Niels Kærgård

The Scandinavian Currency Union 1875–1914

The Scandinavian Currency Union is sometimes considered the most successful of the monetary unions established in Europe during the latter half of the nineteenth century.2 Following Bartel (1974: 703): ‘It was an important precursor to the attempts at international monetary cooperation which were to come after the Second World War.’ This chapter offers a re-examination of the Union, its background and its working until its breakdown under the strains of the First World War. The findings of the present analysis are more ambiguous than the above statements when it comes to evaluating the Union. While clearly successful as a currency union, its performance as an economic union was less convincing.

Three perspectives on motivation and multicriteria assessment of organic food systems

Organic food systems are based on a complex of value criteria that often are not explicitly considered when agents think, communicate, and make decisions concerning organic food. Multicriteria assessment (MCA) refers to a group of tools that help the user to tackle such highly complex issues. The question is how an MCA tool should be designed to facilitate reflections, communication, and decision making in relation to organic food systems. A key issue is motivation. There are several divergent theories of motivation, and the question cannot be adequately answered by using any single theory. We discuss an economic, a psychosocial, and a relational perspective on motivation and MCA. Using the example of a consumer assessing and choosing products in the supermarket, the economic conception of motivation offers a focus on decision-making processes. The psychosocial approach to motivation draws attention to the influence of cognitive structures and experience-based emotional drivers. Finally, the relational approach stresses that motivation is situated in the relations between agents. We discuss how the three perspectives converge and diverge regarding the purpose of using an MCA tool, the scope of the MCA, the strategic focus, and challenges and potentials associated with an MCA tool. Through this multiple-perspective approach, the general idea of MCA is expanded and elaborated to refine the design of an MCA tool for organic food systems.

Social cohesion and the transformation from ethnic to multicultural society: The Case of Denmark:

Danish society used to have a very homogenous culture; everybody was Lutheran and there were only very small groups of ethnic minorities. However, since the 1960s the immigration of foreign workers and refugees has created substantial minority groups of people who are very different ethnically, religiously and linguistically. Becoming a multicultural country may be particularly problematic for such a formerly homogeneous society; formal and informal rules for the co-existence of different ethnic and religious segments of the society have until now not been necessary.

Land use, multifunctionality and the common agricultural policy

Abstract The aim of the article is to analyse a couple of arguments for decentralisation of the common agricultural policy (CAP) in an abstract economic model. The CAP in the European Union has changed its focus towards supporting the multifunctional character of European agriculture. From an economic-theoretical point of view, this policy change will have to be founded in supporting positive external effects, but we show in a theoretical model that this is not straightforward. If the policy covers more than one country, the domestic value attached to an external effect can be different from one country to another. For landscape preservation it can be optimal to subsidise agriculture in countries where arable land is scarce and to tax agriculture (or support nature) in countries with less nature. In general, the most efficient level of policy provision depends on the nature of the external effect. If there are considerable differences in the evaluation of a certain multifunctional policy between countries, it can be more efficient to administer and implement the policy at a decentralised level of government where regional differentiation is possible.

Estimation criterion, residuals and prediction evaluation

Abstract A relation which determined the development of the Danish investments is estimated with yearly data from the period 1878–1970. The estimation is carried out by minimizing the sum of the absolute residuals, the least squares residuals as well as the maximum residual. Parameters and especially the distribution of the residuals for the three types of estimators is observed. The relation is estimated using only the even years and the resulting relations are used to predict the investments in the uneven years. These predictions are used to evaluate the different estimation methods.

The Danish growth model CLEO and the stability of the economy

Abstract CLEO is a model of the Danish economy estimated for the period 1870–1970. It is a two-sector model containing a total of 21 estimated equations and 27 identities. The stability of the model is first tested by comparing estimates for three subperiods and second by evaluation of the forecasting capability for the post-estimation period 1971–1981. About half of the relations seem almost unchanged for more than a hundred years.

Obesity, social inequality and economic rationality: an overview

Abstract This paper reviews the economic literature related to obesity and consumer decisions, pursuing the overall question, whether the current obesity epidemic and its social bias can be viewed as a result of rational consumption behaviour. We address a number of potential explanations based on consumers’ utility maximisation behaviour, which all may contribute to explain the ongoing rise in obesity prevalence in many western countries. In addition to standard neoclassical explanations of obesity, we discuss moral hazard aspects, the role of network externalities, self-control problems and habitual behaviour. We include all of these aspects of the individual weight decision in a unified theoretical framework and present existing empirical evidence for each effect. Based on our analysis, we discuss the different economic explanations and give suggestions for future research.

Historical experience with monetary unions: the case of Scandinavia 1875Â…1914

Economic and Monetary Union in Europe brings together contributions from leading specialists which explain and evaluate the most important implications of economic and monetary union. The book examines theoretical aspects of monetary integration, illustrates the historical lessons to be learned from these and discusses the resulting policy consequences.