Discussing the political survival of Romanian ministers since 1989—Do economic conditions matter?

Political longevity in young democracies has attracted the attention of scholars and practitioners alike due to several particular characteristics of such democracies, such as a low level of trust, a low level of credibility, corruption, economic difficulties, a less well‐established rule of law and an increased bureaucracy. In such a context, we studied the tenure duration of Romanian ministers since 1989, as well as their accumulated political longevity in ministerial offices. Using proportional hazards regression, we observed some peculiarities in the young Romanian democracy in comparison with more established regimes. We observed that left‐wing majorities tend to increase the probability of seat changes and thus diminish tenure longevity. We also observed that good economic conditions may lead to the substitution of certain types of ministries, while higher inflation rates tend to shorten tenure longevity for Romanian ministers. Moreover, our estimations support the finding that Romanian ministers tend to have shorter tenures as the number of past ministerial functions increases and that the burden of simultaneously managing various ministries significantly contributes to the shorter political longevity of a given minister. Finally, recent ministers have had longer tenures than those in the first years after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989.     

Volunteer tourism as an emerging trend or an expansion of ecotourism? A look at potential clients' perceptions of volunteer tourism organisations

• Volunteer tourism (VT) has recently been proposed as an alternative to ecotourism to link tourism and nature conservation. It is believed that VT represents an emerging tourism sector for vacationers who want to make a difference during their holidays. This investigation questions this belief using potential tourists' perceptions of volunteer tourism organisations.
• Through a multiple sorting procedure, respondents interpreted the promotional material of volunteer tourism organisations to describe this form of tourism and differentiate between organisations. The results suggested that respondents distinguish between organisations offering a volunteering experience and a holiday experience.
• Furthermore, the respondent's level of familiarity with expedition activities was important, as respondents with a high level of familiarity seek different benefits from their experience. The study suggests that volunteer tourism is a diverse sector, with different emphases on holiday and volunteering elements.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Aid and the Delegated Fight Against Terrorism

A positive empirical relationship is found between the level of foreign aid received by a country and the number of terrorist attacks originating from it. A simple model is used to explain it, where the donor delegates some actions against terrorism to the aid‐recipient government. Aid is endogenous in an econometric equation explaining participation in terrorist events, as expected from the model, and an attacks‐supply curve in which aid has a negative impact is presented at the end.     

Regional and environmental impacts of expanding the heavy duty vehicle charge to the secondary road network in Austria

In road freight transport a particularly large share of the total social costs generated is not borne by road users. To correct for this, many European countries use pricing instruments specifically targeted at heavy duty vehicles, so far targeted almost exclusively at the primary road network. In line with the overall EU objective of greening the transport sector, we discuss the possibility of expanding the road charging system to a more comprehensive, area-wide one. The degree to which peripheral or disadvantaged regions are hit over-proportionally by such a measure remains an open question in the literature on heavy duty vehicle road pricing. We combine an input–output and a computable general equilibrium approach to analyse the case for Austria. We find that while it is not the sectors of highest economic importance in the periphery regions that are hit by the charge, those sectors that are hit are those which are relatively more important in peripheral regions (with up to a twofold share in value added) and for whom production price impacts tend to be relatively strong. The short term consumer price effect of extending the current primary road network charges to the secondary network is found not to exceed 0.15%. In terms of the principles of sustainable transport we find that extending charge coverage is compatible with most core principles, the exception being the principle of regional need. In terms of environmental impact, for example, expanding heavy duty vehicle charges to the secondary road network reduces heavy duty vehicle kilometres in the overall network (and related emissions) by roughly 2%. However, in order to comply with the needs principle, suitable complementary transfer policies need to be designed and implemented for peripheral regions.     

Biotechnical portfolio management of mixed-species forests

Based upon the historical data—obtained from the French National Forest Inventory—on the tree species’ productivities, assimilated to be a measure of return on investment, as well as on their variances as sources of risk, we apply the portfolio selection theory in order to optimize the species distributions in France. We thus determine the optimal return-risk combinations of tree species and map them per administrative department. We also estimate the resistance of optimal portfolios using the species’ probabilities of presence. Our results show that greater weights in the optimal portfolios match with higher probabilities of presence, implying that foresters have incentives to invest in the most resilient species.     

The cul-de-sac of foreign industrial investments to Russia

Abstract

The aim of this article is to determine the rationale for the ‘irrational’ investment behaviour of multinational corporations (MNCs) in Russia. During the on-going recession in a number of major sectors, MNCs have undertaken only a very limited number of divestments and, instead, have commissioned a record number of new manufacturing facilities (by opening new plants and expanding the capacities of existing plants). To explain this phenomenon, we first provide an overview of existing theoretical and empirical studies on investments in difficult locations and divestments of foreign subsidiaries, and identify the major weaknesses of the prevailing approaches and underlying assumptions of such studies. Next, we present a detailed picture of both industrial investments and divestments in Russia from January 2015 to March 2017. Finally, we indicate how a combination of systemic and contingent factors (pressure from the host country’s government, subsidiaries’ orientation towards the host country’s markets, and the absence of potential local and international acquirers for existing Russian manufacturing facilities of Western MNCs) has created ‘cul-de-sac’ conditions for foreign-owned industrial assets in Russia.     

The Impact of Direct Cash Payments on Whole Blood Supply

This paper investigates the impact of monetary incentives on whole blood donations. We take advantage of a quasi‐natural experiment in Germany, in which one blood donation site changes its payment scheme from remunerated to non‐remunerated. All other donation sites maintain their payment schemes. We show that donation volumes drop significantly after the pay drop and do not recuperate. At the same time, donation volumes increase at other paid donation sites, which is partly due to donor migration to these sites. We do not find any impact of the changed payment scheme on blood quality. Our results offer additional insight into the complex question whether it is efficient to ensure blood supply by paying donors a direct monetary compensation.