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Purpose — This chapter considers some key policy implications of the research described in this book on links between transport disadvantage, social exclusion and well-being.

Methodology — Two high-level policy frameworks are outlined and some research results are viewed through the lenses of these frameworks. The two frameworks are (1) place-based versus functional approaches and (2) economic versus social approaches.

Findings — Transport, land use and outreach opportunities are outlined as possible ways to tackle problems of transport disadvantage that may adversely impact social exclusion and well-being. These require place-based approaches. Difficulties in making the switch from traditional functionally based policy thinking to place-based, integrated approaches are highlighted. These difficulties pose a challenge for effective reduction in transport disadvantage and its associated risks of social exclusion and diminished well-being.

The chapter also shows how the traditional economic cost–benefit approach to transport policy becomes much closer to a social policy approach when the research results about the value of improved trip making, as it affects risks of social exclusion, are incorporated in the analysis. Minimum public transport service levels are suggested as meeting both economic and social policy goals in this regard. Community transport is seen as an effective way to tackle some problems of transport disadvantage but as possibly posing risks of entrenched exclusion for some.

Purpose — This chapter examines links between mobility, risk of social exclusion (SE) and well-being and uses its findings to impute a value to improved (or reduced) mobility. It applies the relevant value to show the benefits of the Melbourne route bus network and to estimate loadings on individual services that are required for service user benefits to break-even with service costs.

Methodology — The research findings are based on econometric modelling of risk of SE and well-being, as a function of a range of likely contributory factors. The modelling draws on household travel survey data and on survey data specifically collected on factors thought likely to affect risk of SE and/or well-being. These factors include social capital, sense of community, household income and trip making, together with a range of psychological and personality variables.

Findings — The modelling shows that a reduced risk of SE is associated with increases in social capital, sense of community, household income and trip making. A lower risk of SE, in turn, is associated with improved reported personal well-being, which is also affected by a range of psychological variables and age. The analysis shows that additional trip making is very highly valued and that this value increases as household income declines. A case study that applies the resulting values shows that Melbourne’s route bus services produce benefits almost four times their costs and that the ‘social inclusion’ benefits calculated in this research comprise the largest single benefit component. This result is particularly important in supporting further investment in improved public transport services.

An objective method of pricing, where the cost of each component of a product is determined separately, is relevant to the pricing of loans in banking. Relevant factors in this case are a “real rate” of interest, an inflation premium, administrative expenses, a maturity factor and an allowance for credit risk. All these can be accounted for in the pricing of retail loans. This systematic approach enhances the loan pricing procedure and offers an objective way for an institution to establish and monitor the risk level of its portfolio of earning assets. From data it is clear that banking has priced its retail loans well and this brings the evolution of new pricing techniques into question.

Viewing customers on the basis of age groupings is valuable in terms of product development, promotion and evaluation of delivery systems. The close association between customer age and product usage suggests a life cycle rather than a strict segmentation approach to marketing. A bank must realise that financial needs change as a customer matures, and anticipate and provide for these changing needs in order to build a solid customer base. Research into the users of 31 retail banks in a Midwestern US state indicates that there is a greater chance of success in promoting certain products to a particular age group, and that product usage tends to support the assumption that user age is a primary factor in bank product selection.

Three distinct product areas exist for banks — deposit gathering, customer services and loans. Up until now loans have scarcely been marketed. If they have, they have not been viewed in the context of what would create an optimal product mix. Yet a bank's loan mix is a major portion of its product mix and has the same dimensions of width, breadth and consistency as any other product line. It appears that a significant amount of difficulty in developing effective loan mix strategies has been due to the lack of a system to predetermine loan quality objectively. Management's attitude towards risk, the type of community and future economic conditions all play major roles in determining a suitable loan mix. Loan mix strategy should begin with a recognition of attainable goals and end with a defined programme to co‐ordinate the efforts of marketing staff and the loan department. The optimal loan mix will suit customer needs and return the desired levels of profits.

A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balance economics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary to man′s finding the good life and society enduring as a civilized instrumentality. Looks for authority to great men of the past and to today′s moral philosopher: man is an ethical animal. The 13 essays are: 1. Evolutionary Economics: The End of It All? which challenges the view that Darwinism destroyed belief in a universe of purpose and design; 2. Schmoller′s Political Economy: Its Psychic, Moral and Legal Foundations, which centres on the belief that time‐honoured ethical values prevail in an economy formed by ties of common sentiment, ideas, customs and laws; 3. Adam Smith by Gustav von Schmoller – Schmoller rejects Smith′s natural law and sees him as simply spreading the message of Calvinism; 4. Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon, Socialist – Karl Marx, Communist: A Comparison; 5. Marxism and the Instauration of Man, which raises the question for Marx: is the flowering of the new man in Communist society the ultimate end to the dialectical movement of history?; 6. Ethical Progress and Economic Growth in Western Civilization; 7. Ethical Principles in American Society: An Appraisal; 8. The Ugent Need for a Consensus on Moral Values, which focuses on the real dangers inherent in there being no consensus on moral values; 9. Human Resources and the Good Society – man is not to be treated as an economic resource; man′s moral and material wellbeing is the goal; 10. The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants, which argues that it is imperative to distinguish good from evil and to act accordingly: existentialism, situation ethics and evolutionary ethics savour of nihilism; 11. Ethical Principles: The Economist′s Quandary, which is the difficulty of balancing the claims of disinterested science and of the urge to better the human condition; 12. The Role of Government in the Advancement of Cultural Values, which discusses censorship and the funding of art against the background of the US Helms Amendment; 13. Man at the Crossroads draws earlier themes together; the author makes the case for rejecting determinism and the “operant conditioning” of the Skinner school in favour of the moral progress of autonomous man through adherence to traditional ethical values.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).