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This paper emphasizes differences among short-term contracts in terms of career prospects. Using French data over the 2002-2010 period, we rely on a dynamic model with fixed effects to disentangle state dependence from unobserved heterogeneity. Although fixed-term contracts may provide a 'stepping-stone' to permanent positions, temporary agency work is hardly better than unemployment in this regard. The Great Recession of 2008 has changed the dynamics on the labor market and amplified the difference between fixed-term contracts and temporary agency work. For both types of temporary workers, providing overtime work does not significantly increase the transition to permanent employment. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central to this article is the use of sports mega-events as part of a state's “soft power” strategy. The article offers two things: first, a critique of the “soft power” concept and a clearer understanding of what it refers to by drawing on the political use of sports mega-events by states; second, the article seeks to understand how and why sports mega-events are attractive to states with different political systems and at different stages of economic development. To this end a case study of an advanced capitalist state (London Olympics, 2012) and a so-called “emerging” state (FIFA World Cup, 2014; Rio Olympics, 2016) will be undertaken in order to shed light on the role of sports events as part of soft power strategies across different categories of states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the planned 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, it is timely to consider afresh the global security landscape and the UK's place within it. What does “security” mean in this context, and what challenges does the UK face? Following a discussion of the meaning of “security”, the article will identify three broad themes from which security challenges for the UK emerge. These are: (1) cyberspace and the digital age; (2) change and the current international system; and (3) inequality within the UK. By examining recent developments in each of these areas, it will be argued that there are good reasons for these challenges to remain important in thinking about British security over the medium to longer term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partisans often perceive real world conditions in a manner that credits their own party. Yet recent findings suggest that partisans are capable of setting their loyalties aside when confronted with clear evidence, for example, during an economic crisis. This study examines a different possibility. While partisans may acknowledge the same reality, they may find other ways of aligning undeniable realities with their party loyalties. Using monthly survey data collected before and after the unexpected collapse of the British national economy (2004-10), this study presents one key finding: As partisans came to agree that economic conditions had gotten much worse, they conversely polarized in whether they thought the government was responsible. While the most committed partisans were surprisingly apt in acknowledging the economic collapse, they were also the most eager to attribute responsibility selectively. For that substantial share of the electorate, partisan-motivated reasoning seems highly adaptive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chancellor's post-election 'Summer Budget' saw pragmatism trump ideology, with a relaxation of the squeeze on departmental spending and a slower path of deficit reduction. But the price for this was a sharp cut in the welfare budget and a hike in taxes. Overall, fiscal policy is set to remain a drag on the economy.... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to estimate whether job applicants who have obtained a BSc in economics from 15 UK universities face different labour market prospects. The author examines whether university entry standards and Russell Group membership affect UK economics applicants’ occupational access and entry-level annual salaries when unobserved heterogeneities, such as ability, motivation, family characteristics and networks, are minimized. Design/methodology/approach – The author evaluate the research question by recording the job search processes of 90 British economics applicants from randomly selected universities. The key elements of the approach are as follows: third-year undergraduate students apply for early career jobs that are relevant to their studies. Applications are closely matched in terms of age, ethnicity, experience and other core characteristics. Differential treatment in the access to vacancies and entry-level annual salaries per university applicant are systematically measured. Findings – By observing as much information as a firm does, the estimations suggest that both entry standards and Russell Group membership positively affect applicants’ labour market prospects. Although the firms cannot evaluate by themselves whether graduates from highly reputable universities are more or less capable and motivated than graduates from less reputable universities, it appears that the university attended affects firms’ recruitment policies. Importantly, valuable variables that capture firms’ and jobs’ heterogeneities, such as occupational variation, regions, workplace size, establishment age, and the existence of trade unions and human resources, are also considered and provide new results. Practical implications – Understanding the impact of entry standards and university reputation on students’ labour market outcomes is critical to understanding the role of human capital and screening strategies. In addition, obtaining accurate estimates of the payoff