Capital in the Twenty-First Century: Reinterpreting the fundamental contradiction of capitalism

At a theoretical level this article discusses Piketty’s hypothesis that the distribution of income and wealth tends to become more concentrated over time when the rate of return on capital is greater than the growth rate of real output. We develop a post Keynesian model of growth and distribution showing that once capital is differentiated from wealth, the increase in income and wealth concentration actually occurs when the rate of valorization of financial and real estate assets is greater than the growth rate of real output, and that this situation may be triggered by financial liberalization.     

Clustering consistency analysis

Cluster analysis is a frequently used technique in marketing as a method to develop partitions or classifications for market segmentation, product positioning, test market selection, etc. Because of the vast diversity in the assortment of clustering algorithms available, it is often times not obvious which algorithm or technique should be employed. It is often recommended that the marketer perform more than one cluster analysis on the same data set and compare representations as a reliability check. A methodology for evaluating the consistency of different clusterings is introduced via contingency table analysis by log-linear models. In addition, insight is provided as to selecting a “best” representative clustering by examining Stewart and Love's (1968) redundancy measures. Bell Laboratories     

How many voters are needed for paradoxes?

Summary. This paper presents a general procedure for finding profiles with the minimum number of voters required for many important paradoxes. Borda's and Condorcet's classic examples are revisited as well as generalizations. Using Saari's procedure line, we obtain an upper bound for the minimum number of voters needed for a profile for which the Condorcet winner is not strictly top ranked for all weighted positional procedures. Also we give a simple upper bound on the minimum number of voters needed for a set of prescribed voting outcomes. In contrast to situations wherein small numbers of voters are needed, we consider paradoxes requiring arbitrarily large numbers of voters as well as large numbers of alternatives. Finally we indicate connections with statistical rank based tests. Received: April 18, 2001; revised version: May 25, 2001     

Global Strategy in the Internet Era

This article examines the joint effects on business strategy of the Internet and globalization. It develops a framework for evaluating how the Internet affects the globalization potential of individual industries and the global strategies that companies should adopt. The impact of the Internet will not be uniform. Not only do its direct effects vary from one industry to another, but also it speeds up globalization at different rates in different industries. The article shows how to use the Internet to support five types of global strategy: market participation, products and services, activity location, marketing, and competitive moves.     

Formal Rehabilitation Procedures and Insolvent Firms: Empirical Evidence on the British Company Voluntary Arrangement Procedure

The British Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) is a relatively new debtor rehabilitation process intended to help financially troubled companies, particularly SMEs, resolve their difficulties without being forced into liquidation by secured creditors anxious to recover their funds. This paper is based on a survey conducted by Milman and Chittenden for the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants that is the largest and most comprehensive on the subject of British CVAs. It has three principal objectives: (i) to outline the defining characteristics of CVAs; (ii) to analyse the relationships between CVA performance and contextual factors; (iii) to provide policy recommendations based on those findings. Among other things we find that CVA success is most closely associated with sound fundamental prospects for recovery and supportive creditors. Our principal recommendation is that ways should be found of lowering the fixed costs of CVAs to make the procedure feasible for a larger number of small firms.     

A randomized trial to assess the effectiveness of an infant home safety programme

The aim of this study was to test an intervention aimed at addressing the risk of injury in infants 2 - 12 months of age. A non-blinded, randomized controlled trial was conducted, whereby parents were randomly assigned to either a control or one of two intervention groups. Parents completed questionnaires regarding safety behaviours and injuries at the 2 (baseline), 6 and 12 month immunization visit at the community health unit. During the 2 month visit to the health unit, the two intervention groups received a home safety kit containing nine items, an instructional brochure and a risk assessment checklist. Subjects randomized to the safety kit plus home visit group also received a standardized home visit from a community health nurse. Two of the 14 parental safety behaviours showed a significant increase in use among parents in the intervention groups. Neither of the interventions was associated with a reduction in parent-reported injuries among children. It was concluded that home visitation may provide a beneficial adjunct to the provision of safety devices and may increase use by parents.