Job generation and new and small firms: Some evidence from the late 1980s

This paper adopts a components of employment change methodology and examines the process of job generation in the late 1980s for three contrasting regions of the United Kingdom. The emphasis in the analysis is on the contribution of new and small firms to regional manufacturing employment growth. The results indicate the important role of new and small indigenous firms in the job generation process, particularly in Northern Ireland, in the period 1986–90. However, the level of displacement associated with these job creations is sufficiently high to cause concern about the longterm sustainability of these trends. The paper concludes by arguing that policies designed to stimulate new firm formation and small firm growth are not in themselves sufficient to promote growth.     

Formation of cartels in large markets

The von Neumann-Morgenstern concept of solution is applied to nonatomic pure exchange markets consisting of a finite number of different types of trader, initially owning disjoint sets of goods. It is proved that if all traders of each type form a cartel and behave like a single (atomic) trader (their “representative”), then one gets solutions of the original market from those of the finite market of the representatives, and all solutions are obtained in this manner—i.e., the market must organize itself in cartels, and this will indeed be stable.     

Worksharing and factor prices

The aspect of worksharing on which this paper concentrates concerns an increase in the firm's workforce offset by a reduction in average working hours. Emphasis is given to the effect of relative factor prices on worksharing within a model structure which includes the capital stock and worker productivity as endogenous inputs. Factor prices include all the main categories of wage and non-wage labour payments as well as the user cost of capital. Special attention is given to the role of non-wages, both quasi-fixed and variable. An analysis of the effects of marginal employment subsidies on worksharing is also considered with reference to the French ‘solidarity contracts’.     

The number of commodities required to represent a market game

An n-person game with side payments that can arise from an economic market is called a market game. It is proved here that any n-person market game can be obtained from a market with at most n ? 1 commodities. Moreover, no smaller number will suffice in some cases (e.g., the unanimity game). This result is then applied to settle a question regarding market games with a continuum of traders.     

The case as of 1976 for International commodity-reserve currency

Zusammenfassung Argumente für eine internationale Waren-Reserve-w?hrung aus der Sicht des Jahres 1976. — Nachdem das Gold zu einem Teil des Inflationsmechanismus geworden ist, bietet eine Waren-Reservew?hrung die einzige M?glichkeit, ein Weltw?hrungssystem zu schaffen, dessen wesentliche Eigenschaft es ist, monet?re und güterwirtschaftliche Sph?re miteinander zu verbinden. Der Ankauf von Rohstoffen in ?Warenk?rben? bestimmter Zusammensetzung zur Vorratshaltung als W?hrungsreserve (als ?hinkender Reservestandard?, dessen eine Komponente, die bestehenden W?hrungsreservebest?nde, eingefroren werden sollten) würde auch zur Stabilisierung der Rohstoffm?rkte beitragen. Die Kosten eines solchen Systems würden weitgehend dadurch ausgeglichen werden, daΒ restriktive und entwicklungshemmend wirkende Rohstoffabkommen vermieden und die Ressourcen effizienter verwendet werden k?nnten.

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Résumé Le cas d’une monnaie de réserve des biens internationale comme de 1976. — Un système de réserve des biens offre la seule méthode praticable (maintenant qu’on a assimilé l’or comme partie de la machinerie qui génère l’inflation) de concentrer le système monetaire du monde sur une connection entre les sphères monetaires et réelles. Les ?paniers? des biens empilants des stocks qui se composent fixement en qualité d’une reserve monetaire (en raison de ?limping standard? des réserves existantes qu’on devait geler) stabiliseraient les marchés des biens primaires. On compenserait largement les co?ts bruts par la prévention des structures d’accord des biens restrictives et anti-développantes, et par un usage plus efficace des ressources productives.

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Resumen El caso para una moneda de reserva de bienes internacional como de 1976. —Un sistema de reserva de bienes ofrece la única vía posible (ahora que el oro ha sido asimilado como parte de la maquinaria generadora de inflatión) para enfocar el sistema monetario mundial en una union entre esfera monetaria y real. El apilamiento (stockpiling) de ?canastas? de bienes de composición fija como reserva monetaria (en una relación de standard flexible —?limping-standard? —con respecto a las reservas existentes, las que deberán estar congeladas) también estabilizaría los mercados de bienes primarios. Los costos brutos se compensarán en gran medida por la preventión de estructuras antidesarrollistas y restrictivas de acuerdos de bienes y por el uso más eficiente de los recursos productivos.

     

Intangible capital,relative asset shortages and bubbles

Purely technological factors can be a fundamental force behind the emergence of asset price bubbles in developed economies. We analyze an economy in which the production technology utilizes both physical and intangible capital, where the latter cannot be used as collateral for borrowing. Technological change, in the form of increased importance of intangible capital in production, sharpens the borrowing constraints of entrepreneurs, leading to a scarcity of high-yield assets relative to low-yield ones. This can create the conditions for asset bubbles. Additionally, due to the financial frictions, standard dynamic efficiency tests are not valid, and bubbles are not Pareto improving.