1,720,981 research outputs found
Voluntary Commitment to Environmental Protection: A Bounded Rationality Approach
Full text linkGlobal environmental protection is characterized as a public good. In contrast to the national level where the state is able to regulate external effects, there is a lack of supranational institutions which have enough power to force countries to reduce pollution levels. In spite of the free-riding problem it can nevertheless be observed that countries sometimes commit themselves to contribute to the public good `environmental protection'. The case of the Kyoto protocol for global reduction demonstrates that some countries make substantial volunatry contributions, but others do not or on a much less level. The paper provides a game-theoretic explanation how the free-riding-problem can be overcome to some extent by voluntary cooperative behavior. It is analysed under which conditions free-riding countries can be motivated to make at least small pollution reduction efforts.global environmental policy, public good, voluntary cooperation, bounded rationality, game theory.
Essays on spatial and vertical price transmission
Full text linkThis is the final outcome of a three-year joint PhD programme carried out at the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, and at the Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Germany, within the framework of a co-tutelle agreement between the two universities.
The first essay (“Vertical price transmission, geographical dispersion and the structure of the Ugandan coffee market”) extends the vertical price transmission analysis through a structural approach, which evaluates whether spatial oligopsony power is prevailing in Ugandan coffee market and in case how strong it is. The first paper tests whether in markets, such as Uganda, where infrastructure quality is poor and transport costs are relevant, geographic dispersion of smallholder farmers allows traders to exploit their market power against farmers with a large impact on market structure and reduction of farmers' welfare. By building upon (Sexton, 1990), the study brings an original contribution to the literature, since (Sexton, 1990) develops just a theoretical model and it is not interested to do any econometric exercise. (Sexton, 1990) employs a single spatial price gap equation instead of a system of well-founded behavioural equations in agricultural markets, which is indeed a major improvement delivered by this essay. Moreover, in this analysis the approach to spatial price gap determination is combined with the oligopsony modelling and SUR technique in order to produce empirically testable hypotheses. Without such transformations the approach by (Sexton, 1990) cannot be employed for any empirical exercise. Indeed, the idea of the role of distance is taken from (Sexton, 1990) and introduced in an original way in a more sophisticated model, which is micro-founded at three levels, i.e. demand and supply of agricultural commodities by traders and farmers as well as conditional demand of inputs by farmers. Since the wholesale-farmgate price spread is net of transport costs, results confirm that geographic dispersion of smallholder farmers plays a significant role on price margin and that there is room for local oligopsony, because traders exploit their market power and overcharge transport and transaction costs to farmers. Indeed, farmers are not able to skip traders in the value chain, because a significant information asymmetry is prevailing in the market. Traders exploit farmers' ignorance because the latter are small and dispersed as well as they lack information about current market prices because of villages remoteness and poor communications with marketplaces (Courtois and Subervie, 2015). Moreover, farmers are not aware of actual transport costs faced by traders, which carry larger quantities of coffee than single smallholder farmers and spread fixed costs over a larger amount of crop. The second essay (“Spatial price transmission and trade policies: new evidence from selected sub-Saharan African countries and crops with high frequency data”) assesses the impact of trade policies on spatial price transmission of maize, rice and wheat in Cameroon, Kenya and Tanzania. This paper improves the existing literature in the field (see, inter alia, Anderson and Nelgen, 2012a, Anderson and Nelgen, 2012b and Anderson and Nelgen, 2012c), because it estimates the impact of tariff and non-tariff trade policies on spatial price transmission in the agricultural markets using monthly data. Employment of monthly data allows assessing more precisely short-lived movements of the analysed series, which could disappear because of aggregation bias at lower yearly frequency, thus providing a better identification of insulation policies. Furthermore, this essay focuses on the impact of both tariff and non-tariff barriers on spatial price transmission by taking advantage of the combination of the FAO-GIEWS (Global Information and early warning system) database and trade policies information from the FAO-FADPA (Food and Agriculture Policy Decision Analysis) with the recent release of the World Bank World Integrated Trade Solutions (WITS) Database (UNCTAD, 2016) (FAO, 2016) (FAO, 2016b) (World Bank, 2016). This latest WITS release provides monthly ad-valorem equivalent tariff rates consist of tariff, para-tariff and non-tariff measures. In particular, non-tariff barriers comprises technical measures, such as sanitary or environmental protection measures, as well as others traditionally used as instruments of commercial policy, e.g. quotas, price control, exports restrictions, or contingent trade protective measures, and also other behind-the-border measures, such as competition, trade-related investment measures, government procurement or distribution restrictions (UNCTAD, 2015).
