co production of frugal innovation case of low cost reverse osmosis water filters in india abstract the increased role of market actors in the provision of drinking water has implied a greater salience to issues of affordability with its emphasis of increasing affordability without compromising on quality the idea of frugal innovation holds out particular promise in resource constrained environments in this paper we study the case of low cost household water filters using reverse osmosis ro technology in the indian city of ahmedabad using mixed methods we find the citizen to be an active participant a co producer in the frugal innovation process that allows small scale local entrepreneurs to customize their products and services to the needs and price expectations of their customers this co production process that has been facilitated by the proximity of the user with the local entrepreneur has not only reduced private costs borne by users but also been as successful as their more expensive counterparts in meeting the diverse needs of end users further we find that the context facilitating such service co production is characterized by institutional co production with actions of both the state and citizen creating the demand for innovation around more affordable private solutions while there is much to celebrate in the value created by the frugal innovation we believe the implications of the contested and unregulated water filter technology suggest reasons for caution

detecting earnings management a new approach this paper provides a new approach to test for accrual based earnings management our approach exploits the inherent property of accrual accounting that any accrual based earnings management in one period must reverse in another period if the researcher has priors concerning the timing of the reversal incorporating these priors can significantly improve the power and specification of tests for earnings management our results indicate that tests incorporating reversals increase test power by around 40 and provide a robust solution for mitigating model misspecification arising from correlated omitted variables

the second face of hegemony britain s repeal of the corn laws and the american walker tariff of 1846 one challenge facing hegemonic stability theory is to specify the processes by which hegemonic countries construct and maintain a liberal international economic order earlier studies have focused on direct coercion or ideological manipulation by the hegemon as a principal technique for manipulating the trade policies of other countries this article explores a different face of hegemony specifically we contend that by altering relative prices through the exercise of their international market power hegemonic leaders influence the trade policy preferences of their foreign trading partners we examine this argument in the case of the american walker tariff of 1846 american tariff liberalization was intimately related to britain s repeal of its corn laws in the antebellum united states northern protectionist and southern free trade proclivities were fixed western grain growers held the balance of power by allowing access to its lucrative grain market britain altered the economic and political incentives of western agriculturalists and facilitated the emergence of the free trade coalition essential to the passage of the walker tariff

trade environment and development the issues in perspective abstract this special issue on trade and the environment brings together a number of papers that are constructively critical of the conventional economic wisdom on the topic we think that this criticism is warranted because of the decidely uncritical way in which free trade has been advocated in much of the literature and especially in policy the papers analyse the validity of the underlying assumptions on which the conventional wisdom is based and provide suggestions for ways to facilitate trade that is also adequately protective of the environment sustainability and other social values in this introductory piece we discuss trade the environment and sustainability summarizing arguments in the papers included in this issue and adding a few additional points not covered by them

hegemonic stability theory and 19th century tariff levels in europe although the theory of hegemonic stability has attracted an impressive array of adherents current formulations leave many conceptual issues unresolved existing formulations also fail to draw from the theory any implications concerning the process by which a hegemonic state creates and maintains a regime as an example great britain is generally agreed to have been hegemonic in the nineteenth century but britain s behavior was generally inconsistent with that implied by a theory of hegemonic stability i advance an alternative set of explanations for changes in international tariff levels based on the notion of a political business cycle

world agricultural futures regional sustainability and ecological limits there is a wide spectrum of views on possible futures for world agriculture with a clear division between neoclassical and ecological economics approaches to the issue an incremental approach characteristic of neoclassical economics focuses on steady yield increases as a result of technological progress and increased input use in this view there are no inherent limits to growth and therefore an optimistic view tends to be taken of future production potential by contrast an analysis based on the concept of carrying capacity emphasizes environmental limits to system growth this paper reviews estimates of carrying capacity as well as trends in land use yields and environmental impacts of agriculture demand projections are made for the year 2025 based on population momentum and a slow rate of increase in per capita consumption the global system is seen to be approaching carrying capacity limits over the next 30 years with more severe stresses at a regional level and widening food deficits in developing nations strong yield growth in china south asia africa north america and europe will be necessary to avert global shortfalls but resource and environmental factors pose serious constraints in all these areas the pressure to increase yields is therefore in conflict with the requirements of long term sustainability this indicates the need for regional models of sustainable agro ecosystems which balance yield requirements with ecological constraints in addition demand side issues of population policy efficiency in consumption and distributional equity become increasingly important in a world of constrained agricultural growth

the free trade epidemic of the 1860s and other outbreaks of economic discrimination why was there an abrupt increase in economic openness in europe in the 1860s this increase may have been the result of a contagion process in which the cobden chevalier treaty between britain and france threatened to displace third party exports to fra nce with british exports as a result most european states signed similar treaties with france which had further ripple effects this article outlines a formal model of this process based on the assumption that an agreement between two states incre ases the desirability of similar treaties to third parties propositions regarding the rate and pattern of spread of treaties are derived from this model this article then discusses the insights these propositions may offer into the rise and fall of the most favored nation network of treaties between 1860 and 1929 at a theoretical level the model aims to link the microlevel processes underlying state preferences to system level phenomena at a substantive level this analysis offers insight into the current explosion of regionalism

growth waves systemic openness and protectionism there is a distinctively repetitive quality about trade policy problems domestic economic growth slows producers seek protection against foreign competitors and national decision makers raise barriers to trade while at the same time criticizing their counterparts in other governments for engaging in similar practices because trade is one of the more important topics in international and comparative political economy and because this scenario has played itself out more than a few times it is not surprising that a number of theorists have sought to model the underlying processes thought to produce movements toward and away from protectionism by now a variety of different types of approaches ranging from the cognitive to the systemic have been tried systemic structure ideas and ideology surplus capacity business cycles and shifts in elite orientation and domestic coalitions in response to external crises have been emphasized as principal theoretical foci our position is that the different levels of analysis and alternative foci all have merit and utility what they lack is an appreciation for the underlying systemic processes that link together these various facets of the political economy we seek to develop a theoretical argument that explicates these underlying processes the argument centers on recurring growth waves characterized in alternating pattern by the ascent of system leaders and the subsequent successful attempt of technological followers to catch up with the leaders the downturns of the growth waves produce conditions favoring protectionism but we contend the form and the intensity of protectionism that are likely to be produced will depend on which of the two types of growth waves is in progress ascent waves are characterized by the emergence of new technological leaders and a consequent increase in the gap between the leaders and the technological followers during the periods of structural transition and intense

the development of commercial local area resource and emissions modelling navigating towards new perspectives and applications meeting near future uk greenhouse gas ghg emissions targets will require all parts of the uk economy to contribute and in particular significant changes in business practices are required at the local level from review it was found that there is a lack of detailed business accounting and reporting of ghg emissions at the local level especially concerning supply chain impacts and small and medium sized enterprises this paper presents a framework model to generate detailed benchmark estimates of ghgs both on site and supply chain related for individual businesses and all businesses of a sector within an area the model makes use of available economic and environmental data and with similar datasets existing in other parts of the world such models may be used elsewhere the framework model is applied to an empirical case study estimates from such a framework can be used in a step by step approach to move businesses and local areas towards improved accounting reporting and sustainability including procurement the model makes use of two different accounting perspectives the production perspective on site ghgs and the provision perspective supply chain ghgs attributable to purchased inputs of a business or sectors production the new provision perspective and its consequences are explored and explained

fair trade organic coffee production in nicaragua sustainable development or a poverty trap abstract this article assesses the impact of fair trade organic coffee production on the well being of small scale farmers in nicaragua studying the results of organic management is crucial for evaluating the advantages of fair trade because approximately half of all fair trade coffee is also organically certified a wide range of farmers representatives of cooperatives and export companies in nicaragua were interviewed during seven months of field work between 2005 and 2008 fair trade organic production raises farmer income when low intensity organic farming is an alternative to low intensity conventional farming however low intensity farming produces very little coffee in the case of the most marginalized farmers keeping these farmers in poverty with higher intensities of management the economic advantages of fair trade organic production largely depend on prices in the mainstream market

