ALBERT

Notes: IT expertise cannot be viewed as a decisive asset in organisational tournaments. Survey findings suggest IT competence is associated with severe handicaps in power contests between professional/managerial strata. At least for the present, there are strongly negative implications for hypotheses of organisational ascendancy for IT professionals or for their successful achievement of a collective mobility project.

Notes: This paper compares and contrasts the demographic and employment characteristics of those who have the option to work at home with those who actually carry out paid work where they live. The results suggest that having the opportunity to choose where to work represents another perk for those already occupying an advantaged position in the labour market. However, some of the most disadvantaged in society are found among those who actually do most of their work at home.

Notes: 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.

Notes: This paper traces the impact of three knowledge management (KM) projects inside a global pharmaceuticals firm. The first was a conventional debriefing exercise; the second a major investment in an electronic repository, ‘Warehouse’; and the third, ‘Café’, an attempt to use web technology to construct new ‘communities of practice’. Discussions of KM have been dominated by prescriptive and managerialist approaches that ignore organisational politics and the impact of KM on the labour process. We place these issues at the centre of our account of KM. The critical weaknesses of the KM projects were: first, their reliance on the active involvement of labour. Passive resistance was sufficient to limit the impact of KM in practice. Second, the technical development of KM systems was not matched by the formation of consistent, centralised measures of social processes. Both factors severely limited the development of KM as a durable power/knowledge regime.

Notes: Home-based micro-enterprises involving information and communications technologies are associated with the new, entrepreneurial economy of the twenty-first century. The research reported in this paper suggests that if such ‘new’ ways of working become more widespread the results may not only be harsh for many individuals and households but damaging overall for the quality of working life.

Notes: The paper meets a need for more context specific empirical research in this area. Subject to medical group power, the three cases studied suggest that MIS/IT enhances the role of middle managers since it is they who are best placed to ‘synthesise’ information from MIS/IT for executive management.

Notes: The cleaning industry is a service industry which is currently undergoing major changes in scope and omplexity and increasing use of information technologies. This paper highlights the various innovation trajectories which apply to the cleaning industry and seeks to link these to the employment structure in the sector.

Notes: The paper locates the rise of the call centre within the context of the development of Taylorist methods and technological change in office work in general. Managerial utilisation of targets to impose and measure employees’ quantitative and qualitative performance is analysed in four case–study organisations. The paper concludes that call centre work reflects a pardigmic re–configuration of customer servicing operations, and that the continuing application of Taylorist methods appears likely.

Notes: Based on a postal survey and interviews, this paper analyses employee empowerment in the UK manufacturing industry, including how it is pursued and perceived, and the key factors that determine success. Success seems to depend on far-reaching changes in procedures, hierarchies and reward structures. This need to mobilise individual agents and structure reconfirms the agency-structure duality.

Notes: The considerable debate about the level of discretion that should be accorded workers in performing production tasks has often lacked effective conceptual support. The authors develop a job discretion model based on customer preferences. The model is empirically tested and used to resolve the discretion question and clarify relevant job design and human resource issues.

Notes: This paper contributes to current debates about gender, work and skill in the service economy, focusing specifically on the case of women’s employment in telephone call centres. The paper asks whether call centre employers are capitalising on women’s ‘feminine’ social skills, and examines the degree to which these skills are being developed, acknowledged and recognised.

Notes: A processual perspective is advocated in this article that develops a mutual shaping account of the relationship between technology and organization; and the case of Dalebake Bakeries is used to illustrate the importance of power and politics in understanding processes of change in the local reconfiguration of new technology at work.

Notes: Changes in organisational forms are central to the way new technologies impact on the future of work and employment. Drawing on case–study evidence of a call centre and its client relations and a multinational IT firm and its partnership with a government department, this paper explores the implications for skill and managerial control.

Notes: This ethnographic study of technicians in action supplements a structural analysis of technical labour by delineating the distinct occupational identities of different technicians through their framed interactions with their clients and professionals with whom they work. We suggest that educational reform predicated on a structural conception of technicians will fail to redress the impending technical skill shortages.

Notes: This article explores how maintenance work and the requirements of maintenance skills may have changed in a changing technological and organisational environment. A closer examination of the skill requirements for maintenance work in the case study firm has revealed a wider range of skill components than existing literature on maintenance skills has focused on. This paper argues that organisational change may lead to the requirement of new skills for maintenance work and that interpersonal skill may be an important skill element required.

Notes: This paper uses cross–national data from happiness surveys, jointly with data on per capita income and pollution, to examine how self–reported well–being varies with prosperity and environmental conditions. This approach allows us to show that citizens care about prosperity and the environment, and to calculate the trade–off people are willing to make between them. The paper finds that the effect of urban air pollution on subjective well–being shows up as a considerable monetary valuation of improved air quality. For instance, a representative German citizen would need to be given more than 1900 $ per year in order to accept the typical urban air pollution level prevailing in Japan. The subjective marginal valuation of air pollution is compared with marginal abatement costs from the literature.

Notes: This paper uses cross–national data from happiness surveys, jointly with data on per capita income and pollution, to examine how self–reported well–being varies with prosperity and environmental conditions. This approach allows us to show that citizens care about prosperity and the environment, and to calculate the trade–off people are willing to make between them. The paper finds that the effect of urban air pollution on subjective well–being shows up as a considerable monetary valuation of improved air quality. For instance, a representative German citizen would need to be given more than 1900$ per year in order to accept the typical urban air pollution level prevailing in Japan. The subjective marginal valuation of air pollution is compared with marginal abatement costs from the literature.

