The effectiveness of anti-leakage policies in the European Union: results for Austria

With the third trading period of the EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) starting in 2013, the system of allocating emission allowances will significantly change: In contrast to the previous two trading periods, auctioning of the allowances should now be the rule rather than the exception. Accompanying this policy change, concerns over competitiveness of energy intensive, trade exposed sectors as well as over limited environmental effectiveness via the channel of carbon leakage, have regained prominence. In this paper, we thus explore the impacts of potential EU policies to counter losses in international competitiveness and carbon leakage from the perspective of Austria. Based on numerical simulations with a computable general equilibrium model, we evaluate three policy options: an input subsidy for carbon allowances (thus reflecting the planned partially free allocation mechanism in the third EU ETS phase), a subsidy for domestic production, and an export rebate based on sectoral CO₂ costs. Our results show that each policy has the potential to support domestic production in exposed sectors relative to a full auctioning scenario and thus increase competitiveness. However, none is imperatively effective at reducing Austria’s net carbon emissions: while the carbon trade balance is improved and hence leakage declines, the tradability of emission permits within the EU ETS allows CO₂ emissions from Austria’s ETS output to increase. A cost benefit analysis indicates that the two policies promoting domestic output and exports are more cost effective than the CO₂ input subsidy.     

Experienced technology teachers’ teaching practices

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - Teachers’ teaching practice plays a key role in the learning process of pupils, and for teaching to be successful, teachers must...     

The shape of small sample biases in pricing kernel estimations

Numerous empirical studies find pricing kernels that are not-monotonically decreasing; the findings are at odds with the pricing kernel being marginal utility of a risk-averse, so-called representative agent. We study in detail the common procedure which estimates the pricing kernel as the ratio of two separate density estimations. In the first step, we analyse theoretically the functional dependence for the ratio of a density to its estimated density; this cautions the reader regarding potential computational issues coupled with statistical techniques. In the second step, we study this quantitatively; we show that small sample biases shape the estimated pricing kernel, and that estimated pricing kernels typically violate the commonly believed monotonicity at the centre even when the true pricing kernel fulfils these. This contributes to an alternative, statistical explanation for the puzzling shape in pricing kernel estimations.     

Municipalities and regions in locational competition — New economic considerations

Locational competition has intensified in recent years in the wake of globalisation as well as the general development towards a knowledge- and service-based economy. In this context, newer economic analyses point to a shifting of the locational factors considered relevant for success in local and regional competition. With respect to these fundamental changes, it is becoming increasingly relevant to ask how local and regional development processes must be constructed in order for municipalities and regions in modern industrial countries to maintain the positions they have already achieved.     

Exploring Consumers' Expectations of Sustainability in Mature and Emerging Markets

ABSTRACT

“Sustainability” has turned into a buzzword for businesses around the globe as consumers in mature and, increasingly, in emerging markets shift their demand toward sustainably enhanced products. Surprisingly, a global picture of consumers' expectations regarding sustainable products is still missing. This study uses exploratory factor analysis to determine the perceived importance and interrelation of selected sustainability aspects in three developed (Germany, Switzerland, United States) and three emerging (Brazil, China, India) markets. Results are linked to national cultural value theory to explore which sustainability aspects and positioning strategies may be promising to expand the outreach of sustainable products in developed and emerging markets alike. Results suggest that across the sampled economies, sustainability is increasingly considered as being comprised of a health aspect. While health and quality of life aspects emerged as key issues across countries, cultural backgrounds and local market conditions resulted in nuanced expectations of sustainability, which should be kept in mind in communicating and positioning sustainable products.     

Beta-product dependent Pitman–Yor processes for Bayesian inference

Multiple time series data may exhibit clustering over time and the clustering effect may change across different series. This paper is motivated by the Bayesian non-parametric modelling of the dependence between clustering effects in multiple time series analysis. We follow a Dirichlet process mixture approach and define a new class of multivariate dependent Pitman–Yor processes (DPY). The proposed DPY are represented in terms of vectors of stick-breaking processes which determine dependent clustering structures in the time series. We follow a hierarchical specification of the DPY base measure to account for various degrees of information pooling across the series. We discuss some theoretical properties of the DPY and use them to define Bayesian non-parametric repeated measurement and vector autoregressive models. We provide efficient Monte Carlo Markov Chain algorithms for posterior computation of the proposed models and illustrate the effectiveness of the method with a simulation study and an application to the United States and the European Union business cycle.     

Contextual and Interactional Approaches to Advancing Leadership and Entrepreneurship Research

In this introductory article for the special issue of Journal of Management Studies, entitled ‘Leading Entrepreneurial Ventures: Individual and Team-Based Perspectives’, we leverage insights in the extant literature as well as those insights developed by the authors of the four articles published in response to our call for papers. Overall, we explore multiple nuanced questions with regards to research on entrepreneurship, research on leadership, and their intersection. Our goal is to begin to help guide research on entrepreneurship and leadership, and their intersection, for the next decade.     

Strategische Steuerung der betrieblichen Gesundheitsförderung mit Strategy Maps

Zusammenfassung  Der vorliegende Beitrag widmet sich der Steuerung und Bewertung von Ma?nahmen der betrieblichen Gesundheitsf?rderung. Gesellschaftliche Ver?nderungen wie bspw. die Globalisierung oder der demografische Wandel führen dazu, dass die Gesundheit der Mitarbeiter in vielen Bereichen zu einem Engpassfaktor der Leistungserstellung geworden ist. Eine zentrale Rolle zur gezielten unternehmerischen Beeinflussung der personellen Ressourcen eines Unternehmens und damit auch der Gesundheit der Mitarbeiter spielt das Wissen über Ursache-Wirkungsbeziehungen im Bereich der betrieblichen Gesundheitsf?rderung und deren Einfluss auf den Erfolg der Leistungserstellung. Zur gezielten Steuerung der betrieblichen Gesundheitsf?rderung wird ein Rahmenkonzept vorgestellt, das aus der Logik der Balanced Scorecard und Strategy Maps abgeleitet wird und auf Ursache-Wirkungsbeziehungen basiert.

Does Project Management Affect Business Productivity? Evidence From Australian Small to Medium Enterprises

A fundamental assumption of project management practice and research is that using project management to achieve organizational objectives improves organizational performance. However, there is little published research that directly questions this assumption. This paper tests the hypothesis that using project management increases the productivity of small to medium enterprises, using data from two longitudinal surveys of Australian businesses with less than 200 staff members. These data were used to create models of the relationship between productivity and business skills using binary logistic regression. The models demonstrate that project management has a significant impact on small to medium enterprise productivity.