REGULATORY COMMISSION BEHAVIOR: MYOPIC VERSUS FORWARD LOOKING

The regulatory environment is assumed to be characterized by changing labor costs and productivity, and by the existence of set-up costs for rate reviews. If the commission behaves myopically, price changes are shown to occur only when a threshold deviation of actual from target return is reached. During periods where productivity (wage) increases predominate, the actual return is thus consistently higher (lower) than the target level. If, however, the commission incorporates dynamic trends into its decision-making process, there are intervals where actual return both exceeds and falls short of target levels; on average, the firm earns over time a return that is approximately equal to the target level.     

A study of expediting practices in manufacturing firms

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an empirical investigation of one of the most common yet least optimized production management practices—expediting. The intention of this study was to generate quantitative insight into issues that underlie expediting decision making, such as the relative frequency of various causes of expediting, commonly used expediting strategies and tactics, and the interaction of expediting and the production scheduling environment in use. The study centered around a survey sent to 1768 manufacturing staff personnel, with 182 usable questionnaires returned. It is hoped that the data and conclusions presented in this paper will be of use to production management researchers who are interested in expediting as a managerial decision.     

Inflated States and Empty Theories in Social Work

Summary The recommended knowledge base of social work is seen to bewide-ranging on the one hand, and subject to divides and tensionson the other. This state of affairs is reviewed briefly. Anargument is then developed which maintains that only certaintypes of activity within the considerable range often identifiedas social work, offer a clear suggestion that the job whichis being described is that of social work. These various activitiesand practices appeal to different kinds of theory and knowledge.As the knowledge base and practical possibilities of the jobhave become increasingly elaborate and extensive, an argumentwhich recommends that social workers recover a simplier notionof what they are about also entails the idea that social workis a job which is seen to have necessary and definite limitsto its practice and theory.     

Placing Children on Child Protection Registers: Risk Indicators and Local Authority Differences

Correspondence to Dr David Gordon, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN, UK. Summary Wide variation in rates of children on protection registersin different authorities has led to doubts about the reliabilityof local decision making. A study of 1,752 referrals, for suspectedabuse or neglect in eight English local authorities, found thatindicators of child and family vulnerability were more importantthan local area in explaining selection for initial child protectionconference and placement on registers. There appeared to beagreement on ‘common-sense’ risk indicators butstronger measurements of risk would enable child protectionprocedures to be better targeted.     

The case for the Unified Family Court

SUMMAR. Arguments for a court dealing extensively with family matters have been gaining ground in many countries. Some judicial systems have advanced more than others and in this article the background and development of a Unified Family Court in Hamilton, Ontario are described. The author argues strongly for an extension of this approach as a means of providing speedy and sensitive justice to children and families in dispute.     

WORK‐RELATED ACCIDENTS AND THE LEVEL OF MARKET COMPETITION: AN ANALYSIS OF WORKER INJURY RATES AT U.S. STEEL CORPORATION, 1907–1939

We investigate the relationship between accident rates and industry structure for the United States’ steel industry during the first four decades of the 20th century. We develop a dominant firm theoretical model linking accident rates to number of competitors, showing a positive correlation between accident avoidance and the number of fringe competitors. We then test this theory empirically and, when controlling for other influences, find that reductions in the dominant firm’s market share reduce worker injury rates substantially. (JEL L13, L61, N62, N82)