Analyzing Potentials for Reducing the Energy Requirement of Households in The Netherlands

The energy requirement of households represents a useful concept in studying energy use in relation to production structures and consumption patterns. Reduction potentials of the energy requirement for households provide insight on the possibilities for reducing energy use in the whole economy. We determine reduction potentials by means of implementing energy conservation options in an input–output model for calculating the household energy requirement. The implementation of a set of technical energy conservation options results in a reduction in the energy requirement of Dutch households by 55%. The reduction potential based on a set of demand-side options is 9%. The combination of both sets of conservation options results in a reduction potential of 59%. Therefore, by combining (sets of) options, some effects are cancelled out.     

Authority and Communication in Organizations

This paper studies delegation as an alternative to communication. We show that a principal prefers to delegate control to a better informed agent rather than to communicate with this agent as long as the incentive conflict is not too large relative to the principal's uncertainty about the environment. We further identify cases in which the principal optimally delegates control to an "intermediary", and show that keeping a veto–right typically reduces the expected utility of the principal unless the incentive conflict is extreme.     

Bank loan portfolios and the monetary transmission mechanism

We study the portfolio behavior of bank loans following a monetary tightening and find that real estate and consumer loans sharply decrease, while commercial and industrial (C&I) loans increase. These responses are compared with responses following non-monetary shocks, which also reduce output but keep interest rates roughly unchanged. During such a “non-monetary” downturn, C&I loans sharply decrease, while real estate and consumer loans show no substantial response. These responses, together with the responses of relevant lending rates, are hard to reconcile with a decline in the supply of C&I bank loans during a monetary downturn as stressed by the bank-lending channel. Several arguments are presented explaining why the supply of C&I loans may actually increase after a monetary contraction.     

Antidumping as a signaling device under the WTO’s ADA non-disclosure clause

Under the WTO Antidumping Agreement (ADA) non-disclosure clause, the investigating AD authority cannot disclose the confidential information it obtains. This paper analyzes how non-disclosure of confidential information leads the government to use the magnitude of the AD duty to signal this information, in casu the costs of the firm under investigation, to the domestic industry. We obtain two main results. First the AD authority sets lower tariffs compared to the full disclosure scenario because it has an incentive to signal that the foreign firm is relatively inefficient. Second, adhering to the non-disclosure clause leads to lower domestic welfare relative to the full disclosure scenario. On the other hand, prices are lower and global welfare is higher under the non-disclosure clause, thus providing an economic rationale for the WTO’s ADA non-disclosure clause.     

Industry Event Participation and Network Brokerage among Entrepreneurial Ventures

Despite the recognition that network brokerage is beneficial for entrepreneurial ventures, little is known about its antecedents. This study examines how participation in industry events (e.g. conferences) relates to entrepreneurs' brokerage positions in informal industry networks and how these positions, in turn, impact new venture performance. Using a unique dataset of 45 events and subsequent network relations among entrepreneurs from 90 firms in the open source software industry, results indicate that: (1) entrepreneurs who participated in heterogeneous events or who bridged between events with few common participants were more likely to be brokers; (2) the relationship between event bridging and brokerage was stronger for entrepreneurs with broader prior career experiences; and (3) network brokerage mediated the event participation–performance link. It appears that events may limit structural opportunities for brokerage and that individual differences matter for exploiting these opportunities. Overall, this study increases understanding of how and when particular networking behaviours are beneficial for entrepreneurs.     

Generalizing from negative experiences

Consumers often form firm beliefs about the future performance of a vendor based on an initial interaction with that vendor. Research in decision science suggests that generalizing from small samples is ill-advised but nonetheless common. A smaller stream of research indicates sensitivity to the representativeness of a small sample. We argue that perceived representativeness depends on the causal inferences prompted by the nature of the consumption experience. Moreover, such inferences may be so specific to the consumption experience that broad statements about consumers' propensity to generalize from one experience to others may themselves be ill-advised.     

The stimulative effect of an unconditional block grant on the decentralized provision of care

Understanding the impact of central government grants on decentralized healthcare provision is of crucial importance for the design of grant systems, yet empirical evidence on the prevalence of flypaper effects in this domain is rare. We study the decentralization of home care in the Netherlands and exploit the gradual introduction of formula-based equalization to identify the effect of exogenous changes in an unconditional block grant on local expenditure and utilization. A one euro increase in central government grants raises local expenditure by twenty to fifty cents. Adjustments occur through the number of hours as well as through substitution between basic and more advanced types of assistance. These findings suggest that conditioning of grants is not required for the central government to retain a moderate degree of control over the decentralized provision of care.     

Translation mechanisms in socio-technical niches: a case study of Dutch river management

This paper makes three contributions to the field of transition research. First, it sheds light on how the concept of translation can contribute to a better understanding of agency in niche development. Second, it articulates how the local–global distinction in the strategic niche management (SNM) approach relates to the levels in the multi-level perspective. Third, the article is empirically novel by presenting a radical sustainable innovation in Dutch water management (‘New Rivers’).