Incentives and the Sorting of Altruistic Agents into Street‐Level Bureaucracies*

Many street‐level bureaucrats have the dual task of helping some clients, while sanctioning others. We develop a model of a street‐level bureaucracy, and we study the implications of its personnel policy on the self‐selection and allocation decisions of agents who differ in altruism towards clients. When bureaucrats are paid flat wages, they do not sanction, and the most altruistic types sort into bureaucracy. Pay‐for‐performance induces some bureaucrats to sanction, but it necessitates an increase in compensation, which can result in sorting from the top and bottom of the altruism distribution. We also explain why street‐level bureaucrats often experience an overload of clients.     

The Economics of Anaerobic Digester Operation on a Minnesota Dairy Farm

Anaerobic digesters for livestock operations are receiving attention for energy production and odor control. A farm-based digester went into operation in September 1999, on an 800-cow dairy farm in Minnesota. The goals of this paper are to analyze the contribution that a digester system can make to dairy farm profitability, and to demonstrate the impact of government and utility subsidies on profitability. Results indicate that the current selling price of electricity is not sufficient to justify building an anaerobic digester in most cases unless there is a subsidy or significant nonenergy market benefits.     

The free cash flow hypothesis for sales growth and firm performance

business is business! And business must grow –Dr. Seuss, The Lorax The paper investigates the agency argument that sales growth in firms with free cash flow (and without strong governance) is less profitable than sales growth for firms without free cash flow. It also tests whether strong governance conditions improve the performance of firms with free cash flow and/or limit the investments in unprofitable sales growth. Consistent with agency theory, firms with free cash flow gain less from sales growth than firms without free cash flow. But different governance conditions affect sales growth and performance in different ways. Having substantial management stock ownership mitigates the influence of free cash flow on performance, despite allowing higher sales growth. In contrast, outside blocks held by mutual funds reduce sales growth substantially, but does not increase performance from sales growth. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Normative,authentic, and altruistic fruit and vegetable consumption as weblog discourses

The Internet is a growing information and communication channel for health- and diet-related issues. Keeping updated on the fruit- and vegetable-related (F&V) discourses among laypeople is important for health communicators in order to promote F&V consumption through tailored health messages. The aim of the present study was to identify F&V-related discourses in weblogs that were maintained, obviously, to influence diet. A theoretically chosen sample of weblogs were analysed applying critical discourse analysis. The analysis showed three partly overlapping F&V-related discourses: (1) normative consumption with a focus on single nutrients and physiological mechanisms; (2) authentic consumption with a desire for naturalness; and (3) altruistic consumption where ethical responsibilities are enhanced. Bloggers have clear perceptions on ideal F&V consumption, but it is a challenge for the reader to make a synthesis of the discourses presented. Filtering contradictory instructions requires health literacy, which may need more support from dietetic professionals.     

The relative influence of industry and corporation on business segment performance: an alternative estimate

Rumelt’s (1991) widely cited paper presents estimates of the relative influence of industry, corporate, business unit, and other influences on business unit profitability. He finds corporations explain almost none of the variability in business unit profitability. Using a simultaneous equation model, we provide alternative estimates of the influence of industry and corporation on business unit performance. We find that both corporations and industries influence business unit profitability but corporations have the larger influence. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Determining Implicit Prices for Hay Quality and Bale Characteristics

Markets for dairy quality hay have emerged as dairy farms purchase more feed off the farm. Previous research on hay markets used proxies for quality since objective measures of quality were unavailable. A hedonic pricing model incorporating direct measures of quality (moisture, crude protein, and relative feed value (RFV)), proxies (cutting), and bale-type variables was estimated using data from a hay auction. Large round and square bales and medium round bales were discounted relative to small square bales. The implicit price for RFV was $0.55/ton in 2001–02.     

Critical success factors for governing farmer-managed public goods in rural areas in the Netherlands

Multifunctional land use has become a widely supported pathway for Europe's countryside. Brussels and the national governments stimulate farmers to integrate primary production with non-agricultural practices from which they can also benefit. In favour of this development different stakeholders are encouraged to collaborate to produce the so-called farmer-managed public goods. This paper explores critical success factors for the production and maintenance of these public goods. In two Dutch case study regions we show a chronology of major events from 1975 leading to a shift from primary agricultural production towards a successful multifunctional land use. We evaluated which critical success factors crucial for managing public goods manifest themselves in our case study regions. Besides six critical success factors described in literature (Property rights, Asymmetric information, Administrative complexity, Governance, Time lags and Market structure) four other factors appear to be crucial in governing farmer-managed public goods: (1) establishing a system of rewards; (2) a mix of governance forms; (3) visionary leadership with networks in both the public and the private sectors and (4) time for new ideas to mature and to build commitment among the actors.     

Exchange rate exposure, foreign involvement and currency hedging of firms: some Swedish evidence

This paper investigates the effect of exchange rate fluctuation on a firm's value, the so-called exchange rate exposure, for a sample of Swedish firms. In contrast to previous results, using U.S. data, the values of Swedish firms, as reflected in the stock price, seem quite sensitive to movements in the exchange rate. Studying the cross sectional differences in exposure, the estimated exposure is positively and significantly related to the fractional of total sales made abroad and negatively related to the use of currency derivatives.
F30, G10