bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Machine Maintenance and Sale Age Model of Kamien and Schwartz Revisited
Authors: Bensoussan Alain , Sethi Suresh P.
Published: November 2007

In this paper, we revisit and clarify the celebrated machine maintenance and sale age model of Kamien and Schwartz (KS) involving a machine subject to failure. KS formulate and solve the problem as a deterministic optimal control problem with the probability of the machine failure as the state variable. Thus, they obtain deterministic optimal maintenance and sale date. We study two underlying stochastic models with known and random machine modes, and clarify the relationship between the resulting value functions to that of KS. In particular, our maintenance and sale date decisions, when the machine is in operation, are precisely the ones obtained from the deterministic solution of KS. We explain why that is so. Moreover, we provide a sufficient condition for an optimal maintenance and sale date policy that is missing in KS. We describe many applications of the KS model in areas other than that of machine maintenance. We conclude the paper with extensions of the KS problem that are stochastic control problems not easily solvable or not at all solvable as deterministic problems.
The Debate on Influencing Doctors' Decisions: Are Drug Characteristics the Missing Link?
Authors: Venkataraman Sriram , Stremersch Stefan
Published: November 2007

Decision making by physicians on patients' treatment has come under increased public scrutiny. In fact, there is a fair amount of debate on the effects of marketing actions of pharmaceutical firms toward physicians and their impact on physician prescription behavior. While some scholars find a strong and positive influence of marketing actions, some find only moderate effects, and others even find negative effects. Debate is also mounting on the role of other influencers (such as patient requests) in physician decision making, both on prescriptions and sample dispensing. The authors argue that one factor that may tip the balance in this debate is the role of drug characteristics, such as a drug's effectiveness and a drug's side effects.

Using a unique data set, they show that marketing efforts—operationalized as detailing and symposium meetings of firms to physicians—and patient requests do affect physician decision making differentially across brands. Moreover, they find that the responsiveness of physicians' decision making to marketing efforts and patient requests depends upon the drug's effectiveness and side effects. This paper presents clear guidelines for public policy and managerial practice and envisions that the study of the role of drug characteristics, such as effectiveness and side effects, may lead to valuable insights in this surging public debate.
Convertible Bond Underpricing: Renegotiable Covenants, Seasoning, and Convergence
Authors: Chan Alex W. H. , Chen Nai-fu
Published: November 2007

We investigate the long-standing puzzle on the underpricings of convertible bonds. We hypothesize that the observed underpricing is induced by the possibility that a convertible bond might renegotiate on some of its covenants, e.g., an imbedded put option in financial difficulties. Consistent with our hypothesis, we find that the initial underpricing is larger for lower rated bonds. The underpricing worsens if the issuer experiences subsequent financial difficulties. However, conditional on no rating downgrades, our main empirical result shows that convertible bond prices do converge to their theoretical prices within two years. This seasoning period is shorter for higher rated convertible bonds.
Managerial Turnover and Strategic Change
Authors: Sliwka Dirk
Published: November 2007

The connection between strategic change and managerial turnover is studied within a model where managers decide on a firm's strategy. Managers as well as firm owners care for the long-term success of a company, but managers are also interested in their own reputation. Due to reputational concerns, managers are reluctant to alter strategic decisions they themselves made in the past even when internal accounting information indicates that they should do so. It is shown that it may well be optimal in some cases to dismiss managers of higher ability while someone less talented may be kept in office when strategic change has to be enforced.
Implications of Breach Remedy and Renegotiation Design for Innovation and Capacity
Authors: Plambeck Erica L. , Taylor Terry A.
Published: November 2007

Amanufacturer writes supply contracts with N buyers. Then, the buyers invest in innovation, and the manufacturer builds capacity. Finally, demand is realized, and the firms renegotiate the supply contracts to achieve an efficient allocation of capacity among the buyers. The court remedy for breach of contract (specific performance versus expectation damages) affects how the firms share the gain from renegotiation, and hence how the firms make investments ex ante. The firms may also engage in renegotiation design, inserting simple clauses into the supply contract to shape the outcome of renegotiation. For example, when a buyer grants a financial “hostage” to the manufacturer or is charged a per diem penalty for delay in bargaining, the manufacturer captures the gain from renegotiation. “Tradable options,” which grant buyers the right to trade capacity without intervention from the manufacturer, return the gain from renegotiation to the buyers. This paper proves that, under surprisingly general conditions, the firms can coordinate their investments with the simplest of supply contracts (fixed-quantity contracts). This may require renegotiation design, and certainly requires that the firms understand the breach remedy and set their contract parameters accordingly.
Implications of Renegotiation for Optimal Contract Flexibility and Investment
Authors: Plambeck Erica L. , Taylor Terry A.
Published: November 2007

