Individual fishing quotas and fishing capacity in the US Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery

Overcapacity (OC) and excess capacity (EC) are serious obstacles affecting the sound management of commercial fisheries around the world. The use of individual fishing quotas (IFQs) has been proposed as a promising management tool to cope with these challenges. However, the empirical evidence on the efficacy of this instrument is scarce. Drawing on a stochastic distance frontier analysis, we investigate the impact of the US Gulf of Mexico red snapper IFQ program on fishing capacity, capacity utilisation (CU) and OC. The paper also offers an alternative approach to compute species‐specific capacity measurements for multispecies fisheries. Our findings show that following the introduction of the IFQ program, fishing capacity decreased, primarily due to the exit of a large number of fishing vessels. CU increased marginally indicating modest decreases in EC. Conversely, we find that OC remains high. Our estimates suggest that about one‐fifth of the actual fleet could harvest the entire quota.     

Outsourcing and efficiency: the case of Spanish citrus farming

Outsourcing in agriculture has traditionally been seen as a managerial strategy of smaller farms to achieve higher levels of efficiency. In this article, we provide empirical evidence supporting the existence of a positive relationship between outsourcing and efficiency in Spanish citrus farming. Outsourcing is measured by the proportion of outsourced labor and capital in farms' total use of these production factors, i.e., the higher the proportion of outsourced inputs, the higher the degree of outsourcing. Making use of data envelopment analysis techniques, we compute input‐specific reductions required to achieve technical efficiency at the farm level. Our results show that attainment of technical efficiency leads to a reduction in the use of both farms' own and outsourced production factors. Furthermore, the degree of outsourcing increases as farms move to their technically efficient productive plans. In addition, outsourcing labor and capital allows farms to achieve efficiency regardless of their size. In our view, this result has a clear implication for policy makers. Instead of trying to improve Spanish citrus farms' competitiveness by pursuing an increase of their average size, policy measures should be adopted to enhance farmers' managerial skills and the efficiency of those external service firms and co‐operatives that are effectively performing basic cultivation tasks.     

Optimal containment and policy differentiation under unilateral climate policy

Abstract Without a broad international agreement, climate policy is less effective, owing to carbon leakage. We investigate whether this negative effect can be addressed by partially containing the policy’s effects to intermediate goods sectors, such as electricity or transportation services. We use a three‐sector model to study a policy that taxes emissions caused by intermediate goods production while subsidizing the intermediate good. We characterize the optimal containment policy for combating carbon leakage and show that it complements the concept of policy differentiation.     

Aggregation of multiple prior opinions

Experts are asked to provide their advice in a situation of uncertainty. They adopt the decision maker?s utility function, but each has a potentially different set of prior probabilities, and so does the decision maker. The decision maker and the experts maximize the minimal expected utility with respect to their sets of priors. We show that a natural Pareto condition is equivalent to the existence of a set Λ of probability vectors over the experts, interpreted as possible allocations of weights to the experts, such that (i) the decision maker?s set of priors is precisely all the weighted-averages of priors, where an expert?s prior is taken from her set and the weight vector is taken from Λ; (ii) the decision maker?s valuation of an act is the minimal weighted valuation, over all weight vectors in Λ, of the experts? valuations.     

Fiscal decentralization and government quality in the OECD

Using indicators of fiscal decentralization which control for intergovernmental transfers and grants, it is shown that decentralization has a positive impact on government quality but that this positive effect is mitigated in the presence of regional elections and multi-level government.     

Eurokrise: Keine Staatsschuldenkrise,sondern Folge der Finanzkrise

Bei der Diskussion um die Staatsschuldenkrise wird h?ufi g vergessen, dass die Finanzkrise die eigentliche Ursache für den Anstieg der Staatsverschuldung in den einzelnen Staaten war. Eine unsolide Haushaltspolitik l?sst sich bei den fi nanzschwachen L?ndern — mit Ausnahme von Griechenland — nicht nachweisen. Daher sollte von dem zu einseitigen Blick auf die Fiskalkriterien abgerückt und den Fehlentwicklungen, die zur Finanzkrise geführt haben, wieder mehr Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt werden.     

Change management practices: Impact on perceived change results

Management literature frequently proposes the use of a set of managerial practices in order to facilitate the management of organizational change processes. This paper analyses differences in perception in the use of such practices, between change strategists and change receptors, and the impact these practices have on the outcomes of organizational change programs and on organizational results, in a sample of 90 organizations in Chile. Results show that, for the same change processes, change strategists report a higher use of change management practices than change receptors. Results also show that, during organizational change processes, firms use more frequently practices related to the change preparation stage in comparison to practices related to the change implementation stage. Finally, results show that, after controlling for organizational size, change program intensity, and service versus manufacturing industries, the use of change management practices has a significant impact on the accomplishment of the change program objectives and deadlines, but results do not show an impact on perceived organizational outcomes (changes in sales, financial results of the firm, operational productivity, and employee performance).     

A Comment on Barnett and Block on Time Deposit and Bagus and Howden on Loan Maturity Mismatching

In Time Deposits, Dimension, and Fraud (2009), William Barnett and Walter Block argue that by borrowing short and lending long there is an over issuance of property rights. Their article, however, does not fully extend the consequences of their contribution. Once this is done, it becomes clearer that their argument suits a great impediment to banking, becoming a possible reason to support rather than to oppose fractional reserve banking. Bagus and Howden (J Bus Ethics 90(3):399–406, 2009) comment on Barnett and Block (J Bus Ethics 88(4):711–716, 2009), the authors claim that while maintaining the illegitimacy of fractional reserve deposits, borrowing short and lending long it is actually not illegitimate. An extension on Bagus and Howden (2009) will show that their line of argumentation can be applied as a defense of fractional reserve banking as well.