Typologies of Household Risk-Taking: Contemporary Rural Russia as a Case Study

In the post-Soviet economic environment, new opportunities arose attendant with market reform. Rural households had to choose whether to continue past behaviors – to subsist – or to adapt, the latter requiring a degree of risk. This paper analyzes risk-averse and risk-taking households by addressing three main questions: (a) which households are risk-averse and which are risk-takers?; (b) what are the characteristics of those different types of households?; and (c) which factors have greatest causal properties in explaining household risk-taking? Typologies of risk-averse and risk-taking households are presented. Using survey data, statistical analysis disaggregates peasant households, showing that households with higher total income are more likely to take on risk. Land expansion is important mainly for commercially oriented households.     

Kostentragung im öffentlichen Recht de lege lata et ferenda

Der Grundsatz des § 74 Abs 1 AVG, wonach jeder Beteiligte die ihm im Verwaltungsverfahren erwachsenden Kosten selbst zu bestreiten hat, führt in modernen verwaltungsbeh?rdlichen Verfahren nicht selten zu unbilligen Ergebnissen. Desgleichen haften den Regelungen über den Ersatz von Kosten verfassungsgerichtlicher und verwaltungsgerichtlicher Verfahren Defizite an. Ausgehend von diesem Befund untersucht der Beitrag die Leistungsf?higkeit der geltenden Kostentragungsregelungen, zeigt Spannungsverh?ltnisse zu verfassungsrechtlichen und unionsrechtlichen Vorgaben und Reformbedarf auf und mündet schlie?lich in den Vorschlag einer Neukonzeption des Kostentragungssystems im ?ffentlichen Recht.     

Old master paintings,export veto and price formation: an empirical study

In this paper, we focus on the institutional setting where Old Masters’Paintings (OMP) markets transactions are carried. We develop a preliminary attempt to embody legal provisions in econometric, hedonic pricing models. We consider a particular regulation applicable only in Italy, the “export veto” for art objects that are particularly relevant for the national cultural patrimony. We proxy such legal provision in order to include it in the statistical analysis and to check whether it affects the OMP price differentials between pre-auction estimated price and post-auction hammer price. Preliminary results show that the price differential is affected by the legal variable, therefore suggesting that the country’s institutional framework plays an important role in price dynamics.     

Distributed Generation of Electricity: The Role of Academic Research and Advice in California’s “Clean DG” Policy Network

Deregulation and the combined threats of energy crises and global warming concern nations around the world, yet these issues continue to be addressed more directly by domestic regulatory systems than by international institutions. The present analyses of the integration of distributed sources of power generation (DG) into California’s electric utility system suggests that domestic environmental dilemmas with international repercussions provide an obvious entrée for global environmental policy specialists into the practice of environmental policy-making and law. Here I review current scholarship on policy networks that illuminates the contributions that technical and policy experts can make to such networks surrounding environmental issues. I then introduce the key members of California’s “clean DG” policy network that emphasizes the role of academic experts in this influential political system, and discuss how my own research has impacted the development of the state’s DG policy. I conclude that scholars are well positioned to observe and engage domestic and international environmental policy networks, and thereby also to influence environmental politics and law.     

Does Intimate Partner Violence Epidemiology Differ Between Homes With and Without Children? A Population-Based Study of Annual Prevalence and Associated Risk Factors

We sought to determine whether intimate partner violence (IPV) risk factors differed depending upon the presence of children in the home, and to estimate the annual prevalence of IPV first in the general population and then in homes with and without children. We analyzed data from a cross-sectional random sample of 6,836 women in southeastern Pennsylvania interviewed by telephone in 2004. The magnitude of association between IPV and risk factors varied between homes with and without children for women’s alcohol problems (with children, odds ratio (OR) 7.7; 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.9, 20.9; without children, OR 2.4; 95% CI 0.9, 6.0), and mental health problems (with children, OR 4.0; 95% CI 1.8, 8.9; without children, OR 3.0; 95% CI 1.6, 5.7). Poverty was significantly associated with IPV only in homes without children (OR 3.6; 95% CI 1.9, 7.2). Annual IPV prevalence was 1.2% overall, 1.4% in homes with children, and 1.1% in homes without children. One in 63 children lived in a home with IPV. Differences in IPV risk factors in homes with and without children suggest distinct underlying IPV mechanisms or consequences in these contexts.