Does expert trust and factual knowledge shape individual's perception of science?

Explaining how individuals form their risks and benefit perceptions with regard to new technologies is a key issue in order to understand how new information disseminates. This paper examines the effect of knowledge, social values and trust in experts as shaping perceptions of risks and benefits of new technologies. Given that individual's perceptions of a technology is affected by unobserved heterogeneity, we use a methodology to disentangle the effect of a joint estimation of risks and benefit perceptions, namely seemingly unrelated probit, and we draw upon evidence from a representative survey carried out in Spain. Our findings suggest that factual knowledge and trust in experts increase perceptions of benefit of new technology developments and jointly reduce the perceptions of risk. Furthermore, reliance on traditional social values only appears to affect perceptions of benefits but does not influence risk perceptions.     

Demarketing energy: Does psychographic research hold the answer?

A pilot research study suggests that a psychographic analysis can provide rich insights into consumer energy profiles. Marketing research and analysis can contribute substantially in dealing with this national crisis.     

Cooperative R&D with Endogenous Technology Differentiation

We study a nontournament R&D duopoly. Before the standard R&D investment and quantity-setting stages, we consider a stage in which firms choose their R&D technologies. Spillovers negatively depend on R&D technology differentiation. We show that, in equilibrium, firms will choose identical or very similar R&D processes. Such equilibria may entail less differentiation than would be dictated by social welfare maximization.     

Persistence in some energy futures markets

In this study, we examine the possibility of long‐range dependence in some energy futures markets for different maturities. In order to test for persistence, we use a variety of techniques based on non‐parametric, semi‐parametric and parametric methods. The results indicate that there is little or no evidence of long memory in gasoline, propane, oil and heating oil at different maturities. However, when we focus on the volatility process, proxied by the absolute returns, we find strong evidence of long memory in all the variables at different contracts. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 30:490–507, 2010     

Testing of seasonal fractional integration in UK and Japanese consumption and income

The seasonal structure of quarterly UK and Japanese consumption and income is examined by means of fractionally based tests proposed by Robinson ( 1994 ). These series were analysed from an autoregressive unit root viewpoint by Hylleberg, Engle, Granger and Yoo (HEGY, 1990 ) and Hylleberg, Engle, Granger and Lee (HEGL, 1993 ). We find that seasonal fractional integration, with amplitudes possibly varying across frequencies, is an alternative plausible way of modelling these series. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

HIGH-SKILLED MIGRATION AND THE EXERTION OF EFFORT BY THE LOCAL POPULATION

The optimal design of immigration policy is a topical issue, both in the policy debate and the economic literature. In this paper, we present empirical evidence from a firm level dataset collected in 2000 on the demand for high-skilled workers, including foreign workers, in Europe and its determinants. Our major findings are that the fraction of high-skilled workers recruited from the international labour market is very small, and that foreign and domestic workers are very similar in terms of their formal education (measured by specialization subject) and their job characteristics. We suggest an efficiency wage model to explain why firms recruit foreign workers in small numbers, and why they are willing to pay immigrants the same wage as local workers, whilst at the same time also paying for their moving costs, despite the similar human capital profile of immigrants to domestic workers.     

Good governance and good aid allocation

We model the aid allocation process as a rent-seeking contest between two countries and investigate the effects of differing allocation rules on recipients' behavior in a simple framework. We investigate the aid allocation mechanism design that attempts to increase the governance quality of potential recipient countries: the potential recipients spend costly resources improving governance, while the donor country allocates the fund based on their governance quality. The paper compares two mechanisms: one uses a simple winner-takes-all tournament to award the entire available purse to the country with the best governance; while under the other aid is distributed among countries in proportion to their governance qualities. The paper shows the second mechanism outperforms the first only if competing countries are sufficiently asymmetric. Moreover, the recipient who is most effective in governance – and stands to benefit the most from development assistance – has interests opposite to those of the donor. In addition, the paper shows that if the donor country allocates the fund based on both governance and the levels of poverty, it may result in a poverty trap: the leaders of potential recipient countries deliberately allocate funds away from the poorest so as not to better their position in order to receive more aid.     

Impacts from restoration strategies: Assessment through valuation workshops

Recent decades have seen a wide range of pollutant spills affecting natural, industrial, urban and rural areas (Exxon Valdez, Amoco Cadiz, Erika, Prestige, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and the Aznalcóllar mines in Spain, to name a few). The extent of damage covers both time and space. Therefore, in order to mitigate the effects of pollution, it is necessary to adopt integrated management of both productive and natural areas. However, to be effective it is necessary to consider not only the health or biophysical effects of the countermeasures, but also the response of individuals to these changes. The purpose of this study is to assess the potential social and environmental impacts derived from the implementation of restoration strategies resulting from spills. Our approach is based on a choice experiment applied within the context of a citizens' valuation workshop or market stall in Cumbria (UK) and Zaragoza (Spain). The results highlight the advantages of this participatory technique versus traditional surveys.