Hinterland transportation in Europe: Combined transport versus road transport

The dominance of road for hinterland services could be challenged by using rail-road or waterway-road transport because of costs, congestion and growing environmental constraints. A common dynamic that is very favorable to the development of combined transport is shared among the actors of the transport chain but with different starting positions considering the ports of the Northern Range.But combined transport must still demonstrate that it can compete with road transport. Road transport and combined transport are not directly comparable because they do not offer the same physical transport service. The organizational patterns of road and combined transport are investigated. The example of hinterland services to and from the port of Le Havre to the Paris region is a particularly interesting case because of the very short distance. It is shown that the competitiveness of combined transport in terms of price varies greatly according to the way road transport it competes with is organized and that the commercial policy of combined transport operators plays a key role for explaining this competitiveness. Additional services such as additional dwelling times and specific custom advantages are paramount of importance to encourage the shift from road transport to combined transport.     

Mobil im Alter

Selbstst?ndigkeit f?rdern - Mobilit?t ist die F?higkeit, sich in seiner Umgebung frei zu bewegen und die Aktivit?ten des t?glichen Lebens unabh?ngig auszuführen. Im Alter ist sie eine wichtige Voraussetzung für ein selbstst?ndiges Leben. Oft entscheidet gerade die Mobilit?t darüber, wie sich für den betagten Menschen die weitere Lebenssituation gestaltet.     

Litteraturanmeldelse

This article examines the notion of distortion of copulas, a natural extension of distortion within the univariate framework. We study three approaches to this extension: (1) distortion of the margins alone while keeping the original copula structure; (2) distortion of the margins while simultaneously altering the copula structure; and (3) synchronized distortion of the copula and its margins. When applying distortion within the multivariate framework, it is important to preserve the properties of a copula function. For the first two approaches, this is a rather straightforward result; however, for the third approach, the proof has been exquisitely constructed in Morillas (2005). These three approaches unify the different types of multivariate distortion that have scarcely scattered in the literature. Our contribution in this paper is to further consider this unifying framework: we give numerous examples to illustrate and we examine their properties particularly with some aspects of ordering multivariate risks. The extension of multivariate distortion can be practically implemented in risk management where there is a need to perform aggregation and attribution of portfolios of correlated risks. Furthermore, ancillary to the results discussed in this article, we are able to generalize the formula developed by Genest &; Rivest (2001) for computing the distribution of the probability integral transformation of a random vector and extend it to the case within the distortion framework. For purposes of illustration, we applied the distortion concept to value excess of loss reinsurance for an insurance policy where the loss amount could vary by type of loss.     

Dating and forecasting turning points by Bayesian clustering with dynamic structure: a suggestion with an application to Austrian data

The information contained in a large panel dataset is used to date historical turning points and to forecast future ones. We estimate groups of series with similar time series dynamics and link the groups with a dynamic structure. The dynamic structure identifies a group of leading and a group of coincident series. Robust results across data vintages are obtained when series‐specific information is incorporated in the design of the prior group probability distribution. The forecast evaluation confirms that the Markov switching panel with dynamic structure performs well when compared to other specifications. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Industrial relations and organizational behaviour: a critical appraisal1

This paper is concerned with the growth and development of two fields of study which are customarily separated in both theory and practice. Those who specialize in one area, whether as students, teachers or research workers, are not necessarily familiar with, or required to learn, the state of knowledge in the other, although, as we shall show, there is a considerable commonality of interest. To some extent, this situation is an accident of history and the first part of this paper deals with the events and influences leading to the emergence of each field of study. In the second part, common strands and factors leading to the convergence of the two fields are considered. The third section examines the “state of the art” and evaluates current strengths and weaknesses. Finally, an appraisal is made of the direction of likely future trends.     

Einzelbesprechungen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Einzelbesprechungen

Ohne ZusammenfassungÜbersetzt von Hans Fried, Wien.     

Do public budget deficits crowd out private capital expenditures?

Those economists who expected the increasing US budget deficits in recent years to have a negative impact on private investment spending have so far been proved wrong. Hans-Peter Fröhlich provides an analysis of what has happened and examines the interrelation between public sector deficits and private capital expenditures.