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In a recent paper in this Journal, Z.A. Spindler has proposed a determinate solution for bilateral monopoly, taking issue with the conclusion of many microeconomics textbooks that both the equilibrium price and the equilibrium quantity are theoretically indeterminate. His analysis relates to what may be termed ‘pure’ bilateral monopoly — in which there is literally only one seller and only one buyer. In practice, however, bilateral monopoly situations frequently are characterised by the existence of some sort of cartel arrangement on one side or the other, if not on both. The purpose of this paper is to consider the circumstances under which Spindler's determinate solution applies to these more general formsof bilateral monopoly.

This article investigates whether selected features of the Canada Assistance Plan and various economic, demographic, and political factors have had any significant effect on the social assistance participation rates in Canadian provinces. The first section reviews the background to the cuirent social assistance programme in Canada and draws attention to some questions of major interest. The second section describes a reduced form model that was used for ordinary least squares estimation with pooled cross‐section, time‐series data drawn from post‐Plan experience (i.e., 1968–75). The third section presents the results of that estimation while the fourth section presents an analysis of them. The fifth and final section tentatively concludes that “Plan variables” were of less importance than “Non‐Plan variables” in determining provincial social assistance participation rates.

This paper analyses the general equilibrium and disequilibrium effects of fiscal policy when fiscal instruments have direct impacts on both aggregate supply and demand. A model is specified which incorporates the direct impacts of expenditure and tax instruments on the behavioural function for individuals and firms and which explicitly recognises the role of public production and supply. In contrast to simple Keynesian and neoclassical models, this model involves direct supply‐side crowding out and budget composition effects that operate on both aggregate demand and supply. It also reveals the relative efficiency of various “balanced instruments” under Keynesian and neoclassical conditions.

Many modern microeconomic theory textbooks similarly conclude that the bilateral monopoly equilibrium price and quantity are theoretically indeterminate given the usual assumptions of the theory of the firm; they usually state that additional assumptions about bargaining power or firm behaviour are required for a determinate solution. The past literature on bilateral monopoly generally supports the textbook position with respect to price but not with respect to quantity. For example, von Stackelberg (1952, 182–9) and Fellner (1947, 523–8) argued that quantity is determinate at the joint profit maximizing level for bilateral monopoly between profit maximizing firms which employ “all or none” offers; price, however, must still be determined by relative bargaining power which is unspecified.

The literature has documented evidence that economic freedom is positively associated with economic growth, investment spending, income equality, employment, gender equality, etc. Economic freedom is also found to be associated with a country’s rule of law and legal regime. There is, however, little studies examining how economic freedom affects a firm’s performance such as firm valuation and profitability. The evidence presented in this study shows that economic freedom strengthens a firm’s valuation and profitability. Additionally, firms headquartered in emerging markets or younger firms from countries with higher levels of economic freedom experience higher valuation and profitability. That is, economic freedom is more beneficial for firms from emerging markets and is crucial to the success of early-stage firms.

This paper seeks to explain various aspects of labour market activity under oligopsonistic conditions by means of a kinked labour supply curve, the development of which appears to have been neglected in the literature. The ideas for this approach arose out of an ongoing empirical study of a large local labour market during which it became apparent that an extension of the case stated by Bronfenbrenner (1940) could be used to account for a wide range of observed behaviour. It is apparent that dominant employers can dictate conditions in the market even in situations where their concentration of employment is as low as 15–30% of total employment, and at this level one would expect the incidence and effect of oligopsony to be significant within the economy as a whole. Major labour market studies in the U.K. (MacKay et al 1971) and the U.S.A. (Rees and Shultz, 1970) have tended to ignore the consequences of employer interdependence, basically because they were centred on large conurbations. This is an area that may fruitfully be more extensively explored.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

Reports intensive country studies conducted for a sample of ten countries – five historically socially planned and five predominantly market economies – for comparative analyses of socioeconomic‐political characteristics prior to privatization. Purpose was to discern if there were any common factors descriptive of capitalist and/or socialist countries prior to privatization. Constructs from a common set of factors descriptive of all the economies in the sample prior to initiation of privatization, a general model of preconditions for privatization. Results of limited testing appeared to lend credence to the model.

The predominant method by which workers in a business organization get compensated for their labour is that they earn a wage which has been guaranteed to them through an employment contract. By contrast, the earnings of the company (the firm, the owner) remains risky, since they earn the residual after making all the contractual payments to the different factors of production. The residual is a random variable because of production and market uncertainty, and the firm absorbs this risk while insuring the income risk of the workers. A modification of this payment scheme occurs when the earnings of the workers are made contingent upon either their productivity, or the profit of the company. A prominent example is the piece‐rate payment system in which the earnings of a labourer are directly related to the amount of output he or she produces. Profit sharing is another example of variable wage; in this system the workers are paid a share of the firm's profit.

The paper aims to determine if a country's Economic Freedom Index value has any relationship to the return of the related country specific exchange traded fund.

A total of 36 country specific exchange traded funds were selected for use in this study. The historical returns for 2011, the three‐year period ending in 2011, and the five‐year period ending in 2011 were recorded if available for each exchange traded fund. Each exchange traded fund (ETF) was placed into one of four groups based upon its country's overall Economic Freedom Index value. The range of Economic Index values for each group was the same ones used by the publishers of the Economic Freedom Index. The mean ETF return and standard deviation for 2011, three‐year, and five‐year periods were calculated for each of the four groups. The mean/standard deviation of the Economic Freedom Index and each of its components for 2011, the mean of the three‐year period, and the mean of the five‐year period were calculated for each of the four groups. The degree of statistical significance between the mean returns of the four groups was determined by using ANOVA. The correlation coefficients and the degree of statistical significance were calculated between each component of the index, between each component and the overall index value, and between the overall index value and the ETF returns.

The correlations between the components of the Economic Freedom Index generally tend to be positive and statistically significant. The correlations between the components of the Economic Freedom Index and the Economic Freedom Index tend to be positive and statistically significant. The correlation between the mean ETF returns of the various groups and the value of the mean Economic Freedom Index tends to be mixed. There appears to be no statistical significance of the difference between the mean ETF returns of each group and the mean overall score of the Economic Freedom Index for that group. For the year 2011 the level of significance was 0.103, for the three‐year period the level of significance was 0.541, and for the five‐year period the level of significance was 0.132. The differences within each group are more than the differences between the groups. The value of the Economic Freedom Index does not appear to correlate with the return of the country specific exchange traded fund.

The paper relates a country's environment for conducting business as represented by its Economic Freedom Index to the equity returns of firms in that country. The results of this study would be of interest to those individuals or institutions making investment decisions regarding country specific exchange traded funds. If a positive correlation exists between the index value and the return of the exchange traded fund, this information could improve the prediction of country specific exchange traded fund returns.