Optimal Monetary Policy Rules and Inflation Targets: Are Australia,Canada, and New Zealand Different from the U.S.?

Outwardly, the central banks of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the U.S. follow somewhat different approaches to controlling inflation. The U.S. does not explicitly target inflation while the other countries do. Canada and New Zealand have target bands for inflation while Australia has a point target. Results in this paper nevertheless find broad similarities in the monetary policies of these countries. Each can be described as having pursued optimal inflation targeting (explicit or implicit), with heavy interest rate smoothing, but perhaps placing little weight on output variability. We argue that interest rate smoothing is used to introduce gradualism into the response of monetary policy to inflation. We show that given heavy interest rate smoothing, a concern for output variability is redundant.     

Testing the effectiveness of regulatory interest rate risk measurement

A depository institution's interest rate risk (IRR) exposure is the sensitivity of its earnings or market value of equity to changes in interest rates. Since the mid-1980's, bank regulators have developed broadly applied, centralized IRR models which are used to help assess individual institutions' capital adequacy. This paper tests the effectiveness of the earliest of these regulatory IRR models: the incomegap estimates calculated by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) during the latter 1980's. Despite the many problems caused by the broad application of generic assumptions and the presence of embedded options, we find that the FHLBB gap estimates provided a significant measure of IRR exposure. We believe that these results bode well for the success of ongoing, more sophisticated regulatory modeling efforts.     

European Air Transport — Uncabin the Consumer

The deregulation of air routes between London and Dublin has brought travellers the benefits of competition; and, hardly surprisingly, as prices have fallen the numbers making the journey have increased. Sean Barrett, Lecturer in Economics, and Mark Purdy of Trinity College, Dublin, compare the effects of liberalisation with those of the restricted entry to the European air transport market. How long, they ask, will the European consumer be denied similar benefits?     

Dimensions of Performance Effectiveness In High-Involvement Work Organisations

Sharon Parker, Sean Mullarkely and Paul Jackson, who are researchers in the MRC/ESRC Social and Applied Pyschology Unit at the University of Sheffield, draw on detailed case study evidence to consider the substantial changes to the shop floor roles entailed in high involvement work organisations. They argue that specification of the performance requirements of such roles will facilitate employees taking on appropriate behaviours, reduce role confusion, and enable consistency in human resource practices. They discuss the use of repertory grids to explore the models of effective performance held by production managers and derive nine critical dimensions of shop floor employee performance from the analysis. These contain specific behavioural examples and are grouped around four higher-order dimensions: ‘process ownership’, ‘social skills’, ‘personal style’, and loss prevention’. These dimensions form the basis of a broader specification of the skills, knowledge and general orientations required by shopfloor employees in high involvement roles.     

The determinants of West German exports of manufactures: An integrated demand and supply approach

Zusammenfassung Die Determinanten der westdeutschen Exporte von verarbeiteten Produkten. Eine Integration von Angebots- und Nachfragefaktoren. - Die Autoren entwickeln ein Modell, das das Gewinnmaximierungsverhalten der in offenen Volkswirtschaften operierenden Unternehmen ausdrücklich mikro?konomisch erkl?rt und setzen es ein, um zu zeigen, da? die westdeutschen Exporte und Exportpreise gut durch die inl?ndischen und ausl?ndischen Preise, die internationale Nachfrage, den inl?ndischen Kapitalstock und die Kosten erkl?rt werden k?nnen. Die dynamischen Versionen des Modells best?tigen, da? die westdeutschen Exporte von verarbeiteten Produkten, Gütern des Maschinenbaus und Automobilen schneller auf Ver?nderungen der internationalen Nachfrage und der Rentabilit?t im Exportgesch?ft reagieren als auf Ver?nderungen in der preislichen Wettbewerbsf?higkeit.

---

Résumé Les déterminants de l’exportation des produits manufacturés allemands. Une intégration des facteurs de l'offre et de la demande. - Les auteurs construisent un modèle, dans lequel la maximation des profits par des firmes aux économies ouvertes est expliquée par des facteurs microéconomiques. Puis ils utilisent le modèle pour démontrer que les exportations et les prix d'exportation du RFA peuvent être bien expliquées par les prix étrangers et domestiques, la demande internationale, le stock de capital domestique et les co?ts. Les versions dynamiques du modèle confirment que les exportations des produits manufacturés, des produits de la construction mécanique et des automobiles réagissent plus vite aux changement dans la demande internationale et dans la rentabilité d'exportation qu’aux changements dans la compétiveté de prix.

---

Resumen Las déterminantes de la exportaciones manufactureras de Alemania Occidental. Un enfoque integrado de oferta y demanda. - Utilizando un modelo derivado que considera explícitamente los fundamentos microeconómicos de las decisiones de maximizatión de ganancias de una empresa que opera en una economía abierta, se explican los movimientos de las exportaciones y de los precios de exportatión alemanes con los movimientos en los precios nacionales, precios extranjeros, la demanda mundial, el stock de capital national y los costos. Las versiones dinámicas del modelo confirman que las exportacíones manufactureras alemanas, en particular de productos de ingeniería mecánica y automotores, responden más rápidamente a cambios en la demanda mundial y la rentabilidad de las exportaciones que a cambios en la competitividad derivada del precio.

     

COGNITIVE MAPPING AND REPERTORY GRIDS FOR QUALITATIVE SURVEY RESEARCH: SOME COMPARATIVE OBSERVATIONS

A study of business strategy was carried out in 86 organizations in the crop protection industry. A multi-operational approach was used to enable validation of data by triangulation, including cognitive mapping used in an unusual way. This provided an unintended opportunity to conduct a comparative evaluation of interactive investigational methods in a relatively controlled, if unsophisticated manner. Results were interesting enough to suggest that further investigation is needed into the impact of various subject-generated factors such as face validity on methodological effectivness, as well as more traditional criteria such as construct validity of particular methods. Accordingly, process issues affecting repertory grids, cognitive mapping and software for the analysis of cognitive maps (COPE) are described and discussed. Recommendations are made for improvements to mapping and software and further studies suggested.     

How Can We Better Understand Current and Future Workforce Values in the Global Business Environment?

Our study tested the predictive power of socioeconomic development theory and age differences theory to explain work values across cultures and across age groups. We compared the values orientations of future managers, business students under the age of 25, with those of current managers and professionals, who we split into three decade groups (30 to 39, 40 to 49, and 50 to 59). Our respondents (n = 1,518) come from six diverse societies: Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, Russia, the United States, and Vietnam. Our findings indicate that both theories contribute to our understanding of work values and behaviors. One implication is that while socioeconomic development theory makes an important contribution, it is clearly not sufficient by itself to explain work values/behavior differences in the global context. The study findings and the discussion of them will hopefully provide multinational managers with a clearer assessment of current and future workforce values/behavior. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.