bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Model of Financial Regulation
Authors: Quinn Brian
Published: November 2023

The debate on the case for deregulation swings back and forth. After decades when a silent consensus existed that certain activities, including financial services, could not simply be left to the forces of the market, the 1980s and early 1990s saw a fairly serious challenge to that consensus. Led by academic opinion, notably in the USA, but also in the UK and continental Europe, the inefficiencies and failures of regulation were regarded as prime evidence that the distortions it brought were much too great in relation to the protection it provided. Regulators were under fire and obliged to defend their raison d ‘etre.More recently, the debate seems to have swung back. Whether because of individual scandals, particular country problems or global disturbance actual or potential - the issue is now more about what kind of regulation is desirable rather than whether there is a need for regulation - a more realistic but altogether more taxing question.
Electronic Commerce: American and International Proposals for Legal Structures
Authors: Tang David K Y , Weinstein Christopher G
Published: November 2023

Industry analysts predict that revenues from business-to-business electronic commerce will explode from $2.6 billion in 1996 to almost $220 billion in 2001. Key to this trend is the increasing internationalisation of the online world which by the year 2001 is anticipated to consist of at least 50% non-US residents. With just three years remaining until this anticipated explosion of electronic commerce, many are asking how we will reach the numbers in an uncertain and inconsistent legal environment.
Defeating The Tenant’S Claim: The Mandatory Grounds
Authors: Haley Michael
Published: November 2023

As evident from the preceding chapter, three further grounds for possession exist 8.01 and these are neither dependant upon the tenant being in default nor do they invoke the discretion of the court. Ground (d) (suitable alternative accommoda-tion) is, however, attractive only where the landlord is both able and prepared to offer the tenant other premises from which to conduct business. Due to the restrictions upon what is suitable, many landlords will not be in a position to sat-isfy the necessary requirements and, even if they can, the temptation may exist (although compensation for disturbance will then become payable) to rely instead upon one of the other non-discretionary grounds. Conversely, grounds (f)-(g) (demolition/reconstruction and owner occupation) constitute the most popular avenues through which landlords attempt to regain possession of the tenant’s holding.
Marxism and Rational Choice
Authors: Przeworski Adam
Published: November 2023

Social sciences are beleaguered today by an offensive not seen since the 1890s: a deliberate thrust to impose the monopoly of the economic method over all study of society. According to neo-classical economists, everything that happens falls into two categories: economic phenomena and seemingly non-economic phenomena. The challenge of methodological individualism is not directed specifically to Marxism; it defies equally all that used to be called political science, sociology, anthropology, or social psychology. Karl Marx’s concept ‘relations of production’ is exposed to the same challenge as Georg Simmel’s ‘shared social a priori’, Emile Durkheim’s ‘collective consciousness’,
Individualism, Mobilization, and Collective Action
Authors: Chazel Françcois
Published: November 2023

Because of its polysemic nature, the coherence of the notion of individualism in the domains of ethics, politics, and the social sciences generally is questionable. In sociology, the notion of individualism denotes both a particular social phenomenon and a methodological approach. On the one hand, we understand by individualism a welldefined system of values which confers full autonomy on the actor and, by the same token, allows for the development of ‘possessive egoism’, and the modes of conduct which apply to such criteria. In this sense, individualism is a major component of modernity and, as such, is often taken as an essential characteristic of modern Western societies, as opposed to traditional societies which are depicted as ‘ho list’. On the other hand, individualism also indicates a way of approaching problems, that is to say, in the most general sense of the term, a method. This is why one speaks generally of ‘methodological individualism’.
Is the Voter an Individualist?
Authors: Lavau Georges
Published: November 2023

On the stockmarket of ideas in France certain values have for some years been quoted very highly: liberalism, deregulation, the market (for its gentle and precise adjustments), and a certain inequality (the indispensable motor of innovation). In this basket of highly quoted stock, we should include another value which, in the 1940s and r95os, was the most derided there was (in both ‘Vichyite’ and socialist/communist thought): individualism.

Unfortunately, those who today celebrate and welcome the ‘return of individualism’ are actually referring to a wide and not very homogeneous range of attitudes and behaviour subsumed under the term ‘individualism’. It should be stated, however, that this individualism has little in common with other ‘individualisms’ whose meanings are established and relatively precise (the philosophical individualism of the Enlightenment, the individualism of classical economic theory, methodological individualism, and so on).
Images of Party and Society
Authors: Seyd Patrick , Whiteley Paul
Published: November 2023