the rebound effects of switching to vegetarianism a microeconomic analysis of swedish consumption behavior sustainable diets in particular vegetarianism are often promoted as effective measures to reduce our environmental footprint yet few conclusions take full scale behavioral changes into consideration this can be achieved by calculating the indirect environmental rebound effect related to the re spending of expenditure saved during the initial behavioral shift this study aims to quantify the potential energy use and greenhouse gas emission savings and most likely rebound effects related to an average swedish consumer s shift to vegetarianism using household budget survey data it estimates engel curves of 117 consumption goods derives marginal expenditure shares and links these values to environmental intensity indicators results indicate that switching to vegetarianism could save consumers 16 of the energy use and 20 of the greenhouse gas emissions related to their dietary consumption however if they re spend the saved income according to their current preferences they would forego 96 of potential energy savings and 49 of greenhouse gas emission savings these rebound effects are even higher for lower income consumers who tend to re spend on more environmentally intensive goods yet the adverse effect could be tempered by purchasing organic goods or re spending the money on services in order to reduce the environmental impact of consumption it could thus be recommended to not only focus on dietary shifts but rather on the full range of consumer expenditure

the unraveling of the multi fiber arrangement 1981 an examination of international regime change as competition between newly industrializing and advanced industrialized countries has increased trade protection has become a key issue in textile and apparel trade international regimes to regulate trade intervention have existed since the early 1960s the 1981 renewal of the multi fiber arrangement poses two puzzles first why did countries choose to continue to manage conflict through an international regime rather than through some other arrangement second why did the regime become weaker and more protectionist than in the past an international structure approach suggests that regimes are wanted to prevent arrangements in larger systems from being undermined to control the behavior of other countries and to reduce information costs variation in regime strength can be explained by asymmetry in the distribution of capabilities in various systems the nature of the regime is influenced by changes in international competition and by nesting a domestic structure approach on the other hand focuses on the relationships between state and societal groups the commission and member states in the case of the eec the relative strength of groups affects national policies and the development and characteristics of regimes a processtracing examination of international textile negotiations emphasizing the response of decision makers to structural constraints and incentives allows us to ascertain the relative influence of international and domestic structures on the negotiations and outcomes

effects of technological change in agriculture on food consumption and nutrition rice in a west african setting abstract this paper traces the effects of technological change in agriculture to production and income effects and to consumption and nutritional effects the study environment is west africa the gambia the technological change considered is various new modes of rice production versus traditional rice production main findings of this empirical analysis are the following 1 it cannot be assumed that by focusing investment on a woman s crop one helps women farmers the more a new technology increased labor productivity in rice the more there was a takeover of the rice production technology by male producers and the more the crop became a communal crop for household food security household income increased substantially 2 much of the increased income is spent on increased calorie consumption it makes no difference for the degree of change in calorie consumption levels if change in real income is in the form of cash or subsistence food 3 technological change effects mediated through income are traced to increased food consumption calories at the household level where it is found to significantly improve children s nutritional status especially in the rainy season

tax planning regulatory capital planning and financial reporting strategy for commercial banks we test whether banks investment and financing policies can be explained by tax status we document changes in bank holdings of municipal bonds in response to changes in tax rules relating to deductibility of interest expense we also document an association between banks marginal tax rates and their investment and financing decisions which is consistent with the existence of tax clienteles however banks do not sort themselves perfectly into investment and financing clienteles because of adjustment costs we posit specific types of transaction cost impediments to tax planning and document that banks apparently trade off these costs against tax planning benefits article published by oxford university press on behalf of the society for financial studies in its journal the review of financial studies

travel patterns and environmental effects now and in the future implications of differences in energy consumption among socio economic groups travel patterns among different socio economic groups in sweden are investigated it is shown that elderly persons persons with low incomes and women in general do not travel extensively middle aged persons persons with high incomes and men travel much farther cars are the dominant transportation mode for all population groups aeroplanes are used mostly by high income earners and men while public transportation is mostly used by young people and women energy consumption for the different travel patterns differs substantially men with high incomes consume the most energy with 94 000 mj during one year while elderly women consume 12 000 mj when compared to a calculated sustainable level of energy consumption for travel most population groups are in excess the level for sustainable energy consumption is calculated based on an assumed global potential for renewable energy of 360 ej per year divided equally among the global population a certain share of this energy potential is supposed to be used for travelling a scenario for 2020 is presented in which vehicle energy efficiency has increased and travel patterns have changed from what they are today sustainability can only be reached when both travel patterns and vehicle technology have changed radically differences in energy consumption for travel due to age and gender are likely to remain in the future scientific knowledge from the social domains seems to be important for devising efficient strategies for a sustainable society current focus on policy measures has been mainly on technical issues

design and development of a measuring method for environmental sustainability in food production systems abstract these days sustainability is a key issue for many private companies that address their sustainable corporate performance scp the perspective is essential for their license to operate and forms the basis for business principles and practices the lack of internationally accepted reporting standards on what when and where to report makes it difficult to assess sustainability however moreover measuring tools providing information on scp are only the first step towards sustainability to prevent negative effects of operations being transferred from one company to another the second step is the development of a system based approach for all companies that contribute to an end product this paper presents the findings of a study about the use of environmental indicators for food production and proposes a measuring method for environmental sustainability in food production systems the study shows that environmental scp often focuses on events at a local level the enormous number of indicators found in the literature generates too much data that often provide no additional knowledge on the environmental sustainability of a system moreover although environmental research has addressed many aspects of sustainability it has often ignored interactions overall environmental implications of food production are therefore poorly understood the proposed measuring method uses three indicators that address global environmental issues the use of energy from both fossil and renewable sources land and water the systemic approach can calculate trade offs along supply chains that make up a production system the use of the method implies an extension of environmental scp towards the overall performance of a production system the final outcome is expressed in three performance indicators the total land energy and water requirement per kilogram of available food for companies the data generated can be used to compare trends over time to compare results with targets and to benchmark a company against others for consumers data can be used to compare the environmental effects of various foods the method is also applicable to other business sectors the study is part of a multidisciplinary project on the scientific modeling and measuring of scp involving economic social and environmental dimensions acceptance of the measuring methods developed may be a powerful contribution towards creating sustainable business practices

modeling the forms of international cooperation distribution versus information the problems of distribution and information impede international cooperation they arise when actors select how they will cooperate an exploration of the interaction between these problems using a limited information model of cooperation leads to six conclusions first leadership solutions to coordination problems always exist but leadership here is very different from hegemonic provision of public goods second actors can cooperate in the face of anarchy even without a shadow of the future third diffuse reciprocal strategies arise naturally in coordination problems fourth norms and institutions are intertwined within successful cooperation fifth the form of cooperation on an issue varies with the relative importance of distribution and information finally and most important distributional and informational problems interfere with each other arrangements to cooperate can successfully address one but not both of these problems

could tariffs be pro cyclical abstract conventional wisdom says that tariffs are counter cyclical we analyze the relationship between business cycles and applied mfn tariffs using a disaggregated product level panel dataset covering 72 countries between 2000 and 2011 strikingly and counter to conventional wisdom we find that tariffs are pro cyclical further investigation reveals that this pro cyclicality is driven by the tariff setting behavior of developing countries tariffs are acyclical in developed countries we present evidence that pro cyclical market power drives the pro cyclicality of tariffs in developing countries providing further evidence of the importance of terms of trade motivations in explaining trade policy

the sterling dollar franc triangle monetary diplomacy 1929 1937 the late interwar years encompass a full spectrum of international monetary conflict and cooperation why did great britain france and the united states cooperate in some periods and not in others first the transience of monetary cooperation and conflict is explained in part by inherent characteristics of gold exchange and floating monetary systems second environmental changes swings between prosperity and depression between peace and the threat of war and between monetary orthodoxy and inflationist heresy altered the strategic setting confronting the central monetary powers third the actions of governments both followed from and shaped the circumstances that they confronted through strategies of composition across issues and decomposition across time and actors nations deliberately fostered the emergence of cooperation by altering the context of monetary diplomacy

integrating sustainable chain management with triple bottom line accounting abstract triple bottom line accounting is widely advanced as a way in which firms can realise broader societal objectives in addition to increasing shareholder value in our analysis of the australian economy we integrate financial input output tables that describe the interdependencies between economic sectors with national social and environmental accounts to construct numerate triple bottom line accounts for 135 discrete sectors the accounts are portrayed against the numeraire of one dollar of gdp thus for a sector of the economy financial aspects of performance can be expressed for example as dollars of export earnings per dollar of gdp social aspects such as employment can be portrayed as minutes of employment generated per dollar greenhouse issues can be portrayed as kilograms of carbon dioxide emitted per dollar since these indicators of triple bottom line performance are referenced against financial units and are consistent with the system of national accounts they can be applied to financial accounts of a firm a service or a product and allow a robust triple bottom line account to be developed across a range of scales the critical advantage of this approach is that it includes both the direct or immediate effects as well as the indirect or diffuse effects associated with a large and distant chain of supply paths the incorporation of most indirect or upstream effects therefore expands the range of issues and effects within the analytical boundary and also includes imports and exports both products and firms can then be assessed properly in sustainable chain management scm terms thus a firm that uses a key intermediate input that requires a large amount of water for example cannot hide the environmental implications since they are revealed in the analysis of the full production chain this revelation can also underpin progress when firms acknowledge both the direct and indirect effects and improve their selection of key inputs on a wider range of criteria rather than on price alone our analysis is well developed at the economic sector level for australia and is also being applied to number of government institutions firms and individual products before the full benefits of numerate triple bottom line accounting can be applied to the equity issues of globalisation trade interdependencies between groups of typical countries will have to be analysed using these whole economy approaches this will allow country specific intensities to be applied to important items in the international production chain

