Exploring Everyday Self-Regulation in Nearby Nature: Determinants,Patterns, and a Framework of Nearby Outdoor Recreation Behavior

The understanding of determinants and underlying mechanisms of everyday nearby outdoor recreation behavior (NORB) remains insufficient for use in urban planning. We explored the nearby recreational decisions of walkers, cyclists, and joggers in problem-focused interviews (N = 18). The identified influences include various demands of work and private life, strains, and action circumstances. Loads and strains showed several compensatory associations with NORB. These findings were synthesized into a NORB framework that offers empirically grounded hypotheses for future research. The proposed framework may help to integrate findings from different research fields while providing a more comprehensive understanding of NORB.     

Inside or outside? The role of the WTO in the settlement of the transatlantic trade dispute on GMOs

The looming transatlantic trade war over genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has revived the debate on the appropriateness of the WTO.¹ In this article, it is asserted that the present WTO remains the appropriate forum for addressing the GM dispute as its science-based approach harmonises members' food safety concerns with free trade interests. Calls for the recognition of consumer preferences by the WTO severely underestimate the dangers of disguised producer protectionism. This article is a revised version of a paper written during the author's sojourn at the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary. The author wishes to express his thanks to Professor László Csaba, Department of International Relations and European Studies, Central European University, for his assistance and helpful comments. See: Forum. New Transatlantic Trade War, in: INTERECONOMICS, Vol. 37, No. 3, 2002, pp. 124–137.     

Economic Distress, Financial Distress, and Dynamic Liquidation

Many firms emerging from a debt restructuring remain highly leveraged, continue to invest little, perform poorly, and often reenter financial distress. The existing literature interprets these findings as inefficiencies arising from coordination problems among many creditors or an inefficient design of bankruptcy law. In contrast, this paper emphasizes that creditors lack the information that is needed to make quick and correct liquidation decisions. It can explain the long-term nature of financial distress solely as the result of dynamic learning strategies of creditors and suggests that it may be an unavoidable byproduct of an efficient resolution of financial distress.     

The Dynamics of Implied Volatilities: A Common Principal Components Approach

It is common practice to identify the number and sources of shocks that move, e.g., ATM implied volatilities by principal components analysis. This approach, however, is likely to result in a loss of information, since the surface structure of implied volatilities is neglected. In this paper we analyze the implied volatility surface along maturity slices with a common principal components analysis (CPC), known from morphometrics. In CPC analysis, the space spanned by the eigenvectors is identical across groups, whereas variances associated with the common principal components vary. Our analysis shows that implied volatility surface dynamics can be traced back to a common eigenstructure in maturity slices. This empirical result is used to set up a factor model for implied volatility surface dynamics. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The UK Financial Sector and Risk Management in PFI Projects: A Survey

In PFI transactions the private companies which take on the obligation to build and manage a facility usually provide only a small fraction of the project's capital requirements. Most of the capital is borrowed from banks and other financial institutions. This poses challenges to financial services providers which often have to retain untypical residual project risks. This article describes the types of risks faced by financial services providers and the strategies they use to cope with these risks. Given the often politically-sensitive nature of PFI projects, the authors suggest that financial institutions should investigate a broader set of parameters than they do at present, which relate directly to the political economy of PFI projects.     

Stock Market Volatility and Economic Factors

This paper examines the ability of rational economic factors to explain stock market volatility. A simple model of the economy under uncertainty identifies four determinants of stock market volatility: uncertainty about the price level, the riskless rate of interest, the risk premium on equity and the ratio of expected profits to expected revenues. In initial tests these variables have significant explanatory power and account for over 50 per cent of the variation in market volatility from 1929 to 1989. When the regression coefficients are allowed to vary over time using cluster regression, the four factors explain over 90 per cent of the variation in market volatility. The results are useful in explaining the past behavior of stock market volatility and in forecasting future volatility.     

Flächendeckende Einführung von Smart Metern – Internationale Erfahrungen und Rückschlüsse für Deutschland

Various countries are introducing smart meters in different ways and with different pace. This article reviews the experiences of four European countries that have decided on a complete roll-out of smart meters or have (partly) realised it. In the first part we show theoretically what welfare effects result from different strategies. Afterwards we analyse how these countries have organized a complete roll-out. From this analysis we draw conclusions for the implementation of a full roll-out of smart meters in Germany and derive policy recommendations. It appears that liberalised markets per se do not seem to trigger a roll-out of smart meters. For Germany with its liberalised metering market this may allow the following conclusions: It should be defined clearly what objectives are to be reached by a roll-out. Particularly it should be analysed what costs and benefits are involved when it comes to a complete roll-out of smart meters and if there are potentially any information deficits on the side of energy consumers. On this basis a sound strategy is to be developed.     

Die meistbeachteten Autoren und Werke der Kommunikationswissenschaft

The bibliometrical analysis of papers published in the German journals Publizistik and Medien & Kommunikationswissenschaft between 1970 and 2010 reveals, for the first time, the most cited research and researchers in communication science. The authors present the 57 most cited scholars and the 45 most highly regarded academic works in the discipline. This canon reflects the different theoretical approaches (action theory and system theory) as well as the subsections in the field of communication studies (media effect studies and journalism research). The study also draws some general conclusions about citation traditions in the discipline. In total there has been a rise in the number of citations since the mid-1990s due to the digital turn—electronic databases and especially the internet have greatly improved the accessibility of sources. The citation rate shows a pattern typical for scientific publications: most studies are hardly ever cited—only very few studies are rewarded with numerous citations.     

Exchange rate uncertainty and play nonlinearity in aggregate employment

In a microeconomic model, a band of inaction due to hiring and firing costs is widened by option-value effects of exchange rate uncertainty. Applying an adequate aggregation approach, uncertainty leads to intervals of a weak response to exchange rate reversals—the so-called play areas—on the macro level. If changes go beyond the play area, then suddenly strong reactions (spurts) occur. The width of the play is a positive function of the degree of uncertainty. These nonlinear dynamics are captured in a simplified linearized way in a regression framework. As an empirical application, the exchange rate impacts on German employment are analyzed considering play. Since these mechanisms generally apply to investment cases where an aggregation of microeconomic real option effects under uncertainty is relevant, they may be of a general interest.