The analysis in Chapter 6 focused on most of the major, and some minor issues, which have been debated in British politics over the years. The discussion suggested that education plays an important role in influencing the responses of individual party members to new issues which arise on the political agenda. We also suggested that the electoral pragmatism which is one important aspect of the modernization strategy associated with Neil Kinnock’s leadership, may have influenced perceptions of issues, particularly attitudes to nationalization among the educated members of the party. The modernization strategy is a key issue facing the contemporary Labour party, so that the principal focus of this chapter is to examine the attitudes of party members to the strategy in the light of their perceptions of the nature and character of the Labour party. Electoral pragmatism about issues such as nationalization is an important aspect of the modernization strategy, but it goes beyond just rethinking the policy positions which the party takes up on any particular issue.
The Federal Republic of Germany
Authors: Michelmann Hans J
Published: November 2023

The West German pattern of component unit-central government interaction in international relations is among the most complex of those considered in this volume. The FRG, like the United States and the UK, is a major international actor. With most of the countries we have chosen to study, West Germany shares the need to trade and has historically been one of the great trading nations. The German role in the Second World War resulted in a very low international political profile for the young Federal Republic following the return to quasi-self-determination with the founding of the new state in 1949; this low profile in matters of high politics was partly offset by a very active cultural presence abroad, a presence that has remained as the memories of the Nazi period receded and the FRG took on a political role more in keeping with its size and its status as an economic superpower ranking behind only the United States and Japan in the Western international economic league. Its precarious position at the heart of Europe where the two major power blocs of the post-Second World War era meet, and its reliance on alliance partners, particularly the United States, to help guarantee its security, make international issues matters of day-to-day concern.
Resolved, that Individualism and Egalitarianism be made Compatible in America: Political-Cultural Roots of Exceptionalism
Authors: Wildavsky Aaron
Published: November 2023

Only in America. Everyone who studies American politics (at least everyone I know) comes away feeling that it is special in some significant way without quite being able to specify precisely what that is. Me too. All who wander through American political history share the disconcerting feeling that there is a common, unifying but mysterious element that would make sense of what happens or, at least, of what does not. Many reach for the brass ring only to find themselves clutching at thin air. Many theories are called forth, as we know, but few, to our dismay, are chosen. Here is another hostage to fortune.
Some Religious Aspects
Authors: Whyte John , FitzGerald Garret
Published: November 2023

My purpose in this chapter is to examine how far Northern Ireland is segregated by religion into two communities. I shall do this by examining in turn a number of social institutions which have been singled out—by some writers at least—as linked with religion. To begin with, rather obviously, come the Churches themselves. Then will come the Orange Order, residential segregation, segregation at work, voluntary social activities, endogamy, and segregated education.
Arab Attitudes and Policies towards Infiltration, 1949-1955
Authors: Morris Benny
Published: November 2023

Infiltration from Arab territory into Israel posed a serious dilemma for the Arab governments, armies, and local authorities. Border-crossings were provoking Israeli countermeasures which might lead to full-scale clashes resulting in disproportionate Arab casualties and, conceivably, further territorial losses. On the other hand, popular Arab feeling, including among local officials and military and paramilitary commanders, was sympathetic to the border-crossers. They, too, saw the fields and houses across the border-the objects of infiltrator sorties-as Arab property stolen by the Jews, and regarded Israelis who were robbed, injured, and, occasionally, murdered by infiltrators as brutal usurpers deserving their fate.
The Costs of Infiltration
Authors: Morris Benny
Published: November 2023

Arab infiltration into Israel produced 'the same effects as irregular [i.e. guerrilla] warfare', stated an Israeli report in 1953. 'It disturbs the peace; engenders an atmosphere of war; harms the economy of the country, both directly and by necessitating extensive security measures.' It had a particularly deleterious effect on the country's border areas, placing 'a very serious strain on Israel agricultural [frontier] settlements' .
The Israeli Defensive Responses to Infiltration
Authors: Morris Benny
Published: November 2023

From the first, Israel clearly appreciated the hazards mass infiltration posed for the new state. As Israeli intelligence put it in June 1948: ‘The infiltration of individual Arabs, ostensibly for reaping and threshing, alone, could in time bring with it the re-establishment [of the refugees] in the villages, something which could seriously endanger many of our achievements during the six months of the war.’ On 11 June, the day the First Truce started, Yosef Weitz, of the JNF, called Ben-Gurion’s aide, Levi Eshkol (then Shkolnik), and asked: ‘“What’s going to be our position on Arabs who infiltrate back ... They may return in multitudes to their conquered villages, and we’re forbidden to shoot [by the truce]?” He [Eshkol] said that this was indeed a poser, and he would bring it before Ben-Gurion this morning.’
Israel, the Arab States, and the Great Powers, 1952-1956
Authors: Morris Benny
Published: November 2023

