Factors of electric vehicle adoption: A comparison of conventional and electric car users based on an extended theory of planned behavior

Increasing the share of battery electric vehicles (BEV) in the total car fleet is regarded as a promising way to reduce local car emissions. Based on online surveys in Denmark and Sweden, this study compares BEV users' (n = 673) and conventional vehicle (CV) users' (n = 1794) socio-demographic profiles, attitudinal profiles, and mobility patterns. In line with previous research, BEV users are typically male, highly educated, have high incomes, and often more than one car in their household. Additionally, BEV users perceive less functional barriers toward BEV use and have more positive attitudes and norms than CV users. The different profiles of these user groups suggest a separate analysis of potential factors of BEV adoption in both groups. In regression analyses, CV and BEV users' intention to use/purchase a BEV is modeled based on factors of the Theory of Planned Behavior extended by personal norm, perceived mobility necessities, and BEV experience. For CV users, symbolic attitudes related to BEVs are the most important factor of intention, while perceived functional barriers in terms of driving range are most relevant for BEV users' intention. How BEV users cope with trips of longer distance seems of particular relevance. In multiple car households, we found the percentage of actual BEV usage related to the type of other cars in the household, perceived functional barriers of BEVs as well as (successful) behavioral adaption to longer trips by BEVs. Based on the results, we discuss ways to increase BEV adoption for current users and non-users.     

Costs of complying with quality requirements in meal services for older adults

ABSTRACT

Care of older adults, including meal service to home-dwelling individuals is under pressure for improving its resource utilization. There is concern for potential meal quality impacts of this development – and subsequently for the users’ food intake and nutritional status. The objective of the study is to examine the municipalities’ additional costs of initiatives to improve quality in the supply of meal services for the home-dwelling elderly. An economic optimization model was developed and used to determine the cost-minimizing meal production scheme under alternative specifications regarding production methods, ingredient sourcing, composition of dishes, menu variation, and delivery frequency for each municipality in Denmark, while taking heterogeneity of users into account. Alternative modifications to the quality standards within these dimensions have been analyzed. Results suggest that except for higher delivery frequency, the additional costs of the considered quality improvements are modest (1–5% of the current cost), whereas daily delivery would increase the cost by 10–15% in several municipalities. Despite relatively low additional costs, Danish municipalities may lack the economic incentive to undertake such quality improvements, because the additional costs cannot be passed on to the users; thus, municipalities will need to finance these costs by savings on other municipal services.     

Forest Value and Optimal Rotations in Continuous Cover Forestry

The Faustmann forest rotation model is a celebrated contribution in economics. The model provides a forest value expression and allows a solution to the optimal rotation problem valid for perpetual rotations of even-aged forest stands. However, continuous forest cover forest management systems imply uneven-aged dynamics, and while a number of numerical studies have analysed specific continuous cover forest ecosystems in search of optimal management regimes, no one has tried to capture key dynamics of continuous cover forestry in simple mathematical models. In this paper we develop a simple, but rigorous mathematical model of the continuous cover forest, which strictly focuses on the area use dynamics that such an uneven-aged forest must have in equilibrium. This implies explicitly accounting for area reallocation and for weighting the productivity of each age class by the area occupied. We present results for unrestricted as well as area-restricted versions of the models. We find that land values are unambiguously higher in the continuous cover forest models compared with the even-aged models. Under area restrictions, the optimal rotation age in a continuous cover forest model is unambiguously lower than the corresponding area restricted Faustmann solution, while the result for the area unrestricted model is ambiguous.     

(Un-)konventionelle Methoden zur Finanzierung der Ampelpläne

The new German government plans to increase investment spending considerably, yet without increasing taxes or reforming the debt brake enshrined in the constitution. This article explores the government’s (un)conventional approaches to squaring this circle.

     

Exporting and Productivity in the USA

Exporting is often touted as a way to increase economic growth.This paper examines the interaction between exporting and productivitygrowth in US manufacturing. While exporting plants have substantiallyhigher productivity levels, there is no evidence that exportingincreases plant productivity growth rates. The higher productivityof exporters largely predates their entry into exporting. However,within the same industry, exporters do grow faster than non-exportersin terms of both shipments and employment. Exporting is associatedwith the reallocation of resources from less efficient to moreefficient plants. In the aggregate, these reallocation effectsare quite large, making up over 40 per cent of total factorproductivity growth in the manufacturing sector. Half of thisreallocation to more productive plants occurs within industriesand the direction of the reallocation is towards exporting plants.     

America’s shifting emphasis to the Pacific

East Asian nations, which not long ago were counted among the more backward, are emerging as dramatically expanding markets as well as tough competitors for the United States. Predictions are that the Pacific-rim economy will expand twice as fast as the rest of the world. Professor Jens Biermeier shows that there has been a shift in the trading pattern of the United States away from Europe towards Asia as well as a shift of US political and strategic interests from the Atlantic to the Pacific in recent years.     

Innovative leadership: First-mover advantages in new product adoption

Summary. This paper analyzes innovation adoption when uncertainty about its profitability cannot be resolved immediately. Firms begin with a common estimate of the probability of high demand. If any adopts, all observe realized demand. An increase in the initial estimate can decrease the equilibrium number of initial adopters, because it results in higher updated estimates that can induce future adoption by additional firms that reduces the initial adoption payoff. Moreover, innovative leadership does not imply initial adoption because leadership implies a greater waiting payoff as well as a greater adoption payoff. Leadership does, however, still provide a higher expected payoff. Received: July 16, 2001; revised version: January 13, 2002     

Multiplant Firms and Innovation Adoption and Diffusion

A new theoretical explanation is provided for the empirical observation that large firms usually adopt sooner, although there are notable exceptions. The analysis focuses on the adoption of an innovation of uncertain profitability by a large firm with two plants and a small firm with one. Marginal production costs are increasing in each plant, and economies of multiplant operation are possible. These have conflicting effects on the incentive to adopt. The large firm benefits more from adopting a success. However, if an adopter must shut down a plant to learn about the innovation, the loss of multiplant economies reduces the large firm's incentive to adopt. Absent multiplant economies, the large firm is more likely to lead a diffusion because its greater return from a success dominates. However, the small firm is more likely to lead a diffusion if there are multiplant economies and the large firm's learning cost disadvantage dominates.