Endogenous vertical restraints in international trade

This paper examines interbrand competition between a domestic and a foreign manufacturer who market their products through intermediaries. The contracts manufacturers offer these intermediaries are endogenous. In equilibrium contracts may specify exclusive territories (ET), depending on the degree of substitutability between products and the level and degree of transparency of trade barriers. Trade liberalization, through lower or more transparent barriers, may lead manufacturers to use ET, thereby substituting private anti-competitive arrangements for government-imposed barriers. This substitution may decrease competition and welfare, and thus create a role for competition policy in a freer trade environment.     

Europe '92. Decentralizing environmental policy in the single market

The creation of the EC's internal market by the end of 1992 appears to necessitate a harmonization of environmental policies in the European Community. Against this background, the paper analyzes the options for decentralizing environmental policy in Europe and indicates some limitations of this approach.It is shown that, in the case of stationary sources, a harmonization is not required whereas, in the case of international spillovers and global environmental systems, a decentralization of policies is possible if countries can agree on international diffusion norms or national emission quantities, respectively. A harmonization seems to be unavoidable if product norms have to be applied, e.g. in the case of pollutants in consumption goods. Generally, however, price instruments should be used wherever possible, since they allow for a regional differentiation of environmental qualities without segmenting European markets.     

A simple model of cumulative prospect theory

The present paper combines loss attitudes and linear utility by providing an axiomatic analysis of cumulative prospect theory (CPT) in the framework for decision under uncertainty. We derive a two-sided variant of Choquet expected utility (CEU) with possibly different capacities for gains and for losses, and linear utility. Naturally, utility may have a kink at the status quo, which allows for the exhibition of loss aversion. The central condition of our model is termed independence of common increments.     

Wettbewerbsmessung im Bankensektor: alternative Maße — divergierende Ergebnisse

Precise assessment of the competitive conditions is the necessary foundation of numerous stability, productivity and profitability analyses of the banking industry. From a theoretical point of view, a wide range of alternative approaches are available. Nonetheless, the operationalisation of these measures has proved difficult due to regional market conditions, individual business models and generally high data requirements. Considerable divergences and contradictory results are revealed by a comparison of more than 50 studies from four decades. In reference to the resilience and comparability of regulatory inferences, the question remains as to which measure should be favoured in the future.     

Hausarzt nicht erreichbar?

Medizinische Akutversorgung in Heimen - In vielen Heimen muss sofort der Rettungsdienst ran, wenn es um akute medizinische Probleme geht. Das ist teuer, führt zu sinnlosen Krankenhausaufenthalten und missachtet allzu oft den Willen des Patienten. Das Problem ist bestens bekannt, doch auch in Zukunft wird sich kaum etwas ?ndern: Die Krankenkassen scheuen zus?tzliche Honorare für die ?rztliche Betreuung im Heim.     

The economics of exhaustible resources

Are natural resources getting scarcer? How should the limited reservoir of non-replenishable raw materials such as metals and fossile fuels be utilized by successive generations? What possible solutions are proposed by economics in the face of diminishing reserves of raw materials? These are the questions which occupied German and foreign economists at the meeting of Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften—Verein für Socialpolitik—in Mannheim on September 24–26, 1979. The following report on the crucial issues raised at the meeting is not claimed to cover the full range of the discussion.