does local labeling complement or compete with other sustainable labels a conjoint analysis of direct and joint values for fresh produce claim as a way to explore the increasing use of sustainability labels in the marketplace this study analyzes the differential values and interactive effects of sustainable production claims organic fair trade and carbon footprint and location claims through a conjoint choice experiment included in a 2008 u s survey locally grown is the highest valued claim and its value is further enhanced with fair trade certification but carbon intensive local products are discounted more severely than those sourced from other locations some negatively valued claims imports and carbon footprint can be mitigated by combining them with other claims organic and fair trade copyright 2011 oxford university press

how has the financial crisis affected earnings management a european study the article aims to investigate whether and how in the european union eu the burst of the 2008 financial crisis affected misrepresentation of financial information due to earnings management by analysing a sample of 11 844 firm year observations listed in the eu over the period 2006 2012 an event study methodology allows us to calculate and compare country by country abnormal accruals over the estimation period and over the event period our findings validate our research hypothesis and suggest a decrease of misrepresentation in the large majority of the european countries after the burst of the financial crisis the results take part in the debate in the accounting literature about the change of earnings management over a financial crisis and have several implications for standard setters and regulators that could learn how the common incentives of entities to attract potential investors during a crisis could lead them to provide a high quality financial reporting

cooperation in the liberalization of international trade after hegemony what nations dwell in perpetual anarchy for no central authority imposes limits on the pursuits of sovereign interests because as states they cannot cede ultimate control over their conduct to an supranational sovereign they cannot guarantee that they will adhere to their promises the possibility of a breach of promise can impede cooperation even when cooperation would leave all better off yet at other times states do realize common goals through cooperation under anarchy

the importance of nongovernmental organizations ngos in global governance and value creation an international business research agenda the emergence of organized civil society and of nongovernmental organizations ngos as organizational manifestations of broader social movements has dramatically altered the global political economic landscape the increasing global reach of ngos challenges established international business ib research and highlights opportunities for broadening and adapting extant paradigms in the field in this article we introduce the concept of ngos and contrast them with their private sector firm and public sector government counterparts within the context of ib we discuss factors giving rise to ngos as important organizational entities that participate in global value creation and governance and identify limits to their efficacy and viability we identify important questions raised by incorporating ngos into our conceptualization of global context and we challenge three basic tenets of ib theory the definition and dynamics of an institutional field the relevance centrality of a firm government i e two sector bargaining model and the pre eminence of the firm as the global organization of interest within the field we conclude by offering suggested research directions that should serve as catalysts for this new and potentially rich area of future ib research

a theory of trade policy leadership abstract this paper constructs a two country model of bilateral trade negotiations in the presence of political uncertainty to demonstrate that unilateral trade liberalization may be an optimal policy for a large country the political uncertainty is due to producer opposition to trade agreement ratification in the foreign country unilateral liberalization by the home country has a salutary effect on negotiations because it mitigates the pain of potential ratification failure on the foreign country it also promotes foreign ratification because it effectively punishes foreign import competing producers for lobbying against an agreement these benefits are shown to outweigh up to a point the terms of trade cost that the home country must suffer when it actually liberalizes unilaterally in equilibrium therefore we see a pattern in which the home country unilaterally liberalizes for several periods until ratification in the foreign country succeeds at which point foreign country finally reciprocates we also demonstrate that contrary to the standard optimal tariff result there may be an inverse relationship between the home country s monopoly power and its optimal unilateral tariff

strategic perspectives of corporate sustainability management to develop a sustainable organization sustainable development refers to an economic environmental and social development that meets the needs of the present and does not prevent future generations from fulfilling their needs in this context businesses play an important role however progress towards sustainable development has been slow indicating the need for more concrete guidance that will allow businesses to act strategically and successfully in a sustainable way this theoretical paper connects three distinct but complementary dimensions of strategic management as viewed from the perspective of sustainability in order to encourage the integration of sustainability issues into corporate activities and strategies these three dimensions are strategy process strategy content and strategy context sixteen propositions related to these dimensions have been developed to explore the contributions of corporate sustainability management to the creation of value for businesses society and nature this theoretical discussion contributes to existing research in that it reveals relationships between strategic management and sustainable development and provides an agenda for further empirical research

linking globalization to local land uses how eco consumers and gourmands are changing the colombian coffee landscapes market trends are becoming prominent forces shaping local landscapes the increasing demand for high quality and sus tainable coffees is driving land use decisions among colombian farmers a value chain analysis shows that farmers who sell to differen tiated markets significantly captured a larger portion of the value added and faced lower volatility than mainstream producers consequently regions apt for producing differentiated coffees experienced the greatest increase in area planted tracing the value chain reveals how land use decisions increasingly depend on the pressures and opportunities created by global markets with detectable impacts on livelihoods and landscapes

virtual land use and agricultural trade estimating environmental and socio economic impacts abstract liberalization has caused an increase in the global trade of goods and services in particular the value and physical volume of agricultural goods traded have largely increased as the environmental and social consequences of trade are complex they are rarely included in the national and international agricultural policies one reason is that there is a lack of concepts and methods for assessing the environmental and social impacts of trade policies in this paper we develop a method for quantifying and assessing the land use hidden in the export and import of agricultural goods for the case of switzerland for our analysis we focus on arable crops the first methodological step of our research illustrates the spatial relationship of switzerland with countries all over the world through the import and export of land use for arable crops the second step links this spatial dimension with a qualitative assessment of the environmental and socio economic impacts of agricultural land use we applied the method to the case of wheat cultivation within switzerland and import to switzerland the major problem we were confronted with was the availability of data which had both to be reliable and available for the countries wheat is imported from the results show that the calculation of land use is credible in spite of the problems related with data availability the assessment results for each indicator are in agreement with the current situation in the respective countries in addition the aggregation seems to accurately reflect the countries agricultural polices the developed method is used to estimate the overall environmental and socio economic impacts of an increase in wheat imports to switzerland we argue that this method could be applied for anticipating potential impacts of trade agreements still further research is required for fine tuning of the utility functions including a weighting procedure in the aggregation procedure for practical applications important aspects like water shortage should enlarge our limited set of indicators in addition the average impact on a country level was assessed to refine that different agricultural systems ranging from intensive to extensive to organic should be considered beyond our scope was to analyze impacts due to other life cycle stages than the agricultural production for informed decision however information on the whole life cycle of agricultural products is required

protectionism and world politics much unwarranted gloom and doom has been written of late about the new protectionism it has been widely held to be a major hindrance to third world development an obstacle in the path of world economic recovery and even a threat to good international relations the facts about trade in recent years suggest a different story and the need to look far more critically at some of the myths propounded by liberal economists for it was not protectionism that was responsible for starting the depression of the 1980s any more than that of the 1930s then as now it was financial uncertainty and the consequent shrinkage of credit that slowed both growth and trade nor is protectionism a serious menace not only has it failed to stop the flood of industrial exports from asian countries there afe good reasons of state and corporate self interest why it need not be feared in the future far from being a threat to the international economic order as imf and gatt ideologues would have us believe bilateral trading agreements between states and corporations are sustaining continued growth in trade despite financial disorder

disciplining trade finance the oecd export credit arrangement the salience of tariffs quotas and other import restrictions in current discussions of trade policy obscures what may well become a more significant form of government intervention subsidized export promotion over the past two decades subsidized trade finance has been one of the most widely used instruments of export promotion this article offers an historical description and a theoretical explanation for the success of the organization for economic cooperation and development oecd export credit arrangement an international regime restricting the provision of subsidized trade finance the explanation emphasizes three factors the structure of government institutions the relative power of states and the functional value of information more generally the analysis demonstrates the inherent weaknesses of monocausal explanations of international cooperation and the advantages of explanations based on a conception of international cooperation as a multistage process each stage of which may be explained by a separate theory

