SKEWNESS AND KURTOSIS PROPERTIES OF INCOME DISTRIBUTION MODELS

This paper explores the ability of some popular income distributions to model observed skewness and kurtosis. We present the generalized beta type 1 (GB1) and type 2 (GB2) distributions' skewness–kurtosis spaces and clarify and expand on previously known results on other distributions' skewness–kurtosis spaces. Data from the Luxembourg Income Study are used to estimate sample moments and explore the ability of the generalized gamma, Dagum, Singh–Maddala, beta of the first kind, beta of the second kind, GB1, and GB2 distributions to accommodate the skewness and kurtosis values. The GB2 has the flexibility to accurately describe the observed skewness and kurtosis.     

RETROSPECTIVE ON OIL PRICES

Energy is the most abundant resource in the universe. While energy supplies are unbounded, useful energy is not. To convert naturally occurring energy resources into useful work, mankind must invest capital and labor–resources that normally are scarce. To produce or use primary energy, both producers and consumers must invest in specialized and often inflexible equipment. In calculating the perceived value of present and future oil supplies, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and almost everyone else mistook for economic rent the windfall profits associated with short-term rigidities in energy use. Attention focused on the cost of manufacturing a synthetic crude oil, rather than on the incremental cost of changing consumption patterns in end-use markets. Mis judgments on the future value of oil were compounded by ill-conceived government policies and inaccurate forecasts. Substitution of oil for other energy commodities can occur at nearly every point along the chain downstream from the production of primary resources, but it occurs most abundantly and importantly at the point of final consumption. Liquid petroleum remains the cheapest fuel to transport, chiefly because a vast infrastructure already exists to handle it. The steady advance of technology explains the long-term decline in the real prices of most products, including retail energy prices. Often, the increasing unit costs of harvesting or extracting a finite scarce natural resource have been more than offset by improvements in manufacturing or end-use technology. The mix of commodities bought and sold in the next generation may be unrecognizable to today's consumer. Thus, the cost of any one primary resource or intermediate product may be irrelevant.     

Multi‐level Environmentalism and the European Union: The Case of Trans‐European Transport Networks

In the European Union, trans‐European transport networks (TENs) are a vital element in the constitution of one European space in order to enable the free movement of people and goods throughout the Union. Their construction, however, often causes environmental degradation. Opposition to EU politics is mostly voiced at the level of individual nation‐states. As the case of TENs reveals, however, protest against European policy projects with environmental side effects can take the form of ‘multi‐level environmentalism’, linking lobbying and ‘conscientization’ in Brussels with direct action at the national and local levels. Civil society theory, social movement theory and governance theory help ensure a theoretically informed answer to the question of how the resistance to TENs is organized and framed. By questioning dominant problem definitions and solution strategies, environmental movements and movement organizations, both in Brussels and in the individual nation‐states, point to the possibility of looking at social and political reality from another, non‐hegemonic point of view. In this way, they contribute to challenging the often biased technocratic, growth‐oriented character of the European Union.     

Attribute Elicitation in Marketing Research: A Comparison of Three Procedures

This article compares three attribute elicitation procedures commonlyapplied in marketing research—free elicitation (FE), hierarchicaldichotomization (HD), and Kelly's repertory grid—on type ofinformation generated, convergent validity, efficiency in datacollection, and consumers' reaction to the elicitation task. On mostcriteria, RG and HD were not significantly different. The maincontrasts were found between FE on the one hand and RG and HD on theother hand. FE yielded more attributes, a higher proportion of abstractattributes, and a higher level of articulation and was more timeefficient. FE was also evaluated more positively by respondents thanthe other two techniques. Despite these differences, the threeprocedures exhibited a considerable degree of convergent validity interms of the basic categories of concepts uncovered in the elicitationprocedure. Unless the marketing research technique for which theattributes are elicited requires attributes at a low level ofabstraction, the results suggest that FE is to be preferred to HD andRG.