Pro-environmental behaviors for thee but not for me: Green giants,green Gods,and external environmental locus of control

Understanding consumers' allocation of environmental responsibility to external forces (i.e., those perceived to be beyond their direct control) is important yet under-researched. This paper examines how these external attributions affect consumers' pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs). A model of external environmental locus of control (i.e., external-ELOC) is tested, consisting of two superordinate dimensions: powerful-others (encapsulating corporate and government responsibility facets) and chance/fate (incorporating God/higher-power and natural earth-cycle facets). The two higher-order factors negatively associate; such that consumers ascribing environmental responsibility to powerful-others engage in PEBs; whereas those attributing environmental change to chance/fate typically do not. The results inform practical and public policy implications; pinpointing ways for corporations and governments to target their pro-environmental efforts and to sway consumers who share in the ecological burden.     

Multiattribute perceptual mapping with idiosyncratic brand and attribute sets

This article proposes an extremely flexible procedure for perceptual mapping based on multiattribute ratings, such that the respondent freely generates sets of both brands and attributes. Therefore, the brands and attributes are known and relevant to each participant. Collecting and analyzing such idiosyncratic datasets can be challenging. Therefore, this study proposes a modification of generalized canonical correlation analysis to support the analysis of the complex data structure. The model results in a common perceptual map with subject-specific and overall fit measures. An experimental study compares the proposed procedure with alternative approaches using predetermined sets of brands and/or attributes. In the proposed procedure, brands are better known, attributes appear more relevant, and the respondent??s burden is lower. The positions of brands in the new perceptual map differ from those obtained when using fixed brand sets. Moreover, the new procedure typically yields positioning information on more brands. An empirical study on positioning of shoe stores illustrates our procedure and resulting insights. Finally, the authors discuss limitations, potential application areas, and directions for research.     

Solving and Testing for Regressor-Error (in)Dependence When no Instrumental Variables are Available: With New Evidence for the Effect of Education on Income

This paper has two main contributions. Firstly, we introduce a new approach, the latent instrumental variables (LIV) method, to estimate regression coefficients consistently in a simple linear regression model where regressor-error correlations (endogeneity) are likely to be present. The LIV method utilizes a discrete latent variable model that accounts for dependencies between regressors and the error term. As a result, additional ‘valid’ observed instrumental variables are not required. Furthermore, we propose a specification test based on Hausman (1978) to test for these regressor-error correlations. A simulation study demonstrates that the LIV method yields consistent estimates and the proposed test-statistic has reasonable power over a wide range of regressor-error correlations and several distributions of the instruments. Secondly, the LIV method is used to re-visit the relationship between education and income based on previously published data. Data from three studies are re-analyzed. We examine the effect of education on income, where the variable ‘education’ is potentially endogenous due to omitted ‘ability’ or other causes. In all three applications, we find an upward bias in the OLS estimates of approximately 7%. Our conclusions agree closely with recent results obtained in studies with twins that find an upward bias in OLS of about 10% (Card, 1999). We also show that for each of the three datasets the classical IV estimates for the return to education point to biases in OLS that are not consistent in terms of size and magnitude. Our conclusion is that LIV estimates are preferable to the classical IV estimates in understanding the effects of education on income. JEL Classification: C12, C13, C21, J3, M3     

One Market,One Money: Evidence from Canada–United States Economic Integration

In this paper, we focus on the evolution of the optimum currency area (OCA) properties between Canada and the United States. To this end, we specifically investigate the relationship between the intra‐industry trade dynamics of Canadian provinces with the United States and the increasing level of integration between the two countries from 1980 to 1998. Our findings lead us to support the view that integration (real and monetary) improves the conditions under which a monetary union can yield net gains in the long run for the integrating countries. We also find that exchange rate developments exert asymmetric effects on the Canadian provinces.     

