Alternative balanced scorecards built from paradigm models in strategic HRM and employment/industrial relations and used to measure the state of employment relations and HR system performance across U.S. workplaces

This paper constructs alternative balanced scorecards based on high‐performance work system (HPWS) and employment relations system (ERS) models. The models are depicted and compared in diagrams and used as framework skeletons for building separate HPWS and ERS scorecards, intended to provide a detailed data picture of the operational health and performance of an organization's employment/HR system and its operations, processes, and inputs/outputs. The scorecards are filled in with nationally representative data from 2,000+ U.S. workplaces using more than 50 employment/HR indicators, as reported by separate panels of managers and employees. The indicators for each workplace are aggregated into an overall HR/employment system score, ranked from low‐to‐high, and graphed as frequency distributions. These distributions provide a unique snapshot picture of the mean and dispersion of the state of employment relations and HR system performance for companies across the United State. They also reveal that “models matter” since the HPWS and ERS scorecards provide distinctly different evaluation assessments.     

Moral hazard and subsidized crop insurance

Along with adverse selection, moral hazard is one of the major hurdles that private and public insurance plans must contend with. Moral hazard occurs if risks are endogenous to a producer's behavior and if the insurer is unable to properly monitor the insured. We review the role of moral hazard in the US crop insurance program. We conduct an empirical analysis of one important aspect of the US crop insurance program—prevented planting. This provision provides indemnity payments if conditions are not suitable for planting. The program has been the subject of considerable controversy, especially during 2019, when the rate of claims is expected to be especially high. Because loss adjustors may encounter difficulties in assessing the weather conditions associated with prevented planting claims, the program is susceptible to moral hazard. We consider the extent to which prevented planting claims may be endogenous to prices. We find significant evidence of moral hazard. The likelihood of prevented planting claims increases as the expected market price decreases or as fertilizer costs increase for corn and soybeans in the Prairie Pothole Region and for grain sorghum and cotton in all states.     

Changing dynamics of the overseas marketplace for TV programming: The rise of international co-production

This article examines the recent strategy adopted by the US television production industry in coping with the changing worldwide media environment. Developments in the USA include the commercial networks' declining audience share, the increasing penetration of cable TV, and spiralling production costs; abroad, the coming of age and increased sophistication of the televesion industry and the strengthening of programme import regulations are significant. Access to foreign markets is becoming critical to the financial equation of US producers and distributors of high-budget TV programmes. International co-production is the response to the new dynamics of world-wide television programming and a product of economic necessities.     

Technical change and work organisation

The increasing use of new technology in factories has radical implications for the modern organisation and experience of work. All the things which determine the experience of the worker are being redesigned around the latest equipment and machinery. This article reports on case studies concerned with the introduction of new technology in British industry.     

Pension ratios as “correlates” of municipal pension underfunding

Unlike the corporate sector, detailed estimates of unfunded pension liabilities for most local governments are not available. Thus, prior research on the association between unfunded pension liabilities and municipal creditor decisions (Copeland and Ingram 1983; Marks and Raman 1985) has implicitly assumed that certain pension ratios are good surrogates for municipal pension underfunding. In this paper, we rely on a theoretical model by Ehrenberg (1980) to test empirically the appropriateness of pension ratios as “correlates” of municipal pension underfunding. These ratios were found to be correlated with pension underfunding, although they accounted for only about 30 percent of the variance in the underfunding variable.     

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE SPECIALISTS' PRICE-SETTING BEHAVIOR: AN EXPERIMENT

This study uses an experimental approach to analyze variables hypothesized to influence specialists' behavior in establishing opening prices on the New York Stock Exchange. Participants in this study are actual NYSE specialists. A factorial design is employed, and data are analyzed using the analysis of variance model. Current demand and supply data are shown to have the most significant impact on specialists' decisions, with limit order book information and inventory position also proving to be significant and consistent for specialists participating in the study.     

Will developing country debt forgiveness increase agricultural trade?

Latin American countries are important customers in international agricultural trade. However, between 1981 and 1987, U.S. agricultural exports to these countries declined by almost 50%. One explanation for the above decrease is the change in financial conditions facing many countries in this region. Outstanding debt in the Latin American countries continued to rise through the 1980's, reaching over $120 billion for Brazil and Mexico by 1987. In this paper, we develop an import model which considers the effect of the debt crisis on the ability of developing countries to purchase agricultural commodities in world markets. We estimate the model for four countries: Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Venezuela. The estimated results are used in a simulation model to obtain the effects of a 50% debt forgiveness scenario. Results indicate only a modest improvement in agricultural imports of the four Latin American countries considered in this study. These four countries would expand agricultural imports by $400 million per annum given the debt reduction.