German views on UNCTAD II

Something about the immense importance of UNCTAD II can be inferred from the hypothetical assumption that the joint attempt of 132 nations to build a “world without poverty, misery, and despair” might founder, and from sober consideration of the effects of such an event. Numerous representatives of developing countries, in their introductory addresses to the Conference, have stressed the indispensable need for bridging the gap which separates the world into the two camps of the affluent and the poor, lest economic backwardness cause again and again major conflicts. We have discussed some aspects of UNCTAD II with Dr Schulz, the deputy acting head of the German deannation, shortly before he left Germany for New Delhi.     

A productivity study of the Norwegian building industry

Slow productivity growth in the building and construction industry is often put forward as the cause of rising building costs. In view of the importance of the building sector in the national economy, factual empirical knowledge is hard to come by. The few studies found are usually carried out on a sectoral level and based on time-series data. However, to come to grips with the real causes for slow productivity growth, one has to analyze at the microlevel of actual decision making. Our study is based on establishment data for 1986. The method of analysis is the deterministic frontier approach. The efficiency distributions show large variations with average structural efficiency about 20 percent. Thus, there is significant scope for productivity improvement if average performance can catch up with best practice.The refereeing process of this article was handled through T.G. Cowing.     

Exploring the future of ecological genomics: Integrating CTA with vision assessment

Interactive approaches to technology development provide opportunities for the development of innovative technologies which clearly connect with social practices and address the positive and negative effects as perceived by relevant actors. The challenge is to start an interactive approach early in the development of new technologies, when many options are still open for exploration and there are good possibilities for steering. Early involvement of societal actors is, however, challenged by the absence of concrete applications on which they can develop their own visions from the perspective of their own needs, interests, norms and values. Integrating Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA) with vision assessment is proposed as an approach to overcome this dilemma in the field of ecological genomics and bridge the knowledge gap between parties closely involved with ecogenomics research and other relevant actors. We present, evaluate and discuss the process of identifying guiding visions of the technology developers as a first step in this approach and end with some suggestions on how desirable futures for ecogenomics can subsequently be assessed from the perspectives of different actors.     

FINANCING AND HOUSE PRICES

Recent empirical evidence on the effect of below-market financing on house prices has suffered from estimation and interpretation problems. In this paper, a methodology is developed to solve these problems. Using data for mortgage revenue bonds, the methodology is tested with results indicating that all financing subsidy is capitalized into house prices.     

Freia and Kompas,The Central Planning Bureau's new generation of macro-economic policy models: A review article

Summary On the eve of the 50th anniversary of macro-economic model building in the Netherlands, the Central Planning Bureau introduced two new models for policy analysis, the annual model FREIA and the quarterly model KOMPAS. The main novelty of these models as compared to their predecessors is a fully fledged submodel of the financial sector. This review article highlights some features of both models and compares their properties with those of other models and with results from the literature. The models have been explicitly constructed for practical use and therefore do not reflect any theoretical approach in particular.Critical comments on a previous version of this article by the Department's colleagues and a referee are gratefully acknowledged.