In a stylized model of biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing, this paper shows how the potential for renegotiation influences the optimal structure of supply contracts, investments in innovation and capacity, the way scarce capacity is allocated, and firms' resulting profits. Two buyers contract for capacity with a common manufacturer. Then, the buyers invest in innovation (product development and marketing) and the manufacturer builds capacity. Finally, the firms may renegotiate to allow a buyer facing poor market conditions to purchase less than the contractual commitment and a buyer facing favorable conditions to purchase more. We show that renegotiation can greatly increase the firms' investments and profits, provided that the contracts are designed correctly. Failing to anticipate renegotiation leads to contracts that allow too much flexibility in the buyer's order quantity, and perform poorly relative to contracts designed to anticipate renegotiation. We provide clear conditions under which quantity flexibility contracts with renegotiation coordinate the system. Where quantity flexibility contracts fail, employing tradable options improves performance.
Optimal Feature Advertising Design Under Competitive Clutter
Authors: Pieters Rik , Wedel Michel , Zhang Jie
Published: November 2007

This study investigates consumers' attention to retail feature ads and proposes a method to optimize the design of the ads. Utilizing a large dataset of consumers' attention to over 1,100 individual feature ads collected with eye-tracking technology, we analyze the effects of the five key design elements of feature ads—brand, text, pictorial, price, and promotion—on consumers' attention to them. Attention is measured in terms of selection and gaze duration. We focus on the effects of the surface sizes of the design elements. A key feature of our model is that it takes into account the impact of visual clutter in the ad display page. To capture the clutter effects, we propose two new entropy-based measures that characterize the salience of feature ads in their competitive environment based on Attention Engagement Theory. In a Bayesian framework, we simultaneously estimate the parameters of the model and optimize the design of feature ads in terms of surface sizes of the five design elements. Our optimization results and comparisons with alternative design approaches indicate that significant improvements in attention to feature advertising can be achieved without increase in costs, and that the resultant optimal feature ad designs create win-win opportunities for manufacturers and retailers.
Conditions That Shape the Learning Curve: Factors That Increase the Ability and Opportunity to Learn
Authors: Wiersma Eelke
Published: November 2007

Prior studies examining factors that influence the learning curve mainly focus on settings in which firms adopt new products or technologies or open new plants or assembly lines. Less is known, however, about how more mature firms learn, when they are further down the learning curve. To gain insight into factors that enhance learning in this situation, I examine factors that increase both the ability and the opportunity to learn. I hypothesize that the ability to learn is enhanced by the presence of a moderate amount of temporary employees in the workforce and by providing employees with related variation in tasks, measured by product heterogeneity. In addition, I hypothesize that opportunities for learning are created when there is some slack in resources and when there are no problems in other important performance dimensions that consume employee attention.

These hypotheses are examined using data of the Royal Dutch Mail, which has 27 geographically dispersed regions. Although these 27 regions are homogeneous with respect to their tasks, internal organization, type of products delivered, and technology used, their learning rates differ considerably. In the sample of 972 observations used for this analysis, I find that this variation in learning rates is explained by the percentage of temporary employees used, the level of excess capacity, the degree of product heterogeneity, and the degree to which regions face problems in other important performance dimensions. These findings provide insight into strategies that help managers in designing work processes to maintain a positive learning curve.
Simulation of Coherent Risk Measures Based on Generalized Scenarios
Authors: Lesnevski Vadim , Nelson Barry L. , Staum Jeremy
Published: November 2007

In financial risk management, coherent risk measures have been proposed as a way to avoid undesirable properties of measures such as value at risk that discourage diversification and do not account for the magnitude of the largest, and therefore most serious, losses. A coherent risk measure equals the maximum expected loss under several different probability measures, and these measures are analogous to “populations” or “systems” in the ranking-and-selection literature. However, unlike in ranking and selection, here it is the value of the maximum expectation under any of the probability measures, and not the identity of the probability measure that attains it, that is of interest. We propose procedures to form fixed-width, simulation-based confidence intervals for the maximum of several expectations, explore their correctness and computational efficiency, and illustrate them on risk-management problems. The availability of efficient algorithms for computing coherent risk measures will encourage their use for improved risk management.
The Effects of Statistical Information on Risk and Ambiguity Attitudes, and on Rational Insurance Decisions
Authors: Wakker Peter P. , Timmermans Daniëlle R. M. , Machielse Irma
Published: November 2007

