Titel Deelnemers "Korte inhoud" "Economic Indicators and Electoral Volatility. Economic Effects on Electoral Volatility in Western Europe, 1950-2013" "Ruth Dassonneville, Marc Hooghe" "Economic voting theory assumes that on an individual level voters react to economic indicators to hold incumbents responsible for the performance of the economy. On an aggregate level, this would imply that there is an association between economic indicators and levels of volatility since voters have to switch parties if they want to punish or reward political actors. Based on a time-series cross-section analysis of the Pedersen Index for West European countries in the period 1950-2013 we do indeed observe an association between economic indicators and levels of volatility. This effect furthermore grows stronger over time, and it is assumed that this is rendered possible by processes of partisan dealignment. The analysis suggests that European electorates are significantly more likely to shift parties in response to economic downturn now than they were a few decades ago." "Alternative indicators for economic welfare and well-being: a transatlantic update" "Hans Haake, Dorothee Rodenhäuser, Brent Bleys" "In recent years there has been a flurry of activity in proposing U+201CnewU+201D sets of alternative (economic) indicators, dashboards or composite indicators, to which Ecological Economics has been a forerunner with the development of the ISEW and GPI. The North American status of those will be well-presented at the CANUSSEE conference, especially with the work on state level GPI accounts that one of the authors has been part of. So, as a complement, this paper will give a systematic overview of current developments, both political and scientific, in Europe. The French parliament is in the process of instituting a set of new measures; the German parliament presented a dashboard; German Länder are increasingly adopting measures similar to the GPI, connected to one of the authors; Flanders (Belgium) included the ISEW in its headline set of indicators (based on work by one of the authors). The EU had an ambitious U+201CBeyond GDPU+201D approach, but seems to fall back into old patterns. The proposed paper will be a summary of these and further European debates, inter alia pointing out opportunities and barriers for the use of alternative indicators, and part of a process aimed at connecting some of the scientific developments on both sides of the Atlantic at the next ISEE conference. Thus, it aims to facilitate exchange between the indicator-focussed sessions in Vancouver and relevant sessions at the preceding ESEE conference in Leeds, especially one on U+201Cincreasing the policy value of alternative measures of economic welfareU+201D facilitated by two of the authors." "Economic and Environmental Performance Indicators in Belgian GRI Reports" "Valérie Cappuyns, Kim Ceulemans" "Despite the upsurge in sustainability reporting worldwide, there is still a large gap between the reporting rates of different countries and sectors around the world. This paper analyzes how Belgian organizations report the economic and environmental performance indicators in their sustainability reports, with the aim to evaluate the quality and completeness of this information. Besides a detailed content analysis of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reports of Belgian organizations, synergies with new developments, such as the GRI G4 guidelines and integrated reporting are sought. Economic aspects are generally reported through disclosure of a larger number of indicators, as compared to environmental aspects, most likely because of financial reporting obligations. Nevertheless, huge differences exist between organizations (mainly between private and non-profit organizations) with respect to the amount and quality of information that is provided on these economic indicators in the GRI reports. Environmental performance indicators are often only reported on a basic level, but in a more consistent way, with limited differences between organizations. Moreover, there was no significant correlation between the use of a certified environmental management system (ISO 14001 or EMAS) and the quality of environmental reporting. There is also a clear difference with respect to the reporting behavior of service suppliers and manufacturers or distributors of goods, mostly in terms of number of indicators reported on. Finally, the possible application of existing indicators that integrate economic and environmental aspects in sustainability reporting is discussed. Including “integrated indicators” within the GRI framework may be a step forwards to integrated reporting." "Analysis of economic and environmental performance indicators in Belgian GRI reports" "Valérie Cappuyns, Kim Ceulemans" "Over the last decade, there has been an upsurge in sustainability reporting worldwide. Nevertheless, there is still a large gap between the reporting rates of different countries and sectors around the world. This paper analyses how Belgian organizations report the economic and environmental performance indicators in their sustainability reports, with the aim to evaluate the quality and completeness of this information. As the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) are considered