Unions and Efficient Training

The paper examines the optimal level of training investment when trained workers are mobile, wage contracts are time-consistent, and training comprises both specific and general skills. The firm has ex post monopsonistic power that drives trained workers' wages below the social optimum. The emergence of a trade union bargaining at the firm-level can increase social welfare, by counterbalancing the firm's ex post monopsonistic power in wage determination. Local union-firm wage bargaining ensures that the post-training wage is set sufficiently high to deter at least some quits, so that the number of workers the firm trains is nearer the social optimum     

Controlling International Joint Ventures: An Investigation of Australian Parent Partners

International joint ventures (IJVs) are an important modern organisational form, with their complexity presenting significant management and control issues. Our research uses a cross-sectional survey of Australian parent partners of IJVs to provide insights into the characteristics of Australian companies and their IJVs, performance outcomes and choices of parent partners management control systems (MCS) design in terms of operational areas they seek to control (focus), the extent to which they exercise control (extent) and the mechanisms of control used (formal and informal). Australian parent partners of IJVs generally are, partnering in countries close to Australia in the Asia-Pacific, in activities similar to those they undertake in Australia, contributing a significant amount of resources, but overall have only limited IJV experience. Australian parent partners focus on a limited set of controls, often with tighter formalised control structures. Finally, overall they are satisfied with the performance of their IJVs, with higher satisfaction for organisational learning and product/customer dimensions than financial performance.     

Work and Volunteering: Longitudinal Relationships between Work‐Related Experiences and Volunteering Behaviour

This study examines the effect of work‐related experiences on employees’ engagement in community volunteering, using data from a British longitudinal panel of employees. Using a novel analytical approach that separates variation in volunteering due to within‐person changes in work conditions from variation due to between‐person work differences, we more robustly test existing and new hypotheses about the effects of work on volunteering. New to this literature, we find that commuting and satisfaction with job experiences are significant predictors of community volunteering, both the likelihood to volunteer and volunteering frequency. In turn, volunteering determinants previously explored with cross‐sectional data, such as managerial and professional jobs, employment sector and hourly paid contracts, are no longer statistically significant in the within‐person models. We discuss a number of important theoretical and practical consequences of these findings.     

Poverty and Inequality in The Soeharto Era: An Assessment

This paper surveys the evidence on trends in poverty and inequality during the years of Soeharto's presidency. That Indonesia saw a decline in the incidence of poverty, and improvements in other welfare indicators such as infant mortality rates and literacy rates over these years, seems indisputable. Comparative studies show that by the latter part of the 1980s, the headcount measure of poverty in Indonesia was below that in the Philippines although above that in Malaysia and Thailand. But relative poverty has declined more slowly, and indeed increased in some urban areas between 1987 and 1996. The paper also examines evidence on the determinants of rural poverty in Indonesia in 1993, and suggests that rural development programs targeted to the specific needs of poor people in poor areas will be essential if rural poverty is to be further reduced in future years.     

Contributors

After a quarter century of environmental regulation in this country, significant environmental threats remain. Why has the regulatory system failed to fully address our environmental problems?

The goal of this paper is to suggest that the roots of environmental problems, and the failure of environmental regulation, are deeply embedded in the processes that generate economic growth. The logic of the argument to be presented will take the following form: long-run economic growth relies on the creation of new industries and new forms of economic activity; these new forms of economic activity create new kinds of environmental problems; these new forms of economic activity constitute vested political interests that oppose environmental regulation. Each of the three main sections of the paper will provide theoretical and empirical justification for each component part of the basic argument.     

Do employers discriminate by gender? A field experiment in female-dominated occupations

We test for gender discrimination by sending fake CVs to apply for entry-level jobs. Female candidates are more likely to receive a callback, with the difference being largest in occupations that are more female-dominated.     

Market structure and bid-ask spreads: IBIS vs Nasdaq

A comparison is made between the bid-ask spreads of 30 high volume German stocks traded on IBIS and 30 high volume US stocks traded on Nasdaq. IBIS and Nasdaq are best described as agency and dealer auction markets, respectively. On average, the market spread for these IBIS and Nasdaq stocks is the same, but for the 10 most active stocks in each market, IBIS spreads are considerably lower. For these latter stocks, IBIS spreads change in a predictable manner throughout the day. Nasdaq spreads do not. The critical factor appears to be the unrestricted access of suppliers of immediacy that is distinctive for agency auction markets.     

Interest Rates are Low but are Mortgages Cheap?

It is claimed that mortgages are at present cheap so that people can afford higher mortgages, and hence more expensive houses, than previously. But that claim is based on money illusion. Nominal interest rates are at present 'low' primarily because of relatively low inflation. People contemplating mortgages should look at real values or they may face an unexpectedly large debt burden in the future.