Showing papers in "International Journal of Social Economics in 1975"
TL;DR: The tourist may yet prove the unwitting agent for development as mentioned in this paper, if these reservations are accorded proper attention, and if the costbenefit construct is not adjusted to take account of these further factors, tourism in emergent Africa may end up by the way it is going in the Caribbean and several other parts of the Third World: a source of economic, cultural, social and ultimately political friction.
Abstract: Tourism is sometimes described as a worthwhile activity for a developing economy. Among countries of emergent Africa, for example, Kenya derives a significant portion of its national economic advancement from tourism. But cogent socio‐economic arguments modify the general proposition for Kenya, as for several other developing countries. If these reservations are accorded proper attention, the tourist may yet prove the unwitting agent for development. If, however, the cost‐benefit construct is not adjusted to take account of these further factors, tourism in emergent Africa may end up by the way it is going in the Caribbean and several other parts of the Third World: a source of economic, cultural, social and ultimately political friction.
17 citations
TL;DR: In fact, one of the most influential factors in the establishment of social welfare policies is the presumed effect of such policies on incentives to work as mentioned in this paper, which guarantees that recipients of grants or social insurance payments will not receive as much income from such programmes as they could receive from working.
Abstract: In most Western, industrialised countries the relationship between work and welfare is close, but asymmetric. The effect of employment policy on welfare recipients or welfare systems is usually a minor consideration when determining the former; whereas the effect which welfare policies are expected to have on work patterns is often the controlling consideration when welfare rates and conditions are decided. In fact, one of the most influential factors in the establishment of social welfare policies is the presumed effect of such policies on incentives to work. Almost all social welfare programmes throughout the world have written into them a “wage stop” which guarantees that recipients of grants—sometimes even of social insurance payments—will not receive as much income from such programmes as they could receive from working. So pervasive and deep is this fear of a work disincentive that even those who cannot work, such as the aged, the handicapped, and children; and those whom public policy says should not be required to work, like the mothers of infants, are usually limited as to the amount which they can receive from welfare payments, regardless of need, to somewhat less than the amount which they would receive if they were able to work. In Israel, for example, social welfare grants are fixed at 40% of the average wage; in France, old age pensions will rise by 1975 from even lower rates to 25% of the annual wage at age 60, and 50% at age 65 [International Labour Review, 1972], whereas unemployment insurance benefit, which was 35–40% until 1974, rose to only 70% of the average annual wage [Oechslin, 1972]. In the United States, “… In 1968, the average weekly unemployment insurance benefit was about one‐third of the weekly wage in employment that was covered under the programme” [Handler, 1972]. By thus making it impossible for many persons to acquire through welfare what they theoretically could (but actually could not) acquire from work, the fear of work disincentives, operating through the wage stop, is one of the factors guaranteeing the existence and continuation of poverty.
10 citations
TL;DR: In 1970, the number of places available at Government Training Centres (GTCs) increased by over 400 per cent, so that by 1971 there were 52 centres with 11,000 places capable of retraining about 20,000 persons annually as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Between 1963 and 1971 the number of places available at Government Training Centres (GTCs) increased by over 400 per cent, so that by 1971 there were 52 centres with 11,000 places capable of retraining about 20,000 persons annually. Early in 1972 the Conservative Government announced plans for a further large expansion in the manpower training and retraining programme. The long term aim of that government was to provide retraining opportunities for about 100,000 annually, but as an interim measure it hoped to provide such opportunities for 60–70,000 people by 1975. The government intended that about half of these opportunities—i.e. 30,000—would be catered for by the GTCs, of which there would be 64 by 1975, with a total of 17,000 training places.
8 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the causes of the housing market manifestations of the problems of urban blight or congestion from the economic point of view and suggest an approach to the formulation of policy which will achieve an economically efficient distribution of housing resources.
