Behaviour theory and soft transport policy measures

The aim is to propose a theoretical grounding of soft transport policy measures that aim at promoting voluntary reduction of car use. A general conceptual framework is first presented to clarify how hard and soft transport policy measures impact on car-use reduction. Two different behavioural theories that have been used to account for car use and car-use reduction are then integrated in a self-regulation theory that identifies four stages of the process of voluntarily changing car use: setting a car-use reduction goal, forming a plan for achieving the goal, initiating and executing the plan, and evaluating the outcome of the plan execution. A number of techniques are described that facilitate the different stages of the process of voluntary car-use reduction and which should be used in personalized travel planning programs.     

Local Energy Markets*

In current power markets, the bulk of electricity is sold wholesale and transported to consumers via long-distance transmission lines. Recently, decentralized local energy markets have evolved, often as isolated networks based on solar generation. We analyze strategic pricing, investment, and welfare in local energy markets. We show that local energy markets yield competitive equilibrium prices and provide efficient investment incentives. Yet, we find that strategic behavior leads to allocative inefficiency. We propose a clearing mechanism that induces truth-telling behavior and restores first-best welfare.     

Dynamics of public opinion and policy response under proportional and plurality elections

We compare the patterns of adjustment of government policy to changes in public opinion in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. These countries are similar in many ways, except that the United Kingdom has plurality elections and single-party government, while the Netherlands has proportional representation (PR) and coalition government. This provides the first application of the Macro Polity approach to a country with PR elections. We find that government policy in the Netherlands is highly responsive to public opinion. This cannot be the result of alternation of government, but instead must be the result of some other process, such as coalition bargaining. In the United Kingdom, however, the dynamic of adjustment is far more complex. Alternation of government does not produce responsiveness, but rather seems to get in the way of it. This leads to an over-correction dynamic in which policy can be out of line with public opinion for long periods of time.     

Why makers make what they make: motivations to contribute to open source hardware development

Open source software (OSS) and hardware (OSH) are two expressions of one broader concept and its related movement. One of the most fundamental questions relating to these phenomena is why developers contribute their private resources to these public goods. While this question has been discussed, theorized, and empirically investigated in the context of OSS, there has been no research so far in the context of OSH. Can we really assume the motivations behind the development of the OSH to be the same as those behind OSS? Based on the self-determination theory (SDT), we provide original insights into the motivations behind contributions to OSH development. We collected data from the most common and active 3D printing communities, which are the main loci of OSH development. We thus have a unique cross-sectional data set with participants from over 30 different countries using all kinds of different OSH platforms. Our analysis reveals several important findings: firstly, the motivations are in some aspects very similar to those in open source software notwithstanding different possibilities, hurdles, and incentives regarding the OSS and OSH. Above all, enjoyment-based intrinsic motivation is a major factor affecting contribution levels. Secondly, among internalized extrinsic motivations, expected private benefits through improving own skills stands out. Thirdly, different factors of internalized extrinsic motivations can have different moderating effects on the effect of enjoyment-based intrinsic motivation. Given the imminent changes in business models throughout manufacturing industries in order to adapt to the challenge that OSH will increasingly pose, our findings have important implications not only for OSH communities and 3D development platforms, but also for businesses that want and probably soon have to engage in open innovation.     

INTERNATIONAL CORPORATE TAX AVOIDANCE: A REVIEW OF THE CHANNELS,MAGNITUDES, AND BLIND SPOTS

This paper reviews the rapidly growing empirical literature on international tax avoidance by multinational corporations. It surveys evidence on the main channels of corporate tax avoidance including transfer mispricing, international debt shifting, treaty shopping, tax deferral, and corporate inversions. Moreover, it performs a meta-analysis of the extensive literature that estimates the overall size of profit shifting. We find that the literature suggests that, on average, a 1 percentage-point lower corporate tax rate will expand before-tax income by 1%—an effect that is larger than reported as the consensus estimate in previous surveys and tends to be increasing over time. The literature on tax avoidance still has several unresolved puzzles and blind spots that require further research.     

Gender pay equity: Exploring the impact of formal,consistent and transparent human resource management practices and information

This article explores the extent to which formalised HR practices can reduce gender bias in pay setting or whether, following Acker (2006), gender bias may still be embedded within formalised HR practices. Detailed investigation of a critical case study of a Chilean finance organisation with a strong commitment to formalised, consistent and transparent pay practices based on individuated information, revealed only a small negative gender effect on pay and no identifiable gender effects in starting salaries, merit pay or promotion. These findings provide some support for the proposition that HR practices focused on job‐related performance (Reskin, 2000) and limiting managerial discretion may facilitate gender pay equity. However, the case also reveals the limits of these policies. Women scored equally well on performance but formalised scores on future potential were higher for men and mattered more. A significant gender effect emerged in promotion to more senior posts. These mixed outcomes suggest that Acker's (2006) proposition still holds.     

The Interplay of Core and Peripheral Actors in the Trajectory of an Accounting Innovation: Insights from Beyond Budgeting*

Previous studies on accounting innovations emphasize the key role played by innovators and other core actors in theorizing and popularizing such innovations. This paper extends this literature by drawing attention to the role of actors who occupy a more peripheral position within the innovation-based field. We regard accounting innovations as strategic action fields, in which core and peripheral actors interact to shape the trajectory of the innovation. In contrast to core actors, peripheral actors only weakly identify with the innovation-based field and often occupy a core position in some other industry, professional, and/or geographical field. Given their embeddedness in these other fields, they are likely to try to accommodate an innovation with existing practices. Such frame blending can be problematic for core actors who envisage a more radical frame shift. Using the case of Beyond Budgeting, we show how the interplay between core and peripheral actors shapes the trajectory of an innovation, in terms of the composition of the field and the framing tactics that dominate at different stages in the development of the field. Our paper advances a perspective on accounting innovations which highlights the variable nature of the innovation space, in terms of different actors entering and exiting this space over time, as well as the importance of considering the overlaps between an innovation-based field and other (industry, professional, geographical) fields.     

Reinforcement learning and stochastic optimisation

At the heart of financial mathematics lie stochastic optimisation problems. Traditional approaches to solving such problems, while applicable to broad classes of models, require specifying a model to complete the analysis and obtain implementable results. Even then, the curse of dimensionality challenges the viability of conventional methods to settings of practical relevance. In contrast, machine learning, and reinforcement learning (RL) particularly, promises to learn from data and overcome the curse of dimensionality simultaneously. This article touches on several approaches in the extant literature that are well positioned to merge our traditional techniques with RL.