Economic and environmental effects of replacing bottom trawling with fishing with creels

Bottom trawling is associated with negative external effects such as seafloor pressure and high fuel use. Replacing bottom trawls with passive gear, such as creels, is therefore interesting for policymakers. We investigate the response of the Norway lobster fishery in Sweden to an expanded creel area. Using an economic model (FishRent), we analyse fleet structure, net present value and two environmental indicators under five management scenarios. Our results show that expanding the creel area increases the number of creel fishers, while some trawlers leave the fishery. In total, the net present value and the environmental performance of the fishery improve.     

Contingent work in the UK and Sweden: evidence from the construction industry

This article explores the use of contingent forms of employment in two diverse country contexts—the UK and Sweden—and investigates the influence of changing regulatory and economic conditions over a period that covers the current economic downturn. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data for the construction sector, the article addresses three questions. How do employers balance their flexibility preferences in the context of regulatory constraints? How has the global recession influenced employer behaviour? And to what extent can the Swedish experience be explained by convergence on other country models? While the UK employment model encourages employers to externalise the risk of unpredictable market conditions through the use of contingent contracts, the more supportive welfare regime in Sweden underpins a resilient preference of employers for open‐ended employment contracts. Ongoing changes in labour market regulation pose challenges to the strongly regulated Swedish model, yet we find only a shared direction of travel with the UK rather than convergence in the use of contingent employment.     

The impact of a Hausman pretest on the size of a hypothesis test: The panel data case

The size properties of a two-stage test in a panel data model are investigated where in the first stage a Hausman (1978) specification test is used as a pretest of the random effects specification and in the second stage, a simple hypothesis about a component of the parameter vector is tested, using a t$t$-statistic that is based on either the random effects or the fixed effects estimator depending on the outcome of the Hausman pretest. It is shown that the asymptotic size of the two-stage test equals 1 for empirically relevant specifications of the parameter space. The size distortion is caused mainly by the poor power properties of the pretest. Given these results, we recommend using a t$t$-statistic based on the fixed effects estimator instead of the two-stage procedure.     

Is China different? A meta-analysis of export-led growth

We examine whether China has benefited more from exports than other countries. The results show that exports have been more significant for growth in China than in other countries, even when China is compared with other transition economies.     

Firm-level effects of offshoring of materials and services on relative labor demand

Based on firm-level data over the period 1997–2002 for the Swedish manufacturing sector the objective of this paper is to analyze relative labor demand effects due to offshoring, separating between materials and services offshoring and also geographical location of trade partner. Overall, our results give no support to the fears that offshoring of materials or services lead to out-location of high-skilled activity in Swedish firms. Rather, this paper finds evidence that the aggregate effects from offshoring lead to increasing relative demand of high-skilled labor, mainly due to services offshoring to middle income countries.     

Structural changes in Swedish wastepaper demand: a variable cost function approach

The primary purpose of this paper is to analyse the short-run price responsiveness of wastepaper demand in Sweden for four different paper and board products, as well as any structural changes in demand behaviour for these products over time. The analysis is done within a variable Translog cost function model, and we employ data for individual paper and board mills over the time period 1974-1994. The results suggest that the short-run own-price sensitivity of waste paper demand is relatively high compared to those of other input factors, and it has also tended to increase over time for some of the paper products. In addition, wastepaper demand has also become more sensitive to changes in energy prices, and its use increases with increases in the price of energy. However, the relationship between wastepaper and woodpulp is more complex, and in many instances wastepaper and woodpulp are short-run complements. Overall this implies that price based recycling policies will be relatively successful in promoting wastepaper use, but they will not necessarily lead to the conservation of virgin forest resources.     

An Econometric Analysis of Global Waste Paper Recovery and Utilization

The main purpose of this paper is to provide aneconometric analysis of the most importantdeterminants of inter-country differences inwaste paper recovery and utilization rates. Byemploying pooled time series and cross-sectiondata over 49 countries worldwide and sevenyears, the paper concludes that relative wastepaper recovery and use depend largely onlong-standing economic factors such aspopulation intensity and competitiveness in theworld market for paper and board products. Wealso find evidence that supports the conjecturethat rich countries tend to recover relativelymore waste paper than is the case in low-incomecountries, reflecting the higher demand forwaste management and environmental policies inmore developed economies. As recovery andutilization rates are determined by economicand demographic characteristics the degree ofpolicy flexibility in affecting these rates maybe limited. In particular, an ambitiousutilization rate target may be very costly toenforce as it can conflict with existing tradepatterns of paper and board products as well aswith other environmental goals. Additionalpolicy targets may therefore be desirable,especially since paper recycling is motivatedprimarily by environmental concerns and seldomis a benign activity in itself.     

Analysis of the Effectiveness of Machine Learning in Determining Decision Rules for Executive Compensation Planning

This paper describes the use of a machine-learning technique to derive executive compensation planning rules. The specific learning technique was AQ15, which constructs rules by classifying sample data according to features or characteristics. The validity of the resulting rules was tested by obtaining a measure of performance called an estimate of the error rate. The machine-derived rules were then compared to rules made by human experts and by two other versions of AQ15. Although not statistically significant, the machine-learning version of AQ15 using hypotheses from human experts outperformed the other methods of rule construction.     

The Dilemmas of Tax Coordination in the Enlarged European Union

This study evaluates the economic effects of corporate tax coordinationin the enlarged European Union (EU) using a computable generalequilibrium model. Our main findings are as follows: (i) Corporatetax coordination can yield modest aggregate welfare gains. The2004 enlargement of the EU has increased the potential gainsfrom tax harmonization, provided corporate tax rates and taxbases are harmonized at their unweighted averages. (ii) Allscenarios for coordination leave some EU Member States as winnersand others as losers. An agreement on tax coordination is thereforelikely to require elaborate compensation mechanisms. (iii) Thelarge and diverse country effects suggest that Enhanced Cooperationfor a subset of the Member States may be the most likely routetowards tax coordination. (iv) Identifying winners and losersfrom coordination for the purpose of a compensation mechanismmay be problematic, since countries experiencing gains in GDPand welfare tend to lose tax revenues, and vice versa. (JELcodes: H25, H73, H87)     

Strategic behavior across gender: A comparison of female and male expert chess players

This paper aims to measure differences in risk behavior among expert chess players. The study employs a panel data set on international chess with 1.4 million games recorded over a period of 11 years. The structure of the data set allows us to use individual fixed-effect estimations to control for aspects such as innate ability as well as other characteristics of the players. Most notably, the data contains an objective measure of individual playing strength, the so-called Elo rating. In line with previous research, we find that women are more risk-averse than men. A novel finding is that men choose more aggressive strategies when playing against female opponents even though such strategies reduce their winning probability.