Abstract: Of the many problems which confront urban policy makers and planners at the present time, that of housing the lower income groups is one of the most general and the most pressing. The term “lower income groups” is used advisedly and not merely as a euphemism for “the poor” who live in “slums”. Housing quality covers a wide spectrum from the most luxurious to the most spartan and while on the whole it is closely related to the current income of the household, the association is not perfect. The level of income is of vital importance in achieving a given level of quality but the contraction of incomes towards the end of the lifespan of a household is not necessarily associated with a lowering of housing quality. Equally, the slum is a multi‐dimensional concept which though easy to recognise is difficult to define. Not all housing occupied by low paid workers are slums and not all slum‐dwellers are poor. The term “slum” often denotes a type of neighbourhood in which flourishes a sub‐culture containing its own socio‐economic stratification. The solution of low income housing problems is obviously closely bound up with the question of slums but neither begins nor ends with it. The purpose of this paper is to examine the causes of the housing market manifestations of the problems of urban blight or congestion from the economic point of view (i.e. to consider the operation of the market mechanism in allocating resources) and to suggest an approach to the formulation of policy which will achieve an economically efficient distribution of housing resources.
4 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined progress toward equal pay on the basis of recent statistics covering basic wage rates and earnings in a wide range of industries and occupations in Britain and considered implications of further proposals to raise the status of women through measures intended to make it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of sex in a broad range of activities and situations, including employment.
Abstract: Equal pay legislation has been on the statute book since May 1970 in the form of the Equal Pay Act, due to be fully effective at the end of 1975. In an earlier article the authors discussed problems to be expected in implementing the Equal Pay Act with particular reference to retail distribution. The present article first examines progress toward equal pay on the basis of recent statistics covering basic wage rates and earnings in a wide range of industries and occupations in Britain. Secondly it considers implications of further proposals to raise the status of women through measures intended “to make it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of sex … in a wide range of activities and situations”, including employment. Finally, in the light of procedures and machinery designed for the enforcement of anti‐discrimination laws, it questions whether the two objectives of equal pay and equal opportunity for women are entirely consistent.
4 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the problems faced by youth in the development process and the role of youth in solving these problems, emphasizing that today's youth will be tomorrow's participants in the economic development process, and therefore, they must be counted on to solve these problems.
Abstract: Economic studies that attempt to explain or describe the process of economic development in Latin America often overlook the participation of youth. Such studies generally address themselves to such problems as capital formation, investments in natural and human resources, foreign trade, population, and agriculture. Problems faced by the youth within the development process are usually oversimplified or treated as insignificant. For example, the works of Higgins, Kindleberger, Lewis, and Myrdal cover a vast number of economic development topics. But Myrdal's work is the only one that even lightly dwells on the problems faced by youth in the development process. Yet it is today's youth who will be tomorrow's participants in the development process and it is today's youth who must be counted on to solve the existing problems experienced in the development process—shortage of savings, shortage of educational and social services, housing shortages, and all the other problems inherent in a developing country.
2 citations
TL;DR: We are in a difficult situation as discussed by the authors where rampant and perhaps calamitous pollution and other forms of environmental disruption; dwindling resources; a hardship inflation coupled with persistently high unemployment; distrust of public and private institutions; and crime, poverty, malnutrition, anxiety, discontent, alienation, and despair in an unprecedented convergence.
Abstract: We are in a difficult situation. We confront rampant and perhaps calamitous pollution and other forms of environmental disruption; dwindling resources; a hardship inflation coupled with persistently high unemployment; distrust of public and private institutions; and crime, poverty, malnutrition, anxiety, discontent, alienation, and despair in an unprecedented convergence. The old solutions do not work very well, and no one, including the experts, appears to know what to do about it. There is the distinct feeling that nothing quite like this has ever happened before, seemingly ushered in by relative peace and absolute prosperity, and that the forces at work under these conditions are not well enough understood to enable us to manage them.
2 citations
TL;DR: This article reviewed and described the post-war changes in the distribution of pre-tax income in the United Kingdom and found that inequality decreased before and soon after World War II, but that the trend towards greater equality did not continue during the 1960s.
