way forward for alternative energy research a bibliometric analysis during 1994 2013 abstract the alternative energy plays a crucial role in the sustainable energy development the alternative energy related literature had attracted a growing attention with the research outputs expanding substantially based on the science citation index expanded sci e and the social sciences citation index ssci a bibliometric analysis of the research output was carried out to depict existing research activities on alternative energy and future directions the article was the main type of publications with the english as the dominate language to explain their results with the publications increasing rapidly since 2008 the researches mostly focused on the fields of energy fuels and environmental sciences energy policy was the journal that published the largest number of research articles on the alternative energy the bioenergy and solar energy were popular items in the commonly used 20 journals among the countries the usa was leading on alternative energy related research publishing the largest number of articles tp 2368 and being the most influent h index 90 the usa played a key role in the academic collaborations with china uk canada germany italy south korea and spain the national renewable energy lab the usa contributed most in the alternative energy field and more specially the school of electrical computer engineering tp 36 was the most productive subordinate in the national technology university of athens it was interesting to note that more attention was paid to solar or wind energy during the first 5 or 10 years then turned to bioenergy subsequently except for spain canada and australia in addition bioenergy received the most attention in the 7 types of alternative energy the forest wood biomass energy crops and switchgrass were the main bioenergy resources and fermentation was the commonly used conversion technology the production of biogas biodiesel and bioethanol was most popular in the bioenergy related studies wind energy and solar energy related researches were mainly on the energy utilization approaches such as the wind generation wind farm photovoltaic and solar thermal the conversion devices such as the wind turbine and solar cell were paid most attention in order to improve the production efficiency the most cited article published in desalination in 2009 with 1562 citations until 2013 was about wind power utilization in the reverse osmosis desalination plant

effectiveness of eu biofuels sustainability criteria in the context of land acquisitions in africa abstract in recent years land is becoming an important commodity and the land sector in many developing countries has been object of growing foreign acquisitions the aim of the paper is to analyze whether the requirements set by the eu renewable energy directive introducing biofuels sustainability criteria has induced the european investors acquiring land for producing biofuel feedstocks to adopt more sustainable strategies first we review the factors that may induce a corporation to adopt sustainable behavior and corporate social responsibility csr strategies in the context of land acquisitions second the paper illustrates our original evidence on european land acquisitions in africa and on the behavior of the investors involved then we use a logistic model to estimate the variables affecting the investor s choice to certify its actions and to adopt csr strategies our evidence shows that the main factors influencing the probability that an investor chooses to certify the sustainability of its actions are the sector in which it operates the fact of acquiring land in more than one foreign country and the characteristics of origin and destination country interestingly the european economic operators involved in acquisitions for biofuel crops show significantly lower probability of being certified therefore the eu sustainability criteria seem to be ineffective in guaranteeing and verifying the sustainability of the european land investments in africa joint efforts by european union member states target countries and private sector operators are necessary to prevent the negative effects of land acquisitions on local stakeholders and the environment

the importance of comprehensiveness in renewable electricity and energy efficiency policy based on extensive research interviews and supplemented with a review of the academic literature this article assesses the best way to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency it begins by briefly laying out why government intervention is needed and then details the four most favored policy mechanisms identified by participants eliminating subsidies for conventional and mature electricity technologies pricing electricity accurately passing a national feed in tariff and implementing a nationwide systems benefit fund to raise public awareness protect lower income households and administer demand side management programs drawing mostly from case studies in the united states the article also discusses why these policy mechanisms must be implemented comprehensively not individually if the barriers to renewables and energy efficiency are to be overcome

the curious case of corporate tax avoidance is it socially irresponsible in contrast to many aspects of the social responsibility of business csr scholarship has been largely silent on the issue of the payment of corporate tax this is curious because such tax payments are often considered a fundamental and easily measured example of a company s citizenship behavior however because the payment of corporate tax can often be legally avoided this activity represents a boundary condition for csr if the law and csr suggest that a company should pay its fair share of tax yet many successful companies actively avoid this social obligation should they be considered socially irresponsible this paper explores the issue of tax avoidance and the implications it has for any credible definition and measure of csr it also highlights an aspect of corporate practice that is deliberately hidden from public view

