The Life Cycle of Daily Newspapers in The Netherlands: 1848–1997

In 1848 freedom of the press was written into the Constitution of the Kingdom of The Netherlands. This paper investigates the life cycle characteristics of the market for daily newspapers in The Netherlands since then. Life expectancy depends on the cyclical evolution of the number of daily newspapers through time. The life cycle of the competitive newspaper industry in The Netherlands is characterized by a turning period of turmoil during World War II. Models that aim at estimating the expected lifetime of newspapers should acknowledge the cyclical characteristics of the industry.     

Four Parameters of Interest in the Evaluation of Social Programs

This paper reviews four treatment parameters that have become commonly used in the program evaluation literature: the average treatment effect, the effect of treatment on the treated, the local average treatment effect, and the marginal treatment effect. We derive simply computed closed-form expressions for these treatment parameters in a latent variable framework with Gaussian error terms. These parameters can be estimated using nothing more than output from a standard two-step procedure. We also briefly describe recent work that seeks to go beyond mean effects and estimate the distributions associated with various outcome gains. The techniques presented in the paper are applied to estimate the return to some form of college education for various populations using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.     

Permanent-transitory Decomposition in Var Models With Cointegration and Common Cycles

In this paper we derive permanent-transitory decompositions of non-stationary multiple times series generated by (r)nite order Gaussian VAR(p) models with both cointegration and serial correlation common features. We extend existing analyses to the two classes of reduced rank structures discussed in Hecq, Palm and Urbain (1998). Using the corresponding state space representation of cointegrated VAR models in vector error correction form we show how decomposition can be obtained even in the case where the number of common feature and cointegration vectors are not equal to the number of variables. As empirical analysis of US business fluctuations shows the practical relevance of the approach we propose.     

Entrepreneurial network development: Trusting in the process

An entrepreneur's network can provide a significant source of social capital, which, in turn, may increase a new venture's likelihood of success. Entrepreneurship research has frequently examined how such networks develop, and reviewing extant studies suggests that trust plays a significant role in this process. Despite its recognized importance, limited research exists examining how trust evolves during and interacts with the entrepreneur's venture network development. Accordingly, we propose that an entrepreneur's reliance on exchange relationships based on affective and cognitive trust will vary as the entrepreneur moves through the network development process. We conclude by discussing both the model's implications and future research avenues.     

德国建造规划评析

德国城市规划体系中的建造规划(Bebauungsplan)是德国城市开发控制的传统工具,长期以来形成了较为完善的科学理论与方法,有效地促进了德国城市的可持续发展.本文从立法基础、主要内容、编制程序、实施操作四个方面详细评述了德国的建造规划,并将其同我国的控制性详细规划作了简要的对比.     

Entrepreneurial Orientation and Corruption

Organizational corruption is a wide-spread negative aspect of economic activity, and a seemingly never-ending series of corruption scandals has been made public around the globe. Although research is performed in a broad variety of disciplines, ranging from psychology to management to law, a fully satisfactory explanation for the causes of organizational corruption has not been found. By looking at organizational factors as potential triggers for corruptive behavior, this study draws upon the concept of entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Diverse studies have shown that EO, as an antecedent to company performance, has a positive effect. Recent EO literature, however, indicates that EO has not only positive but also negative consequences. In this line of reasoning, this study builds upon principal agent theory and makes a first step in exploring the impact of EO on a negative aspect of business behavior, namely organizational corruption. We gathered survey data and publicly available data from 411 firms, inquiring for both acts of corruption from within the top management team over the last 3 years and the level of entrepreneurial orientation within the organization. Results show diverging effects along the individual dimensions of EO; they point to risk orientation as the dark side of EO, as it significantly increases the likelihood of corrupt behavior in companies. In contrast, innovation orientation, to a certain extent, counterbalances by reducing the likelihood of corrupt behavior.     

How the burdens of ownership promote consumer usage of access-based services

Services that let customers access goods, such as car-sharing, are gaining increasing relevance as an alternative to ownership. These access-based services allow consumers to avoid the “burdens of ownership”, i.e., risks and responsibilities that come with owning a good. However, the interplay between consumers’ risk perception of ownership, access-based service usage, and the subsequent decision to reduce or forgo ownership has not been sufficiently investigated. Based on risk perception theory, we hypothesize the effects of different risk dimensions (financial, performance, social) on the intensity of access-based service usage, as well as the latter’s influence on ownership reduction. Using a unique dataset that links survey and actual usage data of car-sharing users, we test four corresponding hypotheses. The results reveal that access-based service usage is positively influenced by all three ownership risk perceptions. Moreover, a higher usage of an access-based service increases the likelihood that consumers subsequently reduce ownership.     

OPEC as a political and economical entity

This paper assumes that the decision makers of OPEC (or at least of its core members) are interested in both profits and political payoffs (support, popularity, being a hero of the Arab or Islamic street, etc.). The oil weapon, i.e. a reduction of output is the most powerful instrument to obtain political payoffs from harming the West, which can be also profitable in the short run due to the high prices implied by sluggish demand for OPEC oil. The analysis shows that this political objective reduces longrun supply and includes the possibility that it is optimal to ‘kill the goose that lays the golden eggs’ if initial demand is below a threshold (and multiple steady states exist).     

Not measuring sustainable value at all: A response to Kuosmanen and Kuosmanen

In their article in this issue of Ecological Economics, Kuosmanen and Kuosmanen [Kuosmanen, T. and Kuosmanen, N., this issue. How Not to Measure Sustainable Value (and How One Might). Ecological Economics.] aim to criticise the measurement of Sustainable Value as proposed in our previous research. By adopting a production perspective and based on a productive efficiency analysis, they claim that the proposed way of measuring Sustainable Value represents an invalid simplification that rests on restrictive and unrealistic assumptions. Our response is to show that their argument rests on a fundamental misspecification of the Sustainable Value approach. We identify three conceptual misfits: a mismatch in the perspective of the analysis, a misspecification of opportunity costs and the irrelevance of production functions. Ultimately, Kuosmanen and Kuosmanen's train of thought rests entirely within the realm of productive efficiency analysis, whereas Sustainable Value builds on the foundations of financial economics and consequently adopts a macro rather than a firm perspective. It is thus not surprising that the findings of Kuosmanen and Kuosmanen appear to contradict the Sustainable Value approach. However, this is due to their fundamental misspecification of the Sustainable Value approach. As a result, rather than providing novel insights into how Sustainable Value might be measured in a better way, they do not measure Sustainable Value at all.