The effect of copayments on primary care utilization: results from a quasi-experiment

This article analyses how health-care utilization is affected by copayments in a tax-financed health-care system. The article utilizes a natural experiment in which a health-care region in Sweden changed the price of healthcare in such a way that primary care general physician prices increased by 33%. We use daily visit data in the treatment region and a neighbouring control region where no price change took place and analyse the effect using differences-in-differences as well as differences-in-differences-in-differences models. The results from the preferred models indicate no effect on health-care utilization due to the price change, a result that also holds across different socio-economic subregions in the treatment region.     

Comparing Merger Policies in the European Union and the United States

We collect a sample of EU and US merger investigations, estimate models of the regulatory decisions, and use the models to compare merger policies. Our approach allows us to decompose observed differences into policy effects and case-mix effects. Focusing on dominance mergers, we find that the EU is tougher than the US on average, in particular for mergers resulting in moderate market shares. However, the US appears to be more aggressive for coordinated interaction and non-dominance unilateral effects cases. Overall, our analysis detects substantial differences in policies, but it does not classify one regime as being more aggressive than the other.     

Where Schumpeter was nearly right – the Swedish model and Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy<--RID="*"-->

In Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy Joseph A. Schumpeter concluded that socialism would eventually displace capitalism in Western democracies. This would come about as a result of the superior performance of capitalism. We extract six “stylized” propositions that are essential elements of Schumpeter's prediction about the fate of capitalism. These propositions are confronted with the development of the Swedish economy. The three main results of the analysis are: (1) The evolution of the Swedish economy closely followed Schumpeter's predictions until about 1980: Large firms became increasingly predominant in production and innovative activity, ownership of firms became more and more concentrated, individual entrepreneurship waned in importance, the general public grew increasingly hostile towards capitalism, and by the late 1970s explicit proposals for a gradual transfer of ownership of firms from private hands were launched. (2) Design of tax and industrial policies fueled a development of the economy along the lines predicted by Schumpeter. In general, the policies discouraged private wealth accumulation. In particular, the policies favored concentration of firms and concentration of private ownership. (3) The turning point away from the path to socialism coincides with real world developments that disclosed two major flaws in Schumpeter's analysis. First, the ever more obvious failure of socialism in Eastern Europe went against Schumpeter's assertion that socialism can work. Second, Schumpeter, who thought that modern technology would make the giant corporation increasingly predominant, did not foresee the revival of entrepreneurship that took place in the Western countries around 1980.     

ON THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT PATTERNS OF PUBLIC CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES

The multiplier effects resulting from an isolated increase in the level of public consumption within different public branches are investigated and the policy implications are discussed. The article begins with a theorethical analysis which shows why and in which ways these multipliers can be expected to differ between public branches. Thereafter, an empirical investigation is given, based on simulations with an econometric model of the Swedish economy. In this model the public activities are divided into 13 different public branches. The effects of an increase in public consumption on employment, imports and private consumption are found to differ considerably depending on which branch of the public sector is expanded. Some implications for short run stabilization policy are discussed. The article ends with a special analysis of the implications for a medium term planning problem: the trade off between private and public consumption growth. This analysis throws new light on the old topic "private or public consumption". In an economy with highly differentiated production in the public sector the trade-off is shown not to be unique. The sacrifice of private consumption growth corresponding to a given growth of public consumption expenditures will vary considerably according to the distribution of the public consumption growth within the different branches of the public sector.     

The drowning-refugee effect: media salience and xenophobic attitudes

We study whether salient media coverage of refugees drowning in the Mediterranean affects individual xenophobic attitudes. We combine a randomized survey experiment – a variant of the classic ‘trolley dilemma’ – that implicitly elicits individual attitudes towards foreigners, with variation in interview timing, and find that such issue salience significantly decreases xenophobic attitudes by 2.2 percentage points. Our results thus support the idea that exposure to news describing immigrants as victims (instead of a threat) can significantly affect public opinion and mitigate bias against immigrants.     

Affective-symbolic and instrumental-independence psychological motives mediating effects of socio-demographic variables on daily car use

An empirical study investigates the extent to which affective-symbolic and instrumental-independence psychological motives mediate effects of socio-demographic variables on daily car use in Sweden. Questionnaire data from a mail survey to 1134 car users collected in 2007 were used to assess the relationships daily car use as driver or passenger have to sex, household type (single or cohabiting with or without children), and residential area (urban, semi-rural or rural). Reliable measures of affective-symbolic and instrumental-independence motives were constructed. The results show that households with children use the car more than households with no children, that men make more car trips as drivers than women who use the car as passenger more than men, and that households living in rural areas use the car more than households living in semi-rural areas who use the car more than households living in urban areas. An affective-symbolic motive partially mediates the relationship between the number of weekly car trips and sex, the instrumental-independence motive partially mediates the relationships between weekly car use and percent car use as driver and several of the socio-demographic variables (living in urban vs. rural residential area for both measures; sex and living in urban vs. semi-rural residential area for percent car use as driver). Of several other socio-demographic variables (age, employment, and income) affecting car use, only the relationship of the number of cars to percent car use as driver was (partially) mediated by the instrumental-independence motive.     

The Worth of a Possum: Valuing Species with the Contingent Valuation Method

The focus of this paper is on methods of assessing the value peopleplace on the conservation of species for use in policy making. Of principalinterest is the relatively new methodology of contingent valuation, whichis a method for asking people directly about their preferences. The paperpresents an application of the contingent valuation method to theconservation of an endangered species in the State of Victoria, Australia.The results emphasise the importance of careful survey design,implementation and analysis as well as the precise definition of theenvironmental good being valued. Consequently, the contingent valuationmethod does provide information relevant to decision making processesbased on monetary economic considerations. Thus, in orthodox economicterms it makes sense to conserve species – but there are other moral andethical grounds for conserving species as well.     

The Rise of Finance and the Decline of Organised Labour in the Advanced Capitalist Countries

The goal of this article is to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the impacts of finance and corporate governance reforms on organised labour since 1980. The argument is made that contemporary institutional and ‘Varieties of Capitalism’ as well as ‘Varieties of Unionism’ perspectives on labour market reform have overstated the power of states, institutions and organised interests in deflecting global economic pressures. Drawing on a range of recent Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) statistics and qualitative studies, it is claimed that current developments in finance and corporate governance mark a fundamental break with post-war developments. Capital has reasserted its power over organised labour and labour markets not only in the US and UK, but throughout Western Europe as well. In assessing how far this reversal has gone, the article focuses on three key political economic changes: i) the rise in finance and adoption of corporate ‘shareholder’ systems; ii) the expansion of mergers and acquisitions and their negative effects on unionisation and manufacturing jobs; and iii) the effects of financial pressures and corporate reform on collective bargaining and wages. This is the first study to report on comparative changes and qualitative reforms to both finance and labour in 13 OECD countries between 1980 and 2005.     

An econometric analysis of the European Commission's merger decisions

Using a sample of 96 mergers notified to the European Commission and logit regression techniques, we analyse the Commission's decision process. We find that the probability of a phase-2 investigation and of a prohibition of the merger increases with the parties' market shares. The probabilities increase also when the Commission finds high entry barriers or that the post-merger market structure is conducive to collusion. We do not find significant effects of “political” variables, such as the nationality of the merging firms.     

Students’ knowledge of emerging technology and sustainability through a design activity in technology education

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - The purpose of this study is to explore whether, and if so how, a design activity could encourage students to express and develop...