bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Forgetting to Remember: The Functional Relationship of Decay and Interference
Authors: Altmann Erik M. , Gray Wayne D.
Published: March 2003

Functional decay theory proposes that decay and interference, historically viewed as competing accounts of forgetting, are instead functionally related. The theory posits that (a) when an attribute must be updated frequently in memory, its current value decays to prevent interference with later values, and (b) the decay rate adapts to the rate of memory updates. Behavioral predictions of the theory were tested in a task-switching paradigm in which memory for the current task had to be updated every few seconds, hundreds of times. Reaction times and error rates both increased gradually between updates, reflecting decay of memory for the current task. This performance decline was slower when updates were less frequent, reflecting a decrease in the decay rate following a decrease in the update rate. A candidate mechanism for controlled decay is proposed, the data are reconciled with practice effects, and implications for models of executive control are discussed.
Visual Attention to Color: Parvocellular Guidance of Attentional Resources?
Authors: Snowden Robert J.
Published: March 2003

Although transient changes in luminance have been well documented to automatically attract attention to their location, experiments looking at abrupt changes in color have failed to find similar attentional capture. These results are consistent with current theories of the role of the magnocellular (M) and parvocellular (P) streams that postulate that the M stream, which is “color-blind,” plays the dominant role in guiding attention and eye movements. The experiment reported here used stimuli that contained only information defined by color, and masked residual luminance information with dynamic noise, to assess the capacity of purely chromatic cues to automatically guide spatial attention. Such stimuli were as effective as those containing large luminance signals in guiding attention. To the extent that these purely chromatic signals isolated the P stream, these results suggest that this stream is also capable of automatic attentional capture. Hence, color vision not only aids target identification but also is a strong aid for target detection and localization.
Breaking the Barrier? Children Fail to Translate Their Preverbal Memories into Language
Authors: Simcock Gabrielle , Hayne Harlene
Published: March 2003

We examined children's ability to translate their preverbal memories into language following a period of substantial language development. Children participated in a unique event, and their memory was assessed 6 months or 1 year later. At the time of the event and at the time of the test, their language skills were also assessed. Children of all ages exhibited evidence of verbal and nonverbal memory. Their language skills also improved over the delay. By the time of the test, children of all ages had acquired most of the vocabulary necessary to describe the target event. Despite this, they did not translate preverbal aspects of their memory into language during the test. In no instance did a child verbally report information about the event that was not part of his or her productive vocabulary at the time of encoding. We conclude that language development plays a pivotal role in childhood amnesia.
Infant Timekeeping: Attention and Temporal Estimation in 4-Month-Olds
Authors: Colombo John , Richman W. Allen
Published: March 2003

Four-month-old infants were exposed to sequences in which a 2-s light stimulus alternated with dark interstimulus periods whose length was manipulated to be 3 or 5 s. A predictable on-off pattern occurred for eight trials, but the light stimulus was omitted on the ninth trial. Infants showed heart rate responses on the omission trial that were closely synchronized with the expected recurrence of the stimulus. In addition, these heart rate patterns were observed predominantly in infants who had previously shown high levels of sustained attention in pretests with visual stimuli. These findings indicate remarkable precision in infants' estimation of time intervals, and suggest that the link between time estimation and attentional processes is present in early infancy.
Indirect Causes And Effects In Policy Change: The Brent Spar Case
Authors: Jordan Grant
Published: March 2003

This article discusses the occupation of an oil‐related structure called the Brent Spar in the British sector of the North Sea by Greenpeace protesters in 1995. Shell intended to ‘dump’ the buoy in the deep North Atlantic. The aftermath of the occupation and associated publicity was a change of policy about the disposal of the Spar by Shell, Europe’s largest multinational company. The article considers alternative explanations for policy change – most importantly the influential propositions by Baumgartner and Jones (1993). The general importance of their work means that the opportunity is taken to set out their themes at some length, but the particular case suggests that their notion of change stemming from a redefinition of the problem may only imperfectly fit sudden policy changes of the Brent Spar type. The article argues that their ‘venue shopping’ concept better illuminates the case – but the significant venue change was geographical – i.e. from Britain to Germany – rather than institutional – i.e. from a policy community to an issue network. The case study superficially accords with an influential body of literature in the 1980s and 1990s that sees outcomes as changing through the mobilization of a wider range of participants in issue networks, but it is argued that there is no automatic link between an expanded roster of participants and outcomes if the decisive decision‐making power is retained in the original closed system. The case study suggests there can be an illusion of an issue network when the dominance of a policy monopoly is publicly challenged – but where decision‐making power is retained among original participants.
From Chaos To Patterns Of Understanding: Reflections On The Dynamics Of Effective Government Decision Making
Authors: Cutting Bruce , Kouzmin Alexander
Published: March 2003

