'You don't know what you've got till it's gone': re-contextualising the origins, development and impact of the call centre

This paper locates the emergence of call centres within the broader political economy. We demonstrate how British Gas responded to privatisation, restrictive regulation and the need to deliver shareholder value by radically changing work organisation. Using documentary evidence and oral testimonies, we show how the call centre was pivotal to tightening control over the labour process, to intensifying work and transforming the experience of work.     

Gambling Taxation: A Comment

This comment demonstrates that the application of the GST to gambling represents a shift from a commodity tax to an ad valorem tax. Theory and evidence suggest the move is likely to be welfare enhancing.     

Value-relevant Sociology: The Analysis of Subjects of Social Consequence, Including Implications for Human Well-being

Abstract . The need for sociology to become socially relevant is now being articulated by professional sociologists. While the doctrine that the discipline should be value-free allows sociologists to serve and promote the social values of others, a vital sociological endeavor requires more. Classic sociology was value-relevant. To be socially relevant, it is essential that the discipline become consciously value-relevant, not value-free. For sociology to distinguish important from unimportant social problems and actions requires judgments of relative social value. What social theory, what social policies, and why? Significant sociology analyzes the consequences of social structure, forces and change. This cannot be done in a value-free context, especially so for sociologists who are interested in matters of social policy.     

On the robustness of short–term interest rate models

This paper investigates the robustness of a range of short–term interest rate models. We examine the robustness of these models over different data sets, time periods, sampling frequencies, and estimation techniques. We examine a range of popular one–factor models that allow the conditional mean (drift) and conditional variance (diffusion) to be functions of the current short rate. We find that parameter estimates are highly sensitive to all of these factors in the eight countries that we examine. Since parameter estimates are not robust, these models should be used with caution in practice.     

Personal computers and society

The University of Southern California (USC) has initiated a technology assessment of the personal computer, partially supported by the US National Science Foundation. The ultimate purpose of a technology assessment is to help provide a more human future with less of a shock. The technology assessment at USC is directed towards examining the potential impacts of personal computers and identifying the public policy issues associated with these possibilities. This report explains the major factors being explored during the assessment.     

Grain reserves — unresolved issues

The authors focus on three relatively neglected issues in the debate over grain reserves: the role of private stockpiling and its relation to publicly held (or subsidized) reserves; the nature of export demand for US wheat and its relation to reserves proposals; and the distribution of (wheat) crop yields as it may affect the operation of a reserves plan. It is argued that these crucial issues bear directly on the feasibility of any proposed scheme, and will determine important attributes of any feasible scheme.