Hybrid allocation mechanisms for publicly provided goods

Motivated by efficiency and equity concerns, public resource managers have increasingly utilized hybrid allocation mechanisms that combine features of commonly used price (e.g., auction) and non-price (e.g., lottery) mechanisms. This study serves as an initial investigation of these hybrid mechanisms, exploring theoretically and experimentally how the opportunity to obtain a homogeneous good in a subsequent lottery affects Nash equilibrium bids in discriminative and uniform price auctions. The lottery imposes an opportunity cost to winning the auction, systematically reducing equilibrium auction bids. In contrast to the uniform price auction, equilibrium bids in the uniform price hybrid mechanism vary with bidder risk preferences. Experimental evidence suggests that the presence of the lottery and risk attitudes (elicited through a preceding experiment) impact auction bids in the directions predicted by theory. Finally, we find that theoretically and experimentally, the subsequent lottery does not compromise the efficiency of the auction component of the hybrid mechanisms.     

NHS AS STATE FAILURE: LESSONS FROM THE REALITY OF NATIONALISED HEALTHCARE

The British National Health Service is often held up as a beacon of egalitarian healthcare, funded through general taxation and free at the point of use. Instituted by arguably the most socialist government in British history after World War II, it has manifested all the flaws that might be expected from a state monopoly: waste, inefficiency, under‐investment, rationing and constant political interference. The result has been poor health outcomes for British citizens compared with other wealthy countries, and a failure by the NHS to live up to its founding principles of comprehensive, unlimited healthcare and egalitarianism.     

How sponsorship transparency mitigates negative effects of advertising recognition

The proliferation of covert online advertising formats such as advergames has raised concerns about consumers’ ability to recognize such content as advertising and about how recognition affects evaluative outcomes. The present research utilized an online experiment (N?=?179) to examine differences between covertness of advertising format (advergame vs. online video commercials) on advertising recognition, and whether sponsorship transparency mediates – and mitigates – the negative effects of advertising recognition on attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand, and purchase intent. The results show that covertness of advertising format, recognition, and sponsorship transparency all shape consumers’ responses to online ads. Specifically, the predicted negative indirect effect of covertness of advertising format on attitudes and behavioral intention via advertising recognition reversed valance when sponsorship transparency was included in the serial mediation model.     

The Australian waterfront: breaking monopoly power

Waterfront unions in Australia, as in other countries, enjoyed considerable monopoly power for many years. But, after a ten-week dispute in 1998, there is a 'new and very different culture' on the Melbourne waterfront where operations now 'rank among the world's best'.     

Austrian economics behind the iron curtain: The rebirth of an intellectual tradition

This article documents the spread of the Austrian school of economics in central and eastern Europe following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Extensive research based on interviews, fieldwork and archival analysis records the development of distinct epistemic communities throughout the region and the subsequent networks that have emerged to unite them. In doing so, we provide a rare history of ‘centre-right’ political ideas in eastern Europe, a chronology of the development and influence of libertarianism, cursory intellectual biographies of neglected Austrian economists and empirical evidence that contributes to the epistemic communities approach to the study of idea diffusion. The findings support the view that the policy reforms during the transition process were built on neoclassical orthodoxy rather than ‘neoliberalism’ or ‘market fundamentalism’ but point to a fast-growing epistemic community that has had increasingly significant policy influence.     

Determinants of occupational change and mobility in rural India

With a view to redress the dearth of economic analysis on occupational dynamics in rural household economies, this study examines the nature and characteristics of occupational change and mobility in rural India. Using the unique WIDER data-set from six villages in West Bengal, India the factors causing a change of primary occupation among those who tried to change occupation over a twelve-month recall period has been analysed. Bivariate probit estimates jointly determining the probability of trying to change occupation and having been successful suggest that success in changing occupation depends crucially on socially constructed ‘status’- being older, male, from larger farming families or having higher schooling experience. They also exemplify the effects of regional diversity, levels of prosperity and different patterns of employment between agricultural and non-agricultural activities.     

When partnerships don't ‘match‐up’: an evaluation of labour–management partnerships in the automotive components and civil aviation industries

Following the agenda for partnership research set out recently in this journal, ‘exemplar’ case studies from the automotive and civil aviation industries are subject to the litmus (process) test of academic pluralists and the acid (outcomes) test of academic radicals. On both tests, the results have been disappointing, especially for trade unions and their members. However, while mutual gains from partnership agreements are not probable in a UK context, they are still possible, as comparative research in the civil aviation sector serves to illustrate.