discretionary behavior with respect to allowances for loan losses and the behavior of security prices abstract the study examines the capital market pricing of discretionary and nondiscretionary components of a major accrual in the banking industry the allowance for loan losses the analysis employs a two stage approach in which the allowance account is first decomposed into estimates of its nondiscretionary and discretionary components the second stage evaluates the market s valuation of the estimates of the components evidence suggests that the capital market perceives the allowance to be comprised of two components a nondiscretionary component which is negatively priced and a discretionary component whose incremental pricing coefficient is positive

economically extended mfa a material flow approach for a better understanding of food production chain abstract in the following article we introduce a method called economically extended material flow analysis ee mfa which aims at studying causal relationships between economically motivated human behaviour and resource consumption for this purpose we expand mfa with economic information this method is evaluated by applying it in a case study on resource efficiency in the food production chain ee mfa reduces the shortcomings of a technically oriented mfa by including a description of the inputs and outputs in money units without changing the system structure this benefit is shown in the status quo analysis of to nourish where data from various sources could be compiled to set up a consistent model of material energy and money flows a further value addition of the method is that it creates a basis for a multi criteria evaluation of strategies to improve resource efficiency on a regional scale one result of this multi criteria evaluation is a classification of strategies according to their influence on the materials energy and money flows

relative valuation roles of equity book value and net income as a function of financial health abstract this study tests predictions that pricing multiples on and incremental explanatory power of equity book value net income increase decrease as financial health decreases tests using a sample of 396 bankrupt firms and tests using a larger pooled sample both yield inferences consistent with predictions findings are robust to inclusion of controls for industry size return on equity and volatility of equity returns equity book value and net income multiples and incremental explanatory power vary predictably across three illustrative industries selected based on the likely extent of unrecognized intangible assets

decision criteria of european and latin american market actors for tropical forestry projects providing environmental services converting the environmental services of tropical forests from public goods to tradable services is a promising approach to sustaining tropical forests ecosystem functions and services we hypothesize that the development of markets for these environmental services will substantially depend on compliance with requirements of key market actors representing supply and demand sides this paper analyzes market actors decision criteria related to engagement in tropical forestry projects that provide environmental services in a questionnaire survey 45 experts from latin america and europe representing key market actor groups i e certifiers consulting companies financial institutions governmental organizations industrial companies and non governmental organizations ngos were asked to name and weight criteria that tropical forestry projects should meet in order to attract their institution s engagement many of these 45 institutions are already involved in several market activities related to tropical forestry projects and environmental services including asset management certification consultancy credit business investments project ownership and trade brokerage the collected criteria cover a variety of topics that clearly go beyond frequently applied sustainability dimensions in forestry related multi criteria based decision making i e social environmental and economic dimensions for example relatively many criteria involve topics such as project management risk management or marketing while differences in criteria weighting among market actor groups are not significant we found a significant interaction between criteria weights and the provenance of participants indicating that latin american and european market actors nominate and weight single decision criteria differently the five criteria with highest mean weights in the european sample are social benefits legal compliance sustainability environmental benefits and stakeholder participation the latin american market actors weighted highest expertise and capacity building financial resources political aspects information management and markets generally latin american market actors emphasize criteria related to markets and information knowledge management whereas european participants tend to assign importance to social and environmental benefits and sustainability the survey provides preliminary insights into bottom up defined decision criteria relevant for key actors in the market of tropical forestry based environmental

the unconditional most favored nation clause and the maintenance of the liberal trade regime in the postwar 1870s international institutions within the past thirty years become the subject of renewed interest as scholars vigorously dispute their utility neorealists draw on the post world war ii era to advance sweeping general claims of institutional inefficacy this study by contrast deploys the same hard test method grieco applied to the 1970s tokyo round negotiations to the crisis rife 1870s to construct a unique methodological objective a rigorous hard test of nineteenth century institutional autonomy three principal findings emerged first the maintenance of a liberal world economy in the turbulent 1870s is explained by an unlikely commercial instrument and the unprecedented regime design of an unexplored international institution respectively the unconditional most favored nation mfn clause and the informal conventional tariff system cts regime it underpinned not british hegemony second the international trade regime was not a public good unilaterally provisioned by hegemonic britain via the 1846 corn laws repeal the regime was instead a private good that was collectively provisioned by all its constituent member states via the unprecedented interstate practices institutionalized in the 1860 cobden chevalier treaty and then autonomously maintained by a negarchical and self enforcing sanctioning mechanism finally the informal cts regime s enforcement mechanism autonomously altered the interests and behaviors of states in directions incongruent with executive preferences solely through the brute force of rational calculations imposed by decentralized international institutional constraints both the french and british executives in the 1870s believed the regime was normatively inappropriate and unsuccessfully attempted to exit amid eight system threatening crises nonetheless the mfn based regime s self enforcing sanctioning mechanism autonomously induced compliance conceptualized as unitary states behavior deviating from executives first order preference the extraordinarily turbulent 1870s therefore provide an unexplored historical vantage point to make strong institutionalist claims in an era issue area and under conditions that they are least likely to be validated

rational hegemons excludable goods and small groups an epitaph for hegemonic stability theory in defining international free trade as a public good hegemonic stability theory posited early in the 1970s that its reliable supply depended upon a distribution of international power analogous to that within a privileged group more recently however critics have challenged three assumptions fundamental to hegemonic theory its premises of free trade public goods and privileged groups they have concluded that hegemony is not necessary for and indeed may be antithetical to a stable world economy based on market exchange the author argues that the critics overstate their case the assumptions they attack allow hegemonic theory to represent analytically several critically important barriers to free trade among states among these are the existence of strategic interdependence among the actors and the prevalence of informational asymmetries the most significant flaw in hegemonic theory is its neglect of the essence of the domain to which it applies the politics of inter state trade in an anarchic world

an end use analysis of global food requirements in examining the long term prospects for global food supply and demand the balance of research has favoured the examination of global food supply and not global food demand centre for agricultural and economic development 1967 chou et al 1977 council on environmental quality 1980 crosson and anderson 1992 fao 1993 mitchell and ingco 1993 bongaarts 1994 forecasting of global food demand has been limited to an exploration of alternative assumptions about the growth of incomes prices and population in particular the analysis and forecasting of global food demand has used income and price elasticities estimated from historical data which assume a fixed link between levels of income and levels of food demand for expository purposes this discussion presumes a particular pattern of prices with changing relative prices the link between incomes and food demand is more complicated but this does not change the fundamental argument being made here

impacts of novel protein foods on sustainable food production and consumption lifestyle change and environmental policy we analyse the impacts of a change in consumers preference for novel protein foods npfs i e a lifestyle change with respect to meat consumption and the impacts of environmental policies e g tradable emission permits for greenhouse gases ghgs or an eu ammonia nh3 emission bound per hectare for our analysis we use a global applied general equilibrium age model that includes consumers lifestyle change different production systems emissions from agricultural sectors and an emission permits system our study leads to the following conclusions firstly more consumption of npfs assists in reducing global agricultural emissions of methane ch4 nitrous oxides n2o and nh3 however because of international trade emission reduction does not necessarily occur in the regions where more npfs are consumed secondly through lifestyle change of the rich the emission reduction is not substantial because more intermediate consumers will increase their meat consumption finally for the same environmental target the production structure changes towards less intensive technologies and more grazing under environmental policy than under lifestyle change

economic growth convergence and world food demand and supply in projecting global food demand to 2050 much attention has been given to rising demand due to the projected population increase from the current 7 4 billion to more than 9 billion an increasingly important source of the increase in food demand is per capita demand growth induced by rising income per person since the proportion of income spending on food decreases as incomes rise growth in global food demand will be greater if incomes grow faster in developing countries than in high income countries such a pattern of income convergence has become established in recent years making it important to assess the implications for food demand and supply using a resource based measure of food that accounts for the much higher production costs associated with dietary upgrading this paper concludes that per capita demand growth is likely to be a more important driver of food demand than population growth between now and 2050 using the middle ground international institute for applied systems analysis shared socioeconomic pathway projections to 2050 which assume continued income convergence the paper finds that the increase in food demand 102 percent would be roughly a third greater than without convergence 78 percent since the impact of convergence on the supply side is much more muted convergence puts upward pressure on world food prices partially offsetting a baseline trend toward falling world food prices to 2050

government interventions in sustainable supply chain governance experience in dutch front running cases numerous multi actor governance systems have recently emerged ensuring sustainability of international traded products business and civil society actors play a dominant role in initiating and governing sustainable supply chain governance systems sscg systems within specific product markets we see the emergence of various competing sscg systems this has led to debates on effectiveness transparency and legitimacy of these forms of self governance in the market these developments also call for a debate on appropriate roles for national governments most of the academic literature in this field focuses on methodologies for supply chain governance and their impacts but hardly addresses the roles taken on by governments and effectiveness of possible government interventions this article combines analysis of market dynamics in the timber and coffee product chains with policy analysis integrating approaches from the research fields of sustainable business and policy analysis the article shows how competition between various sustainable supply chain governance systems in the netherlands has resulted in recent market breakthroughs while initially government interventions were very limited and diverse the article suggests an approach for more systematic analysis of these dynamics and the roles of various actors by identifying both the public policy cycle and the private policy cycle

