Labour disputes,investment decisions and the judiciary

In this article, we show that the presence of the judiciary in the background of labour relationships is not neutral within these relations: its potential intervention in case of an ex-post layoff and conflict over the severance payment can promote ex-ante efficient specific investment decisions. This ability to promote efficiency depends on the judiciary's aptitude to balance out the parties' ex-post bargaining powers. Interestingly one of the results shows that, if workers' bargaining power in wage negotiations is low, which implies that they expect low returns from continuing the relationships, an increase in the exogenous layoff probability should lead judges to be less lenient towards them.     

The Pro‐Poorness,Growth and Inequality Nexus: Some Findings From a Simulation Study

An income growth pattern is pro‐poor if it reduces a (chosen) measure of poverty by more than if all incomes were growing equiproportionately. Inequality reduction is not sufficient for pro‐poorness. In this paper, we explore the nexus between pro‐poorness, growth, and inequality in some detail using simulations involving the displaced lognormal, Singh–Maddala, and Dagum distributions. For empirically relevant parameter estimates, distributional change preserving the functional form of each of these three‐parameter distributions is often either pro‐poor and inequality reducing, or pro‐rich and inequality exacerbating, but it is also possible for pro‐rich growth to be inequality reducing. There is some capacity for each of these distributions to show trickle effects (weak pro‐richness) along with inequality‐reducing growth, but virtually no possibility of pro‐poorness for growth which increases overall inequality. Implications are considered.     

The interaction of message frames and reference points in prosocial persuasive appeals

This research seeks to reconcile inconsistent results obtained in prior framing research in prosocial persuasion contexts by proposing that the reference point (self or self‐other) invoked in a persuasive appeal moderates the impact of a particular message frame (positive or negative) on attitudes and behavioral intentions. Two experiments were conducted in which frame and reference point were manipulated in persuasive messages promoting either recycling or prevention of HPV, a sexually transmitted disease. The results indicate that in persuasive social contexts, negative frames may be most persuasive with self‐referencing appeals while positive frames work best when benefits to self as well as others are emphasized. This suggests that developers of prosocial communications should be cognizant of both the message frame and the reference point invoked in these messages in order to have maximum persuasion impact. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Feminist praxis in a trade union gender project

Research as political feminist engagement is explored through analysis of a collaborative west–east European gender equality project with trade union women. Similarities with and differences between forms of labourist and feminist research praxis are discussed. These are brought together through the Freirian concept of conscientizacao or conscientisation, a dialogic pedagogy which has at its core the dialectic of reflection and action. It is proposed that such a framework can be usefully deployed for gendering analysis of ‘engaged’ industrial relations.