Search results

The purpose of this paper is to trace the origin and development of the increased use of the voluntary sector in the delivery of public services in the UK and to identify both the threats and opportunities that this policy poses.

The paper uses government documents to examine policies and models for change. This is located within a discussion of the literature around the developing role of the voluntary sector in public service provision against the backdrop of wider neo‐liberal public sector reform.

New Labour laid the basis for a major expansion in the use of the voluntary sector in public service provision as part of its public service reform programme. It did so with a range of sometimes contradictory justifications. The policy is now being extended by the new coalition government.

The process of change outlined in the paper is continuing, so it is not possible to make conclusive statements regarding its impact. Further research will be required to monitor the effects.

Alerting the voluntary sector organisations to the potential problems of large‐scale involvement in public service provision may assist them in retaining their independence and effectiveness.

The paper contributes to a necessary (and overdue) assessment of the impact of the changed role of the voluntary sector in public service provision on the sector itself, the services provided and the surrounding framework of accountability.

In this article a generalisation of the Cournot oligopoly model is discussed, and it is shown that seemingly myopic conjectural behaviour is in fact in the (combined) interests of the market participants.

Looks at the 2000 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference held at the University of Cardiff in Wales on 6/7 September 2000. Spotlights the 76 or so presentations within and shows that these are in many, differing, areas across management research from: retail finance; precarious jobs and decisions; methodological lessons from feminism; call centre experience and disability discrimination. These and all points east and west are covered and laid out in a simple, abstract style, including, where applicable, references, endnotes and bibliography in an easy‐to‐follow manner. Summarizes each paper and also gives conclusions where needed, in a comfortable modern format.

This study aims to render a fundamental assessment of the Basel II internal ratings-based (IRB) approach by taking readings of the Australian banking sector since the implementation of Basel II and comparing them with signals from macroeconomic indicators, financial statistics and external credit ratings. The IRB approach to capital adequacy for credit risk, which implements an asymptotic single risk factor (ASRF) model, plays an important role in protecting the Australian banking sector against insolvency.

Realisations of the single systematic risk factor, interpreted as describing the prevailing state of the Australian economy, are recovered from the ASRF model and compared with macroeconomic indicators. Similarly, estimates of distance-to-default, reflecting the capacity of the Australian banking sector to absorb credit losses, are recovered from the ASRF model and compared with financial statistics and external credit ratings. With the implementation of Basel II preceding the time when the effect of the financial crisis of 2007-2009 was most acutely felt, the authors measure the impact of the crisis on the Australian banking sector.

Measurements from the ASRF model find general agreement with signals from macroeconomic indicators, financial statistics and external credit ratings. This leads to a favourable assessment of the ASRF model for the purposes of capital allocation, performance attribution and risk monitoring. The empirical analysis used in this paper reveals that the recent crisis imparted a mild stress on the Australian banking sector.

Given the range of economic conditions, from mild contraction to moderate expansion, experienced in Australia since the implementation of Basel II, the authors cannot attest to the validity of the model specification of the IRB approach for its intended purpose of solvency assessment.

Access to internal bank data collected by the prudential regulator distinguishes this paper from other empirical studies on the IRB approach and financial crisis of 2007-2009. The authors are not the first to attempt to measure the effects of the recent crisis, but they believe that they are the first to do so using regulatory data.