Landowner valuation of a working wetlands program in the Prairie Pothole Region

Wetlands conservation within agricultural working lands is currently incentivized by land retirement programs and farm program eligibility criteria. Private ownership of the majority of agricultural lands within which these wetlands reside and growing opportunity costs facing landowners put wetlands at risk and motivate consideration of alternative policy options. A choice experiment was used to estimate likelihood of enrollment in a hypothetical working wetlands program. Landowners preferred shorter contract lengths, higher rental rates, midterm adjustment rather than a fixed‐rate contract, the right to conduct managed burning on their lands‐containing program wetlands, and no conservation practice requirement. Landowners with higher expressed valuation of conservation and who favor protecting wetlands, believe that small wetlands are important for their farms, who would not drain any of their wetlands, and raise ruminant animals are more inclined to participate in the program. Recommendations include consideration of program targeting during program design, practicing creative thought regarding program promotion, and exploration of no‐loss wetlands solutions, especially those market based.     

Public Contracts as Accountability Mechanisms: Assuring quality in public health care in England and Wales

Contracting in the public sector is designed to enhance the accountability of service providers to their funders. The idea is that quality is improved by the use of service specifications, monitoring of performance and imposition of contractual sanctions. Socio-legal and economic theories of contract indicate that it will be difficult to make and enforce contracts to achieve this. The results of a study of National Health Services contracting in England and Wales are reported. We conclude that contracts alone are not sufficient to improve accountability – collibration of various regulatory measures (including more hierarchical mechanisms such as performance targets) is required.     

IT管理误区：不只是简单削减成本

世界各地的经济体都在经历经济滑坡,企业正在寻求削减开支、改善收支状况的良方。虽然信息技术（IT）在企业的成本基数中所占的比例通常较小,但企业高管们仍不可避免地会将他们的注意力转向IT预算,对其进行大幅削减。但是,在某些情况下,IT投资通过创造新的效益和增加收入,可以为企业的收支状况创造更多的价值,其规模可远远超过按惯例削减IT成本所能节省的资金。     

Competition and Regulation of Mobile Money Platforms in Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Kenya and Uganda

Review of Industrial Organization - We analyze the competition issues in mobile money in Kenya–where Safaricom is the market leader–and in Uganda: where the market is duopolistic. We...     

Skilled maintenance trades under lean manufacturing: Evidence from the car industry

This article explores how skilled maintenance trades have fared under lean automotive manufacturing, a cohort of workers relatively neglected in the literature. Historically, such trades possessed a distinct ‘craft consciousness’ derived from apprenticed-acquired skill, autonomy in job execution, strict job boundaries and relative occupational status and prestige. The article assesses how lean has impacted this craft tradition over time, drawing on a case study of one UK car plant to assess its trajectory across three decades. Four different skilled cohorts—electrical, mechanical, control engineers and die maintenance fitters—are examined to gauge respective trends in skill, autonomy, demarcation and status. While the study finds variation in experiences across different trades, the general trend points to a deterioration in work conditions on all four benchmarks of assessment. The article concludes by inferring implications for the future trajectory of skilled trades considering recent accounts provided in Industry 4.0 narratives.