the march of an economic idea protectionism isn t counter cyclic anymore conventional wisdom holds that protectionism is counter cyclic tariffs quotas and the like grow during recessions while that may have been a valid description of the data before the first world war it is now inaccurate since the second world war protectionism has not been counter cyclic tariffs and non tariff barriers simply do not rise systematically during downturns i document this new stylised fact with a panel of data covering over 180 countries and 40 years using over a dozen measures of protectionism and six of business cycles i test and reject a number of potential reasons why protectionism is no longer counter cyclic a diagnosis of exclusion leads me to believe that modern economics may well be responsible for the decline in protectionism s cyclic behaviour economists are more united in their disdain for protectionism than virtually any other concept this in turn leaves one optimistic that the level of protectionism will continue to decline along with its cyclicality andrew k rose

food and life cycle energy inputs consequences of diet and ways to increase efficiency food consumption is one of the most polluting everyday activities when impacts during product life cycles are considered greenhouse gas emissions from the food sector are substantial and need to be lowered to stabilise climate change here we present an inventory of life cycle energy inputs for 150 food items available in sweden and discuss how energy efficient meals and diets can be composed energy inputs in food life cycles vary from 2 to 220 mj per kg due to a multitude of factors related to animal or vegetable origin degree of processing choice of processing and preparation technology and transportation distance daily total life cycle energy inputs for diets with a similar dietary energy consumed by one person can vary by a factor of four from 13 to 51 mj current swedish food consumption patterns result in life cycle energy inputs ranging from 6900 to 21 000 mj per person and year choice of ingredients and gender differences in food consumption patterns explain the differences up to a third of the total energy inputs is related to snacks sweets and drinks items with little nutritional value it is possible to compose a diet compatible with goals for energy efficiency and equal global partition of energy resources however such a diet is far from the swedish average and not in line with current trends

economic growth sustainable development and food consumption evidence across different income groups of countries abstract considering that high population and income growths will lead the coming decades an increase in global food demand is expected livestock products such as meat are closely related to this trend but also associated with impacts on the environment and public health from land and water depletion to greenhouse gases emissions and higher risks of non communicable diseases this trend raises doubts about the sustainability of the food industry and thus a solution is needed for the problem how to feed the world population without compromising present and future generations the literature suggests that meat consumption should be reduced for the sake of the environment and global population however without considering the effects that such reduction would have on the economy inspired by these facts this paper empirically analyses the interactions between food consumption economic growth and sustainable development measured by the index of sustainable economic welfare more specifically the paper assesses the effect that food consumption has on the economy the econometric analysis applies the autoregressive distributed lag model for 77 countries further distinguished by their income group from 1995 to 2013 the findings support that meat consumption has different impacts on economic growth and sustainable development considering different income groups however there is an evident dilemma between economic growth and sustainable development since meat consumption has contradictory effects on each thus it is crucial to understand how to promote sustainability i e reducing the environmental externalities and chronic health diseases without compromising economic growth

between ostrom and nordhaus the research landscape of sustainability economics abstract we survey the emerging research area of sustainability economics through a quantitative full text analysis of peer reviewed journal publications from 1987 to 2013 to identify relevant contributions we draw on existing definitions of sustainability economics for a keyword based identification strategy a combined focus on a the human nature relationship b the long term uncertain future c normative orientation towards sustainability and d economic analysis our analysis of a random subsample of 343 relevant papers reveals that i sustainability economics is a rapidly developing research area ii while theoretical contributions shaped the area in earlier years applied work now constitutes the largest share of contributions iii the research landscape can be clustered into eleven research clusters these range from participatory governance of social ecological systems associated with the work of elinor ostrom to questions of intertemporal allocation and distribution applied to climate economics associated with the work of william nordhaus iv the research area is broad in scope and heterogeneous and there is relatively little interaction between important clusters v relevant contributions are published in more than 100 journals ten journals publish half of all contributions led by ecological economics and 40 appear in non economics journals underscoring the importance of interdisciplinary dialogue

global estimates of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions abstract the present study examines the long run relationship between energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission for different groups of countries comprising lower middle income upper middle income and heavily indebted countries east asia and pacific east europe and central asia latin america and caribbean middle east and north africa south asia sub saharan africa and for aggregate data of the world the data has been analyzed by using various econometric techniques specifically the johnson cointegration modified version of granger causality and variance decomposition analysis from the period of 1975 to 2011 the results confirm that there is a long run relationship between greenhouse gas emissions i e agricultural methane emission agricultural nitrous oxide emission and carbon dioxide emission and energy consumption the results of granger causality indicate that energy consumption granger causes greenhouse gas emission but not vice versa the important finding is that energy consumption granger causes gdp per unit energy use which confirms the energy led growth hypothesis in the world however the vice versa relationship does not hold the results imply that a policy to cut energy consumption tends to diminish greenhouse gas emission though affecting gdp of countries negatively

the bare necessities how much household carbon do we really need the consumption patterns of western nations are generally deemed to be unsustainable yet there is little attempt to restrain either material throughput or income growth nonetheless in the face of the need to make deep cuts in carbon emissions for instance consumption restraint may be a perfectly legitimate response this paper explores the potential for a reduced consumption scenario in the uk constructed by assuming that households achieve a specific minimum income standard which is deemed to provide a decent life for each household type the minimum income standards are taken from a recent study for the joseph rowntree foundation and include not only subsistence commodities such as food warmth and shelter but also the means to participate effectively in society the joseph rowntree foundation study produced detailed household expenditure budgets for these income standards the paper uses an environmentally extended quasi multi regional input output model to estimate the greenhouse gas ghg emissions required in the production and distribution of all goods and services purchased according to these budgets our results show that average household ghg emissions in the uk would be around 37 lower in the reduced consumption scenario than they are currently we explore several implications of these findings including the need to change social norms around consumption the need for investment to improve the thermal performance of homes and the need to develop new transport infrastructures we also address the potential to reduce emissions below the level achieved in this scenario and discuss the implications for policy

food labeling and eco friendly consumption experimental evidence from a belgian supermarket using an incentive compatible framed field experiment we investigate whether consumers food consumption is more eco friendly when the information about a product s environmental impact is more easily accessible through an online survey we identify a food label that is perceived to be the most easily accessible for assessing a product s eco friendliness among six alternatives these alternatives vary on multiple dimensions including whether a standardized score of the overall environmental impact is added this new food label is subsequently tested in an experimental food market embedded in a belgian supermarket we find that the presence of the new label that was preselected in the online survey leads to more eco friendly food consumption relative to either the label currently used in the supermarket or the label that contains the raw information of the environmental impact in our experimental food market the use of an easy to interpret but comprehensive environmental information label increases the overall eco friendliness of our subjects food consumption by about 5 3 relative to the default label used in current markets

food in sub saharan africa trends and policy challenges for the 1990s abstract the food situation in africa can be expected to become increasingly serious as the end of the century approaches the gap between domestic supply and food needs in rapidly widening yield increasing technology becomes essential in view of land scarcity in high potential areas and sustainability problems in marginal zones the concern of governments for food self sufficiency however must not divert attention from the primary objective of household food security which is essentially a question of households real income accelerated rural growth and improved rural health and sanitation services accessible to the poor are central elements for household food security improvement

mainstreaming fair trade coffee from partnership to traceability summary this article analyzes the recent growth of fair trade and the mainstreaming of this previously alternative arena focusing on coffee i identify a continuum of buyers ranging from mission driven enterprises that uphold alternative ideas and practices based on social ecological and place based commitments to quality driven firms that selectively foster fair trade conventions to ensure reliable supplies of excellent coffee to market driven corporations that largely pursue commercial industrial conventions rooted in price competition and product regulation using a commodity network approach my analysis illuminates the impacts of diverse buyer relations on producer groups and how relations are in some cases shifting from partnership to traceability

