This paper explains why, despite the anti-Keynesian convictions of officials and academics, Hong Kong abandoned its initial commitment to the concepts of virtuous markets and moral hazard and resisted importing the prevailing Anglo-American regulatory ¡¥culture¡¦. It reviews foreign attacks...

Until the 1970s, Hong Kong¡¦s Government collected as few statistics as possible, a policy only partially explained by its commitment to laisser faire. Statistics were seen as threatening its freedom from London¡¦s control and its ability to limit political debate locally. Using unpublished...

We investigate wage-hours contracts within a four-period rent sharing model that incorporates asymmetric information. Distinctions are made among (a) an investment period, (b) a period in which the parties may separate (quits or layoffs) or continue rent accumulation and sharing, (c) a post...

We investigate wage-hours contracts within a four-period rent sharing model that incorporates asymmetric information. Distinctions are made among (a) an investment period, (b) a period in which the parties may separate (quits or layoffs) or continue rent accumulation and sharing, (c) a post...

This paper offers a contract-based theory to explain the determination of standard hours, overtime hours and overtime premium pay. We expand on the wage contract literature that emphasises the role of firm-specific human capital and that explores problems of contract efficiency in the face of...