As we have seen, the United States and Britain both hoped to see an Israel Arab settlement. The conflict tended to undermine Arab-Western relations and, at least theoretically, opened the door to Soviet penetration. Dulles and British officials like Shuckburgh were ‘convinced that the USSR was plotting and planning to gain control of the Middle East’. Israeli-Arab hostilities might result in East-West confrontation. Similarly, there existed a danger that, in line with the provisions of the Tripartite Declaration and the Anglo-Jordanian defence pact, such hostilities could suck Britain (and perhaps the United States) into armed conflict with one or other of the local parties. The increase in frequency and size of Israeli-Jordanian and Israeli¬ Egyptian border clashes during 1953-6 correspondingly increased the danger. Both British and Israeli leaders acknowledged, and were at times deterred by, this threat.
Sketches of the World of Youth
Authors: Humphrey Caroline , Onon Urgunge
Published: November 2023

Urgunge1 felt his recollections were not just memories of his own, but that they encapsulated a view on life that all the world, particularly the contemporary Western world, should share. He urged me to imagine myself into the archaic images of those long past times, so that they could become no longer simply his memories but exemplars of a vigorous way of life, which only chanced to have occurred when they did in history. My assumption of the irrevocable pastness of Daur shamanism was thus abruptly faced with this living person, this friend with me in the room, who through our conversations was expressing the continuous vitality of something that happened long ago.
The European Electricity Industry and EC Regulatory Reform
Authors: McGowan Francis
Published: November 2023

The transition from national to international champion has proved to be a particularly difficult process for the electricity supply industry (ESI). Not only has the industry been organized as a natural monopoly with associated rights and duties but it has also been treated as a national (if not a local) monopoly, conceived very much as operating within, rather than across, frontiers. The need to meet all a country’s power requirements, to offer a universal service, and to serve as a basic infrastructure have reinforced the national focus.
Air Transport Champions: Still Carrying the Flag
Authors: Kassim Hussein
Published: November 2023

The support and promotion of national champions or ‘flag carriers’ in the air transport industry has been a key element of national aviation policies of patriotic interventionism throughout the post-war period. Under the state-centred international regime, founded on the principle of absolute national sovereignty, which has governed the industry since 1944, governments have used their powers to promote the interests of their national industries in general and those of the flag carrier in particular. At the centre of the national aviation system, the national champions of the air transport sector have been largely state-owned, protected by extensive and detailed regulations, and have derived their funds exclusively from the public purse.
Boat Construction Ceremonies
Authors: Barnes R H
Published: November 2023

One man explained to me that although he is not a boat builder, his ancestor was. Therefore, when another master builder builds a boat and invites the master builders to a feast, he must also be invited, because he continues the line of his ancestor. He went on to say that another master in his clan tells all the other builders where to sit and divides chicken meat among them.
The Analysis Of Consumers’ Behaviour
Authors: Little I M D
Published: November 2023

As a result of abandoning the idea that satisfactions can be added, the ‘ indifference-curve’ analysis of the rational consumer’s behaviour has largely taken the place of the Marshallian type of analysis. The assumption that the individual tries to maximize his satisfaction is retained. But ‘ maximizing satisfaction’ no longer means ‘ achieving the largest sum total of satisfaction’ but rather ‘reaching the highest level of satisfaction’.
The New Welfare Economics (2): The Economic Welfare Function
Authors: Little I M D
Published: November 2023

THERE remains for consideration the system of welfare economics favoured by the first school of thought mentioned in the previous Chapter. This system was first worked out by Professor A. Bergson in his article ‘A Reformulation of Certain Aspects of Welfare Economics’.1 On this formulation the ‘optimum’ conditions of production and exchange are derived as necessaryconditions for ‘maximum welfare’. In the last Chapter we developed a sufficientcriterion for a desirable economic change, and no such concept as ‘ maximum welfare’ was used.
The Valuation Of The National Income
Authors: Little I M D
Published: November 2023

We are now going to examine the same conditions when the q’srefer not to quantities purchased by a single individual, but to the total quantities bought by a group of individuals. Where the group is relevant we will use capitals (P’sand Q’s) and where the individual is relevant small letters (p’sand q’s).By a group of individuals we do not mean a collective. A collective can be said to choose, and can therefore be treated as an economic individual, although it may be composed of many actual individuals. By definition, then, a group of individuals cannot be said to choose. The recipients of the national income are assumed to form a group but not a collective, and we shall, in general, assume that the Q’s of the formula refer to the total quantities of different kinds of goods comprising the (real) national income, and that the P’s refer to the market prices of these goods.’
Welfare Theory And Politics
Authors: Little I M D
Published: November 2023

