THE RELATION BETWEEN NARRATIVE AND MONEY MARKET INDICATORS OF MONETARY POLICY

This paper studies the relation between narrative-based indicators of monetary policy and widely used money market indicators of monetary policy. Three principal findings emerge. First, changes in monetary policy, as measured by the narrative-based policy indices, are associated with persistent changes in the levels of M2 and the monetary base. In contrast, changes in the narrative policy indicators lead to transitory changes in short-term interest rates, nonborrowed reserves, and the spread between the six-month commercial paper rate and the three-month treasury bill rate. Third, these findings are generally robust across different narrative-based policy indices.     

Labour market segmentation and social mobility in a Canadian single-industry community*

Ceci est une analyse des occasions de mobilité professionnelle dans une communauté canadienne de développement de ressources à travers l'étude du statut de réalisation d'un groupe de résidents masculins de Fort McMurray en Alberta en 1979. Bien que la main d'oeuvre de cette ville, ayant une seule industrie, semble n'avoir subi qu'une mobilité légèrement plus élevée que la main d'oeuvre canadienne en général, d'importants changements socio-économiques de statut ont souvent accompagné le déplacement dans la communauté. Cette migration a impliqué une mobilité importante allant des compagnies du secteur périphérique aux compagnies du secteur central. Par ailleurs, ceux qui ont travaillé pour les compagnies du secteur central (pétrole) ont vécu une expérience de mobilité différente de celle vécue par les employés des firmes du secteur périphéral. The occupational mobility opportunities in a Canadian resource development community were analyzed by examining the status attainment of a 1979 sample of male residents of Fort McMurray, Alberta. While the labour force of this single-industry town appears to have experienced only marginally greater mobility than the Canadian labour force as a whole, frequent and large socioeconomic status changes accompanied the move to the community. This migration involved substantial mobility from periphery into core sector firms. Furthermore, there were differences in the mobility experience of those employed in the core sector (oil) and those working in the peripheral sector firms.     

Social resistance and the exploited poor in the low-income marketplace: The case of debt collection in two Montreal communities*

Ce texte traite des mesures de résistance courantes chez les consommateurs à faible revenu. Les résultats font croire que les débiteurs se trouvent souvent en conflit ouvert et actif vis-à-vis les représentants des entreprises de consommation. Les regrets, la réserve, l'adaptation - ce ne sont là qu'un certain genre de réaction de la part de quelques-uns. L'évidence recueillie au cours d'interviews avec des membres de regroupements de citoyens et de consommateurs à faible revenu, suggère fortement que des réactions très différentes, telles que le refus de se laisser dominer, le déjouement des plans des grosses compagnies, la contestation, la lutte politique, etc., sont les méthodes courantes de résistance envers les agences de recouvrement. Une typologie de résistance créancière a été développée et les implications plus vastes du malaise social dans les communautés à faible revenu sont analysées.
This paper is concerned with the debt resistance practices of low-income consumers. The findings suggest that debtors are often in active and antagonistic relationships with consumer control agents. Self-blame, withdrawal, and adaptation are some of the responses of the morally defeated. But evidence from citizen's groups and low-income consumers interviewed strongly suggest that refusing, upstaging, outmanoeuvering, subverting, striking back, and political struggle are common methods of resisting debt enforcement. A typology of debt resistance is developed, and the wider implications for social unrest in low-income communities are assessed.     

EXPORT INSTABILITY AND LONG-TERM CAPITAL FLOWS: RESPONSE TO ASSET RISK IN A SMALL ECONOMY

An open capital account allows long-term capital flows to automatically mitigate adverse effects of export instability on domestic saving and investment. An application of portfolio management theory shows that risks that are systematic to the domestic market are diversified internationally. This may help explain why foreign investment finances many high-risk investments in export sectors of LDCs and why results of studies of the effects of export instability show inconsistent results. This theory is presented and tested empirically.     

Three paradigms of childhood

Le conflit social contemporain au sujet des relations parents-enfants, et spécialement en ce qui concerne la sexualité de l'enfant, est analysé ici à l'aide de trois paradigmes théoriques sur la construction sociale de l'enfance: a/ les enfants en tant que propriété, une définition sociale trouvant son origine dans la société pré-industrielle; b/ la protection des enfants, légitimée par l'industrialisation; et c/ l'enfant en tant que personne, une conception défendue par de récents mouvements de libération. Des exemples pour chaque paradigme sont tirés de sources canadiennes contemporaines. L'intensité actuelle de la révolution paradigmatiqué est expliquée sous l'image d'un noeud de tabous étreignant la construction sociale de la sexualité aussi bien que du pouvoir.
Contemporary social conflict over parent-child relationships, especially concerning child sexuality, is analysed using three theoretical paradigms of social construction of childhood: a/ children as property, a social definition originating in pre-industrial society; b/ protection of children, legitimated by industrialism; and c/ the child as person, advocated by recent liberation movements. Examples of each paradigm are drawn from contemporary Canadian sources. The current intensity of 'paradigmatic revolution' is explained in terms of a nexus of taboos surrounding social construction of both sexuality and power.     

CYBERNETICS AND MACROECONOMICS

A full estimate of the effects of cybernetics and control systems engineering on economics would be premature if not impossible at this time. The relevant literature is at most twenty-five years old and its ultimate impact remains uncertain; thus conclusions are at best tentative. However, one can identify sources of inspiration and main participants as well as apparent trends. Axel Leijonhufvud has referred to the introduction of control engineering into aggregate analysis by Tustin, Phillips, and others in the 1950s as “the Keynesian Revolution which did not come off.” One purpose of this paper is to explore Leijonhufvud's observation. What stopped monetary and macroeconomic theorists from picking up the Tustin-Phillips lead and making the control-theoretic approach an integral part of economic analysis? Historians of economics writing a few decades from now may be able to provide a proper answer. But a few speculations can be offered now.