Maximal elements of weakly continuous relations

A weaker than usual continuity property is defined for binary relations. Relations that have this property, along with certain transitivity properties, are shown to have maximal elements on compact sets. The results cover “interval orders,” the kind of relations that often characterize choice situations in which similar alternatives are indistinguishable.     

DECENTRALIZED PLANNING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: The Case of Indonesia*

The government of Indonesia frequently has stressed the need for decentralization to achieve effective regional development, but yet has hesitated to proceed because of fears that such action would undermine national unity and disrupt centrally defined national priorities. Furthermore, the entrenched bureaucratic hierarchy, reinforced by the persistence of patrimonialism, would have to surrender its planning and decision making authority to popularly constituted bodies. This paper examines this dilemma and argues that deconcentration of planning and implementation functions to lower administrative levels does not constitute decentralization. The analysis concludes by suggesting that collaboration between government and non-governmental organizations might be the appropriate means for encouraging popular participation for sustainable development.     

The impact of financing decisions on the security returns of real estate corporations

This research investigates the valuation impact of financing decisions on the common stock of real estate corporations. We compare the results of our study with the results of similar studies in the corporate finance literature to test whether the response to security offerings by real estate firms differs systematically from the response to offerings by industrial and utility firms. The results of this study indicate a generally favorable price response to straight bond announcements, and unfavorable responses to common stock, convertible bonds, and lines of credit announcements.     

An examination of the role of security clauses and deposits in residential lease contracts

This paper argues that security clauses in lease contracts create a contingent claim on the value of the leased property, which resembles a put option on common stock. Adapting the standard results from option pricing theory gives insight into how landlords determine security deposit amounts, which serve to guarantee performance of the contract. Empirical tests show that deposit amounts are affected by the propensity of a property to be damaged, the propensity of a tenant to cause damage, and other characteristics of the landlord-tenant relationship. Two-stage least squares and probit regression estimates, however, provide only limited evidence to suggest that advance deposits significantly reduce tenant damages in the residential rental market.     

A health service fit for the 21st century : The Welsh ‘Health and Social Care 2010’ project

‘Health and Social Care 2010’, a project of the Welsh Health Planning Forum, has been designed to link the overall strategy of the National Health Service in Wales with the planning of local health-care strategies. During the first phase of the project, forces that may impact on health and social services in the future have been identified, and consideration has been given to how the services could adapt to the expected changes. The result has been a vision of a new kind of health care based on clusters of services. Testable indicators of the vision's fulfilment have also been identified in the form of nine assumptions regarding specific future developments in the health and social services. Groups at several pilot sites have analysed these assumptions in terms of their achievability and desirability, thus illuminating potential roadblocks in reaching the desired future, as well as creative ways around these problems.     

The ‘laissez faire’ bias of managed floating

The government of a small open economy trying to manage its exchange rate faces a ‘time consistency’ problem. If markets expect implementation of the optimal linear intervention rule, the government will be tempted to ‘defect’: knowing this, markets will expect less activism; and, in the discretionary equilibrium, this is what they get. How far this credibility problem can shift discretionary policy towards a free float is shown in two popular models of floating rates. One way of offsetting the ‘laissez faire’ bias of discretionary policy is to appoint a relatively ‘conservative’ central banker: but, as the time period of policy action and precommitment shrinks towards zero, the required conservative bias is found to go towards infinity. Other institutional features — such as central bank reputation, contracts and intermediate targets — may be crucial for successful exchange rate management.     

Estimation of a continuous-time dynamic demand system

A continuous-time dynamic model of consumers' demand, explicitly taking account of the roles of depreciation, interest rates, habits, and stocks, is estimated using recently developed techniques from discrete quarterly UK data on three broad commodity groupings. The results suggest that, whilst being a significant determinant of demand, the actual magnitude of the influence of changes in interest rates may be relatively small in the long run. The cross-price effects of durable goods are also found to be statistically significant, and symmetry of long-run compensated price responses is not rejected.