an empirical assessment of the residual income valuation model abstract this paper provides an empirical assessment of the residual income valuation model proposed in ohlson ohlson j a 1995 earnings book values and dividends in security valuation contemporary accounting research 11 661 687 we point out that existing empirical research relying on ohlson s model is similar to past research relying explicitly on the dividend discounting model we establish that the key original empirical implications of ohlson s model stem from the information dynamics that link current information to future residual income our empirical results generally support ohlson s information dynamics however we find that our empirical implementation of ohlson s model provides only minor improvements over existing attempts to implement the dividend discounting model by capitalizing short term earnings forecasts in perpetuity

the place of the capability approach within sustainability economics the connections between the capability approach and sustainability economics have been explored recently i argue here that for engaging in a more substantive study of those connections we must first understand the place of the capability approach within the history of economic thought as a second stage of the revival of classical surplus theory once this is clear we can then use the capability approach in order to specify concepts such as well being surplus scarcity and sustainable reproduction which are essential for the development of sustainability economics

measuring subjective expectations in developing countries a critical review and new evidence the majority of economic decisions taken by individuals are forward looking and thus involve their expectations of future outcomes understanding the expectations that individuals have is thus of crucial importance to designing and evaluating policies in health education finance migration social protection and many other areas however the majority of developing country surveys are static in nature and do not contain information on the subjective expectations of individuals possible reasons given for not collecting this information include fears that poor illiterate individuals do not understand probability concepts that it takes far too much time to ask such questions or that the answers add little value this paper provides a critical review and new analysis of subjective expectations data from developing countries and refutes each of these concerns the authors find that people in developing countries can generally understand and answer probabilistic questions such questions are not prohibitive in time to ask and the expectations are useful predictors of future behavior and economic decisions the paper discusses the different methods being tried for eliciting such information the key methodological issues involved and the open research questions the available evidence suggests that collecting expectations data is both feasible and valuable suggesting that it should be incorporated into more developing country surveys

the relevance of epistemic analysis to sustainability economics and the capability approach abstract this paper considers how epistemic analyses birkin and polesie 2011 foucault 1970 foucault 1990a foucault 1990b may assist with the development of sustainability economics bartelmus 2010 baumgartner and quaas 2010a baumgartner and quaas 2010b and soderbaum 2011 and the capability approach ballet et al 2011 martins 2011 rauschmayer and lesmann 2011 scerri 2012 it was the french social theorist michel foucault 1926 1984 who coined the term episteme to refer to the possibility of knowledge that determines the development of thought and knowledge in a given period for foucault epistemes were the buried foundations of knowledge that his epistemic archaeology could unearth in 2007 foucault was identified as the most cited author of books in the humanities by thomson reuters isi web of science this paper begins with a brief definition and description of epistemic analyses a summary analysis of the modern episteme and neoclassical economics is then provided and this is followed by outline evidence for the emerging episteme finally the opportunity is considered for the emerging episteme to reinforce and enhance sustainability economics and the capability approach

bounds on elasticities with optimization frictions a synthesis of micro and macro evidence on labor supply how can price elasticities be identified when agents face optimization frictions such as adjustment costs or inattention i derive bounds on structural price elasticities that are a function of the observed effect of a price change on demand the size of the price change and the degree of frictions the degree of frictions is measured by the utility losses agents tolerate to deviate from the frictionless optimum the bounds imply that frictions affect intensive margin elasticities much more than extensive margin elasticities i apply these bounds to the literature on labor supply the utility costs of ignoring the tax changes used to identify intensive margin labor supply elasticities are typically less than 1 of earnings as a result small frictions can explain the differences between micro and macro elasticities extensive and intensive margin elasticities and other disparate findings pooling estimates from existing studies i estimate a hicksian labor supply elasticity of 0 33 on the intensive margin and 0 25 on the extensive margin after accounting for frictions

intrahousehold allocation of free and purchased mosquito nets for some health goods intrahousehold allocation may be more important in determining outcomes than household level consumption an example is the use of mosquito nets to prevent malaria malaria kills over one million people annually 90 percent of them children under the age of five the use of insecticide treated mosquito nets itns is considered the most costeffective available strategy for control of the disease in 2000 44 of the 50 malaria affected countries in africa committed themselves to increasing the use of itns by vulnerable populations in particular children under five years of age and pregnant women adults in malarious regions have typically acquired some immunity to the disease through repeated exposure over the course of their lives the risk of severe malaria resulting in lifelong disability or death is highest for young children and pregnant women across transmission environments robert w snow et al 2003 on the other hand lost labor time often accounts for the largest portion of the private cost of the disease this implies a trade off between minimizing the income lost to malaria and minimizing the risk that a household member dies or is permanently disabled despite public health messages emphasizing the importance of using mosquito nets to protect young children from malaria nets are often used by adults when a household does not have enough nets to cover all members eline l korenromp et al 2003 frederick mugisha and jacqueline arinaitwe 2003 determining the welfare maximizing allocation of nets is intrahousehold allocation of free and purchased mosquito nets