IT might seem that a Chapter on politics is out of place in a theoretical work. This would be the case if welfare theory were pure theory, but this it never is. We have argued that it is a calculus with an ethical interpretation. The putting into practice of its recommendations inevitably requires political changes. Whether one attacks or defends the theory, the reader can draw political inferences from one’s arguments. The author must know this, and also know that the reader realizes that he knows.
Scale-Technology Expansion
Authors: Scazzieri Roberto
Published: November 2023

The economist’s consideration of technical progress is often characterized by the idea that the discovery and use of new and ‘better’ technical practices are to be explained by purely economic incentives. Such an approach is apparent in the explanations based on the ‘factor-augmenting’ bias of technical change, which assume that new technical practices are characterized by a higher proportional rate of reduction in labour or capital costs, depending on relative factor shares in total cost.’
Scale and Productive Efficiency
Authors: Scazzieri Roberto
Published: November 2023

One reason for making this distinction is that the sequence of changes in technical practice that may come about with a sequence of scale-technology contractions is compulsive, in the sense that no scale increase is possible unless the technical practice is also changed. On the other hand, this is obviously not the case with scalet technology expansion, in which scale increases make ‘better’ technical practices feasible, but the old (‘worse’) practices could still be used. A further reason for the distinction is that technology contraction brings about a (non-trivial) scale-efficiency relation only if the order in which the producer ranks the technical practices is the opposite of the order of the maximum scales at which they are no longer feasible. (If a practice 0 is strictly preferred to a practice 0’, a scale-efficiency relation ‘I’ can be defined only if the scale s at which 0 is no longer feasible is lower than the scale s’ at which 0’ is no longer feasible.) The condition for a (non-trivial) scale-efficiency relation is different in the case of technology expansion. In this case, the producer must rank the technical practices in his preferences in the same order as they are ranked according to the criterion of the minimum feasible scale. (If a technical practice 0 is strictly preferred to a practice 0’, a non-trivial scale-efficiency relation ‘I’ can be defined only if the scales at which 0 becomes feasible is higher than the (lowest) scales’ at which 0’ becomes feasible).
Household Formation and Home-Ownership in France
Authors: Montgomery Mark
Published: November 2023

Demographic variables are unquestionably important to the economic behaviour of households. Marital status and parity are among the most important predictors of female labour supply. Migration and employment decisions are inextricably linked. This chapter will consider a third type of linkage: the connection between household formation through marriage and the demand for housing. Separate models of age at marriage and age at first home-ownership are estimated. I shall also specify a joint model of marriage and ownership and will discuss the conceptual and statistical differences that are implied by the joint approach. The data for the study are drawn from a retrospective survey of the French population conducted by the Institut National d’ Études Démographiques (INED) in 1981, and concern first home-ownership for cohorts of men born between 1911 and 1935.
Understanding Third Births in Sweden
Authors: Heckman James J , Walker James R
Published: November 2023

This chapter estimates the determinants of third births in Sweden. Walker (1986) documents stability in the transition rates to the first and second births for the three most recent cohorts of Swedish women for which comprehensive fertility histories are available (women born in 1936–40, 1941–5, and 1946–50). There has been a secular decline in the transition rate to the third birth, accounting for a substantial portion of the recent decline in Swedish fertility. A woman is at risk for a third birth only if she has already had two births. Several important demographic consequences follow from this truism. First, in order to estimate age-specific third-birth rates and their determinants, it is necessary to account for the effect of the first two births on placing women at risk for a third birth. The effects of socioeconomic variables on age-specific third-birth rates includes the effects of such variables on the timing and spacing of the first two births.
Observation of Event Histories
Authors: Courgeau Daniel , Éva Leliévre
Published: November 2023

In the Introduction, we indicated the theoretical objectives of event history analysis. To achieve these objectives, it is necessary to have observations of the event histories in sufficient number to guarantee reliable results. In this case, the ideal sample is an exhaustive observation of the population under study with the aim of providing a detailed event history of each of its members. To this end, an exhaustive census can only put a limited number of questions about the event history. For example, a question about the place of residence on the first of January of the year of the previous census has been asked in France since 1962. This makes it possible to estimate the numbers of intercensal migrants, but does not take account of the date of migration, the multiple migrations during the intercensal period, or the return, resulting in an underestimation of mobility. Moreover, the data do not allow us to relate migrations to occupational or family events, for they are either incomplete or censored. Thus, for example, we know the marriage status of each individual, but we do not know the date of marriage (if married), of divorce (if divorced), etc. These data, therefore, cannot be used in event history analysis, for they concern only a tiny part of the life history.
Study of a Single Event
Authors: Courgeau Daniel , Éva Leliévre
Published: November 2023

