The evolution of industrial policy in the United Kingdom, 1964-1978

The thesis focuses on policy measures between 196A and 1978 to improve performance and growth in U.K.'s private industry. Underlying structural weaknesses and institutional constraints characteristic to U.K.'s company sector are identified and analysed in Part One. This exercise provides the basis for both a definition of the concept of "industrial policy" and a critical assessment in Part Two of its relevance and effectiveness to tackle industry's main difficulties. In discussing policy initiatives to assist companies with public funds for investment finance, industrial reorganisation and the application of new technology, a variety of problems associated with state intervention in private industry are highlighted. The various attempts by policy-makers to overcome shortcomings in the coordination of policy, communication with firms, public monitoring and exercise of control as a result of experience with existing measures and by means of new, more powerful instruments are examined in detail. Industry's growing difficulties and pressure on policy-makers to expand or at least improve public assistance meant that industry policy evolved, despite controversy and policy shifts, with a certain degree of continuity. In the three case-studies which follow, shipbuilding, computers and the NEB, these dynamics are explored in depth. One useful contribution of this thesis is to explain industrial decline in the U.K. economy in terms of supply-side constraints in the private sector. This approach avoids the methodological shortcomings of currently popular theories which instead concentrate on factors outside private industry, such as the public sector or international trade. The analysis of overall industrial policy since 1$6A and the attempt to develop criteria for assessing its effectiveness contribute to a better understanding of this subject. The case studies cover new areas of research. By linking the analysis of policy-making with theoretical hypotheses concerning industry's main problems the effects of policy measures in private industry can be evaluated to determine both the limitations and the potential of state intervention in private industry

Die Transformation des Finanzkapitals

Money seems to be both: public good and private commodity. This contradictory nature of money necessitates its careful management. Based on these arguments the recent developements concerning money and banking, primarily confined to the United States, are described.and analysed as the disintegration of the Fordist monetary regime. As a result of this process the private-commodity aspect of money was intensified. lt generated new private fonns of money which triggered acutc crises conditions at financial markets. To counteract these effects it is necessary to establish a new international monetary regime

Die strategische Rolle der Pensionsfonds

In the USA and in Britain pension funds have enjoyed spectacular growth in recent decades and they are about to emerge as a major force in the European economies and the »emerging markets« of Asia and Latin America. In the eighties, pension funds often backed hostile takeovers and even provided liquidity for junk bonds. But in the last decade the short term investment strategies of pension funds changed and they developed attitudes of »active« owners, interested in the management strategies of »their« corporations. Especially in the emerging markets of Latin America they could have a stabilizing function in the future

Der Strukturwandel des amerikanischen Finanzkapitals

Das US-Finan\system wurde im Verlauf der 80er Jahre völlig neuen Spielregeln unterworfen, wodurch sich nicht nur die Akkumulationsstruktur und -dynamik der US-Ökonomie sondern auch die der Weltwirtschaft veränderten. Börsenhausse und -zusammenbruch, Finanzinnovationen, stabile Kreditbeziehungen unterminierende Junk bonds, der Aufkauf riesiger Unternehmenskonglomerate mit einem geringen Vorschuß an Eigenkapital sind nur einige Stichworte zu der unglaublichen Ausdehnung spekulativen Kapitals. All dies sind Zeichen der Auflösung des alten monetären Regimes, ohne daß bereits Strukturen eines neuen tragfähigen Geldsystems entstanden wären. Die These des Autors: Der Dollar muß als Weltgeld abdanken, um die Blockaden in der Weltwirtschaft überwinden zu können

Complex-Temperature Singularities of Ising Models

We report new results on complex-temperature properties of Ising models. These include studies of the $s=1/2$ model on triangular, honeycomb, kagom\'e, $3 \cdot 12^2$, and $4 \cdot 8^2$ lattices. We elucidate the complex--$T$ phase diagrams of the higher-spin 2D Ising models, using calculations of partition function zeros. Finally, we investigate the 2D Ising model in an external magnetic field, mapping the complex--$T$ phase diagram and exploring various singularities therein. For the case $\beta H=i\pi/2$, we give exact results on the phase diagram and obtain susceptibility exponents $\gamma'$ at various singularities from low-temperature series analyses.Comment: 4 pages, latex, to appear in the Proceedings of Lattice-9

