Exploring the future for pensions pillarisation

The pensions pillarisation agenda envisages a reduction in the role of social insurance while simultaneously advocating the parallel expansion of fully funded private sector, occupational and personal retirement contingencies. Widespread perception of looming state failure in the field of pensions delivery highlights the inherent limitations of current pension delivery arrangements. However, moves to de-emphasise the provision afforded by, predominantly, monopillar state-mandated pension systems by expanding private privision represent short-term palliative responses to deep rooted structural and demographic problems. Multipillar systems appear no more capable of guaranteeing system funding in the face of demographic ageing and structural unemployment than existing monopillar systems. Moreover, a diminished role for social insurance will leave the low paid and unemployed significantly more vulnerable in old age. Consequently, this paper argues for a pension reform agenda which, in terms of levels of income substitution, will secure an adequate social insurance element into the future.     

Unfair Terms in Contracts: Proposals for Reform in the UK

The English and Scottish Law Commissions have made radical proposals for simplifying UK law on unfair terms in consumer contracts, combining the Regulations that implement the Directive and the earlier legislation into a single instrument that is to be written in language that would be clear and accessible to consumers and businesspeople. The article discusses some of the difficult policy choices involved in combining the different approaches of the two existing instruments, what is needed in order to make the legislation understandable to the lay person, and the extent to which the case of Commission v The Kingdom of the Netherlands requires Member States to use the language of the Directive when implementing it. The Law Commissions also proposed to extend the broader controls found in the Directive to business-to-business contracts, but the proposals did not find favour with the business community.     

Job change and workplace learning in the public sector: the significance of new technology for unskilled work

Focussing here on local authorities and health services, this paper examines the significance of new technology to unskilled work in the public sector as it is developing and the implications for workplace learning. An argument is developed that new technology is central to a minority of examples of job change, although, significantly, it is more important to staff–initiated change and to workers' ability to fully participate in life beyond the workplace.     

A non-co-operative bargaining model of membership expansion in a producer co-operative

This paper presents a non-co-operative bargaining model of membership expansion in a producer co-operative. The emphasis is on examining the distribution of the resulting surplus between the existing partners and the new member. In the presence of a number of alternative candidates, the existing partners can use the threat of switching negotiating partners to extract additional surplus from the negotiations. The degree of symmetry between the competing candidates necessary for these threats to be credible is specified, as is the nature of the dependence of the parties' payoffs on the various parameters of the model. Potential sources of misallocation within the model are identified.     

Land use planning and health and well-being

This paper is concerned with the relationship between the planning of settlements and health. It gives a brief introduction to the issues before summarising the evidence in relation to a range of topics, concluding with some more speculative thoughts on likely future findings.Modern planning was invented in response to inhumane living conditions in 19th century cities. But in the last century the connection was lost. Only now, with concerns over climate change and obesity, is there beginning to be the realisation that the physical environment is an important determinant of health.The paper uses a particular model of this relationship based on eco-system and health determinants theories to structure the review of evidence. The review covers: lifestyle choices in relation to physical activity and diet, mental well-being and community, the local economy and income, health inequalities and strategic land use transport planning, pollution and urban form, and finally impacts on global ecology.There is now a growing consensus that while personal factors are critical in determining health, the urban environment exacerbates or mitigates health and well-being outcomes.The level of active travel (walking and cycling) and outdoor recreational activity is strongly affected by accessibility to local facilities. Access to green, natural environments, and to local social networks, are factors in mental well-being. The wider sub-regional pattern of housing, economic development, land use and transport is a determinant of social exclusion and therefore health inequalities. It also affects health-damaging pollution, adaptability in the face of climate change and the level of carbon dioxide emissions.We have literally been building unhealthy conditions into many of our towns and cities. But comparisons with the best cities in Europe indicate that it is possible to reverse the less desirable trends. Success depends, however, on more radical policies of local authority control over land and finance than any political party has yet advocated. It also requires collaboration between the full range of powerful public and private organizations that influence the built environment.Future research is likely to further strengthen these conclusions. It will become much more obvious that planning for health and well-being is not only the NHS, but about creating a health-promoting physical, social and economic environment.     

On Empirical mis Research: The Case of Information Requirements Analysis

A major problem infield research in Management Information Systems (mis) is that of controlling and measuring complex behavioural and organizational factors. This paper addresses the difficulties of field research in the area of Information Requirements Analysis (ira) and examines the relationship between the concept of information value and ira. Measurement of the value of information is thus identified as a major source of experimental difficulty. The use of subjective evaluation by users is suggested as a possible approach, and the absence of conclusive field experiments in ira is noted. Possible reasons why a particular field experiment utilizing subjective evaluations did not yield conclusive results are examined. Re-analysis of the data of that study with a new technique yielded more convincing results demonstrating that obtaining significant results in ira field experiments is possible. It is noted that although statistically significant results are not uncommon in laboratory experiments (e.g., simulations), such successes in mis field experiments are rare. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that meaningful results can be obtained in an ira field experiment if the experimental design and technique of analysis are appropriate. Résumé Un des problèmes majeurs dans la recherche relative aux problèmes de gestion de l'information (sgi) est de contrǒler et mesurer les facteurs complexes de comportement et les facteurs organisationnels. Cette étude traite des difficultés que pose la recherche dans le domaine de l'analyse des exigences requises (aer) et examine la relation entre le concept de valeur de l'information et I'aer. La mesure de la valeur de l'information est donc identifiée comme source de difficulté expérimentale. L'usage d'évaluation subjective par les utulisateurs est suggéré à titre d'approche possible et l'absence d'expériences concluantes dans le domaine de I'aer est notée. Les raisons pour laquelle une expérience particulière menée avec des évaluations subjectives n'a pas fourni de résultats concluants ont ete examinées.     

Understanding contemporary marketing: Development of a classification scheme

The term Relationship Marketing has been used in a multitude of ways to describe and define marketing in the contemporary environment. This has led to the term being loosely defined and applied in the literature, resulting in frustration for both researchers and practitioners. Therefore, a classification scheme is developed from analysis of the extant literature, and used to systematically examine the meaning of marketing across twelve dimensions which reflect issues related to marketing practice. From this scheme, the authors identify two ‘perspectives’ of marketing, which encompass four distinguishable ‘types’ of marketing. Implications for future research in the area are discussed.