The study of a single event may be made by using a single population or by comparing several. In addition, this particular event may be of several types-migrations according to destination, for instance. We shall therefore consider the study of these different cases one after the other. The distribution of censoring times and of events occurring in the population over time may be subjected to different hypotheses, resulting in various estimations.
Methods of Semi-parametric Analysis
Authors: Courgeau Daniel , Éva Leliévre
Published: November 2023

In event history analysis, semi-parametric methods are preferred to parametric methods by many researchers, not least because they make it possible to relate hazard rates to individual characteristics without imposing a formalization of the duration effect. We shall therefore discuss in detail the contribution of these methods. To analyse the relations between explanatory variables and the occurrence of an event, we have presented many parametric formalizations of the distribution of the event-particularly the exponential, Weibull, or Gompertz distributions, which differ in the way in which time is taken into account, but also other log-normal or gamma distributions, which are more difficult to estimate at a practical level.
Weather, Policy, and Short-Run Instability
Authors: Kueh Y Y
Published: November 2023

In the previous chapter we compared the weather influence on Chinese agriculture between different periods, with each one taken as a whole. The present chapter looks, by contrast, at year-to-year fluctuations in agricultural production in relation to the impact of the weather in each of the periods. Since the periods under study are defined in terms of their basic technological and institutional parameters, our analysis promises to reveal the relative importance of weather and short-run policy factors in influencing agricultural stability in given technological and organizational settings. We now ignore the broad measure of gross value of agricultural output (GVAO) and concentrate exclusively on grain yield per hectare. Note again that being a physical measure, the latter standard eliminates possible price influences. In contrast to the grain output measure, it also allows abstraction from policy-determined changes in the sown area. In short, the grain yield measure seems to be the most appropriate key to gauging the relative impact of weather and policy factors, as they affect peasant efficiency and input incentives.
The 1985-1991 Perspective
Authors: Kueh Y Y
Published: November 2023

The main body of this study traces agricultural instability in China up to 1984, the year in which the promulgation of Document No. 1 (on 1 January 1984) effectively sealed the fate of rural collectives. Not only was collective farmland reparcelled to individual households (as had been the case increasingly since 1982), but peasants’ leasehold rights were generally extended from three to fifteen years after 1984.1 Moreover, starting in 1985, the compulsory State monopoly farm-purchase scheme (in force since 1953) was replaced by a system of contractual procurements. Coupled with successive farm-price deregulation measures since the early 1980s, the decollectivization and relaxation of physical and bureaucratic output control returned Chinese rural conditions to those which had emerged from the 1949-52 land reform, and even to a situation which increasingly resembled that of the pre-war era, save for the emergence of large-scale private land ownership.2
Conclusion
Authors: Kueh Y Y
Published: November 2023

This volume is a study of long-run agricultural instability in China from the 1930s to the early 1990s. Centring on grain production (which is the most important sector of Chinese agriculture), a rigorous attempt has been made to examine the extent of weather influence in relation to the impact of technological and institutional changes over the past six decades.
Summary and Conclusions
Authors: Mitchell Stephen
Published: November 2023

The present study had a number of objectives. The overall and primary aim was to look at the same organizations in the same countries in Europe and Israel ten years after the first survey, and learn about any changes that might have occurred. More specifically, we wanted to see whether the external and formal influence and power structures and the extent of participative behaviour inside organizations had changed and whether the previous finding of a positive relationship between formal power structures and de facto participation was still true in the 1980s. The most ambitious and most difficult aim was to see whether a longitudinal link between the two cross-sectional studies might give us some insight into possible causal relationships over time. To do justice to this ambitious endeavour, we had to try and select a group of contingencies which could be hypothesized as strengthening or weakening the relationships between our major dimensions and, in addition, assess the impact of selected economic and technological changes (in particular the rate of unemployment) over the intervening period, up to 1987. Not all our aims could be accomplished. The downturn in economic conditions which affected our sample of companies also reduced the availability of research funding and, consequently, we had to be content with a less complete schema than we would have wanted to use.
Work and Leisure: Historical Change in the Conditions of Life
Authors: Gershuny Jonathan
Published: November 2023

He gets up early in the morning, buys kidneys for his wife’s breakfast at a nearby butcher’s shop, and cooks them. He sets off across Dublin, calling first at his office (he sells advertising space), and then on various of his customers. He attends the funeral of an old friend, has an argument in a pub, makes a hospital visit, takes a walk to the seaside, later in the evening rescues an admired younger acquaintance from a potentially embarrassing situation. Then home and, rather late, to bed; his wife is already there though not asleep (she is thinking).
The History and Future of Time Use: Empirical Evidence
Authors: Gershuny Jonathan
Published: November 2023

