Moose Hunting Values in Sweden Now and Two Decades Ago: The Swedish Hunters Revisited

This paper is based on two national contingent valuation studies dealing with the extent and economic values of hunting in Sweden. The first valuation study was conducted in 1987 and the second in 2006. Both the game resource and the hunter community have undergone changes in the two decades covered by the surveys. An important purpose of the latter survey was to repeat relevant parts of the former one, which created a rare opportunity to compare valuations covering a very long time span. Moose hunting value and its determinants were compared between the two studies, showing that significant changes have taken place. Our analysis suggests caution in using results from old contingent valuation studies for e.g. benefits transfer exercises.     

Energy advice service as perceived by Swedish homeowners

External actors can influence potential adopters to adopt energy efficiency measures. In Sweden municipality energy advisers are one such actor group who provides energy advice and information to the end users. The success of energy advice service for improvement of energy efficiency of detached houses depends on homeowners' perception towards it. In this context, we conducted a national survey of about 3000 owners of detached houses through stratified random sampling method in the summer of 2008. We found that majority of owners of detached houses consider energy advisers as an important source of information. Furthermore, many homeowners who contacted energy advisers for advice had implemented the suggestions. However, only a few homeowners had contacted an energy adviser. Our findings suggest that it is beneficial to continue the energy advice service, but more efforts are needed to increase homeowners' awareness of and satisfaction with such services.     

Extension of labor contracts and optimal backpay

This paper explains why a union and a firm might settle on a contract duration that may later be extended and characterizes the optimal backpay for the holdout period. It is shown that the choice between concluding a shorter contract that may be extended and immediately concluding a longer contract depends on the prevalence of the different types of uncertainty in the economy. It is also shown that the optimal backpay reduces the negative impact of nominal uncertainty on a worker's real income, but increases the worker's exposure to idiosyncratic uncertainty.     

When Do Listed Firms Pay for Market Making in Their Own Stock?

A recent innovation in the equity markets is the introduction of market maker services procured by the listed companies themselves. Using data from the Oslo Stock Exchange, we investigate what motivates issuing firms to pay to improve the secondary market liquidity of their listed shares. By examining the timing of market maker hirings relative to corporate events, we show that hirings are more likely when the firm will interact with the capital markets in the near future. Futhermore, a typical firm employing a designated market maker is more likely to raise capital, repurchase shares, or experience an exit by insiders.     

Little Fish in a Big Pond: Legitimacy Transfer,Authenticity, and Factors of Peripheral Firm Entry and Growth in the Market Center

Research summary : How do peripheral firms compete and secure future growth? Building on literature in strategy and organizational theory, we test a model of peripheral entry and growth in the mainstream market segment. Using data from 289 craft breweries over 11 years, we find evidence that niche producers are increasingly entering the mainstream market and competing with market‐center firms. We identify two mechanisms contributing to these actions: legitimacy transfer and cognitive claims of authenticity. As hypothesized, imitation of niche products by macro breweries facilitates craft beer entry into mainstream markets. Moreover, two authenticity‐based identity codes are found to reliably influence craft brewery growth: a local identity (i.e., operating in one's local market) and a product proliferator identity (i.e., offering a more diverse set of products) . Managerial summary : How can small niche firms compete with larger, more established organizations? By examining the rapidly expanding craft beer industry, this study explores how craft breweries are able to both enter the market space of these larger competitors and secure sustained patterns of growth. Specifically, we highlight two factors influencing the success of craft breweries. First, as major beer producers mimic niche products (i.e., faux craft beer), smaller niche firms are allowed to enter the market by exposing the typical consumer to the tastes of craft beer. Second, craft breweries enjoy increased success if they (a) emphasize the local elements of their company, and/or (b) offer a larger number of products . Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Establishing preference functions for macroeconomic decision models: Some observations on Ragnar Frisch's contributions

The article reviews Ragnar Frisch's contributions to solving the problem of establishing preference functions for macroeconomic decision models, and compares Frisch's approach with other possible approaches to the problem. The article mainly considers linear and quadratic preference functions. In discussing the methodology attention is drawn to the analogy with problems in the analysis of consumer demand.     

The theory of public goods: Misplaced emphasis?

The note takes up for critical examination the tendency in the modern theory of public goods to emphasize the problem of correct revelation or concealment of preferences. It is argued that a strategy which consists in playing down one's preferences for a public good in order to get a lower share in the costs of providing the good is not likely to succed in an open political decision-making process involving elected representatives. This conclusion is supported by the fact that there seems to be little empirical evidence which shows the importance of the preference revelation issue.     

Consumers' Willingness to Pay for the Color of Salmon: A Choice Experiment with Real Economic Incentives

In most retail markets, sellers post the price and consumers choose which products to buy. We designed an experimental market with posted prices to investigate consumers' willingness to pay for the color of salmon. Salmon fillets varying in color and price were displayed in twenty choice scenarios. In each scenario, the participants chose which of two salmon fillets they wanted to buy. To induce real economic incentives, each participant drew one binding scenario; the participants then had to buy the salmon fillet they had chosen in their binding scenario. The choice data were analyzed with a mixed logit model.