Choosing and using payment instruments: evidence from German microdata

Germans are still very fond of using cash. Of all direct payments transactions in 2008, cash accounted for an astounding 82 % in terms of number and for 58 % in terms of value. With a dataset that combines transaction information with survey data on payment behaviour of German consumers, we shed light on how individuals decide on their cash usage. We employ a two-stage empirical framework which jointly explains payment card ownership and the use of cash. Our results indicate that cash usage is compatible with systematic economic decision making. Consumers decide on the adoption of payment cards and then use available payment media according to transaction characteristics, the relative costs of cash and card usage, socio-demographic characteristics and their assessment of payment instruments’ characteristics. Importantly, older consumers use significantly more cash than younger consumers. We show that this difference in payment behaviour is not attributable to age as such but largely to differences in the characteristics of older and younger consumers. This suggests that the high cash intensity of older consumers cannot fully be attributed to the role of habit or to their slow adoption to new payment technologies.     

The strategic impact of external networks: subsidiary performance and competence development in the multinational corporation

This paper explores the importance of relational embeddedness in external networks as a strategic resource for performance and competence development in multinational corporations (MNCs). Two different types of relational embeddedness at the subsidiary level—business embeddedness and technical embeddedness—are proposed to have an influence on the subsidiary's market performance as well as its importance for competence development in the MNC. Using data on 97 Swedish MNC subsidiaries, five hypotheses are tested in a LISREL model analysis. The results suggest that technical embeddedness has a positive impact on both the subsidiary expected performance and its role in the development of products and production processes in the MNC. Indirectly, through external technical embeddedness, external business embeddedness also influences the sister units' product and process development and subsidiary market performance. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hot air for sale: a quantitative assessment of Russia’s near-term climate policy options

Since January 2005 the European Union has launched an EU-internal emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) for emission-intensive installations as the central pillar to comply with the Kyoto Protocol. The EU ETS will be linked to a Kyoto emissions market where greenhouse gas emission allowances of signatory Kyoto countries can be traded. In this paper we investigate the implications of Russian market power for environmental effectiveness and regional compliance costs to the Kyoto Protocol taking into account potential linkages between the Kyoto emissions market and the EU ETS. We find that Russia may have incentives to join the EU ETS as long as the latter remains relatively separated from the Kyoto international emissions market. In this case, Russia can exert monopolistic price discrimination between two separated markets thereby maximizing revenues from hot air sales. The EU will be able to substantially reduce compliance costs if it does not restrain itself to EU-internal emission regulation schemes. However, part of the gains from extra-EU emissions trading will come at the expense of environmental effectiveness as (more) hot air will be drawn in.      

The Rise of Finance and the Decline of Organised Labour in the Advanced Capitalist Countries

The goal of this article is to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the impacts of finance and corporate governance reforms on organised labour since 1980. The argument is made that contemporary institutional and ‘Varieties of Capitalism’ as well as ‘Varieties of Unionism’ perspectives on labour market reform have overstated the power of states, institutions and organised interests in deflecting global economic pressures. Drawing on a range of recent Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) statistics and qualitative studies, it is claimed that current developments in finance and corporate governance mark a fundamental break with post-war developments. Capital has reasserted its power over organised labour and labour markets not only in the US and UK, but throughout Western Europe as well. In assessing how far this reversal has gone, the article focuses on three key political economic changes: i) the rise in finance and adoption of corporate ‘shareholder’ systems; ii) the expansion of mergers and acquisitions and their negative effects on unionisation and manufacturing jobs; and iii) the effects of financial pressures and corporate reform on collective bargaining and wages. This is the first study to report on comparative changes and qualitative reforms to both finance and labour in 13 OECD countries between 1980 and 2005.     

Cost-effectiveness of add-on treatments to metformin in a Swedish setting: liraglutide vs sulphonylurea or sitagplitin

Objective:

To evaluate long-run cost-effectiveness in a Swedish setting for liraglutide compared with sulphonylureas (glimepiride) or sitagliptin, all as add-on to metformin for patients with type 2 diabetes insufficiently controlled with metformin in monotherapy.

Methods:

The IHE Cohort Model of Type 2 Diabetes was used to evaluate clinical and economic outcomes from a societal perspective. Model input data were obtained from two clinical trials, the Swedish National Diabetes Register and the literature. Cost data reflected year 2013 price level. The robustness of results was checked with one-way-sensitivity analysis and probability sensitivity analysis.

Results:

The cost per QALY gained for liraglutide (1.2?mg) compared to SU (glimepiride 4?mg), both as add-on to metformin, ranged from SEK 226,000 to SEK 255,000 in analyzed patient cohorts. The cost per QALY for liraglutide (1.2?mg) vs sitagliptin (100?mg) as second-line treatment was lower, ranging from SEK 149,000 to SEK 161,000. Costs of preventive treatment were driving costs, but there was also a cost offset from reduced costs of complications of ～20%. Notable cost differences were found for nephropathy, stroke, and heart failure. The predicted life expectancy with liraglutide increased the cost of net consumption for liraglutide.

