Exchange rates and prices in Europe

Zusammenfassung Wechselkurse und Preise in Europa. — Dieser Aufsatz behandelt die Implikationen von Asymmetrien in der übertragung von Preisst?rungen bei zentralisierter Wechselkurspolitik in einem System gesteuerter Kurse wie dem Europ?ischen W?hrungssystem. Es wird gezeigt, da\ bei derartigen Asymmetrien unwiderruflich feste Wechselkurse suboptimal sind, selbst dann, wenn die politischen Ziele der L?nder identisch und die Wechselkurs- und Geldpolitiken zentralisiert sind. Im empirischen Teil werden die asymmetrischen übertragungen von Preisst?rungen aufgezeigt, indem Input-Output-Matrizen für vier europ?ische L?nder simuliert werden. Dabei ergibt sich, da\ diese Asymmetrien in der Tat betr?chtlich sind und da\ sie bei einer optimalen Festsetzung der Wechselkurse ausdrücklich in Rechnung gestellt werden sollten.

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Résumé Taux de change et prix en Europe. —- Dans cet article les auteurs discutent les implications des asymétries en transmission des perturbances de prix pour une politique de taux de change centralisée dans un système de taux dirigés comme le Système Monétaire Européen. Ils démontrent que, sous des asymétries, les taux de change fixés irrévocablement sont sous-optimum, même si les buts politiques des pays sont identiques et si les politiques de taux de change et monétaires sont centralisées. Puis les auteurs donnent de l’évidence empirique pour des asymétries en transmission des perturbances de prix en simulant des matrices input-output pour quatre pays Européens. Le résultat est que ces asymétries sont vraiment considérable; par conséquent, un cadre optimum de taux de change devrait tenir compte d’elles.

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Resumen Tipos de cambio y precios en Europa. — En este trabajo se discuten las consecuencias que tienen asimetrías en la transmisión de perturbaciones de los precios para políticas de cambio centralizadas dentro de un sistema de tipos de cambio manejados como el Sistema Monetario Europeo. Se demuestra porqué en presencia de estas asimetrías tipos de cambio fijos e irrevocables son suboptimales, incluso cuando los objetivos de política son idénticos en todos los países y las politicas de cambios y monetarias son centralizadas. A continuación se présenta evidencia empfrica de asimetrías en la transmisión de perturbaciones de los precios simulando matrices insumo producto de cuatro países europeos. Los resultados indican que estas asimetrias son importantes y que a raíz de ello un régimen de cambio óptimo debiera tomarlas en cuenta explícitamente.

     

Europe After COVID-19: A New Role for German Leadership?

Intereconomics - The German change of attitude concerning fiscal policy and the mutualisation of efforts to fight the pandemic is driven by self-interest, and as such might be structural.     

Anti-Waste Labeling and Consumer Willingness to Pay

ABSTRACT

Food waste is an important topic in the general context of food consumption sustainability and ethical consumption. Several studies have focused on environment-friendly labeling schemes based on different “ethical attributes,” such as organic, fair trade, and locally grown. However, the effect of a labeling scheme based on food waste prevention has never been studied. In the current work, experimental auctions were used to investigate the effect of a certification about containing food waste within a certain threshold on participants’ willingness to pay. The product chosen for the auctions was the French baguette (500 g) packaged with a paper wrapper. Furthermore, we examined whether the effect would be moderated by different communication strategies about the consequences of wasting. Specifically, two different frames of reference were used: the first is based on the carbon footprint, the other on the water footprint. Our results showed that waste prevention–based labeling positively affected participants’ willingness to pay and that this effect was enhanced by the carbon footprint frame of reference.     

Coordination in evolving networks with endogenous decay

This paper studies an evolutionary model of network formation with endogenous decay, in which agents benefit both from direct and indirect connections. In addition to forming (costly) links, agents choose actions for a coordination game that determines the level of decay of each link. We address the issues of coordination (long-run equilibrium selection) and network formation by means of stochastic stability techniques. We find that the long-run behavior of the system depends on a fine interplay of the link cost and the trade-off between efficiency and risk-dominance.     

A Comparison between Formal and Informal Mutual‐credit Arrangements

We analyze under what conditions a group of potential entrepreneurs prefer to form a Rotating Savings and Credit Association (ROSCA), or a mutual‐guarantee association, which we interpret in a rotating scheme and call Rotating Savings and Collateral Association (ROSCoA). We argue that: (1) ROSCAs (ROSCoAs) are likely to be more developed in countries with high (low) bank concentration; (2) the individual flow of savings required to participate in a ROSCoA is generally lower than that needed in a ROSCA; (3) under the assumption that members share their project income at the end of each period, ROSCAs and ROsCoAs are sustainable even without the use of sanctioning mechanisms.     

Driving Smartization Through Intelligent Transport

Smart cities initiatives are developing all over the world, due to their support in favouring a better provision of services, in connection with the aim of achieving efficiency in cities management. More and more big corporations are interested in this topic to develop their businesses, as several issues are linked to these projects, like environment, water management, energy policies, education, culture, and so on. In literature these issues, known as drivers, were also related to sustainability aims which could be reached through the accomplishment of better performances within environment, economy, and society. This study synthesizes all the different drivers identified by scholars and industry players in a model, in order to use it as a framework to depict the linkages among the various smart cities projects. Since transport resulted as one of the most considered drivers in the analyzed contributions, the research questions were delineated to describe its role in the different phases of smart initiatives, and to understand if it could encourage and enable the other drivers＇ development. The multiple case study was chosen as the fittest methodological approach and it was conducted with the selection of three smart cities, one for each of the most cited platform models developed by industry players, which had started transport initiatives at least three years ago： Singapore （IBM）, Amsterdam （Accenture）, and San Francisco （Microsoft）. The analysis of the official documents set up by city departments and by the industry players showed transport as a driving force in smart cities projects which conveys a smart approach to different domains, especially energy savings, environment, and safety. The results also showed smart mobility as a pivot in stimulating investments and citizens＇ participation on different city drivers, especially as it concerns environment and services to both citizens and businesses. Smart transport initiatives, hardware and software infrastructures, technological devices, and     

More long-term care for better healthcare and vice versa: investigating the mortality effects of interactions between these public sectors

Public healthcare (HC) and long-term care (LTC) sectors coexist in several OECD countries. Economic interactions between these two sectors have been found to occur even in the absence of formal integrated care arrangements. We investigate whether and how interactions between the HC and LTC sectors impact mortality. We analyse data on English local authorities in 2014–15 and employ a sequence of cross-sectional econometric specifications based on instrumental variables to identify the effect that LTC expenditure has on mortality through its interactions with HC services, and vice versa. Our findings suggest that any effect of LTC expenditure on mortality is likely to run through the HC sector by allowing the latter to reallocate resources from less to more effective services. A 10 per cent increase in LTC expenditure per user can indirectly save, on average, about three lives per million individuals. In addition, on top of the known HC direct mortality effects, we find that investing an extra £42 million in the HC sector – equivalent to a 10 per cent increase in HC expenditure per capita for the average local authority – can decrease the use of LTC services, producing around £7.8 million of savings. These can generate mortality effects if invested in services having an impact on mortality.