Notes: This article considers the relationship between finance and the contribution of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to macroeconomic performance. The general characteristics of ICT firms, especially their often ‘high risk, high return’ nature, suggest equity finance is more appropriate than debt finance. Also, the prevalence of information asymmetries tends to favour internal finance and venture capital with management participation. For a group of countries, we analyse correlations between financial structure and the ICT contribution to economic growth. Our results support the view that a market–oriented financial system and a well–developed venture capital market are key factors stimulating the emergence of the so–called ‘New Economy’. This helps explain the considerable gap in productivity growth between the United States and Europe in the second half of the 1990s.

Notes: Many countries suffer from persistently high unemployment rates. The scope for labour market reforms is often limited to measures that hurt neither shareholders nor workers. This paper develops a policy proposal, which allows the government to reduce wage costs without changing the income positions as determined in the process of wage negotiations. It is shown that the introduction of public profit sharing, i.e., substituting profit shares for social security contributions, can boost employment both in the short run and the long run. Calibrating the model and comparing the results with recent empirical findings about the impact of labour taxation confirm the theoretical findings.

Notes: Books reviewed:Jagdish Bhagwati, Free Trade TodayMichael Carlberg, An Economic Analysis of Monetary UnionCarl, Chiarella, Peter Flaschel, Gangolf Groh und Willi Semmler, Disequilibrium, Growth and Labor Market Dynamics.Badly Condon, NAFTA, WTO and Global Business StrategyPaul De Grauwe (ed.), The Political Economy of Monetary UnionWilliam Easterly, The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures in the TropicsAnna Grandori, Organization and Economic BehaviorMary Gregory, Wiemer Salverda and Stephen Bazen (eds.), Labour Market InequalitiesKarsten Junius, Ulrich Kater, Carsten–Patrick Meier und Henrik Müller, Handbuch Europäische Zentralbank.János Kornai and Karen Eggleston, Welfare, Choice, and Solidarity in Transition: Reforming the Health Sector in Eastern EuropePeter Koslowski (ed.), The Theory of Capitalism in the German Economic TraditionConstantine Michalopoulos, Developing Countries in the WTOTorsten Persson and Guido Tabellini, Political Economics: Explaining Economic PolicyHeinz–Peter Spahn, From Gold to EuroWilliam Thomson, Guide for the Young EconomistViktor J. Vanberg, The Constitution of MarketsRami Zwick and Amnon Rapoport (eds.), Experimental Business Research

Notes: This paper analyzes the editorial screening process in economics, employing data from the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, and Quarterly Journal of Economics. We examine three issues: the decline of critical commentary in economics, the increased referencing behavior of authors, and the decline in the citation of economic research. We find that there is empirical evidence in favor of the idea that these trends are mostly due to more ex ante investment by authors in their papers and less need for ex post quality control.We appreciate helpful comments received from William Shughart, John Sophocleus, and the editors of Kyklos. The usual caveat applies.

Notes: Standard indicators of human capital endowment — like literacy, school enrollment ratios or years of schooling — suffer from a number of defects. They are crude. Mostly, they refer to input rather than output measures of human capital formation. Occasionally, they produce implausible effects. They are not robustly significant determinants of growth. Here, they are replaced by average intelligence. This variable consistently outperforms the other human capital indicators in spite of suffering from severe defects of its own. The immediate impact of institutional improvements, i.e., more government tolerance of private enterprise or economic freedom, on growth it is in the same order of magnitude as intelligence effects are.The senior author is responsible for picking a ‘politically incorrect’ topic, i.e., analyzing the impact of IQ or average intelligence. The junior author has done the data compilation and the computations.

Notes: The Roman Catholic Church has been turning out new saints for two millennia. The argument advanced here is that the saint–making process is arranged as an open contest for sainthood: by combining competitive initiative and pressure from below with exclusive adjudication from above, it provides effective incentives for participants to direct their efforts toward the best interests of the church. This is a key factor that counters bureaucratic ossification and keeps the church thriving. The argument implies that the secular pattern of canonizations should mirror the changing pattern of church demand rather than any exogenous supply of saintly persons, and should translate into a pattern of rise and decline of religious orders which specialize in particular virtues meeting particular demands. Statistical data on canonizations in the second millennium strongly support this empirical implication.An earlier draft of this paper was presented at a panel on Public Choice and the Millennium in the annual meeting of the European Public Choice Society, Siena, 26–29 April, 2000, whose participants provided interesting discussion. The author is particularly indebted to George Akerlof, Vani Borooah, Alberto Cassone, Joan Delaney Grossman, Gregory Grossman, Ronald Wintrobe, Robert Young, and a referee of this Journal for useful comments and suggestions. The revised version was completed while the author was visiting professor at the Department of Economics of the University of California at Berkeley, whose support is gratefully acknowledged.

Notes: Most studies on the relationship between economic freedom and growth employ a measure of economic freedom based on an (ad hoc) aggregation of various underlying components. We argue that the alternative aggregation procedure as recently suggested by Heckelman and Stroup (2000) — in which aggregation is directly based upon the relevance of each component for growth, as determined by multivariate regression analysis — is seriously flawed. We present an alternative index based on latent variable estimation techniques. Using standard robustness analyses we find that this index of economic freedom is not robustly related to economic growth.

