Participation in Green Consumer Policies: Deliberative Democracy under Wrong Conditions?

In policy debates about reducing environmental and social harms, political consumerism is often called for by actors from a broad political spectrum. This paper examines traits of deliberative democracy in cases where instruments of political consumerism (eco-labelling, certificates and standards) are developed. The empirical cases are processes surrounding eco-labelled, standardised forestry, food and electricity in Sweden. In green forestry certification, deliberative processes have taken place close to deliberative democracy ideals. Yet, these processes have been made possible because of equal power levels, although power, according to deliberative theory, should be irrelevant. In organic food labelling, a smothering consensus climate has enabled deliberation, although such a policy condition is at odds with certain deliberative democracy ideals. In electricity labelling, its deliberative processes were embraced by everyone, although the problem scope was narrowly defined, whilst fundamental problems were not addressed. If deliberative democracy researchers become involved in critical frame reflection in consumer-oriented policy making, changes can be made that help reduce environmental harms and strengthen public engagement in political consumerism.     

Instrument rules in monetary policy under heterogeneity in currency trade

We embed different instrument rules into Galí and Monacelli’s new Keynesian model for a small open economy that is augmented with technical trading in currency trade to examine the prerequisites for monetary policy. Specifically, conditions for a determinate and least squares learnable REE are in focus. When a contemporaneous data specification of the rule is used in policy-making, the degree of trend following in currency trade does not affect these conditions, except in case of an extensive use of trend following, whereas a forward expectations specification makes it less likely to have a determinate and learnable REE when the degree of trend following is increasing. We allow for interest rate inertia in the analysis.     

Property Prices and Exposure to Multiple Noise Sources: Hedonic Regression with Road and Railway Noise

This study examines the effect of road and railway noise on property prices. It uses the hedonic regression technique on a Swedish data set that contains information about both road and railway noise for each property, and finds that road noise has a larger negative impact on the property prices than railway noise. This is in line with the evidence from the acoustical literature which has shown that individuals are more disturbed by road than railway noise, but contradicts recent results from a hedonic study on data of the United Kingdom.     

Firms,public good provision and institutional uncertainty: Evidence from Russia

Enterprises in post-socialist and transition economies often participate in providing infrastructure and social services to the surrounding community which in the Russian legal setting should be local authorities’ responsibility. We propose that this bundling of social and infrastructure goods provision with firm's core operations is a fully rational choice in an uncertain institutional environment. A unique survey data suggest that this manifests itself through more reliable infrastructure, stronger employee attachment to the firm and, most interestingly, through better relations with the authorities. Relationship with authorities is a two-way game where the firm gains from the arrangement but on the other faces sanctions if it decided to depart from it. Firm's participation in the arrangement is clearly enhanced by inherited fixed capital assets from the Soviet era.     

Adaptive Learning in an Expectational Difference Equation with Several Lags: Selecting among Learnable REE

It is demonstrated that adaptive learning in the least squares sense may be incapable of satisfactorily reducing the number of attainable equilibria in a rational expectations model when focusing on the forward‐solutions to the model. The model examined, as an illustration, is a basic asset pricing model for exchange rate determination that is augmented with technical trading in the currency market in the form of moving averages since it is the most commonly used technique according to questionnaire surveys. The forward‐solutions to such a model are preferable to the backward‐solutions that are normally utilized since announcement effects is an important feature in currency trade. Because of technical trading in foreign exchange, the current exchange rate depends on j _max lags of the exchange rate, meaning that the model has j _max+1 rational expectations equilibria, where several of them are adaptively learnable in the least squares sense. However, since past exchange rates should not affect the current exchange rate when technical trading is absent, it is possible to single out a unique equilibrium among the adaptively learnable equilibria that is economically meaningful. It is worth noting that the model examined can also be viewed as a model for stock price determination in which the forward‐solutions to the model are preferable to the backward‐solutions since the importance of announcement effects is a common characteristic for currency and stock markets.     

Generative Mechanisms of the Adoption of Logistics Innovation: The Case of On‐site Shops in Construction Supply Chains

Empirical studies of logistics innovations have focused on the innovation process, bypassing much the innovative artifact or solution design itself. Focusing on the artifact and solution design in a case study, we contribute to the emerging theory of logistics innovations through articulating the generative mechanisms of the adoption of logistics innovation, that is, the mechanisms through which the design of the solution enables its adoption. We study On‐site Shop, a rare example from the construction industry of a logistics innovation that has successfully migrated from a limited number of pilots to common practice. The case study is based on insights from participation in the design of the solution, and on 55 interviews conducted in a relationship triad consisting of three groups: (1) construction site users, (2) the solution designers, and (3) the suppliers. We propose that standard and efficient solution set‐up is the key enabler of logistics innovation's adoption at temporary construction sites. Communication and operating rules facilitate adoption in the triad, whereas internal and external integration further advance adoption by creating links between the innovative logistics solution and other activities. Finally, trilateral collaboration and congruent technological frames in the relationship triad sustain adoption over time.     

International network extension processes to institutionally different markets: Entry nodes and processes of exporting SMEs

This article is about how SMEs reduce their liability of network outsidership in the process of establishing a network insider position in foreign business networks. By examining how SMEs establish insidership positions in institutionally different business networks, the authors contributes to the network approach to firm internationalization. From a detailed longitudinal and retrospective case study of four SMEs from mature market entering emerging country markets and four SMEs from such immature markets entering mature markets, the authors develop propositions based on intra-group and inter-group analysis. The propositions concern the parties to which the exporter initiates and develops relationships when plugging into the foreign network (the entry node), and how the firm reaches an insider position in this network (the entry process). Three distinct network types are identified along this entry process: the exposure network, the formation network and the sustenance network.     

Developing Pharmacy Services: a Customer-driven Interaction and Counselling Approach

In recent years, many traditional businesses have been facing demands to extend their core product and incorporate a substantial service element. The transition from traditional business to service enterprise cannot be accomplished without considerable attention being given to ways of fulfilling cus- tomer needs. This study looks at the pharmacy business and asks what kind of pharmacy services different customer groups want, how these groups can be distinguished and what the implications are for pharmacy service development. It identifies four customer groups - the contented, phormacist- dependent customer, the independent customer, the infor- mation seeker and the discontented customer -and concludes that the future success of the pharmacies depends on how much they take the desires of these groups into consideration in developing their services.     

Leverage Dynamics and the Burden of Debt

In addition to leverage, the debt service burden of households and firms is an important link between financial and real developments at the aggregate level. Using US data from 1985 to 2017, we find that the debt service burden has sizeable negative effects on expenditure. Its interplay with leverage also explains several data puzzles, including the lack of above-trend output growth during credit booms and the severity of ensuing recessions, without appealing to large shocks or nonlinearities. Estimating the model with data up to 2005, it predicts credit and expenditure paths that closely match actual developments before and during the Great Recession.