Democracy and trade unions*

In the context of the current debate over the Government's proposals to regulate by statute the internal democratic arrangements of trade unions, this article examines the origins of the debate, the case for legislative intervention, the actual proposals and their wider implications.     

Protection and welfare in the presence of dynamic learning

Zusammenfassung Protektion und Wohlfahrt unter der Annahme eines dynamischen Lernprozesses. - Dieser Aufsatz untersucht die Wohlfahrts?nderungen in einem Land, das auf ein Gut Z?lle erhebt, bei dem “learning by doing” m?glich ist. Es zeigt sich, da▾ die Protektion die Wohlfahrt selbst dort vermindert, wo das Lernen steigende Skalenertr?ge mit sich bringt, und da▾ Lernen generell die Kosten der Protektion vergr?▾ert. Eine Folge dieses Vergr?▾erungseffektes ist, da▾ sich Wohlfahrtsverluste minimieren lassen, wenn die Industrien geschützt werden, die sich bereits in einem fortgeschrittenen Stadium des Lernprozesses befinden. Handelsbeschr?nkungen durch Drittl?nder verringern (erh?hen) die Wohlfahrt von Export-(Import-)L?ndern. Die Verteilung dieser Gewinne (Verluste) im Zeitablauf h?ngt teilweise von der Lernrate in dem betreffenden Land ab.

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Résumé Protection et bien-être en présence d’un processus dynamique d’apprendre. - Dans cet article l’auteur analyse le changement en bien-être d’un pays qui impose ou est soumis aux taxes commerciales sur un bien qui est ouvert au “learning by doing”. Il démontre que le bien-être est réduit par la protection même si le processus d’apprendre exhibe des rendements croissants d’échelle et que, généralement, ce processus agrandit les co?ts de protection. Une implication de cet effet d’agrandissement est que les pertes en bien-être sont minimisées par des industries protégées qui se trouvent déjà dans des stades avancés du processus. Restrictions imposées par des pays tiers réduisent (augmentent) le bien-être des pays exportatrices (importatrices). La distribution intertemporales de ces gains (pertes) dépend, partiellement, du taux de croissance du processus d’apprendre d’un pays.

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Resumen Protectión y bienestar en presencia de aprendizaje dinámico. - Este trabajo analiza cambios en el bienestar de un país que impone o está sujeto a impuestos al comercio sobre un producto para el cual rige el lema “learning by doing”. Se demuestra que la protectión reduce el bienestar incluso cuando el aprendizaje presenta beneficios crecientes y que, en general, el aprendizaje aumenta el costo de la protección. Una implicación de este efecto de magnificación es que se minimizan las pérdidas de bienestar al proteger industrias que se encuentran en niveles avanzados de aprendizaje. Restricciones arancelarias frente a o en terceros países disminuyen (aumentan) el bienestar de países exportadores (importadores). La distribución intertemporal de estas ganancias (pérdidas) depende, en parte, de la tasa de aprendizaje de un país.

     

LINKAGES BETWEEN MACRO AND MICRO BUSINESS ACCOUNTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR ECONOMIC MEASUREMENT

The paper shows the relationship between microbusiness accounting based on double-entry bookkeeping and macroeconomic accounting based on quadruple-entry bookkeeping. In order for microaccounts to successfully aggregate into macroaccounts (i.e. preserve macro/micro linkages), quadruple-entry bookkeeping requires that the traditional double entries, recorded by transacting microbusiness units, be "consistent" with each other. In fact national economic accounting implicitly assumes that such consistency is maintained when national "aggregates" are uniquely extracted from national accounts and when national "identities" are claimed to hold true.
The main purpose of the paper is to show important examples where quadruple-entry consistency is not satisfied. These examples typically involve "complex" economic transactions between business units in which the legal form of the transactions do not necessarily represent their economic substance. When this occurs, different business units have genuinely divergent conceptions and perceptions with respect to their mutual economic transactions. Therefore, microbusiness accounts cannot be successfully aggregated into macroeconomic accounts without violating the integrity of microdecision making records.
The conclusion of the paper introduces a new theory called Perpetual Imbalanced Accounting. The theory shows that inconsistent (or imbalanced) economic accounting does tend to become consistent (or balanced) over sufficiently long time periods. Therefore, we must adopt a more dynamic view of national accounting if we desire to preserve successful macro/micro linkages. However, the problems of imbalanced macroaccounting and its statistical consequences cannot be entirely avoided no matter how long the accounting time period is taken. All of the above have important implications for the revision of the United Nations System of National Accounts.     

Book review

New Technologies and Work: Capitalist and Socialist Perspectives A. Francis & P. Grootings (Eds) London, Routledge, 1989, 335 pp.

New Technology and Manufacturing Management: Strategic Choices for Flexible Production Systems M. Warner, W. Wobbe & P. Brodner (Eds) Chichester, Wiley, 1990, 265 pp.

The Single European Market and the Information and Communication Technologies Gareth Locksley (Ed.) London and New York, Belhaven Press, 1990, 290 pp., £27.50.

Technology and Competition in the International Telecommunications Industry David Charles, Peter Monk & Ed Sciberras London and New York, Pinter Publishers, 1989, 170 pp., £35.00.

Organising for Manufacturing Innovation: The Case of Flexible Manufacturing Systems Harry Boer Enschede, Febodruk, 1990, 253 pp.

Future Work: Seven Critical Forces Reshaping Work and the Work Force in North America Joseph F. Coates, Jennifer Jarratt & John B. Mahaffie Sun Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass, 1990, 2 vols, 445 pp. & 120 pp., $49.50.

Science, Technology and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany John Gimbel Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 1990, 280 pp., £29.50 (hbk).     

Managerial ownership of voting rights: A study of public corporations with dual classes of common stock

Managers of firms with dual classes of common stock can choose different quantities of votes for a given cash flow interest by choosing different quantities of the two securities. We study managerial stock holdings in 45 dual class firms and find that vote ownership per se is an important motivation for these holdings in that corporate officers and their families hold a median 56.9% of the votes and 24.0% of the common stock cash flows. We also find significant family involvement in many sample firms, and document four case studies in which explicit acquisition premiums were paid for superior voting shares.     

Specification and Testing the Profit-Concentration Relationship in Australian Manufacturing

Research in the mainstream of industrial organization has tested the relationship between profit rates (an index of performance) and concentration (an index of structure) including other variables (e.g., capital intensity, advertising intensity, growth, measures for barriers to entry, import and export intensity). Specification of this relationship is often largely ad hoc and its testing is subject to a number of statistical criticisms. Major criticisms that require attention are: i) omission of the relevant explanatory variables, ii) simultaneous causality among variables, and iii) measurement error in the variables. This paper derives a profit-concentration relationship from a well known oligopoly model. Empirical analysis is carried out against a sample of Australian manufacturing industries for 1984–85. The resulting estimates suggest the importance of dealing with each of the specification and testing issues in explaining the profit-concentration relationship.