the computation of world income distribution there is a growing perception of the international economy as an interdependent system the un general assembly s 1974 75 declaration on principles and programs for a change in the international economic order assumes that the welfare of peasants workers businessmen civil servants and political elites in less developed countries ldcs are linked to decisions made by economic policymakers in the industrialized nations many people in ldcs especially elites compare their material levels of living with those of rich countries accordingly there is merit to examining global income distribution because scholars do not have a good technique for aggregating country income distributions into a world income distribution they rarely analyze this distribution this article presents a method of calculating global distribution given a set of national distributions as a sidelight to their work on purchasing power parity kravis heston and summers calculate world 145 nonsocialist countries income distribution but by nations not by households or individuals they assume that each individual receives his gnp per capita table 1

scale economy or scale entropy country size and rate of economic growth 1950 1977 poor s manual of industrials annew york h v poor nually rand mcnally bankers directory and list of bank attorneys anchicago rand mcnally nually roy william g 1982 collecting data on american business officials in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries historical methods forthcoming soref michael 1980 the finance capitalists pp 62 82 in maurice zeitlin ed classes class conflict and the state cambridge ma winthrop u s bureau of corporations 1906 report of the commissioner of corporations on the transportation of petroleum washington d c u s government printing office u s department of commerce 1975 historical statistics of the united states washington d c u s government printing office

burr under the saddle how media coverage influences strategic change in this paper we introduce a new antecedent to the strategic change literature by examining the effect of media coverage on the extent of strategic change specifically we examine how negative media coverage may prompt firms to make changes to their resource allocations and then explore how the makeup of the board and firm performance can moderate this relationship we develop a theoretical framework to explain why media coverage may affect strategic change and then test our theory with a longitudinal analysis of 250 firms over a four year period the empirical results lend support to our theory of media influence on strategic change and suggest that the evaluations of firms by outside constituents may influence the decision making of executives

a coevolutionary framework for analysing a transition to a sustainable low carbon economy this paper proposes a coevolutionary framework for analysing a transition to a sustainable low carbon economy based on the coevolution of ecosystems technologies institutions business strategies and user practices within a multi level micro meso macro perspective this builds on and develops previous coevolutionary analyses of long term technological and industrial change and recent renewed interest within ecological economics on coevolutionary approaches previous work has analysed how the coevolution of technologies and institutions has led to the lock in of current high carbon energy systems and how the coevolution of physical and social technologies and business strategies has brought significant material and welfare benefits to the minority of the world s population living in industrialised countries the coevolutionary framework proposed here may be used to undertake 1 detailed empirical analyses at a micro meso level of the challenges relating to the innovation and adoption of particularly low carbon technologies 2 as a framework for analysing the multi level interaction of social and technological elements within potential transition pathways to a low carbon energy system 3 to assess the implications for economic growth and prosperity of a transition to a low carbon economy and 4 to assist in the development of more formal multi level evolutionary economic models

rainfall shocks and within community wealth inequality evidence from rural ethiopia summary household level impacts of environmental shocks are often negative but may vary considerably due to heterogeneous vulnerability this paper considers how differential vulnerability among households affects inequality within rural communities in ethiopia this study makes novel use of the demographic and health surveys dhs and a nasa agro climatology dataset results show that rainfall deficits have an equalizing effect on within community livestock inequality in parts of ethiopia but regional differences are observed a non significant effect is observed with respect to asset inequality as an initial study on this topic this paper outlines an agenda for future data collection and analysis efforts

