The multiple effects of carbon values on optimal rotation

Non-consumptive benefits which increase with crop age, like keeping carbon sequestered, lengthen optimal rotation compared with rotation for timber alone. High proposed carbon prices may extend rotation indefinitely. Carbon storage in wood products reduces this tendency. Biomass as an energy source displacing fossil fuels favours rotations near those of maximum biomass productivity. Use of sawn timber to displace structural materials with high embodied carbon favours somewhat longer rotations. Effects of rotation on soil carbon, and fossil carbon volatilised in harvesting operations, are further complications. Including all carbon effects results in optimal rotations somewhat longer than those based only on timber value, but shorter than those based on timber plus forest carbon. To include all factors intuitively is not possible: balanced appraisal needs economic calculations.     

Optimal rotation with declining discount rate

In recent years it has been argued, from many perspectives, that the further into the future a value flow occurs, the lower is the appropriate discount rate for it. National governments are now beginning to authorise such declining discount rates. This viewpoint can be, and has been, formalised in various ways, and has been applied to evaluating forestry investments of given durations. When the optimal duration of investment is itself the issue, new problems arise. Lower discount rates make subsequent rotations longer than earlier ones, and for a given length more valuable than they would otherwise be. This affects the optimal length of earlier rotations, which in turn may affect the discount rate profile applicable to later ones. In the absence of analytical solutions for the optimal sequence of rotations, numerical protocols are needed. The results arising are mostly in accord with expectations. If the change of discount rate is due to expected changes of circumstance that are actually realised, then the optimal sequence of rotations will remain as initially determined. If, however, it is due merely to the particular time perspective of the present generation, rotations will be revised by future generations. This will lead to a sequence of rotations similar to that deemed optimal at the current short-term discount rate. The most important reductions in profitability caused by choosing the “wrong” discounting protocol arise from the “wrong” rate, rather than by using declining rates as such.     

Regulatory Focus Intensity and Evaluations of Retail Experiences

Previous research indicates that consumers differ in their evaluation of and response to similar retail experiences. Reporting results from three studies, the current research proposes consumers’ regulatory focus intensity as one possible source of this variation. Study 1 examines how consumers’ regulatory focus intensity influences their in‐store behavioral intentions following good and bad shopping experiences. Study 2 illustrates how consumers’ regulatory focus intensity impacts their future loyalty intentions after satisfactory retail experiences. In Study 3, the researchers explore how retailers can employ regulatory framing in their communication messages to increase the future loyalty intentions of those chronically less loyal consumers. Lastly, theoretical and managerial implications as well as limitations of this research are discussed.     

Explaining employers' illicit envelope wage payments in the EU‐27: a product of over‐regulation or under‐regulation?

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the prevalence in the 27 member states of the European Union of a little discussed illicit wage arrangement in which formal employees are paid two wages by their formal employers – an official declared salary and an additional undeclared wage, thus allowing employers to evade their full social insurance and tax liabilities. Reporting the results of a 2007 Eurobarometer survey involving 26,659 face‐to‐face interviews, the finding is that one in 18 formal employees received such an envelope wage from their formal employer and that envelope wage payments are more prevalent in member states with lower (rather than higher) levels of state intervention. The tentative conclusion is that illicit envelope wage payments are a product of under‐regulation, rather than over‐regulation, and that further research is now required to test the validity analysis of this thesis in other global regions.     

Corporate strategy financialized: Conjuncture,arbitrage and earnings capacity in the S&P500

The conjuncture that ushered in the era of shareholder value served to embed capital market expectations into corporate governance aligning management and shareholder interests. Market arbitrage focussed on modifying contractual relations with stakeholders to extract a (higher) return on invested capital. In this article we focus on cash earnings on capital employed generated by the S&P 500 survivor group of firms covering the period 1990–2008. We use this financial data to construct three complementary perspectives on corporate financial performance: firm, firm-relative and macro. Within this framework the financial numbers and perspectives are analogous to a ‘hall of mirrors’ where ambiguity and contradiction are in play frustrating straightforward performative narratives that connect purpose with financial transformation an era of shareholder value.     

Evaluating cross‐national variations in the extent and nature of informal employment in the European Union

This article evaluates critically the contrasting explanations for the cross‐national variations in the prevalence and nature of informal employment, which variously view such work as more prevalent in poorer, under‐developed economies; driven by high taxes, corruption and state interference that lead workers to exit formal employment; or driven by inadequate state intervention leading to the exclusion of workers from formal employment and state welfare provision. By analysing cross‐national variations across the European Union in the size of informal employment using indirect measurement methods and in its varying character using evidence from a 2007 Eurobarometer survey, it was found that wealthier, less corrupt and more equal economies with higher levels of labour market intervention, social protection and redistribution via social transfers have lower levels of informal employment, much of which is conducted to exit formal employment. The paper concludes by exploring the theoretical and policy implications.     

A typology for defining agritourism

Agritourism has been studied in various ways and contexts. It can be argued, however, that studies have yet to provide a clear and basic understanding of the characteristics that underpin and define agritourism. This paper proposes an original typology for defining agritourism by identifying the key characteristics currently used to define agritourism in the literature and organising them into a transparent and structured framework. For the first time, the agritourism typology clarifies and classifies definitions of agritourism that currently exist in the literature. It therefore offers a comprehensive framework that can be used as a basis for more informed debate and discussion and for future empirical research.     

Evaluating the effect of soft business support upon small firm performance

The paper applies robust econometric techniques to assess theimpact of publicly-provided subsidised ‘soft’ businesssupport on the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs). It considers the assistance for consultancy advice providedtowards marketing under the UK Enterprise Initiative, lookingat its effect on sales turnover, employment and survival, andmaking explicit allowance for selection effects. It is foundthat the policy has no impact on the survival of smaller SMEs,and that it is most effective in the mid-range SMEs, where itraises survival rates by about 4% over the longer run and growthrates in surviving firms by up to 10% per annum. Overall, thescheme has a substantial impact, but the paper draws attentionto the possible displacement effects.