ALBERT

Notes: This paper explores the choices and potential biases involved in valuing one type of government expenditure, medical transfers, and in estimating its antipoverty impact. Three methodological approaches–(a measure of) government costs, (a measure of) cash-equivalent values and (a measure of) funds released–are contrasted both in concept and in practice. We assign benefits to individuals after assuming that Medicare and Medicaid provide insurance to all those who are eligible. The resulting estimates for 1968 and 1974 illustrate the efficacy of these medical transfers in reducing the number of persons in poverty. Two recent studies, one by the Congressional Budget Office, and the other by Morton Paglin, further highlight the importance of medical transfers for estimating poverty, despite the fact that we do not wholly agree with the methodologies which they employ. Our results indicate that in the aggregate, while medical care transfers have a substantial impact on poverty, the choice of a specific estimation approach has little effect on poverty estimates. However, for the elderly and possibly also for other groups (e.g. the rural poor), choice of estimation technique is quite crucial for estimating the extent of poverty.

Notes: In studies of income distribution household income is the common measure of household welfare, although household per capita income is better since it automatically “corrects” for household size. Perhaps the continued use of the former is a consequence of the belief that in practice the two give very similar results. This paper shows that in many cases those results differ substantially. Policy prescription based on household income rather than household per capita income can be very defective. The paper compares results according to the two income concepts for Malaysian data. U.S. data are then used in a comparison over time.The disparity between the two Malaysian distributions is illustrated by their cross tabulation. A quarter of the households in the lowest forty percent of the household income distribution is in the upper three quintiles of household per capita income; and 10 percent of the same lowest forty are in the highest two quintiles of the second distribution. The paper also shows that the distribution of benefits from public education-measured as the public costs of school years—is very inegalitarian if household income is used. The reverse occurs if household per capita income is used. Similar reversals occur in comparisons involving partitions by occupation and sex of head of household. Women-headed households, for example, have sub-mean household incomes but their household income per capita equals the mean. The paper also examines the differences in the age-income profiles of the two distributions. It then considers whether the much discussed secular stagnation in U.S. measures of inequality is changed if household income per capita is used rather than the usual household income measure. Use of the per capita concept results in a slight decrease in U.S. inequality between 1947 and 1972. Appendix 2 explores how long term growth in per capita incomes and the associated changes in the size composition of households may affect measurements of inequality.

Notes: Provision of “market goods” follows the decision rules of traditional microeconomics; pricing and resource allocation for such goods tend towards Pareto optimality. The provision of “collective goods,” by contrast, depends on political (or quasi-political) collective decision processes; beneficiaries often receive a share of collective goods free of charge or well below average or marginal (private or social) costs. No inherent tendency towards optimality may be presumed and separate analysis of collective goods becomes an essential part of national goals accounting.The national-income-accounts (NIA) distinction between personal consumption expenditures (PCE) and government purchases of goods and services corresponds roughly to a division between market goods bought by the consumer and a major category of “collective goods” (i.e. “public goods” provided by government). However, a significant proportion of PCE represents “collective goods” paid for by government, business, or nonprofit organizations and provided on behalf of the consumer, whereas a part of NIA government purchases represents services paid for by the consumer (i.e. “market goods”).This article develops operationally meaningful distinctions among “market goods,”“collective goods,” and “tied aid” (a mixed category with market-good and collective-good characteristics). These distinctions are determined by the nature of the decision processes–rather than by the characteristics of the beneficiary or the supplier. This classification is related to the national income accounts and major discrepancies are pinpointed. The blurring of the distinction among market goods, collective goods and tied aid is found to be most consequential in the NIA treatment of “education” and “medical care” services. NIA data for these two services are restructured for national goals accounting purposes in order to illustrate both the quantitative importance and the empirical feasibility of classifying benefits by their respective decision processes.

