On coalitional stability of anonymous interim mechanisms

Summary.   In a situation where agents have private information, we investigate the stability of mechanisms with respect to coalitional deviations. In the cooperative tradition, we first extend the notion of Core, taking into account the information a coalition may have when it forms and the conjectures of outsiders. This leads us to propose a family of Cores rather than a single one. Secondly, we study the stability of Core mechanisms to secession proposals in simple noncooperative games. The two different stability analyses, normative and strategic, tend to give support to the more natural extension of the Core, called Statistical Core, only in situations where some strong form of increasing returns to coalition is met. Without this property, arguments for a concept of Core that is non empty in a reasonably large class of problems are less compelling. Applications to taxation and insurance are given. Received: September 6, 1999; revised version: December 3, 1999     

Public awareness and perception of environmental,health and safety risks to electricity generation: an explorative interview study in Switzerland

Well-informed public preferences are key to enabling successful and sustainable energy transitions worldwide. However, limited explorative evidence exists on what the public already knows and wants to know about the electricity generation technologies and their Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) risks. Understanding these issues is important for preparing informational materials and facilitating formation of informed preferences. We present results of an explorative interview study with 12 Swiss people. Despite the public debate on energy in Switzerland, we still identify significant awareness and knowledge gaps as well as misconceptions related to both technologies and their EHS risks. For accidental risks, the people tend to think beyond probabilities and consequences and consider further aspects, such as risk controllability and trust in experts and authorities. Most importantly, we find that people are able and tend to think of the electricity system as a whole portfolio: they actively realize the need to deploy multiple electricity technologies and accept some of the EHS risks. We conclude with concrete recommendations for preparing informational materials on electricity sector transitions in Switzerland and elsewhere. We also argue that future social research on energy should pay more attention to public perception of whole technology portfolios rather than single technologies.     

Representing workers on occupational safety and health: some lessons from a largely ignored history

The decade from 1970 witnessed major reforms of occupational health and safety (OSH) laws in Western Europe, North America and Australasia. The establishment of worker representation in OSH was one of their most significant features. Largely overlooked in commentary then or since however was the fact that worker representation in safety had a far longer history, having operated in coal mining from a century earlier in some countries. The purpose of this paper is not so much to fill this historical gap as to examine this earlier development in terms of its contribution to better understand worker representation in OSH at the present time.     

The Effectiveness of Post-Disaster Recovery Marketing Messages—The Case of the 2009 Australian Bushfires

An understanding of how best to communicate with the tourism market in the wake of a disastrous event is essential for destination marketing organizations seeking to manage the misperceptions and media-imposed attitudes held by potential visitors. To date, the literature remains silent in terms of the types of messages destination marketing organizations are best to employ when a disaster has hit and consequently marketers often take an “ad hoc” approach to their post-disaster communications that may or may not be effective in terms of encouraging visitation. In response to this knowledge gap, the research presented in this article adopted an experimental methodology to examine the effectiveness of nine disaster recovery message themes commonly used by destination marketing organizations. The messages were presented to respondents via a print advertisement promoting the Victorian region of Gippsland—a tourism region severely affected by the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires. The results revealed that a marketing message endorsed by a well-known and well-associated celebrity figure is likely to be most effective in encouraging tourists to return to or visit a disaster-affected destination 12 to 24 months following the event. The findings also revealed a significant relationship between past visitation and the time frame in which visitors will visit a disaster-affected region. Those who had visited the region four times or more were much more likely to return within 6 months of the event than less frequent visitors. A final important message revealed in this study was the fact that the tourism market is not averse to disaster recovery promotional activities, a concern often considered by destination marketers when planning their post-disaster recovery campaigns.     

Is it possible to be too risk averse? Considerations for financial management in the public sector

Within the financial management discipline, risk aversion is viewed as ‘secure’ and ‘responsible’. Yet, frequently risk aversion is associated with delays, failure to take action, decreased employee morale and stakeholder frustration. This article considers the role of risk aversion within the public sector and questions whether the risk-averse nature of the organization, coupled with risk-averse leaders can result in negative outcomes for the agency. The article concludes that while risk aversion is important, there are actions that a risk-averse leader can take to minimize the implications of risk-averse behaviour on the organization as a whole.     

Board vigilance,director experience,and corporate outcomes

Agency-based studies of boards of directors address factors relevant to board vigilance with respect to the monitoring of senior managers. We argue that relying solely on director vigilance may be limiting because vigilance without relevant experience is unlikely to ensure board effectiveness. Our contention is that boards comprising vigilant directors, as well as directors with appropriate knowledge gained through experience, not only will be better monitors, but also more useful advisors to top managers. The focus of our study is on the effect on acquisition outcomes of the interaction of board vigilance and director experiential learning. Consistent with our expectations, the empirical findings indicate that vigilant boards rich in appropriate experience are associated with superior acquisition outcomes. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The strategy structure of some coalition formation games

In coalitional games with side payments, the core predicts which coalitions form and how benefits are shared. The predictions however run into difficulties if the core is empty or if some coalitions benefit from not blocking truthfully. These difficulties are analyzed in games in which an a priori given collection of coalitions can form, as the collection of pairs of buyer–seller in an assignment game. The incentive properties of the core and of its selections are investigated in function of the collection. Furthermore the relationships with Vickrey–Clarke–Groves mechanisms are drawn.