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Smart Urban Agriculture
No full textGiven cities’ rising environmental problems and increasing food insecurity, innovative organizational endeavors such as urban agriculture present a chance for additional ecosystem services and food production. However, urban spaces are hostile as they jeopardize the availability of air, water, or soil. While digital innovations enable the management of scarce resources in traditional agricultural contexts, little is known about their applicability in urban agriculture endeavors. This study proposes a multi-layer taxonomy focusing on digital technologies, data, and different approaches in urban agriculture, as well as 20 organizational readiness factors derived with academics and practitioners from the smart urban agriculture domain. Combining both perspectives, the study sheds light on the nature of smart urban agriculture and ways to leverage its economic, ecological, and social value
Reassessing the cross-sectional fiscal multiplier: Evidence from U.S. defense procurement, 1966-2019
No full textThis paper revisits the empirical analysis of Nakamura and Steinsson (2014). I reconstruct and extend the original dataset to cover the period 1966-2019, harmonizing two major sources of data: the Defense Contract Action Data System (DCADS) and USAspending.gov. I discuss how to aggregate these contract-level data to better capture spending more directly tied to domestic stimulus. Estimated multipliers are slightly lower in narrow replications but increase when incorporating later fiscal episodes. I also assess the validity and the stability of cross-sectional estimates. While some heterogeneity exists, dispersion in state-level responses remains within reasonable boundaries, especially when accounting for dynamic persistence
Psychologische Arbeitsverträge und Bindungsstile: Eine theoretische Analyse ihrer Wechselwirkungen in Arbeitsbeziehungen
No full textThis discussion paper explores the intersection of attachment theory and psychological contracts within contemporary organizational contexts. Building on Rousseau's typology of psychological contracts (2000) and rooted in attachment-based frameworks, the paper highlights how individual attachment styles significantly influence employees' perceptions of fairness, trust, and psychological safety in the workplace. Securely attached individuals tend to resonate with relational and balanced contracts, characterized by mutual trust, emotional commitment, and long-term orientation. In contrast, ambivalently attached employees demonstrate heightened sensitivity to inconsistency and require structured but meaningful engagement to prevent emotional detachment or burnout. The paper further investigates how structural changes-such as mergers, downsizing, or managerial turnover-can induce contract breaches, leading to disengagement or loss of organizational commitment. Additionally, the study advocates for leadership strategies that are adaptive to diverse attachment patterns and emphasizes the role of leadership diagnostics, transparent communication, and psychological safety as key levers toward resilient employment relationships. By integrating insights from social exchange theory and commitment models, this paper provides recommendations for both HR management and leadership development, while also outlining directions for future research. The findings suggest that recognizing and integrating attachment dynamics can contribute significantly to improved employee well-being, trust-based leadership, and sustainable organizational performance
The Effect of Swiss Free Trade Agreements on Agricultural Trade
No full textAs a country highly dependent on imports, Switzerland has many free trade agreements (FTAs) that liberalise trade barriers. We assess how these agreements affect Swiss agricultural imports at different margins of trade adjustment. We estimate reduced‐form gravity models using agricultural trade data for 202 partner countries from 2004 to 2022. We find that Swiss FTAs increase agricultural import values by 8.75%, decrease import prices by 3%, increase the probability of imports by 2% and reduce market exit rates by 1%. These effects are heterogeneous across products, sectors and agreements. Regarding import values and quantities, the positive effects of FTAs are mainly observed for raw products (including vegetables, fruits and nuts, coffee, tea and spices). However, the estimated effects are negative for processed products. Regarding import prices, the effects are positive whenever they are statistically significant. We also find that the number of competing agreements to which a Swiss trade partner is exposed only marginally affects Swiss imports. We extend our analysis to agricultural exports and find that FTAs increase Swiss export values by 47%, quantities by 53% and prices by 3% but do not affect export probabilities or export market exit rates. Thus, although Swiss FTAs generally boost trade on average, policymaking should consider the heterogeneities of the estimated FTA effects regarding products, agreements and time when using FTA estimates for counterfactual analysis and negotiations
Understanding Multiple Perspectives on Social Value in Business: An Integrative Review and Typology
No full textAlthough the concept of social value has been present in business literature for over a century, it lacks definitional consensus, is often imprecise, and has not been sufficiently theorized. With social value becoming more prevalent across business scholarship domains, the lack of conceptual clarity and consistency hampers substantive research progress. We conduct an integrative review of 288 articles drawn from 60 peer-reviewed journals covering a wide spectrum of business domains. We synthesize the review findings into a polythetic typology that identifies five distinct approaches to understanding and managing social value in business. The proposed typology of social value organizes and consolidates the theoretical and conceptual heterogeneity of the social value concept providing much-needed clarity and structure for future research. It allows scholars to structure and unify various conceptualizations into a more holistic yet nuanced understanding, and the necessary (but currently lacking) clarity to enable new theorizing and guide future research. The proposed typology further offers new ways of thinking about social value and provides direction to managerial practice on the desirability and feasibility of implementing different social value approaches into firms’ core business operations and strategies
