Vienna University of Economics and Business
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Sustainable Consumption and Mass Communication: A German Experiment
Get PDFHow to change economic behaviour and achieve sustainable consumption? This paper reports onusing television and internet communication as a means of engaging the least interested sectionsof society with respect to environmental problems and sustainability issues. The theory behinddeveloping such communication is described and the importance of social psychological factorsbrought to the fore. Initial results indicating the success of the approach employed in actualbroadcasts on television in Germany are then reported. Some concerns over use of the media andpublic engagement are also discussed.Series: SRE - Discussion Paper
Practical necessity and legal options for introducing energy regulatory sandboxes in Austria
Get PDFAs the legal framework is designed for an established energy regime, innovative solutions for the energy transition often encounter barriers. Since rapid changes in the legal framework may involve uncertainties, testing solutions in the exceptional framework of regulatory sandboxes can be a constructive instrument of innovation policy. Until June 2021, Austrian energy law contains neither an explicit authorisation to grant such exemptions nor custom-made regulatory sandboxes. This paper is the first to investigate the practical need for regulatory sandboxes in Austria (specific fields of experimentation were identified) and elaborate necessary changes for energy law eligibility, taking European law into account
Organisationales Lernen von Hilfsorganisationen als Reaktion auf die COVID-19-Krise
Get PDFFür Organisationen wird es zunehmend wichtiger, auf Impulse aus der organisationalen Umwelt zu reagieren, auf die Anpassungsprozesse folgen. Von besonderer Relevanz kann diese Fähigkeit bei plötzlich auftretenden exogenen Schocks sein. Diese Problemstellung kann von verschiedenen theoretischen Blickwinkeln betrachtet werden. Die vorliegende Arbeit bedient sich dem Konzept des organisationalen Lernens, im Speziellen der Lerntypen von Argyris und Schön, um Korrekturmaßnahmen in Folge eines exogenen Schocks einzuordnen. In einem vorgelagerten Schritt wird ein Literature Review angestrebt, der einen allgemeinen Überblick über Organisationen aller Sektoren und deren erreichten Lerntypen als Reaktion auf unterschiedliche Arten von Turbulenzen geben soll. Im empirischen Teil wird untersucht, welche Formen des organisationalen Lernens im Konkreten Hilfsorganisationen als Folge der COVID-19-Krise in der Praxis zeigen. Ergänzend wird die Frage gestellt, welche Auswirkungen die Volatilität bei operativen Tätigkeiten, die Größe des Schocks und die Befehls- und Kommunikationsstruktur auf die erreichten Lerntypen haben und ob langfristige Lerneffekte als Endresultat erkannt werden können. Dazu werden vier Hilfsorganisationen in Österreich mittels semi-strukturierten Leitfadeninterviews zu zwei Erhebungszeitpunkten 2020 und 2021 befragt, deren Ergebnisse über die strukturierende qualitative Inhaltsanalyse den Lerntypen zugeordnet werden. Es zeigt sich, dass alle Hilfsorganisationen zero-, single- und double-loop learning als Reaktion auf die COVID-19-Krise vorweisen. Einsatzorganisationen lassen erste Tendenzen von triple-loop learning erkennen. Am häufigsten kann eine Kombination aus single- und double-loop learning vorgefunden werden. Eine höhere Volatilität bei operativen Tätigkeiten führt nicht zu höheren Lerntypen, während ein größerer Schock sowie dezentrale Strukturen höhere Lerntypen begünstigen. Die meisten Adaptierungen werden dauerhaft in allen Hilfsorganisationen beibehalten, womit Krisen zu langfristigen Lerneffekten führen.Series: Theses / Institute for Nonprofit Managemen
Real-time disruption management approach for intermodal freight transportation
Get PDFThe share of intermodal transportation, which is often considered as a sustainable transportation alternative, is rather low compared to road transportation. There are several reasons for this situation, including the increased need for coordination of scheduled transport services and the reduced reliability of intermodal transport chains in case of disruptions. In this regard, developing an advanced algorithmic approach can help to handle real-time data during the execution of transportation and react adequately to detected unexpected events. In this way the reliability of intermodal transport can be increased, which might help to increase its usage and to minimize the negative externalities of freight transportation. This paper proposes a novel real-time decision support system based on a hybrid simulation-optimization approach for intermodal transportation which combines offline planning with online re-planning based on real-time data about unexpected events in the transportation network. For each detected disruption, the affected services and orders are identified and the best re-planning policy is applied. The proposed decision support system is successfully tested on real-life scenarios and is capable of delivering fast and reasonably good solutions in an online environment. This research might be of particular benefit to the transport industry for using advanced solution methodologies and give advice to transportation planners about the optimal policies that can be used in case of disruptions
Towards a plastic-free economy: the Italian plastic tax
No full textThe fight against plastic waste has never been as high on the European and Italian agenda as it has been in recent years.
