infonet-economy

I define and classify moral (or altruistic) behaviour and discuss the necessity of moral behaviour for the functioning of a market economic and a democratic political order. I also evaluate claims that moral behaviour is unnecessary. Moral behaviour can only be stable if certain conditions hold, including most importantly that moral requirements for citizens not be too high; only a...

Mein Göttibub wünschte sich vor einigen Jahren eine MP3-Player. Im Laden liessen wir uns die damals noch sehr teuren Musik-Abspielgeräte zeigen. Beim Anblick eines Modells der höchsten Preisklasse mit grösserem Speicherplatz begannen die Augen des Knaben, der 12-jährigen Unschuld aus den Bergen, zu leuchten. Wofür er denn so viel Speicher brauche, fragte ich. Ohne zu zögern und zur...

An affine yield curve model is estimated on daily Swiss data 2002-2009. The market price of risk is modelled in terms of proxies for uncertainty, which are estimated from interest rate options. The estimated model generates innovations in the 3-month rate that are similar to external evidence of monetary policy surprises - as well as term premia that are consistent with survey data....

Face processing can be modified by bottom-up and top-down influences, but it is unknown how these processes interact in patients with face-recognition impairments (prosopagnosia). We investigated a prosopagnosic with lesions in right occipital and left fusiform cortex but whose right fusiform gyrus is intact and still activated during face-processing tasks. P.S., a patient with a...

We examine how natural resource location, rent sharing and fighting capacities of different groups matter for ethnic conflict. A new type of bargaining failure due to multiple types of potential conflicts (and hence multiple threat points) is identified. The theory predicts conflict to be more likely when the geographical distribution of natural resources is uneven and when a...

This study seeks to provide evidence for deciding whether or not a pharmaceutical innovation should be included in the benefit list of social health insurance. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted in Germany to measure preferences for modern insulin therapy. Of the 1,100 individuals interviewed in 2007, 200 suffered from type 1 diabetes, 150 from insulin-treated type 2...

Are national or multinational firms better lobbyists? This paper analyzes the extent of national environmental regulation when policy is determined in a lobbying game between a government and firm. We compare the resulting regulation levels for national and multinational firms. We identify three countervailing forces, the easier-to-shut-down effect, the easier-to-curb-exports effect...