Imperfect competition,border protection and consumer boycott: The future of the dairy industry in Israel

Recent increases in prices of dairy products in Israel led to consumer unrest and boycotts against dairy producers during the summer of 2011. The Israeli dairy industry is highly distorted with production quotas and administered prices for raw milk, tariff rate quotas and an oligopoly in dairy processing. Since the issue of self-sufficiency and food security is at the top of Israel's national priorities, the future of the dairy industry is generating heated debate. Thus, we use a general equilibrium model to estimate the effects associated with particular alternative policies actually discussed to liberalize the Israeli dairy industry.     

The Emperor's new clothes: South Africa's attempted transition to developmental social welfare and social work

This article critically interrogates the depth and quality of change of post‐apartheid welfare policy and social work practice towards a social development paradigm against the background of inequality and poverty in South Africa. It asks several questions: what kind of welfare system has the current welfare dispensation created? How far has it moved from a residual, ameliorative system to an institutional developmental system, in keeping with the developmental welfare paradigm? To what extent can residual provisions be transformed into developmental processes? What conditions are necessary for this to happen? The answers to questions such as these provide the basis for assessing South Africa's new developmental processes. The article highlights the fundamental contradictions in social development policy imperatives, which call for a marriage of economic and social considerations, and the internal contradictions across and within various welfare policies. Further, it argues that the government does not have the political will to bear the costs of the substantive change that the move towards developmental social work requires, choosing instead limited, individually targeted and ameliorative measures, such as increased social security spending. Thus, it suggests that ideological critique, consciousness raising and participation in public policy debates remain crucial for those who seek long‐term solutions to inequality and poverty in South Africa.     

Produktrückgaben und Preise im Versandhandel: Ein internationaler Vergleich

E-Commerce sales have been constantly rising over the past years. Among the reasons for this trend are advantages such as reduced search costs and low transaction costs for the buyer. A disadvantage of online shopping is that customers cannot inspect the product they buy online. In Germany, customers are entitled to get full refund when withdrawing from any distance selling. Customers can withdraw from a contract within two weeks without any explanation. Many retailers in the USA do not refund the full price to the customer in case of product return and charge restocking fees. A reason for such a restrictive return policy is the reduction of opportunistic product returns. In this paper, the authors compare prices in online-shops for identical products in the USA and Germany. The comparison shows that the alleged consumer protection achieved by a legal prohibition of restocking fees leads to higher average prices for electronic products in Germany.     

Einflussfaktoren auf Fehlzeiten und Maßnahmen dagegen

Determining factors of absenteeism and strategies against it Due to its increasing costs, institiutional absenteeism has become a central problem of successfull management. Most researchers differentiate between illness related and motivation related absenteeism. This distinction is not very useful, because it does not reflect the multifactorial causes of absenteeism. Intra-individual factors, societal context, company culture, working conditions, work-related tasks, and the behaviour of superiors play a critical role in determining the frequency and duration of sick leaves. A set of strategies is described in order to develop more motivating working conditions and a staff oriented management style. A project comprising a set of individual and collective strategies to reduce absenteeism is delineated.