Suchergebnisse

This thesis consists of an introductory chapter and four papers, which relate to environmental policy in the presence of transboundary environmental damage. Paper [I] concerns public policy in a multi-jurisdiction framework with transboundary environmental damage. Each jurisdiction is assumed large in the sense that its government is able to infuence the world-market producer price of the externality-generating good. This gives rise to additional incentives of relevance for national public policy in the non-cooperative Nash equilibrium. With the uncoordinated equilibrium as the reference case, the welfare effects from coordinated changes in public policy variables are analyzed. Paper [II] analyses welfare effects of coordinated changes in environmental and capital taxation in the presence of transboundary environmental externalities and wage bargaining externalities. In the wage bargaining between frms and labor unions, firms use the threat of moving abroad to moderate wage claims, which means that domestic policy infuences wage formation abroad. The specific framework implies welfare effects of policy coordination that correspond to each of the respective international interaction mentioned above. In paper [III], national governments face political pressure from environmental and industrial lobby groups, while pollution taxes are determined in an international negotiation. It is shown that a general increase in the environmental concern and the weight the governments attach to social welfare both tend to increase the pollution tax. However, allowing for asymmetries between the countries means that a general increase in the environmental concern has the potential to reduce the pollution tax. Paper [IV] studies national environmental policies in an economic federation characterized by decentralized leadership. The federal government sets emission targets for each member country, which are implemented by the national governments. Although all national governments have commitment power vis-à-vis the federal government, one of them also has commitment power vis-à-vis the other member countries. This creates incentives to act strategically toward the federal government, as well as toward other members.

This paper evaluates the welfare consequences of the failing firm doctrine in the EU and US merger laws. I combine an oligopoly model with an 'endogenous valuations' auction model. Thereby, I take into account that, in an oligopoly, a firm's willingness to pay for the assets depends on the identity of the alternative buyer. The main result is that the doctrine leads to cost inefficiencies, due to a 'least danger to competition' (LDC) condition, which favors small, and thus inefficient, firms. In particular, the LDC condition implies that small firms can preempt acquisitions that would lead to both higher producer surplus and higher consumer surplus.

Differences in national welfare systems are reflected in rates of labour market participation for different segments of labour across the EU member states. The Nordic countries have of course long stressed 'full employment as a key labour market objective. The public sector is thus actively used to replace non-paid care with formal jobs. Germany and Austria on the other hand, both of which have less developed childcare systems, in practice treat males as the primary household wage earners. Moreover, several Southern member states consider the 'extended family' to have responsibility for those family members in need, which obviously limits the chances of certain segments of the population from entering or indeed re-entering the regular labour market. However, notwithstanding such differences in emphasis, the notion of 'full employment' eventually found its way onto the agenda of the European Union. The member states were moreover unanimous in their belief that this goal would require significant levels of investment in the areas of employment and social policy. The notion of the activation of all segments of labour is accentuated: e.g. the goal requires at least 50 per cent of people aged over 55 years in the EU to be employed in 2010. A new sub-goal was also set for the employment rate of women, at 10 percentage points below the male/female average. Common standards are also to be established which will enable EU wide comparisons of access to childcare and to care of the elderly. The differences in employment frequencies between EU member states remain large, but on the whole they now seem to be converging. On the other hand, regional differences within member states are reported to be on the increase. As such, the transitional characteristics of the labour market are becoming more transparent: Each transition or career - such as from education to work, from care to work, or from unemployment to work, etc - can be temporary and repetitious. Transitions can now of course occur at almost any time of one's 'working life'. There are theories explaining the nature and scope of such 'transitional' behaviour exhibited by the current labour force, stressing, among other things, the individual choice of life-style, life chances or career options in different places. The other side of the coin of course is that rapid economic restructuring increases the risk for non-voluntary changes in employment status. The regions within member states thus perform as more or less efficient 'entrepôts' for transitional labour markets, depending primarily on diversity and the vitality of its industrial structure and on the demographic structure of the labour force. In general, labour markets in Metropolitan regions are expected to permit higher rates of transition, reflecting more individual freedom of choice, than do small and less diverse LLMs. However, performance is inevitably moderated by the welfare system prevalent in each country. In all probability then it is the countries that have an 'individual' rather than a 'household' focus on labour market participation that will be better prepared for high rates of transition. The purpose of this paper is thus to outline a typology of local labour markets across Europe, reflecting the current range of variation in economic and geographic structures as well as in social policy, and to- discuss feasible mixes of policy measures to help achieve the common European goal of full employment, and to help facilitate transition in all types of regions.

