Collusive Market Sharing and Corruption in Procurement

This paper investigates links between corruption and collusion in procurement. A first-price multiple-object auction is administered by an agent who has legal discretion to allow for a readjustment of (all) submitted offers before the official opening. The agent may be corrupt, that is, willing to "sell" his decision in exchange for a bribe. Our main result shows that the corrupt agent's incentives to extract rents are closely linked with that of a cartel of bidders. First, collusive bidding conveys value to the agent's decision power. Second, self-interested abuse of discretion to extract rents (corruption) provides a mechanism to enforce collusion. A second result is that package bidding can facilitate collusion. We also find that with corruption, collusion is more likely in auctions where firms are small relative to the market. Our main message to auction designers, competition authorities and criminal courts is that risks of collusion and of corruption must be addressed simultaneously. Some other policy implications for the design of tender procedures are discussed.     

Dictators and oligarchs: A dynamic theory of contested property rights

In an economy with weak economic and political institutions, the major institutional choices are made strategically by oligarchs and dictators. The conventional wisdom presumes that as rent-seeking is harmful for oligarchs themselves, institutions such as property rights will emerge spontaneously. We explicitly model a dynamic game between the oligarchs and a dictator who can contain rent-seeking. The oligarchs choose either a weak dictator (who can be overthrown by an individual oligarch) or a strong dictator (who can only be replaced via a consensus of oligarchs). In equilibrium, no dictator can commit to both: (i) protecting the oligarchs' property rights from the other oligarchs and (ii) not expropriating oligarchs himself. We show that a weak dictator does not limit rent-seeking. A strong dictator does reduce rent-seeking but also expropriates individual oligarchs. We show that even though eliminating rent-seeking is Pareto optimal, weak dictators do get appointed in equilibrium and rent-seeking continues. This outcome is especially likely when economic environment is highly volatile.     

Ohne Hygiene ist alles nichts

Standardhygienema?nahmen beachten - Alle Ma?nahmen, die sowohl den Patienten als auch das Personal vor übertragungen von Keimen schützen, werden unter dem Begriff „Standardhygienema?nahmen“ zusammengefasst. Obwohl sie meist einfach auszuführen und hinl?nglich bekannt sind, finden sie trotzdem oft nur mangelnde Beachtung.     

The impact of lifestyles and food knowledge on the food patterns of German children

The German youth is relatively well informed about healthy eating, but does not act in accordance with this knowledge. It is also known from empirical studies that there is an association between lifestyles, food knowledge and the eating patterns of older teenagers. However, is there a similar correlation in regard to younger children? This article shows results of a study addressing this issue by empirically investigating leisure time activities, food intake and food knowledge. The study conducted with 907 children, on average 12 years old, out of an urban region in northwest Germany using a written questionnaire, implies that food patterns and food knowledge have to be improved because they are – on average – only marginally acceptable. On this level, they are not in line with a healthy future. For the first time in Germany, food patterns and food knowledge of seventh grade pupils were analysed in relation to their lifestyles. The study revealed four lifestyles. One family‐oriented lifestyle and three non‐family oriented lifestyles: outdoor and sociable youth, culture‐oriented youth, and multimedia kids. The family‐oriented lifestyle influences the children's food patterns in a positive way; the three found non‐family‐oriented lifestyles lead to less preferable food patterns. The results imply that there is a phase of unhealthy food patterns at the beginning of the second life decade, which seems to be linked to the detachment from the parents and the gained independency, expressed by the first self‐chosen lifestyles. As lifestyles have such a vital influence on healthy eating, and family is no longer the place where children get their everyday competencies, school has to enable pupils to make healthier food and lifestyle choices.     

Measuring the Carbon Intensity of the South African Economy

We estimate the carbon intensity of industries, products and households in South Africa using data from a high resolution supply‐use table. Direct and indirect carbon usage is measured using multiplier methods that capture inter‐industry linkages and multi‐product supply chains. Carbon intensity is found to be high for exports but low for major employing sectors. Middle‐income households are the most carbon‐intensive consumers. These results suggest that carbon pricing policies (without border tax adjustments) would adversely affect export earnings, but should not disproportionately hurt workers or poorer households. Seven percent of emissions arise through marketing margins, implying that carbon pricing should be accompanied by supporting public policies and investments.     

Mackinder and the Heartland Theory in Post-Soviet Geopolitical Discourse

This paper considers the ways in which Halford Mackinder's ideas are represented and mobilized in geopolitical discourses in post-Soviet Russia. Mackinder is broadly recognized as the most important proponent of ‘classical’ geopolitics, and his teachings about the Pivot of History and Heartland are referred to in virtually all geopolitical texts. Not all of this attention however is positive. We examine the very different ways in which Mackinder is deployed in this literature, and how he is re-signified to make his ideas relevant for contemporary Russia     

On the determinants of SME capital structure in Central and Eastern Europe: A dynamic panel analysis

The purpose of this paper is to test how firm characteristics affect SMEs’ capital structure using a unique dataset of micro, small, and medium-sized firms (SMEs) in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). We carry out a panel data analysis of 3175 SMEs from seven CEE countries during the period 2001–2005, modeling the leverage ratio as a function of firm specific characteristics hypothesized by capital structure theory. By using the cash flow as an explanatory variable, we test some of the predictions of the pecking order theory. According to this theory, firms with more available internal funds should use less external funding. We do find strong evidence in favor of the pecking order theory, given that there is a negative and significant correlation between profitability and leverage. When we control for other firm specific characteristics such as future growth opportunities, liquidity, sales growth, size and assets structure, the cash flow is found to be a strong determinant of firm leverage. We also argue that the determinants of firm leverage may be considerably different depending on firms’ size and age. The empirical results show that cash flow coefficient remains negative and statistically significant only for medium-sized firms, thus suggesting that larger firms with sufficient internal funds use less external funding than comparable smaller firms. We obtain similar results when we estimate the model by firm age; older firms demonstrate similar behavior as larger firms.     

The Virtual IELab – an exercise in replicating part of the EXIOBASE V.2 production pipeline in a virtual laboratory

ABSTRACT

We explore options to replicate the EXIOBASE2 multi-region input–output (MRIO) database in the Virtual IELab cloud-computing laboratory environment. Whereas EXIOBASE2 is constructed using a multi-process reconciliation procedure, we present an alternative compilation technique that uses EXIOBASE2's pre-processed data and final tables in reconciling the IELab MRIO with conflicting raw data information. This approach skips the labour-intensive step of detailing and harmonising country tables. Adherence metrics reveal the EXIOBASE2-based IELab table to be considerably less balanced than the original but with stronger adherence to other constraints data. However, these metrics are not comparable to the original EXIOBASE2 statistics due to the distinctive implementation of constraint sets in the two platforms. IELab's main value-added is its flexibility in tailoring EXIOBASE2-based MRIOs beyond the original recipe. Finally, IELab's global carbon, water and material footprints are shown to be comparable with previously reported resource footprints. In contrast, deviations in land footprints warrant further investigation.