Dringend gebraucht — aktive Wirtschaftspolitik,um Außenhandelsüberschüsse abzubauen

What can Germany do to reduce its high current account and trade surpluses? The article uses a macroeconometric model to simulate how a more expansionary fiscal policy as well as a combination of such a fiscal policy and higher wage growth would affect the trade balance, the fiscal balance and the public debt ratio. A much more expansionary fiscal policy than in the past would reduce the trade surplus only a little but would lead to a deterioration of the fiscal deficit and the public debt-to-GDP ratio. However, combined with higher wage growth, such a fiscal policy would reduce the trade surplus more effectively, would lead to higher tax growth and inflation and thus would also decrease the public debt ratio.     

European competition policy modernization: From notifications to legal exception

Council Regulation (EC) 1/2003 came into force in May 2004 and replaced the mandatory notification of agreements by a regime of ex post monitoring. This paper shows that ex post monitoring is the optimal audit regime when the competition authority's probability of error is low. On the other hand, the notification system becomes optimal when the competition authority's probability of error is high. The paper also shows that block exemptions and black list (regimes of per se (il)legality) should be implemented when the agreements’ expected welfare impact is very high and very low, respectively.     

The Interpretation And Resolution Of Resource Allocation Issues In Professional Organizations: A Critical Examination Of The Professional-Manager Dichotomy*

Professional organizations have long been depicted as rife with conflict between professionals, who are assumed to represent the interests of their profession, and managers, who are assumed to represent the potentially competing interests of the organization. This study examines the validity of this assumption. Based on past research on both professional organizations and knowledge structure development, we predict that to the extent that professionals and managers conflict, they may do so because they interpret 'identical' issues differently. The results of a study of resource allocation decision preferences with 350 chief financial officers, chief medical officers, and physicians revealed strong support for our issue interpretation predictions, and virtually no support for the simple professional–manager dichotomy. Specifically, using structural equation modeling, we found that: (1) single resource allocation issues could be interpreted in multiple ways; (2) issue interpretations were strong predictors of decision preferences; (3) professionals and managers tended to interpret issues differently, although many of the differences were not consistent with past theorizing about professionals; (4) the interpretations and decision preferences of professionals who occupied management positions were like those of other professionals but different from those of managers; and (5) decision maker status (i.e., professional and/or manager) was only modestly related to decision preference. Our findings suggest that the sources and manifestations of a professional–manager dichotomy are more complex than previously reported.     

Fishery externalities and biodiversity: Trade-offs between the viability of shrimp trawling and the conservation of Frigatebirds in French Guiana

Sustainable management of natural resources, and in particular fisheries, must take into account several conflicting objectives. This is the case in the French Guiana shrimp fishery for which profitability objectives imply a reduction in the fishing activity. On the one hand, this fishery has negative externalities on marine biodiversity due to discards. On the other hand, this fishery has positive externalities on the economy of the local community and interestingly enough on a protected seabird species in the area (the Frigatebird that feeds on discards). In this paper, we examine the viability of that system considering two sustainability objectives: an economic objective in terms of the profitability of the fishing activity, and a conservation objective in terms of the Frigatebird population. For that purpose, we have developed a dynamic model of that bioeconomic system and study here the trade-offs between the two conflicting objectives. It provides a means to quantify the necessary give and takes involving the economic and ecological objectives that would ensure a viable management solution. Our study confirms the relevance of the viability approach to address natural resource management issues, which should lead to the development of new tools for the arbitration of conflicting sustainability objectives. In particular, such tools could be used as a quantitative basis for cost–benefit analysis taking into account environmental externalities.     

Store loyalty, bargaining power and the private label production issue

One of many explanations offered for the rise of private labels(PLs) is that they increase the bargaining power of the retailer.The prior question of the PL production assignment has not beenanalysed in an economic framework. The retailer can either entrustthe production of his PL to the national brand (NB) manufacturerat a low unit cost, with the disadvantage that both products(NB and PL) are held by the same agent, or he can choose a firmfrom the competitive fringe with a higher unit production cost.In a framework where loyalty (presence of store-switching andbrand-switching consumers) and bargaining strength count, weshow that the retailer will assign his PL production to theNB manufacturer when the latter's bargaining power is low. However,a higher consumer loyalty for the NB can reverse the retailer'sdecision.     

Is it time to reboot welfare economics? Overview

The contributions of economists have long included both positive explanations of how economic systems work and normative recommendations for how they could and should work better. In recent decades, economics has taken a strong empirical turn as well as having a greater appreciation of the importance of the complexities of real-world human behaviour, institutions, the strengths and failures of markets, and interlinkages with other systems, including politics, technology, culture and the environment. This shift has also brought greater relevance and pragmatism to normative economics. While this shift towards evidence and pragmatism has been welcome, it does not in itself answer the core question of what exactly constitutes ‘better’, and for whom, and how to manage inevitable conflicts and trade-offs in society. These have long been the core concerns of welfare economics. Yet, in the 1980s and 1990s, debates on welfare economics seemed to have become marginalised. The articles in this Fiscal Studies symposium engage with the question of how to revive normative questions as a central issue in economic scholarship.     

Volatility term structures in commodity markets

In this study, we comprehensively examine the volatility term structures in commodity markets. We model state-dependent spillovers in principal components (PCs) of the volatility term structures of different commodities, as well as that of the equity market. We detect strong economic links and a substantial interconnectedness of the volatility term structures of commodities. Accounting for intra-commodity-market spillovers significantly improves out-of-sample forecasts of the components of the volatility term structure. Spillovers following macroeconomic news announcements account for a large proportion of this forecast power. There thus seems to be substantial information transmission between different commodity markets.     

Voluntary Adopters of Integrated Reporting – Evidence on Forecast Accuracy and Firm Value

This study investigates how integrated reporting (IR) creates value for investors. It examines how providers of financial capital benefit from an improved firm information environment provided by IR. Specifically, this study investigates the effect of voluntary IR disclosure on analyst earnings forecast accuracy as well as on firm value. To do so, we use an international sample of 167 listed companies that voluntarily publish an integrated report. Our analysis shows no significant effect of a voluntary IR publication on analyst earnings forecast accuracy and no significant effect on firm value. We thus do not find evidence for the fulfillment of IR's promises regarding improved information environment and value creation of voluntary adopters. We conclude that such companies might already have a relatively high level of transparency leading to an absent additional effect of IR disclosure. Positive effects of IR appear to be more relevant in environments where IR is mandatory.