collective labor rights and income inequality this article examines the relationship between income inequality and collective labor rights conceptualized as workers legal and practical ability to engage in collective activity although worker organization is central to explaining income inequality in industrialized democracies worldwide comparative studies have neglected the role of class based actors i argue that the repression of labor rights reduces the capacity of worker organizations to effectively challenge income inequality through market and political processes in capitalist societies labor rights however are unlikely to have uniform effects across regions this study uses unbalanced panel data for 100 developed and less developed countries from 1985 through 2002 random and fixed effects models find that strong labor rights are tightly linked to lower inequality across a large range of countries including in the global south interactions between regions and labor rights suggest that the broader context in which class based actors a

changes in the world distribution of income between 1950 and 1977 trends in the world distribution of income are much discussed and philosophised about the issue of increasing economic inequality among nonsocialist countries in the post war period is central to the debate about the international economic order in i969 the pearson commission report was already pointing to the widening gap between the developed and developing countries as a central issue of our time and was proposing the reduction of that gap as the main objective of international co operation according to that report gnp per capita had increased between i960 and i967 at annual rates of 2 5 and 3 6 in developing and developed countries respectively morawetz i978 found that the gap between the two sets of countries rose from i 2 6 fold in i950 to i3 2 fold in i975 other authors see a more complicated picture atkinson i975 for instance has argued that although the share of poor countries in world income probably declined between i950 and i970 that of the countries at the middle of the world distribution probably increased 2 what may be a mere assessment of relative growth performances among nonsocialist countries becomes a basic theoretical element in the radical stream of economic literature for authors like amin i974 emmanuel i972 and frank i978 the capitalist mode of development necessarily leads to the rich countries of the centre becoming richer and poor countries of the periphery becoming poorer in a degree depending on their involvement in international trade for them a widening gap between developed and developing countries is simply the statistical confirmation of an unavoidable consequence of the national and international capitalist system in the latter perspective the issue at stake is of such importance that the contrast between the abundance of theoretical literature and the lack of empirical work is striking the few existing studies of changes in world distribution provide an inadequate picture intra country income distributions are not taken into account observation periods do not exceed i5 years 8 for andic and peacock i96i and for beckerman and bacon i970 i5 for kirman and tomasini i969 socialist as well as some non socialist countries are excluded and national incomes are converted to u s dollars at official exchange rates 3 finally none of these studies covers the i970s although several shocks which might have affected world distribution occurred during that decade for the non socialist countries to which they refer the andic peacock and beckerman bacon studies found the gini coefficient almost constant over

sustainability policy of construction contractors a review abstract sustainability is an issue of concern in many industrial sectors the construction industry is no exception the study described in this paper adopts a critical qualitative approach to investigate sustainability policy practices in the construction industry this approach includes a statement of principles sustainability reporting incorporated within a financial report and a stand alone sustainability reporting system the top international contractors listed by engineering news record enr were examined the results show that sustainability policy development varies from case to case in these companies but trends are emerging on common issues addressed the findings show a trend of increasingly level of disclosure of corporation s commitmnets an achievements on sustainability similarly the energy efficiency and conservation greenhouse gas emission reduction and integration of renewable energy resources into projects are among the common themes of these sustainability policies disclosed by construction contractors the construcion industry can learn from the energy sector that is advanced in sustainability reporting

is globalization reducing poverty and inequality abstract over the past 20 years or so india china and the rest of east asia experienced fast economic growth and falls in the poverty rate latin america stagnated the former soviet union central and eastern europe and sub saharan africa regressed but what are the net trends the neoliberal argument says that world poverty and income inequality fell over the past two decades for the first time in more than a century and a half thanks to the rising density of economic integration across national borders the evidence therefore confirms that globalization in the context of the world economic regime in place since the end of bretton woods generates more mutual benefit than conflicting interests this paper questions the empirical basis of the neoliberal argument