Abstract: In the long and endless debate on changes in the distribution of income, agreement appears to have been reached on the view that inequality decreased before and soon after World War II, but that the trend towards greater equality did not continue during the 1960s. While perhaps this inference can be supported by the income size data we have, it is worth looking more closely at the evidence which can be derived from existing statistics on income distribution. The object of this article is to review and describe the post‐war changes in the distribution of pre‐tax income in the United Kingdom. As I will show, there is room for different conclusions. However, if it is with the worse off that we should be concerned, no support comes from the data for the thesis that income inequality decreased in the 1950s but not in the 1960s. Rather, the opposite appears to be true.
1 citations
TL;DR: The importance of formal results lies ultimately in their relevance to normal communication and to the things that people argue about and fight for as mentioned in this paper, and the importance of the formal result lies in the relevance of the results.
Abstract: “The importance of the formal results lies ultimately in their relevance to normal communication and to the things that people argue about andfight for”.
1 citations
TL;DR: The underlying rationale, the mechanisms and the output format of a computerised management information system (hereafter referred to as the MIS) designed for social service agencies are presented.
Abstract: This paper presents the underlying rationale, the mechanisms and the output format of a computerised management information system (hereafter referred to as the MIS) designed for social service agencies. The MIS has been used as the basis of a graduate course in information systems offered for the past two years at the Paul Baerwald School Work, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
TL;DR: The competitive labour market theory as discussed by the authors predicts that within a local labour market there will be a tendency for labour of the same quality to obtain parity of earnings irrespective of the employment location.
Abstract: Competitive labour market theory predicts that within a local labour market there will be a tendency for labour of the same quality to obtain parity of earnings irrespective of the employment location. More strictly, the theory posits the equalisation of net advantages through time for homogeneous labour inputs. No plant may, according to the theory, set wages and other conditions of employment independent of the behaviour of its competitors. Wage levels within the market are, then, subject to the equalising forces of competition. Consequently, any differentials enjoyed by one plant over another for a well defined homogeneous labour input must either be transient or reflect efficiency unit (labour supply) differences. In the absence of labour quality differences, then, wage differentials would be a short run phenomenon to be explained by differences in final product demand and productivity variations against a background of short run inelasticity of labour supply. Such disequilibrating forces should, in the long run, tend to be counterbalanced by actual or potential mobility within the labour market which would restore wage equality.
TL;DR: In this paper, a recent analysis of the French economy between 1949 and 1973 has shown that the relative price of labour has fallen steadily over the period, and the authors attempted to explain how much of this decreasing trend is attributable to changes in the structure of the active population and how much is due to changes of the prices of labour.
Abstract: A recent analysis of wages has shown that within the productive structure of the French economy a two‐fold process of factor substitution is under way, namely the substition of capital for labour and of non‐manual for manual workers. By the logic of neo‐classical distribution theory, the relative price of manual labour should be increasing as its marginal productivity rises. But computations which we have carried out for the French economy between 1949 and 1973 yield the opposite result: the relative price of labour has fallen steadily over the period. The aim of this article is to attempt to explain how much of this decreasing trend is attributable to changes in the structure of the active population and how much is due to changes in the structure of the prices of labour. For this purpose, and following the work of Phelps Brown and Sheila Hopkins, we have calculated an index reflecting the relationship between the index of manual workers' wage rates and the index of national income per head of the occupi...
TL;DR: The World Population Conference, Bucharest, 1974, in the World Population Plan of Action [1974] which it adopted by consensus in its solemn closing plenary meeting as mentioned in this paper, declared that "Of all things in this world, people are the most precious".
Abstract: “Of all things in this world, people are the most precious”, declared the World Population Conference, Bucharest, 1974, in the World Population Plan of Action [1974] which it adopted by consensus in its solemn closing plenary meeting. If this is not considered to be a void phrase, but rather as either an a priori assumption which serves as a justification for certain recommendations included in the World Plan of Action, or as one of the final conclusions of the considerations which led to this plan, then it seems worthwhile to verify the statement and to try to actually assess the value of people.