Like other liberal‐democratic governments, Australia has been going through a process of dramatic change in political and administrative structures and processes. There has been the well‐documented shift from controlling inputs to managing for results which has resulted in the desired enhancement of executive government’s responsibility and accountability for outcomes. A clear understanding of the evolving process of cabinet decision making points the way ahead to the next phase of reform. What lies ahead could, indeed, be more revolutionary than what has been achieved to date. Weber’s dynamic concept of authority and domination, when understood as Weber himself used it, can tell one much about change and future possible evolution. It helps, heuristically, to indicate that government decision‐making processes have already evolved to a sophisticated level. However, there is still much development that should be undertaken to maintain the quality of decision making. For instance, the move to small policy‐advising departments and separated administrative programme‐delivery agencies could be seen as a natural evolution and quite predictable. Good governance relies much on attaining a balance, in Weber’s terms, between the ethics of intention (means) and the ethics of responsibility (ends). Together, they make the ‘true man’ who can have a ‘vocation of politics’ says Weber – but the ‘true man’ is hard to find. What is needed, therefore, are decision‐making processes that are good at drawing out this balance. Well‐established patterns of social action, encapsulated in Weber’s sociology and typographically oriented hermeneutics, can help identify how this could be achieved. For instance, when one understands Weber’s ideal types of authority structure as the core of a comprehensive conceptual model with constant interplay and movement over time, one can get a hint of how government decision making could be further enhanced.
The Changing Nature of Rationing in the UK National Health Service
Authors: Locock Louise
Published: March 2003

This paper presents findings from empirical research exploring recent developments in healthcare rationing in the UK, and how far these were influenced by the National Health Service (NHS) internal market. Results suggest explicit rationing has continued to spread, but the focus has shifted from exclusions of whole treatments from NHS provision towards a reconciliation of implicit and explicit approaches. There is growing interest in explicit criteria to guide decision making, within which clinicians exercise discretion in indi‐vidual cases. The market contributed to the growth in explicit rationing, notably by decoupling healthcare purchasers (health authorities and GP fundholders) and providers (hospital and community health services) from their previously shared responsibility to manage resources. However, other factors have been influential, especially concern to control rising expenditure. Having originally prompted more explicit decisions (especially exclusions), resource pressures are now rekindling interest in fixed provider budgets and implicit clinical decision making. The paper concludes by considering the implications for rationing of proposals to abolish the NHS internal market.
A Comparative Perspective on Executive Development: Trends in 11 European Countries
Authors: Maor Moshe
Published: March 2003

Senior officials in public organizations have a variety of training needs. Yet, the reduction in training budget is often a primary means of improving budget balance. This contradiction calls for a comparative investigation into executive development. Focusing on eleven European administrative systems, the paper investigates (i) whether bureaucracies lead the way, or lag behind, in the development of specialized training programmes, (ii) whether there is a widespread understanding that specific topics are important for training, and (iii) whether senior officials vary in their perception of the usefulness of training for current posts and for promotion. Based on an institutional analysis, a mail survey and e´lite interviews with senior civil servants, the paper advances a three‐fold argument. First, bureaucracies lead the way in the development of specialized training programmes. Second, senior officials want to prepare themselves for items of importance in the near‐term future (for example the European Union), as well as to cover as many remote possibilities as they can (for example with management training) in the hope they will do better in any post, even though they cannot now predict what those posts will require of them. Third, although some types of executive development programmes turn out to work well, numerous others do not. The latter, however, are not always a waste of money because they are sometimes used as places to temporarily ‘store’ people or to ‘get rid of people’ that an individual agency does not want to have around anymore.
Policy Network Creation: The Case of Energy Efficiency
Authors: Toke David
Published: March 2003

What can broadly be described as a policy community has been established with the central purpose of co‐ordinating policy implementation in the field of energy efficiency in domestic buildings. A complete understanding of the processes of policy network formation cannot be achieved in this case without a thorough analysis of the construction of cognitive structures which influence the behaviour of actors and underpin the policy network. Discourse analysis is an effective means of studying cognitive structures. An understanding of the creative and unpredictable role of agents such as ministers is also important, suggesting that the study of policy network formation can be enlightened by a historical institutionalist approach that involves a role for agency as well as structural influences. The formation of the energy efficiency policy network is studied in the context of a critique of an earlier ‘economic’ institutionalist case study of policy network formation.
Regimes on Pillars: Alternative Welfare State Logics and Dynamics
Authors: Goodin Robert E. , Rein Martin
Published: March 2003