This paper presents a field study into the effects of statistical information concerning risks on willingness to take insurance, with special attention being paid to the usefulness of these effects for the clients (the insured). Unlike many academic studies, we were able to use in-depth individual interviews of a large representative sample from the general public (N=476). The statistical information that had the most interesting effects, “individual own past-cost information,” unfortunately enhanced adverse selection, which we could directly verify because the real health costs of the clients were known. For a prescriptive evaluation this drawback must be weighted against some advantages: a desirable interaction with risk attitude, increased customer satisfaction, and increased cost awareness. Descriptively, ambiguity seeking was found rather than ambiguity aversion, and no risk aversion was found for loss outcomes. Both findings, obtained in a natural decision context, deviate from traditional views in risk theory but are in line with prospect theory. We confirmed prospect theory's reflection at the level of group averages but falsified it at the individual level.
Final-Offer Arbitration and Risk Aversion in Bargaining
Authors: Hanany Eran , Kilgour D. Marc , Gerchak Yigal
Published: November 2007

Negotiations are often conducted under the stipulation that an impasse is to be resolved using final-offer arbitration (FOA). In fact, FOA frequently is not needed; in Major League Baseball, for instance, more than 80% of the salary negotiations that could go to arbitration instead reach a bargained agreement. We show that the risk aversion of at least one side explains this phenomenon. We then model pay negotiation in baseball by applying a bargaining solution with a variable disagreement outcome representing FOA, studying the existence of pure Nash equilibrium initial offers and their effects on the player's eventual pay, and considering the Nash solution as a special case.
The Role of Pre-Entry Experience, Entry Timing, and Product Technology Strategies in Explaining Firm Survival
Authors: Bayus Barry L. , Agarwal Rajshree
Published: November 2007

Studying the U.S. personal computer industry from its inception in 1974 through 1994, we address the following questions. What product technology strategies increase the survival chances of entrants into new, technologically dynamic industries? Does the effectiveness of these strategies differ by pre-entry experience? Does the effectiveness of these strategies differ by when firms enter a new industry? Consistent with the published literature, we find that diversifying entrants have an initial survival advantage over entrepreneurial startups. But, we find the reverse for later entrants: startups that enter later in the industry have a survival advantage over the later entering diversifying entrants. We explain this finding in terms of the firms' product technology strategies (i.e., offering products based on the technology standard and products incorporating the latest technology), pre-entry experience, and entry timing. Our findings highlight that it is crucial to study what firms do after they enter a new industry to more completely understand their ultimate performance.
Template Use and the Effectiveness of Knowledge Transfer
Authors: Jensen Robert J. , Szulanski Gabriel
Published: November 2007

This paper is a direct empirical examination of the fundamental claim that use of templates enhances the effectiveness of knowledge transfer. We explore the effect of template use through an eight-year, in-depth field investigation of Rank Xerox (now Xerox Europe). The field investigation covers three sequential transfer efforts in 15 western European countries. The investigation reveals a naturally occurring, repeated-treatment quasi experiment that allows us to test the hypothesis that the use of templates enhances the effectiveness of knowledge transfer. “Observations” in this experiment measure the extent of adoption and performance of the practice at the recipient units. The “treatment” is the use of a template during the transfer.
Analyzing Cost-Efficient Production Behavior Under Economies of Scope: A Nonparametric Methodology
Authors: Cherchye Laurens , De Rock Bram , Vermeulen Frederic
Published: November 2007

In designing a production model for firms that generate multiple outputs, we take as a starting point that such multioutput production refers to economies of scope, which in turn originate from joint input use and input externalities. We provide a nonparametric characterization of cost-efficient behavior under these conditions, and subsequently institute necessary and sufficient conditions for data consistency with such efficient behavior that only include observed firm demand and supply data. We illustrate our methodology by examining the cost efficiency of research programs in economics and business management faculties of Dutch universities. This application shows that the proposed methodology may entail robust conclusions regarding cost-efficiency differences between universities within specific specialization areas, even when using shadow prices to evaluate the different inputs.
Price-Directed Control of a Closed Logistics Queueing Network
Authors: Adelman Daniel
Published: November 2007

Motivated by one of the leading intermodal logistics suppliers in the United States, we consider an internal pricing mechanism for managing a fleet of service units (shipping containers) flowing in a closed queueing network. Nodes represent geographic locations, and arcs represent travel between them. Customer requests for arcs arrive over time, and the problem is to find an accept/reject policy that maximizes the long-run time average reward rate from accepting requests.

