Enigmatic exchange mechanisms in modern societies: Community and business barter and international countertrade

Modem domestic barter systems are operating in Australia and other high-income countries at the local community level, and at the national level for business exchanges. Both governments and firms practise countertrade at the international level. These exchange regimes appear to have become institutionalised in a macromarketing system which is organised on the primacy of market exchange based on price as the coordinating device. In this paper, explanations for this enigma are presented with a particular emphasis on the Australian context.     

Einzelbesprechungen

Ohne ZusammenfassungÜbersetzt von Hans Fried, Wien.     

Steady state and portfolio concept in R & D management

This paper describes a new approach for closing the gap between the tools for strategic goal management and operational management in Pharmaceutical R&D. The strategic level may concern with expectation of sales, rising from new products and with total R & D budget. The operational level concerns with project selection, project and multiproject management problems, solution of project related technical problems, determination of the size of the various functions and the functional management. This new method combines the R & D project portfolio management with a steady state concept allowing the attainment of a constant number of projects under development and a continuous full use of the capacity available.     

Informations- und Beratungspflichten des Versicherers nach der VVG-Reform

The insurer’s duty to enable the customer to come to an appropriate decision, providing advice and information, is a central topic of the reform of the German insurance contract law. The obligations of intermediaries given by the Directive 2002/92/EC on insurance mediation are transferred to insurers and thereby enlarged in some aspects. The duty to give advice in §6 I 1 VVG depends on the objective circumstances of each individual case depending upon either the complexity of the insurance contract and problems in understanding its terms, or the characteristics and situation of the customer. Therewith, the regulation both refers to former jurisdiction and exceeds it by implementing a duty for the insurer to ask for the demands and the needs of the customer. Without reason in the special case the customer has to disclose his need for advice to obtain it. During the term of the contract the insurer is only obliged to give advice if he knows or — acting diligently — could know the needs of the policy-holder. On a European level further duties to inform and advise could help to achieve an effective internal insurance market.     

Einzelbesprechungen

Ohne ZusammenfassungAus dem Italienischen übersetzt von M. St. Braun, WienAus dem Russischen übersetzt von A. GerschenkronAus dem Italienischen übersetzt von Erich Allina     

Perspectives on the South African Responsible Lending Regime and the Duty to Conduct Pre‐agreement Assessment as a Responsible Lending Practice

In the 2001 INSOL International Consumer Debt Report: Report of Findings and Recommendations, the view was held that the solution to overspending and over‐indebtedness is inter alia to be found in the idea that prevention is better than cure. Ex ante responsible lending practices as preventative measures to avoid reckless credit granting and over‐indebtedness are arguably more important tools in establishing a healthy credit market than ex post measures. The focus of this contribution, is therefore, to provide a detailed overview of the South African reckless credit regime as a debt‐ prevention measure aimed at promoting responsible lending, with specific focus on the aspect of pre‐agreement assessment as a core mechanism to avoid reckless credit granting and over‐indebtedness. The main features of the reckless credit regime are highlighted, and afterwards, a detailed exposition of the evolution and extensive recent development of the pre‐agreement assessment component in South Africa is undertaken. Finally, observations are made regarding the South African reckless regime in general and with regard to affordability assessment specifically and its ability, benchmarked against the essential features of a responsible lending regime as advocated by Wilson in the book ‘International responses to issues of credit and over‐indebtedness in the wake of crisis’, to promote responsible lending. The conclusion is reached that benchmarked against the four characteristics of an effective responsible lending regime as identified by Wilson, it is apparent that the South African reckless lending regime is no ‘toothless tiger’, and that it attaches the necessary amount of significance to the credit provider's duty to take reasonable steps to do a proper pre‐agreement assessment in order to avoid reckless credit granting. Copyright © 2015 INSOL International and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Non-market valuation of forest goods and services: Good practice guidelines

The European COST Action E45 on European Forest Externalities (EUROFOREX) participants developed a set of good practice guidelines for the non-market valuation of forests, elaborating on stated and revealed preference methodologies, as well as benefit transfer and meta-analytical procedures. This article presents a summary of the guidelines.     

Determinants of Corporate Diversification: Evidence From the Property–Liability Insurance Industry

This article analyzes variations in line‐of‐business diversification status and extent among property–liability insurers. Our results show that the extent of diversification is not driven by risk pooling considerations; insurers operating in more volatile business lines do not diversify more. Diversification can rather be explained by the benefits of internal capital markets and barriers to business growth like market size and concentration. In our analysis, we distinguish between related and unrelated diversification. Using a measure of unrelated line‐of‐business diversification we find the first support for the diversification prediction of the managerial discretion hypothesis that mutual insurers should be less diversified than stock insurers. While mutual insurers tend to exhibit higher levels of total diversification, they engage in significantly less unrelated diversification than do stock insurers.