Can a rapidly growing export-oriented economy exit smoothly from a currency peg? Lessons from Japan’s high-growth era

We analyze the impact of Japan’s exit from its currency peg in 1971. We identify sizeable effects on Japanese exports and investment but find that the negative impacts on the economy were neutralized by strong global demand and domestic fiscal support. While our analysis suggests that a rapidly-growing, export-oriented economy can exit a peg for a managed float despite the presence of capital controls and the absence of sophisticated foreign currency forward markets, it underscores the importance of exiting while global conditions are favorable and points to the importance of using fiscal policy to support domestic demand as the rise in the real exchange rate slows the growth of net exports and investment.     

The costs of hospital at home: the case of the New Brunswick extra-mural hospital

Policy markers in number of countries have become concerned in recent years about steadily rising costs of hospital treatment. One approach which has been proposed involves moving some treatment out of traditional hospitals by making greater use of clinics and home care. The New Brunswick Extra Mural Hospital is a province-wide system designed to treat certain classes of patient at home rather than in hospitals. Its decentralized sturucture raises questions about coordination and control, and whether a single cost function can be said to exist for the whole system. This paper estimates a cost function for the Extra Mural Hospital and tests for structural differences across geographically separated delivery units. The results indicate that the system has been successful in maintaining a common cost sturcture, supporting the view that a decentralized hospital-at-home system can be run efficiently.     

Simulation Gaming in the Managerial Economics Course

Solow examines the seeming disarray of the economics profession, particularly with regard to macroeconomics, and attempts to indicate why this should be the case. He concludes with a bit of advice and a brief list of objectives for the first course in economics.     

The lived experience of London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games volunteers: a serious leisure perspective

Along with other sporting mega-events, the Olympic Games, in all its versions, makes extensive use of volunteers. The 70,000 London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic volunteers, for example, played a vital role in the delivery of the event. Stebbins’ theoretical perspective of serious leisure includes consideration of volunteering and there are calls for its further empirical evaluation. This study, therefore, uses a qualitative study of the lived experience of London 2012 volunteers to test the relevance of the serious leisure framework to Olympic volunteering. The data are drawn from the reflective diaries of 20 participants who volunteered in a variety of roles during London 2012. It is concluded that all of the qualities of serious leisure are identifiable to various extents within the experiences of the London 2012 volunteers. This finding will help Olympic and other sporting mega-event managers to understand and improve the experiences of their volunteers. Recommendations are also made, in the light of the findings, for the further refinement of the serious leisure perspective. Particular attention is paid to highlighting how the findings might contribute to recent debates around whether sporting mega-event volunteering is best explained by the serious leisure quality of career volunteering, or by the serious leisure associated concept of project-based leisure, or alternatively by the competing term of episodic volunteering.     

Relation between intrinsic motivation and boredom in leisure time

Abstract

The present investigation replicated and extended an earlier finding of the negative relation between intrinsic motivation in leisure behavior and boredom in leisure time (Iso‐Ahola & Weissinger, 1987). Secondary analysis of data from 474 college undergraduates was used to construct a regression model of boredom. Results indicate that the self‐determination component of intrinsic leisure motivation explained the greatest portion of boredom variance (R = .38). Other variables entering the regression equation, in descending order of variance explained: competence, leisure ethic, age, and leisure repertoire (total R² = .52). Gender was not a significant predictor of boredom in leisure time. Results suggest that boredom in leisure time is usefully conceptualized as a disruption of the intrinsic motivation process.     

Striking issues: from labour process to industrial dispute at Grunwick and Gate Gourmet

This article applies a feminist intersectionality approach to analysing the dynamics of the labour process and labour in two workplaces where Asian women workers were in the forefront of resistance. It stresses the importance of understanding the links between different aspects of workers' identities.