responsibility in paradise the adoption of csr tools by companies domiciled in tax havens in contrast to the recent rise to economic importance of offshore finance centres ofcs the topic of taxation has so far created little interest among scholars of corporate social responsibility csr this paper makes two contributions to addressing this lacuna applying a range of influential normative theories of ethics it first offers an ethical evaluation of tax havens second the paper examines what use large firms that are headquartered in two ofcs bermuda and the cayman islands make of formal csr tools the emerging duplicity in tax haven based companies professing social responsibility highlights once more the political nature of csr where at least some firms and or industries can successfully limit government power to enact regulation as well as shape the discourse around csr the study of csr in ofc based firms thus calls into question the usefulness of the often quoted definition of csr as going beyond the law

empirics of world income inequality this article employs a common general formula for inequality indexes to answer several basic questions about intercountry income inequality in recent decades has inequality across nations increased or declined and why have earlier studies yielded mixed results have different rates of population growth played a significant role in the trend have large nations dominated the trend are the results robust over different inequality measures and different income series two findings stand out first different rates of population growth in rich and poor nations played the predominant role in determining change in the distribution of per capita income across nations second the centuries old trend of rising inequality leveled off from 1960 to 1989 the dependency theory thesis of a polarizing world system receives no support

population dynamics and economic development age specific population growth rates and economic growth in developing countries 1965 to 1990 in theory rapid population growth forces capital to be spent upon nonproductive segments of the population and encourages the undercapitalization of the economy underemployment low wages and weak market demand rapid population growth is therefore often blamed for economic stagnation in less developed countries others however believe that rapid labor force growth is good for the economy the authors conducted a cross national study of the economic growth rates of 75 developing countries in which the annual average percentage change in real gross domestic product per capita is regressed from 1965 to 1990 on demographic models which incorporate either total population growth rates and labor force growth rates or age specific population growth rates the study found that an increase in the child population impedes economic progress while an increase in the adult population fosters economic development this phenomenon may be due to demographic transition which allows a massive one time boost in economic development as rapid labor force growth occurs in the absence of large and growing youth dependency there may also be a demographic ratchet effect in which economies remain stagnant during baby booms but grow rapidly as baby boomers age and assume economically productive roles in society

modes of extraction unequal exchange and the progressive underdevelopment of an extreme periphery the brazilian amazon 1600 1980 the demographic ecological and infrastructural effects of extractive economies differ significantly from those of productive economies analysis of underdevelopment in extractive export economies requires time lagged models of the cumulative effects of the sequence of local modes of extraction organized in response to world system demands such a model organized aroud the predominance of specific commodities at different times is derived from a critical synthesis of various theories of development and underdevelopment the propositions in this model are examined through a case study of the sequence of extractive export economies in the amazon basin from the time of colonial conquest to the present

true measures of gdp and convergence widely used purchasing power parity comparisons of per capita gdp are not true quantity indexes and are subject to systematic substitution bins this bias may distort measurement of convergence and divergence extending varian s nonparametric construction of a true index gives the set of true indexes including the new ideal afriat index these indexes are utility consistent and independent of arbitrary reference price vectors we establish bounds on the dispersion of true multilateral indexes hence bounds on convergence international price indexes understate both true gdp dispersion and where prices are converging over time the rate of true quantity convergence

global income distributions and inequality 1993 and 2000 incorporating country level inequality modeled with beta distributions abstract using a method of moments estimator flexible three parameter beta distributions are fitted to aggregate country level income data to overcome an untenable assumption of previous studies that persons within each income group receive the same income regional and global income distributions are derived as weighted mixtures of country specific distributions analytical expressions for gini and theil s measures of inequality at country regional and global levels are derived in terms of the parameters of the beta distributions application to data for 91 countries in 1993 and 2000 reveals a high degree of global inequality with evidence of declining inequality largely attributable to growth in china

