Border tax adjustment: a feasible way to support stringent emission trading

CO₂ emission allowances help to internalise effects of fossil fuel consumption on global climate and sea levels. However, consumption, production and investment decisions do not reach the optimal allocation when the scheme is only implemented in some countries. Production with inefficient facilities in non-participating countries may even increase. Border tax adjustment (BTA) for costs incurred from procuring CO₂ emission allowances reduces the leakage. We show that BTA can be both feasible and compatible with World Trade Organization (WTO) constraints. Practicable implementability requires a focus on CO₂ emissions from certain processed materials and a separate treatment of electric energy input.      

Group Segregation and Urban Violence

How does segregation shape intergroup violence in contested urban spaces? Should nominal rivals be kept separate or instead more closely integrated? We develop an empirically grounded agent‐based model to understand the sources and patterns of violence in urban areas, employing Jerusalem as a demonstration case and seeding our model with microlevel, geocoded data on settlement patterns. An optimal set of parameters is selected to best fit the observed spatial distribution of violence in the city, with the calibrated model used to assess how different levels of segregation, reflecting various proposed “virtual futures” for Jerusalem, would shape violence. Our results suggest that besides spatial proximity, social distance is key to explaining conflict over urban areas: arrangements conducive to reducing the extent of intergroup interactions—including localized segregation, limits on mobility and migration, partition, and differentiation of political authority—can be expected to dampen violence, although their effect depends decisively on social distance.     

Der Weg zur Vollbeschäftigung

Nach einer kurzen Phase der Erholung haben sich die Arbeitsmarktdaten der Bundesrepublik trotz aller Bemühungen der Regierung, die Zahl der Arbeitslosen zu senken, wieder deutlich verschlechtert. Dieser Beitrag untersucht in vergleichender Sicht die Arbeitsmarktentwicklung in vier weiteren Ländern, die wie Deutschland von sozialdemokratischen Parteien (mit)regiert werden, und versucht Gründe zu finden, die die großen Varianzen der Arbeitsmarktdaten zwischen den Ländern erklären können. Das Argument lautet, dass den Regierungen ungeachtet aller nationalen und internationalen Zwänge, die sich u.a. aus engen Budgetspielräumen, internationalen Verpflichtungen und nicht zuletzt aus globalen Konjunkturschwankungen ergeben, politische Mittel zur Verfügung stehen, die bei konsequenter Anwendung die Arbeitsmarktentwicklung positiv beeinflussen können. Nach einem Blick auf einzelne Politikansätze folgen eine vergleichende Erfolgsbewertung der Regierungsmaßnahmen zum Abbau der Arbeitslosigkeit und ein Ausblick auf notwendige Reformschritte in Deutschland.     

"I am flying to the stars"--suicide by aircraft in Germany

In 2006, 67 persons were killed in aircraft accidents in Germany and involving German aircrafts abroad. In spite of extensive investigation of each aircraft accident, there are no reliable data as to the number of suicides by aircraft. We report on a 50-year-old man who committed suicide by willfully crashing his Beech "Sierra" aircraft minutes after take off from an airport close to the town of Rendsburg, Germany. Before killing himself, the intoxicated pilot had sent an SMS announcing his suicide plans to a friend. The findings of the medico-legal investigation and the results of a review of aircraft accident reports by the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Investigation (BFU) regarding suicidal plane crashes are presented.     

Reform by Coincidence? Explaining the Policy Process of Structural Reform in Denmark

The article investigates the processes driving the ongoing Danish reform of the structure of the public sector with the purpose of understanding the factors rendering the reform possible at this particular juncture in time. For this reason, the article applies a theoretical framework consisting of John Kingdon's 'Multiple Streams' perspective combined with the Institutional Rational Choice approach developed by Fritz Scharpf, among others. As a heuristic tool for the analysis, the policy process is divided into the three phases of initiation, estimation and decision making. The analysis points to a rather complex process influenced by institutional and situational factors, including those of coincidence and external events. The process can be understood as a series of interrelated games in which bounded rational actors pursue their interests. In conclusion, the article finds that the speed and tight steering of the process left relatively little room for a broader public and political debate. The process leading to what has become the largest public sector reform in Denmark was in actuality determined by relatively few actors involved in decisive moments.