Foreign investment and industrial transformation: A Brazilian case study

The causes and consequences of ‘denationalization’, that is, the shift from local to foreign ownership, are examined for the case of the Brazilian pharmaceutical industry. The negative consequences that have been attributed to denationalization by 'dependency theory' are substantiated, but only in part. It is argued that the most interesting contrasts are not between the behavior of foreign and local firms in the industry but between the private sector and a recently created state enterprise, and that future analysis of dependent capitalist development should focus on the interaction of the state and foreign capital.     

Some economic effects of standards—Comment

The bulk of the literature on the empirical validation of the purchasing power parity (PPP) has been based on cointegration, although on rare occasions band-spectrum analysis has also been used. The former is tied down to the use of ‘notional’ time in the analysis of systems away from equilibrium, and the latter is circumscribed by the Slutzky-Yule effect. Both these drawbacks are sought to be remedied in the present paper, which seeks to bring to bear upon the PPP a new approach derived from the concept of a time-varying spectrum. Both absolute and relative versions of the doctrine are tested for ten advanced economies over the post-1973 period. Uniform rejection of the PPP occurs with the US $ as base, but with centring on the DM, the evidence seems to be supportive of the PPP (in its relative version) for three European countries.     

Domestic and trade impacts of foot‐and‐mouth disease on the Australian beef industry

Australia is the sixth largest producer of beef and the second largest exporter of beef. Average beef exports from Australia are approximately 65 per cent of the total amount of beef produced, about 1.3 million tonnes. Australia is particularly vulnerable to diseases that are not endemic to the country and could close or disrupt its export markets for beef. In this study, we construct a bioeconomic optimisation model of the Australian beef industry that captures production and consumption decisions, domestically and internationally, and the impacts on the beef industry of a potentially catastrophic disease, foot‐and‐mouth disease (FMD). This study analyses localised to large‐scale outbreaks and suggests that changes in economic surplus because of FMD range from a positive net gain of $57 million to a net loss of $1.7 billion, with impacts on producers and consumers varying depending on the location of the outbreak, control levels and the nature of any trade ban.     

Job security regulations and the dynamic demand for industrial labor in India and Zimbabwe

Government permission is required to dismiss or lay off even a single worker in India and Zimbabwe. Dynamic labor demand equations, derived from a CES cost minimization model, are estimated for 64 manufacturing industries in these two countries. The data reveal a substantial reduction in demand for workers but no slowing in adjustment of number of employees following enactment of the labor laws. In India, no comparable reduction in labor demand occurred in small scale plants uncovered by the job security regulations. Among larger Indian plants, the drop in labor demand is estimated to be largest in industries where: coverage of the legislation is more extensive, private ownership dominates, and there are fewer union members.     

Trade union recruitment strategies: facing the 1990s

Despite a high level of initiatives few unions have developed systematic recruitment strategies, in particular when measured against three key criteria-the employment of a ‘dedicated’ national official; a specific budget; and a comprehensive monitoring system. This reflects an organisational ‘culture’ restricting recruitment potential.     

Pigou, Tiebout, property taxation, and the underprovision of local public goods

Pigou's proposition that the use of distorting taxes rather than neutral head taxes reduces public service levels is examined in this paper. A simple model with a national system of competing local governments is utilized to demonstrate that the use of a distorting property tax on mobile capital decreases the level of residential public services. The case where public services are an intermediate producer good is also considered.     

Environmental Quality and Social Equality:

Abstract . The problems and contradictions which arise when an economically “poor” region is mandated to remain environmentally “pure“ are examined. The Adirondack region of New York State is such an area, being now protected by the 1972 Adirondack Park Land Use Plan. This limitation on development for environmental reasons has serious consequences for the 120,000 permanent residents within the park boundaries who, through their legislators, vigorously opposed the controls. A number of examples of the conflicts which have arisen are cited and a framework for “comprehensive” rather than “fragmented”planning is suggested.     

The use of cycles? explaining employee involvement in the 1990s

Drawing on evidence from twenty-five case studies from different sectors and parts of the country, the authors challenge Ramsay's influential ‘cycles of control’ theory of participation as a managerial response to industrial relations pressures from below. Through a series of ‘ideal type’ scenarios, they indicate the range of management motives behind the new ‘wave’ of employee involvement schemes.     

Design considerations for neyman-pearson and wald hypothesis testing

Summary The Neyman-Pearson Lemma describes a test for two simple hypotheses that, for a given sample size, is most powerful for its level. It is usually implemented by choosing the smallest sample size that achieves a prespecified power for a fixed level. The Lemma does not describe how to select either the level or the power of the test. In the usual Wald decision-theoretic structure there exists a sampling cost function, an initial prior over the hypothesis space and various payoffs to right/wrong hypothesis selections. The optimal Wald test is a Bayes decision rule that maximizes the expected payoff net of sampling costs. This paper shows that the Wald-optimal test and the Neyman-Pearson test can be the same and how the Neyman-Pearson test, with fixed level and power, can be viewed as a Wald test subject to restrictions on the payoff vector, cost function and prior distribution.