Cooperation in a risky world

We offer a novel investigation of the effect of environmental risk on cooperation in the Voluntary Contribution Mechanism. Our baseline is the standard setting, in which the personal return from the public good is deterministic, homogeneous, and publicly known. Our experimental treatments alter this classic design by making the marginal per capita return from the public good probabilistic. In the homogeneous risk (HomR) treatment, the random draw is made for the whole group, whereas in the heterogeneous risk (HetR) treatment, this happens independently for each group member. Our hypothesis is that different environmental risks may differently affect the ex post payoff inequalities, so that other‐regarding preferences (inequality aversion) may generate higher contributions in HomR than in HetR. Our main result is that the environmental risk does not affect the patterns of cooperation either in the one‐shot or in the finitely repeated version of the game. This suggests that the standard experimental methodology provides a robust and conservative measure of human cooperation.     

On a general periodic preventive maintenance policy incorporating warranty contracts and system ageing losses

In this paper, a general periodic preventive maintenance (PM) policy for a repairable revenue-generating system is developed and studied. We define ‘ageing losses’ as the difference in revenues generated by an ideal system (no ageing) and a real system that ages over the same period of consideration. It is assumed that preventive maintenance slows the system deterioration process and therefore reduces ageing losses. The proposed model is general in the sense that (1) both the warranty contracts and system ageing losses are incorporated in the maintenance cost modeling and (2) the implementation of PM actions does not have to be strictly periodic. A cost model is developed for the buyer under two decision variables—the calendar time of the first PM and the degree of each PM. Numerical examples are then presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed model. Sensitivity analyses are further conducted to investigate the impact of model parameters on optimal solutions.     

Corruption and Unethical Behavior: Report on a Set of Danish Guidelines

Corruption is defined as private individuals or enterprises who misuse public resources for private power and/or political gains. They do so through abusing public officials whose behavior deviates from the formal government rules of conduct. Ethical behavior is defined as individuals or enterprises adhering to a non-corrupt work or business practice. A review of the academic literature is conducted drawing on perspectives from the political, economic, and anthropological sciences. Insights from a Danish research program are reported on. This program identifies five different actions for dealing with corruption: (1) no action; (2) withdrawals from markets; (3) decentralized decision-making process; (4) establishment of an anti-corruption code; and (5) mutual commitment through integrity pact. The following aspects of ethical behavior should be regulated through an anti-corruption code: the company vis-à-vis political parties; gifts and entertainment expenses; political campaign contributions; and policy against small-scale corruption. Directions for future research are considered including the role of international organizations and multinational companies in fighting corruption and fostering ethical behavior; the role of countries and their governments; and the management systems.     

Machine tools and mass production in the armaments boom: Germany and the United States, 1929–44

This article anatomizes the ‘productivity race’ between Nazi Germany and the US over the period from the Great Depression to the Second World War in the metalworking industry. We present novel data that allow us to account for both the quantity of installed machine tools and their technological type. Hitherto, comparison of productive technologies has been limited to case studies and well‐worn narratives about US mass production and European‐style flexible specialization. Our data show that the two countries in fact employed similar types of machines combined in different ratios. Furthermore, neither country was locked in a rigid technological paradigm. By 1945 Germany had converged on the US both in terms of capital‐intensity and the specific technologies employed. Capital investment made a greater contribution to output growth in Germany, whereas US growth was capital‐saving. Total factor productivity growth made a substantial contribution to the armaments boom in both countries. But it was US industry, spared the war's most disruptive effects, that was in a position to take fullest advantage of the opportunities for wartime productivity growth. This adds a new element to familiar explanations for Germany's rapid catch‐up after 1945.     

A heuristic-systematic processing analysis of the effectiveness of product warning labels

In this article we present the heuristic-systematic model (Chaiken, 1980, 1987; Chaiken, Liberman, & Eagly, 1989) as a theoretical framework for research on product warning labels. The model proposes two fundamental information processing modes. When processing systematically, perceivers access, scrutinize, and integrate all useful information to reach their judgment. In contrast, heuristic processing involves the use of learned knowledge structures in the form of simple decision rules, or cognitive heuristics, to reach judgments. In addition to proposing when either or both of these processing modes will occur, and with what effect, the model also specifies three different underlying types of processing motivations, termed accuracy, defense, and impression, each with implications for information processing and judgments. This model is used to explain past findings on the effectiveness of product warning labels, and to suggest new areas for future research as well as practical guidelines for the design of warning labels. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Industrial Policy and Technology Diffusion: Evidence from Paper Making Machinery in Indonesia

In this paper, we analyze the diffusion and adoption of paper making machinery in the Indonesian pulp and paper industry, from 1923 till 2000. We develop a machine level index of technological sophistication (mach), which measures the technological distance of each paper machine to the world technological frontier. The data reveal a pattern of rapid technological catch up. But catch up was not an industrywide phenomenon. Some modern firms installed state-of-the-art machinery, while others installed older vintages. The paper argues that industrial policy has played an important role in the speed and nature of diffusion of paper making machinery.     

II. Allgemeine und angewandte Statistik

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Intertemporal substitution and new car purchases

This article presents a dynamic demand model for motor vehicles. This approach accounts for the change in the mix of consumers over the model year and measures consumers' substitution patterns across products and time. I find intertemporal substitution is significant; consumers are more likely to change the timing of their purchase in reaction to a price increase rather than buy another vehicle in the same period. Further, I find automakers' use of large cash‐back rebates at the end of the model year, although boosting overall sales, induces large numbers of consumers to delay their purchases and so pay lower prices.