health and agricultural productivity evidence from zambia we evaluate the productivity effects of investment in preventive health technology through a randomized controlled trial in rural zambia in the experiment access to subsidized bed nets was randomly assigned at the community level 516 farmers were followed over a one year farming period we find large positive effects of preventative health investment on productivity among farmers provided with access to free nets harvest value increased by us 76 corresponding to about 14 7 of the average output value while only limited information was collected on farming inputs shifts in the extensive and the intensive margins of labor supply appear to be the most likely mechanism underlying the productivity improvements observed

zero as a special price the true value of free products when faced with a choice of selecting one of several available products or possibly buying nothing according to standard theoretical perspectives people will choose the option with the highest cost benefit difference however we propose that decisions about free zero price products differ in that people do not simply subtract costs from benefits but instead they perceive the benefits associated with free products as higher we test this proposal by contrasting demand for two products across conditions that maintain the price difference between the goods but vary the prices such that the cheaper good in the set is priced at either a low positive or zero price in contrast with a standard cost benefit perspective in the zero price condition dramatically more participants choose the cheaper option whereas dramatically fewer participants choose the more expensive option thus people appear to act as if zero pricing of a good not only decreases its cost but also adds to its benefits after documenting this basic effect we propose and test several psychological antecedents of the effect including social norms mapping difficulty and affect affect emerges as the most likely account for the effect

decision costs and price sensitivity field experimental evidence from india abstract poor people often exhibit puzzlingly high sensitivity to low prices of important consumer health goods this paper proposes decision costs as one explanation whether a person buys at a price depends on whether she carefully considers the offer which itself depends on price a simple model predicts that deliberation costs 1 increase sensitivity to low prices 2 can prevent cost sharing from targeting products to buyers with high value and 3 can have larger effects on poorer people the principal contribution of this paper is a field experiment that sold hand washing soap in rural india participants were randomly assigned to be offered soap for either a low or very low price which was experimentally crossed with assignment to a control group or to a treatment that required deliberation results matched predictions of the model the treatment decreased price sensitivity relative to the control group and increased targeting of product take up by need

nuclear decommissioning costs the impact of recoverability risk on valuation abstract mounting nuclear plant decommissioning costs and utility deregulation focused attention on accounting for decommissioning liabilities fasb s exposure draft 158 b proposes balance sheet recognition of the projected future decommissioning cost liability at initial plant commission we expect market valuation of each dollar of decommissioning cost apportioned to utilities to vary with utility specific factors related to the probability of cost recovery via rates we find a more negative decommissioning cost firm value association for utilities with higher business or financial risk also equity value is significantly associated with total decommissioning cost across all nuclear units in which a utility has ownership interest

are disclosures about bank derivatives and employee stock options value relevant abstract the papers by venkatachalam 1996 and aboody 1996 provide some interesting evidence on issues that are important to accounting regulators as well as accounting academics however for econometric as well as economic reasons there are limits to what we can learn from this type of research cross sectional levels studies careful attention to methodological issues in this type of research design can reduce but likely will not eliminate these interpretational difficulties

who is behavioral cognitive ability and anomalous preferences in this paper we ask whether variation in preference anomalies is related to variation in cognitive ability evidence from a new laboratory study of chilean high school students with similar schooling backgrounds shows that small stakes risk aversion and short run discounting are less common among those with higher standardized test scores the relationship with test scores survives controls for parental education and wealth we find some evidence that elementary school gpa is predictive of preferences measured at the end of high school two laboratory interventions provide suggestive evidence of a possible causal impact of cognitive resources on expressed preferences jel j24 d14 c91

the market valuation implications of net periodic pension cost components abstract this paper examines whether market participants implicitly assign different coefficients to pension cost components when determining security prices the major findings are 1 the pension cost components coefficients generally differ from one another as predicted the transition asset amortization coefficient is lower than other pension coefficients and is insignificantly different from zero 2 consistent with the market viewing pension related income streams as less risky the pension coefficients are generally larger than the nonpension coefficients additional specification tests permitting nonpension coefficients to vary with risk tax payer status and industry membership generally support the basic findings although the significance levels are generally higher

commitment mechanisms and compliance with health protecting behavior preliminary evidence from orissa india this paper presents results that are part of a larger study carried out in five districts of the eastern indian state of orissa where endemic malaria represents one of the most serious public health concerns one of the study s objectives designed in collaboration with the micro lender bharat integrated social welfare agency was to evaluate the possibility of using specifically designed consumer loan contracts to increase ownership and retreatment rates for insecticide treated bednets

keeping the doctor away experimental evidence on investment in preventative health products household investment in preventative health products in developing countries is typically low even though the returns to such products are high in this paper we experimentally estimate demand curves for health products and test whether 1 information about health risk 2 cash liquidity 3 peer effects and 4 intra household differences in preferences affect demand in our main experiment in kenya involving children s shoes critical for preventing hookworm infection price is by far the most important predictor of purchase providing liquidity and targeting women also increased demand information had no effect even though we find that genuine learning occurred we find no peer effects even though people discussed the product purchase decision extensively we find similar results for price and information in three smaller studies in guatemala india and uganda in experiments involving soap and multivitamins

