Moving Toward Greener Societies: Moral Motivation and Green Behaviour

I provide an alternative explanation for why societies exhibit varied environmental behaviours. I use a Kantian moral approach at a microeconomic level. I show that two identical societies (in terms of income level and political system) might follow different paths with respect to their “green” behaviour. Additionally, I identify tipping points that could nudge a society from a polluting behaviour to a green one. I find that the perception of environment within the society can be an important factor in this shift.     

Does size matter for port coopetition strategy? Concept,motivation and implication

Coopetition is one of the emerging strategies for ports to react towards the rapidly changing market environment. Having this strategy in action, ports will simultaneously compete and cooperate to achieve commonly interesting goals among players involved. Several ports in the Hamburg–Le Havre range have already decided to use such coopetitive strategies. The literature, however, shows that there exist a number of case-specific motivations for having employed this strategy. The aim of this paper is to investigate the motivations for the ports of Flanders (Antwerp, Zeebrugge, Ghent and Ostend) to choose coopetition. These four Flemish ports recently agreed to collaborate after several years of negotiations. It was known that the large port of Antwerp was more reluctant to collaborate with the smaller ports: Zeebrugge, Ghent and Ostend. This fact does naturally lead us to consider whether the size of port is a factor having an impact on the coopetitive strategy. The current paper attempts to examine the possible impact of size difference on the motivations for ports to opt for coopetition, within a framework of coopetition motivations based on a literature review. From a qualitative analysis on the matter, the paper concludes that size is not an important factor for the motivations to establish coopetition since ports are mainly aimed at achieving a win–win situation. Other factors, such as similarities in the services offered and competition level, look more influential. Nevertheless, the size difference among the ports seems to have an impact on the choice of the type of coopetition and on the willingness of the ports to adopt this strategy. Finally, the paper indicates that it is beneficial for all the ports to investigate the use of coopetition as a way of expanding the network of logistics services.     

Foreign bank lending and information asymmetries in China: Empirical evidence from the syndicated loan market

This paper considers whether information asymmetries affect the willingness of foreign banks to participate in syndicated loans to corporate borrowers in China. We analyze how ownership concentration, which influences information asymmetries in the relationship between the borrower and the lender, exerts an impact on the participation of foreign banks in syndicated loans granted to Chinese borrowers in the period 2004–2009. We observe that greater ownership concentration of the borrowing firm does not positively influence participation of foreign banks in the loan syndicate. We conclude that information asymmetries are not exacerbated for foreign banks relative to local banks in China.     

Cost-effectiveness of aripiprazole once-monthly compared with paliperidone palmitate once-monthly injectable for the treatment of schizophrenia in the United States

Objective:

To develop a decision-analytic model to estimate the cost-effectiveness of initiating maintenance treatment with aripiprazole once-monthly (AOM) vs paliperidone long-acting injectable (PLAI) once-monthly among patients with schizophrenia in the US.

Methods:

A decision-analytic model was developed to evaluate a hypothetical cohort of patients initiating maintenance treatment with AOM or PLAI. Rates of relapse, adverse events (AEs), and direct medical costs were estimated for 1 year. Patients either remained on initial treatment or discontinued treatment due to lack of efficacy, AEs, or other reasons, including non-adherence. Data from placebo-controlled pivotal trials and product prescribing information (PI) were used to estimate treatment efficacy and AEs. Analyses were performed assuming dosing of clinical trials, real-world practice, PIs, and highest therapeutic dose available, because of variation in practice settings. The main outcome of interest was incremental cost per schizophrenia hospitalization averted with AOM vs PLAI.

Results:

Based on placebo-controlled pivotal trials’ dosing, AOM improved clinical outcomes by reducing schizophrenia relapses vs PLAI (0.181 vs 0.277 per person per year [pppy]) at an additional cost of US$1276 pppy, resulting in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of US$13,280/relapse averted. When PI dosing was assumed, this ICER increased to US$19,968/relapse averted. When real-world dosing and highest available dosing were assumed, AOM was associated with fewer relapses and lower overall treatment costs vs PLAI.

