Contagion: Understanding How It Spreads

Much of the current debate on reforming the international financialarchitecture is aimed at reducing the risks of contagion—bestdefined as a significant increase in cross-market linkages aftera shock to an individual country (or group of countries). Thisdefinition highlights the importance of other links throughwhich shocks are normally transmitted, including trade and finance.During times of crisis, the ways in which shocks are transmitteddo seem to differ, and these differences appear to be important.Empirical work has helped to identify the types of links andother macroeconomic conditions that can make a country vulnerableto contagion during crisis periods, although less is known aboutthe importance of microeconomic considerations and institutionalfactors in propagating shocks. Empirical research has helpedto identify those countries that are at risk of contagion aswell as some, albeit quite general, policy interventions thatcan reduce risks.      

Analysis of Environmental Efficiency Variation

In this article, we develop and implement a methodology for analyzing the sources of variation in environmental efficiency across producers. We formulate a two–stage model. In the first stage, we use stochastic frontier analysis to estimate both technical and environmental efficiency. In the second stage, we again use stochastic frontier analysis to regress estimated environmental efficiency scores against a variety of technology, physical environment, and management variables. In this stage we estimate the impact of each explanatory variable on environmental efficiency, and we derive conditional estimates of environmental efficiency from the one–sided error component. We illustrate our methodology with an empirical application to a panel of Dutch dairy farms. We find evidence of relatively low levels of environmental efficiency, and we find that environmental efficiency can be improved through a number of policy options, including the provision of farmers with more insight into the nutrient balance of their farms.     

Complementarity between water pricing, water rights and local water governance: A Bayesian analysis of choice behaviour of farmers in the Krishna river basin, India

To ensure efficient water allocation and use, policy designers have adopted various strategies, including price setting, decentralising irrigation water management or improving water rights. Most of these strategies have been applied individually, without considering the complementary relationships between them. This paper uses a discrete choice model to analyse the scope for combinations of tools for irrigation water demand management and farmers' acceptance of these. In terms of local irrigation water governance, the presence or absence of collective irrigation water management, in the form of a Water Users Association, is considered. Water rights are specified in terms of the duration and quality of the entitlement and its transferability. Finally, four types of water pricing methods (area, crop, block and volumetric pricing) are considered. Using a choice experiment, we elicit the most preferred water pricing method, under different water rights situations, at different price levels and under various contexts for local irrigation water governance. Our results indicated that under conditions of improved water rights, preference for volumetric pricing increases, whilst the presence of a Water Users Association reduces this preference. Furthermore, it was found that using an appropriate combination of water demand management tools considerably increases the willingness to pay for a change in scenario.     

Crisis Management and Resolution:Lessons from the Financial Crisis

The recent crisis was unusual in its speed and breadth and the type of countries affected.Systemic crises, situations of significant stress in the financial sector, followed by significant policy interventions, often affect several countries at the same time.In the past, though, crises have been largely limited to specific regions or types of economies, the Nordic countries in the early 1990s, Latin America in the mid-1990s, Asia in the late 1990s, and the emerging market economies of the early 2000s.The recent crisis has been unusual in its global nature, affecting countries with a speed and virulence not seen since the Great Depression, with major advance countries and countries recently integrating with the European Union (EU) most affected.     

Make me special: Gender differences in consumers’ responses to loyalty programs

Current literature on loyalty programs emphasizes the importance of psychological rewards and special treatment. However, it is not clear if male and female customers respond to these incentives in a similar way. We explore the differential effect for female versus male consumers of two psychological rewards that are provided through a loyalty program (a) high status (e.g., Gold membership), and (b) personalization, at different levels of visibility to other consumers. Across three experiments and a field study, we find a coherent pattern of gender differences in the way customers respond to different types of psychological rewards in the context of loyalty programs. The results show that men respond more positively than women to loyalty programs that emphasize status, but only when their higher status is highly visible to others. In contrast, women respond more positively than men to loyalty programs that emphasize personalization, but only for personalization in private settings. We discuss managerial implications for the design of loyalty programs.     

Impacts of Institutional Intervention on Price Transmissions: The Case of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange

In the aftermath of the market liberalization reforms, interventions in developing countries shifted toward building institutions. One of such interventions is the introduction of commodity exchanges. The theoretical justification is that commoditization reduces the high transaction costs associated with the information and enforcement problems characterizing agricultural markets of these countries. However it is not known whether these potential gains are transmitted to the various markets along a value chain. By taking the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) as a case, this paper examines the impacts of the introduction of the commodity exchange in transmitting price signals along the coffee value chain (world‐export‐auction‐producer prices). We found that both the speed and symmetry of transmission remains weak even after the launch of ECX. At each level, the market chain was found to favor buyers. This implies that not only the country's gains from export are sub‐optimal, the cumulative burden is on the millions of smallholder farmers who are located at the bottom of the chain. In a context where local agricultural markets remain traditional and export markets barely competitive, the introduction of the commodity exchange will have limited impacts in improving the performance of markets in transmitting price signals. Other policy measures to further liberalize both local and export markets are required.     

Balance-of-payments crises in a perfect foresight optimizing model

The paper extends the literature on balance-of-payments crises by treating the issue in a generalized equilibrium framework. Investors maximize a non-separble utility function, defined over consumption and real money balances, under the threat of a future collapse of the fixed exchange rate regime. The paper obtains real effects in the form of current account adjustments when agents realize that the fixed regime is not indefinitely viable. New information regarding official foreign lending can cause attacks at the central bank in the form of sudden shifts by investors out of domestic money into foreign bonds.     

Multilevel assessment of diversity,innovation and selection in the solar photovoltaic industry

We undertake an empirical study of the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry using evolutionary-economic concepts. Experts regard solar energy as a realistic option for sustainable energy provision in the long run. We identify the innovation and selection forces that drive the changes in the solar PV industry. In addition, a quantitative analysis using diversity indexes is performed at four levels of the solar PV industry: countries, technologies, applications and companies. Richness (number of alternatives) and evenness are calculated in order to describe and identify the changes that have occurred over time at each level. Most remarkable is that evenness has increased at the company level and decreased at the other three levels. We draw a number of policy conclusions.