sustainability economics general versus specific and conceptual versus practical we clarify the definition and interpretation of sustainability economics baumgartner and quaas 2010 in response to recent comments by van den bergh 2010 bartelmus 2010 and others for that sake we distinguish between general and specific definitions of sustainability and sustainability economics as well as between conceptual and practical approaches

inequality sustainability and piketty s capital abstract in this article i address the implications of thomas piketty s book capital in the twenty first century for our understanding of inequality and sustainability drawing upon amartya sen s capability approach and the revival of classical political economy it brings i argue that piketty s contribution is a significant one which has the potential to lead economic analysis in a more fruitful direction but its potential becomes much greater if its empirical analysis is combined with the revival of classical political economy undertaken by sen and other authors rather than with marginalist theory

sustainability economics as a contested concept sustainability economics as a concept is interpreted differently in different publications some authors look for a modification of mainstream neoclassical economics while the present author regard

can higher prices stimulate product use evidence from a field experiment in zambia the controversy over how much to charge for health products in the developing world rests in part on whether higher prices can increase use either by targeting distribution to high use households a screening effect or by stimulating use psychologically through a sunk cost effect we develop a methodology for separating these two effects we implement the methodology in a field experiment in zambia using door to door marketing of a home water purification solution we find evidence of economically important screening effects by contrast we find no consistent evidence of sunk cost effects jel c93 d12 i11 m31 o12

are risk aversion and impatience related to cognitive ability is the way that people make risky choices or tradeoffs over time related to cognitive ability this paper investigates whether there is a link between cognitive ability risk aversion and impatience using a representative sample of the population and incentive compatible measures we conduct choice experiments measuring risk aversion and impatience over an annual time horizon for a randomly drawn sample of roughly 1 000 german adults subjects also take part in two different tests of cognitive ability which correspond to sub modules of one of the most widely used iq tests interviews are conducted in subjects own homes we find that lower cognitive ability is associated with greater risk aversion and more pronounced impatience these relationships are significant and robust to controlling for personal characteristics educational attainment income and measures of credit constraints we perform a series of additional robustness checks which help rule out other possible confounds

ecosystems strong sustainability and the classical circular economy abstract in this article i argue that notions such as ecosystem services and strong sustainability can be best understood and developed within the theoretical framework advanced by the classical political economists in which a circular conception of the economy is provided i also argue that the development of notions such as ecosystem services and strong sustainability has been constrained by the dominance of neoclassical economics which provides a linear conception of the economy and leads to an emphasis on weak sustainability which in turn springs from an emphasis on substitutability and aggregate capital when assessing the relevance of classical political economy for studying ecosystem services and strong sustainability i consider not only the contributions of the classical political economists but also more recent contributions which draw upon the classical perspective such as piero sraffa s and amartya sen s

do non monetary prices target the poor evidence from a field experiment in india monetary price subsidies are often used to increase take up of health products but monetary prices may screen out those with the highest returns the poor using willingness to pay wtp data from a field experiment in india this paper determines whether nonmonetary prices better target health products to the poor than monetary prices it is found that monetary wtp is increasing in income and nonmonetary wtp is weakly decreasing in income comparing across price types nonmonetary wtp falls relative to monetary wtp as income rises nonmonetary prices better target the poor than monetary prices a larger fraction of total demand is poor

humans environment and economies from vicious relationships to virtuous responsibility abstract the debates questioning the meaning of growth point to a need for a more holistic understanding of human beings and of the economic actor fundamental to economic theory and practice this contribution turns to virtue ethics in order to reframe the self in more reflexive relational and environmental terms we explore the significance of understanding humans sense of responsibility that is quintessentially relational and of their capacity and need to relate to nature as well as community and society we begin by reviewing the main arguments in the thriving debate in ecological economics around what the characteristics of the human being can contribute to implement an ecologically sustainable development our aim is then to draw a link between this debate and that of virtue ethics that leads to a different understanding of the human being of what can contribute to individual wellbeing and a good life responsibility we argue is not only a value but a virtue that enables individuals to find meaning in acting responsibly towards the environment emphasising the multiple benefits that arise from framing good lives in active terms we conclude reflecting on the challenges to and implications of our proposition for government institutions particularly education

eliciting and utilizing willingness to pay evidence from field trials in northern ghana we utilize the becker degroot marschak 1964 mechanism to estimate the willingness to pay for clean drinking water technology in northern ghana the bdm mechanism has attractive properties for empirical research allowing us to directly estimate demand compute heterogeneous treatment effects and study the screening and causal effects of prices with minor modifications to a standard field experiment setting we demonstrate the implementation of bdm along these three dimensions compare it to the standard take it or leave it method for eliciting willingness to pay and discuss practical issues for implementing the mechanism in true field settings jel classifications c93 d12 d82 l11 l31

