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Using data on the patent portfolios of UK universities, the paper compares the levels of patenting activity (filings), success (grants) and quality (patents with commercial co-assignees and patent citations) at Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish institutions. Patent activity, per researcher, in Wales is on a par with that in Scotland and about twice the rate in Northern Ireland, but the numbers of researchers relative to population in Wales and Northern Ireland are around half of the number in Scotland. Patent quality indicators are less favourable to Wales, while both activity levels and conversion of applications into grants are poor in Northern Ireland. It is suggested that greater cross-university collaboration in Wales and Northern Ireland would help improve performance.

Technium is a project that aims to bring a sub-regional innovation system and drive collective learning. The project, which was formed through a partnership between Welsh Development Agency and Swansea University, also provides business incubation. An evaluation of the Technium model is given.

Implications of the Welsh agenda on sustainable development are analyzed. Implications of Welsh gross domestic product targets, devolution and tax rates are emphasized.

The employer-employee relationship in the Thai sex industry is examined.

This paper conducts a mapping for the regions of England and Wales of legal specialisms which are explained in terms of spatial forces of gravitation. There are geographic barriers to access to justice arising out of the 'friction of distance'. There is a filter effect which varies, depending on the type of legal problem which correlates with distance in respect of some categories of legal work which, in turn, raises considerations of territorial justice. Whether the role of law in this respect is thought of as a matter of access to justice or of access to competitive advantage raises important issues as to the effectiveness of the current organisation of the legal profession. Significant questions arise as to the capacity of solicitor firms within the regions of England and Wales to support the development of regional knowledge-based economic strategies. In turn, this has implications for the reform of the court structure in England and Wales and also various policy considerations in respect of nurturing the development of high level legal skills within the regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data provided by The Law Society of England and Wales, the paper attempts to evaluate the quantity and quality of legal services provided by private solicitors in Wales. Both are found wanting compared to England as a whole and to an appropriate comparator region (South West England). Moreover, the distribution of services within Wales is extremely uneven with remoter rural areas and areas of recent industrial decline showing the acutest difficulties. The results raise questions about whether Wales can confront the challenges posed by devolution and the emergence of a distinct jurisdiction and by the Welsh Assembly's strategy for economic regeneration. New technology and impending policy reforms give grounds for cautious optimism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major questions in environmental economics concern choices about the future. Sensible decisions thus require rules for comparing the well-being of potentially different sets of people (in terms of both numbers and identities) under different futures. The central problem of normative population theory is that basic ethical principles that, individually, claim widespread acceptance yield unpalatable conclusions when combined. No approach currently on offer is able to overcome all theoretical objections, but decision making goes on and needs ethical guidance. This paper proposes a practical approach to the welfare comparison of competing futures. As a matter of expedience, it accepts that some choices may be incommensurable and, therefore, unrankable. But its defining characteristic is its recognition that the evaluation of well-being is typically a momentary phenomenon, dependent on an individual''s position or reference frame. A critical positional change arises from the very act of being brought into existence. Social welfare thus has to be continually re-evaluated and the welfare basis for new decisions is subject to a ratchet effect. Although this approach abandons time-consistency it does so without apology and, since time flows in one direction, without inconsistency in decision making. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study examines the relationship between commercial sex workers and their employers using the results of interviews with 83 commercial sex workers from 35 establishments in the Bangkok area. The intentions were to gain insight into the motivations and working conditions of the workers and to see whether the nature of the employment relation gives support to the mainstream economic theory of "implicit contracts" concerning labour exchanges that occur in a risky world. Despite the existence of obvious risks (e.g. contracting HIV/AIDS) there is little evidence of risk-sharing implicit contracts. This could in part be explained by the ignorance of risks shown by commercial sex workers. But even where, in the case of the poorest prostitutes, there is apparent evidence of risk-sharing, it is argued that this is better explained in terms of a theory of debt-bondage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is argued that there is no necessary inconsistency between Kalecki's short-run pricing theory and Sraffa's long-period approach and that the former can be considered as an important component of the analysis of the gravitation of prices to their long-period values. A simple, if provisional, two-sector model is developed to support the argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opinion. Compares meliorating behavior, failure to optimize, with maximization of producers of durable goods. Why meliorating behavior appears; Explanation of demand for durable goods; Details on the relation between the price-discriminating monopoly and melioration.

BSTRACT [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses Tugan-Baranowsky's `bubble' regarding the possibility of underconsumption crises in the background of a Marxist criticism. Introduction, background and details of Tugan's `bubble' and conventional `bubbles'; Its implications for contemporary economists; Implications of Marx's theory of crises for Tugan's theory; Marxist assumptions regarding capitalists and consumption.

Explores the possibility of immiserizing growth in a non-neoclassical North-South model having formal similarities to Goodwin's growth-cycle model. Income effects of the transfer; `Engine-growth' property of the Northern economy; Short-run benefit of redistribution in favor of the South.

The trading relationship between a primary-producing South and a manufacturing North has dynamic properties of conflict and symbiosis similar to those of the closed-economy, worker-capitalist relationship. In a simple model these dynamics may lead to cyclical behavior involving two variables, the Southern share of world income and the rate of exploitation of primary producing capacity. The rate of change of the terms of trade is also cyclical. Long-run income shares are constant, however, implying that the Southern terms of trade rise by just enough to offset productivity savings on primary inputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]