Institutionalization and Depoliticization of the Right to the City: Changing Scenarios for Radical Social Movements

The right to the city, a concept previously associated with radical social movements, has been accepted by several governments and has inspired new public policies. However, some authors see this process of institutionalization as involving a loss of a significant part of the radical origins of the concept. This article approaches this process and the new opportunities and limitations it may entail for social movement organizations with a more radical perspective on the right to the city. We explore the paradigmatic case of Brazil and the action of a particular organization, the Movimento dos Sem Teto da Bahia (MSTB, or Homeless Movement of Bahia) in the city of Salvador. We draw on the discussion of the politics of the right to the city and on an original combination of social movement theories and critical discourse analysis in order to analyse political‐institutional and discursive changes in urban reform in Brazil and Salvador. We then analyse how the MSTB moves within this new context, navigating its tensions and contradictions while advancing a radical project of transformation of urban reality within a reformist context. We also reflect on the relevance of Lefebvrian ideas for understanding and inspiring contemporary struggles for the right to the city.     

Evidence of European Trade and Investment U-Shaping Industrial Output in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, and Romania

Industrial output in Central and Eastern Europe evolved in a U-shape during the first seven years of transition. The literature explains the initial collapse of industrial output as an inefficient outcome driven by supply side distortions that constrained the transition process. We show that the U-shape experience of industrial sectors is an outcome driven by an intrasector change, induced by investment demand shocks, in the market orientation of production away from products traditionally sold into the CMEA market and towards products traditionally sold into the EU market. This revisionist view has important implications for policy formation. J. Comp. Econom., December 1999, 27(4), pp. 730–752. LICOS, Centre for Transition Economics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Debériotstraat 34, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; and Department of Economics, Trinity College, Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland, and LICOS, Centre for Transition, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Debériostraat 34, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.     

The effect of the ‘evoking freedom’ technique on sales in a computer-mediated field setting

The ‘evoking freedom’ technique is a verbal compliance procedure which solicits someone to comply with a request by simply telling a person that he/she is free to accept or to refuse the request. However, the effect of this technique has never been tested in a selling context. Previous customers (N = 900) of an extreme sports store were solicited by email to participate in a campaign where they were offered a gift voucher if they persuaded someone to become a new customer of the store. According to the case, the email contained a sentence that stated that they were free to participate or not in the operation. It was found that the ‘evoking freedom’ condition was associated with a higher number of new customers (+8.4%) than the control condition (+4.7%).     

Soft landing in a Markov-switching economy

We analyse the monetary policy implications of boom–bust cycles in asset prices using a Markov-switching rational expectations model. In our simulations, when a bubble bursts, the Taylor rule fails to achieve a soft landing, contrary to the optimal policy.     

Deployment and utilization of plug-in electric vehicles in round-trip carsharing systems

Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) can reduce gasoline consumption, but increase vehicle acquisition costs and introduce operational constraints. We develop a comprehensive approach to EV/PHEV deployment and utilization in round-trip carsharing systems. First, we formulate and solve the tactical problem of utilizing a mix of gasoline vehicles and EVs/PHEVs to serve trip demand, using Mixed Integer Programming optimization to estimate the minimal gasoline consumption in a computationally efficient manner, and simulation to assess the effect of reservation order on realized gasoline consumption. Second, we use these results to inform the strategic deployment of EVs/PHEVs in the carsharing fleet, using meta-optimization. We implement our approach using data from a large carsharing provider. From the perspective of a carsharing operator, our results suggest that replacing some portion of existing gasoline fleets by EVs/PHEVs would result in gasoline savings likely to outweigh upfront investments and the constraints on vehicle utilization that it creates. Moreover, we find that easily implementable heuristics can capture some of these benefits, and that the integration of vehicle utilization patterns into the design of EV/PHEV deployment strategies can result in added benefits.     

The impact of IAS 39 on the risk-relevance of earnings volatility: Evidence from foreign banks cross-listed in the USA

We examine the impact of adopting International Accounting Standard 39 – Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement (IAS 39) by non-US commercial banks cross-listed in the US on earnings volatility and its risk relevance. As IAS 39 requires the recognition of unrealized fair-value gains and losses for a larger set of financial and derivative-financial instruments, and the impairment charges for loans and receivables, we expect and find that IAS 39 adoption increased earnings volatility in IFRS-adopting firms from 2005 onwards. Furthermore, both hedge accounting and the fair value option under IAS 39 are designed to reduce mixed-measurement volatility and to improve the sensitivity of firm risk measures to earnings volatility. We also find that the relationship between credit ratings (proxy for risk) and earnings volatility increases for IFRS-adopting firms after 2005. The evidence is consistent with the argument that IAS 39 increases the credit relevance of earnings volatility.     

Current and future European regulation of electronic communications: A critical assessment

The current European regulation for electronic communications has been applicable since 2003 and is currently under a review that should lead to new rules applicable by 2010. This paper aims to assess the implementation of the current regulation and the proposals for reform tabled by the European Commission. It is argued that those proposals go in the right direction but should go further. First, the regulatory framework should clearly state that the objectives of regulators are to maximise the long-term welfare of European citizens. Secondly, the main body of economic regulation—the so-called Significant Market Power regime—should be based on a strong test aiming to identify structural market problems that cannot be efficiently dealt with by competition law. Thirdly, possible remedies applicable by the regulators should include structural and technological components, provided that a strict cost benefit analysis is undertaken. Fourthly, the institutional design should be improved by better aligning the incentives of the National Regulatory Authorities with the dynamic nature of the markets, by improving the checks and balances (in particular those provided by national courts and European Commission), and by improving coordination amongst the institutions (the national regulators and the national Courts).     

A folding methodology for multivariate extremes: estimation of the spectral probability measure and actuarial applications

In this paper, the folding methodology developed in the context of univariate Extreme Value Theory (EVT) by You et al. is extended to a multivariate framework. Under the usual EVT assumption of regularly varying tails, our multivariate folding allows for the estimation of the spectral probability measure. A new weakly consistent estimator based on the classical empirical estimator is proposed. Its behaviour is illustrated through simulations and an actuarial application relative to reinsurance pricing in the case of an insurance data-set.     

A model of the learning process with local knowledge externalities illustrated with an integrated graphical framework

We present a unified graphical framework accounting for the nature and impact of spillover effects. The dynamics of the learning process with a specific spillover transfer mechanism can be illustrated by referring to this four-quadrant picture. In particular, a whole cycle of technological learning is explained with the help of such a graphical representation of the basic learning process in the presence of knowledge spillovers.

We hypothesize two different functional specifications of spillover exchanges among firms within a local innovation system. Each conceivable shape for the knowledge transfer relationship among firms expresses a possible mode and intensity of information processing arising from technology spillovers. A general proposition regarding the relative efficiency of the two alternative formal models with spillover effects is derived. The basic models with spillover effects are then extended in several relevant directions.