‘Cittáslow’ eco-gastronomic heritage as a tool for destination development

Slow Food has gained considerable attention as a social movement trying to counteract increasing globalisation in eating habits and food production. Cittáslow, a network of towns, are working with qualitative local urban development, based on similar principles as Slow Food. The ‘slow’ movements could be expected to have influences on tourism development. This possible connection has been neglected in the scientific tourism literature. Based on a study in three Cittáslow towns in Northern Italy, this article concentrates on how destination development is conducted in a Cittáslow context, unveiling some contradictions between the commercial sides of tourism and the non-commercial ethos of the Cittáslow movement. The studied towns were involved in various efforts in the field of sustainable planning, thereby also improving destination specific resources and local identity. One example is their focus on ‘slow’ events, mainly based on local gastronomy. Tourism marketing was, however, only of secondary importance; which mirrors some scepticism towards mass tourism and commercialisation, and even against marketing as such. Despite this, the Cittáslow concept may have an indirect potential for tourism development by improving product development and increased visibility. The risks involved concern gentrification and overexploitation.     

Temporarily asymmetric information and labour contracts

Under the assumption that workers are more heavily credit rationed than firms, the standard model of testing and self-selection in the labour market is extended. The two main findings are that ex post inefficient termination may be used as a self-selection device and that when workers can be of more than two different productivities, only the best worker should be overpaid.     

How entrepreneurship could be promoted after the collapse of a socialist economic system

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical observations from postcommunist countries to suggest which policy sets applied make most sense for the promotion of micro-enterprises. Three overall conclusions can be drawn. First, an early, comprehensive and radical reform is the superior approach for the promotion of entrepreneurship, because the prevalence of rent seeking interests is so easily established and it is so difficult to break. The second conclusion, however, is that a certain space for small enterprises can be created even in a very corrupt economy dominated by severe rent seeking. A third conclusion is that the Russian deregulation of 2002 represents the worst of all worlds, because all its elements were incremental.     

Taxpayers' responsiveness to tax rate changes and implications for the cost of taxation in Sweden

Historically, labor supply elasticities have been used to evaluate tax policy and predict tax revenue effects. They are likely to underestimate taxpayers' response to tax rate changes, and hence to underestimate changes in potential tax revenues, however, because they measure only how taxpayers alter hours worked. Taxpayers can also respond to tax rate changes by altering, for instance, their work effort and form of compensation. An alternative measure that accounts for these responses as well as hours worked is the elasticity of taxable income. This paper estimates the elasticity of earned taxable income for Swedish taxpayers using two different approaches and a number of control variables and the 1990/1991 tax reform as a “natural experiment”. The preferred elasticity estimates fall in the range of 0.4–0.5, comparable with recent estimates for the U.S. and larger than most of the labor supply elasticity estimates used to evaluate tax policy in Scandinavia previously, which suggests that deadweight losses are two to three times higher than previously thought. JEL Classification H21 · H24 · H31 · J22     

Anders Lindstedt

Abstract

När Presidenten And. Lindstedt den 16 maj 1939 gick bort, blev vårt land en storman fattigare. En livsgärning av betydande mått hade slutförts. Många äro de omraden, som befruktats genom hans klara intellekt och konstruktiva förmåga. För de flesta är han väl närmast känd som den svenska socialförsäkringens skapare. Men även för den lagstiftning, som reglerar det enskilda försäkringsväsendents ekonomiska förhållanden, ha Lindstedts insatser varit grundläggande. Den nuvarande organisationen av den högre tekniska undervisningen i vårt land är i stor utsträckning hans verk. Åt de matematiska vetenskaperna och särskilt den celesta mekaniken ägnade han i yngre dagar flera djupgående undersökningar.     

Peaking of fiscal sizes of government

Transfers, spending, and tax revenue peaked as percentages of the gross national product (GNP) in most OECD countries during 1972–1992. The evidence suggests that a number of countries pushed transfers close to or perhaps beyond sustainable limits imposed by the Laffer curve. Namely: (i) stylized calculations of Laffer limits suggest peak fiscal sizes in the range of observed peaks in the countries with the greatest peak sizes; and (ii) the countries with the greatest peak sizes had the greatest declines in fiscal sizes from peaks until 1992.     

Compelled to go abroad? Motives and outcomes of international assignments

This article examines the motives of expatriates and repatriates to accept international assignments and how these motives relate to individuals' perceptions of expatriation outcomes. Issues of adjustment, satisfaction, withdrawal intentions, willingness to relocate again in the future, and recommendation of an assignment to others were considered as outcomes. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews of 30 Portuguese expatriates and repatriates. The results indicate that a considerable number of participants relocated because they felt compelled to do so by their employing companies. Moreover, the extent to which organizations persuade these originally unwilling expatriates seems to have negative implications in terms of their perceptions of the adjustment process, general satisfaction with the assignment, and withdrawal intentions. Compelling behaviour also has career implications and impacts individual receptiveness to relocate in the future. Suggestions for further research and implications for organizations and prospective expatriates are also presented.     

The price responsiveness of housing supply in OECD countries

The responsiveness of housing supply to changes in prices bears important implications for the evolution of housing prices and the speed of adjustment of housing markets. Based on a stock-flow model of the housing market estimated within an error correction framework, this paper estimates the long-run price elasticity of new housing supply in 21 OECD countries. Estimates suggest that the responsiveness of housing supply to price changes varies substantially across countries. It is relatively more flexible in North America and some Nordic countries, while it is more rigid in continental European countries and in the United Kingdom. The responsiveness of housing supply depends not only on national geographical and urban characteristics but also on policies, such as land use and planning regulations.     

Public health insurance and optimal income taxation

If individuals differ not only in their inherent capacity to earn income, but also in the probability that they will fall ill, can subsidized public health insurance be justified on the grounds that it serves as an efficient tool to redistribute welfare? This question is analyzed in a model where the social welfare function is a weighted average of individual expected utilities, and where taxation is by a linear income tax. The answer is ‘yes’, except in certain special cases.     

Unemployment Benefits, Contract Length and Nominal Wage Flexibility

In a bargaining model, we show that a decrease in the unemployment benefit level increases not only equilibrium employment, but also nominal wage flexibility, and thus reduces employment variations in the case of nominal shocks. Long‐term wage contracts lead to higher expected real wages and hence higher expected unemployment than short‐term contracts. Therefore, a decrease in the benefit level reduces the expected utility gross of contract costs of a union member more with long‐term than with short‐term contracts, thereby creating an incentive for shorter contracts. Incentives for employers are shown to change in the same direction.