Wage formation in the context of collective bargaining

Summary The article analyzes wage developments resulting from collective bargaining between one union representing all employees and one employers' organization representing all employers. The context is an economy consisting of two markets: a labour market and a goods market. An analysis has been made of the costs and benefits for both parties in case of a strike. The strength of both parties has been analyzed, firstly under the assumption of perfect information and thereafter under the assumption of imperfect information. Important determinants of wage increases appear to be the strike costs, the horizon, the bargaining skills and the self confidence of both parties and the wage elasticity of the demand for labour.I acknowledge the helpful comments of Professors Muysken, Kuipers and Pen.     

The determinants of wagering behavior

The total volume of wagering at a racetrack is important since it affects both racetrack and state revenues. This paper studies the factors that determine the volume of wagering. One of these factors is the sire stakes, a major form of government subsidy. We conclude that this subsidy has little or no economic impact on the volume of wagers. Unless the state recoups nearly all of the subsidy in other ways, such as sales taxes on racehorses, the sire stakes amount to a direct transfer from taxpayers to the breeding industry. We also develop information useful to racetrack managers.     

EDUCATIONAL PRODUCTION IN INDEPENDENT SECONDARY SCHOOLS

This article contributes to an established and growing literature in which a production function is estimated for educational institutions in order to investigate the relationship between school characteristics and performance.
Existing studies in this area have generally met with only limited success. The present study, through its application of a statistical model to comprehensive data drawn from the UK private sector of education identifies a wide range of school characteristics which significantly influence performance.
The article offers meaningful results and guidelines for further development of techniques in the investigation of a topic which is relevant to both producers and consumers of education.     

Social power-based print advertising: Theoretical and practical considerations

A laboratory experiment explored the impact of various power-based copy approaches upon readers' responses to print advertising messages. The treatments employed were derived from French and Raven's bases of social power at two levels of information content. Response measures included copy-and brand-related variables and recall. Results indicate that there are significant differences in responses owing to both the base of social power and the information level used.     

Exchange rate models and parameter variation: The case of the Dollar-Mark exchange rate

This paper is drawn from Chapter 3 of the author's doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago (Wolff, 1985). He is very grateful to the members of his dissertation committee — Michael Mussa (Chairman), Joshua Aizenman, Robert Aliber, Jacob Frenkel, David Hsieh, John Huizinga, and Arnold Zellner — and to seminar participants at the University of Chicago, the London Business School and INSEAD for many helpful comments.     

Do high interest rates defend currencies during speculative attacks? New evidence

Kraay [Kraay, A., 2003. Do high interest rates defend currencies during speculative attacks? Journal of International Economics 59, 297-321.] documents the lack of any systematic association between monetary policy and the outcome of a speculative attack. This paper revisits Kraay's work and modifies it by introducing an improved measure of monetary policy and an additional country-specific fundamental, short-term corporate debt, to capture balance sheet vulnerabilities emphasized by the recent currency crises literature. The results show that for low levels of short-term corporate debt, raising interest rates lowers the probability of a successful attack. This effect decreases and eventually reverses for higher levels of debt. These findings contrast earlier empirical evidence and imply a fundamental reconsideration of the role of monetary policy during currency crises.