Notes: This paper deals with an intriguing paradox that can be observed in today’s regional economic policy making: whereas unique local factors are increasingly seen as the determinants of regional economic success, simultaneously more and more governments try to copy policy experiences that proved to be successful in a particular region. A good example here is the use of ‘best practices’ in the field of regional cluster policy. Cluster programs are becoming like ‘mantras’ for policy makers who want to stimulate regional economic development. Given this paradox, in the present paper we address the question what lessons can be drawn from comparing success stories of regional clustering. To answer this question, we combine insights from regional economics and comparative public policy. To start, we discuss the literature that has led to the popularity of the cluster concept as a learning device among policy makers. After that, we identify the preconditions (‘contingencies’) that affect whether these cluster policy initiatives can be transferred from one place to another. We find that some of the contingent influences, especially those related to the degree of uniqueness of an area’s economic structure and culture, hamper the possibility of ‘learning by comparing’ in regional cluster policy. It may even be argued that exactly those regional specificities explain the success of cluster–based policy efforts. Thus, we have to draw the rather pessimistic conclusion that the possibilities of lesson–drawing in regional cluster policy are limited. In our view, at best ‘best practices’ should be seen as inspiration sources rather than as recipes for successful regional economic development.A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the CURE 3–Conference on Outstanding Regions in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, November 22–24, 2000. We would like to thank Arnoud Lagendijk, an anonymous referee and the editors for valuable comments.

Notes: Books reviewed:Ulf Beckmann, Von Löwe bis LeontiefFriedel Bolle and Michael Carlberg (eds.), Behavioral EconomicsPaul Dalziel, Money, Credit and Price StabilityVivien Foster, Susana Mourato, David Pearce and Ece Özdemiroglu, The Price of VirtueJoshua Gans (ed.), Publishing EconomicsOtmar Issing, Vitor Gaspar, Ignazio Angeloni and Oreste Tristani, Monetary Policy in the Euro AreaKarin Knottenbauer, Theorien des sektoralen StrukturwandelsPeter Koslowski, Wirtschaftsethik – Wo ist die Philosophie?Arthur Lupia, Mathew D. McCubbins and Samuel L. Popkin (eds.), Elements of ReasonPeter Nolan, China and the Global EconomyFinn Ostrup, Money and the Natural Rate of UnemploymentTapio Palokangas, Labour Unions, Public Policy and Economic GrowthPejovich, Svetozar (ed.), The Economics of Property RightsDaniel Piazolo, The Integration Process between Eastern and Western EuropeJaime Ros, Development Theory and the Economics of GrowthBernard Salanié, Microeconomics of Market FailuresJohn Sutton, Marshall’s TendenciesMalcolm Trevor, Japan: Restless CompetitorAchim Truger, Rot–grüne Steuerreformen in DeutschlandWorld Investment Report, Cross–border Mergers and Acquisitions and Development

Notes: I gratefully acknowledge helpful comments and suggestions by the participants of this conference, especially Geoffrey Brennan, Christoph Engel and Torsten Persson, as well as by Simon Gaechter.

Notes: The authors would like to thank Gerald Hosp and Hannelore Weck-Hannemann for valuable comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.

Notes: I wish to thank Friedrich Schneider, University of Linz, and Anne van Aaken, Humboldt-University Berlin, for their very helpful comments on this paper. Special thanks also go to Stephan Meier, University of Zurich, for helping me revise the paper.

Notes: I thank Mauro Baranzini, Matthias Benz and Roberto Scazzieri for detailed comments and helpful suggestions. I also enjoyed comments from many other participants at the Lugano Conference. Back in Witten, Birger Priddat gave valuable feedback.

Notes: We are grateful to Dennis Mueller, Friedrich Schneider and Gerhard Schwarz for their extensive and detailed comments, and to Matthias Benz, Petr Chmelik, Beat Gygi, Reto Jegen, Stephan Meier, Juan Schmid, Alois Stutzer and Silika Tereshchenko for their helpful remarks on earlier versions of this paper.

Notes: A first draft of this paper was written while the authors were with the Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin. They would like to thank its staff for its immense hospitality and Dieter Grimm, Larry Lessig, Rico Maggi, Dieter Sadowski, and Janes Sustersic for illuminating discussions of some of the ideas contained in this paper.

Notes: We are grateful to participants in the conference and the editors of KYKLOS for helpful comments.

Notes: From the stated price of a specified lottery in three unrelated surveys we deduce individuals’ Arrow-Pratt measure of risk aversion. We find that risk aversion indeed falls with income and wealth. Entrepreneurs are less risk averse than employees, civil servants are more risk averse than private sector employees, and women are more risk averse than men. A simple lottery question appears a promising survey instrument to explore risk attitude and its relation to personal characteristics.

Notes: Redistribution is typically viewed as a task of the central government. However, in most federal countries local governments do have some discretion in redistribution policy. The main theoretical argument for this is that redistribution may be a local public good (Pauly 1973). Using data on Flemish municipalities, we present a first empirical test of Pauly’s assumption. We find that the willingness to redistribute is negatively affected by the geographical dimension of the responsible government. We extend the notion of distance, considering also sociological, cultural, income and political distances between donors and recipients. We find that, with the exception of income, these are relevant determinants of welfare policy, though they do not always have the predicted effect.

Notes: Empirical research has shown that both more economic freedom and a higher stability of policy variables are supportive for economic growth. Thus, the path of policy liberalization may have a considerable influence on a nation’s growth performance. Using the Fraser-index of economic freedom, this article shows empirically that policy volatility proves to be growth depressing, even if the state liberalizes the economy in the long-run. Growth is significantly higher if liberalization occurs on a smoother path.