Notes: Recently there has been discussion concerning the renewal of the volume measurements of public sector services. This renewal has been proposed e.g. in the recent United Nations Draft Manual on Public Sector Statistics. In the present paper we discuss some theoretical and practical problems connected with this renewal. According to some preliminary calculations concerning the Finnish educational sector, the new methodology might lead to a considerable revision of figures of output and labour productivity in the public sector. The revisions are of such a quantity that they might cause significant changes in the measurement of the volume of the total gross domestic product. This is a fact which may still require reflection before the new methodology is generally introduced, even though the revisions as such may be highly desirable from several aspects.

Notes: Structural relationships estimated from data obtained in a benchmark study of the expenditures and prices of 16 countries are used to develop a table of real gross domestic product and shares of gross domestic product devoted to private and public consumption and investment for each of over 100 countries in the years 1950 and 1960 through 1977. Price level estimates for total product and the three components are also provided.

Notes: Taxes as well as government expenditures tend to transform income distribution; the higher they are in relation to GDP, the higher their potential influence appears. It is easier to trace the incidence of taxes than that of expenditures and studies of effects of expenditures on income distribution are not frequent. Changes of fiscal legislation and deficiencies in reporting systems and statistics frequently found in developing countries complicate the task still further.An investigation of this type in a developing country has to face a poorly developed data base and take advantage of different and dispersed sources of information.This paper presents the methodology used for estimating the influence of government expenditures a n income distribution in the case of Venezuela. Although the incidence of fiscal activities on income distribution in Venezuela might not necessarily be the same as in other countries, Venezuelan sources of information are not very different from those existing in other countries of similar level of economic and statistical development and procedures used could appropriately be adapted to other countries.

Notes: The question addressed in this paper is: Why can't we have a good measuring rod of the economic and social performance of our society? The answers are basically positive but lie mostly in the direction of (1) avoiding simplistic solutions such as turning the national income accounts into a measure of social welfare and (2) providing the elements of an information strategy to obtain such a measure or more accurately such a set of measures.The proposed information strategy highlights five activities: (1) the presentation and analysis of welfare outcomes, an activity which is analogous to but broader than “social indicators”; (2) social accounting which includes economic accounting, demographic accounting, and time-use accounting; (3) model building and operation which, unlike accounting, are concerned with behavioral or causal relationships used to explain and project welfare outcomes; (4) hypothesis testing to develop new insights into economic and social behavior; and finally (5) the building and maintenance of a data base required for carrying on the aforementioned four activities.

Notes: The importance of non-personal shareholders in Malaysian corporations is widely acknowledged. However, up till now, very little has been known about the nature of these shareowners, their manner of equity ownership (especially their size of holdings hence degree of share concentration), their country of incorporation and how they themselves are controlled i.e. whether Malaysian or foreign. This paper attempts to fill this gap with data compiled from official shareholders' lists of the largest ninety-eight Malaysian incorporated companies engaged in manufacturing, for a point in time 1975–75, which is towards the end of the Second Malaysia Plan period. Some of the empirical findings are then compared with those of a few selected countries.

Notes: This paper deals with the influence of differing methods of deflation on the international terms of trade of the Federal Republic of Germany. The question to be discussed is what indices seem best suited for the deflation of exports and imports in national accounts. It will be shown that the use of alternative price indices for deflating exports and imports leads to considerable differences of the results at constant prices and so in terms of trade. In addition, terms of trade are presented by groups of countries.

Notes: Two ways of estimating the value of housework are currently used. One is the opportunity cost approach, which sets the value of work done at home equal to the income the person could earn in the labor market. The other is the market cost approach, which uses the cost of hiring someone to do the housework to determine its value. In this study we use data on earnings of female clerical workers with various patterns of labor force participation to obtain estimates of the opportunity cost of hometime for such women. We find that potential market earnings do not provide an acceptable estimate of the value of housework, and suggest that using the wages of general household workers is a better approach.

