Size Does Matter: Technical and Scale Efficiency in Indian State Tax Jurisdictions

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used to measure tax efficiency in 15Indian states from 1980/81 to 1992/93. Tax efficiency is shown to be conditional on state gross domestic product (SDP), agriculture's share in state SDP,and a poverty index. The considerable remaining efficiency differences areattributable to the small size of some tax jurisdiction rather than to technical inefficiency. Multilateral Malmquist tax indices show that six of the states were consistently efficient, while three were consistently inefficient. Tax efficiency grew at an average annual rate of 3.9% until 1986/87, but growth ceased after that date for all but two states.     

Pupils' attitudes to technology in key stage 3 of the national curriculum: A study of pupils in South Wales

This paper describes part of a continuing research project based at the University of Wales, Swansea, which is investigating pupils' attitudes to a range of national curriculum subjects. There has been no major national funded project to evaluate the national curriculum from pupils' perspectives. The market economy philosophy adopted by the present government is restricted in the meaning of choice given to consumers of education. Pupils' opinions are rarely sought out.The paper describes the results gained from a Likert-type attitude scale and subsequent follow-up interviews with a selection of pupils aged 13 and 14 years in secondary schools across South Wales.     

Game equilibrium modelling

Summary Non-cooperative game theory has in recent years become one of the main tools in the social sciences and economics. It deals with decision problems of more than one (rational) player. The actions of those players result in outcomes that are the best that may have happened to a player, given the actions of the other players. This is precisely the content of the 'Nash equilibrium' concept. It would be nice when each game had a unique Nash equilibrium. Unfortunately, both non-existence and multiple equilibria occur. An important role in game theory is played by the information available to the players. Among the economic applications are: the Theory of Industrial Organisation, Bargaining and the Economic Theory of Information.Comments by Eric van Damme and Casper de Vries on an earlier draft of this paper have greatly improved the presentation. I have benefited from the comments of the editor and an anonymous referee ofDe Economist. For all omissions, all possible errors and the revealed views in this paper, I alone am responsible.     

A strategy,structure, human resource database: OASIS

Traditionally, strategic planners and human resource professionals have taken separate approaches in their attempts to improve organization functioning. As a result, strategic planners lack important information that affects the implementation of their plans and human resource managers have little impact on the strategic direction of their orgnizations. The University of Michigan, Hay Associates, and The Strategic Planning Institute have come together in a new venture to build a multicompany database that links organization characteristics and human resource and strategic planning practices with data on company financial performance. The database will be used to make intercompany comparisons on significant organization variables and to identify those practices that lead to improved financial performance.     

The (Price) Core of a Bertrand–Edgeworth Economy

In this paper, a solution concept from cooperative game theory is applied to a special kind of oligopolistic markets. Traditionally, oligopoly theory uses non-cooperative game theory. The cooperative solution concept, the Price Core, has been specially developed for this paper. In contrast to the Core, in the Price Core, different consumers may pay different prices for the same commodity. An example shows that the set of competitive allocations may be a proper subset of the Core and that the Core may be a proper subset of the Price Core. Received July 24, 2001; revised version received February 25, 2002 Published online: December 5, 2002     

HR professional development: creating the future creators at the University of Michigan Business School

This article focuses on the development of mid‐ to senior‐level HR professionals through a public program offered at the University of Michigan Business School. We suggest that developing HR professionals requires a theory of competencies about what HR professionals must know and do and a development experience based on those competencies. We highlight how we have created a competency model over the last decade and designed our HR executive programs to deliver against this model. We also show the pedagogical techniques used to deliver these competencies. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Bargaining and Search with Incomplete Information about Outside Options

This paper considers a model of bargaining in which the seller makes offers and the buyer can search (at a cost) for an outside option; the outside option cannot be credibly communicated, and the seller's offer is recallable by the buyer for one period. There are essentially two equilibrium regimes. For sufficiently high search cost, the game ends immediately; otherwise the search occurs in equilibrium. Compared to the case where the buyer can communicate his outside option, the seller is worse off, and the game results in search for a smaller set of values of the search cost, i.e., less equilibrium delay.C72.     

Graphical analysis and financial classification: A case study

This paper illustrates the use of graphical analysis as a complementary diagnostic tool in financial classification problems. For more than two decades statistical models have been used frequently to understand the information content of multivariate data in the context of financial classification. These statistical classification models can be complemented by the use of computer-generated multidimensional data displays and graphical analysis. We illustrate the use of the scatterplot matrix, which is the simplest and very effective form of graphical analysis on a sample of bankrupt and non-bankrupt firms. The paper demonstrates the complementary nature of the scatterplot matrix for tree-structured classification models.     

The link between resources and type of diversification: Theory and evidence

In this paper we theoretically and empirically investigate the idea that firms diversify in part to utilize productive resources which are surplus to current operations. Knowledge of these resources allows us to make predictions about the direction of a firm's expansion. In particular, we suggest that excess physical resources, most knowledge-based resources, and external financial resources are associated with more related diversification, while internal financial resources are associated with more unrelated diversification.     

Experience,change and vulnerability: consumer education for older people revisited

Everyday consumer transactions have the same potential for unexpected consequence whatever the age of the consumers involved. Young and old alike can find that products and services fail to live up to performance claims and that they are left with problems not easily resolved, or costs that are difficult to recover. While not overlooking consumer heterogeneity – especially on the basis of age – older consumers are arguably distinguishable in terms of the social and financial context in which they make decisions and attempt to redress problems. In 1988, attention was drawn to the need for consumer education to look beyond generic objectives to the specific situation of older people and their transactions. More than a decade later, in an allegedly consumer‐oriented society, the issue is revisited here to assess the argument's current relevance. Despite the increased availability of information for decisions and consumer protection, difficulties persist in the way information is presented or accessed. Chameleon‐like, old problems become manifest in new unfamiliar ways and invalidate experience. Consumer education today is as important as it was in 1988. Arguably, technological change means that the need for a better understanding of dangers, rights and redress procedures is greater than ever and the needs of older people in increasingly complex private and public sector transaction environments are all the more pressing. However, a fundamental revision of the way we approach the design of products, services and environments is needed to improve prospects for older consumers.