| 1. |
- Krüger, Niclas A
(author)
-
The Impact of Economic Fluctuations on Crime : A Multiscale Analysis
- 2011
-
In: Applied Economics Letters. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1350-4851 .- 1466-4291. ; 18:2, s. 179-182
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this article we use a wavelet-based approach in order to analyse the periodicity in the relationship between economic fluctuations and different types of crime. All examined types of crime share seasonal behaviour with variations of real economic activity. Removing the intrayear dynamics, we find that the effect of real economic activity is different between different types of crime. We conclude that property crimes, violence crimes and sex crimes are countercyclical. The reverse is true for both alcohol/drug-related crimes and economic crimes, because there is a highly significant increase of these types of crime during economic expansions.
|
|
| 2. |
- Krüger, Niclas A., et al.
(author)
-
Good times are drinking times : empirical evidence on business cycles and alcohol sales in Sweden 1861-2000
- 2010
-
In: Applied Economics Letters. - Oxfordshire: United Kingdom : Routledge. - 1350-4851 .- 1466-4291. ; 17:6, s. 543-546
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article studies the relationship between the business cycle and alcohol sales in Sweden using a data set for the years 1861-2000. Using wavelet-based band-pass filtering, it is found that there is a pro-cyclical relationship, i.e. alcohol sales increases in short-term economic upturns. Using moving window techniques, we see that the pro-cyclical relationship holds over the entire time period. We also find that alcohol sales are a long-memory process with nonstationary behaviour, i.e. a shock in alcohol sales has persistent effects.
|
|
| 3. |
- Petersen, Tom
(author)
-
Estimation of accessibility elasticities in connection with the Öresund fixed link using a panel of micro-data
- 2011
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The productivity of public infrastructure has been hte subject of jumerous studies during the last two decades, often with vastly differing results. Matters of concern for these estimates have been the level of aggregation of the data, the measurement of the infrastructure stock, and endogeneity bias. In an attempt to estimate the wider economic impacts of the Öresund fixed link, these issues are addressed by estimating production functions from firm data in Scania – the Swedish part of the Öresund region – using a novel method due to Olley and Pakes (1996), that takes endogenous input choices and self-selection into account. As a measure of the service provided by the infrastructure, accessibility to the workforce is used on a fine-grained geographic level. The sign and significance of the two sources of bias are tested, as well as the robustness of the acessibility parameter with respect to the specification of the barrier of trips across Öresund.
|
|
| 4. |
- Mellin, Anna, et al.
(author)
-
Health effects of transport emissions : a review of the state of the art of methods and data used for external costs calculations
- 2010
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The purpose is to provide a background for a discussion concerning the methods and values used in cost-benefit analysis in Sweden for air pollutions', from traffic, impact on human health and the research needs in this area. We provide an overview of the current state of the art of models used for and input needed for external cost calculations of the health impacts. The calculations are not straightforward and depend on the collaboration between several research disciplines. In the ExternE projects, which have been used as a reference point in this study, there are still uncertainties concerning which pollutants to take into consideration. Regarding the health impacts, we have recapitulated some of the main conclusions in a review by the American Heart Association (2010). They state that e.g. the following issues need further research: the importance of ultrafine particles, what constituent parts make traffic related air pollution more harmful than PM2.5 in general and the importance of coarse particles.
|
|
| 5. |
- Westin, Jonas, et al.
(author)
-
Can high speed rail offset its embedded emissions?
- 2011
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The purpose of this paper is to analyze the climate benefit of investments in high speed rail-way lines given uncertainty in future transport demand, technology and power production. To capture the uncertainty of estimated parameters, distributions for the annual traffic emissions reduction required to compensate for the embedded emissions from the construction of infrastructure are calculated using Monte Carlo simulation. In order to balance the annualized emissions from the railway construction, traffic volumes of more than 10 million annual one-way trips are usually required. Most of the traffic diverted from other modes must come from aviation and the project cannot involve the extensive use of tunnels. In sparsely populated regions it may be, from a climate point of view, better to upgrade existing lines and to try to make people substitute air travel by modern telecommunications, rather than investing large amounts of resources in enabling people to travel faster and more often.
|
|
| 6. |
- Hansson, Lisa, et al.
