Unaffected Strangers Affect Contributions

Several recent experimental studies have confirmed that social sanctioning can enforce cooperation in public good situations. These studies consider situations where the participants, who have monetary interest in the outcome of the public good game, inflict social sanctioning. The present experimental study, however, considers behavioral effects of social sanctioning from observers with no monetary interest in the outcome of the public good game. The experiment has two treatment effects. First, each participant’s identity and contribution to the public good is revealed to the observers. Second, we introduce information likely to affect participants’ expectations regarding the observers’ approval or disapproval of contributions to the public good. The data provides some evidence that indirect social sanctioning from these monetarily unaffected observers can increase voluntary contributions to public goods, provided that the participants have reason to believe that the observers have themselves contributed substantially in a similar situation. However, the effect on cooperation is not as strong as effects found in previous studies where participants themselves, and not only monetarily unaffected observers, are able to inflict social sanctioning.cooperation, public good, social approval, social norms

Social Interaction Effects in Disability Pension Participation: Evidence from Plant Downsizing

.disability; downsizing; layoffs; plant closing; social insurance; social interaction; welfare norms

The role of warnings in regulation: Keeping control with less punishment

Regulatory agencies frequently present violators with warnings, not pursuing prosecution if the violation ceases upon receipt of the warning. We show how such warnings may help regulators to keep control: Prosecution is costly for the regulator, and insu.cient prosecution e.orts yield low penalties. Thus, with a limited regulatory budget, threats of harsh sanctions are credible only if the number of violators is low. This produces multiple Nash equilibria. If firms may make mistakes, the economy can accidentally switch from one equilibrium to another. Warnings reduce substantially the probability of such accidental switches from the high to the low compliance equilibrium

Effects of inspections on plants' regulatory and environmental performance - evidence from Norwegian manufacturing industries

Abstract: The present paper investigates effects of regulatory inspections on compliance and emissions of energy intensive manufacturing plants in Norway. The regression analysis shows that increased probability of inspection reduces the probability of violation. This is in line with previous studies, and may appear as an encouraging evaluation of the practiced regulatory enforcement policy. However, the direct environmental impact of the enforcement policy is more dubious: Regression analyses reveal a positive relationship between the probability of an inspection and emissions. It appears puzzeling that increased probability of inspection can yield both reduced probability of violation and higher emissions. The possibility that such a puzzle evolves from incentives inherent in the practiced regulatory policy is discussed. Keywords: Environmental regulations; regulatory enforcement; inspections; emission

Workload, staff composition, and sickness absence: findings from employees in child care centers

Persistently, high workload may raise sickness absence with associated costs to firms and society. We proxy workload by the number of adults per child in Norwegian child care centers and find that more educated teachers per child are associated with lower sickness absence. However, more assistants with low or no higher education per child are associated with higher sickness absence, suggesting that observed variation in sickness absence at the center level may be driven by differences in staff composition rather than workload. The importance of the educational composition of employees on sickness absence is supported by findings from fixed-effects models and a fuzzy regression discontinuity design relying on variation from municipal elections.acceptedVersio

The Intergenerational Transfer of the Gender Gap in Labor Force Participation

Despite well-documented convergence during the later years of the 20th century, labor force attachment remains markedly higher for men than for women. The current paper employs rich longitudinal registry data to investigate the intergenerational transfer of the gender gap in labor force participation. We explore the extent that family- and community-level characteristics, measured in childhood, differentially predict the likelihood of employment for adult Norwegian men and women. Drawing on theories pertaining to the importance of information, skills and gender norms transfer, our empirical analysis demonstrates that a parsimonious set of family- and community-level characteristics can explain a substantial part of the gender gap. These results suggest that female labor force participation is constrained by the intergenerational transfer of beliefs and expectations about family and work

