Fair-trade beliefs,attitudes and buying behaviour of Belgian consumers

• A survey of 858 Belgians (615 people drawn from the general public and 243 visitors to Oxfam World Shops), examined the knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and behaviour of consumers with respect to fair-trade issues. The results showed that the respondents' knowledge and attitudes generally supported the fair-trade concept. However, many of the people questioned believed that fair-trade organizations should provide more and better information on fair-trade products, especially in shops and on the items themselves. In addition, fair-trade products should be more readily available in regular supermarkets, and their price should be lowered. The most interesting socio-demographic target group for non-profit fair-trade organizations appears to be older people with higher education and income. Consumers from the south (French-speaking) part of Belgium in general have a more positive attitude towards fair trade.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The welfare effects of innovative pharmaceuticals: an international perspective from the Dutch experience

Policy discussions on new medicines are often focused on cost containment rather than on the benefits they produce, such as health gains and cost savings in other sectors. In this study, we identify systematic differences in policies towards pharmaceuticals between countries and calculate the welfare gains of 39 innovative pharmaceuticals introduced in the Dutch market after 1997. Welfare gains are defined as the difference between the value of a QALY gained by innovative pharmaceuticals and their costs. The review shows that there are systematic differences among pharmaceutical policies and regulations between countries. It is further found that the welfare gains of pharmaceuticals are substantial and amount to €77 per capita per year in the Netherlands. The welfare gains could be higher if institutional barriers for an efficient utilization of innovative pharmaceuticals are removed.     

Union membership in the Netherlands: A cross-sectional analysis

In this paper we analyze the determinants of union membership in the Netherlands. Not only the unionization decision is studied, but also the decision which confederation the workers will join. Furthermore, a test is presented to determine the nature of the decision process; we ask whether the decision to join a union and the decision which confederation to join are sequential or simultaneous decisions. The answer is not only of consequence for the model specification, but also affects the conclusions drawn from the estimations. In our analysis we find a considerable number of significant variables, most of them with the expected sign. If a variable has an effect contrary to expectation this can largely be attributed to specific Dutch circumstances. This shows that a general theory on the determinants of union membership can never be wholly universal, but always has to allow for nationally determined exceptions. Our results further demonstrate the importance of careful specification of the structure of the decision process. The comparison of the results of the multinomial and the sequential logit model show that misspecification of the decision structure can lead to false conclusions. In the Netherlands, the decision to become a union member is taken prior to the decision which particular union to join.     

Vested interests, population ageing and technology adoption

Technologies that are used differ vastly across and within countries. It is commonly observed that technologies that would improve productivity are not adopted. This paper explains the failure to adopt new technologies through costs of adoption for people of different age. We set out an overlapping generations model with majority voting that predicts a relationship between the age composition of an economy and economic growth. We also consider the effects of more intense competition on technology adoption.     

Why married women's labor supply in the Netherlands has increased

Summary On the basis of cross-section data sets for 1979 and 1987 we determine: 1) the relative contribution of changes in participation and in hours of work to the increase in married women's labor supply; 2) how much of the change in participation and hours of work is determined by changes in preferences and in budget constraints; and 3) the causes of changes in market wages and reservation wages. The increase in the average unconditional hours of work is much more due to the rise in the participation rate than to the increase in conditional hours of work. Preference changes have contributed positively to the increase in married women's labor force participation over the period 1979–1987, whereas changes in market opportunities have contributed negatively. The change in the market wage and the reservation wage can be attributed mainly to changes in the population structure of married women. Changes in the model structure contributed negatively to the change in the real market and the reservation wage. The positive effect of the change in the population structure dominates the negative effect of the model structure. Finally, participants in the labor market have a comparative wage advantage over non-participants. Non-participants are a self-selecting group with a relatively high reservation wage.We like to thank Joop Hartog, Jules Theeuwes, Isolde Woittiez and two anonymous referees for their comments on a previous draft of this paper.     

Determinants of the Willingness of Belgian Farmers to Participate in Agri‐environmental Measures

This paper explores the willingness of Belgian farmers to participate in two voluntary agri‐environmental policies. Farmers' contingent behaviour is analysed on the basis of survey data. Derivations based on a conceptual micro‐economic model indicate that decision subject and decision maker characteristics are important for farmers' participation. The model is empirically tested through the specification and estimation of a probit model. Consistency is found between the theoretical framework and the empirical results indicating that both the expected effect on farm production and the farmers' environmental attitude, which is more positive among younger and better educated farmers, are significant determinants of the acceptance rate of agri‐environmental policies. Other variables which influence participation decisions are farm size and previous experience of farmers themselves or of neighbouring farmers with agri‐environmental measures.     

Whistle Blowing and Rational Loyalty

Today's complex and decentralized organization gives rise to organizational needs for both loyalty and institutionalized whistle blowing. However, ethicists see a contradiction between both needs. This paper argues there is no such contradiction. It shows why earlier attempts to go beyond the dilemma are not satisfying. The solution proposed in this paper starts from an organizational perspective instead of an individual one. It does so by reframing the concept of loyalty into “rational loyalty”. This means that the object of loyalty is not the physicality of an organization, but its corpus of explicit mission statement, goals, value statement and code of conduct. An implication is that organizations are – as their side of the duty of loyalty – obliged to institutionalize whistle blowing.