Notes: By expenditure on education, health, housing and other public services, governments provide many goods and services which are alternatives to, or additional to, household expenditure on consumption. In most Western national accounts, the two forms of consumption are rigidly separated. Yet the combination of the two–the concept of total household consumption–has obvious importance for the measurement and comparison of living standards and for the formulation and analysis of policy. This concept is recommended as an additional aggregate in the revised SNA. It is displayed in the UN International Comparison Project (ICP). It is used as a major aggregate (“total consumption of the population”), although hitherto generally excluding nonmaterial services, in the Material Product System. Yet it is rarely shown explicitly in Western national accounts. One reason is the slow progress in the analysis by purpose of government expenditure.This paper shows how far figures of total household consumption, and of its division between collective and private consumption, can in fact be derived, for the advanced countries, from the data provided to the UN Yearbook of National Accounts, supplemented b y the ICP. The results show first the wide national variations in the relation between the two forms of consumption but, secondly, the gaps in information on this crucially important topic. The relation between direct government expenditure for collective consumption and transfer payments to households (“social income”) is also examined. High and low levels of these two forms of State support to consumption reinforce each other almost as often as they offset each other. But, again, the data provided by national accounting statistics are very incomplete.This paper was prepared for the 16th General Conference of the IARIW, August 1979.

Notes: In an earlier paper, we presented estimates of capital gains for a number of categories of assets owned by Belgian households. The purpose of the present paper is to see how the distribution of disposable income between socio-economic groups is modified when one adopts a “broadened” definition of income which includes capital gains corrected for losses of purchasing power.The main result of the study is that at current prices, the adoption of a broadened definition of income strongly increases disparities between socio-economic groups. However, when one takes into account losses in purchasing power, conclusions differ according to the period analyzed. For the years 1953–68, it appears that the distribution of broadened disposable income is more unequal than the distribution of disposable income. For the years 1969–77 when inflation was high, the adoption of a broadened definition of income has reduced disparities, with the important exception of old age pensioners.

Notes: International financial relationships should be interpreted in the context of a comprehensive conceptual framework; this paper advocates the use of concepts developed to measure and analyze balance of payments flows. Broad-based, empirical estimates of the international wealth of most countries of the western world are presented on the basis of cumulating balance of payments flows over a lengthy period. Among the more interesting aspects of the results are: the importance of intra-industrial country capital flows in a global context; the propensity of debtors to regard a larger share of their aggregate external debt as long term than do their creditors; the overwhelming importance of banks located in the industrial countries in global external asset and liability positions, and the preponderance of short-term positions taken by those banks; and the tendency for balance of payments records to report more direct investment assets than liabilities. The paper also contains some observations, based on the cumulations of balance of payments capital flows, concerning the nature and size of certain deficiencies in alternative sources–particularly the World Bank's Debtor Reporting System, and the Bank for International Settlements' banking data–of information on outstanding external debt positions.

Notes: The unsolved problems of measurement of international transactions may have consequences which are serious both for policymakers and for those undertaking research. Emphasis is placed on the need for users of data to understand and take into account the limitations and qualifications attached to them.The causes of deterioration in the quality of estimates of international transactions likely lie in their changing pattern. After a brief discussion of the basic sources and methods used, the paper selects for comment possible measurement problems related to inflation, taxation, illegal transactions, and affluence.A description follows of the improvement to data which has been achieved through exchanges and comparisons between trading partner countries. Efforts to use econometric analysis to point to error sources have, however, proved less rewarding.The paper concludes with a section on the linkage of flow and stock estimates.