social inequalities in reforming state socialism between redistribution and markets in china this article extends market transition theory to an analysis of inequality under the conditions of partial reform in china logit regression analysis indicates cadres officials have no greater odds than other households of being among the privileged or avoiding poverty entrepreneurs andformer team cadres however are advantaged despite the rise of a hybrid elite of entrepreneurs who are currently cadres that capitalizes on redistributive power to gain competitive advantage in the marketplace increases in income inequality are modest when market reform stimulates improved economic performance the poor appear to benefit and experience comparable improvements in household income as a result there is only a slight increase in inequality at least in the early stages of market reform the empirical analysis is based on survey data collected in rural china in 1985

the growing gap between rich and poor countries a proposed explanation abstract making use of data in the penn world table mark 5 this study seeks to explain the widely reported pattern of increasing divergence of per capita income levels between high and low income countries and among low income countries tests based on one on one comparisons of real growth in 1960 1988 with starting levels of income per capita imply that increasing divergence of per capita income levels was largely due to differences between population growth and labor force growth that varied with income level further evidence is provided in the form of crosscountry growth regressions in which with population growth divided into labor force growth and the amount by which population growth exceeds labor force growth only the part of population growth that represents changes in the dependency ratio is closely linked to long term growth

universal health insurance in the clinton plan coverage as a tax financed public good the financing arrangements embodied in the clinton health reform plan involve some important differences in the way in which public goods are usually financed the subsidies to small low wage firms mandated to provide benefits distort markets in both labor and products and offer incentives for the creation of small firms in addition the financing scheme implicitly envisions a head tax on families at modest income levels but offers a possible rationale for it nevertheless the main reason for many of the financing features appears to be an attempt to hold down the apparent budgetary cost of universal coverage

are economic liberalization and equality compatible evidence from south asia summary global studies of liberalization and inequality have produced divergent findings arguably because of highly heterogeneous contexts across countries and regions this paper focusing on the south asian experience with more homogeneous contexts finds that liberalization efforts and inequality grew in the region during 1980 03 data support a mutually reinforcing positive relationship in the region suggesting that liberalization helps increase inequality which in turn serves as a precondition to liberalize because economically unequal countries tend to liberalize more intensely possibly hurting the poor a lesson for concerned policymakers is to introduce policies to incrementally advance economic openness

how did the increase in economic inequality between 1970 and 1990 affect children s educational attainment 1 this study estimates the effect of changes in economic inequality between 1970 and 1990 on children s educational attainment data on individual children from the panel study of income dynamics is combined with other data on state characteristics growing up in a state with widespread economic inequality increases educational attainment for high income children and lowers it for low income children most of the effect is due to factors unassociated with family income or economic segregation in the state these other factors include state spending for schooling and the increase in the returns to schooling over this period

can an industry be socially responsible if its products harm consumers the case of online gambling online gambling companies claim that they are ethical providers they seem committed to corporate social responsibility csr practices that are aimed at preventing or minimising the harm associated with their activities our empirical research employed a sample of 209 university student online gamblers who took part in an online survey our findings suggest that the extent of online problem gambling is substantial and that it adversely impacts on the gambler s mental and physical health social relationships and academic performance online problem gambling seems to be related to the time spent on the internet and gambling online parental peer gambling and binge drinking as our findings show that there are harmful repercussions associated with online gambling we argue that companies in this controversial sector cannot reach the higher level of csr achieved by other industries nevertheless they can gain legitimacy on the basis of their csr engagement at a transactional level and so by meeting their legal and ethical commitments and behaving with transparency and fairness the integrity of the company can be ensured we also argue that current failures in the implementation and control of csr policies the reliance on revenue from problem gamblers losses and controversial marketing activities appear to constitute the main obstacles in the prevention or minimisation of harm related to online gambling as online gambling companies must be responsible for the harm related to their activities we suggest that csr policies should be fully implemented monitored and clearly reported all forms of advertising should be reduced substantially and unfair or misleading promotional techniques should be banned the industry should not rely on revenue from problem gamblers nor should their behaviour be reinforced by marketing activities i e rewards we realise however that it is unrealistic to expect the online gambling industry to prioritise harm prevention over revenue maximisation policy makers and regulators therefore would need to become involved if the actions suggested above are to be undertaken csr is paramount to minimise harm and provide a healthier user experience in this business sector but it also poses marketing dilemmas we support a global collaborative approach for the online gambling industry as harm related to gambling is a public health issue