Social welfare arrangements represent the conjunction of the twin logics of regimes and pillars. Regimes describe who receives the benefits and on what conditions; pillars describe who pays for and who provides the benefits. There are historical associations and ‘“natural” affinities’ between certain regimes and certain pillars. But there is also scope for novel combinations and recombinations. Many contemporary welfare state reforms are best conceptualized in terms of shifting the mix of pillars and blurring regimes.
How Networks Explain Unintended Policy Implementation Outcomes: The Case of UK Rail Privatization
Authors: Grantham Andrew
Published: March 2003

How a government secures the implementation of its policies is one of the most interesting processes in public administration. The tendency of scholars is to ignore implementation and how it impacts on the form of policy, something which invariably changes once resources have been allocated to implementing agencies and the policy detail is addressed. Traditional ‘top‐down’ (Pressman and Wildavsky 1984, Mazmanian and Sabatier 1981) and ‘bottom‐up’ (Elmore 1979, Hjern and Porter 1981, Hull and Hjern 1983) analytical frameworks give only a partial explanation of outcomes. In making the case for a netwrok approach, a typology of implementation networks is presented. The utility of this typology is evaluated in the context of one of the most complex privatization programmes attempted by any government: the privatization of British Rail (BR) between 1992 and 1997. In the case of the sale of one BR subsidiary train operating company, ScotRail, a variety of agencies with competing interests and acting in a politically‐charged climate exchanged essential resources to deliver the policy, though not without generating unintended outcomes in the form of significant change to the policy and the agencies charged with implementing it.
Online R&D management: the way forward
Authors: Dennis Richard M. , Flavin Phil , Davies Graham J.
Published: March 2003

The development of an intranet system in BT delivered far greater savings in 1996 than was originally estimated. BT decided to look at the advantages of online R&D management processes. Various features of the evolving system are described, including the proposal submission system or project requirements document, and tools and techniques to manage a global virtual laboratory.
Critical issues facing R&D managers in China
Authors: De Boer Sirp J. , Gan Weibing , Shan Guogang
Published: March 2003

R&D managers in China experienced significant changes in the past decade, in particular because of Government policies of economic reform and opening to the outside world. These developments have brought about a number of rather specific R&D management issues and problems. The paper addresses the main problems faced by R&D managers in China. First, the current situation of R&D management in China is discussed, as well as the future developments. The paper then presents a case study of the CISRI (Central Iron & Steel Research Institute), a large comprehensive R&D organisation in Beijing. The analysis leads to the critical issues in CISRI's R&D management. After that, a further investigation is described into the trends of Chinese R&D management. The outcomes described focus on the future of R&D management in China as well as on the integration of Western R&D management theory in China. The paper concludes with the major issues and recommendations for the further development of R&D management in China.
Evaluating failure in the innovation process: the micropolitics of new product development
Authors: Jones Oswald , Stevens Gary
Published: March 2003

For almost 40 years academics from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds have sought to improve our understanding of the innovation process. In this paper, we examine the contribution made by those such as Kotler who have attempted to describe a rational approach to New Product Development (NPD). We argue that such frameworks offer a view of organisational activity which substantially understates the political activity associated with managing the innovation process. Most of those writing from a marketing perspective acknowledge external political influences such as government policies and the leverage of ‘special interest groups’. We focus on the work of Burns and Stalker who clearly recognised the way in which internal political struggles to access resources or to improve career prospects impact on innovation. To analyse the role of micropolitics in the NPD process we describe the case of WEL, a medium‐sized manufacturing firm, as managers and engineers attempted to develop an important new product. We conclude that it is essential to incorporate the role of internal politics into any framework which claims to offer a realistic account of NPD.
Research Collaborations by Multi‐National Research Oriented Pharmaceutical Firms: 1988–1997
Authors: Tapon Francis , Thong Mona
Published: March 2003

In this paper we survey collaborations on research by 22 of the top pharmaceutical companies in the world. In particular, we discuss the benefits and costs of collaborations on research and we review the existing literature on these issues. We present data for these major research‐oriented pharmaceutical firms focusing on collaborations that deal with research, the technologies associated with these collaborations, and the firms that collaborate with these 22 multi‐nationals.
Globalisation, strategic alliances, acquisitions and technology transfer. Lessons from ICL/Fujitsu and Rover/Honda and BMW
Authors: Carr Chris
Published: March 2003

As globalisation proceeds major national companies may find themselves involved in domestic mergers and acquisitions, only to have turn later to international co‐operation. International strategic alliances, though, often eventually move on to international acquisition, either involving the alliance partner (as in the case of ICL/Fujitsu) or some third party (as in the case of Rover/Honda/BMW). This article draws on research in Britain and Japan to investigate the strategic and technological implications of such co‐operative trajectories.