Notes: Although the functional and institutional distributions of income are integrally connected to individual living standards and other development policy objectives, these dimensions are rarely given prominence or even accommodated within standard national accounting frameworks. This paper summarizes research on the estimation of a social accounting matrix (SAM) for Malaysia for 1970 in which the distribution of income between different factors and socio-economic groups is identified. It is the latest of a series of case studies involving some of the authors and is, perhaps, the most detailed of its kind. The study departs from the United Nations SNA guidelines at various points. The SNA basically proposes a commodity balance approach to national income accounting. In giving equal emphasis to income/outlay accounts as to the production accounts, the present study has brought together data from two major primary sources: a household expenditure survey and a production survey. Their combination poses several problems which are discussed in the paper. It leads to an integrated picture, in matrix form, of the interrelationships between income distribution and production structure in the Malaysian economy.Both the factor and household accounts in our SAM are disaggregated according to race and the geographic distinction between Peninsular and East Malaysia, with an urban/rural split within Peninsula Malaysia. The Peninsula labor force is further disaggregated by education level, while its households are then subdivided according to the employment status of main income earners. Arguments for and against these choices are presented.Some other aspects of the study can be noted. First, the distinction drawn between East and Peninsular Malaysia is desirable not only because of the inherent interest of the regions but also because of large differences in data availability and hence in estimation methods. Secondly, to complete our SAM it was necessary to estimate inter-household transfers, being the institutional analogue of inter-industry commodity flow. And finally an attempt has been made to impute the labor component of unincorporated business income. These, then, are the major problems which had to be overcome in our attempt to quantify the generation, distribution, and redistribution of income within Malaysia in a SAM framework.

Notes: The development of social protection accounts is described and the relationship between social security and welfare expenditure (as recorded in social protection accounts) and expenditures in the national accounts is discussed. Proposals are put forward for achieving co-ordination between social protection expenditure and expenditure recorded in the national accounts, and these are illustrated by reference to Irish data. The future development of social protection accounts by the inclusion of fiscal benefits, which are not recorded in the national accounts, is also considered. Finally some references are made to the use of the social protection accounts and the development of data relating o the numbers of persons covered by social protection and the numbers of beneficiaries.

Notes: This paper analyses the weakness in labour demand which appeared in 1973–78 in France, Germany, and the U.K. and attempts a comprehensive assessment of it. Hitherto, the situation in labour markets has usually been measured by official figures of the registered unemployed which tend to understate unemployment itself and neglect other dimensions of labour slack, such as reversal of previous migration flows or declines in labour force participation or in working hours which may contain highly significant cyclical movements cushioning unemployment.The report proposes the adoption of a more comprehensive concept for labour market monitoring, along lines already used in the annual reports of the German Institute of Employment Research. Such an approach presents advantages in economic and labour market policy analysis. A simplified form of the proposed monitoring tables is presented in Annex Tables F-1 to F-4, G-1 to G-4 and U-1 to U-4. They can be considered as a potential satellite to existing national accounts.It is also suggested that analysis of the degree to which labour potential is used be conducted on a regular basis. The possibilities of this approach are outlined in considerable detail in Section V and in the annex. The different dimensions of the use-of-potential account are summarised in Table 3.The report contains a review of the literature on the full employment rate of unemployment and its components. This is one of the major issues on which a judgement must be made in use-of-potential analysis. This review is presented in Section VI of the report.It emerges from the analysis that Germany had the biggest labour slack (8.6 percent of potential) in 1978 though its unemployment rate (3.8 percent of the labour force) was the lowest of the three countries.

Notes: In this paper, I have examined the relative growth rates of personal consumption, government consumption, and national income in Russia from 1885–1913 and have contrasted them with the “European” model (derived from the U.K. and German experience). Two hypotheses of the conventional model of Russian industrialization were tested: the retarded growth of personal consumption and the accelerated growth of government consumption and investment (relative to the European model) and the growing Europeanization of Russian growth after 1906. The estimates of personal consumption and government consumption failed to sustain either hypothesis. In fact, the reverse hypotheses appear to be more plausible. The lack of data on investment prevented the testing of the investment hypothesis, but the limited evidence which is available does not point to an extraordinary growth of investment. As a final experiment, the combined growth rates of personal and government consumption were compared with a revision of Goldsmith's national income estimates. They were shown to provide strong support for the accuracy of the revision of Goldsmith's estimates.