of attending a university with a high entry threshold and reputation is of great importance not only to the parents of prospective students who foot tuition bills but also to the students themselves. Furthermore, universities will be interested in the patterns estimated by this study, which will allow recent UK economists to evaluate the current employment environment. In addition, universities should be keen to know how their own graduates have fared in the labour market compared with graduates of other universities. Originality/value – In the current study, the author attempt to solve the problem of firms’ seeing more information than econometricians by looking at an outcome that is determined before firms see any unobservable characteristics. In the current study, ability, motivation, family characteristics and networks cannot affect applicants’ access to vacancies and entry-level salaries. The current study can estimate the effect of university enrolment on applicants’ occupational access and entry-level salaries, controlling for unobserved characteristics that would themselves affect subsequent outcomes in the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2008/2009 recession had a pronounced impact on the financial performance, stability and output of Britain's volume housebuilders, leading to a historic decline in new housing supply. Whereas current policy ambitions signal the need for a substantial increase in speculative housing provision, little is known about how the recession affected the attitudes and motivations of Britain's volume housebuilders or what such behavioural legacies might mean for post-recession housing delivery. Indeed, whilst the British economy and housing market are showing positive signs of recovery and growth, speculative housebuilding completions remain well below policy ambitions. It is therefore unclear whether Britain's volume housebuilders, in light of their recessionary experiences, have the capacity to deliver such a step change in housing supply. In addressing this gap in knowledge, this paper examines the recessionary attitudes and motivations of Britain's biggest housebuilders and, in doing so, outlines a number of key challenges that may confront policy-makers and the housebuilders themselves in their attempts to meet the housing needs of a post-recession Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes stock of the current debate around the informal sector and informal entrepreneurship. Informal entrepreneurship represents a worldwide characteristic of entrepreneurial activity, the main distinguishing feature of which is that it is operating outside the law. Since what is legal can vary considerably between countries, studies of entrepreneurship which exclude informal activity must be considered partial. Moreover, it can be argued that the distinction between formal and informal is not black and white but rather shades of grey. Although informal economic activity is often more prominent in developing countries and transition economies, it is by no means confined to them. There are parts of the UK, for example, where local economies are dependent upon informal employment and for many goods and services. More generally, much of the home-based economic activities, such as cleaning, painting and decorating and other services, are typically provided, at least partially, in the informal sector. As a consequence, it is difficult to argue against including informal activity as part of the study of entrepreneurship, and particularly where the entrepreneurial potential of an economy is being assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We review the findings of the literature on the benefits of international financial flows and find that they are quantitatively elusive. We then present evidence on the existence of a global cycle in gross cross-border flows, asset prices and leverage and discuss its impact on monetary policy autonomy across different exchange rate regimes. We focus in particular on the effect of US monetary policy shocks on the UK's financial conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon the resource-based-view of a firm, we investigate the moderating role of operations efficiency on the link between environmental and financial performance. Extant literature has highlighted that operations efficiency is closely associated with the environmental/financial performance of firms, but no empirical study has investigated how operations efficiency affects the link between environmental and financial performance. We argue that operations efficiency could act as a moderator of this relationship. To test the hypothesized relationships, we have used available secondary quantitative UK data, namely data on the environmental/financial performance of Britain's most admired companies. By employing moderated regression analysis, we have found strong evidence for the moderating impact of operations efficiency. Our results are useful to managers in that they show that improvements in operations efficiency in a company can also help improve environmental/financial performance and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides a comparative study regarding financial regulations and informal international law, and it mentions the interrelationships between law, financial stability, and economic performance in places such as the U.S., China, and Great Britain. A financial crisis and a global recession in 2008 are mentioned, along with the Bank for International Settlements, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors.

Several charts are presented which shows economic forecast for Great Britain from 2004-2019 which include household consumer expenditure, short-term interest rate, and government financial balance.