The empirical methodologies of this study, like threshold, fractional integration and panel estimation, allow to separately estimate the confounding factors and clean the estimates of the variables of interest from them. In particular, while the confounders cannot be identified, the coefficients of the variables of interest are consistent and they can be properly identified, conditional on the estimate of the confounders. An additional value added of this work is the possibility to separately estimate the impact of trade policies within the two regimes of behaviour of the domestic price series: in the first regime the trend of domestic prices is increasing, in the second one the trend is decreasing. It highlights that trade policies play a role both in case of increasing and decreasing domestic prices, but their relevance is much larger, if prices are increasing. The policy implication is that trade policies were able to insulate the country from the price shocks on the international markets during the food price spike crisis, when it was mostly needed. By presenting high frequency analyses and techniques able to detect non-linearities in the data generating process we thus provide results which are different from the standard literature (Anderson and Nelgen, 2012b and Anderson and Nelgen, 2012c). Note however that although the impact of these instruments is proved to be relevant in the short term during the food price spike crisis, these policies could not be regarded as long term solutions. The third essay ("Shocks, price transmission and Food consumption with changes in Price risk aversion) looks seriously at the issue of time variant price risk aversion parameters. This is a fundamental question to address in the investigation of both spatial and vertical price transmission in a risky environment. To this end, the essay assesses the behaviour of farm households, which consume and produce crops at the same time, and answers the following key research questions: i) whether the occurrence of exogenous shocks induces a change of price risk aversion over time and then ii) how the time-varying risk aversion parameter affects production and consumption pattern by the farm households. This research employs the risk aversion parameter introduced by (Bellemare et al., 2013), which takes into account not just the household psychological risk attitudes, but also the market imperfections and availability of institutions which facilitate risk-bearing (Mendola, 2007) (de Janvry et al., 1991). Nevertheless, unlike (Bellemare et al., 2013) the essay develops a microfounded empirical model, where the risk aversion parameter is allowed to change over time and not just across households. This empirical model is estimated within a two-stage structural approach. The results of the empirical analysis suggest that the risk aversion parameter is not constant over time and that households can become more risk averse, if they face adverse market conditions in the previous periods. Furthermore, this paper provides evidence that peasants do not aim just at need satisfaction, but they behave in an optimal way and make sure their food security in the medium term. Indeed, they prefer to increase their income instead of directly consuming the harvested crop, because the reduction of dietary energy consumption derived from the giving up the harvest for sale is more than offset by the rise of food purchasing power due to the larger profits obtained
Cooperation and Specialization in German Technology Regions
Full text linkWe investigate cooperative behavior within technology regions in patenting activities. Case studies of local innovation systems point out certain characteristics fruitful to innovation and regional growth but often pronounce historical singularities as major influence. We provide evidence on the same theoretical basis in an econometric study. Based on a theoretical discussion of research cooperation hypotheses are derived which relate a regions technological characteristics to that regions account of research cooperation. Patent data are used to define the technological specialization of German regions and identify cooperations within and between them. Most cooperations tend to take place in modestly specialized regions, indicating a need for similar technological capabilities between partner firms.
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Heterogeneous Behavioral Rules in the Oligopolistic Case
Full text linkIn a static symmetric duopoly the set of behavioral rules is extended to different types of markup pricing. Using an equilibrium concept suggested in Pasche (2001), it is shown that dependend on the markup neither pure Cournot nor pure Bertrand behavior is a behavioral equilibrium profile. Instead, there is a rationale for the usage of simple heuristics. The presence of markup rules leads to Stackelberg outcomes. Furthermore, pure markup behavior is more competitive than in Cournot case but less competitive than in Bertrand case. It is shown, that multiple behavioral equilibria and heterogeneous behavior may arise, where at least one player uses price setting strategies.oligopoly, markup rules, heterogeneity, behavioral equilibrium.
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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