Notes: This paper documents that a process of industrial restructuring has been transforming the developed economies, where large corporations are accounting for less economic activity and small firms are accounting for a greater share of economic activity. Not all countries, however, are experiencing the same shift in their industrial structures. Little is known about the cost of resisting this restructuring process. The goal of this paper is to identify whether there is a cost, measured in terms of forgone growth, of an impeded restructuring process. The cost is measured by linking growth rates of European countries to deviations from the ‘optimal’ industrial structure. The empirical evidence suggests that countries impeding the restructuring process pay a penalty in terms of forgone growth.

Notes: Books reviewed:Bhagwati, Jagdish. The Winds of the Hundred DaysCostanza, Robert, John Cumberland, Herman Daly, Robert Goodland und Richard Norgaard. Einführung in die Ökologische ÖkonomikFogel, Robert William. The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of EgalitarianismFrey, Bruno S. Inspiring EconomicsFrey, Bruno S. und Margit Osterloh (Hrsg.) Managing MotivationGandolfo, Giancarlo. International Finance and Open-Economy MacroeconomicsGerschlager, Caroline und Ina Paul-Horn (Hrsg.) Gestaltung des GeldesGibson, Heather D. (ed.) Economic Transformation, Democratization and the Integration into the European UnionHenneberger, Fred, Stefan Graf und Matthias Vocke. Globalisierung und ArbeitsmarktHoffmann, Lutz and Felicitas Moellers (eds.) Ukraine on the Road to EuropeHowarth, David, J. The French Road to European Monetary UnionHunya, Gabor (ed.) Integration Through Foreign Direct InvestmentKiesewetter, Hubert. Region und Industrie in Europa 1815–1995Kleinert, Jörn und Henning Klodt. Megafusionen — Trends, Ursachen und ImplikationenKolodko, Grzegorz W. Post-Communist Transition: The Thorny RoadNooteboom, Bart. Learning and Innovation in Organizations and EconomiesPsalidopoulos, Michalis (ed.) The Canon in the History of EconomicsRiphan, Regina T., Dennis J. Snower and Klaus F. Zimmermann (eds.) Employment Policy in TransitionRochon, Louis-Philippe and Matias Vernengo (eds.) Credit, Interest Rates and the Open EconomySacconi, Lorenzo. The Social Contract of the FirmSen, Amartya. Ökonomie für den MenschenSieberg, Katri K. Criminal DilemmasVives, Xavier. Oligopoly PricingWelfens, Paul J. J. European Monetary Union and Exchange Rate Dynamics

Notes: Books reviewed in this article.Bender, Dieter et al.: Vahlens Kompendium der Wirtschaftstheorie und Wirtschaftspolitik.Betancourt, Roger R. and Clague, Christopher K.: Capital Utilization.Blankart, Charles Beat und Faber, Monika (Hrsg.): Regulierung öffentlicher Unternehmen.Brune, Heinrich-Gustav : Organisation von Verbraucherinteressen.Charatsis, E. G. (Ed.): Proceedings of the Econometric Society European Meeting 1979.Cooper, Charles : Economic Evaluation and the Environment.Courbis, Raymond (Éd.): Commerce international et modèles multinationaux.Diebold, William Jr.: Industrial Policy as an International Issue.Ekelund, Robert B. Jr. and Tollison, Robert D.: Mercantilism As a Rent-Seeking Society: Economic Regulations in Historical Perspective.Ferber, Robert and Hirsch, Werner Z.: Social Experimentation and Economic Policy.Fisher, Anthony C.: Resource and Environmental Economics.Gottwald, Dietrich: Die dynamische Theorie der Allokation erschöpfbarer Ressourcen.Griffith-Jones, Stephany: The Role of Finance in the Transition to Socialism.GrÜnÄrml, Frohmund: Multinationale Unternehmen, internationaler Handel und monetäre Stabilität.Hudson, John : Inflation.Hueting, Roefie : New Scarcity and Economic Growth.Kornai, JÁnos: Economics of Shortage.Krämer, W.: Eine Rehabilitation der gewöhnlichen Kleinst-Quadrate-Methode als Schätzverfahren in der Ökonometrie.Krohn, Claus-Dieter: Wirtschaftstheorien als politische Interessen.Llewellyn, David T.: International Financial Integration.Minx, Eckard : Von der Liberalisierungs- zur Wettbewerbspolitik.Mooslechner, Peter und Nowotny, Ewald: Gesamtwirtschaftliche Finanzierung und öffentliche Verschuldung.Moss, Scott : An Economic Theory of Business Strategy.Newbery, David M. G. and Stiglitz, Joseph E.: The Theory of Commodity Price Stabilization.Ryll, Edwin: Abschöpfungssystem, Angebotskontingentierung, produktneutrale und produktgebundene staatliche Einkommensübertragungen als agrarmarktpolitische Instrumente.Sauernheimer, Karlhans: Internationale Kapitalbewegungen, flexible Wechselkurse und gesamtwirtschaftliches Gleichgewicht.Shelp, Ronald Kent : Beyond Industrialization.Sid-Ahmed, Abdelkader : Nord-Sud: Les enjeux.Siebert, Horst:. Economics of the Environment.Slawson, W. David : The New Inflation.Stahl, Konrad und Sghulz, Norbert: Mathematische Optimierung und mikroökonomische Theorie.Thimm, Alfred L.: The False Promise of Codetermination.Witt, Ulrich: Marktprozesse.