L’Évaluation économique de l'investissement dans la conservation des sols: Le cas des aménagements antiérosifs dans le bassin versant du lac Lagdo au Cameroun

This article presents an analysis of the economic impact of erosion control facilities on farm operations in the watershed of Lake Lagdo in Cameroon. Over the past several decades, erosion control facilities, which are erosion control techniques, have been introduced in Cameroon. No assessment of the impacts of these on farm operations had yet been made. Drawing on data from a survey carried out in 2007 and 2008 and a switching regression model, the study concentrates on the effectiveness of the production factors of parcels of land with and without erosion control facilities. The comparison of the average crop yields of the operations in our sample that either adopted or did not adopt such facilities shows a significant difference, representing up to 10% of the value of the farm production. Proof of a positive selection bias is also found, indicating that the farms with above‐average crop yields are more likely to adopt erosion control facilities. Such facilities on the parcels of land also provide an advantage in terms of increasing the productivity of inputs. The analytical approach developed and the positive conclusion of the selection bias can be pertinent to assessing other soil conservation technologies promoted in the area.     

Social Thinking about Collective Risk: How Do Risk‐related Practice and Personal Involvement Impact Its Social Representations?

The study investigates the effects of personal involvement in a collective risk on the structure of its social representation, and how those effects depend on risk‐related experience. The paper reports an empirical study conducted within the structural approach to the Social Representations Theory. We tested the effects of risk‐related practice (earthquake experience) and of personal involvement in risk on the structure of its social representation. The results showed that the social representation was normative in nature, but became more practically oriented in the group who experienced earthquake. A normative representation is useful in judging risk's attributes; instead, a more functional, or a more practically oriented representation is expected to enable the use of more diversified risk‐related information especially for practical purposes (risk mitigation behaviour). Similarly, the social representation of participants who were highly involved in seismic risk was more structured and more practically oriented. However, this was true only if they possessed risk‐related experience, either through collective (risk culture) or live earthquake experience. Based on these results, a suggestion is made on how to increase the efficiency of prevention campaigns that aim at encouraging collective risk‐mitigation conduct.     

Manufacturing Firms’ Demand for Water Recirculation

Relatively little is known about the factors that influence firms’ water recirculation decisions. This paper estimates an econometric model that jointly considers two facets of firms’ recirculation behavior: first, the discrete decision of whether to recirculate and, second, the decision of how much to recirculate. The model is estimated by applying the Heckman two-stage estimation procedure to cross-sectional data from Environment Canada's 1996 Industrial Water Use Survey. In the first stage, long-run factors, such as relative water scarcity and production technologies, are found to influence the decision whether to recirculate water. In the second stage, the imputed prices of intake water and water recirculation as well as the scale of operations are found to influence the choice of the optimal quantity of water to recirculate. Les facteurs qui influencent les décisions des entreprises concernant le recyclage de l’eau sont assez peu connus. Dans le présent article, nous avons estimé un modèle économétrique qui tient compte de deux aspects du comportement des entreprises envers le recyclage de l’eau : le choix de recycler l’eau ou non et le choix de la quantité d’eau à recycler. Nous avons estimé le modèle à l’aide de la procédure en deux étapes de Heckman que nous avons appliquée à des données transversales tirées de l’Enquête sur l’utilisation industrielle de l’eau, réalisée par Environnement Canada en 1996. À la première étape, des facteurs à long terme tels que la rareté relative de l’eau et les technologies de production influent sur la décision de recycler l’eau ou non. À la deuxième étape, les prix imputés du captage et du recyclage de l’eau ainsi que l’envergure des opérations influent sur le choix de la quantité optimale d’eau à recycler.     

The Impact of Central Bank FX Interventions on Currency Components

This article assesses the impact of official FOREX interventionsof the three major central banks in terms of the dynamics ofthe currency components of the major exchange rates over theperiod 1989–2003. We identify the currency componentsof the mean and volatility processes of exchange rates usingthe framework developed recently by Bos and Shephard (2006).Our results show that, in general, concerted interventions tendto affect the dynamics of both currency components of the exchangerate. In contrast, unilateral interventions are found to primarilyaffect the currency of the central bank present in the market.Our findings also emphasize a role for interventions conductedby these central banks on other related FOREX markets.