Any need for coordination of policies towards transit traffic with a negative local externality?

International transit traffic between countries can be expected to increase in the future. This paper investigates whether international policy coordination is appropriate in the case of international transit traffic causing a local environmental externality. This issue is analysed in a two-country model where traffic is used as an input in production. It is found that individual optimization of the countries is likely to result in an outcome with less than optimal international traffic, i.e. too little pollution compared with optimum.     

Progressive taxes and automatic stabilization in an open economy

In a simple model with a fixed exchange rate, more progressive taxes are likely to lead to a fall in the multiplier for autonomous expenditure. The effect on the multiplier for an autonomous wage shock may go either way, and increased progressivity may change the sign of this multiplier. The wage bargaining is modeled as a trade-off between employment and real disposable income. Depending on them weight attached to employment and the way expectations are formed, more progressivity may contribute to stabilize rather than destabilize this wage formation process. Indexation of taxes to imported inflation seems preferable to alternatives.     

DO STRATEGY AND MANAGEMENT MATTER IN MUNICIPAL ORGANISATIONS?

In Sweden, a large share of public services are organised, produced and delivered by municipalities, large and small, rich and poor. Contextual conditions (size and location) and economic conditions (efficiency and wealth) differ considerably among these service‐providing organisations. The question raised in this paper is whether a municipality's economic situation is a direct consequence of the contextual situation or the organisation's strategy and management – that is: Do strategy and management matter? Our analysis rests on a resource‐based view of organisation strategy. Both quantitative and qualitative observations have been made. First, cost savings data from 50 municipalities were examined for patterns and relationships between contextual and economic conditions. Second, about 100 representatives – municipal executive board members and leading officials – from 20 municipalities with different characteristics were interviewed. In this paper we outline an analytical framework and propose that sound and sustainable provision of municipal service depends on whether organisational decision‐making is in harmony with work methods and objectives. The results indicate that strategy and management do matter. Among the municipalities included in our study, we identify four prevalent basic strategies. Strategy tends to coincide with the economic situation rather than the contextual situation. A low‐performing municipality tends to have a predominantly outward orientation in its decision‐making, whereas a higher‐performing municipality makes decisions with both inward and outward orientation.     

Price cap regulation and water quality

Journal of Regulatory Economics - A number of studies suggest that price cap regulation may reduce the quality of the regulated good. This paper analyzes the impact on drinking water quality of a...     

Low power,high ambitions: New ventures developing their first supply chains

This paper investigates sourcing decisions for new ventures. Sourcing decisions are especially problematic for start-ups because they lack resources, knowledge and legitimacy to evaluate and interact with suppliers. We develop and apply a framework that connects global sourcing, relationship development and attractiveness. Further, we investigate how new ventures develop their first supply chains by conducting an exploratory multiple case study of six Norwegian start-ups. Based on our findings, we develop three propositions regarding how start-ups mediate their lack of attractiveness through pre-sales and by choosing shorter supply chains and smaller suppliers. The implications for practice include emphasizing the importance of developing a business relationship with the supplier in parallel with making sourcing decisions. This study is a novel contribution to an underexplored topic, and we conclude by proposing a research agenda for future explorations of start-ups and supply chain development.     

Decision Process for Adoption of Innovative Products in the European Seafood Market: The Importance of Supply and Demand Factors

This study proposes a new approach with two-dimensional point of view to test predicting factors that are influencing European trader decisions for the adoption of innovative seafood products in the distributor channels. A combination of two main predicting factors for adoption is investigated in the “supply factors” (4Ps: product, promotion, place, and price) and the “five innovation demand factors” (5IDs: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability). The findings indicate that 4Ps and 5IDs have a significant effect as controlling variables in the decision-making process for innovation adoption. This fact shows a strategic function and illustrates that supply–demand factors have a pressure effect on the innovation adoption process in the market. The results are important both for satisfying consumer expectations and for industrial innovation strategies.     

Becoming a Slum: From Municipal Colony to Illegal Settlement in Liberalization‐Era Mumbai

This article argues that the transformation of a Mumbai neighborhood from municipal housing colony into illegal slum has been facilitated by the politically mediated deterioration and criminalization of its water infrastructure in the context of liberalization‐era policy shifts. These policy shifts hinge upon a conceptual binary that posits the unplanned, illegal and informal ‘slum’ as the self‐evident conceptual counterpoint to a planned, formal, ‘world‐class’ city. The story of Shivajinagar‐Bainganwadi problematizes this assumption by evidencing the deeply political and highly unstable nature of this binary — and thus insists upon an account of the shifting political and economic stakes imbued in these categories. The case of Shivajinagar‐Bainganwadi reveals that the neighborhood's emergence as an illegal slum has been mediated by the liberalization‐era politics that have come to infuse the neighborhood's water pipes — dynamics that have produced the illegality/informality of the neighborhood as a discursive effect.