Join the Club - On the Attractiveness of Golf Club Membership

This paper concerns the attractiveness for member ship in Swedish golf clubs. A representative voter model is derived and the attractiveness for member ship in golf clubs estimated using a unique data set on qualities of the golf course, the quality of neighboring courses and characteristics regarding the region where the golf club is located. Characteristics and composition of population within the municipality where the club is located have a significant impact on the attractiveness of the club. The attractiveness increases as the share of number of junior members decrease. Golf is found to be a substitute to publicly financed goods. Keywords: spatial econometrics, sports, utility maximization JEL classification: D71, L83, R12

Retailer Choice and Loyalty Schemes - Evidence from Sweden

From economic theory, it is known that consumer loyalty schemes can have lock-in effects resulting in entry barriers and higher prices. This paper concerns consumer loyalty schemes where the main issue is to test the hypothesis that loyalty scheme membership affects the choice of food retailer. This choice is modeled as a random utility maximization problem estimated with maximum likelihood. Based on a data set covering 1,551 Swedish households, we find evidence supporting this hypothesis. Further, according to the results, store characteristics and geographical distance matter for the choice of retailer while household characteristics are not found to have a significant effect.Bonus card; Conditional logit; Consumer choice; Distance; Food retailer; Loyalty scheme

Regional growth patterns in Sweden - a search for hot spots

This paper gives an exploratory description of the regional growth pattern in Sweden during the period 1981-1999. The main issue is to test the hypothesis that municipalities with higher average income growth and net migration rates are more clustered that could be caused by pure chance. The paper is purely descriptive and we make use of statistical tests for spatial clustering as well as maps to identify what we reefer to as ''regional hot spots''. Our results are however very sensitive for the specification of the weights matrix.

Using Spatial Econometrics to Analyze Local Growth in Sweden

This paper investigates factors that determine the average income growth and net migration rates in Swedish municipalities during the period 1981 to 1999. The main issue is to test the hypothesis that, conditional on a set of other possible determinants of regional growth, the growth rate in one municipality is affected by the growth rates in its neighboring municipalities. We also test the hypothesis of conditional convergence, that is, the hypothesis that initially 'poorer' regions tend to grow faster than initially 'richer' regions conditional on the other explanatory variables in the model. We find a positive correlation between net migration rates in neighboring municipalities, which suggests that net migration tend to 'spill over' to neighboring municipalities. When it comes to average income growth, our results indicate spatial dependence in the error terms during the 1980's. Such dependence is important in the sense that it indicates that shocks into the system not only affect the municipality where the shock has its origin but spread across the country. In addition, and in contrast to previous empirical findings based on Swedish data, we do not find any clear evidence in favour of the hypothesis of conditional convergence. Instead, our results predict conditional divergence between municipalities located in the Stockholm region throughout the period and also for municipalities outside the Stockholm region during the 1990's.

Golf courses and wetland fauna

Golf courses are often considered to be chemical-intensive ecosystems with negative impacts on fauna. Here we provide evidence that golf courses can contribute to the support and conservation of wetland fauna, i.e., amphibians and macroinvertebrates. Comparisons of amphibian occurrence, diversity of macroinvetebrates, and occurrence of species of conservation concern were made between permanent freshwater ponds surveyed on golf courses around Sweden's capital city, Stockholm, and off-course ponds in nature-protected areas and residential parklands. A total of 71 macroinvertebrate species were recorded in the field study, with no significant difference between golf course ponds and off-course ponds at the species, genus, or family levels. A within-group similarities test showed that golf course ponds have a more homogenous species composition than ponds in nature-protected areas and ponds in residential parkland. Within the macroinvertebrate group, a total of 11 species of odonates were identified, with no difference detected between the categories of ponds, nor any spatial autocorrelation. Significant differences were found between pond categories in the occurrence of five species of amphibians, although anuran occurrence did not differ between ponds. The great crested newt (Triturus cristatus) was significantly associated with golf course ponds, but the smooth newt (Triturus vulgaris) was not. We found no evidence of any correlation between pond size and occurrence of amphibians. Among the taxa of conservation concern included in the sample, all amphibians are nationally protected in Sweden, with the internationally threatened T. cristatus more frequently found in golf course ponds. Among macroinveterbrates of conservation status, the large white-faced darter dragonfly (Leucorrhinia pectoralis) was only detected in golf course ponds, and Tricholeiochiton fagesi (Trichoptera) was only found in one off-course pond. GIS results revealed that golf courses provide over a quarter of all available permanent, freshwater ponds in central greater Stockholm. We assert that golf courses have the potential to contribute to wetland fauna support, particularly in urban settings where they may significantly contribute to wetland creation. We propose a greater involvement of ecologists in the design of golf courses to further bolster this potential

