Labour solidarity in crisis? Lessons from General Motors

Why was the 2008–09 economic downturn not matched by an internationally coordinated trade union response? Drawing on the evidence from General Motors, this article argues that this was due to states' extraordinary involvement in the economy during the crisis, which provided strategic alternatives to labour transnationalism at the national level.     

Sozial- und wettbewerbsrechtliche Konflikte bei der Fusionskontrolle in der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung in Deutschland

Since the Health Care Competition Act (Gesetz zur Stärkung des Wettbewerbs in der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung) came into effect on 1st April 2007, a significant consolidation process within the statutory health insurance (GKV) in Germany has begun, emphasizing the need for regulated merger control. The conflicts that currently exist between social law and competition law are limiting factors in this. This article examines in detail the existing conflicts and seeks possible solutions for regulated merger control in the field of the GKV that conform both to the regulations in social law and to the regulations regarding competition. On the basis of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, a solution scenario is developed which would eliminate the existing areas of conflict in GKV merger control almost without exception and which could even be applied in the field of private health insurance (PKV) in the case of an ongoing assimilation of GKV and PKV.     

Managerial and program inefficiency for European meat manufacturing firms: A dynamic multidirectional inefficiency analysis approach

This paper proposes a dynamic multidirectional inefficiency analysis approach within the context of Data Envelopment Analysis to measuring input- and investment-specific managerial and program inefficiency for groups of firms characterized by different technologies. Dynamic managerial inefficiency refers to the distance to the firms’ group-specific dynamic frontier of best practices, and dynamic program inefficiency measures the difference between the group-specific dynamic frontier and the pooled dynamic frontier. The empirical application focuses on panel data of large meat processing firms in Eastern, Western and Southern Europe over the period 2005–2012. The results show that Eastern European firms have the highest dynamic managerial inefficiency for all inputs, but have the smallest values for dynamic program inefficiency. Western European firms perform worst in terms of program inefficiency for all inputs, while Southern European firms are the best with regard to dynamic managerial inefficiency. The results also reveal that regardless the dynamic inefficiency dimension considered, investments is the most inefficient input, followed by labor, and materials.     

Challenging the food vs. fuel dilemma: Genealogical analysis of the biofuel discourse pursued by international organizations

This paper looks critically at how food and agriculture-, energy security-, and climate change-oriented international organizations have consolidated and modified the biofuel discourse in relation to the agricultural system. Using Foucault-based genealogical analysis of discursive formations, the paper traces the last 20 years of institutions’ biofuel debate in relation to rural production. We find that the prevalent motive is an aspiration to combine the agriculture and energy markets into one, which prompts structural changes and challenges in the rural sector. This has implications for the future role and shape of global agriculture and – contrary to the food vs. fuel perspective – calls for re-conceptualizing the biofuel debate as the food vs. food dilemma.     

Input‐Specific Dynamic Productivity Change: Measurement and Application to European Dairy Manufacturing Firms

We propose a new method for measuring and decomposing input‐specific productivity change in a dynamic context. The resulting input‐specific dynamic Luenberger productivity change indicator is decomposed to identify the contributions of input‐specific dynamic technical, technical inefficiency and scale inefficiency changes. The empirical application of the paper focuses on panel data of large firms in the European dairy processing industry over the period 2005–2012. The results show similar patterns for dynamic input‐specific productivity change and its components for labour across European regions (Eastern, Western and Southern), while differences between regions are found regarding materials and investments.     

On optimal choice of order statistics in large samples for the construction of confidence regions for the location and scale

Given a large sample from a location-scale population we estimate the unknown parameters by means of confidence regions constructed on the basis of two order statistics. The problem of the best choice of those statistics to obtain good estimates, as $n\rightarrow \infty ,$ is considered.     

Market segmentation variables as moderators in the prediction of business tourist retention

Service Business - This study explores whether five market segmentation variables moderate the relationship between the business tourist service quality scorecard (SQSC) and business tourist...     

Technical Efficiency of Producer Cooperatives versus Private Firms: A Longitudinal Empirical Study

In this paper, we hypothesize that producer cooperatives are more efficient than private firms, even when the impact of the political and economic environment is controlled for, and irrespective of the orientation with which efficiency is assessed; that is, whether firms target the reduction of inputs or the expansion of outputs. The empirical application focuses on a longitudinal population of olive oil manufacturing firms operating in the south of Spain from 1944 to 1998. The analyses clearly show that producer cooperatives are more efficient than private firms.