the early history of modern ecological economics abstract this paper provides a historical perspective for the discussion on ecological economics as a special field of research by studying the historical background of ecological economics the present discussions and tensions inside the field might become easier to understand and to relate to the study is inspired by other studies of the emergence of new research areas done by sociologists and historians of science and includes both cognitive and social aspects macro trends and the role of individuals the basis for the paper is a combination of literature studies and interviews with key researchers from the field the story opens with the emergence of the new environmental agenda in the 1960s which was influenced by the scientific development in biology and ecology then it is outlined how the environmental challenge was met by economics in the 1960s around 1970 the basic ideas of ecological economics were given modern formulations but it took a long gestation period from the beginning of the 1970s to the end of the 1980s before ecological economics took shape during this gestation period the personal relationships between the actors were formed and the meetings that were decisive for the formal establishment of ecological economics took place

environmental regulations innovation and firm performance a revisit of the porter hypothesis part of the research for this paper was supported by funding from nottingham innovative manufacturing research centre and the university of bedfordshire business and management research institute

sustainable consumption within a sustainable economy beyond green growth and green economies abstract in 1992 one unambiguous result of the unced conference was the need for changing consumption and production patterns with affluent countries taking the lead 20 years later at the 2012 uncsd little is left over and instead the green economy has been the theme pursued by the oecd the eu and other countries so the question needs to be answered if this is finally an attempt to put into practice what was promised 20 years ago or another diversion from what needs to be accomplished sustainable development is still a convincing concept if the original definition is taken avoiding the confusion caused by partisan interests reinterpreting the concept focussing on human needs fulfilment and respecting environmental limits it can still guide strong sustainable consumption green economy green growth on the other hand is a new terminology for what is known since 40 years as ecological modernisation it is indeed overdue but with its focus on efficiency and innovation it cannot guarantee to fulfil the brundtland sustainability criteria a factor analysis based on the i p a t formula demonstrates how optimistic the assumptions regarding future technologies must be to support the green growth concept consequently the authors pledge for a pragmatic risk avoiding approach by slimming the physical size of the economy this requires strong sustainable consumption including production as resource consumption which in turn requires a change of the societies institutional settings formal and informal mechanisms and orientations finally some elements of a strategy towards this end are pointed out with special emphasis on the role of non governmental organisations ngos through networking and advocacy they can both stimulate bottom up action and mobilise the pressure necessary for the institutional changes which are needed to mainstream strong sustainable consumption

state contingent bank regulation with unobserved actions and unobserved characteristics abstract optimal bank regulation is studied in a model where bank quality is private information and bank portfolio choice is subject to moral hazard regulators wish to control bank risk solely because high risk adversely affects a bank incentives to improve its mean return numerical methods are developed to study the model capital regulation alone has a limited ability to separate types including ex post fines achieve separation at lower cost resulting in improved welfare low quality banks are fined on high returns in order to control risk taking high quality banks face fines on lower returns mainly to ensure truth telling by low quality banks high quality banks bear the full cost of regulation

controlling risk in payment systems over the past twenty years the growing integration of financial markets the development of new financial instruments and the advance of computer technology have all contributed to a remarkable growth of financial activity in the main industrialized countries one of the most significant consequences of this growth has been the unprecedented increase in the volume of trade on the largevalue interbank payment systems see table 1 which itself has resulted in a massive increase in intraday overdrafts on those systems see table 2 the central banks of the large industrialized countries concerned with the risks that this growth was creating for their banking systems have been studying the risks on interbank payment systems work that has borne fruit with the angell report bank for international settlements bis 1989 and the lamfalussy report bis 1990 both under the aegis of the bis and the padoa schioppa report european community 1992 under the aegis of the eec of particular concern is the organization of interbank large value transfer systems banks have traditionally concluded among themselves multilateral netting arrangements which settle at discrete time intervals this is the modern form of clearinghouses which still operate for small value transfers these arrangements

circular economy at the micro level a dynamic view of incumbents struggles and challenges in the textile industry the circular economy ce has received considerable attention as an approach that promises to reconcile ecological systems and economic growth in spite of its increased popularity little is known about the implementation struggles of incumbent firms across industrial sectors furthermore although the notion of circular production systems is at the intersection of different research areas such as sustainable product design sustainable supply chains and reverse logistics knowledge on how these concepts combine to ease or impede firms transition towards circularity is scarce to shed light on these gaps i used multiple case studies from cradle to cradle certified companies in the textile industry in europe by employing qualitative research i identified a set of factors along the textile value chain from product design to take back and reprocessing that are crucial in expediting or delaying a firm s aspirations to develop a circular product the main contribution of this paper is the dynamic understanding of how certain collaborative supplier buyer innovation factors i e supply chain position power balance and a shared vision coupled with complex aspects in product design namely in basic materials architecture and functionality combine to determine the output speed and quantity of circular products to be sold taken back and ultimately regenerated