We formulate the problem as a semi-Markov decision process and give a simple linear program that provides an upper bound on the optimal reward rate. Using Palm calculus, we derive a nonlinear program that approximately captures queueing and stockout effects on the network. Using its optimal Lagrange multipliers, we construct a simple functional approximation to the dynamic programming value function. The resulting policy is computationally efficient and produces superior economic performance as compared with other policies. Furthermore, it provides a methodologically grounded solution to the firm's internal pricing problem.
Capacitated Production Control with Virtual Lateral Transshipments
Authors: Yang Jian , Qin Zhaoqiong
Published: November 2007

We study the optimal control of a firm with two capacitated manufacturing plants situated in two distinct geographical regions. Demands from each region are mostly satisfied by the local plant. However, if necessary, some of the newly arrived demands can be designated to be served by the other, more remote, plant. The sources of the above virtual lateral transshipments, unlike the ones involved in the real lateral transshipments, do not need to have nonnegative inventory levels throughout the transshipment processes. We develop results about the simultaneous preservation of supermodularity and diagonal dominances of the cost functions and then use these results to derive structural results for the optimal policies. Specifically, to perform optimally, we find that each plant should adopt a modified base-stock policy in observance of its own capacity, while the base level should mildly decrease in the other plant's starting inventory level. Our computational results illustrate the benefits realizable by using transshipment.
Pricing and Manufacturing Decisions When Demand Is a Function of Prices in Multiple Periods
Authors: Ahn Hyun-soo , Gümüş Mehmet , Kaminsky Philip
Published: November 2007

In most deterministic manufacturing decision models, demand is either known or induced by pricing decisions in the period that the demand is experienced. However, in more realistic market scenarios consumers make purchase decisions with respect to price, not only in the current period, but also in past and future periods. We model a joint manufacturing/pricing decision problem, accounting for that portion of demand realized in each period that is induced by the interaction of pricing decisions in the current period and in previous periods. We formulate a mathematical programming model and develop solution techniques. We identify structural properties of our models and develop closed-form solutions and effective heuristics for various special cases of our models. Finally, we conduct extensive computational experiments to quantify the effectiveness of our heuristics and to develop managerial insights.
Versioning and Piracy Control for Digital Information Goods
Authors: Wu Shin-yi , Chen Pei-yu
Published: November 2007

Technological advances in digitalization and communications technologies have aggravated the information goods piracy problem. In contrast to previous literature which mainly considers solutions, such as law enforcement or technology protection that work on increasing individual piracy costs to alleviate the piracy problem, we consider using versioning as a potential instrument to fight piracy. We show that while a single version is the optimal strategy for an information goods provider absent piracy, the presence of piracy may lead firms to offer more than one quality, and versioning can be an effective and profitable instrument to fight piracy for digital information goods under some conditions. Our results indicate that the incentive to version is greater when the piracy cost is in a certain range. This strategic interaction between piracy cost and product line design has an interesting implication on optimal investment in piracy control. We also find that versioning can act as both a strategic substitute and a strategic complement to other instruments that increase consumer piracy costs. We further provide a general model, as a nonlinear mixed-integer program, that would assist an information goods provider in determining how many versions to offer, at what quality levels and prices.
An Optimization Algorithm for the Ordered Open-End Bin-Packing Problem
Authors: Ceselli Alberto , Righini Giovanni
Published: November 2007

The ordered open-end bin-packing problem is a variant of the bin-packing problem in which the items to be packed are sorted in a given order and the capacity of each bin can be exceeded by the last item packed into the bin. We present a branch-and-price algorithm for its exact optimization. The pricing subproblem is a special variant of the binary knapsack problem, in which the items are ordered and the last one does not consume capacity. We present a specialized optimization algorithm for this subproblem. The speed of the column generation algorithm is improved by subgradient optimization steps, allowing for multiple pricing and variable fixing. Computational results are presented on instances of different sizes and items with different correlations between their size and their position in the given order.
Technical Note—Assessment of Disclosure Risk When Using Confidentiality via Camouflage
Authors: Li Han , Muralidhar Krishnamurty , Sarathy Rathindra
Published: November 2007

The confidentiality-via-camouflage (CVC) procedure was recently proposed as an alternative to existing procedures such as data perturbation for protecting the confidentiality of numerical data. In this paper, we show that CVC, implemented with certain parameters, could potentially disclose confidential information. We identify the conditions under which such compromise will occur. We provide new derivations for the database administrator to select CVC parameters to avoid such disclosure. We also derive CVC parameters that allow the database administrator to evaluate the trade-off between disclosure risk and data utility, and we provide an expression to evaluate partial value disclosure risk of CVC. Thus, the results of this study should aid the database administrator in evaluating the applicability of CVC.
Price and Order Postponement in a Decentralized Newsvendor Model with Multiplicative and Price-Dependent Demand
Authors: Granot Daniel , Yin Shuya
Published: November 2007

