Das Glühbirnendekret der EU – ein unnötiges Verbot

Since September 2009, the European market for household lamps is subject to EU regulation 244/2009, which enforces the gradual phase-out of incandescent light bulbs. As of September 2012, only energy-efficient lighting sources such as halogen lamps, light-emitting diodes (LED), or compact fluorescent lamps—often referred to as energy-saving lamps—will be allowed for sale. The EU’s justification for the phase-out of conventional light bulbs maintains that a reduction in the electricity consumed will not only lead to lower energy costs for private households and industrial consumers, but at the same time lead to a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. This article discusses possible reasons for the slow market diffusion of energy-saving lamps and shows that the investment in energy-efficient lamps does not necessarily lead to significant cost reductions in every case. Drawing on some illustrative examples, we demonstrate that the use of cheaper incandescent bulbs instead of energy-saving lamps can be economically rational in cases of rather low usage times, in which the higher initial purchasing price might only pay off after very long time spans. Furthermore, due to the coexistence with the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), this regulation will not lead to any additional reduction of carbon emissions exceeding the amount caused by the ETS. We thus conclude that the general ban of incandescent light bulbs is inappropriate and should be abolished by the Commission.     

Duality between direct and indirect preferences

Summary This paper develops a duality theory for preference orders, and highlights important differences with respect to the cardinal utility approach. Our main result is a symmetric duality theorem, under the minimal hypotheses, between direct and indirect preferences. In contrast to the cardinal theory, we also find that these conditions do not completely characterize the class of indirect preference orders.We are grateful to an editor for helpful remarks. This work was partially supported by DGICYT (Spain), Project PS89-OO58.     

Regional environmental and economic impact evaluation: An input-output approach

This article develops a regional input-output model which deals with both the environmental sector and the traditional treatment of the economy. The model differs from previous work in that environmental interactions are treated non-linearly and explicit account is taken of environmental feedback to the economic sector. Estimation of non-linear environmental feedback makes it possible to more accurately assess the sensitivity of the regional economic-environmental structure to shifts in final demand over time.     

Marginalité urbaine et mouvements sociaux au Mexique

In Monterrey, third city of Mexico, there exists one of the most important urban social movements in the world: the ‘posesionarios’ of the ‘colonias proletarias’. Quantitatively: they number 100 000 in a city of 1 600 000. Qualitatively: they are ideologically radical, politically conscious and realistic, mostly based on political self-reliance. A short stay within the movement has permitted the author to grasp some non-confidential information that should be disseminated as one of the most interesting experiences of recent urban struggles in Latin America.     

Time-series forecasting: a testing of applications to the food-service industry

This paper examines the use of an intuitively appealing forecasting model for the food-service industry. After examining the current state of forecasting a brief introduction to the time-series method is undertaken. Finally, the simplest form of the model is applied in a case study.     

What accounts for the Chilean saving 'miracle'?

This paper examines the recent saving performance of the Chileaneconomy in the light of its long-run (1940–96) trends.The first conclusion that can be derived from the data is thatmost of the increase in private saving since the mid-1980s isdue to business saving. Household saving turns out to be a stationaryvariable with zero mean. Since business saving has a unit root,households do not seem to take the saving of firms into accountwhen making their own saving decisions. Within the theoreticalframework of a model of business investment with liquidity constraints,we estimate a VAR for business saving, private investment, publicsaving and foreign saving (the current account deficit). Weare able to determine that business saving is unaffected bypublic saving, but that, in the long run, foreign saving andbusiness saving are perfect substitutes. Private investment,business saving and foreign saving are jointly determined. Thepolicy conclusions are that policies that stimulate investmentare likely to lead to an increase in private saving, that policiesaimed at raising household saving will be ineffective, and thatincreases in public saving are very powerful for increasingdomestic saving in the long run.     

Performance Schweizerischer Anlagestiftungen

Ohne Zusammenfassung