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

material flow analysis of the forest wood supply chain a consequential approach for log export policies in france part of the french timber transformation industry suffers from difficulties to adapt to recent changes on global markets this translates into net exports of raw wood and imports of transformed products detrimental to both the trade balance and the local creation of wealth at the same time no consistent and homogeneous accounts for wood product production and consumption exist at this time this article first aims at objectifying this situation by undertaking the first material flow analysis of the french forest wood supply chain we then evaluate the potential consequences of various scenarios of raw wood exports reduction policies namely subsidies for consumption or transformation and taxation of exports on both economic outcomes for the different actors and material flows we thus provide an example of coupling material flow analysis with economic modeling in an attempt to move from the diagnostic phase to the assessment of possible actions within a decision making perspective

how do scholars approach the circular economy a systematic literature review abstract circular economy ce aims to overcome the take make dispose linear pattern of production and consumption proposing a circular system in which the value of products materials and resources is maintained in the economy as long as possible in recent years there has been a proliferation of scholars publications on the topic this study presents the results of a systematic literature review exploring the state of the art of academic research on ce the paper examines the ce body of literature with a systematic approach to provide an exhaustive analysis of the phenomenon with rigorous and reproducible research criteria the revisited material consists of 565 articles collected through the web of science and scopus databases and has been evaluated using specific structural dimensions to group literature into analytical categories starting from being a concept studied in connection with industrial ecology ce has slowly acquired its independent role in academic research framed mainly into environmental sustainability related studies as a result of policies implementation academic production is mainly concentrated in china and europe employing tools and methods for modelling processes and supporting decision making for ce implementation e g life cycle assessment and material flow analysis ce studies follow three main lines of action the first aims to change the social and economic dynamics at macro and administrative level the second to support firms in circular processes implementation at micro level to spread new forms of consumption and product design the third developed at meso level discusses industrial symbiosis experiences ce is associated with a variety of concepts and waste management emerges as the most relevant sub sector ce is also strongly connected with the concept of sustainability proposing ways to operationalize its implementation at the environmental and economic level while scholars only marginally consider social and institutional implications the most explored practices are those related to cleaner production aiming at reducing environmental impact and waste production along the life cycle of a product and optimizing the performance and efficiency of processes conversely studies on ce may devote greater attention to strategies for social and institutional changes able to transform the upstream process of production and consumption considering business model strategies scholars mainly focus on studying closing material loops strategy while slowing the loops which requires a radical change of consumption and production patterns is only marginally included with respect to ce implementation this study s findings highlight ce as an evolving concept that still requires development to consolidate its definition boundaries principles and associated practices

competition between private and public schools vouchers and peer group effects a theoretical and computational model with tax financed tuition free public schools and competitive tuition financed private schools is developed students differ by ability and income achievement depends on own ability and on peers abilities equilibrium has a strict hierarchy of school qualities and two dimensional student sorting with stratification by ability and income in private schools high ability low income students receive tuition discounts while low ability high income students pay tuition premia tuition vouchers increase the relative size of the private sector and the extent of student sorting and benefit high ability students relative to low ability students

promoting industrial symbiosis empirical observations of low carbon innovations in the humber region uk industrial symbiosis has been identified as a strategy to increase resource efficiency lower carbon emissions and increase business growth one type of industrial symbiosis is the innovative use of wastes from one company as a resource for another company however empirical understanding of implementing waste to resource innovations and hence how they can be promoted by public and private organisations is still limited therefore this study explored how companies implemented waste to resource innovations in the humber region uk five case studies were conducted with companies that used or supplied a secondary biomass resource for power generation or fuel manufacturing this article discusses how companies developed relations with biowaste resource suppliers or clients the results expanded operational understanding of waste to resource innovation processes as it revealed companies activities and their strategic considerations comparing the case studies the social processes through which relations between biowaste resource partners developed were largely similar however two different networking strategies were identified some companies had to engage new industries and therefore diversified their resource partners during the innovation process but strived to limit the number of resource partners once the innovation was realised conversely others expanded activities within their network and hence strengthened existing relations during the innovation but strived to increase the number of resource partners afterwards to manage risky over dependencies within their supply network finally resource security economic benefits and policy and regulation were of key importance to conclude operational and strategic insights to promote the uptake of waste to resource innovations are presented however further research is necessary before broad generalizations can be considered

trends in the development of ecological economics from the late 1980s to the early 2000s abstract as the contributions to ecological economics are very diverse recent years have seen some discussion on both how to delimit the field and in which direction it should develop the intention with this paper is to contribute to the discussion by outlining important trends in the development of the field from the late 1980s to the early 2000s the study is inspired by other studies in the sociology and history of science in particular by the theoretical framework regarding scientific fields as reputational organizations which draws attention to both cognitive and social aspects of the formation of a field the basis for the paper is a combination of literature studies interviews with key researchers in the field and participant observations the paper outlines the characteristic cognitive features of ecological economics at the time of the birth of the field it is then described how the development in ecological economics was influenced by broader social factors during the following years and how the field was shaped by the inflow and outflow of different groups of researchers the emergence of different research programmes is outlined as is the organizational development finally the characteristics of ecological economics are summarized and the future prospects are briefly assessed

the distribution of talent and the pattern and consequences of international trade i study the interaction between imperfect labor contracts and international trade in a setting in which workers have private information about their own abilities when an individual s contribution to firm output can be measured accurately in some activities but not in others the most able workers select occupations in which their pay most closely reflects their own performance in a world economy with two otherwise similar countries that have different distributions of talent the country with the more heterogeneous labor force exports the good that is produced by the most talented individuals in this country trade exacerbates the polarization of the labor force and often worsens the distribution of income