We analyze the effect of price and order postponement in a decentralized newsvendor model with multiplicative and price-dependent demand, wherein the manufacturer sets the wholesale price, and possibly offers a buyback rate, and the retailer determines the order quantity and retail price. Such postponement strategies can be used by the retailer by delaying his operational decisions (order quantity and retail price) until after demand uncertainty is observed. We show how the equilibrium values of the contract parameters and profits are affected by (i) vertical competition, (ii) type of contract (wholesale price-only or buyback), (iii) demand distribution, (iv) form of the expected demand function, and (v) the timing of the retailer's operational decisions. Although in most cases postponement is quite beneficial for the channel members, we show that for some model parameters, due to vertical competition, the expected value of perfect information about demand for price postponement and order postponement may be negative for the channel and even, surprisingly, for both members. We also show that when a buyback option is offered, neither order postponement nor price postponement has an effect on the equilibrium wholesale price, profit allocation ratio between the manufacturer and the retailer, and channel efficiency, and that the equilibrium wholesale price, expected retail price, profit allocation ratio between the manufacturer and the retailer, and channel efficiency in the model with buyback options under either order or price postponement further coincide with their counterparts in the corresponding deterministic model.
Optimal Dynamic Trading Strategies with Risk Limits
Authors: Cuoco Domenico , He Hua , Isaenko Sergei
Published: November 2007

Value at Risk (VaR) has emerged in recent years as a standard tool to measure and control the risk of trading portfolios. Yet, existing theoretical analysis of the optimal behavior of a trader subject to VaR limits has produced a negative view of VaR as a risk-control tool. In particular, VaR limits have been found to induce increased risk exposure in some states and an increased probability of extreme losses. However, these conclusions are based on models that are either static or dynamically inconsistent. In this paper, we formulate a dynamically consistent model of optimal portfolio choice subject to VaR limits and show that the concerns expressed in earlier papers do not apply if, consistently with common practice, the VaR limit is reevaluated dynamically. In particular, we find that the optimal risk exposure of a trader subject to a VaR limit is always lower than that of an unconstrained trader and that the probability of extreme losses is also lower. We also consider risk limits formulated in terms of tail conditional expectation (TCE), a coherent risk measure often advocated as an alternative to VaR, and show that in our dynamic setting it is always possible to transform a TCE limit into an equivalent VaR limit, and conversely.
A Game-Theoretic Approach to Efficient Power Management in Sensor Networks
Authors: Campos-Nañez Enrique , Garcia Alfredo , Li Chenyang
Published: November 2007

Wireless sensor networks pose numerous fundamental coordination problems. For example, in a number of application domains including homeland security, environmental monitoring, and surveillance for military operations, a network's ability to efficiently manage power consumption is extremely critical because direct user intervention after initial deployment is severely limited. In these settings, limited battery life gives rise to the basic coordination problem of maintaining coverage while maximizing the network's lifetime. In this paper, we propose a distributed scheme for efficient power management in sensor networks that is guaranteed to identify suboptimal topologies in an online fashion. Our scheme is based on a general (game-theoretic) mathematical structure that induces a natural mapping between the informational layer and the physical layer. We provide sufficient conditions for the convergence of the algorithm to a pure Nash equilibrium and characterize the performance of the algorithm in terms of coverage. We also present encouraging performance results on a MicaZ testbed as well as on large-scale topologies (obtained via simulation).
Institutional change, innovation and regulation failure: evidence from the Spanish drug market
Authors: Costa-Font Joan , Puig-Junoy Jaume
Published: November 2007

English

Scant evidence has been reported on the influence of institutional change in drug market regulation. This article draws on the evidence of Spanish drug regulation (1980-2005) with the aim of examining whether institutional (lack of) change affected (i) regulatory innovation and (ii) the propensity of regulatory failure (rent seeking). We find that the prevailing institutional design of Spanish drug regulation has been prone to regulatory failure as incentives were geared towards rent-seeking behaviour and inefficient drug use by older patients and doctors. Innovation was typically imported except for a government devolution which occasionally has prevented regulatory failure.
Administering economic reform: New Labour and the governance of social security
Authors: Wiggan Jay
Published: November 2007

