Local compensation payments for agri-environmental externalities: a panel data analysis of bargaining outcomes

We analyse local compensation payments made to farmers for providinglandscape amenities in Alpine tourist communities. These paymentsresult from political bargaining at the municipal level. Paneldata estimation shows that the probability of introducing compensationpayments depends positively on the benefits of landscape amenities.Although no impact of service provision cost is found, transactioncosts at different levels of the bargaining process reduce theprobability of payments. Compensation payments mainly occurin communities where the provision of agricultural landscapeservices is perceived as relatively low and the diversity ofthe countryside seems to be endangered. We argue that municipalcompensation payments are an important supplement to nationaland European Union policy measures in support of less-favouredareas.     

The geometry of optimal taxation: a primal approach

We characterize zero tax results geometrically as a condition on indifference curves and the implementability constraint. The condition can also be expressed as a generalized homotheticity condition on the utility function and also extends older results on uniform taxation that use the duality approach. Many zero taxation results in dynamic macroeconomics can be derived from our characterization; thus it provides a unified framework for a systematic study of these phenomena. Our geometric method also allows to study the sign of deviations from zero tax results in more complicated frameworks such as taxation without commitment.      

Contracting for Health Services with Unmonitored Quality

In both the NHS and Medicare, recent emphasis has been on contracts with payment based only on the number of patients treated. It is shown that, without direct monitoring of quality or effort to reduce costs, such contracts are efficient only when it is efficient to treat all patients wanting treatment. It may not be when treatment costs are insured or subsidised. Such contracts can then be improved by including payments for the number of patients wanting treatment, as well as for the number actually treated. Even then, the outcome will not generally be efficient if quality is multi-dimensional.     

Constitutional Choice and Prosperity: A Factor Analysis

Forempirical purposes most studies on the influence of freedom on prosperity across nations use either aggregate measuresof economic freedom combined with a measure of political liberty,or single components of these aggregates to describe the freedom-variable.For a scholar of constitutional economics, both these approachesdo not seem to be satisfactory. From his theoretical viewpointhe would favor an approach that focuses on properties of thepolitico-economic order that can be interpreted as appropriateconstraints for preferred outcomes. Factor analysis is the methodused in this paper to extract from a pool of components thatdescribe freedom two main factors, namely (1) the appropriatenessof the framework in which the market operates, and (2) the degreeof political interventions into the market process. It is shownthat these two factors have great influence on the prosperityof nations.     

Constitutions as Commitment or Coordination Device? Comment on C. Azariadis and V. Galasso: Constitutional “Rules” and Intergenerational Fiscal Policy

In a recentcontribution to Constitutional Political Economy, Azariadis andGalasso argued that due to the fact that constitutions allowfor a partial precommitment of the individuals, constitutionalrules are a good means to guarantee an efficient level of redistributionbetween generations. I argue that constitutional rules have noinherent advantage with respect to commitment compared to otherrules. However, the beneficial role of constitutions stems fromtheir ability to create a focal point that helps to solve theequilibrium selection problem.     

Arbeitsmarkt: Rückenwind auch für Ältere

Durch den aktuellen Aufschwung ist es zu einem deutlichen Rückgang der Arbeitslosigkeit gekommen. Profitieren davon auch die ?lteren Arbeitnehmer? Wie lang sind ?ltere im Durchschnitt arbeitslos? Welche Probleme hat diese Gruppe bei der Wiedereingliederung in den Arbeitsmarkt? Wie sollte die Arbeitsmarktpolitik auf diese Probleme reagieren? Dr. Martin Dietz, 37, ist wissenschaftlicher Referent am Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung in Nürnberg.