Bücher der Reihe Studies in Defense Policy

"In the nearly two decades since the Nixon administration decided to withdraw U.S. armed forces from Vietnam and to end their dependence on conscription, America's military institution has undergone substantial changes. One of the most pronounced has been the increased reliance on Army reserve components, which today shoulder unprecedented responsibilities for protecting the nations security. Of special importance have been the growing expectations about the capabilities and readiness of the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve. Reserve components would now be among the first to be used in a range of possible conflicts-from limited contingencies involving rapid deployment forces to a major confrontation in Central Europe between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. This shift has been instituted with little public fanfare or debate yet the consequences could be dramatic and far-reaching. It raises the central question Binkin and Kaufmann address: How has greater reliance on Army reserves affected the nation's ability to protect its security?"

"Will higher pay provide an incentive for better work? Can productivity be increased by changing the way workers are compensated? In response to the urgent need to improve productivity performance in American industry, leading economists examine alternative compensation schemes to assess their efficiency in raising productivity.Over the years a number of suggestions have been made for improving labor productivity by changing the manner in which laborers are compensated for their efforts. The ideas presented and analyzed in this volume have all been put into practice, in modified form or on a small scale, in the United States or elsewhere. Some are new; others quite old.David I. Levine and Laura D'Andrea Tyson consider the effects of employee participation in decisionmaking on firm performance, and Martin L. Weitzman and Douglas L. Kruse discuss the implications of profit sharing and related forms of pay for group performance. Michael A. Conte and Jan Svejnar analyze employee stock ownership plans in the United States and other forms of worker ownership in Europe; Masanore Hashimoto uses a transaction-cost perspective to assess Japanese employment and wage systems. Daniel J. B. Mitchell, David Lewin, and Edward E. Lawler III give an overall analysis of traditional and alternative pay systems, their history, development, and curent use, and recommend further experimentation with alternative compensation plans to ensure more adaptability on the part of U.S. firms. Blinder provides an overview of the findings and conclusions."