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Abstract.  This paper provides new evidence on the effects of overseas FDI on the skill‐mix of multinational firms' home‐country operations. The analysis exploits China's WTO accession to identify the impact of outward investment into a low‐wage economy and uses plant‐level data to investigate changes in industrial structure within firms driven by plant closures. As predicted by models of vertical FDI, the paper demonstrates that overseas investment in low‐wage economies is associated with asymmetric effects on workers in low‐ and high‐skill industries in the home economy and, in particular, with firms closing down plants in low‐skill industries. JEL classification: F2

Wendy Crompton's son William and his girlfriend Fiona were killed in an horrendous attack by another young man when William was just 18 years old. Wendy's experiences of what followed are set out in this book which tells how, as a secondary victim of crime, she was treated in ways that ranged from unthinking insensitivity to downright prejudice and lack of respect. This and being kept out of 'the loop' left her anxious, stressed, mistrusting and suspicious of people.This extended to the actions of certain police officers, paramedics and doctors, her 'supporter' from Victim Support (who took too much for granted and at one point went off to watch 'a more interesting case' in the court next door), the coroner's officer who prevented her husband from kissing William goodbye, the detective who implied that her son was better off dead than alive and the funeral director who told her 'You can't afford flowers'. The plight of Wendy Crompton and other secondary victims who have suffered comparable torment was the subject of a feature in the Daily Mirror on 4 December 2006 and Justice For William was eagerly awaited by a media critical of Government withdrawal of financial support for 'lifeline' conferences between people affected by some of the worst crimes in Britain, the critical importance of which is emphasised in the book. Justice For William is a hard-hitting, challenging and at times raw account: a cautionary tale enhanced by new author Helen P Simpson's vivid writing. Helen met Wendy through Helen's work with the Reducing Burglary Initiative in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire after her curiosity was aroused by the words 'NO CONTACT' on Wendy's case file. The story of their friendship is an object lesson for anyone coming into contact with secondary victims of homicide and other serious offences - as are the more enlightening illustrations of decent

We study how industry-level agglomeration economies affect government policy. Using administrative data on firm subsidies in economically lagging regions of Great Britain, we contrast two alternative hypotheses. Economic geography models imply that firms at an industry's core can sustain higher tax burdens or require lower subsidies than firms in more remote locations. Conversely, political economy models predict firms at the industry's core to be more successful at lobbying government, particularly at the subnational level, thus obtaining more favourable fiscal treatment. Our evidence suggests that local government agencies structure subsidy offers to favour pre-existing employment in locally agglomerated industries, behaviour more in line with theories of policy capture than with economic geography models. Grants administered by central government agencies, however, conform more strongly with the predictions of economic geography models.

AbstractObjectivesThis article examined "marginalia"—participants' unsolicited additions to a survey conducted in regional Australia examining community attitudes to domestic and family violence.MethodsUsing mixed methods analysis, we examined whether there were any specific demographic or attitudinal characteristics associated with leaving marginalia on our survey. We used NVivo to thematically organize the types and content of marginalia provided by participants.ResultsWe found that leaving marginalia on the survey instrument was not associated with specific demographic or attitudinal characteristics, thus making it challenging to determine the primary motivation for leaving such additions. Thematically, the marginalia were largely concerned with providing further explanation or questioning and correcting. A smaller group focused on communicating attitudes toward and experiences of domestic and family violence.ConclusionsA minority of participants leave unrequested information on quantitative surveys. We suggest some further thoughts about the value of such data and how to manage it.

UK regulation discourages corporate political donations but is relatively benign in respect of individual donations. Few UK listed companies make political donations but many more company directors do. We use a unique, hand-collected dataset of political donations to examine whether UK corporate political connections are perceived as being created indirectly via directors' personal donations. Basing our tests on the sensitivity of company returns to opinion polls preceding the 2010 General Election we find evidence that, for firms within a set of industries which donate only to the Conservative Party, employing a donating director is associated with a higher sensitivity to the electoral success of the Conservatives. The small sample size means that this evidence must be seen as no more than suggestive. We justify basing our inferences on return sensitivity to polls by confirming that UK domestic political risk, as proxied by opinion poll changes, is priced around General Elections.

UK regulation discourages corporate political donations but is relatively benign in respect of individual donations. Few UK listed companies make political donations but many more company directors do. We use a unique, hand-collected dataset of political donations to examine whether UK corporate political connections are perceived as being created indirectly via directors' personal donations. Basing our tests on the sensitivity of company returns to opinion polls preceding the 2010 General Election we find that, on average, firms in industries which donate only to the Conservative Party exhibit higher sensitivity to the electoral success of the Conservatives. However, within industries, there is no consistent evidence that the firms which employ directors who make these donations exhibit higher sensitivity than firms which do not. We justify basing our inferences on return sensitivity to polls by confirming that UK domestic political risk, as proxied by opinion poll changes, is priced around General Elections.

European Union countries have implemented widespread reforms to product markets in order to stimulate competition, innovation and economic growth. We provide empirical evidence that the reforms carried out under the EU Single Market Programme (SMP) were associated with increased product market competition, as measured by a reduction in average profitability, and with a subsequent increase in innovation intensity and productivity growth for manufacturing sectors. In our analysis we exploit exogenous variation in the expected impact of the SMP across countries and industries to identify the effects of reforms on average profitability, and the effects of profitability on innovation and productivity growth. – Competition ; Innovation ; Productivity growth