Decentralized Leadership

This paper studies the efficiency of decentralized leadership in federations where selfish regional governments provide regional and federal public goods and the benevolent central government implements interregional earmarked and income transfers. Without residential mobility, unlimited decentralized leadership is efficient only if the center implements redistributive interregional income and earmarked transfers to equate consumption of private and regional public goods across regions. Such policies perfectly align the incentives of the selfish regional governments. With imperfect residential mobility, decentralized leadership is efficient if the center adopts redistributive interregional income and earmarked policies and there is a common labor market in the federation

Det önskvärda barnet. Fostran uttryckt i vardagliga kommunikationshandlingar mellan lärare och barn i förskolan

Abstract The aim of this research is to acquire knowledge about fostering young children, as expressed in everyday interactions between teachers and children in Swedish preschools. The three empirical studies in this doctoral thesis investigated partly specific democratic values such as participation and influence and partly the values that teachers explicitly or implicitly encourage and how these values are communicated to children. The thesis takes a critical approach in order to also acquire knowledge about important fostering aspects that can move hierarchal power structures towards a fostering of values characterized by intersubjectivity. In order to understand the interactions, the concepts of communicative and strategic action (Habermas, 1984) are used, as well as strong and weak classification and framing (Bernstein, 2000). Preschool fostering is also analyzed from a double perspective, with a starting-point in Habermas’ (1984, 1995a) concepts of the system and the life-world. The fieldwork took place with three different groups of toddlers in Swedish preschools. Forty-six children (aged 1 to 3 years) participated, as well as their ten teachers. The data consisted of videotaped observations of teacher and child interactions. The first study investigated how a toddler’s participation can be understood in two kinds of educational activities where the degree of teacher control differs. The results showed how strong classification and framing risk restricting children’s participation and how a weak classification and framing can promote children’s opportunities to participate on their own terms. Important issues for children’s participation were found to be a participant teacher who creates meaningful contexts, where teacher control is about being emotionally present, supportive and responsive. The purpose of the second study was to investigate how very young children can exert an influence in circle-time situations in relation to teacher control. The results showed that the children do, in fact, make choices, mostly based on several fixed alternatives, and that they do take the initiative, sometimes to express an opinion or a right, sometimes to express what they want to do in circle time. It was also found that the influence young children are able to exert varies with the control the teacher exercises. It is evident that strong teacher control is maintained in different ways and that strong control does not necessarily limit children’s influence; it depends on the nature of the control. Children’s influence increases when the teacher’s control over the what and how aspects of communications is weak, and is characterized by closeness to the child’s life-world and a communicative approach. The third study examined the values that teachers explicitly or implicitly encourage and how these values are communicated to children. The analyses resulted in ten specific values embedded in value dimensions of discipline, caring and democracy. These, in turn, can be divided into different social orientations – both collective and individualistic. The values are communicated differently and the what aspect of the communication (the value) is interrelated with the how aspect of the communication; how teachers communicate influences and sometimes changes the communicated value. In order to change power structures in teacher and child interactions, three aspects of importance have been identified: teachers’ closeness to the child’s perspective, their emotional presence and playfulness. Theoretically, the aspects are within the framework of communicative action and contribute to the understanding of what the theory might mean in communication with the youngest children in the educational system

Self-Enforcing Agreements under Unequal Nationally Determined Contributions

For a large global economy with normal goods, and an unequal world income distribution, we consider the endogenous formation and stability of an international environmental agreement (IEA) under nationally determined contributions (NDCs). Nations share green R&D efforts and enjoy R&D spillovers if they join an IEA. Nonmembers do not enjoy R&D spillovers. We show that the Grand Coalition is stable under NDCs if all nations are active carbon abatement and R&D contributors. If some nations are inactive, because they lack sufficient income to provide carbon abatement and R&D, the stable coalition under NDCs is the coalition of all active (wealthier) nations

Abatement Innovation in a Cournot Oligopoly: Emission versus Output Tax Incentives

This study compares energy and emission taxes used to control pollution and provide incentives for the adoption of an advanced abatement technology in a Cournot oligopoly. We examine multistage games where the government may intervene in order to maximize social welfare by setting an environmental tax rate. When the government intervenes, it levies either an energy tax or an emission tax. We show that the effectiveness of either type of tax depends on the shape of the multiproduct technology. In the absence of economies of scope in the production of energy and abatement, the energy tax reduces pollution but is ineffective in promoting technological change. The emission tax reduces pollution and is effective in promoting technological change for sufficiently small fixed costs of adoption. In the presence of economies of scope, firms may adopt the efficient technology even in the absence of taxation. When taxation is necessary for innovation, both types of taxes are effective. However, the energy tax outperforms the emission tax in terms of innovation incentives

Optimal Timing in Rotten Kid Families

In a family context with endogenous timing, multiple public goods and alternative parental instruments, we show that the optimal timing for the sequential-action game played by rotten kids and a parent depends crucially on whether the kids are homogeneous or heterogeneous. For homogeneous kids, the rotten kid theorem holds irrespective of the parental policy instrument, implying that it is optimal to let the kids to be action leaders. If the kids are heterogeneous, however, parental leadership yields a first best outcome and, hence, it is optimal whenever the kids are economically dependent and agree on the tradeoff between public goods

Dry conditions disrupt terrestrial-aquatic linkages in northern catchments.

Aquatic ecosystems depend on terrestrial organic matter (tOM) to regulate many functions, such as food web production and water quality, but an increasing frequency and intensity of drought across northern ecosystems is threatening to disrupt this important connection. Dry conditions reduce tOM export and can also oxidize wetland soils and release stored contaminants into stream flow after rainfall. Here, we test whether these disruptions to terrestrial-aquatic linkages occur during mild summer drought and whether this affects biota across 43 littoral zone sites in 11 lakes. We use copper (Cu) and nickel (Ni) as representative contaminants, and measure abundances of Hyalella azteca, a widespread indicator of ecosystem condition and food web production. We found that tOM concentrations were reduced but correlations with organic soils (wetlands and riparian forests) persisted during mild drought and were sufficient to suppress labile Cu concentrations. Wetlands, however, also became a source of labile Ni to littoral zones, which was linked to reduced abundances of the amphipod H. azteca, on average by up to 70 times across the range of observed Ni concentrations. This reveals a duality in the functional linkage of organic soils to aquatic ecosystems whereby they can help buffer the effects of hydrologic disconnection between catchments and lakes but at the cost of biogeochemical changes that release stored contaminants. As evidence of the toxicity of trace contaminant concentrations and their global dispersion grows, sustaining links among forests, organic soils and aquatic ecosystems in a changing climate will become increasingly important.Natural Environment Research Council (Grant ID: NE/L006561/1)This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Wiley via https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.1336