Notes: From a survey of the 150 members of the United Nations it appears that only one country could at present provide the full range of balance-sheet statistics called for in the United Nations guidelines on this topic. Seven countries could compile balance sheets confined to conventional types of assets and liabilities–excluding assets like consumer durables and mineral deposits. A further 31 countries presently publish some statistics on certain balance sheet items, but as the data have generally not been collected with a view to constructing national balance sheets they tend to be deficient for such purposes both in coverage and valuation. In other countries only rather trivial kinds of balance-sheet data are available, such as certain banking statistics collected by the central monetary authority for purposes of bank regulation.A review of sources and methods shows that for financial assets and liabilities extensive use is made of company accounts and enterprise surveys. The estate multiplier method is used in several countries for measuring household assets and net worth. As regards producers' fixed assets, countries with centrally-planned economies generally take direct surveys of assets, while in countries with market economies the perpetual inventory method is preferred.It is noted that many of the purposes for which balance-sheet statistics are used can be adequately served without constructing a complete set of accounts. To date balance-sheet statistics have therefore tended to be developed in a piecemeal fashion with priority going to those parts of the accounts whose uses for economic analysis are most obvious. Chief among these are statistics on the financial assets and liabilities of corporate enterprises and statistics on the stock of producers' fixed assets. These two areas also predominate in countries' plans for the future development of balance-sheet statistics.

Notes: The view is expressed that the well-known formulae for measuring changes in terms of trade cannot be used to conclude whether a country is better off or not. Other variables which reflect the impact upon production, employment, and the competitive position should also be taken into account.Similarly, changes in terms of trade between the industrial sectors of an economy cannot be used to conclude whether one sector is better off than others. Other factors which play a role include increases in productivity per man-hour. These may help to explain why in some sectors prices increase less than in others. An attempt is made to illustrate this point using some statistics for the Netherlands.

Notes: The purpose of this paper is to examine and attempt to solve a longstanding “puzzle” in national economic accounting. Radio and television broadcasting are services clearly designed for and used by consumers but not purchased by them and, consequently, not counted in personal consumption expenditures (PCE); the costs of broadcasting (and a part of the costs of newspaper and magazine publication) are not counted in final product but are counted as intermediate expenses in the manufacture and distribution of advertised products. An important result of this treatment is that an increase in broadcasting services will not increase real product, but will be reflected as price increases in advertised goods. Are consumer services provided by advertisers properly handled in the conventional accounts? How should they be valued? If their value is to be added to PCE, where does the offsetting income originate?The paper argues that the puzzle is resolved by recognizing the nonmarket exchange between the consumer and the broadcaster; the consumer provides the reception and display of audiovisual advertisements in his home in return for broadcast entertainment. The exchange rate-e.g. 501/2 minutes of entertainment for 91 minutes of commercial messages in “prime time”-is established in the United States by the National Association of Broadcasters. Similar exchanges occur between consumers and radio broadcasters, newspaper and magazine publishers. This concept is used as the basis for a new treatment shown in abbreviated sample accounts. Estimates for the U.S. in 1976 are included.

Notes: Book review in this article:P Townsend. Poverty in the United Kingdom

Notes: Book review in this article:C D Harbury and D M W N Hitchens, Inheritance and Wealth Inequality in Britain, (George Allen and Unwin.)

Notes: In this article Alistair Ostell and his colleagues discuss a study which evaluated the impact of communicating business information to a large industrial workforce. The results indicated that the exercise was successful in terms of informing employees but it apparently failed to motivate them to act or think differently.

Notes: THE CHANGING SYSTEM OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS IN GREAT BRITAINUniversity of GlasgowLABOUR RELATIONS—HERITAGE AND ADJUSTMENT Sir Otto Kahn-Freund, Q.C.*Lanchester PolytechnicMANPOWER PROBLEMS IN THE HOTEL & CATERING INDUSTRYHotel and Catering Industry Training BoardTHE POSTAL BUSINESS 1969–79University of NottinghamWORKING WOMEN AND THE LAWLegal Officer General and Municipal Workers' UnionINDUSTRIAL LABOR IN THE USSRUnivesity of GlasgowAFRICANISATION, NATIONALISATION AND INEQUALITYUniversity of Edinburgh

Notes: Stephen Creigh and Peter Makeham seek to explain inter-industry variations in both stoppage frequency and stoppage incidence at a highly disaggregated level. They develop and then test a simple model which relates strike activity to the conditions under which bargaining takes place and to bargaining structures.

