Responses to out-of-stocks and on-shelf availability in UK fashion retailing

The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes and approaches adopted by fashion retailers when presented with an out-of-stocks (OOS) issue and to measure in store on-shelf availability (OSA) of one particular fashion retailer across a sample of stores across the United Kingdom. The research was carried out in three phases. The first two phases used participants' observation/mystery shopper techniques to determine shop-floor representatives' responses to an OOS situation in the jeans category of seven retailers and then to measure the OOS/OSA of a sample of 10 stores of a middle market fashion retailer in the United Kingdom. A comparison with the electronic inventory database readings was then carried out. The final phase involved interviews with head office management to explore possible differences between headquarters (HQ) policy and store operations. The first phase of the research revealed that all retailers had processes available to them at store level to solve OSA issues, but six of the seven retailers could not solve the problem. From the in-depth survey of OSA in the sample of stores, availability was on average 79% against a database availability figure of 90%. The difference of 11% is mainly related to inventory inaccuracy. The interviews with head office management did reveal that the differences in attitudes between HQ staff and store staff could be attributed to a lack of communication to train staff adequately on processes to solve OOS issues.     

Women and Wine in the UK: A Business Opportunity for Bars

The purpose of this article is to examine the changes to twentieth-century UK public houses which have encouraged women customers and wine sales and to consider how to encourage these trends. Secondary sources have been augmented by a case study that examines the wine provision in all of the public houses in one town. The old public house had a largely male, working-class beer-drinking clientele, but has become accessible to women and wine has become a common product. However, the wine is often of poor quality, or badly served, and many women still do not enjoy the pub experience. The work suggests that further women-friendly moves and an improved quality chain for wine could benefit trade in many outlets.     

英国合成生物学发展重点研究

英国最新发布的合成生物学路线图研究报告提出了包括基础科学和工程、继续开展负责任的研究和创新、面向商业应用进行技术开发、应用和市场、国际合作在内的5个合成生物学发展重点。通过对上述的5个合成生物学发展重点进行详细介绍,并着重介绍英国在这些发展重点的创新理念和举措,其目的是为我国有关合成生物学发展的政策制定和重点选择提供参考和借鉴。     

The J-curve: evidence from commodity trade between UK and China

China is often accused of manipulating its currency to gain international competitiveness. Previous studies have tried to address this issue by investigating the impact of yuan depreciation on China’s trade balance. Not only have they failed to establish the link between the Chinese exchange rate and its trade balance with the rest of the world but also between China and her major trading partners. In this article, we consider the China–UK trade balance and disaggregate their trade flows by commodity. Out of the 47 industries considered, we show that the real depreciation has favourable short-run effects in most industries. However, the short-run effects last into the long run only in seven cases.     

Oil prices and UK industry-level stock returns

In this article, we study whether the behaviour of oil prices can be used as a reliable predictor for the disaggregated industry-level stock market indices. We find strong evidence for the relevance of changes in oil price as a predictor for the returns of UK industry portfolios, while this relevance is heterogeneous across industries. In an out-of-sample framework, we find that both the contemporaneous and lagged oil price changes do predict UK industry stock market returns. The predictive power is more transient for the latter case, and mostly appearing after allowing for time variation in the relative performance. In addition, we find some evidence of asymmetry in the oil–stock price relationships.     

On the Asymmetric U‐Shaped Relationship between Inflation,Inflation Uncertainty,and Relative Price Skewness in the UK

We investigate the asymmetric relationships between aggregate inflation and the second and third moments of the cross‐sectional distribution of relative prices using a modified Calvo pricing model with regime‐dependent price rigidities. Calibration experiments reveal that the inflation‐standard deviation and inflation‐skewness relationships exhibit U‐shaped asymmetries around the historical mean inflation rate. UK sectoral data support our results. We conclude that monetary policy should target an inflation rate proximate to the (common) minima of these nonlinear relationships and that core inflation measures should not be used for policy purposes as they exclude much of the information contained in the higher moments.     

英国铁路考察报告

英国铁路自上世纪90年代以来经历了艰难曲折的私有化改革之路,＂网运分离＂后的英国铁路在路网的所有、经营与监管上出现了诸多问题,在经过路网公司重新国有化后,英国铁路步入了正轨,并制定了铁路发展战略规划,开始了高铁建设和运营。英国铁路在管理体制、监管体系、运营模式、投资形式、服务理念、安全观念等方面有着比较丰富和成熟的案例和经验,对我国铁路大规模建设和运营具有积极的借鉴意义,对我国铁路改革具有一定的启示。     

THE RELOCATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET FOR AUSTRALIAN WOOL

The marketplace for Australian wool relocated from London to the Australian capital cities in the half-century after 1880. This represented a major institutional shift that underpinned the development of the Australian economy and made Australia the centre of the international wool market. We analyse the principal demand and supply changes underlying this market shift. Consolidation of worsted manufacturing, demand diversification, improved transport and communications, Australian dominance of international wool production and the growth of the small grazier, shifted the relative market efficiency in favour of Australian auctions.     

Performance of UK Investment Trusts: 1980–1994

This study investigates the selectivity and timing performance of a large sample (79) of UK investment trusts over a long period (15 years) by applying a number of models. There are few studies in this area in the UK. It is often argued that investors hold investment trust shares to obtain diversification and managerial skills. Managerial skill, if present, should be observed in the form of superior selectivity and timing performance measures. The general decline in the level of discount observed in the industry over the sample period suggests that excess returns could be obtained by holding investment trusts shares. We use single index and multifactor models for the analysis. Positive but statistically insignificant, selectivity estimates and negative, and at times significant, timing estimates are observed.