English

This article argues that the introduction of new governance and performance frameworks for social security administration stems from Labour's adoption of an endogenous growth economic model. The institutional structure for administering employment and social security that Labour inherited in 1997 was not suitable to support its socioeconomic objectives. The creation of Jobcentre Plus and the Department for Work and Pensions and the reorientation of their performance objectives were the response. These were informed by the endogenous growth-inspired policies that (implicitly and explicitly) underpin Labour's claim to be pursuing a Third Way.
The ethics of welfare-to-work
Authors: Dean Hartley
Published: November 2007

English

This article explores the shifting ethical foundations of the welfare-to-work or ‘workfare’ state within the richer capitalist economies of the world. It provides a discussion of the historical context; a critical analysis of competing moral discourses and ethical concepts of responsibility; and, based on this, a heuristic taxonomy of different approaches to welfare-to-work. It concludes with a critique of the dominant approaches to welfareto- work, contending that they are at worst an affront to human rights and at best ethically ambiguous in that they fail to address people's need, as opposed to their responsibility, to work.
Questioning path dependence theory: the case of the British NHS
Authors: Ross Fiona
Published: November 2007

English

Over the past decade, path dependence theory has found widespread support among students of institutions and public policy. Yet, outside economics, remarkably few studies have investigated the most rigorous formulation of increasing returns, preferring theoretically looser configurations of path dependence. This article seeks to evaluate the applicability of increasing returns arguments to the British National Health Service, a case heralded as a defining example of path dependency. The development of health policy in Britain demonstrates that policy development is driven by a far more complex and endogenous set of forces than can be captured by a parsimonious model of returns.
Looking for anti-social behaviour
Authors: Millie Andrew
Published: November 2007

English

‘Anti-social behaviour’ (ASB) has become a high-profile concern in political and policy debate in the UK. For instance, according to Tony Blair (2003) it is ‘for many the number one item of concern right on their doorstep’. In this article evidence is presented that ASB is not a major concern for most people. Rather, concerns are concentrated in certain deprived and/or urban areas and in town and city centres. Within these areas it is also possible to overidentify or misidentify – albeit challenging – behaviour as ASB. What this means for understandings of ASB, and policies to deal with it, is considered.
The Nature of Needs Assessment in Post 16 Education
Authors: Packwood Tim
Published: November 2007

16–19 education is now a major policy issue. Because of its voluntary and specialised character and its importance in determining life chances, educational provision must be informed by some conception of the needs to be satisfied. Research undertaken into ways in which LEAs assess the needs of 16–19 year olds suggests that needs are assessed by a variety of mechanisms which reflect administrative processes and relationships and make an incremental contribution to planning. Needs assessment thereby reflects the nature of educational government, as well as the difficulties in operationalising the concept of need. This approach results in deficiencies and inequalities. The paper concludes by suggesting ways in which needs assessment might be improved within the limitations of the existing ideology.
Rites of Passage: education policy from the perspective of school leavers
Authors: Day Beryl
Published: November 2007

This article is based on a research project designed to examine the role of a local school in reproducing local (capitalist) social relations, especially in relation to assumptions about the world of work and notions of adulthood. The perspective is that of a group of school leavers at the point of transition. The leavers’ perceptions point to conflicts between their values and assumptions and those which historically and currently appear to underlie education policy. It is argued that these conflicts take on different forms in different localities, depending largely on the nature of the local labour market.
The Reform of British Local Government Finance: the limits of local accountability
Authors: Gibson J. G.
Published: November 2007

In Britain the government is proceeding with legislation to replace domestic rates by a poll tax payable by all adults, with non-domestic rates becoming an assigned revenue. Combined with the conversion of all central grants into fixed grants this ensures that local domestic taxpayers will pay the full marginal cost of extra spending in each local authority. This paper argues that the regressive nature of the poll tax means that local authorities will reduce the level of local taxation, which will be replaced by increased central grants. Changes in central grants will become the dominant determinant of changes in each local authority’s expenditure and, thus, the local accountability delivered by the new system will be extremely limited.
Government — Industry Relations in Britain: the regulation of the tobacco industry
Authors: Baggott Rob
Published: November 2007

In recent years, political scientists have taken a greater interest in the relationship between government and industry. This article examines the specific relationship between the government and the tobacco industry in a structured fashion, so as to facilitate comparisons with other industries. Three factors which have shaped this relationship are examined: the pressures on government to intervene in the affairs of the industry; the complexity of the machinery of intervention; and the government’s dependence on the industry’s co-operation. Finally it is argued that the tobacco industry is in many respects similar to other industries and that consequently several points made during this article may well have wider significance.
Local Authority Policy-Making on Equal Opportunities: Corporate provision, co-option and consultation
Authors: Ball Wendy
Published: November 2007

A substantial number of local authorities now possess policy documents and related provision addressed towards the promotion of equal opportunities in their employment practices and service delivery. This paper develops three inter-related themes as a framework for the analysis of the formulation and implementation of equal opportunities policies within local government: namely; corporate policy-making, co-option and consultation. These themes are then explored through a case study of one local authority which began to establish a corporate approach to policy making on equal opportunities in 1981.
Behind the Numbers: An examination of child care statistics
Authors: Sinclair Ruth
Published: November 2007

Are the variations in the proportion of children in the care of different local authorities due to different levels of social and economic need? Comparisons between the two measures, linked with the fall in the number of children in care during the 1980s, a time of economic depression, suggests that this relationship is only a partial explanation.

