A Preliminary Investigation into the Causes and Effects of the Rise and Fall of Advertising Expenditures in Sweden

The purpose of this study is not only to chronicle the rise and fall of advertising expenditures in Sweden from 1975 to the present day but also to consider possible causes for their rise and fall. It is hoped that understanding the nature of these variations will become a key to the deeper understanding of the advertising market place. Both traditional and non-traditional media were studied. It was suggested that variations in advertising expenditures stemmed from two broad factors: (1) the demand for advertising space, determined by the advertisers; and (2) the supply of advertising space, determined by the media. These factors are intrinsically affected by external factors such as business cycles and legal and social environments.     

Making sure of survival

Early in 1980—well before the Special Session of the UN General Assembly in New York—the Independent Commission for International Development Issues chaired by Willy Brandt presented its Report: “North-South: A Programme for Survival”. The findings of the Commission which is better known as “North-South Commission” or “Brandt Commission” have met with agreement and approval but also with criticism. Which recommendations has the Commission made? Which points of the Report are being criticised?     

The roles of R&;D in new firm growth

Innovative start-ups are an important driver of economic growth. This article presents empirical evidence on the effects of research and development (R&D) on new product development, interfirm alliances and employment growth during the early life course of firms. We use a dataset that contains a sample of new firms that is representative of the whole population of start-ups. This dataset covers the first 6 years of the life course of firms. It is revealed that R&D plays several roles during the early life course of high-tech as well as high-growth firms. The effect of initial R&D on high-tech firm growth is through increasing levels of interfirm alliances in the first post-entry years. R&D efforts enable the exploitation of external knowledge. Initial R&D also stimulates new product development later on in the life course of high-tech firms, but this does not seem to affect firm growth. R&D does not affect the growth rate of new low-tech firms, which seem to be driven mainly by the growth ambitions of the founding entrepreneur. The results show that R&D matters for a limited but important set of new high-tech and high-growth firms, which are key in innovation and entrepreneurship policies.

Das Tempo wird erklärt,nicht die Richtung

The prize honours the ground-breaking theoretical contribution of Paul M. Romer who found that the speed of growth is no longer exogenous but depends on economic forces. The drivers of growth are human capital, ideas and innovation; these differ from conventional goods due to the fact that their effect is not limited by decreasing returns, but rather grows with use. Romer‘s model, and practically all models of endogenous growth theory, do not differentiate whether technical progress is labour or resource saving — a distinction that makes an important difference in welfare and climate policy. In his policy agenda, Romer proposes creating “charter cities” to stimulate growth in countries with unstable governments, as in the East Asia example. While this could rapidly reduce poverty, it is important to pay attention to the adaption of imported technologies to local preferences and ownership of the developing regions.     

Ökonomische Aspekte der Energiepolitik

Die in der ersten Jahresh?lfte 2006 sprunghaft gestiegenen Energiepreise haben die Abh?ngigkeit der Weltwirtschaft vom Roh?lpreis in Erinnerung gerufen. Die Weltwirtschaft kann aber auch von den Auswirkungen des Klimawandels betroffen werden. Wie sieht es mit der Energieversorgung und der Energiesicherheit in Deutschland aus? Wodurch steigen die Energiepreise? Welche ?konomischen Auswirkungen hat der Klimawandel? Ist der Emissionshandel in der EU und die F?rderung der erneuerbaren Energien in Deutschland auch unter ?konomischen Aspekten zu rechtfertigen? Prof. Dr. Karl Heinz Hausner, 37, lehrt Volkswirtschaftslehre an der Fachhochschule des Bundes für ?ffentliche Verwaltung in Mannheim und ist Lehrbeauftragter an der Hochschule für Bankwirtschaft, Frankfurt am Main; Prof. Dr. Silvia Simon, 35, lehrt Volkswirtschaftslehre an der Hochschule M?nchengladbach und ist Forschungsbeauftragte am Liechtenstein Institut, Fürstentum Liechtenstein.