Electronic monitoring and recidivism. Quasi-experimental evidence from Norway

The replacement of custodial with non-custodial sanctions holds the potential to reduce recidivism as well as other costs associated with imprisonment. However, the causal impacts on recidivism of non-custodial sanctions in general, and electronic monitoring (EM) programs in particular, remain unclear. We estimate the effect of EM on recidivism by exploiting an EM program that was gradually introduced in Norwegian counties from 2008, using difference-in-differences and instrumental variable designs. Results show that introducing EM reduced 2-year recidivism rates by about 10 percent, which corresponds to about 19 percent for those actually serving on EM. We find no effects on recidivism intensity or severity. Subsample analyses show that the effect estimates are strongest among offenders without previous imprisonment or recent unemployment spells, and although between-groups differences are statistically non-significant, this suggest that avoiding prison stigma and maintaining workplace relations can be important to reduce recidivism and promote desistance. The reliability of our results is somewhat challenged by unstable pre-implementation trends and signs that more people are convicted to EM-qualifying sentences when EM is introduced

Technological changes in the pulp and paper industry and the role of uniform versus selective environmental policy

Abstract: Although environmental regulations may imply a cost increase on firm's conventional input factors, such regulations could stimulate the incentives to improve factor productivity. Productivity measures including indicators capturing environmental improvements may also show higher or lower progress than productivity measures ignoring environmental aspects. We apply a Malmquist productivity index approach on micro data for the Norwegian pulp and paper industry, and find that the overall productivity growth accounting for changes in emissions of COD to water is higher than the growth in the productivity measure including conventional inputs only. We find the opposite result when including emissions of acids and climate gases to air. This is probably due to environmental regulations with opposing effects on different emissions. A decomposition of the Malmquist index into a technical efficiency change factor and a technical change component shows that the frontier technology has changed, while the average distance to the frontier has increased. Keywords: Emissions, Productivity change, Paper and pulp, Malmquist index, Frontier technolog

Gut microbiota is associated with dietary intake and metabolic markers in healthy individuals

Background: Metabolic diseases have been related to gut microbiota, and new knowledge indicates that diet impacts host metabolism through the gut microbiota. Identifying specific gut bacteria associated with both diet and metabolic risk markers may be a potential strategy for future dietary disease prevention. However, studies investigating the association between the gut microbiota, diet, and metabolic markers in healthy indi-viduals are scarce.Objective: We explored the relationship between a panel of gut bacteria, dietary intake, and metabolic and anthropometric markers in healthy adults.Design: Forty-nine volunteers were included in this cross-sectional study. Measures of glucose, serum tri-glyceride, total cholesterol, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), blood pressure (BP), and body mass index (BMI) were collected after an overnight fast, in addition to fecal samples for gut microbiota analyzes using a targeted approach with a panel of 48 bacterial DNA probes and assessment of dietary intake by a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). Correlations between gut bacteria, dietary intake, and metabolic and anthropometric markers were assessed by Pearson’s correlation. Gut bacteria varying according to dietary intake and metabolic markers were assessed by a linear regression model and adjusted for age, sex, and BMI.Results: Of the 48 gut bacteria measured, 24 and 16 bacteria correlated significantly with dietary intake and metabolic and/or anthropometric markers, respectively. Gut bacteria including Alistipes, Lactobacillus spp., and Bacteroides stercoris differed according to the intake of the food components, fiber, sodium, saturated fatty acids, and dietary indices, and metabolic markers (BP and total cholesterol) after adjustments. Notably, Bacteroides stercoris correlated positively with the intake of fiber, grain products, and vegetables, and higher Bacteroides stercoris abundance was associated with higher adherence to Healthy Nordic Food Index (HNFI) and lower diastolic BP after adjustment.Conclusion: Our findings highlight the relationship between the gut microbiota, diet, and metabolic mark-ers in healthy individuals. Further investigations are needed to address whether these findings are causally linked and whether targeting these gut bacteria can prevent metabolic diseases.publishedVersio

Replacing saturated fatty acids with polyunsaturated fatty acids increases the abundance of Lachnospiraceae and is associated with reduced total cholesterol levels-a randomized controlled trial in healthy individuals

Improving dietary fat quality strongly affects serum cholesterol levels and hence the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Recent studies have identified dietary fat as a potential modulator of the gut microbiota, a central regulator of host metabolism including lipid metabolism. We have previously shown a significant reduction in total cholesterol levels after replacing saturated fatty acids (SFAs) with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of dietary fat quality on gut microbiota, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), and bile acids in healthy individuals. In addition, to investigate how changes in gut microbiota correlate with blood lipids, bile acids, and fatty acids.publishedVersio