This paper examines changing trends in child care statistics and points to the importance of variations in resource provision and the child care policies and practices of individual social services departments in influencing the number of children received into or remaining in their care.
Housing Tax Expenditures in OECD Countries: economic impacts and prospects for reform
Authors: Wood Gavin A.
Published: November 2007

Housing taxation expenditures are an important source of housing subsidies in most OECD countries. In this paper, we identify the impacts which housing taxation expenditures can have on macroeconomic performance, allocative efficiency and equity. There is considerable concern about the adverse nature of many of these impacts. In view of this concern tenure neutral reform proposals are subjected to critical scrutiny and the reform measures recently introduced by OECD governments are explained and evaluated. We conclude that, in general, fundamental reform of tax subsidy mechanisms has yet to be initiated by OECD governments.
British Inner Urban Policy Post 1979: a critique
Authors: Lawless Paul
Published: November 2007

Urban experimentation in the 1960s gave way to more permanent urban policy heralded by The 1917 White Paper. Evaluation of inner city initiatives implemented by the Department of Employment and Department of the Environment post 1979 can be undertaken at three levels. First, ideological considerations notably concerning the role of the market and public sector intervention have impacted on urban policy with unforeseen and limiting results. Second, intermediate analyses pertaining to institutional constraints reveal inner city policy’s limited relationship to appropriate analysis and substantial problems of co-ordination and objective definition. The third level of analysis, that of policy implementation, substantiates the pragmatic, unimaginative and poorly monitored nature of urban intervention. An effective policy towards the older urban cores will require modifications at all three levels.
The Politics of Land into the 1990s: landowners, developers and farmers in lowland Britain
Authors: Barlow James
Published: November 2007

Since the early 1980s there has been a mounting debate over the future direction of the land use planning system. The government is also determined to tackle the extensive subsidies to the farming industry. This paper argues that the interaction of agricultural policy and land use policy is central to the way in which the planning system is likely to evolve over the next decade. The configuration of land politics will be shaped by these trends. The paper considers two possible scenarios for the 1990s. In the first, extensive deregulation of land use planning and a removal of agricultural subsidies is assumed and the changing balance of power between different groups with an interest in land is examined. In the second scenario, a more realistic picture is put forward, arguing that whatever government is in power in the 1990s it will be tempted to respond with a ‘pragmatic’ approach to planning.
The Finding of Wigan Pier?: a review article on the ESRC Inner Cities Research Programme
Authors: Stewart Murray
Published: November 2007

In 1982 the Economic and Social Research Council commissioned a major programme of research on the inner cities. Undertaken over the subsequent three years this programme was reported on through 1986 and 1987. This review article is built around the eight volumes published by the end of 1987 (details of which are given at the end of the article).
Discretionary Decision Making in the Housing Benefit Scheme: a case study
Authors: Loveland Ian
Published: November 2007

This paper describes and analyses the decision making processes adopted by a Labour controlled local authority in exercising certain discretionary powers under the housing benefit scheme. The paper draws on data collected during ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 1986. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between councillors and officers, and to the potentialities and limitations of administrative discretion as a means through which to achieve explicitly political ends.
Bringing Consumers into Performance Measurement: concepts, consequences and constraints
Authors: Pollitt Christopher
Published: November 2007

As the practice of formal measurement of the performance of public services spreads attempts are beginning to be made to combine this measurement with the even more recent fashion for a ‘consumer approach’. This paper argues that there are a range of sometimes incompatible ideas at play behind the popular label of ‘consumerism’. The consequences of combining performance measurement with a consumer approach will depend very much on which concept of the consumer is being invoked. In conclusion it is pointed out that, while current conceptions of the public service consumer are often stultifyingly apolitical and narrow, the bolder versions of consumerism also face apparently considerable but largely unexplored constraints.
In and Against the Market? The development of socialist economic strategies in Britain, 1981–1986
Authors: Cochrane Allan
Published: November 2007

