Sustainable Consumption Governance: A History of Promises and Failures

What are the implications of the current international political, and economic settings for consumer policy, and, in particular, those regarding sustainable consumption? In terms of improvements in the efficiency of consumption, the settings have induced efforts to this effect and show potential for further progress. In terms of necessary changes in consumption levels and patterns, however, little progress has been made since the Rio Summit nor is there likely to be any in the near future. These two dimensions of sustainable consumption need to be differentiated, as there is a substantial amount of controversy regarding our ability to achieve sustainable consumption on the basis of improvements in efficiency alone. The paper traces these differences with respect to the work of the major international governmental organizations (IGOs) engaged in developing sustainable consumption governance. It argues that the lack of commitment to strong sustainable consumption among IGOs can be explained by their “weakness” as actors in global governance and the existence of strong opposing interests among consumers and business actors.     

Jobs specialization versus unemployment: more on the productivity effect of unemployment benefits

We use the Marimon and Zilibotti (Econ J 109: 266–291, 1999) circle model and we endogenize the choice of the degree of specialization of jobs. We show that an increase in unemployment benefits not only reduces the mismatch of talents (as in Marimon and Zilibotti), but it also raises the degree of specialization of jobs. This reinforces the productivity enhancing effects of unemployment benefits.      

How Do Controls Impact Employee Trust in the Employer?

Do organizational controls facilitate or hinder employees’ trust in their organization? We addressed this question through a mixed‐methods design using three studies. Based on a literature review and an open‐response survey study (Study 1), we developed a theoretical model proposing that organizational control is positively related to employees’ trust in their organization, and that this relationship is mediated by procedural fairness and organizational prestige. This mediated model was tested and supported in a quantitative survey of 582 European managers and professional employees from a range of organizations (Study 2). A complementary, qualitative interview‐based study (Study 3) confirmed that well‐implemented controls facilitate trust in the organization; however, poorly implemented control systems that are inconsistent, overly rigid, or incentivize untrustworthy behavior can undermine trust in the organization. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The magic of layoff taxes requires equilibrium stability

In the same vein as Blanchard and Tirole (J Eur Econ Assoc 6:45–77, 2008) First Pass, this note shows that, under the condition for equilibrium stability, the partial implementation of layoff taxes invariably increases firms’ profits as well as workers’ utilities by lowering payroll taxes. It also proves that, due to multiple equilibria, requiring stability does not raise any equilibrium existence issue per se. These insights could favor the introduction of firing taxes, which in practice would probably be a gradual process.     

Gender and conservation agriculture in East and Southern Africa: towards a research agenda

It is remarkable that despite wide-ranging, in-depth studies over many years, almost no conservation agriculture (CA) studies consider gender and gender relations as a potential explanatory factor for (low) adoption rates. This is important because CA demands new ways of working with the farm system. Implementation will inevitably involve a reallocation of men's and women's resources as well as having an impact upon their ability to realize their gender interests. With respect to intra-household decision-making and the distribution of benefits, CA interventions have implications for labour requirements and labour allocation, investment decisions with respect to mechanization and herbicide use, crop choice, and residue management. CA practice may impact upon the ability of households to source a wide variety of crops, wild plants, and insects and small animals for household nutrition. Gender biases in extension service design can sideline women. This paper examines the limited research to date on the interactions between CA interventions and gender in East and Southern Africa, and, based on the gaps observed, sets out a research agenda. It argues that attention to gender in CA is particularly timely given the increasing interest in CA as a means of adapting to climate change.     

Heterogeneous anchoring and the shift effect in iterative valuation questions

In this article, we consider starting point bias as a heterogeneous phenomenon, that is, respondents in contingent valuation surveys do not anchor in the same way. We study the consequences of a mistaken assumption of homogeneous anchoring for the analysis of the shift effect in multiple-bounded dichotomous choice format, when respondents really have heterogeneous anchoring. We show that the shift effect, generally interpreted as incentive incompatibility or “yea”-saying, can be the spurious outcome of disregarded heterogeneous anchoring.     

Cost Inefficiency and the Holding of Non-traditional Assets by Solvent Stock Thrifts

In contrast to greater restrictions on thrifts' non-traditional assets under FIRREA, Congress is considering new legislation forcing thrifts to convert to banks. Hence, the efficiency implications of product diversification for thrifts is an important issue. We examine the relation between thrifts' movement into non-traditional assets and the operating inefficiency of adequately capitalized stock thrifts in 1988 and 1994. We estimate inefficiency scores for individual thrifts for each year using a stochastic cost-frontier methodology. In a second step, we regress these scores against measures for movement into non-traditional assets. We find a significant fall in inefficiency with a rise in holdings of both traditional and non-traditional assets. Our results suggest that greater diversification privileges for thrifts should be beneficial to the health of the industry.     

A proposal for a new basis of life insurance calculations in Norway

Abstract

The basis used by Norwegian life insurance companies for the calculation of premiums and reserves is, as regards insurances, The Institute of Actuaries Life Tables H ^M (20 British Life Offices tables) with interest at 4 per cent. This basis has been used by Norwegian companies for more than thirty-five years and has proved entirely safe.     

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.