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The paper argues for and defines a locked-in consumer as a consumer that is involuntary locked into one system in spite of an economic incentive to change. A locked-in consumer is therefore not seen as a loyal consumer but instead is assumed to be loyal to a system in spite an obvious economic gain of switching. Being defined as a natural monopoly in its technique, district heating has long been criticized for its eventual abuse of this monopoly position. Therefore, assuming well functioning ex-ante competition, the study calculates switching costs for switching from district heating to pellet burners or heat pumps. The analysis show that there exist relatively substantial benefits of switching from district heating to pellet burning or heat pumps, especially in residential urban areas. With limited available relevant markets, district heating being the only alternative, this negative switching cost cannot be capitalized and represents, in the assumed absence of loyal customers, a lock-in effect. The result indicates that we cannot reject the idea that the district heating plants serving residential areas in Stockholm misuse their dominant position resulting in a reduction of the social welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Swedish legal restriction on construction of multi-storey timber buildings was imposed in 1888 and repealed in 1994. The subsequent emergence of such a timber building system in Sweden is analysed in the context of the existing concrete-based construction system. The characteristics of the construction industry and its path dependency over the past century hamper the development of a timber building system. However, government policies and funding, the wood industry's interest in an enhanced market for value-added wood products, and involvement of the wood research community has helped develop such a construction system. Investments in knowledge creation, incentives for the entry of new firms, and increased prefabrication may facilitate a transition from this formative phase to a growth phase in the diffusion of timber buildings. En Suede, les restrictions juridiques frappant la construction de batiments en bois de plusieurs etages ont ete edictees en 1888 et annulees en 1994. L'auteur analyse l'arrivee resultante d'un tel systeme de construction en bois en Suede face a la construction en beton qui existe actuellement. Les caracteristiques de l'industrie du batiment et sa dependance au chemin au cours du siecle dernier empechent le developpement d'un systeme de construction en bois. Toutefois, les politiques officielles et les financements ainsi que les interets de l'industrie du bois dans un marche ameliore pour des produits en bois a valeur ajoutee et l'engagement des chercheurs dans le domaine du bois ont aide a developper un tel systeme de construction. Les investissements dans la creation du savoir, les incitations a l'arrivee de nouvelles entreprises et l'augmentation de la prefabrication peuvent faciliter le passage de cette phase de formation a une phase de croissance a la diffusion des batiments en bois. Mots cles: systeme d'innovation, restriction, batiments de plusieurs etages, dependance au chemin, systemes technologiques, charpente en bois, batiments en bois, Suede [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the political discourse about governing the future of the aviation industry in Sweden and how a polarized and entrenched discursive path dependency around aviation makes it difficult to invest into aviation's possible futures as a sustainable transport. We find three different politically merged frames in the political discussion about governing the road to sustainable aviation: (1) Neoliberal sustainable aviation, (2) Green Keynesian sustainable aviation and (3) National environmentalists' aviation. We can see a discrepancy between two merged frames that believe sustainable aviation will be possible with more or less government support and steering (Neoliberal sustainable aviation and Green Keynesian sustainable aviation) whereas the third merged frame (National environmentalists' aviation) argues that aviation is bound to be environmentally inferior to trains and, therefore, all focus should go to the later. We can see that there is not just a path dependency in the merged frame of National environmentalists' aviation that discounts the possibility that both the role of aviation or its sustainability can change as the technology changes. There is here a static perceived view of technology as being forever clean or dirty. Another path dependency is the linkage of aviation transport with particular political parties where the green party, for instance, oppose aviation while the conservative party wants to support aviation and innovation in aviation. This polarization is actually the largest and most important aspect of the discursive lock-in as this undermines any compromises or large-scale future investments in sustainable aviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]