Two acid tests appear to determine whether such inter‐company co‐operations (whether mergers, acquisitions or strategic alliances) are likely ultimately to prove transitory, or whether they will progress towards some more stable inter‐action:

•Is the arrangement ‘adding value’ technologically?

Is it contributing to some process of international integration?

•Technological synergies and learning possibilities are often played down initially in domestic acquisitions, and even in international strategic alliances offering particular scope for technology transfer; but they are important in determining long term outcomes.
R&D as a business – what are the implications for performance measurement?
Authors: Pearson A.W. , Nixon W.A. , Kerssens‐van Drongelen I.C.
Published: March 2003

There have been considerable changes in the way that Research and Development (R&D) has been managed over recent years, many of which have been influenced by the external environment. These have been discussed in a number of publications with much of the debate centring around the movement from the so‐called first generation to fifth generation models of R&D management.

What has not been debated to the same extent are the implications of recent and likely future trends in R&D management for the way performance is, and should be, measured. In this paper we focus on these implications, drawing upon both the existing literature on performance measurement (PM) in R&D and our own research into organisations which have chosen to move towards a more profit‐centred approach to the management of their technical resources.

Finally, we present and discuss the findings of our review, which indicate that although there are common features, some differences, requiring careful consideration by management, can be identified when movement from a cost‐ to a profit‐centred approach occurs.
Investment under economic and implementation uncertainty
Authors: Tsekrekos Andrianos E.
Published: March 2003

Some investment decisions are exposed to uncertainty over their implementation phase apart from the underlying economic uncertainty. We provide a general way of introducing implementation uncertainty, which includes prior research as a special case. The generality of our treatment stems from the fact that implementation uncertainty is allowed to affect both the level and the timing of project profitability. In a case explicitly addressed, implementation uncertainty might even cause earlier investment if the probability of uncertainty resolution exceeds the opportunity cost of delaying investment. Investment will be earlier, the higher the effect of uncertainty resolution on project profitability.
International R&D project evaluation by multinational corporations in the electronics and IT industry of Singapore
Authors: Liao Ziqi
Published: March 2003

This paper explores a number of variables associated with the evaluation of international R&D projects by multinational corporations (MNCs) in the electronics and IT industry of Singapore. Empirical analysis of the data collected from R&D managerial executives suggests a series of considerations in relation to their R&D investments. It is desirable if R&D can create a potential impact on the growth of their regional and international businesses. In considering the risks associated with an R&D project, a balance approach would be appropriate when demanding a return on investment. In particular, the consistence with customer demands, the achievement of time‐based competitiveness, the training of R&D manpower and the development of conducive innovation environments are fundamental to the success of international R&D projects.
Science parks in Sweden – industrial renewal and development?
Authors: Löfsten Hans , Lindelöf Peter
Published: March 2003

Science parks provide an important resource network for new technology‐based firms (NTBFs). To ascertain the ‘added value’ of a science park location the innovativeness of independent technology‐based science park firms are compared with the levels recorded by a comparable group of firms not located on a park. The hypotheses are empirically tested on the basis of 263 new technology‐based firms in Sweden located both on and off‐park. The survey endeavoured to cover joint‐stock firms located on the nine target science parks (163 firms). The remainder of the NTBFs were drawn from off‐park locations (100 firms). The findings on science parks performance suggest that the parks milieu appear to have a positive impact on their firms growth as measured in terms of sales and jobs. However, there was no evidence of a direct relationship between science park location and profitability. While this research provided several new insights into science parks in Sweden, numerous questions remain.
Managing innovation in a knowledge intensive technology organisation (KITO)
Authors: Verhaeghe Audrey , Kfir Rivka
Published: March 2003

This study aims to add to the existing knowledge of how innovation works in organisations. By understanding how to assess/evaluate processes that support and enable innovation, managers can better manage innovation as a business process. This paper addresses elements of organisational behaviour that relate to people management where innovation and technology management is concerned. Perception plays a crucial role in driving behaviour and therefore the widely accepted business scorecard methodology has been used to measure innovation practices in the organisation. The research was done in a knowledge intensive technology organisation (KITO) in South Africa. Interviews with managers of R&D were conducted. These interviews were used to adapt an existing audit instrument to suit the technology–based organisation. Thereafter, a comprehensive audit of innovation was conducted at three different management levels using the adapted instrument. Over 100, mostly R&D managers, were asked to complete a scorecard–based questionnaire and to draw a visual representation (VR) of innovation. The results of the interviews, audit and VRs were used to produce a management framework that is not only applicable to a KITO, but can also be used widely to improve innovation through enhanced visual understanding of any technology–based organisation. The results of the study indicate that measuring innovation through a validated instrument is highly valuable. The Holistic System Framework for innovation and the measurement instrument facilitated (1) management of, and (2) organisational learning about innovation. The comprehensive audit indicated, on a strategic level, the strengths and weaknesses of the innovation process as practised in the organisation. The instrument is valuable at a strategic management level as it indicates where in the organisation the gaps exist regarding the management of the process of innovation with the aim to create a competitive advantage.
The Psychological Reality of Reasons
Authors: Collins Arthur W.
Published: March 2003

