Using a discontinuous grant rule to identify the effect of grants on local taxes and spending

When investigating the effects of federal grants on the behavior of lower-level governments, it is hard to defend the handling of grants as an exogenous factor. Federal governments often set grants based on characteristics and performance of decentralized governments. In this paper we make use of a discontinuity in the Swedish grant system in order to estimate the causal effects of general intergovernmental grants on local spending and local tax rates. The formula for the distribution of funds is used as an exclusion restriction in an IV-estimation. We find evidence of crowding-in, where federal grants are shifted to more local spending, but not to reduced local tax rates.     

Production subsidies and redistribution

Who gains from stimulating output? We explore a dynamic model with production subsidies where the population is heterogeneous in one dimension: wealth. There are two channels through which production subsidies redistribute resources across the population. First, poorer agents gain from a rise in wages, since—to the extent there is an operative wealth effect in labor supply—they work harder. Second, because a current output boost will raise consumption today relative to the future, thus lowering real interest rates, poor agents gain in relative terms since their income is based less on interest income. We examine optimal redistribution from the perspective of an arbitrary consumer in the population. We show that, if this consumer has commitment at time zero to set all present and future subsidy rates, and for a class of preferences that admits aggregation in wealth, then output stimulation, and hence redistribution, will only occur at time zero; after that, subsidies are zero. A byproduct of our analysis of this environment is a median-voter theorem: with direct voting over subsidy sequences at time zero, the sequence preferred by the median-wealth consumer is the unique outcome. We also study lack of commitment, since interest-rate manipulation is associated with time inconsistency. We analyze this case formally by looking at the Markov-perfect (time-consistent) equilibrium in a game between successive identical decision makers (e.g., the median agent). Here, subsidies persist—they are constant over time—and are more distortionary than under commitment. Moreover, whereas under commitment asset inequality changes initially—in favor of the consumer who decides on policy—it does not under lack of commitment.     

An Experimental Validation of Hypothetical WTP for a Recyclable Product

Using a within-subject experiment, we compare hypothetical andreal willingness to pay (WTP) for an improvement in therecyclability of a product. Subjects are faced with a real paymentscenario after they have responded to a hypothetical question.Contrary to most of the results obtained in similar studies, at apopulation level, there are no significant median differencesbetween actual and hypothetical stated values of WTP. However,within-subject comparisons between hypothetical and actual valuesindicate that subjects stating a low (high) hypothetical WTP tendto underestimate (overestimate) the value of their actualcontributions.     

Repayment behavior in peer‐to‐peer microfinancing: Empirical evidence from Kiva

Based on a sample of microloans (to individuals and to groups) that were refinanced through the peer-to-peer microfinancing platform Kiva, we study the determinants of the repayment behavior of micro-entrepreneurs whose loans are available to international charitable lenders. We perform binary regressions and account for influential factors such as the time required for funding or the type of entrepreneurial activity. The screening and monitoring quality of the microfinance institution which selects the borrowers is a main driver of credit default. We find evidence that the loan size, the loan term and the length of a possible grace period influence the probability of default. Moreover, women demonstrate better repayment behavior which is, however, not the case for groups of women.     

Encountering Everyday Racist Practices: Sociospatial Negotiations of Immigrant Settlement in Athens,Greece

This article delineates the ways in which the context of institutional and non‐institutional racist practices, legitimated by the rise of extreme right‐wing populism and racism, affects immigrants’ everyday lives in Athens, Greece. In this research, I explored the transformations of immigrants’ settlement trajectories, coping strategies and tactics, and their bodily interactions when encountering racist violence at the local level, through extensive fieldwork in two case study areas in metropolitan Athens—Omonia and Nikaia. The article is based on previous work on encounters with difference and everyday racism, with the aim of contributing to existing scholarship by examining urban encounters with manifestations of racism in the form of violent practices, which are on a rise not only as exceptional but also as everyday lived events. I demonstrate how immigrants’ encounters with police raids and patrols, and with racist violence perpetrated by neo‐Nazi militias, transform immigrants’ daily lives in the city at the micro‐scale. These encounters have an impact not only on immigrants’ social relationships, strategies and tactics of settlement, but also on the reconstruction of urban space. My argument is that urban encounter remains an open and dynamic field for negotiation of interethnic cohabitation, as it produces both violent confrontations and sociospatial embodied opportunities for coexistence.     

Consumer multiculturation: consequences of multi-cultural identification for brand knowledge

Whilst there has been a sustained interest in ethnic migrants developing composite cultural identities in emerged multi-cultural contexts, considerations of identity transitions among mainstream consumers (i.e. the non-migrant, locally born majority in a given marketplace) have been so far limited to the local–global culture dichotomy. This paper argues that, in multi-cultural marketplaces, mainstream consumers are exposed to a diverse range of local, global and foreign cultural meanings and may deploy these meanings for identity construal in a more complex manner. The paper offers a conceptual framework of consumer multiculturation that (a) includes foreign cultures as other discrete influences in multi-cultural marketplaces; (b) constructs a more coherent conception of how, through interaction with foreign, global and local cultures, mainstream consumers' identities may diversify beyond local/global/glocal alternatives and (c) considers the impact of these transitions on consumers' perceptions, expectations of and behavioral responses to culture-based brand meanings.     

Nanoimplants that Enhance Human Capabilities: A Cognitive‐Affective Approach to Assess Individuals’ Acceptance of this Controversial Technology

Nanotechnology enables the miniaturization of complex devices designed to enhance individuals’ physical and cognitive capabilities and, in the form of nanoimplants, their integration in the human body. It is unknown, however, whether people are willing or not to accept such devices. To shed light on this issue, this research used an extended version of the well‐known technology acceptance model (TAM), adding affective factors to the cognitive components already present in the model. Testing on a sample of 600 individuals yielded statistically significant effects on attitudes toward nanoimplants and intention to undergo nanoimplantation. Conclusions are drawn and implications are discussed.