Mitigation factors

The debate over the costs of GHG emission reduction has become more com-plex recently as disagreements over the existence of economic and environ-mental double dividents have been added to discussions over the existence of a negative cost potential. We argue that basic assumptions about economic effi-ciency, the (sub-)optimality of the baseline and the rate of technical change are more important than model structure, and we underline the importance of the timing of decisions for determining the costs. Moreover the use of a single baseline ‘no policy' scenario and several policy intervention scenarios may be fundamentally misleading in the longer term simply because the very idea of a business as usual scenario is deeply problematic. Ultimately the debate turns on political judgments about the desirability of alternative development paths. Copright© 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.Greenhouse gas emissions;Costs of GHG reduction; Mitigation options

Classification of Empirical Work on Sales Promotion: A Synthesis for Managerial Decision Making

Sales Promotion activities have gained strategic focus as markets are getting complex and competitive. Key managerial concerns in this area are budget allocation across elements of promotions as well as trade vis. consumer promotion, how to design individual sales promotion techniques and a calendar in face of competitive promotions, how to manage them and evaluate the short-term and long-term impact of the same. The objective of this paper is to present, through Meta-analysis, an overview of recent contributions appearing in scholastic journals relevant to the field of Sales Promotion, to classify them into different classificatory framework, report key findings, highlight the managerial implications and raise issues. The database used is the EBSCO host available on VSLLAN (Library)- Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad). The selection procedure consisted of peer-reviewed scholarly contributions for recent five year period. Out of more than 700 articles 64 article were selected which were analyzed for classifying them into • Perspective addressed: Manufacturer, retailer or consumer. • Market [country where the research was undertaken] • Type of promotion activity addressed - coupon, contest, price cut etc. • Management function addressed: planning, implementation, control [evaluation] • It was found that majority of the articles addressed manufacturers perspectives ; almost all studies were done in developed countries ; coupon as a consumer promotion tool was widely researched; and more than half of the articles were addressing planning related issues. Finally attempt has been made to synthesize managerial implications of the studies under broad topic areas for guidelines for managers.

Two Sides of the Same Coin? Analysis of the Web‐based Social Media with Regard to the Image of the Agri‐food Sector in Germany

The agri food industry has improved its productivity, especially in developed countries, in an unparalleled way. This development has, however, estranged the agrifood sector in parts from society over the years. Never before has food been as safe and secure, but simultaneously, society has become increasingly critical towards agricultural and food related issues.In the following, this twosided development between society and agribusiness (the existence of two sides of the same coin) will be analyzed using framing theory, which is based on media research that complex issues are simplified and reduced in order to improve understanding. An innovative technique was applied, analyzing the webbased social media in Germany. 50,931 web posts were collected in German web discussion forums and weblogs covering 21 issues identified as relevant in the public discourse with regard to the agrifood sector. All posts were analyzed with quantitative semantic software to characterize the respective framing. The results show that all contentious issues are mainly framed in a twosided way. The modern productivity driven agrifood industry is judged as a negative development, and trends returning towards a more natural food production are seen as positive

Two Sides of the Same Coin? Analysis of the Web-Based Social Media with Regard to the Image of the Agri-Food Sector in Germany

 Never before has food been as safe and secure as it is today, but simultaneously, society has become increasingly critical towards agricultural and food related issues. This two-sided development between society and agribusiness will be analyzed using Framing Theory. A quantitative semantic analysis was applied to evaluate the web-based social media in Germany. 50,931 web posts were collected covering 21 issues identified as relevant for the agri-food sector. The results show that all contentious issues are mainly framed in a two-sided way. The modern productivity-driven industry is judged as a negative development, trends returning to a more natural food production are seen as positive

Lessons learned from evaluating eight password nudges in the wild

Background. The tension between security and convenience, when creating passwords, is well established. It is a tension that often leads users to create poor passwords. For security designers, three mitigation strategies exist: issuing passwords, mandating minimum strength levels or encouraging better passwords. The first strategy prompts recording, the second reuse, but the third merits further investigation. It seemed promising to explore whether users could be subtly nudged towards stronger passwords.Aim. The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of visual nudges on self-chosen password length and/or strength.Method. A university application, enabling students to check course dates and review grades, was used to support two consecutive empirical studies over the course of two academic years. In total, 497 and 776 participants, respectively, were randomly assigned either to a control or an experimental group. Whereas the control group received no intervention, the experimental groups were presented with different visual nudges on the registration page of the web application whenever passwords were created. The experimental groups’ password strengths and lengths were then compared that of the control group.Results. No impact of the visual nudges could be detected, neither in terms of password strength nor length. The ordinal score metric used to calculate password strength led to a decrease in variance and test power, so that the inability to detect an effect size does not definitively indicate that such an effect does not exist.Conclusion. We cannot conclude that the nudges had no effect on password strength. It might well be that an actual effect was not detected due to the experimental design choices. Another possible explanation for our result is that password choice is influenced by the user’s task, cognitive budget, goals and pre-existing routines. A simple visual nudge might not have the power to overcome these forces. Our lessons learned therefore recommend the use of a richer password strength quantification measure, and the acknowledgement of the user’s context, in future studies