Notes: The rapid growth of white-collar trade union membership in the UK in recent years has been paralleled by a similar phenomenon in Germany. Hermann Bayer and his colleagues explain the causes and results of the growth in trade unionism in West Germany against a background of socio-political developments.

Notes: Institutionalised bargaining and formal collective agreements at plant level are a rarity in France. However, research shows that some form of unofficial bargaining does take place. Edward Slack illustrates this phenomenon using evidence obtained from a chemical plant and an industrialised dairy in 1974.

Notes: WOMEN FOR HIRE, A STUDY OF THE FEMALE OFFICE WORKERLondon School of Economics and Political ScienceA HANDBOOK OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS PRACTICEPersonnel Director British AluminiumVOTES, VIRTUES AND VICES: TRADE UNION POWERTHE TROJAN HORSE: UNION POWER IN BRITISH POLITICSSchool of Industrial & Business Studies University of WarwickWHITE COLLAR UNIONISM: THE REBELLIOUS SALARIATManchester Business SchoolTHE INTERNATIONAL YEARBOOK OF ORGANIZATION STUDIESCentre for European Industrial Studies University of Bath

Notes: According to Harvie Ramsay, any significant attempt to analyse participation must meet certain important criteria. Among these are a concern for the way in which participation operates in the real world and the offering of explanations of actual participative practice which combines both theory and observation.

Notes: Reform of the law dealing with industrial relations was one of the major election commitments of the Conservative Government. In this commentary, Karl Mackie and Ian Hooker analyse the Employment Bill and the Working Paper on Secondary Industrial Action.

Notes: Frans Leijnse argues that although workplace bargaining in Britain has made substantial inroads into management control on the shop floor, there has been a striking failure by the unions to protect members against unemployment and inflation. He explains this in terms of the trade unions' existing lack of the organisational means to transfer the power they have won from the shopfloor to higher levels.

Notes: Sid Kessler traces trends and developments in the prevention and settlement of British labour disputes since 1968 in the context of the wider industrial relations system. He then considers the present law in relation to such disputes and discusses current systems for their prevention and settlement, in particular, the work of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.

Notes: Trade union education is assisted by public funds in most industrialised nations. A seemingly unique statutory training body (TUTA) has been recently established in Australia. Les Cupper gives a detailed account of TUTA's origins and history and focuses on the danger of organised labour relying upon nonunion funds to finance its training activity.

Notes: Book reviews in this article:Gray Area W. Kip Viscusi, Welfare of the Elderly: An Economic Analysis and Policy Prescription.A Soft Futur Walter A. Rosenbaum, Coal and Crisis: The Political Dilemmas of Energy Management.Putting out Fires Malcolm Getz, The Economics of the Urban Fire Department.Inequities Continue Elizabeth McTaggart Almquist, Minorities, Gender, and Work.The Federal Physician J. H. U. Brown, The Politics of Health Care.A Method to the Masses Leslie Corsa and Deborah Oakley, Population Planning. Ann ArborConservative Innovations Alan Altshuler with James P. Womack and John R. Pucher, The Urban Transportation System: Politics and Policy Innovation.Why, and Whither? David P. Varady, Ethnic Minorities in Urban Areas: A Case Study of Racially Changing Communities.Undermining Authority Susan Rose-Ackerman, Corruption: A Study in Political Economy.A Question of Power Robert Lawrence, ed., New Dimensions to Energy Policy.Briefer Mention What Works, What Doesn't William H. Whyte, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces.

