Please select from the titles below:
- A Classroom Guide to the Equilibrium Exchange Rate Model
- Rules, Discretion and Financial Crises in Classical and Neoclassical Monetary Economics
- Assessing the Determinants of Male Earnings Dispersion
- The Efficiency and Productivity Implications of Corporate Layoffs
- Productivity Growth and Capacity Utilization in the Australian Gold Mining Industry: A Short-Run Cost Analysis
- Currency Stabilisation in the 1920s: Success or Failure?
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A Classroom Guide to the Equilibrium Exchange Rate Model (p.1)
by S Da Silva The article presents a classroom-suited version of the equilibrium exchange rate model of Stockman (1987) that features Cobb-Douglas functional forms for both production and utility, and considers foreign exchange intervention explicitly.
Rules, Discretion and Financial Crises in Classical and Neoclassical Monetary Economics (p.11)
by D E W Laidler
This paper traces the evolution of debate about the question of Rules versus Discretion in monetary policy from about 1800 until the mid 1930s. Particular attention is paid to long-versus-short-run issues, notably with respect to the 1844 Bank Charter Act, and the Bagehot Principle, as well as to the effects of developments in the theory of value, the cycle and index numbers on economists’ perception on the scope of monetary policy. A brief discussion of post-World-War-2 developments links this material to present day concerns and common themes are noted.
Assessing the Determinants of Male Earnings Dispersion (p.35)
by K TaylorThis paper considers male earnings dispersion in the United Kingdom in four industries from 1973 to 1995. The analysis takes place in two stages. Firstly, earnings dispersion over time is split into two components: between-group earnings dispersion due to differing worker characteristics across the population; and within-group earnings dispersion, that is any remaining earnings dispersion after controlling for measurable worker characteristics. Secondly, that part of earnings dispersion which cannot be explained by observable worker characteristics is examined by industry using time series techniques to assess the impact of technological change; globalisation; female participation; immigration; and institutional changes upon remaining dispersion.
The Efficiency and Productivity Implications of Corporate Layoffs
(p.59)
by M Raj and M ForsythThis paper examines the impact of corporate layoffs on firm efficiency levels. The methodology used provides fresh insights into the effects of layoffs on firm and labour-force performance. This paper uses a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to provide a benchmark measure for the operating efficiency of restructured companies that have reduced staff numbers and also companies that have found it necessary to downsize due to declining demand for its product. We apply this linear programming technique to both pre- and post-layoff periods. The findings indicate the sample of companies that restructure and incorporate layoffs as part of the process find an increase in efficiency while the opposite is found for firms that find it necessary to cut staff due to declining performance. The study also examines the relation between layoffs and shareholder wealth. The findings show that layoffs attributed to declining demand are related with poor stock market performance in the long-term post-layoff period. The evidence also suggests that firms involved in reorganisation, and subsequently layoffs, perform strongly and are viewed positively by the market over the 2-year post-layoff period.
Productivity Growth and Capacity Utilization in the Australian Gold Mining Industry: A Short-Run Cost Analysis
(p.71)
by B Shebeb This paper uses a stochastic short-run translog cost function to estimate productivity growth, adjusted for capacity utilisation effects, in the Australian gold mining industry over the time period 1968/69-1994/95. Productivity growth is measured and adjusted for the changes in capacity utilisation. It is found that a large portion of the cost-measure (observed) productivity growth may be attributed to technological change. Changes in capacity utilisation are found to have insignificant impacts on productivity growth in the Australian gold mining industry. Biases from technological change and capacity utilisation are also analysed. Technological change is found to be labour-saving and energy and intermediate inputs-using, but neutrality of capacity utilization cannot be rejected.
Currency Stabilisation in the 1920s: Success or Failure?
(p.83)
by D H Aldcroft The currency stabilisation process of the 1920s - going back to gold - has been much maligned by scholars past and present. That it had defects and eventually collapsed in the 1930s should not obscure our view of the motives for the return. Given the chaotic currency and financial situation following the First World War, it was inevitable that stabilisation would involve some form of fixed exchange rate system. The new gold standard was by no means perfect but in the conditions obtaining at the time it is very likely that this would have been true of any form of fixed exchange rate system. However, for most countries and, for the global economy, stabilisation appears to have been economically beneficial.
Page last modified on 16 September 2002