Editorial

Original Papers

Editorial     

Contents of Volume 38 (2004)

Volume Contents

Contents of Volume 38 (2004)     

Explaining European Emission Allowance Price Dynamics: Evidence from Phase II

We empirically investigate potential determinants of the allowance price dynamics in the European Union Emission Trading Scheme during Phase II. In contrast to previous studies, we place particular emphasis on the fuel price selection. We show that results are extremely sensitive to choosing different price series of potential determinants, such as coal and gas prices. In general, only the influence of economic activity in Europe and hydropower provision in Norway is robustly explaining allowance price dynamics. The influence of fuel switching on allowance prices and, therefore, equalization of marginal abatement costs – in particular in the long run – is still rather small.     

Therapieentscheidung am Ende eines Lebens

Konfliktpotenzial zwischen Pflegenden und ?rzten - Ein Credo der Palliativmedizin ist die interdisziplin?re Zusammenarbeit. Um diese zu gew?hrleisten, müssen Pflegende und ?rzte sich den Konflikten stellen, zu denen es bei schwierigen Therapieentscheidungen h?ufig zwischen den Berufsgruppen kommt. Doch welche Faktoren wirken auf diesen Konflikt ein und wie kann er letztlich überwunden werden?     

Fifty shades of food: The influence of package color saturation on health and taste in consumer judgments

When evaluating food products, consumers rely on visual cues on packages to infer their healthiness and tastiness. We assumed that color, specifically color saturation, is one such cue, similarly relevant for both healthiness and tastiness inferences. We conducted three studies in which we manipulated the color of pictures of product packages. Participants viewed pictures from the category of snacks (Study 1a) and drinks (Studies 1b and 2), available at a supermarket's online store and rated each product on the dimensions of healthiness and tastiness. In two studies, we showed one group of participants product pictures only as grayscale images, whereas another group viewed the pictures in full color. In a third study, we showed participants product pictures once with increased and once with decreased color saturation. We consistently found a positive correlation between healthiness and tastiness. Presenting pictures of products as grayscale images weakened the healthy-tasty correlation. Products with increased compared with decreased color saturation were rated as both healthier and tastier, mediated by the products' perceived freshness.     

Exploring the relationship between employees’ CSR perceptions and intention to emigrate: Evidence from a developing country

This study contributes to the burgeoning research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) at the individual level of analysis, in a hitherto largely neglected developing country context. Using survey information collected from 297 employees in public and private enterprises in Kosovo, this study examines how and to what extent employees’ perceptions of their employer's CSR activities are associated with their intention to emigrate. Applying a needs-based framework, this research provides evidence that employees’ perceptions of CSR are positively related to the meaningfulness of their work and job satisfaction and negatively related to intention to emigrate. Additionally, results confirm that the association between CSR perceptions and emigration intention is mediated by the meaningfulness of work and job satisfaction. From a practical point of view, this research should encourage private and public enterprises in developing countries to enhance and extend their CSR engagement.     

Revenue Recognition under IFRS Revisited: Conceptual Models,Current Proposals and Practical Consequences

Since 2002, the FASB and the IASB have been undertaking a joint project on the revision and convergence of US GAAP and IFRS revenue recognition. Even though the outcome of the project is still open, the project's course as well as trends in recently published IFRS and other current IASB projects suggest that existing earnings-based and realisation-based IFRS revenue recognition criteria are likely to be replaced by a radically new approach. This paper demonstrates the inconsistencies in current IFRS revenue recognition that have triggered the project and then presents and discusses three conceptually different revenue recognition models that are internationally debated at present. The paper concludes that a major revision of existing IFRS revenue recognition as proposed by the FASB and the IASB is not required. It is argued that the perceived deficiencies should rather be solved on the basis of current transaction-based IFRS revenue criteria.     

(Non-)robustness of maximum likelihood estimators for operational risk severity distributions

The quality of operational risk data sets suffers from missing or contaminated data points. This may lead to implausible characteristics of the estimates. Outliers, especially, can make a modeler's task difficult and can result in arbitrarily large capital charges. Robust statistics provides ways to deal with these problems as well as measures for the reliability of estimators. We show that using maximum likelihood estimation can be misleading and unreliable assuming typical operational risk severity distributions. The robustness of the estimators for the Generalized Pareto distribution, and the Weibull and Lognormal distributions is measured considering both global and local reliability, which are represented by the breakdown point and the influence function of the estimate.     

The external validity of giving in the dictator game

We investigate the external validity of giving in the dictator game by using the misdirected letter technique in a within-subject design. First, subjects participated in standard dictator games (double blind) conducted in labs in two different studies. Second, after four to five weeks (study 1) or two years (study 2), we delivered prepared letters to the same subjects. The envelopes and the contents of the letters were designed to create the impression that they were misdirected by the mail delivery service. The letters contained 10 Euros (20 Swiss Francs in study 2) corresponding to the endowment of the in-lab experiments. We observe in both studies that subjects who showed other-regarding behavior in the lab returned the misdirected letters more often than subjects giving nothing, suggesting that in-lab behavior is related to behavior in the field.     

Foreign direct investment,labour relations and sector effects: US investment outflows to Europe

This paper analyses the impact of national labour relations on foreign direct investment (FDI), with emphasis on macro-markets and sector properties. Since there are sector-specific differences between industries in transferability, labour-relations effects on FDI probably vary across sectors. The paper finds that labour costs dampen FDI, while the impact of national market potential remains inconclusive. Collective labour institutions have a significantly adverse impact on FDI in manufacturing, and a relatively beneficial one on FDI in services. While investment in manufacturing seeks to minimize labour costs at given skill levels, investment in services maximizes skills at given levels of cost.