Economists collect a great deal of information about what goes on in the realm of work (using the term in its narrowest sense of’paid employment’). We know how many jobs there are, of what sorts, in which industries. We know in great detail which goods and services are produced in the economy, and to whom they are sold. And we know how these characteristics have changed over the recent past.
Introduction
Authors: Hills John , Ditch John , Glennerster Howard
Published: November 2023

In December 1942 queues formed outside the government stationery office as people waited to buy a densely written three hundred page official report. Its title-Social Insurance and Allied Services: Report by Sir William Beveridge-was not one we would expect to see in the best-sellers’ list today. Its reputation, if not its direct influence, became world-wide. Fifty years later many details of the British social security system continue to reflect the Report’s recommendations. It is still taken as a benchmark against which to measure reform proposals both in Britain and in other countries. This book contains a series of papers looking back from the vantage point of the 1990s to what the report said, how it came about, the social, political, and economic pressures under which it was written, what happened to its recommendations, parallel developments abroad, and its influence on them.
Which System Is Best?
Authors: Charkham Jonathan P
Published: November 2023

The people who have first-hand experience of the question ‘Which system of corporate governance is best?’ are those who run companies which have incorporated subsidiaries in many countries-the multinationals. Corporate governance laws apply territorially. A company based in the UK, for instance, ls subject to British law, but its subsidiaries In France, Germany, and the United States would be subject to the law prevailing there. As this is so, companies nowadays need to understand not only the laws in the countries in which they have incorporated subsidiaries, but also the background to those laws, and how the system works. To give an example: the managing director of the UK subsidiary of a Japanese company recently raised with me the way in which the Japanese president of the parent company set about appointing a chairman of the UK subsidiary. The process was unfamiliar to the Englishman and appeared threatening. In fact, however, it was just the normal way In which a Japanese president would proceed, totally well intentioned. Misunderstandings may arise because of such differences in culture and behaviour.
The Enterprise Reform Programme in China since 1979
Authors: Hay Donald , Morris Derek , Liu, Guy , Yao Shujie
Published: November 2023

The events of 4 June 1989 in Tiananmen Square probably marked the end of a ten-year period of economic reform in China, which had affected every aspect of the planned economy built up by the Communist Party since the revolution. In this period agriculture was extensively decollectivized, the complex central planning system effectively dismantled for a wide range of industrial goods, and much greater autonomy given to industrial firms. The purpose of the research reported in this book is to trace the impact of the economic reforms as they affected the larger state-owned industrial enterprises. In particular, the objective is to provide a detailed statement of the external environment of the firm under the reform regime, to model the behaviour of firms in this new environment, and to quantify, as far as possible, the impact of different policy measures.
Productive Efficiency and Costs
Authors: Hay Donald , Morris Derek , Liu, Guy , Yao Shujie
Published: November 2023

A major objective of the economic reform programme as it affected state-owned enterprises was to improve productive efficiency. The policy measures adopted as a means to this end were described in Part They included a reduction in the role of the plan, giving enterprises greater autonomy in making decisions; an increase in enterprise incentives, especially increased profit retention; and the introduction of incentives for workers, most notably the payment of profit-related bonuses. In this chapter we evaluate the impact of these reforms, by examining the productive efficiency of the sample of state-owned firms, the changes in their efficiency over time, and the impact on costs. The evaluation is conducted largely within the framework of the Cobb-Douglas production function: experimentation with more sophisticated specifications did not give better econometric results, and the Cobb-Douglas form has the particular virtue of giving rise to straightforward interpretations of the parameters of the function.
Profits and Profit Margins
Authors: Hay Donald , Morris Derek , Liu, Guy , Yao Shujie
Published: November 2023

In this chapter we trace the relation between efficiency and profits. The focus on profit is taken from the reform programme itself, where retention of profit to pay bonuses, and to invest in welfare and physical capital, has been a major feature of the incentives given to state-owned firms. Profit is defined as the difference between revenue and costs; or, netting out material costs, between value added and production costs which conventionally include labour and identifiable capital costs.
Investment Behaviour
Authors: Hay Donald , Morris Derek , Liu, Guy , Yao Shujie
Published: November 2023

Investment decisions represent a crucial, some would say overriding element in the behaviour of enterprises. The quantity and quality of new capital installed are the prime determinants of the growth of enterprises and the scope for efficient production in the future. Investment is the main variable through which good performance in one period feeds through to good performance subsequently, but can also be the means through which lack of proper financial disciplines generates inefficiency and resource misallocation. It is therefore important to start by looking at the setting within which investment decisions have been taken during the reform years of the 1980s.
The Soft Budget Constraint
Authors: Hay Donald , Morris Derek , Liu, Guy , Yao Shujie
Published: November 2023

