REDISTRIBUTIVE OUTCOMES OF SICKNESS INSURANCE ON INCOME: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF SOCIAL INSURANCE INSTITUTIONS

We analyzed the redistributive outcomes of sickness benefits using a typology of social insurance institutions, including four different systems, after adjusting for sickness risk factors. The aim is to empirically observe if the expected redistributive pattern of the typology could be verified whether or not considering the variations in sickness risk across the countries. Data on household earnings and sickness benefits in ten countries and for different years were taken from the Luxembourg Income Study. We also used data on labor force demography and educational attainment. Gini coefficients were used for measuring earnings inequality. Relative changes in earnings inequality for sickness benefits were predicted by social insurance institutional dummies using multiple regression analyses. Among the four different schemes, the encompassing system is found to be most redistributive, followed by basic security and targeting systems. The corporatist system has shown no significant difference from the encompassing system in redistributive outcomes.     

The optimal intertemporal decision on industrial production and harvesting a renewable natural resource

This paper grew out of a research project financially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in its program Economics of Natural Resources. This support is gratefully acknowledged. I also thank H. Wacker for helpful discussions. I also thank two anonymous referees for valuable comments on an earlier draft.     

On the financial balance of input–output constructs: revisiting an axiomatic evaluation

Financial balance is fundamental to input–output (IO) analysis, and consequently the respect of this balance is one of the dominant criteria in evaluating IO constructs. Kop Jansen, and ten Raa [(1990) The Choice of Model in the Construction of Input–Output Coefficients Matrices. International Economic Review 31, 213] proved that the byproduct-technology construct (BTC) and the industry-technology construct (ITC) do not generally conserve financial balance. In contrast, Majeau-Bettez et al. [(2016) When do Allocations and Constructs Respect Material, Energy, Financial, and Production Balances in LCA and EEIO? Journal of Industrial Ecology 20, 67–84] demonstrated that the BTC necessarily respects financial balance and that the ITC is always financially balanced when applied to data recorded in monetary units. The present article resolves this paradox.     

Saving Rates, Trade, Technology, and Stochastic Dynamics

This paper develops a framework for analyzing the stochastic dynamics of small growing trading economies with CES sector technologies. The open neoclassical two-sector growth model with a diffusion process (uncertainty) for the aggregate saving/investment ratio is demonstrated with sample paths and long-run probability distributions of the overall factor endowment ratio. Stochastic endogenous growth and cycles require a combination of fundamental growth parameter values: saving rates, terms of trade, and sectorial substitution elasticities.     

Europeanization in Cypriot Borderscapes: Experiencing the Green Line in Everyday Life

ABSTRACT

Despite the EU accession of the Republic of Cyprus in 2004, the “Green Line” dividing Cyprus that was added as a border in 1974 remains an external EU-border between the Republic of Cyprus (RoC) and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), a self-proclaimed state internationally recognized exclusively by Turkey. Pro- and con European attitudes on Cyprus are therefore not recent phenomena, but date back to the start of EU accession negotiations in 1998 and the Annan-Plan for reunification in 2004. These aspects, however, refer to the Turkish-Greek antagonism on the island and the ongoing national tensions that have resulted in violent conflicts since independence in 1960, the establishment of a demilitarized UN Buffer Zone in 1964 and the division of the island in 1974, also cutting through the island’s capital Nikosia/Lefko?a. Drawing on fieldwork from 2004/2005 and 2014/2015 regarding the border’s shifting meanings and pointing to the border as a place where pro- and con-EU-articulations converge, emphasis is placed on the borderscape in Nikosia/Lefko?a that impedes and increases the movement of people and goods. After all, the border is a dividing line that both shapes and exhibits identities. Moreover, it serves as an individual economic resource whilst border-crossings likewise offer benefits. Nevertheless, the border also stands as painful emotional remembrances for people on both sides. The pro- and con-EU attitudes that were dominant when the RoC joined the EU in 2004 have thus been blurred on both sides of the Green Line. The empirical research for this paper has been framed by the question of how this blurring is intertwined with the division of Cyprus and how people are affected by the Green Line as a socio-material and symbolic artefact on the micro-scale of personal feelings, identities and practices.     

Earning or Learning? How Extending Closing Time in the Retail Sector Affects Youth Employment and Education

This paper estimates the causal impact of increased demand for low‐skilled workers on youth employment, and short and long run education. We exploit quasi‐experimental demand shifts for retail workers due to changes in allowed opening hours for retail stores across Norwegian municipalities. We find that relaxed restrictions on opening hours increased employment in the sector and permanently reduced educational attainment for affected high school students. The results suggest that policies or shocks that increase demand for low‐skilled workers in the short term might have negative long‐run effects in terms of reduced educational attainment.     

Perspective on models in theoretical and practical traditions of knowledge: the example of Otto engine animations

Nineteen informants (n?=?19) were asked to study and comment two computer animations of the Otto combustion engine. One animation was non-interactive and realistic in the sense of depicting a physical engine. The other animation was more idealised, interactive and synchronised with a dynamic PV-graph. The informants represented practical and theoretical traditions of knowledge: science students and teachers at upper secondary school level; vocational students and teachers in vehicle mechanics at upper secondary school level, and; MSc and PhD students in vehicle system engineering. The aim was to explore how they interpreted the animations against the background of their different traditions of knowledge and their experience of physical engines and models of engines. A key finding was that the PhD students saw the interactive animation as a familiar and useful model of engines, whereas the vehicle mechanics teachers saw it as a poor representation of reality. A general conclusion was that there is a variety of competent ways to interpret a model, depending on the tradition of knowledge.     

The establishment of the danish windmill industry—Was it worthwhile?

The paper examines the welfare effects of the Danish subsidies granted for the electricity production from wind power. This policy has induced a remarkable development of the Danish windmill industry resulting in a dominant position on the world market. The article demonstrates a strong learning-by-doing productivity growth in the Danish windmill industry and it analyzes the costs and benefits of this infant industry case. The costs consist of the efficiency loss from diverting electricity production from using fossil fuels to utilizing wind power. Benefits are the reductions in the environmental damage of using fossil fuels, however, the main benefits are related to the emergence of a new export sector. As the value of the windmill firms at the stock exchange by far exceeds that of the accumulated distorted losses in electricity production, this case demonstrates a successful infant industry strategy. JEL no. D2, L5, L6