sustainability oriented innovation system analyses of brazil russia india china south africa turkey and singapore abstract the coherency of research development and innovation processes are vital in promoting a more resource efficient society sustainability oriented innovation systems define specific kinds of innovation systems i e those that are directed to the aims of sustainable development this paper develops an integrated method with four layers of analysis to evaluate the priorities and performances of such systems the method is applied to a sample of emerging and innovation based economies namely brazil russia india china south africa turkey and singapore the analyses consider the 6 main activities or functional dynamics of innovation systems and a set of 19 keywords the keywords relate to the thematic clusters of renewable energy technologies energy efficiency and environmental management the priorities of the countries in each main interaction of the system are classified accordingly the priorities are compared to the existing level of specialization in the keywords based on the intermediate outputs of the system the analyses cover 153 838 papers and 15 138 patents between the years 2003 and 2014 a sustainable innovation index is developed to aggregate the normalized values of country performance across all keywords singapore receives the highest value 21 17 and the average of brazil russia india china and south africa is 14 91 the results determine the ability of countries to align priorities and performance towards more mature innovation systems for sustainable development

the allowance for uncollectible accounts conservatism and earnings management we study the interrelation between conservatism and earnings management by examining the allowance for uncollectible accounts and its income statement counterpart bad debt expense we find that the allowance is conservative and that it has become more conservative over time conservatism may however facilitate earnings management we find that firms manage bad debt expense downward and even record income increasing bad debt expense to meet or beat analysts earnings forecasts and that conservatism accentuates the extent to which firms manage bad debt expense further we find that firms manage bad debt expense downward by drawing down previously recorded over accruals of bad debt expense that have accumulated on the balance sheet an implication of our study is that tighter limits on the amount by which firms are permitted to understate net assets may reduce their ability to manage earnings

tracing distant environmental impacts of agricultural products from a consumer perspective globally trade flows of agricultural products are increasing while value is typically added along the whole production chain certain environmental impacts such as land and water use biomass appropriation and soil degradation are intrinsically linked to where the primary products originate from when taking a consumer oriented approach on environmental problems bilateral trade statistics can help in providing a clearer picture about the location of impacts caused by consumption elsewhere however in today s increasingly globalized world consumer goods are often imported from countries other than where the primary product originated from for instance soybeans are transported from brazil to the netherlands where they are processed into soy oil which is shipped to austria where it is consumed utilizing bilateral trade matrices and matrix algebra we present a method that allows to clearly link consumption patterns to the origin of primary products in this the method can help to provide information about consumption related distant environmental impacts we employ the case of land and water use linked to austria s soy product consumption to demonstrate the approach s relevance finally we outline some possible applications of this method to show its potential in enhancing understanding for informed consumer based environmental decision making

tele connecting urban food consumption to land use at multiple spatial scales a case study of beef in taiwan abstract this study takes the first step to tele connect urban food consumption to land use at multiple spatial scales by taking beef consumption of taiwan during 1990 2016 as a test case the novelty of this study is to make a quantitative effort in advancing the methodological approach in urban studies and facilitates future research in the subject area our numerical results support the hypothesis of ult associated with beef consumption and suggest that the phenomena of beef related land teleconnection are more significant in urban areas from the time dynamic perspective moreover trade liberalization extends the spatial spectrum of implied land use associated with beef consumption it allows imports towards relative land saving origins and alleviates beef related ult finally income growth plays a key role in driving up the implied land use of beef consumption at earlier stage of urban development in contrast at the later stage the increase in expenditure intensity of beef accounts for surging beef consumption in cities

weighted average source points and distances for consumption origin tools for environmental impact analysis abstract this paper presents two methods to quickly assess how local people s consumption is dependant on sources other than local or domestic weighted average source points wasps or weighted average source distances wasds for consumption origin are calculated and used to illustrate the extent to which the goods consumed come from places other than where the consumer lives two case studies show the practicability of the methods the first is a comparison between the consumption origins of tomatoes and carrots and the second a comparison between grape consumption origins in 1965 and 1992 both the wasp and the wasd methods are easy to use and the results can be communicated in illustrative ways these methods however give only an estimate of possible environmental impacts

bipolarity multipolarity and free trade recent literature typically attributes the relative scarcity of open international markets to the prisoner s dilemma structure of state preferences with respect to trade i argue that the prisoner s dilemma representation does not reflect the most critical aspect of free trade agreements in an anarchic international system security externalities explicit consideration of these effects suggests that a bipolar international political system has an advantage relative to its multipolar counterpart with respect to the opening of markets among states less credible exit threats and stronger incentives to engage in altruism within its alliances explain the advantage of a two power system the real income gains that motivate free trade are also the source of the security externalities that impede it their ability to internalize these effects makes military alliances the natural basis of agreements to open international markets the evolutionary prospects of alliances vary however ones that are the products of bipolar systems are more likely to evolve into free trade coalitions than are their multipolar counterparts i argue that less credible exit threats and stronger incentives to engage in alliance altruism explain the advantage of a two power system several important limits of the argument should be made clear immediately i argue at the systemic level i attempt to isolate the political and economic incentives for free trade that occur at the level of the international system i do not therefore consider the impact of unitlevel factors on the pursuit of these incentives for example neither the role of special interest groups nor the organization of domestic exchange via hierarchies instead of markets is considered doyle 1986 frieden 1988 ruggie 1982 the conditions i assume are those of standard international trade theory ethier 1983 and illustrative rather than systematic empirical referents are used these restrictions are appropriate given my purpose to demonstrate analytically the advantage of a bipolar international political system with respect to free trade

mfa model to assess economic and environmental consequences of food production and consumption abstract agri food sector is a crucially important part of the society because it is a major factor affecting public health and welfare and it also contributes directly and indirectly both to the environment and to the national gross product and employment improving sustainability of the agri food sector implies production of nutritionally better food by using fewer inputs and by reducing environmental burden in reducing environmental burden it is essential to restrict the material throughput to identify the hot spots and direct the measures to them improving performance of the food sector requires that the benefits and inputs be quantified in an unambiguous way and that the inputs are estimated for the whole production chain a comprehensive view of the whole system is necessary here the material flow approach mfa has been used to describe the finnish food flux the quantitative numerical data have been derived from the farm models data base and the data have been adjusted so as to comply with the production and consumption statistics of finland using the compiled data an extended input output model has been constructed the model allows for the evaluation of some of the economic and environmental consequences when the structure of food production and the patterns of food consumption are changed the consequences can be traced within agriculture within the food sector as a whole or at the level of the nation wide economy in combination with other information the model thus serves as a practical tool for planning the paper at hand gives an overview of the data base and the basic calculation principles of the model the usability of the model is demonstrated with results from modelling examples in which the share of organic production or the share of vegetarian food in the average finnish diet has been increased the possibilities and restrictions of the approach as well as some of the needs for further development are discussed the study is the first step in developing mfa methods to analyse and to monitor the material flows of the finnish food flux the results have been used also in compiling the finnish physical input output tables the study thus contributes to the overall development of the materials flow accounting

explaining cooperation under anarchy hypotheses and strategies what circumstances favor the realization of mutual interests in the absence of centralized authority and through what strategies can nations foster the emergence of cooperation by altering the circumstances that they confront elementary game theory suggests three sets of conditions that serve as proximate explanations of the incidence of cooperation and discord i payoff structure mutual and conflicting preferences 2 the shadow of the future single play and iterated games and 3 number of players two person and n person games each of these three attributes of context may be subject to willful modification nations may create the preconditions for cooperation through strategies to alter payoffs lengthen the shadow of the future and reduce the number of actors required to realize limited mutual interests

is biodiversity friendly coffee financially viable an analysis of five different coffee production systems in western el salvador abstract the current trend for reducing shade cover in coffee plantations in northern latin america has prompted concern among conservationists because of its potential implications for the loss of biodiversity to help reverse such a trend a project has been launched to promote biodiversity friendly cultural practices in coffee plantations and the marketing of certified biodiversity friendly coffee this paper examines the financial feasibility of investing in the certification criteria for a biodiversity friendly coffee in farms with different production systems in western el salvador models were developed to estimate net present values and risks associated with the investment for five hypothetical but typical coffee farms 1 traditional polyculture 2 commercial polyculture 3 technified shade less than 1200 m elevation 4 technified shade greater than 1200 m elevation and 5 unshaded monoculture to invest in the biodiversity friendly certification criteria was financially viable in all farms the unshaded monoculture farm type was the most profitable case and the farm under traditional polyculture was the only risk free capital requirements for the investment are low though they increase as shade cover in the farm becomes reduced small cash poor farmers will need assistance to make the up front expenditures required to have the farm certified incentives for certified biodiversity friendly coffee plantations such as tax relief payment for environmental services and soft credits could help make the investment more attractive

