Pricing and Capital Allocation for Multiline Insurance Firms

We study multiline insurance companies with limited liability. Insurance premiums are determined by no‐arbitrage principles. The results are developed under the realistic assumption that the losses created by insurer default are allocated among policyholders following an ex post, pro rata, sharing rule. In general, the ratio of default costs to expected claims, and thus the ratio of premiums to expected claims, vary across insurance lines. Moreover, capital and related costs are allocated across lines in proportion to each line's share of a digital default option on the insurer. Our results expand and generalize those derived elsewhere in the literature.     

How Individuals Engage in the Absorption of New External Knowledge: A Process Model of Absorptive Capacity

This paper offers a process model of how individuals engage in the absorption of new external knowledge. Data collection is centered on the experiences of knowledge workers in recognizing, assimilating, and applying external knowledge. The process model delineates how individuals engage in the absorptive capacity (AC) process through: (1) valuing knowledge potential by assessing the motivation to assimilate knowledge and by evaluating technological feasibility, which together constitute the recognition of value; (2) corroborating knowledge value by ensuring legitimacy and demonstrating a shared understanding of the business value in achieving knowledge assimilation; and (3) championing knowledge integration by lobbying for support and securing resources in order to integrate and apply the knowledge within the organization, ultimately ensuring that knowledge is exploited. The process model clarifies how an individual’s proficiency in external knowledge absorption activities can result in three possible outcomes: knowledge is exploited, knowledge is terminated, or knowledge gets “stuck” in limbo. These findings contribute to the AC literature by underscoring the pivotal role of individual engagements in recognition, assimilation, and application of external knowledge and add new elements and a process perspective to the understanding of the path from potential to realized AC. The paper also provides insights into how individuals and firms can better manage knowledge absorption in practice.     

A note on infrastructure quality in South Africa

In South Africa the emphasis, both in research and in policy-making, seems to be more on the quantity of infrastructure than on improving its quality. This research note critically analyses the lack of quality indicators in quantitative infrastructure research, with the aim of redirecting attention to improving the quality of infrastructure in South Africa.     

Sampling Procedures for Coordinating Stratified Samples: Methods Based on Microstrata

The aim of sampling coordination is to maximize or minimize the overlap between several samples drawn successively in a population that changes over time. Therefore, the selection of a new sample will depend on the samples previously drawn. In order to obtain a larger (or smaller) overlap of the samples than the one obtained by independent selection of samples, a dependence between the samples must be introduced. This dependence will emphasize (or limit) the number of common units in the selected samples. Several methods for coordinating stratified samples, such as the Kish & Scott method, the Cotton & Hesse method, and the Rivière method, have already been developed. Using simulations, we compare the optimality of these methods and their quality of coordination. We present six new methods based on permanent random numbers (PRNs) and microstrata. These new methods have the advantage of allowing us to choose between positive or negative coordination with each of the previous samples. Simulations are run to test the validity of each of them.     

Professional associations and their members: A study of the market for professional services when ability and size are independent

The members of a professional group are organized in an association which influences ability requirements and size in order to keep either the price, its own revenues or the members' incomes as high as possible. Ability is, contrary to earlier approaches, treated as a matter of education rather than selection. The members are free to set quantity and/or price in order to maximize income. The association incentive to influence size and ability is shown to depend on how demand elasticity changes with these variables. New types of misallocations such as ‘exclusive incompetence’ may emerge.     

British discretion in Dutch planning: Establishing a comparative perspective for regional planning and local development in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom

Regional planning and development is continuing to take an important role in planning agendas throughout Europe. In the United Kingdom (UK), the planning system has been reformed during the last decades, marking a noticeable shift from a development-led towards a more plan-led system. In the Netherlands, strictly regulated growth-control policies have been abandoned to some degree, in favor of more decentralized planning policies featuring negotiated development. Dutch planners have been specifically interested in a more British approach, that is, a more discretionary and development-led type of approach to spatial planning. In this paper, we will discuss current efforts in Dutch regional planning to adopt new principles for planning delivery and will provide a comparative perspective between spatial planning in the UK and the Netherlands. This paper discusses the changing structure of planning delivery in both countries. At the same time, it establishes a framework for identifying critical lessons for Dutch regional planning practice as opposed to planning in the UK. Three characteristics are pivotal for the comparison: (1) the establishment of comprehensive principles for project coordination; (2) options for the settlement of planning gain, packaging interests, and regional redistribution; and (3) the institution for development-oriented planning and discretion for planning decisions. The evidence used is based on a literature review of recent debates in both countries and illustrative cases, including the Dutch ‘Heart of the Heuvelrug’ plan.