free market agenda

Following the General Election Russell Lewis suggests items that should be included in the agenda of free marketeers, His radicalism should satisfy the most demanding - income tax at 15p in the pound after ten years!     

'Industrial demonopolization and competition policy in Poland and Hungary': a comment'

Protestations that ‘neither neoclassical economics nor Western experience offers clear guidelines concerning optimal competition policies towards state-owned firms in a transition economy’ are overly pessimistic. Both sources suggest the importance of attacking barriers to entry into markets, especially when those barriers are associated with vertical integration or exclusive vertical contracts by already dominant enterprises. Beyond this, they demonstrate that different priorities of enforcement are appropriate in transition economies and that competition advocacy is especially important in this context.     

When worlds collide: The implications of panel data-based choice models for consumer behavior

Panel data, both diary and scanner, have been analyzed by marketing scientists for over thirty years. One of the important uses of panel data is to better understand consumer behavior by developing and testing hypotheses using the revealed preference data rather than experimental data that uses only self-reported behavior or behavior in a simulated choice environment. The purpose of this paper is to suggest areas of research where panel data can be used to better understand the underlying behavior of the panel members.     

Predatory investment U.S. vs. IBM

This paper examines the most likely example of anticompetitive behavior uncovered in the U.S. vs. IBM antitrust suit: the introduction by IBM of its 360/90 ‘super computer’ in response to the introduction of a similar machine by a competitor. The two leading competing hypotheses are examined — that IBM introduced its system as a weapon of predation, and that IBM expected the system to be profitable — and both are found wanting. The paper concludes that IBM almost certainly knew that the system would be unprofitable, but that the hypothesis of predation is less appealing than that of product-market signaling.     

A Comparative Analysis of Developments in Industrial Democracy

The purpose of this article is to analyze recent developments in industrial democracy (worker participation in management) in a comparative perspective. To give the article focus, the period from the mid-1980s onward is selected for analysis, and four countries (United States, Germany, United Kingdom, and Australia) are targeted for systematic examination. Developments in both indirect and direct participation are explained on the basis of elements in the models that we present. Three particularly strong conclusions emerge. First, there are clearly a number of common forces that have affected developments in each country, but the precise forms of participation that have emerged vary in many key respects. Second, organizational changes at the level of the firm appear to be particularly important in the recent period. And finally, the very complex patterns that are observable reinforce our theoretical arguments of the importance of a complex multivariate approach.     

AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF BETA STABILITY: PORTFOLIOS VS. INDIVIDUAL SECURITIES

The concept that portfolio betas are more stable than betas for individual securities has become the 'conventional wisdom' in finance; statements to this effect may be found in many popular finance textbooks. The objective of this paper is to challenge the conventional wisdom. A random sample of individual stock returns and portfolio returns is used to compare the empirical distribution of beta shifts for individual firms and portfolios. The number of statistically significant changes in beta are no greater for individual securities than for portfolios.     

Economic Impacts of Technology,Population Growth And Soil Erosion At Watershed Level: The Case Of the Ginchi in Ethiopia

A dynamic bio‐economic model is used to show that, without technological and policy intervention, soil loss levels, income and nutrition could not be substantially or sustainably improved in a highland area of Ethiopia. Although cash incomes could rise by more than 40% over a twelve‐year planning period, average per ha soil losses could be as high as 31 tonnes per ha. With the adoption of an integrated package of new technologies, however, results show the possibility of an average two‐and‐a‐half‐fold increase in cash incomes and a 28% decline in aggregate erosion levels even with a population growth rate of 2.3%. Moreover, a minimum daily calorie intake of 2000 per adult equivalent could be met from on‐farm production with no significant increases in erosion. However, higher rates of growth in nutritional requirements and population introduce significant strains on the watershed system. From a policy perspective, there is a need for a more secure land tenure policy than currently prevailing to facilitate uptake of the new technology package, and a shift from the current livestock management strategy to one that encourages livestock keeping as a commercial enterprise. It would also imply a shift to a more site‐specific approach to land management.     

Book review

Organizational Learning and Competitive Advantage Betrand Moingeon & Amy Edmondson London, Sage Publications, ISBN 0-7619-5167-9

Strategic Manufacturing for Competitive Advantage: Transforming Operations from Shop Floor to Strategy Steve Brown London, Prentice Hall, 1996, 363 pp, ISBN 0-13-184508-X.