biophysical assessments in evaluating industrial development an experience from taiwan freshwater aquaculture abstract herman e daly noted in 1992 that maintaining the scale of the physical economy within ecological capacity is vital in pursuing sustainability leading to the use of biophysical assessments as a central concept in sustainability analysis from the perspective of ecological economics accordingly this study provides an empirical support for the key role of biophysical assessments in sustainability analysis by presenting the pictures of taiwan freshwater aquaculture from monetary and biophysical perspectives the analytical results demonstrate that freshwater aquaculture contributes to taiwan s economic prosperity from a monetary perspective but causes land subsidence from the biophysical perspective results of this study also indicate the critical role of spatial dimension in biophysical assessments

globalisation and unequalisation what can be learned from value chain analysis although many have gained from the process of globalisation there remains a stubbornly large number of people living in absolute poverty and a rise in inequality within and between countries the issue is thus not whether to participate in the global economy but how to do so in a manner which provides for sustainable and equitable income growth this study shows how value chain analysis can be used to chart the growing disjuncture between global economic activity and global income distribution and to provide causal explanations for this outcome in so doing value chain analysis provides valuable insights into policy formulation and implementation

diet shifts towards meat and the effects on cereal us can we feed the animals in 2030 abstract the paper argues that current international projections of meat and feed demand may underestimate future consumption patterns for mainly two reasons demand projections are based on income extrapolation with an assumed demand elasticity and feed requirements per unit of meat are taken to be fixed instead we propose a structural specification that includes a dietary shift towards meat as per capita income increases and we account for a shift from traditional to cereal intensive feeding technologies our finding is that under the commonly assumed growth rates of per capita income world cereal feed demand will be significantly higher in the coming 30 years than is currently projected by international organizations even if we allow for price effects compared to other factors that are generally expected to affect the future world food situation the quantitative impact of the increased cereal feed demand greatly exceeds that of gmos and climate change in the coming three decades

the concentration of capabilities and international trade over the course of the previous two decades political scientists have become increasingly interested in the relationship between international politics and global trade much of the literature on this topic centers on the effects of a hegemonic distribution of power on commerce hegemonic stability theorists argue that hegemony is a necessary condition for the existence of a liberal economic order and that in the absence of a hegemon a liberal international economy is particularly difficult to establish and maintain however a growing number of theoretical and empirical critiques have been leveled against the gemonic stability theory and the issue of whether hegemony helps shape patterns of global trade continues to be the topic of heated debate

supply chain specific understanding the patchy success of ethical sourcing initiatives as a number of high profile companies have found to their cost corporate reputations can be significantly affected by firms management of sustainability issue including those that are outside their direct control such as the environmental and social impacts of their supply networks this paper begins by examining the relationship between corporate social responsibility reputation and supply network conditions it then looks at the effectiveness of one tool for managing supply network sustainability issues ethical sourcing codes of conduct by examining how the characteristics of three supply networks branded clothes diy wood products and branded confectionary affects the implementation ethical sourcing codes of conduct it ends by setting out conclusions on why implementation of such codes has been so much more successful in some sectors than others and recommendations on effective approaches to managing sustainability issues in supply networks

international human rights a regime analysis after laying out a typology of international regimes eight international and regional human rights regimes are analyzed in order to 1 examine the utility of regime analysis in noneconomic issue areas and 2 assess the nature extent and evolution of international cooperation on human rights there has been a remarkable growth of international action since 1945 when human rights were not even widely accepted as a legitimate issue area this growth can be explained largely by expanding perceptions of moral interdependence and community increased national commitment the growing ideological appeal of human rights and changes in the distributions of international power these same factors however suggest only limited future growth on a broader theoretical plane the case of human rights suggests a significant if limited and principally heuristic utility for regime analysis especially to the extent that international relations is becoming increasingly concerned with specific issues

energy transitions and national development indicators a global review of nuclear energy production abstract energy use plays a vital role for human well being however human well being can also be affected by socio economic and environmental impacts associated with the use of different primary energy sources nuclear energy production is perceived as one means of satisfying national energy demand while contributing to a potentially sustainable energy transition the objective of this study is to further understand socio economic environmental and technological factors that characterize countries that choose nuclear energy production hence this exploratory study reviews the socio economic contexts of nuclear energy producing countries in comparison to countries without nuclear energy use the study is based on world development indicators published by world bank for 213 countries between 1960 and 2013 and follows two analytical steps first based on a comparison of countries average development indicator values over time we descriptively explore which socio economic environmental and technological factors characterize the spectrum of countries following different nuclear energy strategies no nuclear production phase out planning to produce produce nuclear energy second we statistically analyze nuclear energy producing countries exploring if there was significant change in socio economic environmental and technological characteristics after the start of nuclear energy production characteristics of our four country groups revealed nuclear countries incl phase out used more energy per capita and showed higher levels of carbon emissions as well as household consumption compared to countries planning to use nuclear energy and countries without nuclear energy use adoption of nuclear energy does not appear to reduce fossil fuel use or enable energy independence hence our study did not provide evidence that nuclear energy production can be seen as technological answer to global challenges like climate change or unequal energy distribution it is therefore unclear if and how nuclear energy contributes to global human well being as part of sustainable development

sustainable development and the challenge of innovation abstract innovation does not automatically lead to societal progress as is implicitly assumed in technology push oriented policies this assumption is an inheritance of the enlightenment i e the belief that science will automatically lead to a better quality of life the strive for sustainable development needs an approach towards innovation that can be characterised as society pull the society has to decide which balance of economical ecological and social goals are to be met society pull can be organised by developing shared perspectives for the future which are inspiring for public and private policy makers and investors in this paper this is worked out as transition management a process approach directing innovation towards sustainable development a crucial aspect of transition management is that innovation is no longer driven by the past but attracted by the future

the long term impacts of air pollution control policy historical links between municipal actions and industrial energy efficiency in kawasaki city japan abstract under the pressures of rapid industrialization and urbanization many asian countries are facing the challenge of reducing air pollution and co 2 emissions simultaneously while maintaining their economic growth under such a circumstance a growing attention is focused on successful implementation of co benefit policies that are designed to reduce both air pollutants and co 2 emissions however the concept of co benefit policies must be developed further in order to identify its quantitative and qualitative validity which can be assessed using a reliable methodology for the estimation of co benefits and through clarification of the importance of this approach for stakeholders in urban environmental policy making based on a systematic review of co benefit research and air pollution control policies in japan we investigated the local air pollution control policy in kawasaki city one of the industrial centers of japan and confirmed that it has contributed both to the sharp decline of atmospheric sulfur dioxide so 2 levels and to energy efficiency improvements in local industries our results suggest that preventive actions and local scale compliance enforcement tools that are uniquely designed and act as a form of agreement between government and individual firms could contribute significantly to successful implementation of co benefit policies in the long term we conclude our paper with a discussion of linkages between low carbon technology innovations and policy designs that could further nurture co benefits

the limitations of structural theories of commercial policy if a structural theory is one that purports to explain behavior in terms of environmental conditions and that largely eschews analysis of the internal processes of decision makers then it is difficult to identify a theory of commercial policy which is not structural most microeconomic theory is structural so are most balance of power theories in the realm of theories of commercial policy hegemonic stability theories as well as some recently developed theories of international tariff levels fit this description in the latter category judith goldstein s work which attempts to account for american commercial policy in terms of the ideology of american central decision makers and charles kindleberger s ambitious sketch of a general theory of 19th century tariff changes in terms of the diffusion of liberal ideology constitute lonely examples of nonstructural research strategies

trade gaps analytical gaps regime analysis and international commodity trade regulation studies of international regimes have sought to describe international collaborative arrangements in more systematic terms than in the past and to analyze their development in terms of major schools of international relations theory this article refines the commonly used definition of regimes and elucidates the major hypotheses of one theoretical school structural realism the strength and nature of the international commodity trade regime are systematically described and their development is analyzed in terms of the major hypotheses of structural realism in large part these hypotheses are supported by the analysis of what is a relatively weak international regime

the evolution of dutch environmental policy the changing ecological arena from 1970 2000 and beyond abstract dutch environmental policies over the past thirty years have expanded through three distinct phases these policies gradually opened up to engage stakeholders in establishing legislation formulating implementation plans and finally jointly defining ecological objectives environmental policies became increasingly effective by ensuring the taking on of environmental responsibilities by a growing number of stakeholders four unresolved issues present a formidable agenda for environmental policy attention in the next decade managing co 2 emissions controlling future infrastructure development minimising resources use and reducing the burden on biodiversity these issues relate to the necessary management of stocks of energy other non renewable resources space and biodiversity respectively up to now the issue of the preservation of stocks has not received much policy attention they are expected to become the new policy issues complementing the traditional emission reduction policies which mainly aim at safeguarding the quality of air water and soil it is argued that super optimizing policies engaging jointly economic social and ecological interests are needed to resolve the issues at stake

