Updating and Estimating a Social Accounting Matrix Using Cross Entropy Methods

The problem in estimating a social accounting matrix (SAM) for a recent year is to find an efficient and cost-effective way to incorporate and reconcile information from a variety of sources, including data from prior years. Based on information theory, the paper presents a flexible 'cross entropy' (CE) approach to estimating a consistent SAM starting from inconsistent data estimated with error, a common experience in many countries. The method represents an efficient information processing rule-using only and all information available. It allows incorporating errors in variables, inequality constraints, and prior knowledge about any part of the SAM. An example is presented, applying the CE approach to data from Mozambique, using a Monte Carlo approach to compare the CE approach to the standard RAS method and to evaluate the gains in precision from utilizing additional information.     

IMPACT OF THE MINIMUM WAGE ON THE INCIDENCE OF SECOND JOB HOLDING IN BRITAIN

The advent of any earnings boost, such as provided by the introduction of a minimum wage, might be expected to reduce the supply of low‐paid individuals wanting to hold a second job. This paper uses difference‐in‐differences estimation on a panel of individuals matched across successive Labour Force Surveys around the time of the introduction of the national minimum wage in the United Kingdom in order to estimate the impact of the minimum wage and its subsequent upratings on second job working. There is little evidence to suggest that the extra pay provided by the introduction of the minimum wage was sufficient to affect the incidence of second job holding significantly. However, hours worked in the main job by second job holders may have risen relative to those not covered by the minimum wage; and hours worked in second jobs may have fallen for those whose second job was initially below the minimum.     

Foreign trade,resource allocation,and structural adjustment in Yugoslavia: 1976–1980

A multisector computable general-equilibrium model for the Yugoslav economy is used to analyze some of the internal and external causes of the foreign-exchange crisis of the 1976–1980 period. Methodologically, its modeling approach, appropriately modified for institutional differences, can be used to study the behavior of socialist economies in which prices play a role in resource allocation. Empirically, the results suggest that internal policy errors and systemic factors were the predominant force behind Yugoslavia's growing foreign-exchange shortage between 1976 and 1980. J. Comp. Econ., March 1985, 9(1), pp. 46–70. University of California, Berkeley, California 94720.     

The re-emergence of the public accounting profession in China: A hegemonic analysis

This paper draws on Gramsci's concept of hegemony to examine and explain the circumstances leading to the re-emergence of the public accounting profession in China in the early 1980s. In particular, the paper attempts to understand the political and ideological influence upon the professionalisation process of the Chinese accountants. The paper not only highlights a major difference between the professionalisation process of the public accounting profession in China as compared to the West, but also the authoritative and dominant role assumed by the Chinese state in the whole societal set-up. Through effectively exercising its political and ideological leadership, the state successfully mobilised the Chinese accountants in the implementation of its economic-related agenda. The paper demonstrates that the state has clearly achieved hegemony within the accounting community, and further suggests that the state-accounting profession relationship could be likened to the father–son relationship as encompassed within the Confucian notion of wu lun.     

Exchange Rates,Domestic Prices,and Central Bank Actions: Recent U.S. Experience

Central banks that are primarily concerned with the behavior of prices will use monetary policy to try to insulate prices from exchange rate changes. Prices then appear unresponsive to changes in the exchange rate. The observed relationships between prices and the exchange rate will reflect central bank actions instead of the underlying relationship between exchange rates and prices. This paper explicitly recognizes the role that policy plays in determining the observable relationships between exchange rates and prices, and in so doing, it illustrates how the underlying relationships can be unraveled. Using three different empirical approaches, we examine the recent experience of the United States. We find that the prices of various nondurable goods, and even of some services, respond modestly to the exchange rate, and we find that the responses emerge most clearly when the role of monetary policy is explicitly considered. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the Federal Reserve acts to mitigate the effects of exchange rate fluctuations on domestic prices.     

The London Business School with Gower Publishing

Collapsing oil prices and a falling dollar set the background to a Budget in which the Chancellor, hamstrung by lower oil revenues, was seen as having little room for manoeuvre. In fact the sharp fall in the sterling price of oil has provided him with the perfect excuse for not making significant cuts in personal income tax that were largely irrelevant to the needs of the economy. Instead of a boost to household demand we have had, thanks to OPEC, a transfer to companies in the form of a reduction in costs. This should enable them to expand output against a background of falling inflation. Our post-Budget assessment of macroeconomic prospects (Section I), made on the Treasury's assumption of a $15 oil price, shows output growing by 2 1/2 per cent this year and inflation falling below 3 per cent in 1987. We are thus less optimistic than the Treasury about output but more optimistic about inflation. How was the Chancellor able, within the confines of the Medium-Term Financial Strategy, to give anything away having lost so much oil revenue? A detailed analysis of the PSBR forecast (Section II) reveals good reasons why non-oil tax revenues should be some £3 1/2n higher than forecast this time last year. But, because we still expect public spending to be above the official figures, our PSBR forecast is £1bn higher than the Treasury's. Although the macroeconomic impact of the Budget was small (especially in relation to that of the fall in oil prices which preceded it), it continued the process of tax reform. We focus, in Section III, on the new proposals to deal with the problem of the pension fund surpluses to which we drew attention in the November issue of Financial Outlook. We conclude that the proposed measures could have a larger effect on tax revenues in the longer term than is indicated by the Treasury's Budget estimates.     