creating integrated business and environmental value within the context of china s circular economy and ecological modernization abstract this paper investigates the challenges and opportunities of how firms and organizations can and will be able to strike a better balance between economic growth and environmental stewardship in the context of china s emerging circular economy policy paradigm and based on ecological modernization theoretic approaches based on three company case studies in the information technology and electronic industries in china we identify and demonstrate how a blended business and environmental value can be created from adopting a sustainable supply chain management approach the adoption of a sustainable supply chain management approach is rapidly becoming a key business challenge and opportunity in china and other large emerging economies around the world where our greatest environmental management challenges currently reside and will continue to exist for many years to come the value creation framework proposed in research focuses on evaluating three case study companies who appear in various stages of an electronic industry supply chain value creation within a supply chain can provide the impetus for organizations to adopt circular economy sustainable supply chain practices for competitive reasons in addition we describe how a value proposition can be evaluated at two levels of analysis a more specific micro level and a more general meso level of analysis the four major business value dimensions include cost reduction revenue generation resiliency and legitimacy and image the initial findings are that a variety of opportunities exist for electronic firms in emerging and developing countries while results from this study provide an important scholarly foundation to develop and refine sustainable supply chain management practices in emerging and developing economies

sorting it out international trade with heterogeneous workers each worker brings a bundle of skills to the workplace for example quantitative and communication skills since employers must take this bundle as a package deal they choose workers with just the right mix of skills we show that international differences in the distribution of worker skill bundles for example japan s abundance of workers with a modest mix of both quantitative and teamwork skills have important implications for international trade industrial structure and domestic income distribution formally we model two dimensional worker heterogeneity and show that the second moments of the distribution of skills are critical as in the roy model

endogenous comparative advantage gains from trade and symmetry breaking abstract similar countries often choose very different policies and specialize in very distinct industries this paper proposes a novel mechanism to explain policy diversity between similar countries from an open economy perspective i study optimal policies in a two country model where policies affect the determinants of trade patterns symmetric countries choose asymmetric policies in equilibrium if aggregate income is sufficiently convex in own policy such high social increasing return to policy despite constant returns to scale in production generate enough gains from trade to sustain policy diversity in equilibrium any asymmetric equilibrium is welfare improving compared to the common autarky optimum similarly a more asymmetric nash equilibrium pareto dominates a less asymmetric one as an application i consider a model in which the government s choice of education policy affects skill distribution and comparative advantage in this application the existence of an asymmetric nash equilibrium in education policy requires that the elasticity of the education cost of agents with respect to skill is relatively low

what s different about banks abstract negotiable certificates of deposit cd s trade in the capital market in competition with other securities like commercial paper and bankers acceptances if cd s must pay lenders competitive monetary interest the reserve tax on cd s is borne by bank borrowers viability of the tax means there must be something special about bank loans that makes some borrowers willing to pay higher interest rates than those on other securities of equivalent risk moreover there must be something special about banks that prevents other intermediaries from competing to assure that it never pays to finance loans with cd s

an incentive approach to banking regulation we examine the optimal design of a risk adjusted deposit insurance scheme when the regulator has less information than the bank about the inherent risk of the bank s assets adverse selection and when the regulator is unable to monitor the extent to which bank resources are being directed away from normal operations toward activities that lower asset quality moral hazard under a socially optimal insurance scheme 1 asset quality is below the first best level 2 higher quality banks have larger asset bases and face lower capital adequacy requirements than lower quality banks and 3 the probability of failure is equated across banks perihaps t he most troubling aspect of the current deposit insurance system is the distortions caused by the pervasive use of an insurance premium that is independent of risk the undesirable incentives that result when such a system is employed in a world with imperfect information have long been recognized in the literature of particular concern is the incentive banks have to increase the risk of their portfolio in order to maximize the value of the deposit insurance provided in some respects this problem is similar to the incentives generated by corporate debt however the solution to this problem may be different in a banking context because the creditors include the deposit insurer who has the power to regulate the banks conceivably regulation may be able to mitigate the informational problem at hand in this paper we examine some of the tradeoffs that arise in the design of a regulatory system for banks

hidden effects of bank recapitalizations abstract given the importance of capital regulation in the banking industry how and why a bank s behavior reacts to a recapitalization has profound consequences to this end we investigate the effects of 306 seasoned equity offerings seos conducted by listed european banks between 2002 and 2014 we use propensity score matching and find that seos lead to asset expansion as opposed to any deleveraging further we find a decrease in lending in the short term followed by a subsequent increase a reduction in profitability and an increase in systemic risk regulators might not have fully considered this last negative externality when they imposed the tougher basel iii capital requirements the effects of seos strongly depend on the reasons behind the recapitalizations

the circular economy an interdisciplinary exploration of the concept and application in a global context there have long been calls from industry for guidance in implementing strategies for sustainable development the circular economy represents the most recent attempt to conceptualize the integration of economic activity and environmental wellbeing in a sustainable way this set of ideas has been adopted by china as the basis of their economic development included in both the 11th and the 12th five year plan escalating the concept in minds of western policymakers and ngos this paper traces the conceptualisations and origins of the circular economy tracing its meanings and exploring its antecedents in economics and ecology and discusses how the circular economy has been operationalized in business and policy the paper finds that while the circular economy places emphasis on the redesign of processes and cycling of materials which may contribute to more sustainable business models it also encapsulates tensions and limitations these include an absence of the social dimension inherent in sustainable development that limits its ethical dimensions and some unintended consequences this leads us to propose a revised definition of the circular economy as an economic model wherein planning resourcing procurement production and reprocessing are designed and managed as both process and output to maximize ecosystem functioning and human well being

