Invasive species management in a spatially heterogeneous world: Effects of uniform policies

The spread of invasive species (IS) is an inherently spatial process, and management of invasive species occurs over spatially heterogeneous regions, but policy constraints can restrict management responses to be homogeneous across regions. Using a spatial bioeconomic model that includes a representation of invasive species ecology based on heterogeneous environments that are linked across space and time by human and ecological pathways, we compare optimal spatially heterogeneous policy to spatially uniform policy. We explore the magnitude and pattern of the policy differences with emphasis on the influence of different types of underlying heterogeneity across locations.     

Pipeline management for the acquisition of industrial projects

The management and controlling of the industrial project acquisition process, with its staged, funnel-like structure, has been neglected in empirical research so far—even though an effective acquisition process is crucial for economic success. In addition to profitability, the main goal of industrial companies is to implement a pipeline process that ensures that the pipeline is always filled with acquisition projects and results in a constant stream of orders over time. The projects considered are characterized by complexity, uniqueness, and discontinuity. Based on a large-scale survey among German industrial companies, we describe the industrial project acquisition process, where the projects mentioned above are sold on a non-continuous basis to industrial customers. We assess how the industrial project acquisition process is really structured, whether a sales funnel management is applicable and utilized by sales management to monitor and control this process, and whether a sophisticated sales funnel management contributes to enhanced economic success.     

Einkommens- und anpassungsprobleme der landwirtschaft in der EuropÄischen wirtschaftsgemeinschaft

Summary Income and Adaptation Problems in Common-Market Agriculture. — Agricultural income within EEC can only be satisfactory if farms are large and if, at the same time, total agricultural production is reduced. Agricultural structure may in future take the following forms: (1) Family-run farms that have some additional business, (2) side-line farms alongside of which there are relatively few largescale processing-industry enterprises, (3) large-scale agricultural and stock-breeding farms resulting from enlargement, co-operation or fusion. The price level should allow farms that are capable of survival and enlargement to develop on their own means. At the same time, it should induce small farmers to give up agriculture. If the price level cannot fulfil these two postulates at the same time, the farms capable of surviving should be subsidized with a view to improving their structure. In EEC, Germany surrenders market shares to France because, in France, there are fewer possibilities of earning non-agricultural incomes. Therefore, agricultural production in France is still kept up, or even increased, while it is being reduced in the Federal Republic. This kind of adaptation of production, which is not dictated by the existing natural location advantages, must be considered faulty. It will have to be corrected by national measures until the respective production and income conditions have reached a certain measure of conformity.

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Résumé Problèmes de revenu et d’adaptation dans l’agriculture de la CEE. — Dans la CEE, le revenu agricole ne peut être satisfaisant que si les fermes sont assez grandes et que la production agricole totale est en même temps réduite. A l’avenir, la structure agricole pourra prendre les formes suivantes: 1. Fermes exploitées par des familles, qui possèdent en même temps des entreprises additionnelles, 2. fermes exploitées en occupation secondaire, à c?té desquelles il y a relativement peu de grandes entreprises de l’industrie de transformation, 3. grandes fermes à agriculture et élevage, qui résultent d’agrandissements, de coopérations ou de fusions. Le niveau des prix devrait permettre aux fermes vitales et capables d’être agrandies de se développer avec leurs propres moyens. Il devrait en même temps amener les petits paysans à abandonner l’agriculture. Si le niveau des prix n’arrive pas à remplir ces deux conditions en même temps, les fermes vitales devraient recevoir des subventions, qui leur permettraient de corriger leur structure. Dans la CEE, l’Allemagne abandonne une part du marché à la France, parce qu’en France il y a moins de possibilités de gagner un revenu accessoire non-agricole. C’est pourquoi la production agricole fran?aise est maintenue, et même augmentée, pendant que celle de la République Fédérale est réduite. Une telle adaptation de la production, qui n’est pas dictée par les avantages naturels de location, doit être regardée comme fautive. Elle devra être corrigée par des mesures nationales, jusqu’à ce que les conditions de production et de revenu auront atteint une certaine mesure de conformité.

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Resumen Problemas de ingreso y adaptación de la agricultura en la Comunidad Económica Europea. — El sector agricola en el Mercado Comiin sólo puede conseguir un nivel de ingresos adecuado a través de empresas mas grandes y eficientes y reduciendo al mismo tiempo la producción total. La base de la estructura agraria en el futuro podria ser: (i) Empresas familiares, que podrian ser suplementadas con empresas secundarias. (2) Empresas secundarias, aparte de las cuales existe un numéro relativamente reducido de empresas grandes dedicadas a la elaboraci?n de productos. (3) Ampliación, cooperación o concentración de empresas grandes dedicadas a la producción agrícola y ganadera. El nivel de precios tiene que ser tal que las empresas capaces de subsistir puedan desarrollarse por medios propios. Al mismo tiempo, este nivel de precios tiene que incentivar a las empresas peque?as a abandonar la producción. Si ambas condiciones no pueden realizarse simultáneamente, habría que conceder a las empresas capaces de subsistir subvenciones que ayuden a mejorar la estructura. En el Mercado Común se da el caso de que la agricultura alemana pierde posiciones en el mercado francés, lo que es debido al hecho de que en Francia los agricultures apenas tienen la posibilidad de conseguir ingresos fuera de la agricultura por lo que se mantiene el nivel de producción, e incluso se incrementa, mientras que en Alemania sucede lo contrario. Mientras que los ajustes de producción no se Orienten en las ventajas naturales de locación, el desarrollo marcha en una dirección equivocada. En esta situación y hasta que las condiciones de producción e ingresos se hayan igualado más o menos, cabe adoptar medidas nationales de compensación.

