Estimating the Enduring Effects of Fertiliser Subsidies on Commercial Fertiliser Demand and Maize Production: Panel Data Evidence from Malawi

Most studies of input subsidy programmes confine their analyses to measuring programme effects over a one‐year period. This article estimates the potential longer‐run or enduring effects of fertiliser subsidy programmes on smallholder farm households' demand for commercial fertiliser and maize production over time. We use four waves of panel data on 462 farm households in Malawi for whom fertiliser use can be tracked for eight consecutive seasons between 2003/2004 and 2010/2011. Panel estimation methods are used to control for potential endogeneity of subsidised fertiliser acquisition. Results indicate that farmers acquiring subsidised fertiliser in three consecutive prior years are found to purchase slightly more commercial fertiliser in the next year. This suggests a small amount of crowding in of commercial fertiliser from the receipt of subsidised fertiliser in prior years. In addition, acquiring subsidised fertiliser in a given year has a modest positive impact on increasing maize output in that same year. However, acquiring subsidised fertiliser in multiple prior years generates no statistically significant effect on maize output in the current year. These findings indicate that potential enduring effects of the Malawi fertiliser subsidy programme on maize production are limited. Additional interventions that increase soil fertility can make using inorganic fertiliser more profitable and sustainable for smallholders in sub‐Saharan Africa and thereby increase the cost‐effectiveness of input subsidy programmes.     

Disruptive Innovation in the Nordic Countries＇ Healthcare Systems

The Nordic healtheare model is recognized to be one of the most innovative in the world. Here billions of USD are annually invested in developing new treatments, drugs, robots etc. to diagnose and cure diseases. Nevertheless, this study establishes that there is a fundamental shortcoming in the system that supports healthcare innovation： It is strongly biased towards micro-level innovation projects focusing on new products, alternative processes, and new financial solutions. The problem with this approach to support new projects is that the results are created as inventions within the system thus lacking holistic perspectives. This has consequently contributed with increasing costs that are out of proportion with existing budgets. Therefore this study seeks to analyze the current understanding of the Nordic healthcare system from a business model perspective. Here other aspects of the healthcare system are explored to determine if they could be redesigned to promote new types of innovation projects. The purpose of undertaking this task is to challenge the established patterns of the current healthcare innovation support practices. Here the vertical innovation process （VIP） framework, which is a systematic radical innovation model that seeks macro-level outcomes based on standalone inventions （see more below）, is applied to analyze the current state-of-the-art in Nordic healthcare innovation projects. The results determine that very little attention is given to rethink and redesign the healthcare system at a macro-level, and it is discussed that stand-alone inventions ought to be rethought into the entire healthcare system to create a larger impact. Finally, it is argued that existing performance measures are inappropriate to foster projects that innovate the existing system： New measuring points should be developed to promote macro-level projects and to avoid the current rapid increase of costs in the Nordic healthcare system.     

The different roles of product originality and usefulness in generating word-of-mouth

This paper explores how the dimensions of new products, specifically, the originality and usefulness of the products, influence word-of-mouth (WOM). In four studies, using lab and field setups, we find that originality and usefulness have different effects on WOM. We show that consumers spread more WOM about original products, but the valence of what they say depends on the usefulness of the product. Therefore, originality enhances the effect of usefulness such that consumers spread relatively more and more positively valenced WOM about original and useful products compared to less original but equally useful products. Conversely, consumers spread more and more negatively valenced WOM about original products that are not useful compared to less original products with the same level of low usefulness. The results indicate that product originality should be managed carefully when developing and positioning new products. Although originality increases buzz, it might lead to negatively valenced WOM when the usefulness of the product is perceived to be low.     

Product variety and the demographic transition

Why does the rate of population growth decline in the face of economic growth? We show that growing product variety may induce a permanent reduction in the demand for children and a continuous rise in income and consumption.     

比利时的财富

“请注册为‘D.E.Koninck＇的直升机的主人到咨询台前来好吗？”在首届富世生活比利时峰荟举办地科特赖克展览中心的现场．喇叭里传来这样紧急但礼貌的询问。原来，展览中心的停车场停满了兰博基尼，宾利等名车，但一位直升机的主人不慌不忙地将其两人位的飞机停在了车辆旁边。显然．这位主人宁可被罚也一心想要参加世界顶级奢侈品盛会，毫无疑问，他是对的。     

Public services for basic needs in Malaysia

This paper reports on results with respect to meeting basic needs from a larger study of the distribution of public expenditure in Malaysia. Both the paper and the larger study heavily rely on a household survey providing data on consumption of public services. The analysis shows that the poorest categories of Malaysians, namely the Malays, rural dwellers, and those living in the North, are the least well served by public utilities. But they are well represented in use of public medical care and primary education. What also emerges is that many of the poor are unable to avail themselves of certain services because their incomes are too low. If more of the poor are to have their children educated to higher levels, the out-of-pocket costs that constitute such a heavy burden for them probably will somehow have to be subsidized. If the poor are universally to have pure water and electricity it appears that fundamental changes will have to be made in policies for pricing the consumption of these services to reduce their rates to the poor.     

Inflation and the formation of expectations

This paper develops a model of expectations which generates paths that are consistent with observations that an acceleration of the monetary growth rate initially raises and eventually lowers real holdings of cash balances. It introduces a two-part expectations hypothesis where individuals are assumed to form expectations about the entire path of the price level and about the short-term inflation rate. Interaction between regressive and extrapolative elements induces a transitory rise in money holdings during the initial phase of inflation as expectations are that the process will reverse itself. Subsequently, as expectations catch up, the decline in desired holdings induces an overshooting of the inflation rate.     

Hardening soft accounting information: Games for planning organizational change

This study provides theory and field evidence on the social process of hardening soft accounting information to make it persuasive for planning organizational change. Accounting information intended to support organizational change is often soft, that is, there is lack of interpersonal agreement about its quality. For example, employees can lack agreement about the quality of accounting information (e.g., activity-based costing) because the information is constructed from subjective information obtained from interviews and surveys. This information can contain unintentional errors as well as intentional distortions that are intended to avoid revealing embarrassing inefficiencies and/or to resist painful organizational change. We use concepts from applied game theory and social psychology to identify from the accounting literature four multi-person games that may be played to harden soft accounting information. These hardening games are characterized in terms of payoffs, players, the comparability of soft accounting information, and the rules of the games that are expected to emerge. We interpret the field evidence as indicating that the hardening games that emerge depend on who the players are and the comparability of their soft accounting information. In addition, we provide evidence on how the rules of the games that harden the information emerge from the players’ social interactions. Finally, we provide evidence on how an organization learns by trial-and-error how to harden soft accounting information by changing the players and the comparability of the soft accounting information.