(author)
-
Bypassing public procurement regulation : a study of rationality in local decision making
- 2011
-
In: Regulation and Governance. - : Blackwell Publishing. - 1748-5983 .- 1748-5991. ; 5:3, s. 368-385
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Using private contractors through procurement is common in most public sector areas. Despite the benefits of procurement, officials are sometimes tempted to circumvent procurement regulations. The aim of this article is to examine the strategies used by local governmental decisionmakers to bypass procurement regulations and to analyze the rationality underlying these officials' actions. Interviews, court documents, municipal documents, and newspaper articles describing the actions of Swedish municipal officials concerning special transport service (STS) procurements were collected and analyzed. In a case in which rural municipalities lost regular taxi services after STS procurement, we demonstrate how decisions were driven by pressure from the public and local interest groups, making municipal officials deviate from procurement regulations in striving to secure the existence of regular taxi services. One outcome was that local businesses were given preferential treatment, violating regulations and reducing economic efficiency.
|
|
| 7. |
- Ljungberg, Anders, 1964-
(author)
-
Local public Transport on the Basis of Social Economic Criteria
- 2010
-
In: Research in Transportation Economics. - : Elsevier. - 0739-8859 .- 1875-7979. ; 29:1, s. 339-345
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Applying the welfare economic approach it is demonstrated what the effects of certain supply changes in the local public transport will be and the potential of innovative demand management measures are examined. Straighter bus routes would reduce the average travel time from door to door. The travel time on the buses decreases and the frequency increases, which reduces waiting times at bus stops. Using smaller buses and more of them would also increase the net benefit, but increase the need for subsidisation. The peak within the peak in the morning is hard to handle by price policy alone. Introducing a small variation of the start of the school-day for high-school pupils would make investment- and operation cost savings possible, and the inconvenience costs for the pupils could be limited. It is only during peak hours in the main direction of peak travel and in the critical section of the line that optimal price becomes high relative to the present level. Zero fares in off-peak will be social profitable, but an increase in subsidy is needed. An introduction of these policy changes would give rise to a net social benefit of 30 million SEK per year in Linköping.
|
|
| 8. |
- Holt, Charles, et al.
(author)
-
Teaching Opportunity Cost in an Emissions Permit Experiment
- 2010
-
In: International Review of Economics Education. - : Elsevier. - 1477-3880. ; 9:2, s. 34-42
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper describes an individual choice experiment that can be used to teach students how to correctly account for opportunity costs in production decisions. Students play the role of producers that require a fuel input and an emissions permit for production. Given fixed market prices, they make production quantity decisions based on their costs. Permits have a constant price throughout the experiment.In one treatment, students have to purchase both a fuel input and an emissions permit for each production unit. In a second treatment, they receive permits for free and any unused permits are sold on their behalf at the permit price. If students correctly incorporate opportunity costs, they will have the same supply function in both treatments. This experiment motivates classroom discussion of opportunity costs and emission permit allocation under cap and trade schemes. The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) provides a relevant example for classroom discussion, as industry earned significant 'windfall profits' from free allocation of emissions permits in the early phases of the program.
|
|
| 9. |
- Kågeson, Per
(author)
-
Vad skulle likabehandling av alla transportslag innebära för kustsjöfarten, miljön och behovet av infrastrukturinvesteringar?
- 2011
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Just nu åtnjuter sjöfarten en positiv särbehandling genom att i mycket mindre grad än konkurrerande transportslag tvingas ta ansvar för sin miljöpåverkan, men i takt med att miljökraven skärps kommer skillnaden att minska samtidigt som sjötrafiken belastas av nya kostnader. Det finns skäl att förmoda att en fortsatt positiv särbehandling av tåg- och vägtrafiken beträffande andra kostnader i ett sådant läge kommer att leda till en samhällsekonomiskt ineffektiv användning av den samlade transportinfrastrukturen. En faktor av betydelse i sammanhanget är att delar av det svenska bannätet nu trafikeras i så hög omfattning att det börjar bli svårt att lägga in ytterligare tåglägen utan risk för störningar. Vi närmar oss således en situation där det kan bli aktuellt att införa trängselavgifter på vissa banor under en del av dygnet. Ett första steg har redan tagits genom passageavgifter (på låg nivå) i de tre svenska storstäderna under högtrafiktid. Avsikten med projektet är att studera hur godsmarknadens val av transporter påverkas av utformningen av transportslagens samhällsekonomiska kostnadsansvar. Hypotesen är att lika villkor beträffande ansvar för infrastruktur-, olycks- och miljökostnader skulle medföra en överflyttning av gods från främst bana till sjöfart jämfört med nuvarande regler. Det innebär i så fall att behovet av kapacitetshöjande investeringar i järnvägsnätet minskar (allt annat lika).
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