the demand for a malaria vaccine evidence from ethiopia this study measures the monetary value households place on preventing malaria in tigray ethiopia we estimate a household demand function for a hypothetical malaria vaccine and compute the value of preventing malaria as the household s maximum willingness to pay to provide vaccines for all family members this is contrasted with the traditional costs of illness medical costs and lost productivity our results indicate that the value of preventing malaria with vaccines is about us 36 per household per year or about 15 of imputed annual household income this is on average about twice the expected household cost of illness

the illusion of sustainability this brief summarizes the results of a gender impact evaluation study entitled the illusion of sustainability conducted during the time period 1998 to 2001 in kenya the study observed that deworming is a public good since much of its social benefit comes through reduced disease transmission people were less likely to take deworming if their direct first order or indirect second order social contacts were exposed to deworming the introduction of a small fee for deworming drugs led to an 80 percent reduction in treatment rates take up was not sensitive to the exact price level suggesting that it is particularly counter productive to charge small positive prices for the treatment of infectious diseases an intensive school health education had no impact on worm prevention funding for the study derived from world bank nih fogarty international center berkeley center for health research

market valuation of employee stock options this study investigates whether investors incorporate the value of a firm s outstanding employee stock options into its stock price i estimate the outstanding options value for a sample of firms for which outstanding fixed options exceed 5 of outstanding common shares in 1988 i find a negative correlation between the value of outstanding options and a firm s share price the correlation is stronger i for the option s intrinsic value than for the option s time value ii for options that are later in their vesting stage than earlier in their vesting stage and iii for large firms than for small firms in addition the fasb s method for calculating compensation expense has no explanatory power in the presence of this paper s calculation of the options value

electric utility stranded costs valuation and disclosure issues we analyze the stock market s valuation of electric utility stranded costs i e costs that might become unrecoverable under deregulation and investigate whether stranded costs that have arisen as a result of voluntary firm business decisions are valued differently from those that are more directly linked to regulatory mandates further we study whether investor valuations differ across jurisdictions finally we examine the relation between investor valuation of stranded costs and the decision by utilities to make stranded cost related disclosures in their financial statements voluntarily we find that investors anticipate that on average approximately 10 of total stranded costs will be borne by utility shareholders stranded costs arising from voluntary operating or investing decisions made by utilities are valued more negatively than those associated with mandatory power purchase contracts consistent with investors assigning a higher recovery probability to the latter investor valuations of stranded costs associated with utility generating investments do not differ systematically across jurisdictions we find that stranded costs are valued less negatively for voluntary disclosers not just in the year of disclosure but also in the preceding two years implying that it is not disclosure per se that favorably influences valuation voluntary disclosers operate in jurisdictions that have more clearly established stranded cost recovery mechanisms suggesting that both stranded cost disclosure and valuation are prompted by reduction in uncertainty about recoverability

new foundations for ecological economics abstract ecological economics has been repeatedly described as transdiciplinary and open to including everything from positivism to relativism i argue for a revision and rejection of this position in favour of realism and reasoned critique looking into the ontological presuppositions and considering an epistemology appropriate for ecological economics to meaningfully exist requires rejecting the form of methodological pluralism which has been advocated since the start of this journal this means being clear about the differences in our worldview or paradigm from others and being aware of the substantive failures of orthodox economics in addressing reality this paper argues for a fundamental review of the basis upon which ecological economics has been founded and in so doing seeks improved clarity as to the competing and complementary epistemologies and methodologies in part this requires establishing serious interdisciplinary research to replace superficial transdisciplinary rhetoric the argument places the future of ecological economics firmly amongst heterodox economic schools of thought and in ideological opposition to those supporting the existing institutional structures perpetuating a false reality of the world s social environmental and economic systems and their operation

fair value disclosures by bank holding companies abstract this paper examines the value relevance of fair value data disclosed under sfas 107 by banks for 1992 and 1993 collectively the evidence suggests differences between fair and book values of financial instruments are associated with market to book ratios however fair value disclosures for financial instruments other than securities are value relevant only in limited settings in addition only in 1992 are fair value variables associated with market to book ratios after incorporating existing historical cost information further analysis suggests the weaker 1993 results are not necessarily due to increased measurement error in fair value numbers

tax subsidy policies toward vector borne infectious diseases abstract vector borne diseases especially rife in poor countries pose sectoral tax subsidy issues preventions and therapies mitigate these diseases in a numerical optimization model combining dynamic epidemiology and economics the medical distinction between prevention and therapy does not distinguish economic properties of preventions and therapies some interventions increase and others decrease moving to the steady state depending on the utility function the targeting of interventions and the disease process interventions display negative own price but indeterminate cross price effects juxtaposing the social planner s with decentralized choices quantifies externalities and shows how subsidies implement the first best one prevention and the therapy are equally subsidized

