Empirical Evidence on the Relationship between Mobile Termination Rates and Firms' Profits

The theoretical literature on mobile termination rates (MTRs) is inconclusive on how the level of MTRs affects overall consumer charges and firms' profits. We show that when firms offer bundles with fixed included usage – a tariff structure that has become more common in recent years – an identical change in all MTRs does not affect firms' retail prices or profits. We use a panel dataset from saturated European markets to estimate the effect of MTRs on mobile operators' profits. As predicted by the theoretical model, we cannot reject the fact that firms' profits are unaffected by an identical change in all MTRs.     

Imitation,Contagion, or Exertion? Using a Tax Reform to Reveal How Colleagues' Sick Leaves Influence Worker Behaviour

We analyse the social interaction effects in sick‐leave behaviour in the workplace, using high‐quality Norwegian matched employer–employee data with detailed individual information on sick leaves during the 2004–2006 period. We find that social interaction effects in sick‐leave behaviour in the workplace do exist, and that the effects are noticeable in size. The strong relationship between the sick‐leave rates among colleagues is not solely the result of contagious diseases, nor is it caused by improved informational quality or by the increased workload for the non‐absent workers. Evidence supports the existence of reciprocal worker behaviour that is unrelated to joint leisure‐seeking activities.     

The existence of gender‐specific promotion standards in the U.S.

This paper is motivated by the claim that promotion probabilities are lower for women than men. Using data from the 1984 and 1989 National Longitudinal Youth Surveys, this paper tests this claim and two related hypotheses concerning training and ability. It is found that females are less likely to be promoted than males, and females receive less training than males. The relationship between promotion and gender varies across occupations, however, suggesting that the alleged glass ceiling faced by women and other minorities in the workplace is not uniform across all labor markets. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Linkages among Interest Rates in the United States, Germany and Norway

The Johansen multivariate cointegration methodology is used to analyze relationships among short-term and long-term interest rates in the United States, Germany and Norway. A variance decomposition approach is applied to estimate the proportion of each interest rate's forecast error variance attributable to innovations in the other interest rates. Impulse response functions are plotted to illustrate the speed with which interest rate events are transmitted between capital markets. The analyses illustrate that US interest rates have a significant influence on both German and Norwegian interest rates, while the reverse effect is modest. Norway is also strongly exposed to German interest rate movements, which reflects the consequences of a small country linking its currency to the value of European currencies.     

Consumer protection within the European Union

In April 1992, the Danish Parliament published an information paper regarding Denmark and the European Union which was distributed to all homes. The paper said, among other things, that a number of new areas are explicitly incorporated in the EC cooperation. Consumer protection was mentioned as an example. It is, however, questionable whether the Maastricht Treaty in this area involves anything more than a formal, statutory confirmation that the EC may work for the protection of consumers precisely as before. The Edinburgh declaration on Denmark and the European Union does not seem to contain an answer.

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Verbraucherschutz innerhalb der Europäischen Union

Zusammenfassung Im April 1992 veröfentlichte das dänische Parlament ein Informationspapier über Dänemark und die Europäische Union, das allen dänischen Haushalten zugestellt wurde. Unter anderem wurde darin behauptet, da\ eine Reihe néuer Bereiche in die Europäische Kooperation ausdrücklich neu aufgenommen worden sind. Verbraucherschutz wurde als ein Beispiel genannt. Allerdings ist fraglich, ob der Vertrag von Maaastricht gerade in diesem Bereich irgendetwas enthält, das über die formale vertragliche Bestätigung dessen hinausgeht, da\ die Europäische Gemeinschaft beim Verbraucherschutz genauso weiterarbeiten kann wie zuvor. Die Deklaration von Edinburgh über Dänemark und die Europäische Union enthält offendar nichts, was diese Frage beantworten könnte.

     

The Broadband Access Market: Competition,Uniform Pricing and Geographical Coverage

In this paper we analyze the market for broadband access. A key feature of this market is that it is considerably more expensive to connect consumers in rural locations than in urban locations. We show that while competition increases welfare compared to monopoly when prices are free to differ across locations, the opposite may be true if there is a requirement of uniform pricing across locations. Furthermore, we show that given uniform pricing, the regulator may increase consumer surplus as well as profit by requiring a higher regional coverage than the market outcome.     

NUMERICAL DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS OF FRACTIONAL UNIT ROOT AND COINTEGRATION TESTS

We calculate, by simulations, numerical asymptotic distribution functions of likelihood ratio tests for fractional unit roots and cointegration rank. Because these distributions depend on a real‐valued parameter b which must be estimated, simple tabulation is not feasible. Partly owing to the presence of this parameter, the choice of model specification for the response surface regressions used to obtain the numerical distribution functions is more involved than is usually the case. We deal with model uncertainty by model averaging rather than by model selection. We make available a computer program which, given the dimension of the problem, q, and a value of b, provides either a set of critical values or the asymptotic P‐value for any value of the likelihood ratio statistic. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Do Individual Investors Have Asymmetric Information Based on Work Experience?

Using a novel data set covering all individual investors' stock market transactions in Norway over 10 years, we analyze whether individual investors have a preference for professionally close stocks, and whether they make excess returns on such investments. After excluding own‐company stock holdings, investors hold 11% of their portfolio in stocks within their two‐digit industry of employment. Given the poor hedging properties of such investments, one would expect abnormally high returns. In contrast, all estimates of abnormal returns are negative, in many cases statistically significant. Overconfidence seems the most likely explanation for the excessive trading in professionally close stocks.