Youth leisure careers during post‐communist transitions in the South Caucasus

This paper reports findings from interview surveys with 1215 respondents, split between the capital cities (Yerevan, Baku and Tbilisi) and one non‐capital region (Kotayk, Aran‐Mugan and Shida Kartli) in each of the three South Caucasus countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The respondents, who were drawn from households in larger representative household social surveys, were all born between 1970 and 1976 and were aged 31–37 at the time of the fieldwork in 2007. Their life stage transitions from childhood to adulthood had roughly coincided with their countries’ transitions from communism to post‐communism. Data was collected on the samples’ participation in selected leisure activities from age 16 to 30. Similar data was collected on the samples’ careers in education, the labour market, housing and family relationships. This information enables us to identify typical leisure careers and how their development was affected by events in other life domains, all in the context of the macro‐changes that were in process in each of the research locations. The evidence enables both personal leisure careers and aggregate leisure trends in different socio‐demographic groups to be identified This shows that changes in leisure behaviour between age 16 and 30 were neither widening nor narrowing the differences between the leisure of males and females, or those who married and became parents on the one hand, then, on the other, those who were still single and childless at age 30. In contrast, differences by place, and by social class, grew progressively wider, thus raising the social costs of geographical and social mobility. Changes in leisure behaviour between age 16 and 30 were separating young adults into those who participated in little, if any, structured out‐of‐home leisure, whose main leisure spending, if any, was on alcohol and tobacco (typically consumed in homes and neighbourhoods), and those whose leisure was characterised by relatively high and sustained participation in sport, consumption of high culture, and going out to bars, cafes, cinema, discos, etc.     

Deterring predation in telecommunications: Are line-of-business restraints needed?

We analyze whether lifting the remaining line-of-business restraints in the Modified Final Judgment (thus permitting the Regional Bell Operating Companies to provide interLATA calling services and to manufacture equipment) would plausibly lead the RBOCs to practice predatory pricing. We assume throughout that the regulated portions of the RBOCs' business would be subjected to price-cap or similar incentive-based regulation and that equal access to bottleneck services would be enforced. Despite employing a very broad definition of predation, we find that it is highly unlikely that the RBOCs would profitably engage in predatory pricing.     

The role for competition policy in economic development: the South African experience

Competition policy is part of the new international orthodoxy in economic policy and, at the same time, was viewed in South Africa as a crucial element of economic transformation. This article reviews the role of competition policy in economic development and the experiences of developing countries such as Brazil and South Korea. It then assesses the effects of competition policy in South Africa after 1994, with the main focus being on the performance of the new competition institutions established in 1999. The case of the steel industry is used to assess the approach and impact of the institutions in a concentrated sector that has simultaneously undergone processes of liberalisation and domestic consolidation.     

10大最具影响力人物

他们都被视为技术和商业领袖,伟大的思想照亮了整个电子工业. 很多有才气、有创造力、雄心勃勃和理想主义的人造就了我们如今看到的电子工业.美国著名的杂志在这些人中选取了10大最具影响力人物,他们在过去30年间给电子工业带来了广泛和深远的影响.     

Central Wage Setting under Multiple Technological Equilibria: A Mechanism for Equilibrium Elimination

Instituting an initial round of centralized wage setting before an ultimate round of decentralized wage bargaining may actually raise employment. A general multi–equilibrium model is set up with strategic complementarities in the implementation of a new technology through aggregate demand spillovers. In this model, centralized wage setting to establish an outside option wage, which is selectively binding on lo–tech firms, may achieve the "big push" to a hi–tech general equilibrium with higher employment, output, wages and profits.     

Testing oligopolistic behavior

This paper develops an empirical model of short-run pricing behavior for firms in a homogeneous product oligopoly. It is based on the variable profit function and related output supply and factor demand equations and is used to analyze the behavior of firms in the coffee roasting industry. A parametric test of the dominant firm model is developed and applied. The hypothesis of dominant firm behavior and Cournot behavior are rejected. The hypothesis of price-taking behavior is rejected for the largest two firms in the industry but is not rejected for all other firms. Using the estimated pattern of firm behavior, an index of overall industry performance is constructed.