The most coherent alternatives to the urban and economic policies of the post 1979 Conservative government did not come from the national opposition parties, but from a relatively small group of radical local authorities. This paper focuses on three of these — the GLC/GLEB, Sheffield and the West Midlands County Council/WMEB — to illustrate the range of alternatives developed and some of the difficulties and possibilities associated with them. The need to develop close relations with the private sector suggests both that the scope for radical intervention may be less than was sometimes hoped for, and that the hostility of central government (and more ‘moderate’ councils) towards these experiments has been misguided.
Rate Increases and Local Elections: a different approach and a different conclusion
Authors: Gibson J. G.
Published: November 2007

It is argued that the consensus view that rate increases do not have an important effect in local elections is based on studies which suffer from weaknesses in their empirical tests and theoretical framework. Using data on swings in votes in local elections in 1984, 1985, and 1986 it is found that rate increases are a statistically significant determinant of such swings. The results also support the inclusion of changes in the level of services as an explanatory variable in such studies. The results explain the observed apprehension of many councillors about the electoral consequences of rate increases.
‘Let the Mental Hospitals Close…’
Authors: Tomlinson Dylan
Published: November 2007

This paper considers theories of social policy implementation in the light of an empirical study of psychiatric hospital closure. Five ideal types of local state are hypothesised, ranged along a continuum of discretion. At one end of the continuum are those authorities whose policies and organisational structures are determined by the ‘centre’. At the other are those able to make discrete policies and to develop organisational structures to implement them.

It is argued that the degree to which authorities can achieve ‘closure’ objectives such as devolution of services, or integration of clients into communities, depends on their closeness of fit to particular ideal types. The implications of this theory for policy making are discussed.
Validity in Evaluation Research: a critical assessment of current issues
Authors: Chen Huey-Tsyh
Published: November 2007

This article reviews current major methods of ensuring validity in evaluation research. In reviewing rationales advanced for the primacy of the experimental paradigm, I argue that the use of randomized experiments in program evaluation may not be as powerful as its advocates claim. Furthermore, the rigidity of the randomized experimental design may emphasize internal validity at the expense of other types of validity. Especially important, I argue, is that evaluations based on experimental paradigms tend not to yield information useful to policy makers.

Various quasi-experiments have been considered inferior to randomized experiments in internal validity by Campbell and Stanley. However, due to later developments of sophisticated methods as ARIMA models and modelling selection bias, the gap between randomized experiments and quasi-experiments in dealing with internal validity has narrowed. Furthermore, quasi-experiments also have other advantages such as unobtrusiveness and greater applicability to the evaluation of human services programs.

Current approaches to validity tend to be a single-validity oriented approach; that is, they tend to achieve one type of validity at the expense of others. I propose a theory-driven approach that attempts to provide a more balanced view. The emphasis of this approach is to stress the incorporation of formal models or theory into program evaluation, thereby articulating clearly the identified potential threats to validity in a research. The theory-driven approach can and should deal with internal, external, construct, and statistical conclusion validity simultaneously.
Implementing a Pluralistic Approach to Evaluation in Health Education
Authors: Means Robin , Smith Randall
Published: November 2007

This article reflects upon why a pluralistic evaluation approach was adopted by the research team concerned with the evaluation of a regional alcohol education programme. The article describes why such an approach was adopted and then discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages that have been encountered. It is argued that such an approach enables an evaluation team to map and contextualise the differential accounts about progress and blockages which tend to be generated by such programmes.
Political Participation and School Closures: an investigation of bias in local authority decision making
Authors: Bondi Liz
Published: November 2007

The issue of middle-class bias in political participation is examined in the context of proposals to close primary schools in Manchester. Rates of participation show little variation between different social areas in the city. However, groups in relatively affluent areas enjoy slightly greater rates of success than others. More detailed analysis of a sample of protest groups highlights the significance of campaign style to group success. This, in turn, relates to the availability of resources necessary for effective campaigning, which are strongly associated with middle-class occupational status. The outcome of political participation is shown to favour those groups led by middle-class individuals, whether the schools concerned are located in socially disadvantaged or affluent areas.
The European Community Directive on Equal Treatment in Social Security
Authors: Hoskyns Catherine , Luckhaus Linda
Published: November 2007

The European Community Directiveon equal treatment in social security was adopted by the Council of Ministers in December 1978. This article focuses on three related issues: first, the objectives and characteristics of the Directive and whether these have been modified or clarified over time; secondly, the involvement of women in the adoption and application of the Directive and, conversely, the role of the Directive in mobilising women and encouraging their participation in Community affairs; and thirdly, the value of the Directive to women, in particular the extent to which it has furthered their group interests.