsatz wurde die amerikanische Schuhindustrie untersucht und gezeigt, wie sie in der vergangenen Dekade unter der steigenden Importkonkurrenz gelitten hat. Produktion, Firmenzahl und Besch?fti-gung sind in diesem Industriezweig zurückgegangen, w?hrend die Importe einen immer h?heren Marktanteil erlangt haben. Quantifiziert werden dann einige m?gliche zukünftige Ver?nderungen dieser Industrie, indem verschiedene internationale ?ko-nomische Variable in ein dynamisches Modell für die Produktion und Besch?ftigung dieser Branche eingebaut werden. Mit dem Modell k?nnen verschiedene Szenarien bei alternativen Annahmen über die Handelspolitik und internationalen Variablen dargestellt werden. Die Sch?tzungen lassen vermuten, da\ die Schuhindustrie keiner gl?nzenden Zukunft entgegengeht. Sogar unter der Annahme von Staatseingriffen ist langfristig ein Rückgang von Produktion und Besch?ftigung zu erwarten. Die von der International Trade Commission vorgeschlagene Quoten- und Zollpolitik ist nur eine Zwischenl?sung, die das Anpassungsproblem lediglich vertagt, aber nicht direkt anpackt.

---

Résumé Les changements en production et emploi dans un secteur ?sensitif au commerce extérieur?: L’ajustement dans l’industrie de la chaussure des Etats-Unis. — Dans cet article nous avons examiné la structure de l’industrie de la chaus-sure non-caoutchouc des Etats-Unis et démontré comment elle a souffert de la con-currence importatrice accroissante pendant la décade dernière. L’industrie s’est réduite concernant la production, le nombre des entreprises et l’emploi pendant que les importations ont gagné une part croissante du marché. Puis nous quantifions quelques changements possibles à l’avenir dans cette industrie en incorporant quel-ques variables économiques internationales dans un modèle dynamique de la pro-duction industrielle et d’emploi. A l’aide de ce modèle des différents scénarios qui incluent une politique commerciale alternative aussi bien que des changements projetés des variables internationales peuvent être dessinés. Nos estimations sug-gèrent que l’industrie de la chaussure n’aura pas un avenir brillant. Même avec l’intervention du gouvernement nous trouvons une réduction de la production industrielle et de l’emploi à long terme. La politique proposée de contingent-tarif de la Commission Internationale de Commerce n’est qu’une solution temporaire qui simplement remet le problème d’ajustement à plus tard au lieu de l’adresser directement.

---

Resumen Cambios en el producto y en el empleo en un sector sensible al comercio: Ajustes en la industria del calzado de los EE.UU. — En este artículo hemos examinado la estructura de la industria del calzado de cuero de los EE.UU., mostrando como ha sido afectada por la creciente competencia de importatión en la reciente década. La industria ha declinado en términos de producto, número de firmas y empleados, mientras que las importaciones han capturado un porcentaje creciente del mercado. Se cuantifican entonces algunos posibles cambios futuros en la industria incorporando distintas variables economicas internationales en un modelo dinámico del producto industrial y el empleo. Usando el modelo se pueden hacer distintos escenarios incorporando políticas comerciales alternativas y cambios proyectados en las variables internacionales. Nuestras estimaciones sugieren que la industria del calzado no enfrentará un futuro brillante. Incluso con interventión del gobierno vislumbramos una declinatión de largo plazo en la productión industrial y el empleo. La propuesta política de cuotas y tarifas de la International Trade Commission es meramente una solutión temporal que simplemente pospone el problema de ajuste en vez de enfrentarlo directamente.

     

Consent to direct marketing in the financial services sector

The development of communications technology in recent years has led to an expansion in ‘cold calling’, particularly as a means of selling financial services. While encouraging new entrants into the market and thereby increasing consumer choice and competitive prices, this is often viewed as an infringement of personal privacy. This paper attempts to reconcile the complex legal framework that has been put in place to restrict the use of unsolicited direct marketing and to show how, through the use of a carefully drafted data protection notice, the direct marketing of financial services may be conducted lawfully.     

Technology, culture and craft: job tasks and quality realities

Labour process writers tend to view the use of non-discretionary job tasks in Japanese style manufacturing as a form of de-skilling. The authors argue that the limits of human accuracy and the statistical realities of sequential production make non-discretionary job tasks a necessary condition for high quality engineered products. Cultural and scale barriers to achieving this condition are identified and analysed.     

Accountability in a Free-Market Economy: The British Company Audit, 1886

The relative merits of market forces compared with regulations as the more efficient mechanism for ensuring adequate accountability from business (and non-business) organizations is a subject of keen debate. Britain in the second half of the nineteenth century is regularly cited as an example of how the market will ensure adequate accountability in the absence of regulatory requirements. There is a great deal of speculation but very little hard evidence concerning the precise levels of accountability during this period. This study is designed to penetrate contemporary attitudes and actions by using primary sources to determine the audit arrangements made by quoted companies in the year 1886. It is discovered that professionally qualified accountants generally, and chartered accountants in particular, had achieved a dominant position by 1886, and possibly rather earlier; a finding which is also used to illuminate the question of the nature of the professional accountants' work in the late nineteenth century.     

Multivariate decision accuracy and the presentation of accounting information

Since multivariate graphics provide spatial integration, summarization and comparison of information, they may provide the means for improving decision-making. This study tests for the incremental benefit of multivariate graphics over a tabular format, by comparing the outcomes for tabular–graphical combination formats with tabular-only formats in an experimental environment. This is an area where research has been sparse and where existing results are inconsistent.The study examines the interactive influence of presentation format and information complexity on multivariate decision accuracy, to determine the most effective presentation format for the performance of multivariate decision tasks of varying complexity. Results show a significant interaction between presentation format and information complexity to affect multivariate decision accuracy. When information complexity is low, presentation format has no impact on accuracy. However, when information complexity is high, the tabular-alone format shows the highest accuracy. The advantages of graphical and pictorial formats reported in earlier studies are not supported, a finding which has significant implications for the manner of disclosure of financial statements through graphical means.     

Human Resources in the People's Republic of China: the ‘Three Systems’ Reforms

This article discusses the human resources implications of the comprehensive ‘three-systems’ reforms in state-owned enterprises introduced in the early 1990s in Northeast China in terms of labour contracts, rewards systems and social insurance. It critically examines current developments in industrial relations vis-a-vis each of these categories. the upshot of these changes is a move away from the old ‘iron-rice-bowl’ employment system towards a labour-market ‘with Chinese characteristics’. Such a strategy is not without its political risks, particularly if it leads to greater joblessness without a nationwide welfare ‘safety-net’ being fully put in place. If the ‘three systems’ reforms were first piloted in 1992, it was not until 1995 that they began to be extended nationally. Such changes may be of considerable potential importance to HRM managers in multinational companies interested in forming strategic alliances and joint ventures with Chinese state-owned enterprises.