Notes: Stuart Timperley discusses two important themes in the management of industrial relations in organisations: firstly, that it is possible, through managerial decisions and actions, to influence industrial relations and, secondly, that a case can be made for such decisions and actions to be implemented.

Notes: BOARDS OF DIRECTORS IN BRITISH INDUSTRY Christopher Brookes COMPANY ORGANISATION AND WORKER PARTICIPATION Ian B. Knight MANAGING PEOPLE AT WORK John Hunt McGraw-Hill WORK AND POWER: THE LIBERATION OF WORK AND THE CONTROL OF POLITICAL POWER Edited by Tom R. Burns, Lars Erik Karlsson and Veljko Rus Sage Publications NEW DEAL FOR STEEL, THE IRON AND STEEL CONFEDERATION, FRANCES TIPTON UNDERSTANDING INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS D. Farnham and J. Pimlott Cassell

Notes: Recent empirical work on shop steward activity has led to a considerable increase in knowledge of the dynamics of shopfloor bargaining. The intensive case study of two shopfloor organisations by Batstone and his colleagues is of particular significance. In this article, Paul Willman analyses the Batstone et alia framework in relation to subsequent evidence.

Notes: Microelectronics may be precipitating another industrial revolution. Greg Bamber considers relevant public policies in several countries. He identifies the likely issues of conflict and concludes that Britain should set up an Agency for New Technology to spearhead more positive government action, which could help to induce a climate of high trust at the workplace.

Notes: John Kelly examines and rejects the claim that job redesign satisfies the mutual interests of workers and employers through its provision of improved job satisfaction and performance. He investigates the costs to the parties involved which have been almost invariably neglected.

Notes: In this article, Michael Hudson makes a contribution to the current debate on future British wages policy. He presents a detailed empirical analysis of the West German experiment with ‘concerted action’, and, in his conclusion, assesses the possibility of employing such an approach in Great Britain.

Notes: The shop steward theme is continued in this article which is based upon research carried out in six manufacturing plants in Hull. Graham Winch identifies the problem of shop steward turnover and argues that the most important cause lies in the shop steward being deprived of resources necessary for carrying out the job.

Notes: Malcolm Warner and Arndt Sorge compare selected manufacturing units matched in products, technology, the task environment, dependence, location and size in Britain and West Germany. Despite the near-identical character of overall tasks according to matched criteria, the analysis clearly reveals industrial relations and organisational diversity between the two nations.

Notes: The focus of discussion about industrial democracy has shifted from worker directors to collective bargaining. This shift means that representatives will find themselves negotiating on relatively unfamiliar ground, with consequent implications for their training needs. Tom Schuller and Simon Henderson discuss certain issues identified in an SSRC-sponsored project on training for worker representatives.

Notes: Book reviews in this article:Straight Talk from Our Former Editor U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (prepared by Lawrence R. Klein and Susan Ghozeil), A Popularized Version of 21 Doctoral Dissertations, R & D monograph.The Well-Tempered Caveat Benjamin Chinitz, ed., The Declining Northeast: Demographic and Economic Analyses..George Sternlieb and James W. Hughes, eds., Revitalizing the Northeast: Prelude to an Agenda..The Economic Solution William J. Baumol and Wallace E. Oates, Economics, Environmental Policy, and the Quality of Life.The No-Free-Lunch Bunch Harold Sprout and Margaret Sprout, The Context of Environmental Politics: Unfinished Business for America's Third Century.Of Flora, Fish, and Titmice Ian C. Laurie, ed., Nature in Cities: The Natural Environment in the Design and Development of Urban Green Space.An Array of Options David J. Bartholomew and Andrew F. Forbes, Statistical Techniques for Manpower Planning.Reusing Resources David W. Pearce and Ingo Walter, eds., Resource Conservation: Social and Economic Dimensions of Recycling.Once More with Fueling Wallace E. Tyner, Energy Resources and Economic Development in India.Left-of-Center Viewpoint Jeannine Swift, Economic Development in Latin America.Edward J. Blakely, ed., Community Development Research: Concepts, Issues, and Strategies.Elchanan Cohn, The Economics of EducationP. W. Daniels, ed., Spatial Patterns of Office Growth and Location.Douglas Evans, Western Energy Policy: The Case for Competition.R. A. French and F. E. Ian Hamilton, eds., The Socialist City: Spatial Structure and Urban Policy.D. A. Kirby, Slum Housing and Residential Renewal: The Case in Urban Britain.Thomas D. Lynch, Public Budgeting in America.Ragaei El Mallakh, Qatar: Development of an Oil Economy.Roberta Balstad Miller, City and Hinterland: A Case Study of Urban Growth and Regional Development.Rakesh Mohan, Urban Economic and Planning Models: Assessing the Potential for Cities in Developing Countries.Joseph P. Newhouse, The Economics of Medical Care: A Policy Perspective.John L. Palmer, ed., Creating Jobs: Public Employment Programs and Wage Subsidies.V. Kerry Smith, ed., Scarcity and Growth Reconsidered.