energy management on industrial parks in flanders in the race against climate change aiming for low carbon competitiveness flanders has initiated a carbon neutrality strategy on industrial parks building towards energy efficient buildings and processes acting as a stimulus for the production and consumption of green electricity however premises and internal process optimisation on industrial parks is not considered sufficient to limit greenhouse emissions in flanders structural transition is called for aiming for industrial clustering and energy autonomy based on renewables therefore the concept of industrial symbiosis is analysed to determine how it could improve the energy related carbon management on industrial parks this article explores the literature on industrial symbiosis and eco industrial parks searching for specific energy strategies and is illustrated with case studies energy management on industrial parks can be integrated in the entire development process and park management maximising efficiency is a promising local optimisation issue in which business should be engaged stimulated and facilitated by clustering buildings and processes by energy exchange collective production and joint contracting of energy services local synergies can be intensified yet uncertainty and variability in time of energy consumption can keep developers from tailoring industrial park design and utilities instead flexibility and solidity could be gained and the offer of business space could be diversified supported by a persevering issuing procedure to join similar and matching energy profiles energy management on industrial parks in flanders has only recently started but is expected to gain professionalism however further research is needed on this flexible design and thermal planning

waste management policies for industrial symbiosis development case studies in european countries industrial symbiosis is emerged as a self organizing business strategy among firms that are willing to cooperate to improve their economic and environmental performance the adoption of such cooperative strategies relates to increasing costs of waste management most of which are driven by policy and legislative requirements development of is depends on an enabling context of social informational technological economical and political factors the power to influence this context varies among the agents involved such as the government businesses or coordinating entities governmental intervention as manifested through policies could influence a wider range of factors and we believe this is an area which is under researched this paper aims to critically appraise the waste policy interventions from supra national to sub national levels of government a case study methodology has been applied to four european countries i e denmark the uk portugal and switzerland in which is emerged or is being fostered the findings suggest that there are commonalities in policy instruments that may have led to an is enabling context the paper concludes with lessons learnt and recommendations on shaping the policy context for is development

a review on circular economy the expected transition to a balanced interplay of environmental and economic systems el articulo muestra un estudio en donde se proporciona una revision extensa de la literatura de las dos ultimas decadas con el proposito de captar las principales caracteristicas y perspectivas de la ce economia circular origenes principios basicos ventajas y desventajas modelado e implementacion de ce en los diferentes niveles micro meso y macro en todo el mundo los resultados demuestran que los origenes de la ce se basan principalmente en la economia ecologica y ecologia industrial

towards a national circular economy indicator system in china an evaluation and critical analysis abstract it is widely acknowledged that china s economic miracle has been achieved at the expense of its natural capital and environment in order to deal with this problem the circular economy ce has been chosen as a national policy for sustainable development national laws and regulations have been enacted to facilitate the implementation of ce and national ce demonstration projects have been initiated such that national benchmarking activities could be completed china is the first country to release nationally focused ce indicators so that objective and credible information on the status of ce implementation can be recognized these ce indicators are valuable metrics for policy and decision makers and can help achieve ce goals and outcomes this unique indicator system has not been communicated to international communities this paper aims to more broadly introduce this unique national ce indicator system china s ce efforts are first detailed with various provisions of the national indicator system a critical analysis of such an indicator system is presented we show that certain benefits can be gained but substantive revision is also needed due to the lack of a comprehensive set of sustainability indicators which should include social business indicators urban industrial symbiosis absolute material energy reduction and prevention oriented indicators concerns related to barriers on implementation are also presented in this paper the knowledge gained from chinese efforts on ce indicators are valuable to both developed and developing nations seeking to implement sustainable development measures within their regulatory policies

comparing the vulnerability of different coal industrial symbiosis networks under economic fluctuations we establish a vulnerability analytical framework of cisn and illustrate the impact path of economic fluctuation on cisn performance based on this we propose an improved cascading failure model with directed weighted network and design five network performance indicators i e relative value of cascading failure average path length relative value of maximal connected sub graphs network efficiency and structure entropy taking three coal eco industrial parks in china as cases we simulate and compare the impacts on cisn vulnerability i e equality based dependent based and nested based cisns of economic fluctuation the results indicate that the interaction between economic fluctuation and network structure is the key factor in determining system vulnerability concerning overall vulnerability equality based cisn is highest dependent based cisn is next and nested based cisn is lowest regarding disturbance type the changes in the five performance indicators of the three types of cisn are more intense under energy price shocks than with declining demand moreover the cascading failure scale of equality based cisn is greatest with declining demand while the other two kinds of cisn s is greatest under energy price shocks concerning disturbance intensity equality based cisn shows initial value sensitivity to economic fluctuation and nested based cisn has the strongest tolerances for economic fluctuation from the network performance perspective the performance of nested based cisn is superior to that of dependent based and equality based cisns due to longer average path length and lower network efficiency the failure diffusion trend of equality based cisn shows the curve of type s and the diffusion rate is smooth and slow contrariwise the initial diffusion rate of dependent based cisn is the highest indicating that the loss of system efficiency can somewhat improve the system s anti risk ability