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Riassunto Problemi di reddito e di adattamento dell’agricoltura nella Comunità Economica Europea. — Un reddito sufficiente dell’agricoltura può essere raggiunto nella CEE soltanto per mezzo di aziende più grandi ed efficienti e riducendo nello stesso tempo la produzione totale. Basi della futura struttura agraria possono essere: (1) Aziende ruralifamiliari che siano integrate con imprese collaterali a scopo di lucro. (2) Aziende collaterali a scopo di lucro accanto alle quali ci siano relativamente poche grandi imprese della produzione di trasformazione organizzate in maniera industriale e (3) grandi aziende agricole con produzione vegetale ed animale sorte mediante aumento, collaborazione o fusioni. Il livello dei prezzi deve rendere possibile uno sviluppo con forze proprie alle aziende capaci di esistere e di aumentare. Si devono stimolare, però, contemporaneamente le piccole aziende a ritirarsi dall’agricoltura. Per quanto il livello dei prezzi non possa appagare ambedue queste condizioni contemporaneamente,alle aziende capaci di esistere devono essere pagate sovvenzioni con effetto di miglioramento della struttura. Nella CEE l’agricoltura tedesca lascia alla Francia quote di partecipazione al mercato perchè lì le possibilità di reddito fuori dell’agricoltura sono sfavorevoli. La produzione è perciò 1ì ancora mantenuta o ingrandita mentre nella Repubblica Federale essa è già ridotta. Un tale adattamento della produzione non orientato a naturali vantaggi di ubicazione è da considerarsi uno sviluppo sbagliato a cui si potrebbe rimediare con misure di compensazione nazionali fino a che i rapporti di produzione e reddito abbiano raggiunto una certa armonia.

     

Patterns of multi-agent land conservation: Crowding in/out,agglomeration, and policy

Private agents make large contributions to networks of conserved land, but little is known about how private agents’ decisions might be altered by government actions. This paper explores the impact of public conservation and public policy on the quantity and configuration of private land conservation and the extent to which the social optimum is reached. Because land conservation benefits often have thresholds and spatial characteristics, we consider the impact of different land conservation benefit functions on the patterns of conservation created by the interaction of private and public agents. We find that public conservation crowds private conservation in or out depending on whether marginal conservation benefits increase or decrease with total acreage, and crowding out is mitigated by the presence of budget constraints. We show how land conservation agents might interact strategically in space depending on preferences over fragmentation, and we explore that spatial strategic interaction in a case with a regional land trust and a case with hot-spot parcels. We identify when government policies, such as agglomeration bonuses and mitigating coordination costs, are most likely to increase the social benefits provided by private land conservation agents.     

A flexible model for actuarial risks under dependence

Methods for computing risk measures, such as stop-loss premiums, tacitly assume independence of the underlying individual risks. This can lead to huge errors even when only small dependencies occur. In the present paper, a general model is developed which covers what happens in practice in a realistic way. Moreover, it is also flexible, in the sense that it allows application in practice. Accurate and transparent approximations are presented, and the results obtained are illustrated through explicit examples.     

Currency devaluations and beggar-my-neighbour penalties: evidence from the 1930s

The currency devaluations of the 1930s facilitated a faster recovery from the Great Depression in the countries depreciating, but their unilateral manner provoked retaliatory and discriminatory commercial policies abroad. This article explores the importance of the retaliatory motive in the imposition of trade barriers by gold bloc countries during the 1930s and its effects on trade. Relying on new and existing datasets on the introduction of quotas, tariffs, and bilateral trade costs, the quantification of the discriminatory response suggests that these countries imposed significant beggar-my-neighbour penalties. The penalties reduced trade to a similar degree that modern regional trade agreements foster trade. Furthermore, the analysis of contemporary newspapers reveals that the devaluations of the early 1930s triggered an Anglo-French trade conflict marked by tit-for-tat protectionist policies. With regards to global trade, the unilateral currency depreciations came at a high price in political and economic terms. These costs must have necessarily reduced their benefit to the world as a whole.     

AN APPROXIMATE CONFIDENCE INTERVAL FOR THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN QUANTILES IN A BIO-MEDICAL PROBLEM

In this note it is described how two distributions arising in a bio-medical investigation are compared by means of a confidence interval for the difference of appropriate quantiles. It is briefly indicated how an approximation for such a confidence interval is derived.     

Spatial modeling of extraction and enforcement in developing country protected areas

Budget constraints prohibit protected area managers (PAMs) in developing countries from completely deterring extraction and the resulting resource degradation. Because benefits from extraction are a function of distance, PAMs have an opportunity to patrol in a spatial pattern that minimizes degradation for a given budget level. This paper develops a spatial model of a game between a PAM and neighboring villagers to determine the optimal patterns of extraction and enforcement under various constraints. It demonstrates the importance of spatial aspects of PA management, reveals the inefficiency of many PA policies, and supports explicitly spatial management schemes such as extraction zones. The framework underpins a discussion of incomplete enforcement, rural welfare, budgetary tradeoffs between PA size and enforcement costs, and PA shape decisions with human-induced edge effects.     

Internationalization strategies of EU and Asia–Pacific low fare airlines

We employ Dunning’s eclectic paradigm (OLI) to shed light onto low fare airlines’ internationalization strategies. In addition to 31 European low fare airlines, we also analyze the internationalization strategies of 41 low cost carriers in the Asia–Pacific region. The results indicate that homogenous groups of such airlines emerge with regard to their internationalization strategies and that capital and ownership structure as well as relative timing is especially closely related to low fare airline’s entry modal choice. We discuss inferences for the use of the OLI paradigm in further studies of airline internationalization.