Limitations:

The analysis was an ex-ante analysis using model input data from clinical trials which may not reflect effectiveness in real-world clinical practice in broader patient populations. This limitation was explored in the sensitivity analysis. The lack of specific data on loss of production due to diabetes complications implied that these costs may be under-estimated.

Conclusions:

Treatment strategies with liraglutide 1.2?mg improved the expected quality-of-life and increased costs when compared to SU and to sitagliptin for second-line add-on treatments. The cost per QALY for liraglutide was in the range considered medium by Swedish authorities.     

Non‐Linear Oil Price Dynamics: A Tale of Heterogeneous Speculators?

Abstract. While some of the recent surges in oil prices can be attributed to a robust global demand at a time of tight production capacities, commentators occasionally also blame the impact of speculators for part of the price pressure. We propose an empirical oil market model with heterogeneous speculators. Whereas trend-extrapolating chartists may tend to destabilize the market, fundamentalists exercise a stabilizing effect on the price dynamics. Using monthly data for West Texas Intermediate oil prices, our STR-GARCH estimates indicate that oil price cycles may indeed emerge due to the non-linear interplay between different trader types.     

Homo oeconomicus and homo politicus in Ecological Economics

The model of homo oeconomicus has been criticised in Ecological Economics. We discuss this critique and alternative approaches that have been developed in the literature. In contrast to these approaches, which are based on Arrow's concept of the Social Welfare Function, psychology, biology, and general considerations, we propose a concept of homo politicus that is founded in political philosophy. We show that this concept is suitable for normative purposes of Ecological Economics. At the same time, we demonstrate in a case study that the concept has empirical relevance in explaining real political processes.     

Measuring to understand intangible performance drivers

The present qualitative study explores what eleven Swedish organizations have systematically worked at to increase the understanding of the importance of intangibles as performance drivers. The present analysis is accomplished using a combination of evolutionary theory, knowledge-based theory and organizational learning. The results indicate that assets in an accounting sense seem to be of less interest than perceptions of activities that enable future performance. These “enablers” are often customer and employee perceptions of individual, organizational and relational competence. The way for the firms to ascertain a continuous organizational learning process with respect to the value creation chain is to measure intangibles as well as to maintain organizational routines that ensure the transformation of measurement results into action.     

City in Change: Globalization,Local Politics and Urban Movements in Contemporary Stockholm

In this article contemporary city change in Stockholm is first described against a background of theories on global cities. Stockholm cannot be seen as a global city, but displays many typical signs of the ongoing development in global cities. In the article this is shown by examining the situation in Stockholm regarding the economic structure, especially the expanding IT‐sector, social and economic polarization, local politics and the efforts to improve the infrastructure. In the change of the city social movements have been very active. Since the 1960s three different kinds of movements have existed, which are described and analysed against a background of theories on social movements. The first of these, the so‐called neighbourhood movement, emerged at the end of the 1960s and had all the typical signs of the so‐called ‘new’ social movements of that time. In the 1990s a new environmental movement acted mainly against proposed big traffic‐routes. This movement reflected in its structure some important features of today's society: fragmentation, individualization and globalization. At the end of the 1990s a third movement emerged as a reaction against the new competitive urban politics and the ongoing change of the city. Finally, the modifying impact that movements and local factors in Stockholm have had on globalization is discussed, as well as the difficulty in estimating the impact of movements on local politics. L'article décrit d'abord l'évolution urbaine contemporaine à Stockholm, en fonction des théories sur les villes planétaires. Même si la capitale suédoise n'est pas censée en faire partie, elle présente nombre des caractéristiques du développement actuel de ces grandes villes mondiales. L'article le montre en examinant sa situation en matière de structure économique (en particulier, l'expansion de son secteur technologique informatique), de polarisation sociale et économique, de politique locale et d'efforts d'amélioration des infrastructures. Les mouvements sociaux ont largement contribuéà l'évolution urbaine. Depuis 1960, ils sont intervenus sous trois formes, décrites et analysées par rapport aux théories des mouvements sociaux. La première, le ‘mouvement de quartier’, est apparue à la fin des années 1960 et présentait tous les signes typiques des dits ‘nouveaux’ mouvements sociaux de l'époque. Dans les années 1990, c'est un mouvement environnemental qui a agi surtout à l'encontre des grands itinéraires de circulation proposés, révélant par sa structure quelques caractéristiques importantes de la société actuelle: fragmentation, individualisation et mondialisation. A la fin des années 1990, un troisième mouvement est né en réaction à la nouvelle politique urbaine concurrentielle et à l'évolution vécue par la ville. Pour finir sont discutées l'incidence, sur la mondialisation, des mouvements et des facteurs locaux propres à Stockholm, ainsi que la difficulté d'évaluer l'impact des mouvements sur la politique locale.