The Assessment: Climate-Change Policy

The paper provides a guide to climate-change policy, and, inparticular, the three core components: targets, instruments,and institutional structures. First, the optimal path for reducingcarbon-dioxide (CO₂) emissions, and the role of the social costof carbon in the estimation and revision of the path are setout. Second, the policy instruments, or combination of instruments—taxes,permits, and command-and-control—which are likely to bemost efficient within the political constraints are reviewed.Finally, the design of institutional structures most conduciveto the facilitation of international agreements (such as theKyoto Protocol) and the establishment of credible global climate-changepolicies is discussed. The paper identifies the considerableinefficiencies in existing policies, and the scope for policyimprovements.     

Multinational enterprises and wage costs: vertical FDI revisited

This study explores how wage costs for high-skilled and less-skilled labor in host countries affect the level of affiliate activities conducted by foreign MNEs. We find support for vertical FDI, in the sense that more FDI is conducted in countries where less-skilled labor is relatively cheap. In addition, we find that skilled-wage cost premia also affect FDI activities previously associated with horizontal FDI, i.e. local affiliate sales. Consequently, the potential effects of relative wage costs on MNE activities are large. Rough calculations suggest that more than 20 percent of US affiliate sales in 1998 can be attributed to skilled-wage cost premia.     

Multi-channel-management im spannungsfeld von kundenzufriedenheit und organization

Technologische Entwicklungen wie der massenhafte Einzug des Internets haben dazu geführt, die gewachsenen Absatzketten insbesondere im Handel zumindest teilweise au?er Kraft zu setzen. Das Management von Kundenkontakten stellt Unternehmen vor neue Herausforderungen, da der multioptionale Konsument zur Realit?t geworden ist. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird mittels dreier empirischer Studien, durchgeführt vom Institut für Handelsmanagement und Netzwerkmarketing, ein Modell der Zufriedenheit von Konsumenten im Internet hergeleitet, welches den Unternehmen neue Ansatzpunkte pr?sentiert, um erfolgreich im Markt zu bestehen.