Measuring and Interpreting Trends in the Division of Labour in the Netherlands

This paper introduces indicators about the division of labour to measure and interpret recent trends in the structure of employment in the Netherlands. Changes in the division of labour occur at three different levels: the level of the individual worker, the level of the industry and the spatial level. At each level the organisation of work is determined by an equilibrium of forces that glue tasks together or unbundle them. Communication costs are the main force for clustering or gluing together tasks; comparative advantage stimulates unbundling and specialisation. The estimates suggest that on average the Netherlands has witnessed unbundling in the period 1996?C2005, which implies that advantages of specialisation have increased. These developments explain to a considerable extent changes in the structure of employment. Especially at the spatial level it explains a substantial part of the increase in offshoring tasks abroad.     

Optimal redistributive tax and education policies in general equilibrium

This paper studies optimal linear and non-linear income taxes and education subsidies in two-type models with endogenous human capital formation, endogenous labor supply, and endogenous wage rates. Assuming constant human capital elasticities, human capital investment should be efficient under optimal linear policies, whether general equilibrium effects are present or not. Hence, education subsidies should not be used for distributional reasons. Due to general equilibrium effects, optimal linear income taxes may even become negative. Optimal non-linear policies exploit general equilibrium effects for redistribution. The high-skilled type optimally has a negative marginal income tax rate and a positive marginal education subsidy. The low-skilled type optimally faces a positive marginal income tax rate and a marginal tax on education. Simulations demonstrate that general equilibrium effects have only a modest effect on optimal non-linear policies.     

Differences and Similarities between Impulse Buying and Variety Seeking: A Personality‐based Perspective

Although personality is a key determinant of consumer purchasing decision making, the role of personality traits in impulse buying and variety seeking is not conclusive. This research uses a personality perspective to determine the unique associations among impulse buying tendency (IBT), variety seeking tendency (VST), and the Big Five personality traits within one integrated framework. Based on data from a nationally representative sample of 1644 Norwegian adults, the results show that while IBT and VST might be correlated, they differ significantly with respect to two major personality aspects: “neuroticism” and “openness to experience.” Specifically, the present study indicates that neuroticism predicted IBT positively and VST negatively, while openness was a strong predictor of VST and unrelated to IBT.     

Modeling CLV: A test of competing models in the insurance industry

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is one of the key metrics in marketing and is considered an important segmentation base. This paper studies the capabilities of a range of models to predict CLV in the insurance industry. The simplest models can be constructed at the customer relationship level, i.e. aggregated across all services. The more complex models focus on the individual services, paying explicit attention to cross buying, but also retention. The models build on a plethora of approaches used in the existing literature and include a status quo model, a Tobit II model, univariate and multivariate choice models, and duration models. For all models, CLV for each customer is computed for a four-year time horizon. We find that the simple models perform well. The more complex models are expected to better capture the richness of relationship development. Surprisingly, this does not lead to substantially better CLV predictions.

Measurement with multiple indicators and psychophysical scaling in the context of Fishbein and Ajzen's theory of reasoned action

Two experiments were carried out to test the theory of reasoned action of Fishbein and Ajzen. The measurements were done using two category scales and two psychophysical scales. No consistent difference in results was found between the four modalities. However, if the latter were used as multiple indicators for the model components in a latent variables model, the parameter values did increase as compared to those in single indicator models. A multitrait-multimethod model allowed for correction of method effects. Though the results of the multiple indicator models did not differ significantly from the results of the single indicator models, the increase in explained variance of intention by 17% in the first experiment and 15% in the second experiment can not be ignored in applied research. Psychophysical scales are attractive because they are well suited for use as multiple indicators.     

Understanding Attitudes Towards Genetically Modified Food: The Role of Values and Attitude Strength

Summary This study was aimed at gaining a better understanding of the nature of negative attitudes towards genetically modified (GM) food. A sample of 250 students at the University of Tromsø responded to a questionnaire measuring attitudes towards GM food, attitude strength, intention to buy such food, and their personal values. Values and attitude strength proved to be important constructs when explaining the attitudes. A structural model was estimated, confirming that the negative attitudes towards GM food were embedded in universalism and hedonism values, and also predicted behavioural intention to buy such food. Attitude centrality was found to moderate the value-attitude relationship. Central attitudes mediated the relation between values and behavioural intention, while for the less central attitudes there was no relation between values and attitudes. Rather, both were independent predictors of intention. The study showed that some individuals hold weak attitudes and therefore may be more likely to change their attitude than those whose attitude is embedded in values.     

Clark's Malthus delusion: response to ‘Farming in England 1200–1800’

Clark's claims about the scale of English agricultural output from the 1200s to the 1860s flout historical and geographical reality. His income‐based estimates start with the daily real wages of adult males and assume that days worked per year were constant. Those advanced in British economic growth make no such assumption and instead are built up from the output side. They correlate better with population trends and are consistent with an economy slowly growing and becoming richer. Clark's denial that such growth occurred, his assertion that substantially more land must have been under arable cultivation, his belief that conditions of full employment invariably prevailed in the countryside at harvest time, his concern that the wage bill would have exceeded the value of output in British economic growth, his refusal to consider the possibility that the working year was of variable length, and his assertion that output per acre must have been equalized across arable and pasture are all shown to be figments of his ‘Malthus delusion’.     

Niche Management and its Contribution to Regime Change: The Case of Innovation in Sanitation

Strategic niche management (SNM) implies that new technologies are applied in so-called niches, in which they are protected against mainstream market selection. A major question currently subject to debate is through which processes niches can bring about any wider changes at the level of socio-technical regimes. This paper examines this question, using present-day developments in innovation in sanitation in Western Europe as an example. It is concluded that although SNM theorists emphasize the importance of (first- and second-order) learning, such learning processes are often hampered in practice. This may be due to the fact that existing niche-based approaches put too much emphasis on technological experimentation rather than on experimentation with forms of social organization. Therefore, attention should be redirected to sustainability concepts and guiding principles rather than technologies. As an addition to existing approaches, the authors suggest and elaborate on a new form of niche management called conceptual niche management.     

Fiscal Stabilization in the EMU

This paper analyzes the effects of macroeconomic shocks in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) using a stylized two-country model. First, it is shown how asymmetries between countries might matter in terms of the resulting business cycle fluctuations. More specifically, country-specific shocks are allowed for as well as cross-national differences in wage behavior. Second, it is shown by means of numerical simulations how national and federal fiscal stabilization policies can be used to dampen business cycle fluctuations in various (a)symmetric settings. The main innovation of the paper is to illustrate how structural differences between countries help to determine the impact of macroeconomic shocks and the effectiveness of fiscal policy.