Fiscal constraints and financial regulation in economic and monetary union

It is already well understood that economic and monetary union (EMU) will imply the centralisation of much of economic policy, including the setting of the euro interest rate and restrictions on the fiscal freedom of participating countries. In this article it is argued that fiscal harmonisation will go further than an obligation to adhere to the deficit limit of the'convergence criteria': It is also deduced that central control over the regulation of financial institutions will be necessary for EMU to function.     

Evaluating Instream Flows for Recreation: Applying the Structural Norm Approach to Biophysical Conditions

Instream flow can affect recreation quality and is a major issue on rivers where humans manage flows through dams and diversions. The structural norm approach offers a theoretical and methodological model for collecting, organizing, and analyzing evaluative information that relates flow and recreation quality. This article reviews work from several flow-recreation studies that have used this approach, extending it beyond social impact contexts and illustrating its adaptability to other natural resource issues. The article reviews the general structural norm approach and how it has been adapted to examine instream flows for recreation, and provides a list of studies that have utilized it. A review of methods issues describes study types, question formats, and purposive sampling. A review of key findings focuses on incremental relationships between flows and recreation quality, differences in evaluations by craft, skill level, or type of opportunity, the concept that recreation opportunities occupy niches in the flow regime, and emerging hypotheses about relationships between flows and aesthetics.     

Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Value: Disaggregating the Effects on Cash Flow,Risk and Growth

This paper investigates the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on firm value and seeks to identify the source of that value, by disaggregating the effects on forecasted profitability, long-term growth and the cost of capital. The study explores the possible risk (reducing) effects of CSR and their implications for financial measures of performance. For individual dimensions of CSR, in general strengths are positively valued and concerns are negatively valued, although the effect is not universal across all dimensions of CSR. We show that these valuation effects are principally driven by CSR performance associated with better long run growth prospects, with an additional minor contribution made by a lower cost of equity capital.     

Existence of competitive equilibrium when incomes may be zero

Summary In a pure exchange economy, there exists a price vector which is a quasi-equilibrium (Debreu 1962), but this may not be a competitive equilibrium if some individuals' demand functions are discontinuous because their incomes may be zero. We show nonetheless, in a pure exchange economy with free disposal, that there is asequence of prices approaching the quasi-equilibrium along which total excess demands tend to a non-positive limit.Comments on earlier drafts from K. J. Arrow, D. Duffie, H. E. Scarf, and D. Schmeidler are gratefully acknowledged.     

Directional output distance functions: endogenous directions based on exogenous normalization constraints

In response to a question raised by Knox Lovell, we develop a method for estimating directional output distance functions with endogenously determined direction vectors based on exogenous normalization constraints. This is reminiscent of the Russell measure proposed by Färe and Lovell (J Econ Theory 19:150–162, 1978). Moreover it is related to the slacks-based directional distance function introduced by Färe and Grosskopf (Eur J Oper Res 200:320–322, 2010a, Eur J Oper Res 206:702, 2010b). Here we show how to use the slacks-based function to estimate the optimal directions.     

Labour unions and industrialrelations in Japan: crumblingpillar or forging a ‘third way’?

This article offers a wide ranging survey of labour unions and industrial relations in contemporary Japan, through a framework which encompasses corporate governance and national level concertation. This helps framework helps to understand pressures for change from corporate and economic restructuring. As a result of restructuring, labour unions do not face the same direct threats as counterparts elsewhere, but they do face challenges to assuming an active role in the process.     

Hotel operator motives in UK sale and leaseback/management-back transactions

Sale and leaseback has become a major financing method in the hotel industry in the UK over the last 10 years, followed more recently by sale and management-back. This article, using interviews with current practitioners, examines the motivations of owner/operators in adopting these methods, identifying differences from generic motives in previous literature relating to the subject. It finds that, because of the integral part that hotel properties play in the delivery of customer service there are differences of opinion on the benefits of such an approach and there is a need to adopt some different considerations in the decision to use this method of funding.