Reflections on longitudinal action research with the English National Health Service

This paper reflects on a longitudinal collaborative action research programme between the Centre for Research in Strategic Purchasing and Supply and the UK National Health Service Purchasing and Supply Agency that has operated since 1995. During the collaboration, research has changed practice and practice has changed research. A framework for analysing change is introduced as a means of examining how supply strategy has changed during the course of the research. The framework is applied to three supply strategy cases of prosthetics, clinical waste and cardiology, illustrating how practice and research have changed and influenced the production of knowledge over time. The methodological, theoretical and managerial implications of such longitudinal action research programmes are reflected on.     

BlackBerry in red China: Research in motion navigates institutional barriers in an emerging market. Case comment: RIM in China

Research in Motion's (RIM's) entry into the Chinese market during a time when many distractions —principally a patent dispute with NTP—occupied management's attention was not a foregone conclusion. China remained a difficult market to crack. One holdup was an impasse with regard to RIM's use of encryption technology and the Chinese authorities' desire to monitor e‐mail traffic and content. Here the technical and political concerns were entangled. To further complicate things, the entirety of RIM had until recently been preoccupied with the legal settlement with NTP in the United States. Issues in this study highlight real‐world dilemmas in a thriving firm. The founders are still in charge, and new markets present themselves regularly. A very real challenge is divided attentions. The standstill over market entry calls for integrative thinking—bringing together disparate and contradictory elements for resolution. RIM's way out will invariably involve embracing complex relationships in order to find a resolution to the various conflicting institutional forces. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Cooperation strategies in port-oriented bulk supply chains: aligning concept and practice

It seems intuitively obvious that firms in supply chains may have more to gain than to lose from learning to cooperate; but it is now more than two decades since Poirier [1999. Advanced Supply Chain Management. San Francisco, CA: Barrett-Koehler] and others called for cooperation in order to capture mutual gains in supply networks and even now ‘cooperation is neither common nor easy’. The simple fact is that not only are supply chains exceptionally complex but so too is the ‘process of cooperating’ – often in the context of antitrust legislation and competition policy. This paper argues that there is a critical need to rethink the principles and processes of cooperation within the broader framework of the competitive behaviour of firms and business strategy. Particularly, it suggests that the relatively recent thinking of Greenwald and Kahn [2005 Greenwald, B., and J. Kahn. 2005. Competition Demystified A Radically Simplified Approach to Business Strategy. New York, NY: Portfolio, The Penguin Group. [Google Scholar]. Competition Demystified A Radically Simplified Approach to Business Strategy. New York, NY: Portfolio, The Penguin Group] in their ‘radically simplified approach to business strategy’ offers sound conceptual insights into cooperation and cooperative strategies for firms not only in markets but also in chains. Furthermore, it notes that the analytical framework for cooperation and cooperative strategies which the authors develop is far removed from the notion of cooperation as ‘commitment and trust and shared thinking’ and from ‘buyer/seller reciprocity’ and ‘collaborative attitudes’ which tend to underwrite much contemporary thinking and research. The paper also argues that the Greenwald and Kahn framework – its single intelligence model of cooperation and cooperative strategies – resonates with real-world relevance, at least for particular supply chains. The paper focuses attention on research into globally significant export coal chains from major east coast Australian ports and in brief case studies finds substantial alignment between concept and practice.     

Germany and the Euro-Zone Crisis: The European Reformation of the German Banking Crisis and the Future of the Euro

Analysis of the German response to the euro crisis has been framed around a narrative of the relationship between domestic sacrifice and hegemony and sustains an assumption that the German commitment to the euro is proven. Such analysis downplays the importance of the banking crisis in Germany in explaining the decision-making of the German government around the euro-zone debt crisis. Giving German interests in relation to the German banking crisis analytical weight can explain both the positions taken by the German government and their consequences for the underlying structural problems the euro-zone faces as a monetary union. Since the outcomes of German policy have advanced German interests, German handling of the euro-zone crisis cannot sustain a claim that Germany has demonstrated its commitment to the euro.