Negotiating contested visions and place-specific expectations of the hydrogen economy

This paper explores the role of the 'hydrogen economy' as a guiding vision encompassing multiple contested technological futures, value judgements and problem framings. Hydrogen visions draw upon six overarching and competing narrative themes: power and independence; community empowerment and democratisation; ecotopia; hydrogen as technical fix; inevitability and technical progress; and 'staying in the race'. In other words the hydrogen economy possesses great interpretive flexibility. This, it is argued, is the key to hydrogen's rhetorical power, allowing it to become a space in which divergent interests and agendas are promoted. Turning to issues of scale and place, the case of London is used to document the dynamics of expectations: how the open flexible guiding vision of a hydrogen economy must inevitably be re-invented and grounded in local agendas and contexts if its promise is to become realised.     

Denkanstöße zur Mindestlohnkontroverse

In Deutschland wird anders als in den übrigen Industriestaaten heftig über das Für und Wider von Mindestl?hnen diskutiert. Wie wird die Diskussion theoretisch untermauert? Wie wirken sich Mindestl?hne auf Besch?ftigung und Lohnniveau aus? Kann Armut durch die Festlegung von Mindestl?hnen vermieden werden? Prof. Dr. Hermann Ribhegge, 59, ist Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Volkswirtschaftslehre, insbesondere Wirtschafts- und Sozialpolitik, an der Europa-Universit?t Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder).     

The Consequences of Globalisation: India's Software Industry and Cross‐border Labour Mobility1

The Indian software industry is a prime example of globalisation. The industry has been characterised by large cross‐border mobility of its skilled labour force. Using a unique survey of Indian software firms, our paper quantifies the extent and impact of mobility on firm behaviour and performance. Cross‐border labour mobility in the paper refers to both temporary and permanent labour flows by Indian software professionals. The picture that emerges is of a highly mobile world in which temporary mobility has been an important characteristic of the industry. A significant number of workers have work experience abroad in a developed country. Moreover, the share of skilled workers with such experience has been positively associated with the incidence of skilled migration from the firm. This suggests network effects are at work. In terms of the impact on performance – as measured by the change in turnover per worker and the change in the employment size of the firm – the paper finds little evidence of a robust adverse effect. Further, the evidence suggests that there have been important external effects at work, as through changes in the willingness of workers to acquire skills, as well as through increased provision of educational services. These have further abated the risk of a brain drain. However, the software industry may be rather different from other industries. Our results need to be interpreted as the outcome of a particular case of skilled migration and not one necessarily representative of all types of skilled migration and source sectors.     

Accounting Information and CEO Compensation: The Role of Cash Flow from Operations in the Presence of Earnings*

We examine the role of cash flow from operations (CFO) in chief executive officer (CEO) cash compensation. We predict that CFO is contract‐relevant in the presence of earnings, and more so when (1) the quality of earnings relative to the quality of CFO as a measure of performance is low and (2) the need for CFO as a financing source is high. Our analysis is motivated principally by normative arguments and anecdotes from financial disclosures linking CFO to managerial effort and contracts, notwithstanding the traditional role of earnings in performance measurement. We find that the weight of CFO in the compensation model is positive and significant in the presence of earnings and stock returns. We also find that the relative quality of CFO compared with that of earnings has a positive (negative) impact on the weight of CFO (earnings). We further find that the relative weight of CFO is enhanced substantially when enterprise activities crucially depend on internally generated cash flow. These findings are unaltered when we include CEO age, firm size, and risk in the model and allow the coefficients to vary across industries.     

Nonlinear continuous time modeling approaches in panel research

Stochastic differential equations (SDE) are used as dynamical models for cross-sectional discrete time measurements (panel data). Thus causal effects are formulated on a fundamental infinitesimal time scale. Cumulated causal effects over the measurement interval can be expressed in terms of fundamental effects which are independent of the chosen sampling intervals (e.g. weekly, monthly, annually). The nonlinear continuous–discrete filter is the key tool in deriving a recursive sequence of time and measurement updates. Several approximation methods including the extended Kalman filter (EKF), higher order nonlinear filters (HNF), the local linearization filter (LLF), the unscented Kalman filter (UKF), the Gauss–Hermite filter (GHF) and generalizations (GGHF), as well as simulated filters (functional integral filter FIF) are compared.     

Capital Stock and Economic Development in Hungary

This paper introduces a method of calculating physical capital stock figures in transition countries and derives data for Hungary. On the basis of international experience, we set investment and saving paths for future income levels. Confrontation of savings prospects of different sectors with investments needs leads to an economic policy analysis of the fiscal policy needed to catch up to 70 per cent of Austrian per capita income by 2030.     

Does Tax Evasion Affect Occupational Choice?*

This paper presents a novel micro‐econometric procedure that identifies the extent to which occupational choices are distorted by opportunities for tax evasion. Previous studies claim to have found significant and substantial effects, but analysis and replication of their methods reveals that they generate conflicting and misleading results. The paper then implements the new procedure using several British micro‐data sets. A thorough empirical investigation reveals that occupational choice between self‐employment and paid employment is not robustly related to pecuniary factors in general, and is invariant to tax avoidance and evasion opportunities in particular.