Sanktionen gegen die russische Zentralbank sind ein starkes Instrument
No full textNach dem völkerrechtswidrigen Einmarsch der russischen Truppen in die Ukraine haben sich die EU-Mitgliedstaaten und die USA am vergangenen Wochenende auf tiefgreifende Restriktionen im Finanzsektor verständigt. Die Schweiz hat sich diesen Sanktionen inzwischen angeschlossen. Die gegen die russische Zentralbank ergriffenen Maßnahmen zielen darauf ab, deren Handlungsspielräume durch Einfrieren ihrer Devisenreserven deutlich zu beschränken. Dies ist ein äußerst wirksames Instrument, das in der Geschichte erstmals gegenüber einer großen Volkswirtschaft verhängt wurde und zur Folge hat, dass die russische Zentralbank keinen Zugriff mehr auf einen Großteil ihrer knapp 600 Milliarden US-Dollar umfassenden Währungsreserven hat. Daraus resultiert der Absturz des Rubels am 28. Februar, dem die russische Zentralbank noch am gleichen Tag mit einer starken Erhöhung ihres Leitzinses begegnete. Diese Zinserhöhung trifft eine ohnehin schon wachstumsschwache Volkswirtschaft, die es bislang versäumt hat, ihre starke Abhängigkeit von der Produktion fossiler Energieträger zu reduzieren.Zugleich erschienen als "Sonderausgaben zum Krieg in der Ukraine" Nr. 7
Decarbonizing agriculture: The impact of trade and renewable energy on CO₂ emissions
No full textThis study investigates the environmental effects of agricultural trade, renewable energy use, and economic growth in a panel of 14 selected countries for the period 2000-2021. Per capita Co₂ emissions are modeled as the dependent variable using a second-generation panel data method, the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) estimator, which accounts for cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity. The analysis reveals that the share of renewable energy in total energy consumption significantly reduces carbon emissions, emphasizing the role of green energy policies in environmental improvement. In contrast, economic growth is found to increase emissions, indicating the validity of only the initial phase of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Additionally, agricultural imports - and in certain cases, exports - exert upward pressure on emissions, likely due to logistics and production-related externalities embedded in the trade process. Group-specific results highlight distinct dynamics across countries: while renewable energy adoption plays a stronger role in emission mitigation in developing economies, trade composition and production technology drive environmental outcomes in developed ones. The findings underscore the need to redesign trade and energy strategies with explicit consideration of environmental externalities to align with long-term sustainability objectives
Riskonnected: Social Media, Puberty and Risky Behaviours in Adolescence
No full textWe examine the impact of intensive social media use on puberty timing, particularly earlier menarche in girls. Using data from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), a nationally representative longitudinal dataset tracking around 19,000 children in the UK, we analyse how digital engagement influences adolescent development. Our results show that intensive social media use significantly accelerates menarche in girls but has no clear effect on male puberty markers. The likely mechanism behind this effect is the negative impact of social media on mental health, particularly stress and anxiety, which have been linked to earlier menarche. Our findings highlight social media use itself as a potential risky behaviour, reinforcing concerns about its effects on adolescent well-being
Robots & AI Exposure and Wage Inequality: A Within Occupation Approach
No full textThis paper examines the linkages between occupational exposure to recent automation technologies and inequality across 19 European countries. Using data from the European Union Structure of Earnings Survey (EU-SES), a fixed-effects model is employed to assess the association between occupational exposure to artificial intelligence (AI) and to industrial robots - two distinct forms of automation -and within occupation wage inequality. The analysis reveals that occupations with higher exposure to robots tend to have lower wage inequality, particularly among workers in the lower half of the wage distribution. In contrast, occupations more exposed to AI exhibit greater wage dispersion, especially at the top of the wage distribution. We argue that this disparity arises from differences in how each technology complements individual worker abilities: robot-related tasks often complement routine physical activities, while AI-related tasks tend to amplify the productivity of high-skilled, cognitively intensive work
Talk Therapy and Human Capital in Adolescence: Evidence from a Low-Resource Setting
No full textWe evaluate the impact of a therapy intervention on Nepali adolescents at risk of dropping out of school. Our randomized controlled trial is the largest of its kind (N = 1,707) and is novel in that participation does not require a preexisting diagnosis. Participation was high: 89 percent of adolescents offered therapy attended, with younger participants showing higher compliance. Therapy significantly reduced psychological distress, improved emotional regulation, and enhanced perspectives on life. These psychological benefits did not translate into better school attendance or cognitive outcomes. Our results indicate that mental health interventions alone may not be sufficient to improve educational performance in low-resource environments