This article focuses on attempts by the British Government to reexamine and recalibrate its oil policy following the Suez Crisis until the election of the Conservative Government of Edward Heath in 1970. It argues that despite a long-term strategy of non-intervention in the affairs of Britain's two domestically-based oil companies, British Petroleum and Shell, repeated Government attempts to increase the effectiveness of its oil policy in meeting its twin goal of security of supply and profitability to the British economy led to a gradual increase in state intervention in oil matters. The unintended consequence of this process was the deterioration of relations with BP and Shell, leading to the breakdown of Britain's traditional approach of allowing the firms to handle oil matters independently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets out a framework for understanding the impacts of the financial crisis and its aftermath that is based on the idea of three interacting spheres: finance, production and reproduction. All of these spheres are gendered and globalised. The gendered impact of the current crisis is discussed in terms of the impact on unemployment, employment protection and security, public sector services, social security benefits, pensions, and the real value of wages and living standards. Drawing on the analysis of the UK Women's Budget Group, the paper demonstrates that the biggest falls in disposable income as the result of austerity policies by the Conservative-led government since 2010 have been borne by the most vulnerable women-lone mothers, single women pensioners and single women without children. Working-age couples without children have been least affected. The paper then goes on to discuss what an alternative economic strategy, based on feminist political economy, might look like. It utilises the notion of the 'reproductive bargain', first developed to understand the transition in Cuba in the 1990s. It sets out a possible feminist economic strategy that insists on the incorporation of reproductive and care work into the analysis of alternative economic policies and links employment, wages and social security payments to public provisioning of trans-generational reproductive services. It suggests feasible strategies to finance the proposed Plan F-a feminist economic strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After 2010 George Osborne put deficit reduction and control of debt at the centre of his economic strategy, announcing a much more radical fiscal retrenchment than the plan inherited from Alastair Darling. The key reason for this was political. Osborne sought to redefine the terms of the debate on economic policy, enabling the Coalition to blame the recession on Labour and to create a new narrative to bolster its claim to economic competence. He failed to achieve his fiscal targets, but his statecraft was highly successful, allowing him to claim the credit when recovery finally started in 2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between electoral support and the economy over the period 2004-2013, paying particular attention to the impact of the economic strategy pursued by the Coalition government in Britain since the 2010 general election. This involves modelling the relationship between voting intentions, perceptions of economic performance and a variety of other variables using survey data collected from 2004. The evidence shows that when Labour was in office, support for the party was strongly influenced by the state of the economy, as was support for the opposition parties. However, since the Coalition came to power, the relationship between the economy and political support has changed, with neither the Conservatives nor the Liberal Democrats gaining from a fairly rapid growth in economic optimism which has taken place since early 2013. The article explains this change in terms of a growing perception among the public that none of the major parties can effectively manage Britain's economic problems. Optimism about the national economy has not significantly percolated down to the level of the individual voter. So individuals may be more optimistic about the future of the national economy but they are still being badly affected by the recession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pace of deficit reduction has continued to disappoint against a relatively healthy economic backdrop. Structural changes in the labour market and income tax receipts auger against a dramatic improvement in 2015. Longer-term, the implausibility of spending cuts implied by current fiscal plans points to borrowing continuing to run ahead of official expectations... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the collapse of Northern Rock in 2008 the UK authorities have constructed a state-of-the-art resolution framework for dealing with failing banks comprising both a Special Resolution Regime and a Proactive Intervention Framework. Whilst the design of the SRR has been examined, how the resolution framework will function in practice has to be analysed in detail. This paper will examine the ambiguity that exists surrounding when a firm should be placed into resolution, along with the discretion regarding the operation of the resolution framework that has been placed into the hands of the new microprudential regulator, the Prudential Regulation Authority. It will argue that these issues have the potential to fatally undermine the framework's ability to protect both public funds and financial stability in the UK from the impact of bank failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the question of whether the current economic and financial crisis is challenging the prevailing gender-equality model in four European countries: Denmark, Germany, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom. After situating the countries in relation to the underlying gender regime and analysing the corresponding position of women and men