Universal Basic Income — Empty Dreams of Paradise

The wealth of a society is created by allowing people to do what they do best. Achieving optimal resource allocation is one of the greatest challenges of every society. A UBI therefore offers the wrong incentives and tends to promote collective poverty, not only materially but also subjectively.     

Knowledge,Use and Effectiveness of Social Acceptance Measures for Wind Projects

Wind energy is one of the key technologies to become independent of fossil fuels. Implementation of wind energy on a local level, however, has sometimes proved to be challenging and dealing with local acceptance of onshore wind turbines has become troublesome for some projects. Communication and public involvement are seen as strategies to prevent or respond to local opposition. This paper analyses the views of a variety of experts in wind energy on this matter. It focuses on eliciting their experiences with public participation measures. Furthermore, the perceived effectiveness of the measures for the social acceptance of wind energy projects is analysed. To do so, this paper draws on an expert survey among 207 individuals across Europe linked to wind energy projects. The analysis shows that negative reactions to wind farms are reported more frequently than positive reactions. In nearly 40% of cases, projects experience negative consequences on project development due to a lack of social acceptance, ranging from delays to changes in project plans and even termination. The vast majority of wind project developers respond to this by carrying out public participation activity at least sometimes. However, a much lower share does this systematically and the level of activity is low in early project phases. With regard to the relationship between project activities and project success, there is some support for the assumption that early and systematic involvement of the public and stakeholders is likely to reduce negative reactions.     

The role of disgust sensitivity in volunteer recruitment and retention

In the United States, many volunteers contribute unpaid labor to nonprofit organizations. This labor includes direct volunteer service (working in close physical proximity to individuals who receive assistance, such as homeless and elderly individuals) and indirect volunteer service (administrative or fundraising tasks that do not require direct engagement with the target population). This paper extends the marketing theory of product contagion, in which proximity to disgust‐inducing stimuli devalues consumer products, to preferences for direct versus indirect volunteer activities. A study conducted among U.S.‐based adults found that higher sensitivity to disgust led to a greater preference for indirect volunteer service opportunities over direct volunteer opportunities. This result—which did not differ by gender—was mediated by the likelihood that indirect (vs. direct) volunteering was perceived as representative of volunteer work. Disgust sensitivity did not predict the total amount of volunteer work performed. Implications for recruitment and retention of volunteers are discussed.     

Image of Vietnam held by US tourists: Initial inquiry

Global tourism, although affected by international terrorism events and contagious disease, remains relatively robust and still performs important economic and social functions. Asian nations can and should take the potential of foreign tourists seriously. One nation of particular interest is Vietnam. However, the image of Vietnam as a tourist destination is assumed to be relatively unknown, especially among US tourists. Given the critical nature of image as it relates to marketing and development, this is a serious void. The purpose of this project was to examine the image of Vietnam among the attractive US market. Utilizing a combined quantitative and qualitative approach, an on-site questionnaire to US tourists revealed they are mature, affluent and well educated. Factor analysis of quantitative items revealed four key elements in Vietnam's image: world heritage sites; atmosphere and attractions; service value; and quality. Content analysis of open-ended questions supported and extended this image by describing Vietnam's unique attributes as the world heritage sites, an exciting experience and positive emotion. Common elements included the food, friendly people and beauty. Utilizing this approach, it is possible to conduct a competitor evaluation. Implications for marketers and developers are presented.     

Heterogeneous labor skills,the median voter and labor taxes

This paper analyzes the median voter?s most preferred sequences of labor taxes in the standard neoclassical growth model. We consider an infinite horizon economy in which agents are heterogeneous with respect to both initial wealth and labor skills. We start by providing a set of sufficient conditions for the existence of a Condorcet winner. We then characterize the most preferred tax sequence by the median agent. First, we show that marginal labor taxes depend directly on the absolute value of the distance between the median and the mean value of the skills? distribution. Second, we find that in contrast to the intuition stemming from standard representative agent economies, labor taxes are more volatile and counter-cyclical taxation (e.g., increasing taxes in recession) might be optimal depending on the correlation between inequality and TFP. To assess the quantitative relevance of these findings, we calibrate the model economy to six countries and find that counter-cyclical labor taxation is optimal for all but the US.     

Efficiency and profitability: An inverse relationship according to the size of Austrian firm?

This paper tries to shed some light on the Austrian situation of the efficiency of firms according to their size class. For total Austria we find that large firms seem to be more efficient with respect to value-added per employee, but small firms are more efficient with respect to the gross residual quota and to profitability (= (value added — wages)/(value added)). On the other side a similar analysis for Upper Austria does not show this result. Here firms with the size of 500 employees or more seem to be the most efficient with respect to efficiency and profitability, and only the employment cost efficiency criteria reveals the picture, the smaller the firm, the more cost effective it seems to be. Hence, the result obtained from most studies in Europe, that at least the biggest firms are not the most efficient, can only be confirmed to a limited extent for (Upper) Austria.     

Consensus,dissension and ideology among economists in various European countries and in the United States

The paper analyzes consensus and dissension among economists on the basis of surveys conducted in Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland and the United States. The outcome of the analysis is that there exists a considerable amount of consensus, but substantial differences across countries. In Europe, and especially in Belgium and France, the views of ‘left’ and ‘right’ economists differ, these differences are strong, as expected, on propositions which have a clear ideological content. However, it also appears that economists are not always willing to distinguish ‘technical’ and ‘political’ aspects of an economic issue.     

Eine Theorie der Reklame

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