Conclusions:

AOM consistently provided favorable clinical benefits. Under various dosing scenarios, AOM results indicated fewer relapses at lower overall costs or a reasonable cost-effectiveness threshold (i.e., less than the cost of a hospitalization relapse) vs PLAI. Given the heterogeneous nature of schizophrenia and variability in treatment response, health plans may consider open access for treatments like AOM. Since model inputs were based on data from separate placebo-controlled trials, generalization of results to the real-world setting is limited.     

The Utilisation of Trade Preferences for Developing Countries in the Agri‐food Sector

Both the European Union and the United States grant non‐reciprocal preferences to developing countries under the Generalised System of Preferences as well as under several regional schemes. The benefits of these preferences have recently been questioned. Several authors have pointed out the under‐utilisation of these preferences due to the constraints attached. There have been claims that rules of origin requirements and administrative costs, as well as uncertainty on eventual eligibility, have deterred exporters from using preferential regimes. We calculate various indicators of the utilisation of preferences in the agricultural, food and fisheries sector. We conclude that only a very small proportion of the imports eligible for these preferences is actually exported outside a preferential regime. The rate of utilisation is therefore high. However, the flow of imports from the poorest countries remains very limited in spite of rather generous tariff preferences, which leads to questions over the overall impact of the preferential agreements. In addition, preferential regimes overlap, and in such cases some regimes are systematically preferred to others. We use econometric estimates of the (latent) cost of using a given preference to explain why particular regimes are used. We focus on possible explanations, such as the cumulation rules (that restrict the use of materials originating from other countries), fixed administrative costs and differences in the preferential margin.     

Rural Futures: Alternative Scenarios for French Rural Society to 2020

The foresight approach presented in this article is a contribution to a work programme set up by the French land planning agency (DATAR) on the theme'Land planning for the France of 2020'. The future of rural space is a matter of concern because of the rapid economic polarization movement towards the metropolis and surroundings, observed over the last three decades. This movement threatens the viability of rural space. The foresight study is based on scenario building. Rural space is seen as a system that ensures various functions: residence, production, nature. Each function and the global context are considered as subsystems driven by a set of key variables. Combining the various modalities of any subsystem variables allows us to build partial scenarios. In turn, these partial scenarios are combined to design four global scenarios describing the possible futures of the French rural space:'a generalized residential countryside', characterized by a marked increase in urban spread; 'sustainable towns and large farms', where rural areas are organized according to the interest of farmers;'towards the nature countryside', a breaking scenario where the priority is to meet environmental challenges; and'active and competitive rural areas', emphasizing the role of local productive systems. Policy makers have many choices and can shape the countryside's picture in the next decade.     

Short- and long-run behaviour of long-term sovereign bond yields

We assess the short- and long-run behaviour of long-term sovereign bond yields in OECD countries using a dynamic panel approach to reflect financial and economic integration. Given the existence of cross-country dependence regarding sovereign yields and its determinants, we resort to simulation and bootstrap methods. Results based on the Common Correlated Effect estimator of Pesaran and on Panel Error Correction Models to sort out short- and long-run fiscal developments show that in addition to common movements in sovereign yields, investors also consider country differences arising from specific factors (inflation, budgetary and current account imbalances, real effective exchange rates, and liquidity).     

Can inflation data improve the real‐time reliability of output gap estimates?

Potential output plays a central role in monetary policy and short‐term macroeconomic policy making. Yet, characterizing the output gap involves a trend‐cycle decomposition, and unobserved component estimates are typically subject to a large uncertainty at the sample end. An important consequence is that output gap estimates can be quite inaccurate in real time, as recently highlighted by Orphanides and van Norden ( 2002 ), and this causes a serious problem for policy makers. For the cases of the US, EU‐11 and two EU countries, we evaluate the benefits of using inflation data for improving the accuracy of real‐time estimates. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The status quo bias and reform of the Common Agricultural Policy: impact of voting rules, the European Commission and external changes

We develop a formal model of EU decision-making on the CommonAgricultural Policy (CAP). The model is used to evaluate underwhat conditions CAP reform occurs and what the influence ofthe European Commission (Commission) is on CAP reform. We findthat the voting and amendment rules in the Council of the EuropeanUnion, the number of policy instruments and external changeshave important impacts on the occurrence and extent of CAP reformand on the influence of the Commission. Stricter voting rulesincrease the status quo bias and reduce Commission influence,whereas stricter amendment rules increase both the status quobias and Commission influence. More significant external changeresults in more reform and more Commission influence.