Impact of the Safe Community program in Harstad on the incidence of injuries

Objectives Since 1987, the Harstad community in Norway has run an injury prevention program according to the Safe Community approach. The effectiveness of this approach in reducing injury rates is poorly documented. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the Harstad program on the incidence of injuries. Methods We used data from the National Injury register of Norway and compared age-adjusted incidence rates and standardized rate ratios of injuries in Harstad and three control communities for the period 1992-1997. Results Harstad had the second highest rates for both all injuries and fractures. No reduction in the incidence of injuries in Harstad was observed from 1992-1997. The injury rates in 1992-1997 were similar to the rates recorded in 1985/86. Conclusions The injury prevention program in Harstad has not reduced overall injury rates. The Safe Community concept is an organizational strategy, but implementation of proven and targeted risk reduction measures will be needed if community-based programs are to result in risk reductions.     

An integrated vendor–buyer model with stock-dependent demand

We develop an integrated vendor–buyer model for a two-stage supply chain. The vendor manufactures the product and delivers it in a number of equal-sized batches to the buyer. The items delivered are presented to the end customers in a display area. Demand is assumed to be positively dependent on the amount of items displayed. The objective is to maximize total supply chain profit. The numerical analysis shows that buyer–vendor coordination is more profitable in situations when demand is more stock dependent. It also shows that the effect of double marginalization provides a link between the non-coordinated and the coordinated case.     

The ACR Model: A Multivariate Dynamic Mixture Autoregression*

This paper proposes and analyses the autoregressive conditional root (ACR) time‐series model. This multivariate dynamic mixture autoregression allows for non‐stationary epochs. It proves to be an appealing alternative to existing nonlinear models, e.g. the threshold autoregressive or Markov switching class of models, which are commonly used to describe nonlinear dynamics as implied by arbitrage in presence of transaction costs. Simple conditions on the parameters of the ACR process and its innovations are shown to imply geometric ergodicity, stationarity and existence of moments. Furthermore, consistency and asymptotic normality of the maximum likelihood estimators are established. An application to real exchange rate data illustrates the analysis.     

State-Building in Resource-Rich Economies

One of the most significant differences between developing countries and today’s advanced states is the fact that many developing countries rely heavily on one or several natural resources. That such dependence shapes the state’s ability to tax—its fiscal capacity—is commonly argued in the political science and applied development literatures. This paper approaches the issue from an economic angle. Our analytical foundation builds upon a novel theoretical framework, and allows us to model fiscal capacity as an ex ante investment under uncertainty. For our panel of 30 hydrocarbon-rich economies, instrumental-variables results provide strong empirical support for our theoretical proposition: resource intensification weakens state-building by impeding the state’s fiscal capacity. This result provides an inaugural validation of the economic analytics of state-capacity determinants: understanding these determinants serves to build stronger states and support sustainable paths of development. Our result also suggests that one of the main tools of fiscal policy-analysis in resource-rich economies, namely optimal taxation, could gain in practical relevance by incorporating capacity-constraints into the analytical fiscal-framework.     

Employment effects of extended geographic scope in job search

This paper uses a unique possibility to link unemployed individuals' stated willingness to move for work with administrative data, giving us the possibility to analyse the effects of individual willingness-to-move on labour market outcome. Those with extended geographic job search area have a higher probability of finding a job. However, the greatest effect is found on the local labour market, indicating that it is not the extended geographic scope per se that increases the likelihood of escaping unemployment, but differences in unobservable characteristics between those who use an extended search area and those who do not.     

Age at immigration and school performance: A siblings analysis using swedish register data

This article analyzes the role of age at immigration for the school performance gap between native and immigrant pupils in Sweden. The analysis exploits within-family variation in a large set of register data on immigrant siblings (and native children) graduating from compulsory school (normally at age 16) between 1988 and 2003. The critical age at arrival is about nine, above which there is a strong negative impact on performance. The slopes of these age-at-immigration performance profiles are similar for boys and girls as well as for children from different family backgrounds, but they vary widely by region of origin. Moreover, the estimated profiles are flatter for Mathematics than for a range of subjects taken together. This demonstrates the importance of Sweden-specific skills. A comparison of sibling-difference and cross-sectional estimates reveals that they are strikingly similar.     

Prices,Productivity and Wage Bargaining in Open Economies*

According to the standard union bargaining model, unemployment benefits should have big effects on wages, but product‐market prices and productivity should play no role in the wage bargain. We formulate an alternative strategic bargaining model, where labour and product‐market conditions together determine wages. A wage equation is derived and estimated on aggregate data for four Nordic countries. Wages are found to depend not only on unemployment and the replacement ratio, but also on productivity, international prices and exchange rates. There is evidence of considerable nominal wage rigidity. Exchange rate changes have large and persistent effects on competitiveness.