factor endowments inequality and paths of development among new world economies whereas traditional explanations of differences in long run paths of development across the americas generally point to the significance of differences in national heritage or religion we highlight the relevance of stark contrasts in the degree of inequality in wealth human capital and political power in accounting for how fundamental economic institutions evolved over time we argue moreover that the roots of these disparities in the extent of inequality lay in differences in the initial factor endowments dating back to the era of european colonization we document through comparative studies of suffrage public land and schooling policies systematic patterns by which societies in the americas that began with more extreme inequality or heterogeneity in the population were more likely to develop institutional structures that greatly advantaged members of elite classes and disadvantaging the bulk of the population by providing them with more political influence and access to economic opportunities the clear implication is that institutions should not be presumed to be exogenous economists need to learn more about where they come from to understand their relation to economic development our findings not only contribute to our knowledge of why extreme differences in the extent of inequality across new world economies have persisted for centuries but also to the study of processes of long run economic growth past and present

early life health and cognitive function in old age child health in the united states improved dramatically over the twentieth century data from the national center for health statistics indicate the infant mortality rate was 23 times greater in 1900 than in 2004 the mortality rate of one to four year old children although lower in absolute terms had a larger proportionate decline the value in 1900 was 66 times that in 2004 the proximate cause of the mortality decline was a reduction in infectious disease between 1900 and 1998 the percentage of deaths of children age 1 to 19 due to infectious disease is estimated to have declined from 61 6 percent to 2 percent bernard guyer et al 2000 major causes of child death included diarrhea pneumonia and other respiratory infections diphtheria typhoid measles scarlet fever whooping cough and tuberculosis guyer et al 2000 the mortality decline was accompanied by reductions in morbidity among surviving children there were also declines in the prevalence of a host of illnesses such as hookworm and trachoma which were not deadly but which impaired children s quality of life c hoyt bleakley 2007 shannen k allen and richard d semba 2002 early life exposures to infectious disease may also have adverse effects on health and well being into old age if true then the benefits of the twentieth century decline in infectious disease in the united states are still being realized we examine whether the disease environments experienced by american children in the first half of the twentieth century are associated with their cognitive abilities at older ages we match region level historical data on mortality from a variety of infectious diseases as well as total infant mortality with information on the cognitive function of older americans followed by the health and retirement study hrs we find evidence that the burden of disease in early life measured using either mortality rates by cause or the overall infant mortality rate is significantly associated with performance on cognitive tests in old age

school inputs and educational outcomes in south africa we examine the relationship between educational inputs primarily pupilteacher ratios and school outcomes in south africa immediately before the end of apartheid government black households were severely limited in their residential choice under apartheid and attended schools for which funding decisions were made centrally by white controlled entities over which they had no control the allocations resulted in marked disparities in average class sizes controlling for household background variables we find strong and significant effects of pupilteacher ratios on enrollment on educational achievement and on test scores for numeracy

use and usefulness of sustainability economics abstract sustainable development is at the roots of sustainability economics baumgartner and quaas 2010 define sustainability economics as the combination of economic efficiency and justice in the distribution of nature s services van den bergh in press criticizes their approach as axiomatic and incomplete lacking a discussion of environmental externalities and dogmas like the gdp dogma the focus on non measurable welfare or happiness in both articles impairs the use and usefulness of their sustainability notions for applied economics and policy alternatively environmentally modified national accounts offer a quantifiable sustainability concept of produced and natural capital maintenance for practical reasons sustainability economics should therefore deal with sustainable economic performance and growth coordination with other social goals has to be left to politics

micro loans insecticide treated bednets and malaria evidence from a randomized controlled trial in orissa india we describe findings from the first large scale cluster randomized controlled trial in a developing country that evaluates the uptake of a health protecting technology insecticide treated bednets itns through micro consumer loans as compared to free distribution and control conditions despite a relatively high price 52 percent of sample households purchased itns highlighting the role of liquidity constraints in explaining earlier low adoption rates we find mixed evidence of improvements in malaria indices we interpret the results and their implications within the debate about cost sharing sustainability and liquidity constraints in public health initiatives in developing countries

a note on sustainability economics and the capability approach sustainability economics attempts to reconcile efficiency criteria with those of social justice in a context of environmental concern this article aims at highlighting the fact that the capability approach offers an interesting perspective for the foundation of sustainability in economics it primarily focuses on the major role that freedom brings as a normative basis for well being and adds new insights for our understanding of human and environment relationship through the study of the constraints and opportunities that affect the individual the final section of this article asks us to reconsider our nature conservation choices by acknowledging the restrictive impact that they have on individual freedoms

health nutrition and economic development the relationship between health and economic development is explored focusing on nutrition based health indicators the spotlight is placed on the inter related feedbacks between the influence of health on productivity on one hand and the influence of income on health status on the other disentangling causality in these relationships has preoccupied much of the literature we evaluate different empirical strategies that have been adopted and assess the results there is now a body of evidence based on careful empirical studies that demonstrates a causal relationship between health and labor productivity there is also evidence that at least among the very poor additional income is spent on improved nutrition there are two issues that have received little attention although we argue they are likely to be very important first measurement of health is discussed in detail evidence is presented on how taking into account differences in the extent of measurement error is critical for interpreting the impact of health on wages the same theme emerges in studies of the effect of income on health specifically calorie intake the key role of non linearities in these relationships is highlighted and we demonstrate that a good deal of the variation in estimates of income elasticities of demand for calories can be ascribed to the role of measurement and functional form authors

