Green Attitude and Economic Growth

We analyze the interdependence between green attitude and equilibrium development of environmental quality in an endogenous growth model. Individuals take only part of their impact on pollution into account, hence there is a negative externality of capital accumulation on environmental quality. Increasing wealth or increasing pollution enhance green attitude and reduce the externality, because individuals care more about the environment if their income is higher or if pollution is more obvious. The time path of pollution as well as the evolution of equilibrium growth are shown to depend crucially on the determinants of green attitude. Ongoing growth may lead to complete internalization of the environmental externality if green attitude improves with increasing wealth, e.g. as a consequence of an increase in environmental education. In contrast, if green attitude is determined exclusively by the level of environmental quality, pollution remains at a suboptimally high level. The interdependence of wealth and pollution in the determination of environmental awareness implies more complex dynamics. Capital growth enhances green attitude and thereby decreases pollution. Improved environmental quality in turn may increase capital growth due to less green attitude and therefore slow down convergence to the sustainable balanced growth path.     

Influence of circadian rhythms on television viewers’ behaviour: is there a need for new programming?

As a common activity, television (TV) watching plays an important role in leisure behaviour. The influence of circadian rhythms on nearly all aspects of leisure behaviour and social life has been well examined in many fields. Less is known about circadian influences on TV use/social behaviour, and inconsistent findings have been reported. We analysed epidemiologic data from public TV stations to interpret them in light of circadian/seasonal rhythms and their interaction with leisure behaviour with the goal of improving quality of life by using TV as a pure leisure activity. We found that TV programme schedules failed to synchronise with circadian rhythms. Problems with synchronisation were observed for all viewers and were significantly related to factors such as working behaviour and social activities. Future studies should focus on the circadian influence on TV watching as a leisure behaviour. We propose a newly defined schedule based on circadian influences.     

The wealth effects of real estate transactions: The case of REITs

Recent literature analyzing corporate acquisitions and sales of real estate has shown that statistically significant gains accrue to both buyers and sellers when the transaction is announced. In this paper, we focus solely on the real property transactions of tax-qualified Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) to determine if REIT shareholders experience a similar pattern of positive wealth effects. We find that REITs do not experience any significant wealth effects from transaction announcements. However, we provide evidence that a significant positive wealth effect does occur upon the announcement of a sale transaction when the sale is associated with an increase in REIT dividends.     

Do conservative governments make a difference in monetary policy? A study of the U.S. and the U.K.

This paper offers an empirical test of the Simon's proposition: Do conservative governments make a difference in monetary policy? Using quarterly data on the inflation rate and the GDP gap, the authors test the hypothesis during the tenure of two regimes: conservatives and non-conservatives, and for two countries, the U.S. and the U.K. Under the assumption that the monetary authority followed a Taylor rule, they evaluate monetary policies pursued by alternative regimes in the two countries. Alternatively, they assume that the monetary authority adjusts money growth in response to deviations of inflation and GDP from their target levels. The estimation results were mixed. The Simon's hypothesis was supported in the U.K. during the Thatcher regime, but not in the U.S. during the Reagan's tenure. The findings for the U.S. in contrast to those obtained for the U.K. indirectly validate the Simon's contention that monetary policy in the U.S. is subject to manipulation by interest groups“Perhaps the ultimate test of the conservative status of government is its willingness to pursue stable monetary policy.”William E. Simon, 1980, p. 8     

Optimal Phasing and Inventory Decisions for Large-Scale Residential Development Projects

Land developers in select economic environments have been found to build in large increments and hold substantial amounts of inventory despite their ability to mitigate risk by phasing the production of residential lots. Such behavior was observed in numerous metropolitan areas throughout the southeastern and southwestern United States in the years leading up to financial crises, resulting in inventories of tens of thousands of lots in cities such as Atlanta, Las Vegas and Orlando, just to name a few. The model presented in this paper explores the rationale behind the choices made by developers in these markets and others by extending the real options framework to concurrently estimate optimal phasing and inventory decisions for large-scale residential development projects. Modeled interactions between several variables indicate that full development, smooth phased development and lumpy development can all be optimal under different market conditions, with each pattern feeding back into inventory levels and lot pricing.     

On the Optimal Structure of Government Subsidies for Enterprise Zones and Other Locational Development Programs

Government locational development programs often reward businesses for decisions they would have made or that are going to be quickly reversed. This paper presents a model to determine the amount and structure of government locational subsidies that minimize this problem. We model the firm's decision to switch locations as an option whose value depends on stochastic operating costs, the costs to switch locations and subsidies offered by the government. The government maximizes the expected benefit from the operation of the firm within its preferred location by choosing a subsidy package that explicitly and endogenously recognizes the firm's switching option.     

Extent and possible causes of intrayear agricultural commodity price volatility

Wheat, corn, rice, soybeans, and cotton experienced higher volatility in the second half of the 2000s. For the sample at hand, the unit root tests only validate a new period of high volatility for wheat and cotton. If in the next couple of years however, corn, rice and soybeans maintain their higher volatility, a new period of high volatility may also be validated statistically. Regarding the factors driving the intrayear volatility GMM estimates show that “commodity market fundamentals” i.e., the stock‐to‐use ratio and to a lesser extent the degree of internationalization, are the most systematically statistically significant coefficients among commodities. Over time, consecutive low stock‐to‐use ratios and a thin international market provoke typically high volatility. Speculative activity and liquidity in the agricultural derivative market have a stabilizing effect on the spot price, if any. Finally, “common macro” factors significantly impact volatility, especially the volatility of petrol and of exchange rates; their dispersion importance over the sample is quite sizeable. However, it is difficult to establish a link between, on the one hand, loose monetary policy, business cycle and inflation, and, on the other hand, commodity price volatility, as the sign of the estimated coefficient changes depending on the commodity and the estimated elasticities are quite low.     

Variants of de-growth and deliberative democracy: A Habermasian proposal

This article intends to determine the relationship between variants of degrowth strategies and prospects for further democratization. In a first step, four variants of degrowth policies are distinguished. In a second step, a Habermasian approach to deliberative democracy will be outlined which will be enriched by some proposals for environmental democracy. Finally, a position on environmental deliberative democracy and degrowth orientation is presented.