Asymmetric performance: the market share impact of scale and link alliances in the global auto industry

This study investigates how participating in strategic alliances with rivals affects the relative competitive positions of the partner firms. The paper builds on studies that show significant differences in the outcomes of scale and link alliances. The study argues that the more asymmetric outcomes of link alliances translate into greater changes in the relative market shares of the partner firms, due to unbalanced opportunities for inter‐partner learning and learning by doing. We find support for this argument by examining 135 alliances among competing firms in the global automobile industry, from 1966 to 1995. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The ‘demographic timebomb’ and how some hospitality employers are responding to the challenge

The phrase ‘demographic timebomb’ has taken on the aura of a shibbholeth and that everyone knows they ought to be fearful about. But is it really understood and what needs to be done? This article seeks to answer these questions and to shed some light on the employment strategies being developed by some British hospitality employers to counteract the demographic changes of the 1990s. As a result, some of the myth that the hospitality industry is lagging behind other industries can be dispelled but other findings support popular testimony that the industry faces special problems.     

The dynamics of moonlighting in Russia1

This paper uses the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) to analyse the dynamics of moonlighting by the working‐age population. We find that moonlighting is transitory and that a desire to switch jobs expressed in the past is positively related to moonlighting in the present and to actual job changes in the future. We also find that workers who moonlighted as self‐employed in the past represent 26.5 percent of the new self‐employed. These results suggest that moonlighting in Russia can be seen as an effective incubator for setting up new self‐employed businesses, thereby providing long‐term benefits for the economy.     

以扩大内需促进就业问题研究

随着我国经济进入新的发展阶段后,投资对劳动力逐渐显现出排挤作用,出口也由其发展前景受限而对劳动力的吸纳作用减弱。而内需由于其对劳动密集型产业产品的需求,对就业有很强的带动作用。本文将论述以内需扩大就业的必要性,找出其中存在的问题,并提出相应建议。     

政府公职人员经济人性边界界定与启示

政府公职人员是特殊经济人,并且从"经济人"角度、从历史性角度、从社会契约论角度、从初始社会分工及分工发展过程角度看,政府公职人员经济人性应有必要的边界。其经济人性发挥应符合作用空间的"非市场性"、经济人性范围的日趋"紧缩性"、经济人性目标满足渠道的"单一性"及较强的"社会性"这些内在规律。把握这些规律,可有效地建立针对政府公职人员的约束机制和非市场性的竞争机制,还可有效地促进民主发展,这对提升基本公共服务综合绩效及构建和谐社会都具有重要意义。     

Adjustment, Stabilisation and the Analysis of the Employment Structure in Turkey: An Input- Output Approach

The aim of the paper is to examine the effects on employment of the large-scale structural adjustment programme undertaken by Turkey from the early 1980s onwards. In this respect, we particularly analyse how appropriate the choices of factor intensity after structural adjustment programme have been in the domestic production in comparison with the availability of domestic factor endowment. Our findings show that foreign trade in intermediate goods creates extra use of domestic labour, which can be considered as the labour cost of importing intermediate goods. This is the case in the majority of industries in the pre- and post-liberalisation period in Turkey. However, the capacity of using extra labour as a result of importing intermediate goods appeared to have decreased in the post-liberalisation period.     

The topography of metropolitan employment: Identifying centers of employment in a polycentric urban area

While it is well recognized that US metropolitan areas are polycentric, there is little consensus as to the appropriate method for identifying concentrations of employment within them. Existing methods suffer from strong assumptions about parametric form, misspecification, or reliance on local knowledge to calibrate model parameters. This paper introduces a new nonparametric method for identifying subcenters. Results indicate that this, more flexible, nonparametric approach yields greater accuracy with regard to both urban and suburban centers compared with other approaches. This approach should provide better data for the numerous topics that depend on the spatial accounting of employment within metropolitan areas.     

城市化进程中的产业政策选择

当前我国已进入城市化加速阶段,促进城市化水平的提高应成为制定产业政策的重要出发点.从各产业的比较劳动生产率、国际竞争力和就业吸纳能力等方面入手进行分析,筛选出了若干发展潜力大、就业吸纳能力强的行业;并指出这些行业在我国未来的城市化进程中将起到至关重要的作用,应制定相应的政策加以重点扶持.     

Director expertise and co-option in industry superannuation funds?

This study examines whether independent directors who possess financial expertise and are independent from the CEO (i.e., non-co-opted) are associated with improved outcomes for industry superannuation funds. Our results highlight that independence alone is insufficient to improve fund outcomes. Instead, we find that only non-co-opted independent directors benefit fund members in terms of higher performance and lower fees. Moreover, we find that independent directors' financial expertise is not associated with fund performance and fees. Our study has implications for regulators and superannuation funds who are currently debating the need for one-third independent directors on the board of Australian superannuation funds.     

我国当前就业形势、成因与对策

我国当前就业形势非常严峻,城镇失业率已超过7％的警戒线,并有继续加大的趋势,其根源在于劳动力供给与需求失衡。我们应实行积极的就业政策,一方面增加劳动力需求,保持国民经济持续增长,调整经济结构;另一方面减缓劳动力供给,发展多层次教育,完善职业培训制度,建立劳动力流动的市场机制,完善社会保障制度等。