Notes: This article critically reviews the development and present state of information theory in labor markets. Since the first generation of the new microeconomics, important progress has been made. However, a compact theory including both the various forms of information problems and the associated behavioral reactions still does not exist. Much work remains to be done in order to achieve a general and comprehensive foundation of macroeconomics. Moreover, application of such models to reality is not possible because there are no conclusive empirical tests. The strict neoclassical approach used in these models must be regarded as their principle weakness. The more reality differs from neoclassical assumptions, the more important is the — complementary — macro foundation of micro economics. This should include the analysis of collective decisions on the macro level and their effect on the individual market participant. Finally, some recent empirical and theoretical ideas are presented.

Notes: This paper is intended to highlight the role of cost increases in the inflation process. In the course of the analysis a distinction is made between three different types of cost inflation: (i) exogenous cost impulses; (ii) competing income claims, both by way of bargaining in markets and by competition in the political arena; and (iii) attempts to preserve the purchasing power of income. Each category is discussed in some detail. The paper also discusses alternative methods of fighting cost inflation, including some issues pertaining to cost-accommodating demand management and incomes policy.

Notes: According to Kondratiefflong term economic growth in industrialized countries is characterized by a 40- to 60-years-long cycle. The existence of this cycle is much debated. This article presents a spectral analytic test of the long cycle on the basis of price and volume series for Great Britain, France, Germany and the United States. In addition, long cyclical relations between prices and production and the relations between these variables internationally are analyzed by means of cross spectral analysis. The results of these analyses seem to confirm the existence of a Kondratieff-cycle in prices, but contradict the existence of a (simultaneous) long cycle in real variables.

Notes: This paper is an empirical investigation of the hypothesis that there exists a positive relationship between the inflation rate and its variability. The hypothesis is tested for a sample of eighteen industrial countries for the period 1949-1970. In contrast to most previous studies, policy makers are allowed to revise their desired inflation rate by calculating a six-year moving average. The homogeniety assumption across countries is relaxed and the relationship between the average inflation rate and its variability over time is examined within each country. In addition, the argument that government financial policy is responsible for the variability of the inflation rate is reexamined in the context of a fixed-exchange-rate open economy; an alternative source of inflation variability is proposed-international inflation. A procedure that separates out the influence of the world inflation rate is developed and the relationship between the average inflation rate and its measure of variability attributable to domestic government financial policy is examined. The findings of this study provide less pervasive support than previous studies of the existence of a positive relationships between the inflation rate and its variability. Moreover, the positive causality uncovered might be due more to international inflation than to the actions of domestic financial authorities.

Notes: The life cycle hypothesis of consumption and rational (in the sense of Muth) expectations implies under certain additional, but not very restrictive, assumptions that real consumption follows an univariate first order autoregressive process. This implication was tested in the framework of bivariate autoregressive models with Swiss quarterly macroeconomic data. A slightly modified variant of the stepwise modelling approach suggested by Hsiao was applied. The hypothesis was rejected with respect to a ‘Neo-Ricardian’ definition of disposable income and real stock prices. By contrast, the test with the conventional definition of disposable income brought not significant results. These findings rise some doubts about the usual specification of macroeconometric consumption functions and their policy implications.

Notes: Auernheimer, Leonardo and Ekelund, Robert B. Jr.: The Essentials of Money and Banking.Batchelor, R. A.; Major, R. L. and Morgan, A. D.: Industrialisation and the Basis for Trade.Boettcher, Erik: Die Genossenschaft in der Marktwirtschaft.Brems, Hans: Dynamische Makrotheorie - Inflation, Zins und Wachstum.von Brentano, Dorothee: Grundsätzliche Aspekte der Entstehung von Genossenschaften.BÜrgenmeier, Beat: Théorie et pratique des investissements suisses à l’étranger.Cassen, Robert et al.: The World Development Report 1981.Cline, William R. and Associates: World Inflation and the Developing Countries.Craven, John: The Distribution of the Product.Deaton, Angus (Ed.): Essays in the theory and measurement of consumer behaviour.Dell, Sidney and Lawrence, Roger:The Balance of Payments Adjustment Process in Developing Countries.Fallick, J. L. and Elliot, R. F. (Eds.): Incomes Policies, Inflation and Relative Pay.Fellner, William(Ed.): Contemporary Economic Problems 1980.Frohn, Joachim und StÄglin, Reiner(Hrsg.): Empirische Wirtschqftsforschung.Gutzler, Helmut(Hrsg.): Umweltpolitik und Wettbewerb.Hamm, Walter und Schmidt, Reimer(Hrsg.): Wettbewerb und Fortschritt.Hey, John D.: Economics in Disequilibrium.Hibbs, Douglas A., Jr. and Fassbender, Heinowith the assistance of Rivers, R. Douglas(Eds.): Contemporary Political Economy.Howard, M. C.: Modern Theories of Income Distribution.Kellenbenz, Hermann: Deutsche Wirtschaftsgeschichte.Kocher, Gerhard und Rentchnick, Pierre:Teure Medizin.Kraft, M. und Braun, K.: Statisttsche Methoden für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften.Maxwell, Robert J.: Health and Wealth.Mishan, Ezra J.: Introduction to Normative Economics.Sen, Amartya: Poverty and Famines.StÖhr, Walter B. and Fraser Taylor, D. R. (Eds.): Development from Above or Below? The Dialectics of Regional Planning in Developing Countries.Usher, Dan: The Economic Prerequisite to Democracy.Wagenhals, Gerhard: Wohlfahrtstheoretische Implikationen von Disparitätsmassen.