to provide the most detailed, competent, and prescriptive set of indicators for sustainability reporting, this framework was used for the research. The study finds that the economic aspects are generally reported through disclosure of a larger number of indicators, as compared to environmental aspects, most likely because of financial reporting obligations. Nevertheless, huge differences exist between organizations with respect to the amount and quality of information that is provided on these economic indicators in the GRI reports. In general, private and governmental organizations put more emphasis on disclosing economic indicators in their reports compared to non-profit organizations. With respect to environmental aspects, companies in Belgium that could cause a nuisance or pose a threat to human or environmental health need an environmental permit or an environmental impact assessment is required, but there is no obligation of public reporting. Consequently, environmental performance indicators are often only reported on a basic level, but in a more consistent way, with limited differences between organizations. One exception are the companies with a longer tradition in environmental reporting, mainly driven by serious image problems. This experience with environmental reporting, often in combination with very advanced environmental management systems, is still visible in the GRI reports. Besides a detailed content analysis of sustainability reports of Belgian organizations, set up according to the GRI guidelines, some suggestions and recommendations for more coherent and comprehensive reporting are given, and synergies with new developments, such as the GRI G4 guidelines and integrated reporting are sought." "The role of leading economic indicators in forecasting container demand" "Yasmine Rashed, Hilde Meersman, Christa Sys, Thierry Vanelslander" "Composite competitiveness indicators with endogenous versus predetermined weights An application to the World Economic Forum's global competitiveness index" "Willem Moesen" "Robust estimation of economic indicators from survey samples based on Pareto tail modeling" "Andreas Alfons" "Motivated by a practical application, the paper investigates robust estimation of economic indicators from survey samples based on a semiparametric Pareto tail model. Economic performance is typically measured by a set of indicators, which are often estimated from survey data-the motivating example being the European indicators on social exclusion and poverty computed from the well-known European Union statistics on income and living conditions survey. Since economic data typically contain variables with heavily tailed distributions and additional extreme outliers, the idea is to use robust Pareto tail modelling to detect the extreme outliers and to reduce their influence on the indicators. In the survey context, however, sample weights need to be considered when modelling the tail with a Pareto distribution such that the true distribution on the population level is accurately reflected. Therefore, the main methodological contribution is to adapt commonly used robust estimators for the parameters of the Pareto distribution to take sample weights into account. The resulting approach for robust estimation of indicators is then evaluated by means of a simulation study and applied in the context of estimating the Gini coefficient from the survey data. © 2012 Royal Statistical Society." "Wacky patents meet economic indicators" "Dirk Czarnitzki, Katrin Hussinger, Cédric Schneider" "We investigate whether standard indicators can distinguish between “wacky” patents and a control group. Forward citations are good predictors of importance. However, “wacky” patents have higher originality, generality and citation lags, suggesting that these indicators should be interpreted carefully." "Exploring the role of economic and institutional indicators for carbon and GHG emissions: policy-based analysis for OECD countries" "Xi Zhang" "Most of the developed countries across the globe have targeted to attain sustainable economic growth. With this focus, the current study evaluated 29 OECD countries over the time period of 1990 to 2018 to analyze the influence of economic and environmental indicators, i.e., export diversification, institutional quality, macrocosmic variables on carbon dioxide, and greenhouse gas emissions. The current study used the quantile regression and generalized method of moments approach on the selected panel. Our comprehensive econometric approach allows us to reveal that export diversification negatively affects carbon emissions but promotes greenhouse gas emissions. Similarly, institutional quality, economic growth, financial development, and economic growth helps to reduce carbon emissions but increase greenhouse emissions. In comparison, trade openness exhibits a positive influence on carbon emissions but a negative on greenhouse gas emissions. Besides, urbanization is found one of the major reasons for environmental degradation. In light of empirical fact findings, this study commends some innovative policy insights for scholars, governors, and policymakers." "Is inequality a latent construct? An assessment of economic inequality indicators and their relation with social cohesion in Europe" "Silke Goubin"