uncovering industrial symbiosis potentials in a small island developing state the case study of mauritius small island developing states sids face a serious issue of sustainability as far as waste management within the industrial sector is concerned this paper makes an attempt at addressing the eventual practice of industrial ecology in sids with mauritius as a case study three major polluting industries namely the slaughterhouse edible oil refinery and the scrap metal recycling plant have been considered with a particular focus on the recycling of electric arc furnace slag as concrete aggregates along with the potential areas of applications for the different waste materials this research has also addressed the benefits barriers and factors for implementing industrial symbiosis projects within sids the most striking benefits are the preservation of the fauna and flora of the island and reduced dependency on developed countries for the importation of raw materials while the absence of a landfill disposal fee for non hazardous wastes and lack of awareness of industrial symbiosis projects have been identified as the main barriers to overcome these barriers a shift from manufacture consume dispose to manufacture consume recycle manufacture is recommended this study concludes that if a sustainable island is anticipated in the future a combination of recycling options along with all necessary factors such as technology funding from international organisations regulatory framework and involvement of stakeholders general public and non governmental organisations is required ultimately this would result in the establishment of networks among source and sink industries thus being in harmony with the environment

intraday management of bank reserves the effects of caps and fees on daylight overdrafts the federal reserve system imposes caps and charges fees on the negative intraday balances in banks reserve accounts i e on daylight overdrafts our empirical results suggest that caps alone did little to reduce daylight overdrafts in the aggregate by contrast the 1994 imposition of fees reduced the average daily maximum overdraft on the fedwire system by about 93 billion and the average aggregate overdraft at any time during the day by about 43 billion we also found statistical evidence that higher beginning of day reserve balances lower aggregate dollar values of securities related transfers over fedwire and lower shares of banks assets funded with federal funds and repurchase agreements reduced daylight overdrafts copyright 1996 by ohio state university press

environmental performance of waste handlers abstract despite numerous studies that propose environmental performance ep indicators for manufacturing firms little attention is given to measuring the ep of individual companies in the waste management sector wm sector existing literature on the wm sector relies on aggregate city and municipal data this study makes use of a disclosure regulation in the european union to construct an ep measure that can be used to compare the environmental impact of waste handlers across time and within the sector the ep indicator introduced in this study measures the plan of a waste handler to reduce undesirable output such as emission and waste disposal by relying on the recovery and recycling of wastes based on a sample of european waste handlers we find that one third of waste handlers in europe have zero recovery rate while only 16 rely exclusively on recovery and recycling of harmful wastes in addition the study builds on existing theories to explain differences in the ep of waste handlers in europe among several factors identified by the literature we find that waste handlers in europe are most affected by supra national regulations national policies and spatial factors in that order policy makers can draw lessons from the findings of this study to improve existing disclosure regulations

capital requirements and the behaviour of commercial banks abstract i study the consequences of capital regulations on the portfolio choices of commercial banks elaborating on previous work by kareken and wallace 1978 koehn and santomero 1980 and kim and santomero 1988 i obtain the following results if the objective of commercial banks is maximization of the market value of their future profits value maximizing banks capital regulations cannot prevent banks from choosing very specialized and very risky portfolios risk based insurance premia are in fact the relevant instrument for that purpose on the other hand if banks behave as portfolio managers utility maximizing banks capital regulations can be effective but only if the weights used in the computation of the ratio are proportional to the systematic risks of the assets their betas because of limited liability of commercial banks a minimum capital regulation or a closing rule may become necessary as well to prevent failing banks from betting for resurrection

introducing the all seeing eye of business a model for understanding the nature impact and potential uses of waste abstract at current rates of disposal there are nearly 8 years of remaining landfill capacity at permitted sites in england and wales industry encouraged by financial penalties from the government faces the challenges of cleaner and more sustainable production whilst trying to remain competitive in the market place this paper proposes fit thinking as a means by which waste can be reduced from the early design stages alongside the all seeing eye of business a model to illustrate potential sources of profit and loss in a manufacturing firm s output a literature review on waste and profitability reveals the basis for the model concepts from material flow cost accounting the kanthal effect and the kano model are combined together with industry case studies to develop the model the model is explained in detail demonstrating twelve types of relationships between a company s product outputs and the profitability of each output the model and the relationships it proposes are then tested against examples from literature ultimately fit thinking is shown to help companies prevent waste where waste is unavoidable the all seeing eye of business model can be used by companies in the understanding of their non product output waste providing insights into the nature of their waste and the impact on profitability it is hoped that this understanding will encourage them to see waste as a potential profit making co product rather than as a necessary evil

industrial ecology and the rediscovery of inter firm recycling linkages historical evidence and policy implications industrial ecology is one of the most influential perspectives to have emerged in recent years in the wider discourse on sustainable development the vast majority of industrial ecologists believe that past economic development was characterized by a linear system of extraction use and disposal one of their main goals is therefore to find ways to make modern industrial economies mimic ecosystems by transforming the waste of one firm into the valuable input of another historical evidence presented in this article however demonstrates that inter firm recycling linkages were a dominant characteristic of past economic development if this was the case why do most writers on sustainability believe otherwise i suggest two broad categories of explanation a lack of research into the spontaneous formation of inter firm recycling linkages and the progressive and cumulative implementation of market distortions and regulatory barriers to resource recovery over the last century one implication of these findings is that the most important task facing industrial ecologists is probably not the technical challenge of planning resource recovery between firms but the development of an institutional framework that forces firms to internalize their externalities while leaving them the necessary freedom to develop new and profitable uses for by products copyright 2002 oxford university press