Action explanations like ‘I am heading to the ferry because the bridge is closed,’ are supposed to require restatement: ‘I am . . . because I believe the bridge is closed,’ because (i) the objective claim may be false though the intended explanation is correct, and (ii) because objective circumstances have to be cognitively mediated if they are to bear on action. This supposition is rejected here. Restatements cannot withdraw the objective claim without withdrawing the explanation. In the context of reason‐giving, belief statements do not function as assertions about the inner life. The fact that belief statements may be true though the belief itself is false creates the illusion of distinctive subject matters. The illusion is exploited by conceptions of belief positing stored representations. Even if there were such representations, retrieved for the sake of expressing previously acquired beliefs, the expression of belief must endorse p and cannot merely advert to the existence and content of a representation. The reverse of the standard philosophical view about restatement is actually correct. Wherever an agent correctly adduces a belief that an objective circumstance obtains in explaining his action, a de‐psychologizing restatement that merely makes the objective claim must be ascribable to the agent.
Peter Van Inwagen on Material Beings
Authors: Eklund Matti
Published: March 2003

Peter van Inwagen’s book Material Beings is centered on the special composition question: the question of when some simples constitute a complex object. Van Inwagen’s answer to this question is that simples only constitute a complex object when they constitute an organism. I argue that van Inwagen’s reasoning in favor of this conclusion is unconvincing, and also that the significance of the special composition question itself is doubtful.
Constitutional Adjudication and Democracy. Comparative Perspectives: USA, France, Italy
Authors: Pasquino Pasquale
Published: March 2003

The article sketches out questions that constitutional adjudication represents for democratic theory. After taking into account some of the reasons for the early emergence of judicial review in the United States, it considers different modalities of constitutional control in European countries (notably, France and Italy). Attention is drawn to the different mechanisms of referral, leading, for instance, to the political monopoly in France and to the (quasi) monopoly of the judiciary in Italy. Denying any sovereign power to the organs exercising constitutional control, the article puts forward the thesis that constitutional adjudication guarantees ultimately the control of political super‐majorities over legislative majorities.
Multiculturalism
Authors: Raz Joseph
Published: March 2003

In rejecting the liberal claim to the universality of morals, some contemporary philosophers insist on the danger of reducing the human being to an abstraction. This paper goes beyond this debate. The theoretical core of multiculturalism is the recognition that these universalistic claims can be realised in different ways in different cultures, so as to require a re‐conception of the liberal thesis of the well‐being and dignity of people. This interpretation of morality cannot be understood within the ideology of nationalism. Replacing nationalism as the common bond of society is thus one of the main political challenges facing multiculturalism. However, any specific policy must presuppose a new social sensitivity: Societies are not made up of majorities and minorities, but of a plurality of cultural groups. This is why the notion of toleration is not enough.
Multicultural Policies and Female Immigration in Europe
Authors: Facchi Alessandra
Published: March 2003

In this paper the author focuses on some of the topics in the debate on multiculturalism, applying them to the issue of immigration, particularly female immigration, in Europe. She then illustrates how the individual/group relationship is a particularly complex one where women are concerned. In this framework she considers the various roles of a multicultural law and the thorny relation between women immigrants and their official representatives. She concludes by asserting the need to place individual rights before group rights and to ensure that women obtain autonomous access to both sets of rights.
The Cultural Defense
Authors: Golding Martin P.
Published: March 2003

Because of immigration in the West, increased cultural diversity poses a variety of problems for the criminal justice system. This paper examines whether a so‐called “cultural defense” ought to be allowed as a freestanding defense to a criminal charge. Such a defense would “negate or mitigate criminal responsibility where acts are committed under a reasonable good‐faith belief in their propriety, based on the actor's cultural heritage or tradition.” The cultural defense, as a formal defense, and the use of cultural evidence in order to buttress one of the traditional defenses, are distinguished. Three cases are discussed to illustrate the issues. The possible similarity of the cultural defense to an ignorance or mistake of law defense is then considered. The latter is accepted by such theorists as Gunther Arzt and George P. Fletcher and also apparently in German law, but it is rejected by Jerome Hall on the ground that it undermines the objectivity of the criminal law. The similarity, however, is shown not to hold. It is concluded that a freestanding cultural defense should not be allowed.
Why Use a Novel?
Authors: Currie Laura‐Ann
Published: March 2003