Several measures have been recently adopted to promote the progressive reduction of single-use plastic products and their disposal in the environment: on the one hand, a new EU own resource calculated on the weight of non-recycled plastic packaging waste generated by the Member States is in force as of 1 January 2021; on the other hand, the Italian Plastic Tax, introduced with the Budget Law 2020, is expected to come into effect on 1 July 2021.
Although the Customs Agency published the draft implementing provisions on 18 February 2021, many uncertainties remain.Security: campus_or_validuse
Asymmetric effects of social and economic incentives on cooperation in real effort based public goods games
Get PDFMany practitioners as well as researchers explore promoting environmentally conscious behavior in the context of public goods systems. Numerous experimental studies revealed various types of incentives to increase cooperation on public goods. There is ample evidence that monetary and non-monetary incentives, such as donations, have a positive effect on cooperation in public goods games that exceeds fully rational and optimal economic decision making. Despite an accumulation of these studies, in the typical setting of these experiments participants decide on an allocation of resources to a public pool, but they never exert actual effort. However, in reality, we often observe that players’ real effort is required in these public goods game situations. Therefore, more analysis is needed to draw conclusions for a wider set of incentive possibilities in situations similar to yet deviating from resource allocation games. Here we construct a real effort public goods game in an online experiment and statistically analyze the effect different types of incentives have on cooperation. In our experiment, we examine combinations of monetary and social incentives in a setting aimed closer to practical realities, such as financial costs and real effort forming part of the decision to cooperate on a public good. In our real effort public goods game participants cooperate and defect on image-scoring tasks. We find that in our setting economic and social incentives produce an asymmetric effect. Interestingly economic incentives decreased the share of highly uncooperative participants, while social incentives raised the share of highly cooperative participants
Testing for Ethnic Discrimination in Outpatient Health Care: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Germany
Get PDFTo test for ethnic discrimination in access to outpatient health care services, we carry out an email-correspondence study in Germany. We approach 3,224 physician offices in the 79 largest cities in Germany with fictitious appointment requests and randomized patients’ characteristics. We find that patients’ ethnicity, as signaled by distinct Turkish versus German names, does not affect whether they receive an appointment or wait time. In contrast, patients with private insurance are 31 percent more likely to receive an appointment. Holding a private insurance also increases the likelihood of receiving a response and reduces the wait time. This suggests that physicians use leeway to prioritize privately insured patients to enhance their earnings, but they do not discriminate persons of Turkish origin based on taste. Still, their behavior creates means-based barriers for economically disadvantaged groups.Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Serie
Global patterns of ecologically unequal exchange: Implications for sustainability in the 21st century
No full textEcologically unequal exchange theory posits asymmetric net flows of biophysical resources from poorer to richer countries. To date, empirical evidence to support this theoretical notion as a systemic aspect of the global economy is largely lacking. Through environmentally-extended multi-regional input-output modelling, we provide empirical evidence for ecologically unequal exchange as a persistent feature of the global economy from 1990 to 2015. We identify the regions of origin and final consumption for four resource groups: materials, energy, land, and labor. By comparing the monetary exchange value of resources embodied in trade, we find significant international disparities in how resource provision is compensated. Value added per ton of raw material embodied in exports is 11 times higher in high-income countries than in those with the lowest income, and 28 times higher per unit of embodied labor. With the exception of embodied land for China and India, all other world regions serve as net exporters of all types of embodied resources to high-income countries across the 1990–2015 time period. On aggregate, ecologically unequal exchange allows high-income countries to simultaneously appropriate resources and to generate a monetary surplus through international trade. This has far-reaching implications for global sustainability and for the economic growth prospects of nations.Security: staffonl
Dynamic modelling of corporate credit ratings and defaults
Get PDFIn this article, we propose a longitudinal multivariate model for binary and ordinal outcomes
to describe the dynamic relationship among firm defaults and credit ratings from various raters. The
latent probability of default is modelled as a dynamic process which contains additive firm-specific
effects, a latent systematic factor representing the business cycle and idiosyncratic observed and
unobserved factors. The joint set-up also facilitates the estimation of a bias for each rater which captures
changes in the rating standards of the rating agencies. Bayesian estimation techniques are employed
to estimate the parameters of interest. Several models are compared based on their out-of-sample
prediction ability and we find that the proposed model outperforms simpler specifications. The joint
framework is illustrated on a sample of publicly traded US corporates which are rated by at least one
of the credit rating agencies S&P, Moody’s and Fitch during the period 1995–2014
Estimating the trade and welfare effects of Brexit: A panel data structural gravity model
Get PDFThis paper proposes a new panel data structural gravity approach for estimating
the trade and welfare effects of Brexit. Assuming different counterfactual post-Brexit
scenarios, our main findings suggest that the UK’s exports of goods to the EU are likely
to decline within a range between 7.2% and 45.7% six years after Brexit has taken
place. For the UK, the negative trade effects are only partially offset by an increase in
domestic trade and trade with third countries, inducing a decline in the UK’s real income
of between 0.3% and 5.7%. The estimated welfare effects for the EU are not different
from zero, but some members like Ireland are expected to also experience welfare losses