Imagining The Thought of Work

This article develops the idea of the interrelated complexity of work attested to in John Budd’s (2011) The Thought of Work. Drawing on material from oral history and other non-academic writing about work I argue that we need to be alive to the complex paradox of labor and the workplace. We have to be attuned to and more attentive of the realities of employment. This way of understanding work has a rich tradition and is exemplified in the writing of people like Studs Terkel or Humphrey Jennings.     

Linking agricultural policies with obesity and noncommunicable diseases: A new perspective for a globalising world

In light of the shift in policy paradigm in agriculture from state intervention to market liberalisation and globalisation, this paper develops a series of hypotheses on the relationship between agricultural policies and consumer diets. The first hypothesis is that the paradigm shift has led to greater specialisation of production, so changing the ability and incentive for producers to supply certain foods relative to others. Second, the shift has affected farmgate prices (both up and down), so creating opportunities for the industries which purchase farm commodities (the food consuming industries – FCIs) to substitute lower priced ingredients, thereby influencing the nutritional quality and content of foods available in the marketplace. Third, it has increased the ability of the FCIs to “add value” through product innovation and marketing, creating a market characterised by highly differentiated products targeted to individualised preferences, thus increasing the acceptability of a wider variety and quantity of food products.     

Is provision for old-age the main saving motive of the future?—An empirical analysis for Germany

The demographic development is a big challenge for public and private pension schemes. In this context it is important to know if individuals recognize the problem and if this reflects on their attitude towards private pension schemes. The aim of our study is to analyze the general importance of the saving motive old-age provision as well as its impact on the ownership and the demand for old-age provision linked insurance products. We apply panel analysis techniques to show among others that old-age provision as a saving motive primarily impacts the ownership and the demand for annuities. On the contrary to this result, the state funding seems to be the dominant motivation behind the decision to buy state promoted annuities.     

Consumers’ evaluation of allocation policies for scarce health care services: Vested interest activation trumps spatial and temporal distance

The allocation of scarce health care service resources often requires trade-offs between individual and collective outcomes (e.g., when some individuals benefit more strongly from a given policy than others). Based on construal level theory, one would expect that consumers cognitively represent the individual and collective outcomes of an allocation policy at different levels of abstraction and that they evaluate allocation policies more positively when there is congruency between the cognitive representation of the policy??s focal outcome and the spatial and temporal distance inherently present in the policy??s decision context (e.g., allocation decisions on a future policy). However, we hypothesize that this congruency effect can be overruled by a high vested interest mindset that is activated by an individual??s recent personal experience with a health care service provider. Since a high vested interest mindset increases the relevance of the allocation policy implementation for the individual because s/he perceives strong personal consequences, we propose that for consumers with recent experience the evaluation of an allocation policy that focuses on individual outcomes is higher than that of a policy that focuses on collective outcomes irrespective of the spatial and temporal distance in the decision context. Results of a hypothetical experiment among a representative sample of the general population confirm the congruency effects in the new domain of health care service allocation policies, and provide support for the proposed overruling effect of the activation of a high vested interest mindset by recent personal experience on spatial and temporal distance.     

Cultural Differentiation of Negotiating Agents

Negotiations proceed differently across cultures. For realistic modeling of agents in multicultural negotiations, the agents must display culturally differentiated behavior. This paper presents an agent-based simulation model that tackles these challenges, based on Hofstede’s model of national cultures. The context is a trade network for goods with a hidden quality attribute. The negotiation model is based on the ABMP negotiation architecture and applies a utility function that includes market value, quality preference and risk attitude. The five dimensions of Hofstede’s model are the basis for the modification of ABMP parameters and weight factors in the utility function. The agents can observe each other’s group membership and status. This information is used, along with the indices of Hofstede’s dimensions, to differentiate behavior in different cultural settings. The paper presents results of test runs that verify the implementation of the model. The model helps to explain behaviors of actors in international trade networks. It proves that Hofstede’s dimensions can be used to generate culturally differentiated agents. Further validations of the model with case studies from literature and experiments have yet to be conducted. Extensions can make this model a useful tool for training traders who engage in cross-cultural negotiation and for implementation in negotiation support systems.     

Optimal Mechanisms for Heterogeneous Multi-Cell Aquifers

Standard economic models of groundwater management impose restrictive assumptions regarding perfect transmissivity (i.e., the aquifer behaves as a bathtub), no external effects of groundwater stocks, observability of individual extraction rates, and/or homogeneous agents. In this article, we derive regulatory mechanisms for inducing the socially optimal extraction path in Markov perfect equilibrium for aquifers in which these assumptions do not hold. In spite of the complexity of the underlying system, we identify an interesting case in which a simple linear mechanism achieves the social optimum. To illustrate potential problems that can arise by erroneously imposing simplifying assumptions, we conduct a simulation based on data from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.     

Capital formation in transport infrastructure in New Zealand to 1950

Series of disaggregated capital formation in the New Zealand public sector prior to 1950 remain scarce despite thirty years having passed since the series for the period 1871–1900 were compiled by J.A. Dowie. Even within his series there can be problems utilizing the estimates because of the aggregated nature of some outlay categories. The capital stock series are more deficient, reflecting methodological problems with the preparation of such series from capital formation data. Using the Dowie series as a point of reference this article focusses on one important area of public capital stock, transport infrastructure. The resulting estimates allow some exploration of public policies in respect of the provision of transport infrastructure.