municipal solid waste recycling market and the european 2020 horizon strategy a regional efficiency analysis in spain abstract this paper focuses on the analysis of the efficiency of spanish regions in the development of the recycling market in their respective territories through the use of a novel data envelopment analysis method with multiple outputs the efficiency analysis takes into account the mandatory goals of reducing mixed collected municipal solid waste and the augmentation of selective collection of recyclable materials as set by the european union and the spanish legal framework this issue is highly relevant since neither of these two management goals may be achieved without the recycling market and its associated industry having been previously developed to a sufficient level results confirm that catalonia navarre and madrid function as benchmark regions to be emulated by the remaining inefficient regions the necessary regional investments and output projections to reach an efficient development of the recycling sector are also estimated additionally it is found that per capita income and population density significantly explain differences in regional efficiencies finally taking efficient regions as benchmarks to learn from some policy recommendations are offered

the history and current applications of the circular economy concept abstract the challenges of balancing industrial development environmental and human health and economic growth in china and elsewhere in the world are drivers for recent resource use and low carbon development strategies that include the application of the circular economy ce concept a central theme of the ce concept is the valuation of materials within a closed looped system with the aim to allow for natural resource use while reducing pollution or avoiding resource constraints and sustaining economic growth the objectives of this study are 1 to review the history of the ce concept to provide a context for 2 a critical examination of how it is applied currently thematic categories are used to organize the literature review results including policy instruments and approaches value chains material flows and products and technology organizational and social innovation the literature review illustrates the variability in ce project success and failure over time and by region ce successes key challenges and research gaps are identified the literature review results provide useful information for researchers as well as multi stakeholder groups who seek to define the ce concept in practical terms and to consider potential challenges and opportunities it presents when implemented

a case study of industrial symbiosis development using a middle out approach abstract industrial symbiosis is emerged as a collective multi industrial approach to improve economic and environmental performance through the use of wastes by products as substitutes for raw materials the development of is initiatives depends on the context in which they occur characterised in terms of social economic political spatial and temporal embeddedness as a consequence the context can be influenced to become more supportive of is through a continuous interactive process combining top down governmental directives and bottom up spontaneous business initiatives a strategy to develop and enhance this process is explored in this paper and described by the authors as a middle out approach policies and policy instruments introduced by governmental agencies provide objectives and incentives to businesses the middle out approach induces the development of a strategy to create positive feedback loops among agents e g government industries that may guide their actions into setting the conditions to support is emergence this paper provides a case study that discusses a regional development of is in portugal that highlights critical factors for success in implementing is and shows that the middle out approach can also be understood as an extension and combination of previous research on context factors and planned spontaneous approaches to is development

industrial ecology and eco industrial development a potential paradigm for local and regional development gibbs d deutz p and proctor a 2005 industrial ecology and eco industrial development a potential paradigm for local and regional development regional studies 39 171 183 increasingly concepts such as sustainable development and ecological modernization have entered into local and regional economic policies and strategies however integrating environmental and economic aims has proved difficult despite arguments that sustainability enables win win win solutions eco industrial development is a recent policy initiative that attempts to integrate economic social and environmental aims in a concrete form derived from concepts of industrial ecology eco industrial developments seek to increase business competitiveness reduce waste and pollution create jobs and improve working conditions while these initiatives are said to offer a new basis for local and regional development there has been little critical evaluation of eco industrial development

industrial symbiosis the case for market coordination abstract despite the fact that all successful documented cases of industrial symbiosis to this day have been self organizing some authors and development officials have suggested that increased public planning might deliver better results in this respect than spontaneously evolved market coordination this paper takes an historical approach to suggest that comprehensive planning is unlikely to live up to the expectations of its proponents the essay is structured as follows the first section provides short case studies of industrial symbiosis in highly different economic and institutional settings the essentially free market regime of victorian england and communist hungary 1948 1989 the available evidence suggests that market coordination proved much more favorable to the emergence of industrial symbiosis despite the elaboration of a comprehensive policy to that effect in hungary insights derived from the so called austrian critique of central planning are then used to explain this paradox the analysis presented suggests that the hungarian planners failure was not so much the result of the bad implementation of sound policies but the logical outcome of a top down approach s shortcomings policy implications for the public planning of industrial symbiosis in a mixed economy are then derived and the case for self organization is found more compelling the creation of more innovative institutions that will force firms to internalize their externalities while leaving them the necessary freedom to innovate is viewed as an urgently needed and promising path towards increased sustainable reuse of industrial by products

does the diversity of human capital increase gdp a comparison of education systems abstract this paper examines how different education systems affect gdp by influencing the diversity of human capital we construct an overlapping generation model in which agents are heterogeneous in income and innate ability and the final goods are produced with differentiated intermediate goods it is shown that under a realistic condition the diversity of human capital induced by income inequality always lowers the gdp of the next period while the diversity of human capital induced by heterogeneous ability can increase gdp if the produced intermediate goods are sufficiently substitutable and firms have a large span of control hence as public education equalizes education resources across households it mitigates the negative effect of income inequality on gdp while the effects of ability tracking crucially depend on the production structure of the economy