Behavioral Economics and the Economics of Regulation

Behavioural economics draws upon fieldwork, experiments and research in disciplines such as psychology for building blocks to construct economic analysis that is more descriptively realistic and both augments and qualifies traditional economics as a tool for designing policy. Though behavioural economics has attracted much attention and respectability in the past decade or so, its roots date back to work undertaken in Europe a century ago and in the US in the middle of the twentieth century. Whereas economists traditionally have seen choice as an optimising activity subject to given preferences and a well-defined budget constraint, behavioural economics sees everyday life as a process in which humans with limited cognitive capacity try to cope with both information overload and the absence of relevant information and knowledge by evolving targets for what seems feasible and systems of rules for trying to find ways of meeting these targets. Some decision rules may be fast and frugal means of arriving at choices that do not result in needlessly poor attainments. However, much of what is known about how people actually behave implies that many people could be doing a lot better for themselves in many situations if only they were aware of the limitations of their ways of coping with the world and were motivated to find and apply improved decision rules. Poor search strategies limit the competitive pressures faced by firms and hence may have longer-term impacts on welfare via reduced productivity growth or innovation. However, in designing policies to promote better search by consumers one must remember that many consumers are also workers: higher productivity and better or cheaper goods may sometimes come at the cost of people having to work harder. To the extent that firms are aware of shortcomings of consumers' decision-making processes, they may be in a position to apply this knowledge to manipulate choices, for example by how they frame information that is presented to consumers. Tendencies for consumers to lack self-control and to fail to reflect on the longer-term implications of their choices can very easily result in poor choices when credit is easily available. Regulatory policies could do more to promote careful reflection by consumer by erecting hurdles to delay choice, as well as by measures to make it easier for consumers to make comparisons and see the financial implications of particular choices. In designing such policies there is scope for integrating them with policies aimed at the promotion of self-funded retirement and environmental wellbeing. The paper ends with detailed case study discussions of problems of choice in the markets for building renovation services and financial services. In the former, problems of finding good value for money are increased by the one-off nature of much of the work and by combination of shortages of trades-people relative to demand and large numbers of potential suppliers to approach for quotations. The environment is also conducive to consumers ending up overcapitalising in their renovations. In the market for financial services, the balance of risk-taking with property speculation and suchlike is stacked in favour of the loan providers, whilst the chances of inexperienced speculators getting into difficulties are enhanced because they are prone to use decision rules they have picked up from others belatedly and in simplified form. The implications of borrowing and superannuation choices should be made much more transparent to consumers, along with the futility of trying to beat the market rather than investing in market index funds

Situating care in mainstream health economics: an ethical dilemma?

Standard health economics concentrates on the provision of care by medical professionals. Yet ‘care’ receives scant analysis; it is portrayed as a spillover effect or externality in the form of interdependent utility functions. In this context care can only be conceived as either acts of altruism or as social capital. Both conceptions are subject to considerable problems stemming from mainstream health economics’ reliance on a reductionist social model built around instrumental rationality and consequentialism. Subsequently, this implies a disregard for moral rules and duties and the compassionate aspects of behaviour. Care as an externality is a second-order concern relative to self-interested utility maximization, and is therefore crowded out by the parameters of the standard model. We outline an alternative relational approach to conceptualising care based on the social embeddedness of the individual that emphasises the ethical properties of care. The deontological dimension of care suggests that standard health economics is likely to undervalue the importance of care and caring in medicine

Regulation for Conservatives: Behavioral Economics and the Case for "Asymmetric Paternalism"

Regulation by the state can take a variety of forms. Some regulations are aimed entirely at redistribution, such as when we tax the rich and give to the poor. Other regulations seek to counteract externalities by restricting behavior in a way that imposes harm on an individual basis but yields net societal benefits. A good example is taxation to fund public goods such as roads. In such situations, an individual would be better off if she alone were exempt from the tax; she benefits when everyone (including herself) must pay the tax