Notes: Book Review in this Article.Richard A. Easterlin, ed., Population and Economic Change in Developing Countries.John F. McDonald, Economic Analysis of an Urban Housing Market.Thomas A. Clark, Blacks in Suburbs: A National Perspective.Stephen Merrett, State Housing in Britain.Lloyd C. Irland, Wilderness Economics and Policy.Richard E. Lonsdale and H. L. Seyler, eds., Nonmetro-politan IndustrializationDonald N. Rothblatt, Daniel J. Garr, and Jo Sprague, The Suburban Environment and Women.Glenn V. Fuguitt, Paul R. Voss, and J. C. Doherty, Growth and Change in Rural America.Chia-ling Kuo, Social and Political Change in New York's Chinatown: The Role of Voluntary Associations.Frank Cancian, The Innovator's Situation: Upper-Middle-Class Conservatism in Agricultural Cornrnunities.

Notes: In Britain, interest in industrial conflict is almost wholly focused on ‘the strike’, analysed mainly in terms of official strike statistics. John Kelly and Nigel Nicholson argue that this approach is unsatisfactory, given doubts about the accuracy of the statistics, the exclusion of small strikes and the lack of detailed attention given to other forms of industrial conflict.

Notes: The practice and problems of disclosure of information are of concern not only to those who are responsible for the conduct of industrial relations, but also to other specialists. Falconer Mitchell et alia, using case studies carried out in 1978 and 1979, discuss disclosure policy from the standpoints of both industrial relations and accountancy.

Notes: Although it is unwarranted to ignore personal traumas caused by redundancy, the public dimension, given an economy dominated by de-industrialisation and unemployment, has assumed growing importance. In this article, R. John Sutherland examines public policies towards redundancy from several perspectives.

Notes: Much is heard in Britain of the success of the West German economy, with special attention being drawn to the structure and policies of its trade union movement. In this case study of workplace industrial relations, David Ebsworth examines the role of lay officers of the third largest West German trade union, the Chemical Workers' Union, in a high technology industry.

Notes: Laurence Hunter argues that although there has been some reference to economic questions in the debate on industrial democracy, they have not received the attention that they deserve. Rather than to provide answers, the purpose of his article is to highlight the importance of the questions, in the hope that others might be encouraged to accept the presented challenge.

Notes: Since the war, the practice of shiftworking has increased considerably in Britain. Yet, it is widely recognised that the more intensive shiftworking patterns may give rise to adverse effects on health, family and social life. The European Commission is currently preparing a proposal to limit night and other forms of shiftwork. In this article Derek Bosworth and Peter Dawkins make a useful contribution to the debate.

Notes: Recent reports on the progress of the Australian debate about industrial democracy claim that there already exists a consensus on the desirability of democracy among normally opposed industrial and political groups. Since desirability is no longer an issue, the practical problems of implementation may now be considered. However, Edward Vaughn argues that these reports from Australia are misleading.