Notes: This paper summarizes recent developments in the stabilization policy debate. The emphasis is on the controversy between two main classes of models, the equilibrium and the disequilibrium approach, which are both aiming at a consistent explanation of macroeconomic price and quantity behavior. The various models that have been proposed are placed into a coherent framework, and the source of their contradicting policy implications is explored. Empirical evidence cannot be expected to bring about a clearcut decision in favor of either paradigm. A more likely prospect is the development of a synthetic approach emerging from current research in the micro foundations of macroeconomics. (An english version of this article is available as Discussion Paper Nr. 61, Institut f¨r angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung, University of Basel.)

Notes: Inflation occurs because individuals have an incentive to raise prices. The key issue of anti-inflation policy is to choose the appropriate incentive to stop inflation. Monetary policy works through the hunger incentive and it is no longer effective because society no longer allows the hunger incentive to work. This paper argues that the appropriate incentives to stop inflation are market incentives. These market incentives can be built into society through the introduction of an incentive anti-inflation plan such as the authors’ MAP proposal or its TIP counterparts.

Notes: Considerable controversy surrounds the COASE theorem despite the fact that it is generally accepted as valid both in the theory of externalities and the economic analysis of law. A major source of the controversy is the fact that there are a number of versions of the COASE theorem and definitions of transactions costs. It is argued that a proper understanding both of the competitive market model and transaction costs reveals that the COASE theorem is invalid and not part of standard market theory. It is further argued that transaction costs and information costs arising from market uncertainty provide a key to resolving many of the controversies that the theorem has given rise to and following from this that the primary economic function of law in bargaining situations is to increase transaction costs in order to reduce market uncertainty and strategic behaviour.

Notes: In this paper, three aspects of the potential gains form trade in an imperfect competition framework are considered in the light of recent research: the presumption that free trade reduces the monopolistic distorsions of imperfect domestic markets; the role of international openness as a way of making room for more efficient-size sellers in the domestic market; its effect upon the appearance of new products and increase in the total number of products. Theoretical and empirical research suggest that trade is indeed likely to improve allocative as well as technical efficiency and often to promote more product varieties.

Notes: Many governments allocate resources to the repression of the political freedom of their citizens. The dominant economic theory of this activity, associated most prominently with the work of HAYEK, is that political repression is a bi-product of the erosion of economic freedom. This theory predicts that civil liberty will be positively correlated with the degree of economic freedom. An alternative view, derived from models of industrial behavior, is that monopolistic governments will use political repression to protect their property rights, so that concentrated party systems will tend to engage in more repression than competitive systems. Using a cross-sectional sample of 184 states in 1979, an empirical test of the two hypotheses is presented and the evidence is shown to be more consistent with the second hypothesis. In addition, the correlation between civil liberty and a variety of economic variables is examined: the degree of civil liberty is found to positively related to the level of real per capita income and to the ratio of wage and salary payments to total income. The Gastil index of civil liberty provides the empirical foundation for the study.

Notes: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the process of social change as understood by Karl Marx and modern property rights theorists. Differences between Karl Marxand modern property rights theorists are quite substantial. Yet, Karl Marxand modern property rights theorists have one thing in common: the perception about the importance of property rights structures on the character of economic life. Same as modern property rights theorists, Marxrecognized that the solution of the social problems is not merely the task of reason but that the process of social change is caused by forces and movements that work from within the existing social system. Marx viewed economics as the study of property rights over scarce resources. As man learned to apply human work to the production and use of tools, it became essential to specify the relations among men with respect to the right to use those intermediate goods. And that meant the development and specification of property rights. Thus, Marxdeduced the historical necessity of property rights from the initial subordination of man to nature and his survival instincts. The most important difference between Marxand property rights scholars lies in the method of analysis. Modern property rights scholars are methodological individualists. They view the capitalist community as a voluntary association of utility seeking individuals. Instead of exogenously-imposed ‘common good’, emphasis in the capitalist community is on the right of ownership and contractual freedom which allow each individual the freedom of choice and the obligation to bear the costs of pursuing his own preferences, Marx viewed the process of social change as occurring in a series of historically predetermined discontinuous sequences. Thus, he viewed the development of property rights as both endogenous to the prevailing stage of economic development and pre-ordained by the laws of history.

