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The Delors Committee's three stage plan for attaining European Economic and Monetary Union has met with heavy criticism and has given rise to various counter-proposals. The following article examines the relative merits and shortcomings of the Delors Plan and the alternative concepts presented by the Deutsche Bundesbank and the British Government.

In China, urban land is allocated by leasehold sales by local officials. Attempting to end widespread corruption, the government now requires sales to be conducted publicly, by either English or "two‐stage" auctions. However, corruption persists through the choice of auction format and preauction side deals between favored bidders and local officials. Two‐stage auctions have a first stage where favored developers signal that auctions are "taken," deterring entry of other bidders. Empirics show that both sales prices and competition are significantly less for two‐stage than English auctions. Selection on unobserved property characteristics is positive: officials divert hotter properties to two‐stage auctions.

AbstractThe random variables in two‐stage programming under uncertainty are generally treated in a passive manner in that no information regarding the random variables or the process generating the random variables may be obtained. This paper develops the economics of information for the case in which the probability distributions are discrete. A multinomial process is assumed to generate the random variables, and the parameter vector of that process is assumed to be unknown. A Dirichlet prior distribution on the parameter vector is used, and the computation of the value of information thus involves a Dirichlet‐multinomial distribution on the random variables. An example involving producing to meet uncertain demands is presented.

THE AUTHOR STATES THAT THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH AFRICA HAVE NOT BEEN WELL INFORMED ABOUT THE PLANS THAT THE COMMUNISTS HAVE FOR POST-APARTHEID SOCIETY. THESE AIMS ARE PRIMARILY CONCERNED WITH THE ELIMINATION OF CAPITALISM AND ITS REPLACEMENT BY A SOCIETY BASED ON MARXIST-LENINIST PRINCIPLES. HOWEVER, THE BLACK WORKERS OF SOUTH AFRICA ARE STILL DOMINATED BY THE NEED FOR NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE AND SELF-DETERMINATION. THE AUTHOR FEELS THEY HAVE LITTLE INTEREST IN THE QUESTION OF SOCIALISM AT THIS STAGE OF THEIR STRUGGLE.