The influence of low-fare airlines on vacation choices of students: Results of a stated portfolio choice experiment

This paper reports the results of a portfolio model of vacation choices of students. The portfolio model concerns the combined choice of destination type, transport mode, duration, accommodation, and travel party for vacations. In addition to usual transport modes such as airline, train, bus and car, a distinction was made between low-fare airlines, as these may be especially appealing to students, and regular airlines. Stated choice data were used to estimate the model. The attributes of the transport modes were systematically varied in the experiment, while respondents were faced with free options for the other choice facets. Estimation results indicated that the developed model of portfolio choice performs satisfactory. In substantive terms, it seems that transport mode predominantly influences the portfolio choices. The attributes that are significant tend to amplify the specific role of transport modes in general and low-fare airlines in particular.     

Inequality aversion and the house money effect

In this paper, we analyse if individual inequality aversion measured with simple experimental games depends on whether the monetary endowment in these games is either a windfall gain (“house money”) or a reward for a certain effort-related performance. We then examine whether the way of preference elicitation affects the explanatory power of inequality aversion in social dilemma situations. Our results indicate that individual inequality aversion measured by the model of Fehr and Schmidt (Quarterly Journal of Economics 114(3):817–868, 1999) is not generally robust to the way endowments emerge. The inequality aversion model has only low predictive power for individual behaviour. It performs best when the endowment is house money and relatively small.     

Evaluating Social Policy by Experimental and Nonexperimental Methods

Although it is important to establish causal relationships in social policy evaluation, the effects are difficult to observe due to sample selection. To evaluate the performance of estimators designed to handle sample selection bias, we analyse data from a Norwegian rehabilitation project with a randomised experimental design. The data permit us to compare the performance of different nonexperimental estimators with the experimental results. In our case study we find that nonexperimental evaluation based on sample selection estimators with selection terms that fail to meet conventional levels of statistical significance is highly unreliable. The difference in difference estimator and propensity score matching estimators perform better in our context.
JEL classification : C 51; J 24; H 43; I 12     

Children's Recreational Physical Activity

This study explored children's participation in recreational (physical) activities and the extent to which this participation was influenced by individual and household socio-demographics and characteristics of the social and physical environment. Travel and activity diaries were used to collect data on out-of-home recreational activities for a random sample of 4,293 children in primary schools in the Netherlands. These data were investigated in relation to measures describing the social and physical living environment. Specifically, a Bayesian belief network was proposed because it derives and represents simultaneously all direct and indirect relationships between the selected variables. Results indicated that participation in various types of recreational activities was directly related to the socio-economic status of the household, the perceived safety of the neighborhood, the size of agricultural area in the neighborhood, travel distance, and day of the week. Planners and designers are recommended to find a good land use mix, and specifically make sure that they focus their attention on safety issues, as these factors stimulate children's participation in recreational physical activities.     

Revenue windfalls and expenditure slippages: Disappointing implementation of the reformed stability and growth pact

With the 2005 reform of the Stability and Growth Pact, a commitment was made to actively consolidate public finances in good times and to use unexpected extra revenues for deficit and debt reduction and not for additional expenditure. Against this background this study provides evidence of a lax implementation of expenditure plans in recent years when revenues were buoyant. Moreover, the influence of revenue windfalls on expenditure overruns is found to be more pronounced in countries that also have not met their medium-term objectives. Thus, first experiences in implementing the provisions of the preventive arm of the Stability and Growth Pact after its reform are not encouraging. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Deutsche Bundesbank. The authors would like to thank especially Bernhard Manzke and Karsten Wendorff, as well as Lukas Reiss and other members of the ESCB Working Group on Public Finances for many helpful comments.     

Die Finanzierung der Hochschulbildung in Deutschland

Hochschulbildung wird in der Regel aus ?ffentlichen und privaten Quellen finanziert. Die Studienf?rderung umfasst dabei h?ufig mehr Leistungsarten, als auf den ersten Blick zu erkennen ist. Wie ist die deutsche Finanzierung der Hochschulbildung im internationalen Vergleich zu bewerten? Inwieweit sollte sie verbessert werden?