Abstracts

Quality & Quantity -     

Accounting for the effect of health on cross-state income inequality in India

We perform development accounting in accordance with [Weil, 2005] and [Weil, 2007] in a cross-state analysis of India. Results of similar magnitude are found, demonstrating that health can account for 1% to 18% of income differences depending on the health measure.     

Climate Change,Innovation, and Economic Growth: The Contributions of William Nordhaus and Paul Romer

ABSTRACT

William Nordhaus and Paul Romer shared the 2018 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for their work on long-run macroeconomic analysis. Nordhaus adapted the neoclassical growth model to study climate change, while Romer developed a model of innovation-based growth. The authors provide two distinct explanations of what drives growth, and employ contrasting methodologies for interpreting the results of their mathematical models. Macroeconomic policy in general, and climate policy in particular, would benefit from better integrating the theory and methods of these two laureates.     

Ten lessons from a quarter of a century of post-communist economic transformation

The dominant idea in the early post-communist economic transition was that an early and comprehensive radical economic reform programme was needed. This program was accompanied by a clear programme of political economy reform, which included; a clear understanding that the old system was finished, a political breakthrough, new political leaders, new economic policymakers, the swift elaboration of a reform programme, a functioning parliament, sufficient international financial support, fast implementation, public understanding, and the overruling of any need for consensus. In hindsight, all of these factors worked when they were present. Critics warned of too sharp an output fall, which did not come to pass, lagging institutional development, and neglect of social reforms. The biggest problem has become the absence of real property rights because of captured judicial systems in the post-communist countries not belonging to the European Union.     

“Want to” Versus “Have to”: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivators as Predictors of Compliance Behavior Intention

“Worthless,” “money burning,” or “black holes” is how media and professionals describe compliance practices today. Practitioners are unenthusiastic about control systems, codes of conducts, and systems for compliance management that are increasing in volume but not in effectiveness. In order to help practitioners clarify what actually makes employees comply with their compliance program, this study examines intrinsic and extrinsic motivators of 119 employees from procurement and sales. We contribute to the existing motivation literature, testing the self‐determination theory in low and high hierarchical levels. Our findings show that intrinsic motivators are more strongly and positively related to compliance intention on higher hierarchical levels than the lower ones. However, employees from higher hierarchies show overall less compliance intention than employees from lower hierarchies. © 2015 The Authors. Human Resource Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Early exercise of American put options: Investor rationality on the Swedish equity options market

Using Swedish equity option data, this study investigates how well the actual exercise behavior of American put options corresponds to the early exercise rules. The optimal exercise strategy is established in two ways. First, the critical exercise price, above which a put option should be exercised early, is computed and compared to the actual exercise price. Second, the exercise value of the option is compared to its market bid price. The results show that most early exercise decisions conform to rational exercise behavior, even though a large number of failures to exercise are found. Most of the faulty exercises can also be discarded after a sensitivity analysis, although several failures to exercise are considered irrational, even after taking transaction costs into account. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 20:167–188, 2000     

Formulating standards for sustainable forest management in Canada

Over the past decade, but particularly in the years since Rio, many initiatives have surfaced in the name of sustainable forest management (SFM). There is now a growing literature recognizing new techniques in timber labelling and the certification of sustainable management systems. However, they have not yet been located adequately in wider political contexts, such as the new (non-governmental) approaches to regulatory compliance or the new corporate response to the western environmental movement. This article examines a leading SFM framework in Canada, known as the Z808 initiative. Co-ordinated by the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), it advances a system of standards pertaining to sustainable forest management. As a politically-driven process to translate the concepts and practices of sustainable resource management into a concrete form, the CSA experience is very revealing. The article reviews the origins and the parameters of the Z808 system. This is followed by a commentary and critique of the system, centred on four dimensions: the pivotal role of the management system approach, the treatment of sustainability as a conceptual goal, the enclosure of the public interest, and the underlying convergence of business and state interests within this third-party certification approach. In the case of Z808, the most crucial political choices have been made already, and the operational logic of the system can be clearly discerned. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Likelihood-based inference for cointegration with nonlinear error-correction

We consider a class of nonlinear vector error correction models where the transfer function (or loadings) of the stationary relationships is nonlinear. This includes in particular the smooth transition models.