Notes: Book reviewed in this ArticleBain, Andrew D.: The Economics of the Financial SystemBarnett, William A.: Consumer Demand and Labor SupplyBensoussan, Alain; Kleindorfer, Paul and Tapiero, Charles S. (Eds.): Applied Stochastic Control in Econometrics and Management ScienceBurmeister, Edwin: Capital Theory and DynamicsChandler, Alfred D., Jr. and Daems, Herman(Eds.): Managerial HierarchiesChipman, John S. and Kindleberger, Charles P. (Eds.): Flexible Exchange Rates and the Balance of PaymentsCline, William R. and Weintraub, Sidney (Eds.): Economic Stabilization in Developing CountriesGeipel, Ute: Makroökonomische KonjunkturanalyseHerder-Dorneigh, Philipp; Sieben, GÜnter und Thiemeyer, Theo (Hrsg.): Wege zur GesundheitsökonomieHWWA-Institut: Analyse der strukturellen Entwicklung der deutschen WirtschaftJames, Simon:A Dictionary of Economic QuotationsKampkÖtter, Horst: Einzelwirtschaftliche Ansätze der ProduktionstheorieKaufer, Erich: Theorie der Öffentlichen RegulierungKmenta, J. and Ramsey, J. B. (Eds.): Large-Scale Macro-Econometric ModelsLampert, Heinz: SozialpolitikMÁndi, PÉter: Education and Economic Growth in the Developing CountriesNygÅrd, Fredrik and Sandström, Arne: Measuring Income InequalityOdagiri, Hiroyuki: The Theory of Growth in a Corporate EconomyOhr, Renate: Internationale Interdependenz nationaler Geld- und Güter-märkte bei flexiblen WechselkursenOtruba, Heinrich: Wirtschaftliches Verhalten bei UngleichgewichtPasinetti, Luigi L.: Structural Change and Economic GrowthRosensghon, Astrid: Verschwendung in Staat und MarktRoskamp, Karl W. and Forte, Francesco (Eds.): Reforms of Tax Systems — Réformes des systèmes fiscauxSimon, JulianL.: The Ultimate ResourceTennstedt, Florian: Sozialgeschichte der Sozialpolitik in DeutschlandTobin, James: Vermögensakkumulation und wirtschaftliche AktivitätWeizsÄcker, C. C. v.: Barriers to Entry

Notes: This research empirically examines the extent to which progress toward meeting the new international economic order (NIEO) goal of reducing global and societal inequalities has been made in the period since 1972-74. Data on global income distribution from 1946-76 are presented and analyzed. Additionally, the developed West, East, the underdeveloped South, and OPEC nations are examined separately. Basic human needs distributions are also examined utilizing data from the third edition of the World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators. Distributional calculations in these analyses are based upon the well known GINI coefficient. The major finding which emerges is that the NIEO goal of reducing the amount of global and societal inequalities is not being met. In fact, on the whole, a global trend toward greater inequality seems evident. Increasing inequality also is particularly prominent in non-OPEC developing Third World nations. Reductions in aggregate inequality have been made, but this progress is limited by and large to developed Northern and OPEC nations.

Notes: Argy, Victor: The Postwar International Money Crisis.Biehler, Hermann und Brandes, Wolfgang: Arbeitsmarktsegmen-tation in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.BienaymÉ, Alain: Strategies de l’ entreprise compétitive.Borchardt, Knut und Holzheu, Franz (Hrsg.): Theorie und Politik der internationalen Wirtschaftsbeziehungen.Bryant, Ralph C.: Money and Monetary Policy in Interdependent Nations.BuhnÉ, Rainer: Die Internationale Wettbewerbswirksamkeit nationaler Umweltschutzmassnahmen.Chitnis, Suma : A Long Way to Go.Clayre, Alasdair (Ed.): The Political Economy of Cooperation and Participation.Coats, Warren L., Jr. and KHATKHATE, DEENA R. (Eds.): Money and Monetary Policy in Less Developed Countries.Culyer, A. J.: The Political Economy of Social Policy.Donges, JÜrgen B.: Aussenwirtschafts- und Entwicklungspolitik.Dornbusch, Rudiger: Open Economy Macroeconomics.Fels, Gerhard und Schmidt, Klaus-Dieter: Die deutsche Wirtschaft im Strukturwandel.Frerichs, Walter und KÜbler, Knut: Gesamtwirtschaftliche Pro-gnoseverfahren.Friedman, Milton und Rose: Chancen, die ich meine.Gerken, Egbert: Arbeitsmärkte in Entwicklungsländern.Hagemann, Harald; Kurz, Heinz D. und SchÄfer, Wolf (Hrsg.): Die New Makroökonomik.Hawke, Gary: Economics for Historians.Kenen, Peter B.: Essays in International Economics.Kleiter, Gernot, D.: Bayes-Statistik.Lacoue-Labarthe, Dominique: Analyse monétaire.Lavigne, Marie (Ed.): Travail et monnaie en systéme socialiste.Lipp, Ernst-Moritz : Finanzpolitik und Lohnpolitik — Akteure zwischen Konflikt und Kooperation.Menck, Karl Wolfgang; Naini, Ahmad und Nottelmann, Angela: Elemente einer internationalen Strategie für die dritte Entwicklungs-dekade.Posner, Richard A.: The Economics of Justice.Tiegel, Dieter: Wirtschaftspolitik durch Investitionslenkung.Tresch, Richard W.: Public Finance — A Normative Theory.VÄth, Werner: Raumplanung.Wold, Herman (Ed.): The Fix-Point Approach to Interdependent Systems.

Notes: Employee empowerment is commonly a fundamental part of the prescriptions offered to improve business performance. However, business process improvement and many other organisational development and change initiatives tend to encapsulate the values of the societies and organisations in which they were developed - and such values are not universal. The case of a business process re-engineering project in Hong Kong illustrates an attempt to empower team members that paradoxically resulted in their psychological enslavement. The roles of cultural differences and reward systems in producing unintended consequences are analysed while the implications of the case for both research and practice are considered.

