Does Service Bundling Reduce Churn?

We examine whether bundling in telecommunications services reduces churn using a series of large, independent cross sections of household decisions. To identify the effect of bundling, we construct a pseudo‐panel dataset and utilize a linear, dynamic panel‐data model, supplemented by nearest‐neighbor matching. We find bundling does reduce churn for all three “triple‐play” services. The effect is only “visible” during times of turbulent demand. We also find evidence that broadband was substituting for pay television in 2009. This analysis highlights that bundling helps with customer retention in service industries, and may play an important role in preserving contracting markets.     

Career motivation measures: a test of convergent and discriminant validity

Two existing measures of career motivation were used to collect data from a sample of Canadian managers and professionals recently displaced due to downsizing. Measurement models assessed the unidimensionality, reliability and discriminant validity of career motivation sub-domains while structural rnodcls were used to assess convergent validity. The career resilience construct received the most support but propositions about career identity end insight were also supported. The results clarify the riomological net of career motivation theory and produce an integrated, composite career motivation scale.     

Do small firms compete with large firms?

Despite the pervasive phenomenon of scale economies, the majority of firms have always been small firms. The emergence of small firms as a means of economic development on both sides of the Atlantic has been one of the major new topics of economic policy since the 1980s. This has drawn renewed attention to the question: How are small firms able to exist? The theories of strategic niches and dynamic complementarity imply that small firms seek out markets where they are able to avoid competition with their larger counterparts. This paper tests the validity of these theories by examining the extent to which small-firm profitability is set by large-firm profitability. Considerable evidence shows that the price-cost margins of small firms do not tend to follow those of large firms. This supports the theory that small firms pursue a strategy of producing in distinct product niches.     

美国人如何看待中国的崛起

中国的GDP超过日本成为仅次于美国的世界第二大经济体,对此美国人有何看法？我认为,当美国人感觉受威胁时,他们会调转头米关注中国自身的内部问题,并希望借此使中国放缓经济发展的脚步。     

A Permanent Jobs Program for the U.S.: Economic Restructuring to Meet Human Needs

This paper proposes a jobs program to address both the chronic problems of unemployment and underemployment in the U.S. economy and the debilitating economic and political impacts of growing inequality in the U.S. The jobs program consists of three parts. First, the reduction of unemployment and underemployment by stimulating output, either under public or private auspices, of infrastructure, or social investment, in areas such as: transportation, education, health care, human services, and parks. Second, to recognize and respond to the failure of the private market to provide needed current public services, which will include a massive upgrading of pay and working conditions of these ??human service?? jobs by expanding public employment, sharing the costs of an enhanced and expanded social safety net. Third, to, explicitly and as a matter of industrial policy, target government investment and overall job growth towards the industries of the future, particularly in the areas of energy, agriculture, and other broadly defined ??green?? technologies.     

DO SMALL FIRMS' PRICE-COST MARGINS FOLLOW THOSE OF LARGE FIRMS?

The paper investigates the extent to which small firms' price-cost margins follow those of large firms. A two-equation model is used with data for 36 Dutch three-digit manufacturing industries over the period 1975–86. The effects of market structure characteristics are also examined. The main result is that small firms (10-50 employees) appear to have the freedom to set prices above cost independently of larger firms in the same industry.