Revealing demand for an actual public good

In spite of important theoretical advances and a number of laboratory tests in recent years, no practicable mechanism for revealing demand for public goods has yet emerged. A method is presented which seems capable of meeting the political demands of such mechanisms. It was successfully tested on an actual public-good project provided by the Swedish government. The method is evaluated against the background of the results of this nonlaboratory and nonhypothetical test.     

Political Stock Markets and Unreliable Polls

A political stock market (PSM) clearly beat the polls in predicting the outcome of a Swedish referendum on whether or not Sweden should join the European Union. In fact, polls were unable to make such predictions since the number of undecided respondents always far exceeded the observed YES/NO margin. However, an obstacle to PSMs serving as a superior forecasting instrument is that they can be sensitive to price distortions - by interest groups that may wish to effectuate, and pay for, such distortions - or forecast competitions tied to PSM trade gains, the latter of which was tested here.     

Fairness in a tradeable-permit treaty for carbon emissions reductions in Europe and the former Soviet Union

This paper evaluates the distributional implications of alternative permit allocations in a tradeable permit regime for carbon emissions reductions (20% below baseline) in 2010 for a region consisting of Europe and the states of the former Soviet Union (FSU). Participation in such a regime is expected to hinge on the fairness of the distributional consequences. We find that initial permit allocations by populationand/or GDP are unlikely to induce participation by most countries of Eastern Europe and FSU because of the net costs involved. We identify a set of initial allocations that would at least compensate these countries. A fair treatment of the countries in Western Europe (WE) is here one which equalizes net costs perGDP. For a wide set of cost functions for carbon emission reductions, the cost gains that WE would reap from a tradeable permit system relative to unilateral reductions by WE as a group are found to be on the order of 85 percent. This would imply, among other things, a significant increase in WE'scapacity to make further emissions reductions.     

A Cost-effective Approach to Attracting Low-income Countries to International Emissions Trading: Theory and Experiments

The cost-effectiveness of the KyotoProtocol and any similar non-global treatywould be enhanced by attracting additionalcountries to international emissions tradingand achieving this as soon as possible. Incontrast to what is heard in most of thedebate, such an enlargement is here taken to beattained with the new participants, atleast to begin with, being fullycompensated. This paper focuses on twoforms of compensation that can be used toattract poor countries to participate inemissions trading. The theoretical aswell as experimental evidence suggests that, ifpoor countries are more risk averse than richcountries, partial compensation in terms offinancial transfers is more cost-effective thanrelying solely on compensation in kind –emission quotas – as has been the case so far.Using money for partial compensation would alsoreduce the risk for ``hot air' allocations andthe ensuing political obstacles tocost-effectiveness that such allocations tendto create.     

Competitive Neutrality of the OECD Consensus Myth or Reality

This research paper gives into context ongoing changes in the balance of forces in the international markets caused not only by the crisis and the need to restore market-neutral internationally agreed system for state participation in the support for exports based on real economic criteria. The aim of this research is to demonstrate the changes of the balance of forces in the international markets. This paper presented the statistical data relating to development of GDP, indebtedness or value of exports or imports that the present changes in international markets and open discussion about the topic problem. This article recalled the basic principles of insurance and export financing with state support and also are presented current problems of implementation rules of the CONSENSUS. Due to the fact that state support for exports is an important internationally respected system it is necessary to overcome some doubts and bring to the system real market neutrality. Therefore, we ask whether are respected in practice the agreed principles of international state aid exports and what problems currently international markets and fundamentally different countries are struggling. It can be said that the rules CONSENSUS OECD has contributed to the creation of fair market conditions in international markets, but it can be also monitored over time to some extent being away from the demands of market neutrality. In view of these facts it can be considered as the basis of the current situation primarily to ensure a truly market and competitive neutrality of state support for exports.     

‘Don't give us an assignment where we have to use spinach!’: food choice and discourse in home and consumer studies

The aim of the study was to describe classroom Discourses about vegetables during the planning, cooking, eating and evaluation of meals in the Swedish school subject Home and Consumer Studies. Fifty‐nine students and five teachers were recruited from five northern Swedish villages and towns, and then observed, recorded and in some cases video‐taped during lessons that took place between 2010 and 2012. Based on 56 instances of talk about vegetables, four Discourses were identified and related to the three aspects of Belasco's culinary triangle of contradictions: identity, responsibility and convenience. The results indicated that the identity‐based sensory and cultural Discourses sometimes clashed with the more responsibility‐oriented health and evaluation Discourses. The health Discourse was only used when there was an element of evaluation, with assignments connected to grades. In all other cases, the sensory and cultural Discourses guided vegetable use. Sometimes different sensory or cultural assumptions could clash with each other, for example when the teacher insisted on the use of a specific recipe regardless of a student's taste preferences. Since these preferences did not always harmonize with curricular demands for responsibility, there might be a risk of basing grades on aspects of students’ identity. Alternatively, students might feel constrained to argue against their own identity in order to be favourably evaluated. Then again, if teachers always bow to student tastes, this limits their chances of learning about food and physical health. Viewing the dilemma through the lens of the culinary triangle of contradictions may help teachers and researchers develop teaching methods that take all aspects of food choice into account.     

The importance of time frames in Swedish Home and Consumer Studies

The aim of this study was to explore how time frames affect pupils and teachers in cooking activities during lessons of different durations for Home and Consumer Studies, with a specific focus on the pupils’ experiences. To investigate this, classroom observations were carried out in 2011 and 2012, with the help of audio and video recordings in three different schools in Sweden and included altogether 22 pupils (18 girls, 4 boys) in grade 9 (15–16 years). Each class was observed during two separate lessons, lasting between 1 h 50 min (110 minutes) and 2 h 20 min (140 min). The six lessons resulted in 12 h of video recorded time and 80 h of sound recordings. The study showed that the importance of finishing on time seemed to be ingrained in most pupils in all classes and the end result was perceived as more important than the process of cooking. The study also showed that knowledge of cooking skills and time management seemed important for success in grade‐related tasks. Pupils demonstrated different ways of handling the time frames, e.g. using various methods to speed up the cooking process. This study raises important questions about the relationship between national and local time frames and the curriculum aims in Home and Consumer Studies.