Notes: The objective of this paper is to persuade the reader of the potential benefits to be gained in applying to the study of information systems in Organisations concepts and theoretical tools developed elsewhere in the social sciences. A framework for analysis derived from a combination of feminist theory and social studies of technology (SST) is presented. The key analytical tools of the script and inscription, interpretative flexibility and actant, stabilisation and visibility are discussed. The paper attempts to demonstrate how these tools can be employed to go beyond the stereotypical images of gender and technology, by focusing on contradiction and resistance. An empirical study concerns an automated care planning system used and resisted by nurse users in a UK National Health Service hospital. The discussion is informed by a resultant table describing the outcome of the application of SST tools as well as points made concerning the issue of gender and technology.

Notes: In this paper, I examine the mediating effect of project planning on the link between three project uncertainty variables (project size, project diversity, and technical complexity) and IT project success in a developing country. The proposed model is validated using a field survey of 42 IT project leaders from Kuwait. The overall findings give support to the proposed model and to the role of project planning as a mediator between project uncertainty and project success. However, the results challenge the traditional conception by past IT implementation research regarding the direct negative role of uncertainty in IT projects. This finding may be understood in light of the different manifestations that uncertainty may have for IT projects in developing countries. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Notes: Presents a theoretical approach to understanding the local culture of firms in the multinational information sector. Called situating culture, this approach holds that cultural understanding is locally situated, behavioral and embedded in everyday, socially negotiated work practices. The application of this theory is provided through cases from the workplace cultures of US multinational IT firms operating in Ireland. These examples show how the local culture of a global IT firm represents the interaction of industry, corporate and national contexts. It results in locally situated work practices and distinct socially negotiated realities that ultimately impact behavior in these settings. The theoretical approach of situating culture contributes to a better understanding of contextualism in the cross-cultural IT environment. This understanding, in turn, has implications for future cross-cultural IS research as well as for cross-cultural IT practice.

Notes: Examines the influence of computer guidelines and the belief in universal moral rules on ethical intentions regarding the use of computers in the workplace. The results revealed that the interaction between computer guidelines and belief in universal moral rules was significant. Business professionals with a strong belief in universal moral rules exhibited high ethical intentions, regardless of whether or not their organization had clear guidelines concerning the use of company computers. However, for business professionals with a low belief in universal moral rules, the presence of clear computer guidelines had a positive effect on ethical intentions. This investigation provides evidence that computer guidelines are positively related to ethical intentions only for individuals who do not adhere to a belief in universal moral rules.

Notes: This paper develops a theoretical perspective on gender and information technology (IT) by examining socio-cultural influences on women who are members of the information technology profession in Australia and New Zealand. In-depth interviews with both practitioners and academics give evidence of a range of socio-cultural influences on the professional development and working lives of women IT professionals. The paper rejects the essentialist view of women and their relationship to IT that has been put forth in the information systems literature arguing, instead, the primacy of societal and structural influences. The particular contribution of this paper is a theoretical perspective of individual differences which is presented to characterize the way individual women respond in a range of specific ways to the interplay between individual characteristics and environmental influences. This perspective contributes to a better understanding of women's involvement in the IT sector and suggests areas for proactive policy response.

Notes: "Virtual" is a potent buzzword, freely applied to many situations, with many meanings. In this exploratory study, we develop a more precise understanding of "virtual" to describe changing work environments. Specifically, we propose a framework to classify work environments based on the type of discontinuities involved. Discontinuities are gaps or a lack of coherence in aspects of work. The framework allows us to compare research across different topics and work settings. We use the framework to classify 75 published articles on virtual work environments or earlier, related research streams. We observed that many studies were simultaneously addressing existing or emerging continuities, factors or strategies for overcoming discontinuities. The focus of "virtual" is on changes in the work environment; however, our analysis suggests the need to be equally aware of factors that have not changed and which may become more critical with the introduction of discontinuities.

Notes: The organization of companies' information technology (IT) functions has been studied and described in three ways: on a centralization-decentralization continuum, on the basis of technological architecture, and, for multinational companies, as reflective of their strategic focus. This research proposes a classification of organizational structures based on the tension between business units and IT departments in the delivery of IT services. Using a cluster analysis on a sample of 40 companies having corporate offices in the USA or The Netherlands, it identifies four basic structures or patterns that describe the similarities and differences in the way IT services are handled. The paper then describes the implications of these structures for companies that are considering the redesign or restructure of their information technology function.

Notes: This study examined the relationship of managerial and professional women's and men's perceptions of organizational values supportive of work-personal life balance and their job experiences, work and non-work satisfactions and psychological wellbeing. Managerial women reporting organizational values more supportive of work-personal life balance also reported greater job and career satisfaction, less work stress, less intention to quit, greater family satisfaction, fewer psychosomatic symptoms and more positive emotional wellbeing. Managerial men reporting organizational values more supportive of work-personal life balance also reported working fewer hours and extra hours, less job stress, greater joy in work, lower intentions to quit, greater job, career and life satisfaction, fewer psychosomatic symptoms and more positive emotional and physical well-being. Multiple regression analyses indicated more independent and significant correlates of organizational values supporting work-personal life balance among men than among women. Possible explanations for why men might benefit more from such organizational values are offered.

Notes: The development of free trade practices in the world market, together with the recent fluctuations on the international money market, is having an increasing impact on the small island economies, such as Mauritius. This paper, written from the practitioner's point of view, discusses how the restructuring process is affecting female employees. Examples of corrective action being taken in favour of women, such as training programmes in entrepreneurship and leadership, are presented. The difficulties encountered in achieving the training objectives are reviewed and issues needing further attention to optimise the successful involvement of women in the upgrading of the Mauritian workforce are identified.