Many roads to flexibility: how large firms built autarchic regional production systems in France

This article discusses the adjustment of large firms in France, in particular how they regionalized their production structures in the 1980s. Throughout the ‘Golden Age’, large firms had geographically reorganized their activities: strategic planning remained in Paris, while the actual production was decentralized into the provinces, primarily to address cost and labour conflict issues. When the large firms faced a profitability crisis in the 1980s, and the traditional state‐financed way out of the problems was no longer available, they saw in these proto‐regional production systems a chance to become more competitive. They relied on the decentralization policies of the governments in the 1980s, and used the second‐order effects of the new policies as a means to modernize their own operations. L'article examine l'adaptation des grandes entreprises françaises, notamment la régionalisation de leurs structures de production dans les années 1980. Durant ‘l'Age d'Or’, les grosses entreprises avaient réorganisé géographiquement leurs activités: la planification stratégique restait à Paris, tandis que la production réelle se décentralisait en province, principalement pour résoudre des problémes de couûts et de conflits sociaux. Lorsque ces grandes entreprises se heurtèrent à la crise de rentabilité des années 1980, alors que la solution traditionnelle de financement étatique n'existait plus, elles virent dans ces systèmes de production proto‐régionaux une chance d'améliorer leur compétitivité. Elles s'appuyèrent donc sur les politiques de décentralisation des gouvernements de l'époque, profitant des effets secondaires de ces initiatives pour moderniser leur propre fonctionnement.     

Who Cites What?

The present paper analyses citations in the work of a large number of PhD students. We show that the pattern of citations of journal articles, books and other reference material differs substantially across areas within economics. An investigation of reciprocal citations reveals a surprisingly low degree of communication among the Group of Eight universities and a high propensity to cite authors from the same institution, especially supervisors. We also analyse the Australian share of cited works, and identify journals, articles and authors that PhD students value highly.     

Can oil shocks explain asymmetries in the US Business Cycle?

We consider whether oil prices can account for business cycle asymmetries. We test for asymmetries based on the Markov switching autoregressive model popularized by Hamilton (1989), using the tests devised by Clements and Krolzig (2000). We find evidence against the conventional wisdom that recessions are more violent than expansions: while some part of the downturn in economic activity that characterises recessionary periods can be attributed to dramatic changes in the price of oil, post-War US economic growth is characterized by the steepness of expansions. First Version Received: December 2000/Final Version Received: September 2001     

Conditional mean functions of non-linear models of US output

We compare a number of models of post War US output growth in terms of the degree and pattern of non-linearity they impart to the conditional mean, where we condition on either the previous period's growth rate, or the previous two periods' growth rates. The conditional means are estimated non-parametrically using a nearest-neighbour technique on data simulated from the models. In this way, we condense the complex, dynamic, responses that may be present in to graphical displays of the implied conditional mean. First version received: Feb. 1999/Final version received: June 2001     

Unemployment Duration and Inflows onto the Disability Support Pension Program: Evidence from FaCS LDS Data

From the administrative data of the Australian Department of Family and Community Services it is found that a large proportion of Disability Support Pension (DSP) recipients transferred from unemployment benefits. Among those who transferred to DSP from unemployment benefits, a large proportion experienced multiple spells of income support receipt prior to the transition and a majority had more than a half‐year pre‐transition unemployment duration, with the average pre‐transition unemployment duration being more than one year. These findings suggest that the unemployment benefit is not simply a‘hold‐on’ benefit for those who experienced the unemployment—DSP transition. This article further examines what factors are associated with the transition. It is found that, among other things, the probability of transition to DSP from unemployment increases with duration on unemployment benefits.     

Spatial patterns of poverty in Vietnam and their implications for policy

This study examines the geographic distribution of poverty in Vietnam by applying small area estimation methods to household budget data and population census data. The resulting district-level poverty estimates suggest that the incidence of poverty is highest in the remote northern and central highlands and lowest in the south-east and in large urban centres. However, mapping the density of poverty reveals that most poor people do not live in the poorest districts but in the two lowland deltas, where poverty incidence is intermediate. The policy implications of these findings present an important trade-off between targeting poor areas and poor people that can only be resolved with better information on the relative costs of delivering different programmes and their expected impact. Existing government estimates of poverty at the district level are not closely correlated with our poverty estimates, perhaps because of regional variation in their methods of collecting poverty data.     

Business Rescue in Insolvency Law in Europe: Introducing the ELI Business Rescue Report

In a European study, written under the auspices of the European Law Institute, the authors have designed elements of a legal framework that will enable the further development of coherent and functional rules for business rescue in Europe. Based on the recommendations of international organisations, such as UNCITRAL and the World Bank, as well as the insolvency laws of EU Member States, comparative research has led to a lengthy report of 10 chapters and more than 100 recommendations which are described in this article. They range from the need for professional and honest parties involved in the process (insolvency practitioners, turnaround managers, courts and company directors) to the evaluation of specific tools (such as a stay on enforcement actions of creditors and forms of available finance) and procedural safeguards to enable serious rescue efforts of viable businesses, while protecting justified interests. Copyright © 2018 INSOL International and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Guide to Information on Australian Resource Projects

This article provides a guide to economic information on Australian resource projects. Three sources are described in some detail and their differences, strengths and weaknesses are discussed. As the data are under‐researched, some examples of how they can be used in economic analysis are mentioned.