a bi objective stochastic programming model for a centralized green supply chain with deteriorating products in recent years consumers and legislation have been pushing companies to design their activities in such a way as to reduce negative environmental impacts more and more it is therefore important to examine the optimization of total supply chain costs and environmental impacts together however because of the recycling of deteriorated items the environmental impacts of deteriorating items are more significant than those of non deteriorating ones the objective of this paper is to develop a stochastic mathematical model and to propose a new replenishment policy in a centralized supply chain for deteriorating items in this model we consider inventory and transportation costs as well as the environmental impacts under uncertain demand several transportation vehicles producing various greenhouse gas ghg levels are considered the best transportation vehicles and inventory policy are determined by finding a balance between financial and environmental criteria in this way we develop a linear mathematical model and present a numerical example from the real world to demonstrate its applicability and effectiveness we then perform a sensitivity analysis and provide some managerial insights finally more promising directions are suggested for future research

internalizing sustainable practices a configurational approach on sustainable forest management of the dutch wood trade and timber industry a number of environmental labels and certificates have been developed to inform consumers of the environmental impacts this paper explored different configurations of institutional and organizational conditions for the internalization of sustainable practices for the institutional conditions the level of institutional pressures were considered for the organizational conditions the following elements were taken into account 1 the timing of adoption 2 the willingness to cannibalize existing capabilities and routines to incorporate institutional demands for sustainability 3 the degree of implementation of these demands 4 the internal representation of environmental concerns and 5 the type of organization the paper analyzed sustainable forestry practices in wood trade and timber factories in the netherlands using a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis from the analysis three configurations were found 1 concerned internalization for early adopting wood trade companies 2 forced internalization for late adopting wood trade companies and 3 lagged internalization for late adopting timber factories the configurations revealed that important conditions for explaining internalization of sustainable practices are high levels of implementation and high levels of willingness to cannibalize the findings reaffirm the relevance of institutional and organizational conditions in explaining the internalization of environmental friendly practices they also showed that the interplay between a firm s internal and external environments influence the internalization of environmental practices the results imply that practice internalization is more subtle than previously understood in the literature

climate change and dietary choices how can emissions of greenhouse gases from food consumption be reduced abstract results from an analysis of greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption during the life cycle of carrots tomatoes potatoes pork rice and dry peas consumed in sweden are presented and discussed the life cycle is delineated to the part of the production chain prior to purchase by the consumer the study shows that emissions expressed in g co2 equivalents are highest for pork and rice and lowest for potatoes carrots and dry peas the most important stages of emissions in the life cycle are identified for each of the different food items crop farming is the most important stage for rice and tomatoes while rearing of animals is the most important stage for pork and storage is the most important stage for carrots comparison with an energy analysis shows that important stages in the life cycle of food may be under evaluated when energy only is accounted for this may lead to a sub optimisation of pollution control exemplified by the case of transportation also it is shown that the choice of functional unit has a decisive influence on the outcome of the study the recommendation is to compare whole meals or diets with the same nutritional qualities a comparison of four meals composed of the food items under analysis shows that a meal with tomatoes rice and pork has nine times higher emissions than a meal made from potatoes carrots and dry peas emissions of greenhouse gases from consumption patterns based on the food items analysed are compared with an assumed sustainable limit of greenhouse gas emissions the conclusion is that current food consumption patterns in the developed countries exceed the level of sustainability by at least a factor of 4 prospects for achieving sustainable food consumption patterns are questionable in view of current trends in food demand

the ecological footprint of poverty alleviation evidence from mexico s oportunidades program abstract we study the consequences of poverty alleviation programs for environmental degradation we exploit the community level eligibility discontinuity for a conditional cash transfer program in mexico to identify the impacts of income increases on deforestation and use the program s initial randomized rollout to explore household responses we find that additional income raises consumption of land intensive goods and increases deforestation the observed production response and deforestation increase are larger in communities with poor road infrastructure this suggests that better access to markets disperses environmental harm and that the full effects of poverty alleviation on the environment can be observed only where poor infrastructure localizes them

capital adequacy ratio regulations and accounting choices in commercial banks abstract this study examines a commercial bank manager s incentives to reduce regulatory costs imposed when the bank s capital adequacy ratio falls below its regulatory minimum it also tests the general political sensitivity hypothesis that a manager seeks to reduce political costs incurred when revenue is unusually large tests of adjustments to the loan loss provision loan charge offs and securities gains and losses attempt to control for exogenous economic conditions and previous investing decisions results are consistent with hypotheses associating accounting adjustments with capital adequacy ratio guidelines but fail to support the political sensitivity hypothesis

the limits of international organization systematic failure in the management of international relations contributors to the literature on international organization io have traditionally been overly optimistic about the ability of multilateral management to stabilize in ternational relations and have tended to ignore the destabilizing effects of io while recent revisionist scholarship has acknowledged both the potential for organizational failure and the conditionality of management it has tended to focus on how io fails within specific issue areas and institutions this article offers a typology of the inherent systematic failures of io across issue areas and institutions and thereby seeks to bridge the gaps in our understanding of why many different institutions and managerial schemes have adverse effects it argues that io is prone to failure 1 when it attempts to manage complex tightly coupled systems of relations and issues 2 when it serves as a substitute either for more substantive and long term resolutions to international problems or for responsible domestic or foreign policy 3 when it intensifies international disputes and 4 when it generates moral hazard in offering a general theoretical approach to understanding the destabilizing effects of io the analysis is intended to serve both as a focal point for understanding critical approaches to the study of io and as an alternative rationale for eliminating the excesses of multilateral management

trimming the excess environmental impacts of discretionary food consumption in australia abstract tackling the overconsumption of discretionary foods foods and drinks not necessary to provide the nutrients the body needs is central to aligning human and planetary health whilst the adverse health impacts of discretionary foods are well documented the environmental and broader sustainability impacts of these products deserve more attention especially since their consumption has been increasing in recent decades particularly amongst low income groups this paper presents a quantitative case study analysis of discretionary food consumption and the associated environmental impacts for households from different income groups in australia environmentally extended input output analysis is used to estimate the full life cycle environmental impacts of discretionary food consumption on the basis of household expenditures on average discretionary foods account for a significant 35 39 33 and 35 of the overall diet related life cycle water use energy use carbon dioxide equivalent and land use respectively these significant percentages provide further support for the need to incentivise diets that are both healthier and more sustainable including divestment from discretionary food products the study highlights the challenges ahead including the need for further research on food substitutions to minimise environmental and social impacts whilst maximising nutritional quality especially amongst poorer socioeconomic groups

consumption patterns and their effects on land required for food abstract vast amounts of land are required for the production of food but the area suitable for growing crops is limited in this paper attention is paid to the relationship between food consumption patterns and agricultural land requirements land requirements per food item that were determined in a previous study are combined with data on the per capita food consumption of various food packages varying from subsistence to affluent leading to information on land requirements for food large differences could be shown in per capita food consumption and related land requirements while food consumption expenditure and the physical consumption of specific foods change rapidly over time a difference of a factor of two was found between the requirements for existing european food patterns while the land requirement for a hypothetical diet based on wheat was six times less than that for an existing affluent diet with meat it is argued that in the near future changes in consumption patterns rather than population growth will form the most important variable for total land requirements for food trends towards the consumption of foods associated with affluent lifestyles will bring with them a need for more land lifestyle changes changes in consumer behavior on a household level can be considered as powerful options to reduce the use of natural resources such as agricultural land

international trade related food miles the case of canada abstract at the beginning of the 21st century imports of agricultural and food commodities have become a major part of many nations food baskets indeed the global food system has several merits for nations businesses and individual consumers well being however as increasing evidence suggests that we are approaching an era of climate change and scarcity of cheap energy sources the sustainability of that system must be examined one part of any food commodity chain is its food miles the distance the commodity travels from point of production to point of consumption the required energy and resulting emissions this paper presents a 1 year snapshot of canada s total import related food miles it presents an analysis of the distance imported foods traveled from around the world to major points of consumption in canada and documents the equivalent carbon dioxide emissions related to those imports it presents both a macro scale picture of the equivalent emissions related to transportation of imported food and a micro scale picture which focuses on specific commodities consumed in various parts of the country it then discusses policy implications for food sustainability overall the research highlights that about 30 of the agricultural and food commodities consumed in canada are imported resulting in food miles of over 61 billion tonnes km leading to annual emissions of 3 3 million metric tonnes of co 2 of the various agriculture and food commodities studied fruits and vegetables had the highest food miles related emissions