trade and divergence in education systems this article presents a theory on the endogenous choice of education policy and the two way causal relationship between trade and education systems a country s education system determines its talent distribution and comparative advantage the possibility of trade by raising the returns to the sector of comparative advantage in turn induces countries to further differentiate their education systems and reinforces the initial pattern of comparative advantage specifically the nash equilibrium choice of education systems by two countries interacting strategically are necessarily more divergent than their autarky choices and yet less than what is socially optimal for the world

solvency regulations and the management of banking risks abstract in the recent years international banking authorities have succeeded implementing harmonized solvency regulations however two stages can be distinguished 1 up to 1993 a rigid approach has prevailed with the cooke ratio for credit risks and the standardized approach to market risks 2 since then a movement towards flexibility has been acknowledged notably with the validation of internal models of the var type and the precommitment proposal of kupiec and o brien the objective of this article is to discuss the pros and cons of these different approaches within a coherent conceptual framework that applies contract theory to the regulation of banking

using an optimization model to evaluate the economic benefits of industrial symbiosis in the forest industry in this work a model comprising a pulp mill a sawmill a district heating network and a biofuel upgrading plant is used to demonstrate how the mind method an optimization method based on mixed integer linear programming can be used to evaluate industrial symbiosis in the forest industry using this method both energy and material flows on both the supply and the demand side can be studied simultaneously the method can be used to find improvements in the structure of the modelled system to find the optimal operational strategy of a given system and to evaluate and compare different systems the total system costs for stand alone cases and integrated industrial symbiosis system configuration are compared generating results that can be used as decision support when planning industrial symbiosis initiatives in the forest industry the results of this study showed that there are financial benefits to industrial symbiosis compared to the same system operated in stand alone mode and that the industrial symbiosis configuration generates a more stable system however it is difficult to generalize the results from a case study and the main conclusion drawn is that it is possible to show that industrial symbiosis has economical benefits although the magnitude of these benefits needs to be evaluated from case to case

theoretical contribution of industrial ecology to circular economy abstract circular economy ce currently represents a viable option for countries governments academia and society to transform the linear and semi circular materials and energy flows into circular flows and obtain better sustainable benefits in this sense industrial ecology ie with its tools can assist in the transition to ce therefore the main goal of this paper is to present the theoretical contribution of ie to ce the methodology used was based on bibliometric analysis in the international context with regard to the bibliometric analyses we have identified that the evolution of ce would not be possible without the existence of ie concepts and tools especially with tools such as industrial symbiosis is and eco industrial parks eips furthermore three levels of ie contribution to ce were identified such as conceptual technical and policy aspects finally new ce based researches from an ie perspective with bibliometric analysis and with co citation networks are possible including solid waste management and policies

interbank lending and systemic risk systemic risk refers to the propagation of a bank s economic distress to other economic agents linked to that bank through financial transactions banking authorities often prevent systemic risk through an implicit insurance of interbank claims or by reducing interbank transactions and centralizing banks liquidity management this paper investigates whether the flexability afforded by decentralized bank interactions can be preserved while protecting the central banks from the necessity of conducting undesired rescue operations it develops a model in which decentralized interbank leading is motivated by peer monitoring in this context the paper derives the optimal prudential rules and in particular looks at the impact of interbank monitoring on the solvency and liquidity ratios of borrowing and lending banks last it provides conditions which a too big to fail policy is or is not justified and studies the possibility of propagation of a bank s liquidity shock throughout the financial system copyright 1996 by ohio state university press

industrial symbiosis and the policy instruments of sustainable consumption and production abstract industrial symbioses iss and eco industrial parks eips are key concepts of industrial ecology ie the aim of iss and eips is to minimise inefficient material and energy use by utilising local by product and energy flows industrial symbioses tend to develop through spontaneous action of economic actors for gaining of economic benefit but these systems can be designed and promoted via policy instruments as well a literature review showed that national programmes for eco industrial parks can be found in different parts of the world in the action programmes and other sustainable consumption and production scp policy documents of the eu on the other hand industrial symbioses gain less recognition as a path to enhanced sustainable production in this article we consider this and also analyse how the evolution and environmental performance of an industrial symbiosis system centred on a finnish pulp and paper mill have been affected by scp policy instruments with regard to the system forming the subject of the case study and finnish industrial systems in general policy instruments have succeeded in reducing emissions but not in systematically encouraging operators toward symbiosis like activities all in all few studies exist on the overall impact of policy instruments promoting design of eco industrial parks it is not self evident that symbiosis like production systems would be sustainable in every case as the background assumptions for political promotion of eips suggest we concluded that industrial symbioses should be analysed and developed on a life cycle basis with documentation of the real environmental benefits due to efficient resource use and decreased emissions in comparison to standalone production iss can then bring eco competitiveness to companies in relation to scp tools such as environmental permits ecolabels and future product regulation based on the ecodesign directive in europe indirect encouragement of symbiosis through land use regulation and planning in such a way that material fluxes between companies are possible both in operations and in financial terms may prove effective the same holds for waste policies that encourage increased reuse of a company s waste by other enterprises