AbstractCan part time farming help provide security to rural communities? Or is it mainly an obstacle to the development of a rational farm structure? These types of questions arc often raised now that it is obvious that part time farming is not a transitory phenomenon in Sweden. Every second farm requires less than one man year of labour; 57 per cent of farm families' incomes originate from off farm jobs. Part time farms arc heterogeneous. In this article a classification system is suggested that takes into account both the size of farm in terms of labour requirement and the family's off farm employment. Surveys in different Swedish regions show that the importance of part time farming in the production system is far less than the number of farms implies. Model simulations show that the number of farmers occupying full time off farm jobs is likely to increase in the future. Even in peripheral regions part time farming represents an opportunity for a new generation to take over small farms. Though part time farming is shown to contribute little to local employment, it plays a role in rural‐urban economic integration. Least conflict between regional and food policy goals seems to arise in peripheral rural areas, where part timers generally make ‐ or could make ‐ intensive use of land resources to the benefit of local employment, while additions to food surpluses could be neglected.ResumeL'agriculture à temps partiel peut‐elle aider à assurer l'avenir des communautés rurales? Ou bien est‐elle un obstacle au développement d'une agriculture organisée rationnellemcnt? Ces questions se poscnt souvent, maintenant qu'il apparaît clairement que l'agriculture à temps partiel n'cst pas, en Suède, un phénomène transitoire. Les exploitations de ce type exigent moms d'un homme/année de travail, et 57% des revenus de ccs families viennent d'un travail extra‐agricole Mais ccs exploitations son très hétérogènes: l'anicle propose un système de classement en fonction de la dimension de l'exploitation, celle‐ci étant définie par la quantité de travail tequis, et en fonction du travail extra‐agricole.Les enquêtes dans diverses régions suédoises confirment que l'importance de l'agriculturc à temps partiel est bien moindrc en termes de production qu'en termes de nombre d'ex‐ploitations. Des modeles de simulation indiquent que le nombre d'agriculteurs occupant un poste de travail extra agricole à temps plcin va probablement s'accroître. Dans les régions périphériques aussi, l'agriculture à temps partiel offre une chance aux jcunes de reprendre de petites exploitations. Même si elle contribue peu à l'emploi local, elle joue un rôle dans l'intégration économique des villcs et des campagnes: il y a moins de conflit entre la politique alimentaire et la politique régionale dans les régions périphériques qui sont celles oü les agricultcurs à temps partiel ont ou pourraient avoir des pratiques d'usage intensif du sol au profit de l'emploi local, tandis que les apports de produits alimentaires sont négligeables.KurzfassungKann Nebenerwerbslandwirtschaft dazu beitragen, ländlichen Gemeinden Sicherheit zu gewähren? Oder ist sie in erster Lime ein Hindernis für die Entwicklung einer rationellen Agrarstruktur? Dicsc Art von Fragcn wird jetzt oft gestellt, wo offensichtlich ist, daβ Nebenerwerbslandwirtschaft kein Übergangsphänomen in Schweden ist. Jeder zweite Betrieb erfordert weniger als cine Vollarbeitskraft; 57% des Einkommens der landwirtschaftlichen Familien stammt aus auβerbetrieblichen Tätigkciten. Ncbcnerwerbsbe‐triebe sind heterogen. In diesem Artikel wird ein Klassifikationsschema vorgeschlagen, das sowohl die Gröβc des Bctriebes, ausgedrückt durch den Arbeitsbedarf, wie auch die auβerbctriebliche Erwerbstätigkeit der Familie berücksichtigt. Erhebungen in verschiedenen schwedischen Regionen zeigen, daβ die Bcdcutung der Nebenerwerbslandwirtschaft für die Agrarproduktion wesentlich geringer ist als die Zahl der Betriebe vermuten läβt. Modellsimulationen zeigen, daβ die Zahl der Betriebsleiter, die einen auβerlandwirtschaftlichen Hauptberuf innehaben, in Zukunft vermutlich ansteigen wird. Sogar in peripheren Regionen bietet Nebenerwerbslandwirtschaft für die nachwachsende Generation eine Möglichkeit zur Übernahmc klcinerer Betriebe. Obwohl gezeigt wird, daβ Nebenerwerbslandwirtschaft wenig zur Beschäftigung in den Dörfern beiträgt, spielt sie doch eine Rolle für die ökonomischen Intcgrationen von Stadt und Land. Am wenigsten scheinen Konflikte zwischen regional‐ und ernährungspolitischen Ziele in peripheren ländlichen Gebieten zu entstehen, wo Nebenerwerbslandwirte generell das verfügbare Land zur Verbesserung der Beschäftigungssituation intensiv nutzen ‐ oder nutzen könnten, weil die Beiträge zur Vergröβerung der Nahrungsmittelüberschüsse vernachlässigt werden können.

Sweden is a decentralised country where local managers, who are key actors in water management, often deal with relatively difficult prioritisations, tradeoffs and conflicting goals. Many of these challenges relate to the effective implementation of the European Union Water Framework Directive. As an input to these challenges, the present paper elicits and analyses local and semi-local citizens' preferences for water quality attributes related to the European Water Framework directive in a river basin located in southeast of Sweden. Based on a choice experiment tailored to the case study area, the paper analyses preferences for selected attributes based on real criteria for ecological water status in the implementation of the directive. The target population lives in the municipalities through which the river passes, or in municipalities neighbouring those. Despite this spatial proximity to the river, the analysis reveals limited knowledge and interest in matters related to the environmental quality of the river. There is no evidence that preferences differ between respondents with regard to experience or knowledge about the water basin, nor with regard to recreational habits in the area. These results offer input to local water management by providing information about preferences for explicit water quality attributes.

This book analyses the spatial consequences of current transformation of the industrial structure and of public intervention in Sweden. The analysis is based on a number of empirical studies, not only in Sweden but for comparative reasons also in the state of North Carolina in the US, i.e. representing an environment with a more farreaching influence of market forces. The results indicate the development of a more fragmented and less predictable pattern of problems and options in Swedish regions. Especially the intermediate socio-economic regions - between the metropolitan agglomerations and the traditional peripheral rural areas - are highlighted and hypothesized to include certain comparative advantages in the new context

The first years of the 90s have witnessed thorough political and economic changes in northern Europe. The long period of strong political separation between east and west and the less strong economic separation between the northern and southern sides of the Baltic Sea seemed to be replaced by far-reaching integration. There is no doubt that further integration will have additional impacts on the regional patterns in northern Europe. The amplitude and composition of these changes are difficult to project. In this volume a number of scholars in regional science and related disciplines (geography, economics, environmental and political sciences, planning) have brought together important material on the current processes that reshapes northern Europe. Visions andstrategies on local, national and supranational levels are penetrated in depth. A "mosaic" vision of the regional development pattern emerges highlighting the importance of cooperative and competitive strategies affecting the local conditions of European regions