One of the most important questions in identifying the behaviour and performance of enterprises in any economy is that of what happens when they veer towards financial insolvency. Even if few enterprises actually face this situation and even for enterprises that have never faced it, their views on the consequences of insolvency may act as powerful incentive mechanisms. So far we have said virtually nothing about this, for two reasons. On the empirical side, our basic data-set is not particularly suitable for exploring this issue. On the methodological side, it is important to try to identify and understand the economic behaviour of Chinese state-owned enterprises under what might be termed ‘normal ‘ conditions. This is not just because we need some benchmark against which we may evaluate behaviour in or near insolvency, though that is important. It is also because nearly all our estimation procedures are linear. While this traditional assumption may be acceptable for exploring behaviour under normal conditionson the grounds that the potential gains from using non-linear methods are unlikely to justify the increased complexity and loss of rigour-it is very unlikely to be acceptable for exploring behaviour in or near insolvency, because enterprises in the latter condition may well show quite significant departures from behaviour in non-solvency states. Indeed it would be surprising if it were otherwise. We have therefore preferred to conduct most of our analysis excluding enterprises that are financially very weak and so far without regard to the behaviour of the latter or the problems they pose. It is the purpose of this chapter, in contrast, to look specifically at the issue of financial weakness in Chinese state-owned enterprises and its consequences.
Entry and the Rate of Innovation*
Authors: Geroski Paul A
Published: November 2023

It is often said that competition is a dynamic process, and that it is the dynamics of the process which have a major effect on market performance. Our goal in this chapter is to explore the spirit of this suggestion by examining the association between innovative activity and one observable manifestation of competitive market dynamics, namely entry. There are a number of reasons why entry—and small-firm activity more generally—is worth focusing on in connection with innovative activity. Chief amongst these is the recent policy interest that has been lavished on small firms in the name of rejuvenating industry and stimulating progressiveness. As is usual in these cases, elevating small firms up towards the top of the policy agenda has stimulated both a modest flow of careful research and a veritable flood of hyperbole. Numerous popular discussions have painted alluring pictures of a new industrial renaissance flowering from the seedbed of small-firm activity, and the same five or six anecdotal case-studies are regularly paraded in front of the argument by way of support. More scholarly examinations of the evidence have uncovered systematic evidence that loosely supports the spirit of some of these popular discussions.
Entry, Innovation, and Productivity Growth*
Authors: Geroski Paul A
Published: November 2023

It is widely believed that competition promotes efficiency, that a vigorous competitive process throws up alternatives in the form of new firms and new ideas, and that selection amongst them induces movements to, and movements of, the production frontier. Our goal in this chapter is to explore this presumption empirically, interpreting competition in a broad sense by taking the conceptualization new firms and new ideas literally, and examining the association between competition so defined and total factor productivity growth.
Innovation, Profitability, and Growth over the Business Cycle*
Authors: Geroski Paul A
Published: November 2023

Debates about Industrial Policy in the UK are dominated by a concern to make UK firms ‘more innovative’. Countless measures of research progressiveness seem to tell the sorry story of a once great industrial power slipping down the international innovation league tables, and each dozen economists who address this problem produce several dozen solutions. Although there is much work yet to be done in measuring social rates of return and assessing the relative efficacy of different policies designed to stimulate innovation, it seems clear that a comprehensive examination of these issues requires one to think carefully about how the performance of innovative firms might differ from that of non-innovative ones. In this chapter we would like to focus directly on this question, and ask ‘what effects would one expect to observe on UK corporate performance if UK firms became more innovative?’ As in many other situations, the answer turns out to be sensitive to the way one poses the question in the first place. There are (at least) two alternative views about how innovation might enhance the performance of a firm.
The Distillers Company and the Process of Amalgamation, 1877–1881
Authors: Weir Ronald
Published: November 2023

Contrary to what might have been predicted given that the amalgamation developed because of the perceived weakness of the Scotch Distillers’ Associatipn, the Distillers Company did not abandon trade agreements, and in October 1877 discussion began among Scottish, Irish, and provincial English distillers for a new association. In September 1878 the United Kingdom Distillers’ Association (UKDA) was established. Christened ‘The Whisky Parliament’, the Association was planned to last five years, but survived until September 1888. Just prior to its second five-year period, an agreement was signed with the London Distillers’ Association (LDA) which brought most patent still distilleries under a single collusive agreement. Because this covered price, sales, conditions of sale, and acquisitions important policy issues were removed from DCL’s discretion. The company’s early history was therefore intimately linked to that of the UKDA. The Association is discussed in Chapter 4 which looks at the general trading environment and assesses how far the objectives of the amalgamation were achieved. This chapter describes the managerial, funding, and pricing problems that beset DCL during its first four years.
The ‘Whisky Parliament’ The United Kingdom Distillers’ Association, 1878–1888
Authors: Weir Ronald
Published: November 2023