On reducing the Heun equation to the hypergeometric equation

The reductions of the Heun equation to the hypergeometric equation by polynomial transformations of its independent variable are enumerated and classified. Heun-to-hypergeometric reductions are similar to classical hypergeometric identities, but the conditions for the existence of a reduction involve features of the Heun equation that the hypergeometric equation does not possess; namely, its cross-ratio and accessory parameters. The reductions include quadratic and cubic transformations, which may be performed only if the singular points of the Heun equation form a harmonic or an equianharmonic quadruple, respectively; and several higher-degree transformations. This result corrects and extends a theorem in a previous paper, which found only the quadratic transformations. [See K. Kuiken, "Heun's equation and the hypergeometric equation", SIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis 10:3 (1979), 655-657.]Comment: 36 pages, a few additional misprints correcte

Complex-Temperature Singularities in the d=2d=2 Ising Model. III. Honeycomb Lattice

We study complex-temperature properties of the uniform and staggered susceptibilities $\chi$ and $\chi^{(a)}$ of the Ising model on the honeycomb lattice. From an analysis of low-temperature series expansions, we find evidence that $\chi$ and $\chi^{(a)}$ both have divergent singularities at the point $z=-1 \equiv z_{\ell}$ (where $z=e^{-2K}$), with exponents $\gamma_{\ell}'= \gamma_{\ell,a}'=5/2$. The critical amplitudes at this singularity are calculated. Using exact results, we extract the behaviour of the magnetisation $M$ and specific heat $C$ at complex-temperature singularities. We find that, in addition to its zero at the physical critical point, $M$ diverges at $z=-1$ with exponent $\beta_{\ell}=-1/4$, vanishes continuously at $z=\pm i$ with exponent $\beta_s=3/8$, and vanishes discontinuously elsewhere along the boundary of the complex-temperature ferromagnetic phase. $C$ diverges at $z=-1$ with exponent $\alpha_{\ell}'=2$ and at $v=\pm i/\sqrt{3}$ (where $v = \tanh K$) with exponent $\alpha_e=1$, and diverges logarithmically at $z=\pm i$. We find that the exponent relation $\alpha'+2\beta+\gamma'=2$ is violated at $z=-1$; the right-hand side is 4 rather than 2. The connections of these results with complex-temperature properties of the Ising model on the triangular lattice are discussed.Comment: 22 pages, latex, figures appended after the end of the text as a compressed, uuencoded postscript fil

Complex-Temperature Phase Diagram of the 1D Z6Z_6 Clock Model and its Connection with Higher-Dimensional Models

We determine the exact complex-temperature (CT) phase diagram of the 1D $Z_6$ clock model. This is of interest because it is the first exactly solved system with a CT phase boundary exhibiting a finite-$K$ intersection point where an odd number of curves (namely, three) meet, and yields a deeper insight into this phenomenon. Such intersection points occur in the 3D spin 1/2 Ising model and appear to occur in the 2D spin 1 Ising model. Further, extending our earlier work on the higher-spin Ising model, we point out an intriguing connection between the CT phase diagrams for the 1D and 2D $Z_6$ clock models.Comment: 10 pages, latex, with two epsf figure

The Universal Amplitude Ratio Γ−/Γ+\Gamma^{-}/\Gamma^{+} for Two-Dimensional Percolation

The amplitude ratio of the susceptibility (or second size-moment) for two-dimensional percolation is calculated by two series methods and also by Monte-Carlo simulation. The first series method is a new approach based upon integrating approximations to the scaling function. The second series method directly uses low- and high-density series expansions of the susceptibility, going to unprecedented orders for both bond and site percolation on the square lattice. Putting all methods together we find a consistent value $\Gamma^{-}/\Gamma^{+} = 162.5 \pm 2$, a significant improvement over previous results that placed the value of this ratio variously in the range of 14 to 220.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

A questionnaire elicitation of surgeons' belief about learning within a surgical trial

PMID: 23145113 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] PMCID: PMC3493499 Free PMC ArticlePeer reviewedPublisher PD