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CITIES: Car Industry, Road Transport and an international Emission Trading Scheme. Policy options
(2010)
Consumer Emissions
(2010)
This paper incorporates tax morale into the Allingham and Sandmo (1972) model of income tax evasion. Tax morale is modeled as a social norm for tax compliance. The strength of the norm is shaped endogenously, depending on the share of evaders in the society. Taxpayers act conditionally cooperative as their evasion depends on the others' compliance. We characterize the equilibrium which accounts for this interdependence and study the implications for tax and enforcement policies. The analysis is extended to the case of a society consisting of heterogenous communities. Individual evasion decisions are then embedded in a complex social structure and behavior is influenced by the norm compliance among morale reference groups. Within this framework, we highlight the role of belief management as an alternative policy tool.
Reserve Prices as Reference Points : Evidence from Auctions for Football Players at Hattrick.org
(2010)
We study the impact of sellers’ reserve prices on transfer prices in online auctions of virtual football players at Hattrick.org. We introduce an empirical model that distinguishes between two separate effects from public reserve prices: (1) a mechanical effect, which is driven by the design of the English auction and (2) a psychological reference-dependence effect through reserve prices serving as reference points. The psychological effect has recently been introduced in behavioral models of situations where agents are uncertain about their own willingness-to-pay, while the mechanical effect is well captured by standard auction theory. Controlling for censoring when players are not sold, both effects are observed. Once we account for the potential endogeneity of reserve prices, however, we do not find evidence for reference dependence in Hattrick auctions.
The decision to establish direct elections to the European Parliament was intended by many to establish a direct link between the individual citizen and decision making at the European level. Elections were meant to help to establish a common identity among the peoples of Europe, to legitimise policy through the normal electoral processes and provide a public space within which Europeans could exert a more direct control over their collective future. Critics disagreed, arguing that direct elections to the European Parliament would further undermine the sovereignty of member states, and may not deliver on the promise that so many were making on behalf of that process. In particular, some wondered whether elections alone could mobilise European publics to take a much greater interest in European matters, with the possibility of European elections being contested simply on national matters. Evaluating these divergent views, the subject of this article is to review the literature on direct elections to the European Parliament in the context of the role these elections play in governance of the European Union. The seminal work by Reif and Schmitt serves as the starting point of our review. These authors were the first to discuss elections to the European Parliament as second-order national elections. Results of second-order elections are influenced not only by second-order factors, but also by the situation in the first-order arena at the time of the second-order election. In the 30 years and six more sets of European Parliament elections since the publication of their work, the concept has become the dominant one in any academic discussion of European elections. In this article we review that work in order to assess the continuing value of the second-order national election concept today, and to consider some of the more fruitful areas for research which might build on the advance made by Reif and Schmitt. While the concept has proven useful in studies of a range of elections beyond just those for the European Parliament, including those for regional and local assemblies as well as referendums, this review will concentrate solely on EP elections. Concluding that Reif and Schmitt’s characterisation remains broadly valid today, the article allows that while this does not mean there is necessarily a democratic deficit within the EU, there may be changes that could be made to encourage a more effective electoral process.
Negotiated “policy-arrangements” and their institutionalization are at the heart of global governance. This chapter focuses on the European Union (EU) as one particular arena that produces binding decisions beyond the nation state. For scholars of global governance, the EU constitutes an interesting but idiosyncratic case: the EU’s system of decision-making and enforcement is highly institutionalized; the EU covers a broad policy-remit, touching upon core areas of national sovereignty such as monetary policy or border control; and the EU is exceptionally intrusive and effective, producing binding laws that are widely complied with in its member states. At the same time, the nature of supranational governance – famously described as “less than a federation, more than a regime” (Wallace 1983) – remains open and undefined. For scholars of argumentation, deliberation and persuasion, the European Union is an equally fruitful object of study: the EU’s deliberative decision-style is used to explain compliance with European law (Neyer 2004); the EU is conceptualized as an actor that projects “normative” rather than military power (Manners 2002) and the supranational decision-process serves as testing ground for theories of deliberation (Eriksen and Fossum 2000; Joerges and Neyer 1997a, 1997b), argumentation (Naurin 2010), problem-solving (Elgström and Jönsson 2000), rhetorical action (Schimmelfennig 2001) and judgment (Kornprobst 2008).