Laura‐Ann Currie explores some of the reasons why teachers might choose to use a novel as a vehicle for the teaching and learning of literacy. She outlines some of the benefits of this kind of work and suggests that it has more to offer than a diet of extracts from stories, as often provided through junior reading scheme books.
Students’ Experience of a Distance Learning Professional Development Course in Literacy Education
Authors: Weinberger Jo
Published: March 2003

With the advent of the National Curriculum and other centralised initiatives creating pressure for narrowly skills‐focused forms of professional development, the need to make explicit the merits of an alternative model, that enables teachers to be reflective and analytic as an intrinsic part of their professional development becomes all the more urgent. The study reported here outlines the experiences of 14 students who made up the first cohort to complete a Masters Degree in literacy by distance learning. It examines why they chose the particular course and the impact of it on their professional development, their careers and their working practices. It investigates the problems involved in studying through distance learning particularly regarding access to relevant materials. The study points to the need for on‐going research into how HE courses and INSET can adapt effectively to changing needs in changing times
“The story means more to me now”: teaching thinking through Guided Reading
Authors: Whitehead David
Published: March 2003

This article describes perspective and imagery thinking strategies taught during Guided Reading lessons. These strategies are designed to enhance comprehension by giving students techniques for manipulating meaning. Social and physical perspective thinking strategies allow students to identify and apply a variety of perspectives, while imagery thinking strategies allow students to re‐view meaning through the application of still, moving and melting images. Comment from teachers and students involved in a project designed to trial these strategies indicate they may be one way of raising standards in English.
Trade Liberalization in Egypt
Authors: Maskus Keith E. , Konan Denise Eby
Published: March 2003

A computable general equilibrium model of Egypt is developed to analyze proposed reforms in its trade policies, including a partnership agreement with the European Union. The model has multiple trading regions and allows for administrative trade barriers and tariffs. The paper reports computations of the revenue impacts of trade liberalization and the required changes in distortionary commodity taxes to maintain a fixed real government budget. Egypt’s greatest potential gains come from removing its administrative trade barriers while adopting globally free trade. The partnership agreement with the EU could lower or raise Egypt’s welfare, depending on prior trade reform.
Policy Bias and Agriculture: Partial and General Equilibrium Measures
Authors: Bautista Romeo M. , Robinson Sherman , Tarp Finn , Wobst Peter
Published: March 2003

The paper examines the impact of industrial protection, agricultural export taxes, and overvaluation of the exchange rate on the balance between the agricultural and nonagricultural sectors. Various agricultural terms‐of‐trade indices are constructed to measure the policy bias against agriculture in a computable general equilibrium (CGE) framework and compare the results with earlier partial equilibrium measures. Our results indicate that the partial equilibrium measures miss much of the action operating through indirect product and factor market linkages, while overstating the strength of the linkages between changes in the exchange rate and prices of traded goods on the agricultural terms of trade.
Employee Stock Ownership and Participation in South Korea: Incidence, Productivity Effects, and Prospects
Authors: Cin Beom‐cheol , Smith Stephen C.
Published: March 2003

The paper examines employee stock ownership plans in South Korea. The incidence and characteristics of ESOPs in publicly traded manufacturing firms is reported. Korean employees do not participate in ESOPs either financially or in decision‐making to the extent they could under the law. Evidence that tax incentives have very large effects on ESOP purchases is presented. Econometric estimates suggest that an increase in an average ESOP from 2% to 3% of total shares would lead to an increase in output of 2.6%. These results are broadly consistent with OECD countries, despite the smaller ownership shared and weaker employee decision‐making participation in Korea. The policy analysis concludes that ESOPs in Korea are not suitable for pensions; that it is not in employee interests to purchase all shares through initial public offerings (IPOs) and seasoned equity offerings (SEOs); that incentives for longer stock‐holding periods may be appropriate; that improvement in decision‐making participation is desirable; and that changes in repayment methods could make it more attractive for employees to purchase shares.
Technology Adoption, Human Capital, and Growth Theory
Authors: Papageorgiou Chris
Published: March 2003