the use of environmental management accounting ema for identifying environmental costs abstract the expert working group on improving the role of government in the promotion of environmental management accounting ema was set up by the united nations division for sustainable development un dsd in cooperation with a number of government agencies and non governmental experts to promote environmental management accounting ema through publications pilot projects and by establishing an international forum for discussion on the role of governments in the promotion of ema ema environmental management accounting represents a combined approach that provides for the transition of data from financial accounting cost accounting and mass balances to increase material efficiency reduce environmental impacts and risks and reduce costs of environmental protection ema is performed by private or public corporations but not by nations and has a financial as well as a physical component the core focus of environmental management accounting and of the ema un dsd methodology is assessment of total annual environmental expenditure on emission treatment disposal environmental protection and management in addition and that is new and challenging for most companies the material purchase value of all non product output and its production costs are added this total sum often provides a frightening picture of total annual costs of inefficiency and gets companies to improve their information systems and material efficiency options which is the goal in the light of cleaner production the first book published by the expert working group environmental management accounting procedures and principles jasch c united nations new york 2001 defines principles and procedures for ema with a focus on techniques for quantifying environmental expenditures or costs as a basis for better controlling and benchmarking purposes the methodology excludes costs external to the company so called externalities e g environmental and social effects that occur to the general public but focuses on comprehensive assessment of direct annual expenditure on emission treatment environmental protection and management as well as wasted material and energy input efficiency losses in production firstly total annual expenditure is assessed then improvement options savings and investment projects as well as product prices can be re calculated the method is currently applied in several case studies the following summary provides some of the core definitions and generic assessment tables

price subsidies diagnostic tests and targeting of malaria treatment evidence from a randomized controlled trial author s dupas pascaline cohen jessica schaner simone abstract both under and over treatment of communicable diseases are public bads but efforts to decrease one run the risk of increasing the other using rich experimental data on household treatment seeking behavior in kenya we study the implications of this tradeoff for subsidizing life saving antimalarials sold over the counter at retail drug outlets we show that a very high subsidy such as the one under consideration by the international community dramatically increases access but nearly half of subsidized pills go to patients without malaria we study two ways to better target subsidized drugs reducing the subsidy level and introducing rapid malaria tests over the counter

microcredit and willingness to pay for environmental quality evidence from a randomized controlled trial of finance for sanitation in rural cambodia low willingness to pay wtp for environmental quality in developing countries is a key research question in environmental economics one explanation is that missing credit markets may suppress wtp for environmental improvements that require large up front investments we test the impact of microloans on wtp for hygienic latrines via a randomized controlled trial in 30 villages in rural cambodia we find that microcredit dramatically raises wtp for improved latrines with 60 of households in the financing arm willing to purchase at an unsubsidized price relative to 25 in the non financing arm effects on latrine installation are positive but muted by several factors including a negative peer effect randomly induced purchases by neighbors reduce a household s probability of installing its own latrine on methodological grounds this paper shows that a decision focused evaluation can be integrated into academic analysis to provide insight into questions of general interest

preferences for improved cook stoves evidence from rural villages in north india abstract because emissions from solid fuel burning in traditional stoves impact global climate change the regional environment and household health there is today real interest in improved cook stoves ics nonetheless surprisingly little is known about what households like about these energy products we report on preferences for biomass burning ics attributes in a large sample of 2120 rural households in north india a global hotspot for biomass fuel use and the damages that such use entails households have a strong baseline reliance and preference for traditional stoves a preference that outweighs the 10 and 5 willingness to pay wtp for realistic 33 reductions in smoke emissions and fuel needs on average respectively preferences for stove attributes are also highly varied and correlated with a number of household characteristics e g expenditures gender of household head patience and risk preferences these results suggest that households exhibit cautious interest in some aspects of ics but that widespread adoption is unlikely because many households appear to prefer traditional stoves over ics with similar characteristics the policy community must therefore support a reinvigorated supply chain with complementary infrastructure investments foster experimentation with products encourage continued applied research and knowledge generation and provide appropriate incentives to consumers if ics distribution is to be scaled up

free distribution or cost sharing evidence from a randomized malaria prevention experiment author s cohen jessica dupas pascaline abstract it is often argued that cost sharing charging a subsidized positive price for a health product is necessary to avoid wasting resources on those who will not use or do not need the product we explore this argument through a field experiment in kenya in which we randomized the price at which prenatal clinics could sell long lasting anti malarial insecticide treated nets itns to pregnant women we find no evidence that costsharing reduces wastage on those that will not use the product women who received free itns are not less likely to use them than those who paid subsidized positive prices we also find no evidence that costsharing induces selection of women who need the net more those who pay higher prices appear no sicker than the average prenatal client in the area in terms of measured anemia an important indicator of malaria cost sharing does however considerably dampen demand we find that uptake drops by 75 percent when the price of itns increases from zero to 0 75 i e from 100 to 87 5 percent subsidy the price at which itns are currently sold to pregnant women in kenya we combine our estimates in a cost effectiveness analysis of itn prices on child mortality that incorporates both private and social returns to itn usage overall our results suggest that free distribution of itns could save many more lives than cost sharing programs have achieved so far and given the large positive externality associated with widespread usage of itns it would likely do so at a lesser cost per life saved

