Dividing or uniting Europe? Internet usage in the EU

Using Heckman’s sample selection procedure, we first analyse access to the Internet and then specific Internet usage given individual Internet access, across the EU countries using Eurobarometer data for 2004 and 2005. Internet access varies more within countries than between them. But the reverse is the case for Internet usage given access. Two specific country attributes are identified: first gross national income and the rule of law reflecting the extent to which people have confidence in the security of the Internet. Further variables also emphasize the importance of trust.     

Corporate Sustainability Performance and Idiosyncratic Risk: A Global Perspective

Does investing in sustainability leaders affect portfolio performance? Analyzing two mutually exclusive leading and lagging global corporate sustainability portfolios (Dow Jones) finds that (1) leading sustainability firms do not underperform the market portfolio, and (2) their lagging counterparts outperform the market portfolio and the leading portfolio. Notably, we find leading (lagging) corporate social performance (CSP) firms exhibit significantly lower (higher) idiosyncratic risk and that idiosyncratic risk might be priced by the broader global equity market. We develop an idiosyncratic risk factor and find that its inclusion significantly reduces the apparent difference in performance between leading and lagging CSP portfolios.     

U.S. insurance trade

The U.S. has had significant trade deficits in insurance for several years. This paper examines the reasons for such big annual deficits. A large home market, a low reinsurance capacity, and the conservative attitude of U.S. insurers toward foreign markets are identified as the primary contributors to such deficits. The paper also addresses the issue of how U.S. insurers can improve their international competitive position. By expanding their operations abroad, particularly in Mexico and Latin America, and by actively participating in the fast-growing Asian markets, American insurers have their greatest chance to accomplish that objective.     

Interest rate clustering in UK financial services markets

This study forwards an explanation and empirical investigation of price clustering in retail banking markets. It is proposed that price or interest rate clustering forms in retail markets as firms wish to maximise returns from customers, some of whom have difficulties in recalling and processing price information. This theory is developed and tested using a dataset of retail interest rates from the UK which enables interest rate clustering to be viewed in both lending and investment markets, and at different levels of financial involvement. It is found that interest rate clustering occurs in a manner consistent with firms maximising returns from customers. These findings are viewed to be a key policy concern for financial regulators and firms concerned with consumer protection.     

Mixed planning approach at Geneva

This article reports on the proceedings of WARC-ORB-85, held in Geneva in August and September this year. Agreements reached included a priori allotment planning for new frequencies, improved coordination, with the possibility of burden sharing in accommodating new entrants for currently used C band and Ku band frequencies, and first come, first served for other frequencies — a mixed planning approach. The article also considers the issues remaining after the conference that will dominate the intersessional period to WARC-ORB-88.     

Access to information resources: The developmental context of the space WARC

The first session of the Space WARC to be convened in August 1985 is concerned with ‘principles, technical parameters, and criteria for planning’. This article argues that the actual agenda is much greater: it concerns equitable access to the tools of the information revolution. The author proposes an agenda for action including modification of the INTELSAT VI series and measures to ensure access to terrestrial facilities. The author believes that failure to view the Space WARC in a developmental context could result in an impasse at the conference and perpetuation of inequitable access to information resources.     

Short reviews

FOUR SHORT REVIEWS ON THE THEME OF MARKETS AND JOBS

Leedale, M. 1988: Working Paper No. 108 — Intervention and the East London Clothing Industry. Oxford Polytechnic School of Planning, £4.00 plus 85p p. & p.

Lemaitre, J. (ed) 1988: Long Term Unemployment: Which Way Out? Brussels: Elise Publications, 10/Ecus/BF440 + BF50 postage.

Stewart A. 1968: Planning Homes and Jobs: The Sheffield Report Sheffield City Council, £10.00 including postage.

Association of County Councils, Association of District Councils, Association of Metropolitan Authorities. Stimulating Local Enterprise, the local authority role. £5.50 including postage.

Anglo German Foundation and Otto-Blume-lnstitut fur Sozialforschung und Gesellschafts politik, 1988, Local Labour Market Policies in Britain and Germany, London: Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society. 17 Bloomsbury Square. London WC1A 1LP, £4.50.

Watson, J. (ed), 1989: An Introduction to Political Economy & Planning: Four Interesting Essays, Anglia Higher Education College.

Report for the Commission of Bishop's Council of Diocese of Birmingham, 1988: Faith in the City of Birmingham. Exeter. Paternoster Press, £3.50.     

Henry George's Political Critics

A bstract .   Twelve political criticisms of George were paramount after he formed his own political party in 1887: (1) his refusal to join with other reformers to link his proposals with theirs, or to absorb theirs into his own campaign; (2) his singular focus on ground rent to the exclusion of other forms of monopoly income, such as that of the railroads, oil and mining trusts; (3) his almost unconditional support of capital, even against labor; (4) his economic individualism rejecting a strong role for government; (5) his opposition to public ownership or subsidy of basic infrastructure; (6) his refusal to acknowledge interest-bearing debt as the twin form of rentier income alongside ground rent; (7) the scant emphasis he placed on urban land and owner-occupied land; (8) his endorsement of the Democratic Party's free-trade platform; (9) his rejection of an academic platform to elaborate rent theory; (10) the narrowness of his theorizing beyond the land question; (11) the alliance of his followers with the right wing of the political spectrum; and (12) the hope that full taxation of ground rent could be achieved gradually rather than requiring a radical confrontation involving a struggle over control of government.