The paper explores a model in which growth is determined by a combination of human capital and technology adoption. At the heart of the model is the notion of “contiguous knowledge”—the idea that knowledge spreads out a certain distance. Because of this property of knowledge, a country can adopt existing technology only when it is sufficiently close to the technological frontier. Unlike the neoclassical growth model, the proposed model predictions are pessimistic for countries that are far away from the frontier. The model is thus able to account both for rapid growth episodes and economic stagnation.
Convergence in Interest Rates and Inflation Rates Across Countries and Over Time
Authors: Siklos Pierre L. , Wohar Mark E.
Published: March 2003

We examine the relationship between interest rates and inflation rates for 10 countries during the period 1974–95. We find evidence of a unique cointegrating relationship between nominal interest rates of European Monetary System (EMS) countries, the US and Canada, and the US, Germany, and Japan. No similar relationship is obtained between inflation rates with one exception, namely, that between the US and Canada. We interpret these results as convergence in inflation but not in interst rates. Hence, if interest rates represent an indicator of monetary policy, the countries considered have attempted to implement independent policies but not to an extent which produced divergent trends in inflation.
Economic Geography and Multinational Enterprise
Authors: Raybaudi‐Massilia Marzia
Published: March 2003

This paper proposes an economic geography model with two countries, two sectors, and two factors of production, allowing for single‐plant and double‐plant firms. Location patterns are studied by assessing the existence of the various equilibrium configurations. Income and wages are allowed to change following defection, and it is assumed that labor migrates towards the country with highest real wages. It is shown that the tendency towards configurations characterized by an “industrial core” and an “agricultural periphery” predicted by models which do not allow for the existence of FDI, is reduced by the presence of multinationals.
Smooth and Sticky Adjustment: A Comparative Analysis of the US and UK
Authors: Haynes Michelle , Upward Richard , Wright Peter
Published: March 2003

This paper adopts the methodology of the microeconometric labor literature to analyze a common assertion from trade economists that reallocation within sectors is less costly than between sectors. Findings are compared across two countries (the UK and US) which have experienced very different recent aggregate unemployment experiences. Workers previously employed in “declining” sectors are more mobile than those employed in ‘expanding’ sectors in both countries, and individuals are more likely to switch sector the longer they are unemployed. A plausible explanation for this is that individuals initially attempt to find jobs that complement their general and specific skills in order to accrue the associated rewards, and move sector only as this prospect diminishes. This would seem to accord with the ‘smooth adjustment hypothesis’ which proposes that intraindustry adjustments are less costly than interindustry ones.
Structural Change, Competition, and Job Turnover in Swedish Manufacturing, 1964–96
Authors: Andersson Linda , Gustafsson Ola , Lundberg Lars
Published: March 2003

The rate of interindustry job turnover in Swedish manufacturing seems to be driven by the dispersion of profit changes among industries. Shifts in international competitiveness among industries played a central role for explaining this pattern. The rate of intraindustry job turnover among plants has been higher in industries with many small plants, low profit margins, and high import penetration.
Trade Policy Transparency and Investor Confidence: Some Implications for an Effective Trade Policy Review Mechanism
Authors: Francois Joseph F.
Published: March 2003

This paper is concerned with the value of the WTO’s Trade Policy Review Mechanism, particularly its transparency role and its potential role in policy stability, for investor confidence in developing countries. The implications of reduced risk and uncertainty regarding trade policy for investor confidence, and ultimately for the capital stock and the long‐run structure of production, are examined in an analytical model. Certainty equivalence is employed to assess the general equilibrium effects of risk and uncertainty. Their reduction can boost risk‐adjusted returns, leading to an increase in long‐run levels of capital.
Core Labor Standards and Competitiveness: Implications for Global Trade Policy
Authors: Martin Will , Maskus Keith E.
Published: March 2003

One of the principal arguments for inclusion of core labor standards in the WTO is that weak labor standards provide an illegitimate boost to competitiveness and may result in a “race to the bottom” in labor standards worldwide. This paper shows that, if the violation of labor standards results from discrimination against particular workers in export industries, employment, output, and competitiveness will be reduced since employment is determined by the short side of the market. If the problems arise from abuse of market power by employers, competitiveness will be similarly reduced. Only if freedom of association and collective bargaining were intended to allow workers in some sectors to restrict output and drive up wages would the absence of these standards raise competitiveness. However, if product markets are competitive, it is likely that association rights would increase output and competitiveness by raising productivity. The competitiveness argument seems either to reflect analytical confusion or to represent a cover for protectionist interests.
Capital–Labor Ratios and Total Factor Productivity in the Balassa–Samuelson Model
Authors: Kakkar Vikas
Published: March 2003

