FISCAL ILLUSION AND THE GRANTOR GOVERNMENT IN CANADA

Recent work on the U.S. concludes that one or more illusions are responsible for the empirically observed "flypaper effect." Using annual Canadian data for the period 1962–84, we test the "single-illusion" and "dual-illusion" specifications currently in the literature. While the empirical results support the dual-illusion specification, it is not the unambiguous choice over single-illusion specifications as previously found. Further, the nature of the grant system in Canada raises questions about whether illusions or real factors produce the empirical results.     

Part-Time Workers in Welfare: Who Wins,Who Loses,and Why?

This paper reviews the literature on part-time employment and presents data from a survey of part-time social workers in Melbourne. Information on part-time employment by age and gender is presented and industrial issues relevant to part-time work are discussed. Data on demographic characteristics, working conditions and employer perception of advantages and disadvantages of part-time social work are presented from a postal survey of Melbourne health and social welfare agencies.     

Trade unions,corporatism, and inflation

This paper examines the argument that the exchange of powers and responsibilities between government and producer group interests (and, in particular, trade unions) under a bargained form of corporatism confers industrial relations benefits in the form of reduced strikes and economic benefits via lessened inflationary pressures. Focusing largely on the inflation question, an alternative argument is entered to the effect that corporatist experimentation threatens directly to exacerbate the problem in part correctly diagnosed by certain corporatist analysts in their discussion of the fundamental determinants of inflation. Empirical evidence with a bearing on these issues is evaluated. Helpful comments from Joe Reid Jr., Ken Mayhew, Stan Siebert, and the participants in the labor workshop at Hannover are gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimers attach.     

CHANGING PATTERNS OF SPATIAL DIFFERENTIATION IN URBAN CANADA, 1961–1971*

Les configurations de la différenciation spatiale en 1971 sont examinées à partir des données par secteurs de recensement et on trouve qu'elles sont assez proches de celles de 1961. Le niveau socioéconomique a varié principalement par secteur, la situation familiale a varié par zone, et le statut ethnique n'a varié ni par l'un ni par l'autre d'une manière marquante. Bien que les changements décennaux soient petits, nos résultats sont en opposition avec l'hypothèse évolutionniste de Schnore en ce qui concerne la différenciation socioéconomique. Dans la majorité des villes canadiennes, le statut des secteurs de recensement du centre ville s'est effectivement élevé et le statut des secteurs des faubourgs a baissé. La situation familiale devient plus différenciée par zone, ce qui soutient l'hypothèse évolutionniste. Le statut ethnique décrit seulement de faibles configurations par zone et par secteur pour les deux années étudiées.
Using census tract data, patterns of spatial differentiation in 1971 are examined and found to be fairly close to those that existed in 1961. Spatial patterning of socioeconomic status was dominantly sectoral, family status was zonal, and ethnic status not markedly one orthe other. Though the changes during the decade are small, our findings run contrary to the evolutionary hypothesis of Schnore with regard to socioeconomic differentiation. The majority of Canadian cities actually increased in the status of inner-city census tracts and decreased in the status of outlying, suburban tracts. Family status is becoming more zonally differentiated, which is supportive of the evolutionary hypothesis. Ethnic status describes only rather weak zonal and sectoral patterns in either year.     

The benefits of a nap during prolonged work and wakefulness

Prolonged work scenarios with demands for sustained performance are increasingly common. Because sleep loss inevitably compromises functioning in such situations, napping has been proposed as a countermeasure. The optimal timing of the nap relative to its benefits for performance and mood is not known, however. To address this issue, 41 healthy adults were permitted a two-hour nap at one of five times during a 56-hour period of intermittent work, with no other sleep. Naps were placed 12 hours apart, near the circadian peak (P) or trough (T), and were preceded by 6(P), 18(T), 30(P), 42(T), or 54(P) hours of wakefulness. Work test bouts occurred every few hours and consisted of a variety of psychomotor and cognitive tasks as well as mood scales completed at the beginning, middle and end of each bout. A total of eight performance and 24 mood parameters were derived from the bouts and compared between groups at all test points prior to and following the naps. An estimate of the extent to which each nap condition differed from the control (P54) condition was derived by totalling the proportion of test points that yielded statistically significant results relative to the total number of tests conducted both before and after naps.

Although all performance and most mood parameters displayed a circadian-modulated deterioration as the protocol progressed, a nap appeared to attentuate the extent of this change in all performance parameters but not in mood parameters. Overall, the timing of the nap across days and within the circadian cycle was irrelevant to its effect on performance, suggesting that it diminished the intrusion of sleepiness into behavioural functioning, even though subjects were phenomenally unaware of this benefit.     

Econometric analysis and managerial decision making

Econometric analysis is concerned with the quantitative relationships between economic variables and it can provide an important input into the decision making process of managers. Typically econometrics differs from other apsects of management science in that it considers problems primarily, though not exclusively, from a background of economics rather than of other disciplines and behaviour is usually dealt with at higher levels of data aggregation than the individual firm.This paper considers some applications of typical econometrics to the general area of managerial decision making, where primarily the techniques have a role to play in assisting the general process of data analysis. Initially discussion is pointed towards the use of the analysis for predictive purposes and the contrast with time series methods. Subsequently examples are presented where the objective is to obtain a better understanding of individual economic relationships that aim to be important inputs into the decision making process, for example cost and revenue analysis. Finally, an example is given of how these ideas contribute more generally to the activity of model building for the firm as a whole both for the purpose of forecasting and policy simulation.