Hedging against the ‘interventionists’

This critique of Lebeck's paper challenges some of his assertions and raises a number of questions about the operation of futures markets.     

The measurement of the relative influence of husband and wife upon a purchase decision

There is some empirical evidence which indicates that current measures of the relative influence of husband and wife upon a purchase decision may not be completely valid. In this paper, a new measure of relative influence is presented. Extent of influence is determined primarily by the extent that one member of the dyad's brand preferences are influenced by the other member or by comparing the brand purchased to the brand preferences of one or both members of the dyad. This measure should be an improvement over current measures because respondents do not need to define the term “influence” with the measure, and because it assumes that an individual may not be able to determine whether an attempt to influence a decision is successful and/or assess whether he or she influences a decision without attempting to do so.     

The role of research in policy development: The creation of the IMF cereal import facility

This paper challenges the erroneous, yet growing, view that social science research has little impact upon public policymaking. The case example here is the research lending up to the creation of the cereal import facility at the International Monetary Fund. The study is divided into two parts: (1) an intellectual analysis of the major research work on the cereal facility; and (2) a political study of how this research work was picked up and translated into reality by policymakers. It concludes that social science research must be careful, timely and ‘translatable’ if it is to be effectively used by policymakers.     

Of lessees,lessors, and discount rates and whether pigs have wings

Recent articles on leasing suggest five principles that should aid analysts to understand this durable, much misunderstood financial instrument. The principles are 1) the lessor must be happy too, 2) the operating inflows have nothing to do with the case, 3) financial, like physical, matter tends to be preserved, 4) debt is a function of after-tax flows, and 5) inability to use tax shelters cuts two ways. In this paper we illustrate these principles and use illustrations to demonstrate that each of these principles has merit. We argue as well that the impression, often left by the principles, that leasing seldom benefits all parties to the transaction is incorrect.     

Wages and profits: A comment

Clark's (1979) model for the levels of aggregate wages and profits is respecified and reestimated using modern econometric techniques. One result is a more efficient estimate of the capital-labor substitution elasticity. In addition, the presence of very strong positive autocorrelation in one of the equations sheds doubt on Clark's assertion that a model for the levels of these variables is more appropriate than a model for their year-to-year changes.     

The effect of business taxation on the location of industry

A theoretical and econometric model is specified which permits the estimation of the effect of local taxes on economic activity in a locality. A location elasticity of ?0.35 is found for manufacturing activity in New York City with respect to business taxes, while no significant elasticity is found for nonmanufacturing activity. The deadweight losses and revenue effects of the tax are analyzed and calculated, as are the optimal second-best taxes for a locality.     

On the importance of a generalist conception of human resource management: A cross-national look

What is human resource management? The term risks becoming devalued if it is associated with particular approaches to the management of people, to labor relations, or to the development of the personnel function. These aspects of HRM have to be seen in context—indeed, HRM is best viewed as the management of organizational context, as “governance.” This is the challenge for general management, supported by personnel generalists.