The United Kingdom Distillers’ Association was formed on DCL’s initiat ive and for ten years sought to control the market in patent still spirit. It exhibited classic cartel behaviour, not least by developing tactics which ensured its downfall, and following its collapse much less reliance was placed on trade associations to control competition. Instead, after the whisky boom of the 1890s, acquisitions were regarded as more effective. The story of UKDA illuminates the attitudes of one group of Victorian businessmen to competition, which they regarded as destabilizing and destructive rather than efficiency —enhancing. Sometimes explicitly, sometimes implicitly, these attitudes were expressed in the Association’s constitution. While judgements on late-Victorian entrepreneurs have ranged ‘from damnation to redemption’, this chapter seeks neither to damn nor to redeem but rather to understand why grain distillers thought salvation lay in the Association. Ultimately the UKDA was challenged by spiritdealers who moved into distilling. One challenger, the North British Distillery Company, stands out because of the innovatory way limited liability was moulded to enable dealers to become distillers. Finally, the Association existed during part of the period known as the Great Depression (1873-96) and offers a different perspective on the notion that the depression was a ‘myth’.
The Development of the Distillers Company, 1878–1895
Authors: Weir Ronald
Published: November 2023

The collapse of the UKDA ended DCL’s initial strategy. In 1878 Association rules had been substituted for board control over pricing, home sales, conditions of sale, and acquisitions. These reverted to the board in 1888, but how had DCL developed in the interval? What progress had been made towards the aims of the amalgamation? What effect did membership have on the company and how did it adjust after 1888?

DCL’s abortive pursuit of an independent pricing policy during its first year showed that it could not act alone; the stark reality was that DCL had precious little sovereignty to surrender and its initiative in forming the Association explicitly recognized the grain distillers’ interdependence. Yet the importance of DCL’s home market sales, never less than 49 per cent of the Association’s, meant that it tended to have the largest say when the UKDA fixed prices. Between 1878 and 1888 the Association made twelve pricing decisions. On only three occasions were DCL’s wishes overridden. Behind the veil of the UKDA’s voting system, a spasmodic form of price leadership existed in grain distilling, something that was not true of malt distilling or blending, and it was subject to two constraints: the London distillers and the level of imports. In this respect, despite its share of sales, DCL was no different from any other member.
‘The Most Discreditable Chapter in the History of the Whisky Trade’: Pattisons Ltd.
Authors: Weir Ronald
Published: November 2023

William Ross, who was appointed OCL’s general manager in 1897 and managing director in 1900, described the 1890s as a period ‘not notable for many important events in the Company’s history’, a comment more revealing of the man than the era. Ross made his reputation after 1900 as the great consolidator of the Scotch whisky industry and as one of the architects of OCL’s diversification. He also became a spokesman for the grain distillers in the controversy over blending and the campaign against the ‘people’s budget’ of 1909. His reputation therefore grew out of the problems that plagued an industry whose market was declining; periods of expansion offered fewer challenges for Ross. Yet the decade dismissed by Ross saw a boom in the whisky trade which sowed some of the seeds of later decline. Admittedly, this decline could not have been predicted because in the 1890s there was money, a lot of money, to be made from Scotch whisky.
‘Capone was a poacher’: Marketing in Hard Times, 1919–1939
Authors: Weir Ronald
Published: November 2023

It is only recently that British business historians have begun to investigate marketing and the number of case studies remains limited, as does the degree of agreement about the proficiency of businessmen. Some businessmen neglected marketing, others displayed great innovatory flair. So far as the marketing of Scotch whisky is concerned the verdict, admittedly of a tiny number of studies, has been favourable. Marketing was of ‘pre—eminent importance’ and the trade particularly precocious in developing mass-marketing techniques.3 Salesmanship was held in high esteem and its practitioners well rewarded financially and within the managerial hierarchy.4 What has also been recognized is the need to adjust the criteria by which marketing performance is assessed to allow for changing circumstances, a point particularly relevant to the inter-war period, when the task facing whisky salesmen was more demanding than it had been before the First World War or was to be after the Second World War.
Determinants of Child Mortality in Turkey
Authors: Fisek Nusret H
Published: November 2023

Life expectancy at birth is considerably shorter in Turkey than in the developed countries, but this difference narrows considerably at ages beyond five years. Comparatively low adult mortality in Turkey is explicable by the similarity of the most frequent causes of death in Turkey and developed countries. These are diseases of the circulatory system, neoplasms, accidents, poisoning, and violence. The prevention and cure of these diseases and factors are quite difficult and have as yet been unsuccessful everywhere. Death rates from infectious diseases in Turkey are in the same range as those in the developed countries (World Health Organization, 1980; DIE, 1984).