Getting the Haves to Come out Behind: Fixing the Distributive Injustices of American Health Care

Hyman criticizes an article by Havighurst and Richman regarding the distributive injustices of US health care. Hyman also offers a guide for implementing policy reforms based on the analysis by Havighurst and Richman

Cycles of Innovation and Alignment in Digital Transformation: Investigating the Dynamics of Resource Recombination in a Construction Firm

The generative nature of digital technology implies that during digital transformation (DT), organizations traverse multiple cycles of innovation and resource alignment. Still, extant research mainly chronicles DT as linear and contained phenomenon occurring in response to a dramatic environmental change event. How new resources align with previous ones into novel combinations, the work that supports continuous organizational capability building, and the temporal relationships between cycles of change in DT has received scant attention. Drawing on dynamic capability theory, we analyze innovation and resource alignment cycles driving DT at Lundqvist Trävaru AB, a small Swedish construction firm. Our study has at least two contributions. First, the analysis reveals three types of dynamic capabilities that shape resource generation and alignment in DT. Second, we provide a process model outlining the innovation and alignment cycles that fuel DT as they scale in the focal firm

Metan från förgasning av biomassa, (En potentialstudie i Biogas Öst-regionen)

Syftet med denna studie har varit att utreda potentialen för framställning av metan genom förgasningav biomassa i Biogas Öst-regionen. Potentialen uppskattas utifrån tekniska, ekonomiska ochråvarurelaterade begränsningar. Beräkningar för utbyten av metan från förgasning av biomassa baseras påtidigare studier inom området. Potentiell tillgång till råvara inom respektive län har beräknats utifrånskogstillväxt, uttag av stubbar och GROT, utökning av odlingsarealer samt behandlade mängder brännbartavfall.Förgasningstekniken möjliggör ett effektivt utnyttjande av bioenergi genom höga utbyten av drivmedelsamt integreringsmöjligheter med fjärrvärmenät. Förgasning av biomassa för produktion av biometan är enung teknik och har ännu inte demonstrerats i kommersiell skala. Kunskap och erfarenheter omförgasningstekniken specifikt är goda då förgasning har utnyttjats för ett flertal ändamål genom åren.Huvudutmaningen rör de efterföljande stegen gasrening, metanisering samt uppgradering och hur mankombinerar de olika processalternativen på det mest effektiva sättet.De bäst lämpade teknikerna för produktion av metan från förgasning av biomassa är indirektförgasning samt trycksatt CFB. Indirekt förgasning begränsas tekniskt till storlekar < 100 MWth medantrycksatt CFB i teorin inte har några begränsningar. Potentialen för produktion av metan baseras påberäkningar för tillgång till råvara inom respektive län i Biogas Öst-regionen. Råvarorna GROT, stubbar,biprodukter från skogsindustrin, halm, salix samt brännbart avfall har lyfts fram som tänkbara råvaror i enförgasningsprocess. Störst råvarupotential har Östergötlands län, följt av Örebro län. Lägst råvarupotentialhar Stockholms län och Västmanlands län. GROT, stubbar och biprodukter från skogsindustrin står för 75-80 % av respektive läns råvarupotential. Utifrån hela regionens råvarupotential beräknas framställningen avmetan genom förgasning uppgå till 20-33 TWh/år. Produktionskostnaden för metan från förgasning avbiomassa har beräknats utifrån ett antal scenarier där pris på råvara och andelen spillvärme som kan avsättasför försäljning varieras. Råvarukostnaden och kapitalkostnaden har beräknats utgöra 65 % respektive 20 %av produktionskostnaden. Beroende på val av teknik, råvarupris samt spillvärme för försäljning varierarproduktionspriset för metan genom förgasning av biomassa mellan 428-581 kr/MWh. Kan all uppkommenspillvärme säljas för 100 kr/MWh minskar produktionskostnad med 7 %, jämfört med om ingen spillvärmekan avsättas till försäljning. Om avsättning av spillvärme från förgasningsprocessen skall vara möjlig krävsett stort värmebehov i fjärrvärmenätet samt att spillvärmen kan konkurrera med befintligtfjärrvärmeproduktion