evolving theories of sustainability and firms history future directions and implications for renewable energy research abstract sustainability has become a critical perspective in managing firms via a holistic approach by considering economic environmental and social dimensions of firms with the rising significance of sustainable development the theories of sustainability in firms have evolved during the past six decades this article offers a critical review of the evolving theories linking sustainability to firms and discusses their implications for future renewable energy research the relationships among different theories are critically analysed and the directions for future research are discussed the paper shows that the main theories linking sustainability to firms in a chronological order are 1 corporate social responsibility 2 stakeholder theory 3 corporate sustainability and 4 green economics currently various innovative approaches and new theories emerged such as co evolution theory and multi level perspective reflecting three directions of theory development namely 1 shifting from what to how 2 growing use of interdisciplinary approach and 3 towards broader systems renewable energy studies associated with firms and future research opportunities in this area are also critically analysed the comprehensive review offered in this paper provides a useful reference for policy makers corporate managers and researchers interested in corporate sustainability and renewable energy related studies

estimates of trends in global income and resource inequalities it is often argued that the inequality in the world is increasing we study the global income and resource inequality between 1960 and late 1990s income is measured in gdp capita in terms of both current market exchange rate and purchasing power parity ppp consumption of paper energy electricity food animal food as well as emissions of carbon dioxide is also studied changes in the absolute and relative gap between the top and bottom 20 consumers as well as the atkinson measure are used as inequality indicators some remarks are made on how to compare income across countries and how inequality should be measured we find that the inequality in terms of gdp capita measured in ppp terms is rather stable in relative terms but increasing in absolute terms we conclude that inequality as measured by the atkinson index is decreasing for all resources but that the gap in resource consumption in absolute terms is increasing for paper and electricity consumption

true world income distribution 1988 and 1993 first calculation based on household surveys alone the paper derives world income or expenditure distribution of individuals for two years 1988 and 1993 it is the first paper to calculate world distribution for individuals based entirely on household survey data from 91 countries and adjusted for differences in purchasing power parity between the countries measured by the gini index inequality increased from an already very high 63 in 1988 to 66 in 1993 the increase was driven more by rising differences in mean incomes between the countries than by rising inequalities within countries the most important contributors were rising urban rural differences in china and slow growth of rural incomes in south asia compared to several large developed market economies

the world distribution of income falling poverty and convergence period we estimate the world distribution of income by integrating individual income distributions for 138 countries between 1970 and 2000 country distributions are constructed by combining national accounts gdp per capita to anchor the mean with survey data to pin down the dispersion poverty rates and head counts are reported for four specific poverty lines rates in 2000 were between one third and one half of what they were in 1970 for all four lines there were between 250 and 500 million fewer poor in 2000 than in 1970 we estimate eight indexes of income inequality implied by our world distribution of income all of them show reductions in global inequality during the 1980s and 1990s

globalization and global inequality assessing the impact of the rise of china and india 1980 20051 this article uses updated purchasing power parity measurements of countries income and a new strategy for approximating global inequality to examine how global income inequality as a combination of increasing average within country inequality and decreasing between country inequality changed in the period 1980 2005 in view of the overwhelming influence of china and india on trends in global inequality change the authors base their strategy on estimating the change in world average within country inequality from change in within country inequality of these two countries the authors find that global inequality decreased continuously throughout the period they also project that global inequality will likely rise again in the next 25 years unless the stellar economic performance of china and india spreads widely to other developing countries