in paid and unpaid work, the paper contains an in-depth discussion of the short- and medium-term policy responses to the crisis. Our analysis shows that independent of the prevailing gender regime, scant public attention has been directed to gender-sensitive policy responses. These shortcomings are compounded by the observation that the downturn seems to be delaying progress on equality policies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article analyses news media coverage of the housing market. Building on theories of media influence where word of mouth is the final mechanism of opinion change but media initiate discourse, I examine the relationship between news media and the recent UK house price boom. Over 30 000 articles on the UK housing market from the period 1993 to 2008 are analysed, and it is found that media Granger-caused real house price changes, suggesting the media may have influenced opinions on the housing market. However, media sentiment on the housing market did not change with the secular increase in house prices in the 2000s, suggesting that the media did not contribute to the UK’s housing boom and may have helped constrain it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reviews three entry points into a discussion of alternatives to today’s neoliberal capitalism. The first examines the need for a green new deal from mostly UK-based think tanks positioning the household as central to the economy, posing new core values for the economy that respect the environment, the social economy as well as the possibilities offered by Web-based technologies for new economic and political community relations. The second entry point is a review of feminists’ search for alternatives to mainstream economics and global development processes with calls for a transition to place-based socio-economic practices built on the ethics of care, gender justice, the centrality of social reproduction and community livelihoods. The last section examines the alternatives to global development and neoliberal capitalism emerging from Latin America examining Buen Vivir, intercultural pluriversal political and economic practices and lessons from Latin American indigenous women and decolonial feminist movements. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The riots that erupted in English cities in August 2011 were provoked by a complex mix of socio-economic factors. Sidelining structural explanations for the civil disorder, conservative commentators argued that dysfunctional families had caused the riots. Reinforcing traditional connections between criminality, the family and welfare, conservatives contended that the absence of fathers in lone mother-headed families explained both the dynamics of the civil disorder and the aggressive behaviour of some of the young men involved. Such claims located both the causes of the riots and solutions to expressions of violent masculinities in the familial sphere. Employing the framework of critical studies of men and masculinities this article interrogates these narratives and maps their depoliticising effects. Additionally, it exposes how the effects of a range of social problems were projected on to poor, lone mothers, reinforcing a range of regulatory narratives and practices that target this social group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The solid pace of expansion in the economy has still yet to be matched by a commensurate improvement in the public finances. And with deficit reduction proving grindingly slow, a question mark continues to exist over the feasibility of current fiscal ambitions... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atlantic Gateway -- including the cities of Liverpool and Manchester -- is a proposition to create the critical mass to achieve a new level of sustainable economic growth not previously achieved in the UK outside London. The Atlantic Gateway Partnership's aim is to attract investment and accelerate growth as a transformational contribution to rebalancing the UK economy. The author sets out the challenges and the context and describes the proposition, the partnership and the priorities. The paper concludes with an exploration of future options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights on the impact of the financial crisis to the economy of high-income countries particularly Great Britain and its five tranformative events. Among the transformative events of the financial crisis include economic transformation, fiscal consequences, and monetary transformation.

The article focuses on the ways Great Britain managed to recover economically through its austerity policy. It mentions the condtion when the coalition of Liberal Democrats and Conservatives took over the British government when there is a need for the country's finances to be under control. It presents a comparison on the way Margaret Thatcher and George Osborne govern the country as its chancellor.

Over the past 30 years, British unions have been marginalised from economic policymaking. Union membership and collective bargaining coverage have fallen dramatically, and the sometimes negative economic impact of unions at the workplace level has disappeared. While strong unions were once key contributors to macroeconomic problems such as high inflation, the weakening of organised labour has created other economic problems for policymakers in Britain, such as rising inequality. The social and political consequences of deepening inequality may force a reconsideration of the role of both the state and of unions in upholding labour standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses an annual review of national affairs in Europe covering the period from July 2013 to June 2014. Topics covered include the acceleration of economic growth in Great Britain, the violence in eastern and southern Ukraine, and the continuing stagnation of the French economy. Also mentioned are other drivers of strategic change in Europe.