Climate Policy Under Uncertain and Heterogeneous Climate Damages

We highlight that uncertainty about climate damages and the fact that damages will be distributed heterogeneously across the global population can jointly be an argument for substantially stricter climate policy even if uncertainty and heterogeneity in isolation are not. The reason is that a given climate risk borne by fewer people implies greater welfare losses. However, these losses turn out to be significant only if society is both risk and inequality averse and if climate damages are highly heterogeneous. We discuss how insurance and self-insurance of climate risk could theoretically mitigate this joint effect of uncertainty and heterogeneity and thus admit weaker climate policy. Insurance provides more efficient risk sharing and self-insurance allows strongly impacted individuals to compensate damages by increasing savings. We first use a simple analytical model to introduce the different concepts and then provide more realistic results from the integrated assessment model DICE.     

What makes entrepreneurship research interesting? Reflections on strategies to overcome the rigour–relevance gap

As entrepreneurship researchers compete to have their work published and universities strive to attract the best entrepreneurship scholars, it is appropriate to examine what makes entrepreneurship research interesting. Interesting studies are usually defined as well-crafted and well-written studies that challenge established knowledge, and produce new theories and findings. This paper examines entrepreneurship scholars’ views on the characteristics of interesting entrepreneurship research by means of a qualitative approach. Eight focus group interviews comprising junior and senior entrepreneurship scholars were conducted. A core finding is that interesting studies must be relevant to practice. However, the institutionalization of entrepreneurship as an academic field has favoured rigour at the cost of relevance, leading to scholars’ frustration with the rigour–relevance gap. In this paper, we analyse various dimensions of interestingness and reflect on strategies for overcoming the rigour–relevance gap, with particular focus on the creation of applicative knowledge.     

Imputed Interindustry Technology Flows - A Comparative SMFA Analysis

This paper shows how the pattern of an interindustry R&D flow system can be detected using a Subsystem-MFA (SMFA). The standard subsystem analysis shows the innovation spillovers of the relevant innovative sectors of a country, which are then turned into graphical form so that the sector clustering into this system can be displayed like a 'molecule' of sectors. The analysis uses the recently published input-output tables of the OECD for Germany, Japan and the United States for the beginning, the middle and the end of the 1980s. The analysis uses R&D-expenditures as an innovation-indicatorvector, published also by the OECD. The results show that there are specific patterns of interindustry imputed R&D flows that differ to some extent between the given countries. These differences can be interpreted as being due to the specific economic history of these countries.