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By applying models of social and economic networks to financial institutions, the purpose of this paper is to address the issues of how policy makers can promote financial network stability and social efficiency.

The authors characterize the decentralized network formation of financial institutions in three stages through which institutions choose to become member banks connected to a central bank, bank-holding company subsidiaries or non-banks. Financial institutions choose one of the three roles in an endogenous process by considering the effects of sharing shocks among the members of the network. In the model, there is a social-welfare-maximizing government regulator at the center of the network.

The authors show that the stable equilibrium network is not always the efficient network, so the central authority must use policy instruments to ensure that the stable equilibrium network is as close as possible to the efficient network.

To obtain the theoretical results, the authors make assumptions about the utility function and risk aversion of a financial institution, as well as about the costs of network formation. These assumptions might need to be relaxed to bring the model closer to real-world institutions.

The results suggest that regulators must try to set their policy variables to make the efficient network as close as possible to the stable network.

The contribution is to incorporate concepts from social network theory into the modeling of financial networks. The results may be of use to regulators in maintaining the stability of the financial system.

The following classified, descriptive list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” The prevailing policy of including all reference books received has temporarily allowed the listing of titles with imprints older than two years; with increased receipt of more current titles from a longer list of publishers, this policy will soon be discontinued (with the exception of reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

Science fiction is that demonic creature lurking in the depths of every human subconscious waiting for the chance to emerge and destroy, with ecstasy, mankind's literary taste. It condemns the reader to an endless array of spaceships, hyperdrive, alternate universes, and alien beings — the really fun things in life. Unfortunately, not all readers or critics hold this view. To many literary critics, science fiction is something to keep in the closet, ignore, and generally not discuss in front of frail women or young children.

AS Canadians themselves will quickly inform you, this is a big, young country—Great Britain would fit into a small part of Alberta, large stretches of which are still not accurately recorded on large scale maps. Indeed, I listened to radio reports of a search for two aircraft on the first morning we were there. One aircraft (a helicopter) had been missing in the North Western Territories with a Calgary man aboard for two weeks and was eventually found crashed; the other, missing for two days, was a Cessna seaplane which had run out of fuel and punctured a float as it landed close to the shore of the Great Slave Lake. The occupants were rescued by air from this largely uncharted waste.

While most practitioners are familiar with traditional customer satisfaction surveys, research findings suggest that best practice companies use multiple tools to bring the voice of the customer inside the organization. The purpose of this study is to examine how best practice companies use various tools to listen to customers. The primary contribution of this article is in discussing a variety of different customer listening tools used by practitioners, along with introducing new customer listening tools to the literature. Furthermore, this article puts forth a framework that captures essential characteristics of each tool, depicting when their use is most appropriate. Finally, this article depicts how customer listening tools are linked together and synthesized into a customer performance model.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

Journalism is concerned with the reporting, writing, editing, broadcasting and the photography of news. Editorial or print journalism is limited to writing, editing and reporting and it is one factor in the ever‐growing list of diverse opportunities open to the modern day journalist. Photojournalism, radio and television broadcasting, editorial and newspaper cartoons, public relations and telecommunications are other aspects. All of these are part of “mass media” or “mass communication,” phrases that will be repeated throughout this article. Other areas considered part of the mass media are cinema, advertising, book publishing and sometimes photography.

Publishers are producing new reference sources on film at an astonishing rate. Each week reviews and advertisements appear to announce yet another book. Books vary in scope, subject emphasis, size, price, and of course, quality, and represent both new works and revised or added editions. Not only are American publishers active, but European firms are getting on the bandwagon, too.

The point of departure of this book is that smart mobility will only be developed in a desired direction and fulfil societal objectives if it is steered in that direction. The market, left to itself, will most certainly not deliver on these objectives. This message has been conveyed extensively in recent literature, but this book aims to take this discussion one step further by focussing on what governance of smart mobility looks like today and in the future. In this introductory chapter, the authors provide a framework of different understandings of policy instruments, how they are selected, developed and used. After the array of policy instruments within the transport sector has been extensively discussed, the authors turn to discussing a broader understanding of policy instruments found within political science and political sociology. In doing so, this book contributes to the critical scholarship on policy instruments, while exploring the why, the how and the what of policy instruments in relation to smart mobility. The chapter closes with a brief introduction to the structure of the book as well as a description of the content of each chapter.