Virtuelles Wasser — Chancen und Probleme eines Wasserfußabdrucks

Der Wasserverbrauch eines Produkts, eines Landes oder eines Menschen wird neuerdings mit Fu?abdruck-Rechnungen genau erfasst. Sogenanntes virtuelles Wasser bezeichnet dabei jenes Wasser, das in einem anderen Teil der Welt genutzt wurde, um Güter zu produzieren, die hier vor Ort konsumiert werden. Der Welthandel entpuppt sich als Handel mit virtuellem Wasser. Ist diese Form des Wasserhandels problematisch und müssen virtuelle Wasserstr?me reguliert werden? Brauchen wir neben dem CO₂-Fu?abdruck nun auch einen Wasserfu?abdruck, um richtige Produktions- und Konsumentscheidungen zu treffen?     

Ratings based capital adequacy for securitizations

This paper develops a framework to measure the exposure to systematic risk for pools of asset securitizations and measures empirically whether current ratings-based rules for regulatory capital of securitizations under Basel II and Basel III reflect this exposure. The analysis is based on a comprehensive US dataset on asset securitizations for the time period between 2000 and 2008. We find that the shortfall of regulatory capital during the Global Financial Crisis is strongly related to ratings. In particular, we empirically show that insufficient capital is allocated to tranches with the highest rating. These tranches account for the greatest part of the total issuance volumes. Furthermore, this paper is the first to calibrate risk weights which account for systematic risk and provide sufficient capital buffers to cover the exposure during similar economic downturns. These policy-relevant findings suggest a re-calibration of RBA risk weights and may contribute to the current efforts by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and others to re-establish sustainable securitization markets and to improve the stability of the financial system.     

Visualizing Efficiency and Reference Relations in Data Envelopment Analysis with an Application to the Branches of a German Bank

The interest in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) as a method for analyzing the productivity of homogeneous Decision Making Units (DMUs) has significantly increased in recent years. One of the main goals of DEA is to measure for each DMU its production efficiency relative to the other DMUs under analysis. Apart from a relative efficiency score, DEA also provides reference DMUs for inefficient DMUs. An inefficient DMU has, in general, more than one reference DMU, and an efficient DMU may be a reference unit for a large number of inefficient DMUs. These reference and efficiency relations describe a net which connects efficient and inefficient DMUs. We visualize this net by applying Sammons mapping. Such a visualization provides a very compact representation of the respective reference and efficiency relations and it helps to identify for an inefficient DMU efficient DMUs respectively DMUs with a high efficiency score which have a similar structure and can therefore be used as models. Furthermore, it can also be applied to visualize potential outliers in a very efficient way.JEL Classification: C14, C61, D24, M2     

Board Composition and Relationship‐Specific Investments by Customers and Suppliers

Firms are more likely to include a supplier‐customer on the board if the supplier‐customer invests more in relationship‐specific assets. The results are stronger when the firm has poorer financial reporting quality or is financially distressed, as well as post‐SOX. Suppliers‐customers also increase their relationship‐specific investment following their appointment to the board. Directorships help avoid underinvestment and mitigate contracting frictions by reducing information risks and strengthening informal contracts with the firm.     

Consumer Response to Unethical Corporate Behavior: A Re-Examination and Extension of the Moral Decoupling Model

This research replicates Bhattacharjee et al. (J Consum Res 39(4):1167–1184, 2013) moral decoupling model and extends the original along the dimensions of theory, method, and context. Adopting a branding perspective and focusing on the corporate domain rather than the public figures investigated by Bhattacharjee and colleagues, this research examines the proposition that consumers dissociate judgments of morality from judgments of performance to justify purchasing from companies deemed to act immorally. The original study is further extended by applying the model in a different cultural context and employing a more realistic stimulus to establish external and ecological validity. The results of the replication generally support the original findings, in particular, under conditions of higher product involvement, a theoretical extension.     

Speaking to the mind or the heart: effects of matching hedonic versus utilitarian arguments and products

Message arguments influence beliefs about product benefits which influence overall product evaluations. Three studies show that matching hedonic versus utilitarian arguments and products enhance evaluations of utilitarian products, but not hedonic products. The results generalize across several argument manipulations and several product categories.     

Inadequate supply and increasing demand for textiles and clothing: second-hand trade at auctions as an alternative source of consumer goods in Sweden, 1830–1900

Drawing on a study of historical national accounts and statistics, this article shows that a growing supply of mass-consumption textiles and clothing in Sweden during industrialization did not fully meet increasing demand. As a result, high demand for second-hand items remained even at the turn of the twentieth century. Records from a local auction house from 1830 to 1900 show that, even in the 1880s, more affluent urban consumers were still active on the second-hand market. Thereafter, they turned to the market for new goods, while potential demand from labourers and servants continued to be provided for by the second-hand market. Mechanization meant that more items entered this market. It changed the range and quality of objects available, consequently affecting the attractiveness of second-hand textiles and clothing. After the 1870s, falling and converging prices can be discerned, while more durable fabrics largely retained their value. We conclude that the consumer revolution (in a broader sense) had by this stage gained a foothold among ordinary Swedish urban households. The auction trade was part of a democratization of consumption. The general lesson is that understanding mass consumption requires research not only into second-hand consumption, but also into different regional settings.     

“It’s Just Business”: Understanding How Business Frames Differ from Ethical Frames and the Effect on Unethical Behavior

Journal of Business Ethics - Unfortunately, business is often associated with unethical behavior. While research has offered a number of explanations for why business might encourage unethical...     

Feasibility of conservation agriculture in the Amu Darya River Lowlands,Central Asia

Human-driven land degradation threatens economic and environmental sustainability of irrigated agricultural production such as in Central Asia. Many current challenges can be eased by implementing Conservation Agriculture (CA), with however unknown financial consequences under the predominating irrigated conditions. We applied the linear programming to compare costs and benefits of four CA production systems, which are cotton-based rotation systems including (i) cotton-cotton and (ii) cotton-wheat-maize rotations under conventional tillage (CT), as well as (iii) cotton-cover crop-cotton, and (iv) cotton-wheat-maize rotations with mulch cover (crop residue retaining) and both rotations under permanent-bed planting (PB) with minimum tillage. All systems were subjected to six levels of land quality and a series of crop pricing schemes. Data were extracted from empirical research on CA in Uzbekistan, complemented with data on input and output prices from surveys. The findings underpinned the financial advantages of more diversified cropping systems (cotton-wheat-maize) over the crop monoculture (cotton-cotton-based system). Crop cultivation on marginal land was unprofitable under CT. In contrast, crop production under PB could generate profits even on croplands with a lower productivity level considered. It is argued that PB with crop residue retaining and applied in cotton-wheat-maize rotation shows most promise for improving crop yields and income.     

Unfair incentives: A behavioural note on sharecropping

We conducted a laboratory‐in‐the‐field experiment with real‐life tenants in Ethiopia to test the incentive effects of fixed wage, sharecropping, fixed rent, and ownership contracts. The experimental task resembles a common process in agricultural production. The sharecropping contract is a piece rate scheme framed as a profit‐sharing agreement. Sharecropping output was about 12 percent smaller than the fixed rent output. Surprisingly, it is statistically indistinguishable from the fixed wage output, despite substantial piece rates. This effect is driven by real‐life sharecroppers. Their sharecropping output was smaller than that of non‐sharecroppers, especially in a region where a controversial land reform took place. We argue that our subjects dislike sharecropping contracts because of the unfair profit sharing and the disputed allocation of land. Fairness concerns, therefore, may be another impediment to efficiency under the sharecropping contract.