Competition and Local Market Conditions on the Belgian Retail Gasoline Market

The Belgian retail gasoline network is one of the densest in the world and is characterised by a maximum price agreement between the government and the oil industry. Using price data covering almost 500 points of sale located all over Belgium, the price competition among Belgian gas stations is analysed. We observe that stations located along a highway always charge the maximum price. On local markets that are sufficiently competitive, prices are below the maximum price. The analysis further suggests that the number of local competitors does not have a large impact on retail gasoline prices. However, competition is fiercer in the presence of independent gasoline retailers.     

Introduction: Deregulation and Reform of Housing and Housing Finance Markets: Recent Lessons from Western and Central Europe

Recent years have seen the emergence of substantial scholarly research devoted to cross-national comparisons of real estate markets and financial institutions. In part, these analyses evaluate real estate market efficiency and the distributional outcomes associated with diverse institutions and economies. Further, these analyses draw from the experience of different markets and institutions in a normative sense, so as to help facilitate the development of appropriate real estate market mechanisms and policy in emerging market economies.     

Zur Wahlzyklik wirtschaftspolitischer Maßnahmen

Summary Election cycles of economic policy measures: An empirical test of the votemaximizing hypothesis.A special characteristic of the economic theory of democracy lies in the assumption of the behaviour of politicians: they are not as much striving for the advancement of public interest but display much rather a behaviour of utility maximization. It is their goal to win the next elections. Public preferences are taken into consideration only because voters seem to favour the political party whose election pledge most closely corresponds to their own ideas. Assuming further that voters are forgetful, we can derive the hypothesis that governments set popular (i.e. vote capturing) economic policy measures ahead of elections and unpopular ones right afterwards. In this paper we test this hypothesis using the increase of political prices and the development of certain categories of public expenditure as explanatory variables.Administered prices and public tariffs proved greatly dependent upon the timing of elections. For all of the tariffs under examination a statistically significant predominance of increases (unpopular) could be observed shortly after elections. The extent of the increase, however, does not appear to have any correlation with the election date.As to popular government expenditures, only subsidies have been paid clearly in line with election cycles in the period under consideration.As to further spending categories, our hypothesis appears to be directionally confirmed, yet the data available is infufficient for a statistically significant proof. Besides, especially in the case of Austria, other factors seem to be important in the determination of economic policy measures as well. Some reasons are given in this paper.     

A simultaneous-equations analysis of urban development: migration and industrial growth in Israel's new towns

A simultaneous-equations econometric model is used to analyze the recent development of new towns in Israel. The focus is on the relationships among migration, industrial investment, employment, and other structural and policy variables affecting urban development. "Our results affirm the importance of economic opportunity, agglomeration effects, population socioeconomic and ethnic composition, and access in determining migration flows. At the same time, unemployment and investment indices are affected by local labor-market conditions, government incentives, and regional development effects as well as by population composition and migration flows. Policy implications of the analysis are considered."     

Random number generators for a pocket calculator*

Abstract Some theory of linear congruential pseudo random number generators x_n+1= (ax_n+c) mod m is summarized for the case in which the modulus m is a power of 10. These generators are especially suitable for implementation on both programmable and non-programmable pocket calculators. Results are presented of extensive statistical testing of two specific generators.     

Time deposit supply in the Brunner-Meltzer model

In this paper we shoe that some critical statements by Friedman and Froewiss about the Brunner-Meltzer model, particularly regarding the supply of time deposits, are based on a misinterpretation of Brunner and Meltzer's money supply and credit supply process. Admittedly, the process of time deposit supply is not extensively dealt with in the discussions on the model. We try to bridge this gap to some extent by analyzing time deposit rate setting of profit-maximizing banks using the Brunner-Meltzer model.     

Transport Taxes with Multiple Trip Purposes

A congestible urban transport system is considered in which cars and buses are used for commuting and non‐commuting trips. Commuting is a strict complement to taxable labour supply. The optimal tax structure for raising a given amount of government revenue is examined for the cases where differentiation of transport tolls between trip purposes is and is not possible. An application to Belgian urban environments shows that optimal toll differentiation produces significant efficiency improvements. Without differentiation, reforming transport taxes generates substantial gains only when the labour tax can be reduced.