short run subsidies and long run adoption of new health products evidence from a field experiment short run subsidies for health products are common in poor countries how do they affect long run adoption a common fear among development practitioners is that one off subsidies may negatively affect long run adoption through reference dependence people might anchor around the subsidized price and be unwilling to pay more for the product later but for experience goods one off subsidies could also boost long run adoption through learning this paper uses data from a two stage randomized pricing experiment in kenya to estimate the relative importance of these effects for a new improved antimalarial bed net reduced form estimates show that a one time subsidy has a positive impact on willingness to pay a year later inherit to separately identify the learning and anchoring effects we estimate a parsimonious experience good model estimation results show a large positive learning effect but no anchoring we black then discuss the types of products and the contexts inherit for which these results may apply

k william kapp s theory of social costs a luhmannian interpretation in developing his famous theory of social costs k william kapp claimed to draw inspiration from the theory of open systems the present paper reconstructs the notion of social costs from the perspective of the luhmannian theory of autopoietic social systems an alternative systems theoretic paradigm according to luhmann these systems build up their internal complexity at the cost of lowering their sensitivity to the complexity of their environment both societal and ecological from the luhmannian perspective social costs can be understood as those segments of environmental feedback that are thus ignored by social systems this perspective is not only consistent with kapp s own vision of social costs as a systematic outcome of private business enterprise but also even more radical as it traces these costs back to the regime of functional differentiation of society and thus to human civilization generally it follows from the luhmannian perspective that social costs can be reduced by improving the coordination between the individual functional systems such as economy law politics and science

learning misallocation and technology adoption evidence from new malaria therapy in tanzania i study how the misallocation of new technology to individuals who have low ex post returns to its use affects learning and adoption behavior i focus on antimalarial treatment which is frequently over prescribed in many low income country contexts where diagnostic tests are inaccessible i show that misdiagnosis reduces average therapeutic effectiveness because only a fraction of adopters actually have malaria and slows the rate of social learning due to increased noise i use data on adoption choices the timing and duration of fever episodes and individual blood slide confirmations of malarial status from a pilot study for a new malaria therapy in tanzania to show that individuals whose reference groups experienced fewer misdiagnoses exhibited stronger learning effects and were more likely to adopt

does purchase price matter for the waiting time to start using energy efficient technologies experimental evidence from rural ethiopia abstract in this study we conducted a randomized experiment in rural ethiopia to test on how quickly energy efficient technology an improved stove is put in use after the technologies is disseminated we evaluate two concepts that may affect usage of a product screening related to valuation of a product and sunk cost effects based on the price the potential user paid for the product a standard tobit and iv tobit methods of estimations are used for testing sunk cost and screening effects respectively results based on the baseline survey and follow up data shows that there is no difference in the length of waiting time to start using the energy efficient technology between those who got the stove for free and those that paid money for it in other words the sunk cost effect is absent however we find a difference in the waiting time between those with high valuation for the stove and those with lower valuation for it in other words we find an evidence of the screening effect the result has pricing policy implications for government and non government organizations involved in dissemination of such technologies that have both public environmental and private benefits

one off subsidies and long run adoption experimental evidence on improved cooking stoves in senegal free technology distribution can be an effective development policy instrument if market driven adoption is socially inefficient and hampered by affordability constraints yet policy makers often oppose free distribution arguing that reference dependence lowers the willingness to pay wtp and thus market potentials in the long run for improved cookstoves this paper studies the wtp six years after a randomized one time free distribution in 2009 we demonstrate that the cookstoves were intensely used by the treatment group households in the years after randomization until they reached their designated lifetime using a real purchase offer we find that both treatment and control households reveal a remarkably high wtp in 2015 the estimated confidence interval suggests that we can exclude a substantial negative effect on the treatment group the policy implication is that one time free distribution does not necessarily undermine future market establishment and thus can be an effective policy instrument if rapid dissemination is the objective

tying odysseus to the mast evidence from a commitment savings product in the philippines we designed a commitment savings product for a philippine bank and implemented it using a randomized control methodology the savings product was intended for individuals who want to commit now to restrict access to their savings and who were sophisticated enough to engage in such a mechanism we conducted a baseline survey on 1777 existing or former clients of a bank one month later we offered the commitment product to a randomly chosen subset of 710 clients 202 28 4 percent accepted the offer and opened the account in the baseline survey we asked hypothetical time discounting questions women who exhibited a lower discount rate for future relative to current trade offs and hence potentially have a preference for commitment were indeed significantly more likely to open the commitment savings account after twelve months average savings balances increased by 81 percentage points for those clients assigned to the treatment group relative to those assigned to the control group we conclude that the savings response represents a lasting change in savings and not merely a short term response to a new product