how the brazilian government can use public policies to induce recycling and still save money abstract public policies can leverage the recycling of materials however there is no clear guidance on how to use such policies and still spare public funds to fill this gap a multiple case study was undertaken in brazil eleven companies that can produce new products using the waste generated by their customers were investigated the findings contribute by suggesting how governments can economically use taxes sanctions incentives and other public instruments to induce recycling tax exemptions are not required when the waste recycled reduces the manufacturer s costs or generates revenue for customers who produce it and or for the scrap dealers who collect it sanctions or penalties imposed on the manufacturer s customers can increase the recycling efforts of such manufacturers when the recycling is technically feasible but not economically attractive sanctions are ineffective when wastes have a good market value or are widespread over millions of generation points for such cases the public policies should focus on community awareness campaigns and attention on waste pickers incentives for the technological development can be provided to wastes that present a good market value but do not have an economical recycling technology available granting resources to universities and technological institutes will help spread the solution to sme companies by better understanding how to apply public instruments the governments will be able to save funds on tax exemptions better define sanctions focus its community awareness campaigns focus its waste pickers support and better allocate funds to support the development of new recycling technologies

toward a research agenda for policy intervention and facilitation to enhance industrial symbiosis based on a comprehensive literature review the normative question what role should governmental policy play to facilitate the development of industrial symbiosis has received considerable attention of researchers however for several reasons the effects of governmental policy actions on industrial symbiosis are still not clear this article proposes a research agenda to clarify the mechanisms of policy intervention and facilitation of industrial symbiosis based on a comprehensive review of industrial symbiosis literature focusing on how policy is conceptualized and studied the results show that existing research lacks an explicit definition of policy and employs a static conceptualization of policy that is reinforced by comparative statics research methods we argue that a dynamic process perspective is crucial to reveal the actual mechanisms through which policy intervention and facilitation affect the evolution of industrial symbiosis building on this view industrial symbiosis research is connected with insights from policy sciences and the case of policy translation of circular economy and eco industrial park in china is investigated in order to illustrate that policy is at heart a dynamic process we conclude with a research agenda proposing that the key to reveal the mechanisms is to identify the sequence of events connecting policy process and industrial symbiosis practices

factors influencing willingness to accept different waste management policies empirical evidence from the european union abstract improving waste management strategies with more collaborative participation and responsibility of different public and private agents is a matter of increasing concern for academia and policy makers based on data from 28 european countries the present study unlike other previous studies analyzing the influence of individual drivers for waste generation or recycling evaluates different options for waste management government based fair consumer and producer responsibility for this the influence of individual and socio demographic characteristics age gender education level and occupational status contextual variables rural or urban country of origin and the environmental awareness of 23 976 individuals are considered being a woman being well educated having a good job and living in a rural or small town increase the probability of being a fair consumer while men and people living in a large town are more willing to entrust this responsibility to firms the government based solution is only chosen by low educated people finally individuals with the highest environmental awareness and effort prefer to pay while those who are less environmentally conscious prefer government action the findings show that factors explaining individual acceptance of these different waste management policies wmp are essential for implementing proactive and preventive approaches to enhance responsibility and involvement of all stakeholder groups consumers firms and institutions

heterogeneity stratification and growth macroeconomic implications of community structure and school finance this paper examines how socioeconomic stratification and alternative systems of education finance affect inequality and growth agents interact through local public goods or externalities school funding neighborhood effects and economywide linkages complementary skills knowledge spillovers sorting families into homogeneous communities often minimizes the costs of existing heterogeneity but mixing reduces heterogeneity faster integration therefore tends to slow down growth in the short run yet raise it in the long run a move to state funding of education presents society with a similar intertemporal trade off local and global complementarities play major roles in determining the efficient social and educational structures copyright 1996 by american economic association

towards circular economy implementation a comprehensive review in context of manufacturing industry the concept of circular economy ce is to an increasing extent treated as a solution to series of challenges such as waste generation resource scarcity and sustaining economic benefits however the concept of circularity is not of novel as such specific circumstances and motivations have stimulated ideas relevant to circularity in the past through activities such as reuse remanufacturing or recycling main objectives of this work are to provide a comprehensive review of research efforts encompassing aspects of resources scarcity waste generation and economic advantages to explore the ce landscape in the context of these three aspects especially when they are considered simultaneously based on an idea of a comprehensive ce framework propose an implementation strategy using top down and bottom up approach in a concurrent manner to fulfill this objective a comprehensive review of state of the art research is carried out to understand different ideas relevant to ce motivation for the research and context of their recurrence main contributions of this paper are a comprehensive ce framework and a practical implementation strategy for a regenerative economy and natural environment the framework emphasizes on a combined view of three main aspects i e environment resources and economic benefits it also underlines that joint support of all stakeholders is necessary in order to successfully implement the ce concept at large scale the proposed framework and implementation strategy also identify new avenues for future research and practice in the field of ce

sharing cities and sustainable consumption and production towards an integrated framework calls for a transformation towards more sustainable consumption and production scp have been intensifying as urban populations swell across the planet cities are faced with increasing pressure on infrastructure economic and ecological systems yet with their high population densities and ubiquity of information and communication technologies cities are becoming breeding grounds for a new circular economy driven by emerging and long standing sharing activities this research provides a comprehensive view of scp systems in cities by integrating and examining sharing economy activities in the context of two continuums i e scp and private public orientation based on these two analytical dimensions the paper evaluates and plots five groups of 18 sharing activities to create a sharing cities scp typology comprised by five ideal types each of these five types represents a unique form of scp activity with the potential to directly impact scp systems in the context of urban environments by enabling diversity and hybridity in the scp analysis we allow for a theoretical expansion of scp models and a new way of understanding how they may play out in cities