The paper investigates the relationship between sectoral capital–labor ratios and total factor productivity (TFP) in the context of the Balassa–Samuelson model. It is shown that, under certain assumptions, the model implies that both traded‐ and nontraded‐goods sectors’ capital–labor ratios should be cointegrated with the traded‐goods sector’s TFP. Evidence from an intersectoral database for 14 OECD countries broadly supports this implication of the model. In addition to shedding light on the evolution of sectoral capital–labor ratios, the results also alleviate concerns regarding the reliability of capital stock data.
Export Price Discrimination in Europe and Exchange Rates
Authors: Gil‐Pareja Salvador
Published: March 2003

The paper studies pricing‐to‐market behavior on a wide range of disaggregated European Union exports to OECD countries. The sample allows better identification of products for which such behavior is pervasive. The results suggest that the degree of markup adjustment in response to exchange rate changes is similar across destination markets. The evidence of pricing‐to‐market across source countries ranges from 40% (Netherlands) to 63% (Germany) of the products in the sample, except for the United Kingdom, where there is remarkably little evidence of it. However, formal comparisons across source countries by product do not usually reveal differences in behavior.
Cost Competition, Fragmentation, and Globalization
Authors: Burda Michael C. , Dluhosch Barbara
Published: March 2003

This paper proposes a model in which the removal of barriers to trade and factor mobility is associated with endogenous fragmentation of the value–added chain. Fragmentation is the outcome of cost competition—the profit–maximizing choice of cost structure by monopolistically competitive firms. An expansion of the integrated trading area can induce globalization not only in the horizontal dimension associated with love–of–variety preferences, but also vertically as firms vary specialization of production stages. While increased trade is likely to induce fragmentation when the number of firms is fixed, free entry can either reverse or intensify this result.
Beyond the Cutting Edge: Bakhtin at 107
Authors: Emerson Caryl
Published: March 2003

Book reviewed in this article

Ken Hirschkop and David Shepherd, (eds.), Bakhtin and Cultural Theory
Disability Retirement in a Welfare State
Authors: Bratberg Espen
Published: March 2003

The increasing number of disability pensioners may put a strain on the welfare state. In this paper, we try to assess the effect of financial incentives on disability entrance. A sample of Norwegians on long‐term sick leave at the beginning of 1989 is examined as of the end of 1989, and the exit routes are studied in a multinomial logit model. The results indicate that the incentive effects of wages are larger than the disincentive effects of benefits. Furthermore, there is no evidence that having a “subjective” diagnosis affects the probability of becoming a disability pensioner.

JEL Classification: H55; I18; J26
Optimal Tax‐Transfer Systems and Redistributive Policy
Authors: Fellman Johan , Jäntti Markus , Lambert Peter J.
Published: March 2003

In this paper we develop “optimal yardsticks” to gauge the effectiveness of given tax and benefit policies in reducing inequality. We show that the conjunction of the optimal tax and optimal benefits policies constitutes the optimal tax‐and‐benefit policy, given the tax and benefit budget sizes. A decomposition formula enables trends in the inequality impact of taxes and benefits to be explained in terms of changing policy effectivess (targeting) and budget size effects. The analysis incorporates a distributional judgement parameter, for sensitivity analysis, and concludes with an examination of the Finnish case for the period 1971–1990.

JEL Classification: D63
Labour Taxation in a Unionised Economy with Home Production
Authors: Kolm Ann‐Sofie
Published: March 2003

The impact of payroll taxes on unemployment and welfare are examined in a model with household production and union–firm wage bargaining. The analysis shows that unemployment typically falls as the payroll tax rate in the market sector for household substitutes (the service sector) is reduced. This holds even when the payroll tax rate in the non‐service sector is raised in order to maintain a balanced government budget. Welfare improves with a reduced‐service‐sector payroll tax rate only if unions are equally strong and firms are equally labour intensive across the sectors.

JEL classification: E24; H21; J22; J51
MeasuringIncome and Measuring Sustainability
Authors: Pemberton Malcolm , Ulph David
Published: March 2003

We examine what interpretation can be given to inclusive income, understood to be consumption plus the value of the net increase in all relevant capital stocks. We introduce the concept of instantaneously constant value income, defined as the maximum amount the economy can consume at a moment of time and keep the expected present value of utility of current and future generations constant. We argue that this income concept captures some of the concerns underlying sustainability. Our main result is that inclusive income equals instantaneously constant value income. We show that this result holds in a very general setting and, in particular, carries over to models incorporating technological progress when such progress can be captured by augmented stocks of knowledge. An important implication of our main result is that it provides a very simple method for deriving inclusive income, which does not involve any linearization of the Hamiltonian.