It started when my late wife and I had a free day in Malta. We joined a tour of Valletta. This took us to the ancient throne room. All the well known virtues were depicted around the room. Goodness was conspicuous by its absence. That got me thinking ... Could Goodness be the sum of all virtues? Could it be the elusive Word sought by St John? Is Jesus the personification of Goodness having all the virtues in spades and knowing when to play each one? Is it all up to us now to solve the prob...

The Takeovers Panel and Takeovers Regulation in Australia is the first detailed analysis of the Australian Takeovers Panel, the regulatory body for takeovers in Australia, whose key power is to declare circumstances relating to a takeover to be unacceptable. Although the first ten years of the Panel are regarded as unsuccessful (only four matters were considered by the Panel), since 2000, it has considered more than 300 matters. It is regarded as having made a very important contr...

Employee share ownership has the potential to generate a culture of enterprise and innovation, and build national wealth and savings. This book is the culmination of a multi-year research project funded by the Australian Research Council and represents the first detailed discussion of the theory, policy and practice of employee share ownership plans (ESOPs) in Australia. The topics examined in the book are key legal and policy issues relevant to ESOPs, the current incidence and forms of ES...

This book examines how businesses manage their labour systems, and particularly how they manage the complex interaction of factors which give rise to instances of 'partnership' style relations between businesses and their employees. The book draws from the literature concerning 'Varieties of Capitalism' (VoC) and the different institutional and regulatory designs inherent in different types of political economy. The book is informed by a new and extensive set of empirical data from Austral...

An essential book for students of economics as well as economists and policymakers. The twelfth edition of this enduring and popular book surveys all major changes in the Irish economy in the past fifteen years, with particular emphasis on the last five years. In this new edition, the authors examine: - The broad historical context to a study of the Irish economy. - Ireland's hard landing, recovery and prospects for economic growth and employment in the years ahead. - The changing role of ...

When low-income city dwellers lack access to mainstream banking services, many end up turning to ‘fringe banks,’ such as cheque-cashers and pawnshops, for some or all of their financial transactions. This predicament of ‘financial exclusion’ – faced by those underserved by conventional financial institutions – is comprehensively examined in Jerry Buckland's powerful study, Hard Choices.The first account of the nature and causes of financial exclusion in Canada, Hard Ch...

The public sector is going through a period of fundamental change. Service delivery, policy making and policy processes are being carried out by new actors and organisations with new interests, methods and discourses, related to the emergence of new forms of governance.This timely book from bestselling author Stephen Ball and Carolina Junemann uses network analysis and interviews with key actors to address these changes, with a particular focus on education and the increasingly imp...

Over the last fifteen years, the deregulation of Britain's labour market has led to economic growth, employment opportunities, and a more diverse workforce: the 'fat years'. However, now as Britain faces its lean years with job cuts, rising unemployment, income insecurity, and related social strains, how can and should the government and key labour market policy makers ensure the labour market provides job opportunities and reasonable levels of social justice?The fundamental changes that h...

The application of construction dispute procedures has changed dramatically in the last decade. This has resulted in an increased use of Alternative Dispute Resolution in many countries, and mediation in particular. Construction is one of the major industries using mediation, in the UK and in many other countries such as the US, China, Australia and New Zealand. This expansion in mediation has been helped by encouragement from governments, although it takes diverse forms in different legal...

Due to government cuts, the benefits system is currently a hot topic. In this timely book, a Citizen’s Income (sometimes called a Basic Income) is defined as an unconditional, non-withdrawable income for every individual as a right of citizenship. This much-needed book, written by an experienced researcher and author, is the first for over a decade to analyse the social, economic and labour market advantages of a Citizen's Income in the UK. It demonstrates that it would be simple and cheap...

Corporate laws are based on the idea that the interests of shareholders should be the primary concern of company directors. However, some argue that the proper role for shareholders is to sit back and let the corporation's managers do their job, or that the pursuit of shareholders' interests detracts from the concerns of employees or victims of corporate wrongdoing or other stakeholders. Stephen Bottomley argues that instead of consigning shareholders to this passive role, they should be g...

The current economic and political climate places ever greater pressure on public organizations to deliver services in a cost-efficient way. Focused on the costs of service delivery, governments across the world have introduced a series of business like practices – from performance management to public-private partnership – in the belief that these will increase the efficiency of their public services. However, both the debate about public service efficiency and the policies and practices ...