How does trade liberalization that raises a country’s import competition affect the innovative activity of its firms? We exploit the strong growth of Chinese exports resulting from China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 as a competitive shock to, specifically, Mexican manufacturing firms. Innovation is captured through information on the adoption of specific production techniques such as just in time inventory methods, quality control, and job rotation. Our results indicate that China’s rise in global trade did not affect by much Mexico’s rate of innovation, which contrasts with the substantial gains that others have found in the case of bilateral liberalization. At the same time, there is a striking heterogeneity in the responses across firms: productive firms innovate more while less productive firms innovate less. This leads to positive selection in that initial differences in firm performance are sharpened by the advent of new competition. We discuss the implications of these findings for theories of trade and innovation.
In this article, we study how firm heterogeneity influences productivity catching up using plant-level data from Mexico. The article addresses three issues: first, it evaluates the process of convergence towards the global versus the local technological frontier in a middle-income country such as Mexico. Second, it systematically evaluates the role of technological efforts in determining the speed of convergence towards each of these technological frontiers. Third, it assesses the role of openness and trade integration in determining the speed of convergence and presents a horse race between integration and technological effort in explaining the determinants of heterogeneity in influencing the process of convergence toward both the domestic and the global technological frontier. Our results suggest that building firm-level technological capabilities is important for catching up with the global frontier. A policy focused on trade alone will facilitate convergence towards the best technological practices available locally, but it will fall short of encouraging convergence with the global frontier.
2010 feiert Hartz IV seinen fünften Geburtstag. Die fast täglichen Debatten zeigen, dass das "Herzstück" der Agenda 2010 die Bundesrepublik grundlegender verändert hat als jede andere Reform der letzten Jahrzehnte. Basierend auf Gesprächen mit damaligen Akteuren untersuchen Anke Hassel und Christof Schiller die Hintergründe der Hartz-Reformen: Wer waren die zentralen Entscheidungsträger? Wurde der Reformstau überwunden und ist das deutsche Regierungssystem heute besser in der Lage, auf die derzeitigen Herausforderungen zu reagieren? Dieses Buch liefert erstmals eine lückenlose Analyse der Entscheidungsprozesse, die zu Hartz IV geführt haben, und gibt einen Ausblick auf die aktuellen Herausforderungen der Arbeitsmarktpolitik. Die Autoren räumen mit gängigen Vorurteilen über die rot-grünen Reformen auf und zeichnen ein kenntnisreiches Bild der wirtschaftlichen und politischen Zusammenhänge in der deutschen Politik. Sie kommen zu dem Schluss, dass die Hartz-IV-Reform, obgleich extrem, durchaus typisch für Reformpolitik in Deutschland ist und dass durch das Zusammenspiel von Föderalismus, Parteienwettbewerb und Sozialpartnern auch in Zukunft ähnliche Maßnahmen zu erwarten sind.
In the study of risk regulation, grid‐group cultural theory has attracted considerable interest. There has, however, been a lack of a systematic interest in its claims and in methodological issues. In this article, we present five claims that are drawn from cultural theory and assess them in the light of failure in meat inspections in Germany. These claims are assessed through the analysis of argumentation as recorded in newspapers. In the light of its empirical findings, this article argues that the claims and methodology employed offer a promising avenue for further work to investigate the usefulness of this particular theoretical approach.
Recent research on international trade focuses on firm‐product‐level heterogeneity and the role of uncertainty in shaping international trade. This article contributes to the literature by examining product‐level dynamics within firms in the context of Mexican trade integration under NAFTA. The data show intense product churning within firms and confirm the existence of within‐firm product heterogeneity. The data indicate that new exporters enter foreign markets with a small number of varieties, most of which were previously sold at home, and with a small export small volume. The data also suggest that export discoveries are relatively rare and are imitated within a short period of time.