the effect of marketing messages and payment over time on willingness to pay for fuel efficient cookstoves abstract smoke from inefficient biomass cookstoves contributes to global climate change and kills approximately four million people per year cooking technologies such as manufactured fuel efficient cookstoves that mitigate the negative effects of traditional cookstoves exist but adoption rates are low the international development community debates whether this low adoption of fuel efficient cookstoves is due to a lack of adequate product information or due to household financial constraints we ran vickery second price auctions in rural uganda to elicit willingness to pay for fuel efficient cookstoves comparing the effect of informational marketing messages and time payments on willingness to pay a randomized trial tested the following marketing messages this stove can improve health this stove can save time and money and both messages combined none of the messages consistently increased willingness to pay in a second experiment we compared willingness to pay for two different contracts one with payment due within a week and one with equal installment payments over 4 weeks consistent with household financial constraints time payments raised willingness to pay by 40

ends in view the capabilities approach in ecological sustainability economics while traditional scientific endeavor seeks to avoid the problem ecological economics and the broader emergent field of sustainability economics e se are explicitly grounded in a particular ethico moral assertion one that defines sustainability as a normative notion about the way how humans should act towards nature and how they are responsible towards one another and future generations baumgartner and quaas 2010 p 445 thus e se is neither a purely positive science nor is it a purely normative endeavor but it is what has been called relevant science baumgartner and quaas 2010 p 447 a key objective of e se is therefore said to be to study how ecosystems and human activity interrelate in terms that extend beyond functional and descriptive analysis of this interrelationship and towards explicitly incorporating this normative vision the result that is aimed for is a discipline that is constituted as the best possible approach to the science and management of sustainability

the classical circular economy sraffian ecological economics and the capabilities approach abstract here i provide some further elaborations on the idea of a classical circular economy and its articulation with the capabilities approach this enables addressing some important questions raised by yoann verger 2017 when commenting on the idea of a classical circular economy as outlined in martins 2016 while advancing the basis for a sraffian ecological economics to understand the connections between sraffa s economic theory and the classical circular economy discussed by verger 2017 an essential aspect to be addressed here is sraffa s interpretation of the classical conception of the wage which can be fruitfully addressed in terms of the capabilities approach as suggested by vivian walsh 2000

using an economic experiment to estimate willingness to pay for a new maternal nutrient supplement in ghana scaling up access to supplements designed to prevent undernutrition such as new small quantity lipid based nutrient supplements sq lns may require distribution via both public channels and retail markets the viability of sq lns retail markets will hinge on household level demand we use an economic experiment to characterize initial willingness to pay wtp for a maternal sq lns product in ghana wtp is positive for most participants though below the estimated cost of production for many wtp varies depending on income assets and parity status these findings have implications for the design of public health policy and hybrid public private delivery mechanisms

unraveling the veil of fuzziness a thick description of sustainability economics this article provides a thick description geertz 1973 of sustainability economics baumgartner and quaas 2010a b have proposed as an alternative to ecological economics the new field of sustainability economics which has triggered various replies the purpose here is to order and to review these contributions building upon a literature review of sustainability economics the paper argues that the concept currently has more of a fuzzy and declamatory character the rhetoric mccloskey 1998 of sustainability economics contains general issues of sustainability economics externalities and the capability approach the article argues that it is currently not clear how the solutions for science and policy proposed by sustainability economics differ from those of ecological economics efforts should be directed towards further development of the theory and the operationalization of sustainability principles the systemic view of co evolutionary development social learning and sustainability economics normative underpinning merits more consideration in the debate about sustainability economics

what is ecological economics ecological economics addresses the relationships between ecosystems and economic systems in the broadest sense these relationships are the locus of many of our most pressing current problems i e sustainability acid rain global warming species extinction wealth distribution but they are not well covered by any existing discipline environmental and resource economics as it is currently practiced covers only the application of neoclassical economics to environmental and resource problems ecology as it is cur rently practiced sometimes deals with human impacts on ecosystems but the more common tendency is to stick to natural systems ecological economics aims to extend these modest areas of overlap it will include neoclassical environmental economics and ecological impact studies as sub sets but will also encourage new ways of thinking about the linkages between ecological and economic systems we have chosen the name ecological economics for this area of study because it implies a broad ecological interdisciplinary and holistic view of the problem of studying and managing our world the earth from space cover of the journal reflects this global holistic perspective we did not intend to imply with the ordering of the two words in the title that the journal is mainly an economics journal it is intended to be a new approach to both ecology and economics that recognizes the need to make economics more cognizant of ecological impacts and dependencies the need to make ecology more sensitive to economic forces incentives and constraints and the need to treat integrated economic ecologic systems with a common but diverse set of conceptual and analytical tools there was much discussion of other possible names such as economic ecology or ecology and economics or some conjoining of the two words that to me end up being confusing tongue twisters like ecolnomics or econology but ecological economics seemed to get closest to the mean ing we desired while still being evocative to the uninitiated