accounting for the recent decline in global income inequality following nearly two centuries of growth global income inequality declined in the last decades of the 20th century to determine the causes of that historic decline we focus on income inequality across nations and find that the major equalizing force is faster than world average income growth in china and south asia industrializing regions where 40 of the world s people live apparently what matters most about economic globalization thus far is its role in the spread of industrialization throughout populous poor regions of the world if so then globalization most likely has reduced global income inequality this decline is anticipated to continue over the next few decades first because of the continued industrialization of poor regions and second because most of the growth in the world s working age population will occur in poor regions

from green growth to sound policies an overview abstract green growth is an attractive slogan with a variety of possible meanings this essay critically examines several potential meanings of this slogan and provides a brief overview of some of the main implications of the other papers in this special issue taken together these papers argue for the importance of careful analysis of energy environmental policies particularly ambitious ones claiming to offer huge benefits with little or no cost

global inequality in well being dimensions abstract this paper contributes to the literature on global inequality in multidimensional well being by examining inter country disparities in the longevity knowledge and standard of material living components of the well known and widely used human development index for the years 1992 2004 it differs from previous studies by examining global inequality in each of the components of this index alongside that of the index as a whole thus side stepping ambiguities over weighting that are inherent to multidimensional well being indices the gini coefficient both population and non population weighted is used to measure the extent of inequality results indicate that the different components often provide very different information to the index as a whole especially with respect to changes in global inequality over time most component variables show declines in global inequality whereas the longevity component exhibits increased inequality since 1992

going to haven corporate social responsibility and tax avoidance this study examines the endogenous relation between corporate social responsibility csr and tax avoidance by focusing on a common strategy of corporate tax avoidance i e establishing entities in offshore tax havens using hand collected data on a sample of u s firms we find that firms csr ratings increase substantially in the two years after they first open tax haven affiliates we provide evidence by using the controlled foreign corporations cfc look through rule enacted by congress in 2006 that facilitates offshore profit shifting we find that firms that are affected by the cfc legislation increase their csr practices in response overall our results are consistent with the risk management theory which argues that firms hedge against the potential negative consequences of aggressive tax avoidance practices through an increase in positive csr activities

divergence and convergence in international development a decomposition analysis of inequality in the world system the convergence hypothesis of conventional modernization theory suggests that the nations of the world are becoming more similar critics have argued that nations are diverging and becoming dissimilar over time this paper brings unique data analytic procedures and a world system perspective to bear on this debate we suggest that world system theory provides a framework for explaining the simultaneous occurrence of both convergence and divergence specifically the logic of world system theory suggests that divergence occurs between the three zones of nations core semiperiphery and periphery whereas convergence occurs within them with respect to economic development our analyses indicate that predictions concerning divergence were partially supported and predictions concerning convergence held only for the core trends within the periphery and semiperiphery question the utility of world system theory

examining inequality who really benefits from global growth summary this paper analyzes global consumption distribution from 1993 to 2001 it demonstrates that half of the increase in global consumption in the 1990s benefited the developed world populations the other main beneficiary was china s population the number of chinese in extreme poverty fell and a new global middle class emerged elsewhere the per capita consumption of the poor rose at half the global average rate much less than one to one growth growth did help the poor but it was much better for the rich the analysis suggests that relying on growth to reduce poverty is rather inefficient more direct state interventions seem more effective these insights are poorly illustrated by global indices such as gini coefficients but are strikingly demonstrated by density curves the wider use of which could better inform debate in this area

taboo or technical issue an empirical assessment of taxation in sustainability reports abstract prior literature offers mixed evidence on the existence of a link between corporate taxation and corporate social responsibility csr this article contributes to this debate by examining the level of tax disclosure in sustainability reports by firms listed in the united states the united kingdom and germany from 2007 to 2012 the aim is to offer micro level evidence of whether firms themselves perceive corporate tax payments as being part of their csr on the basis of a hand collected 540 firm year dataset of ninety publicly listed firms the article shows that the level of tax disclosure was rather low however it did increase over time and was most prevalent in the united kingdom moreover the reports indicate considerable variation in attitudes toward taxation overall the widespread silence on tax issues and a non uniform treatment of taxation in sustainability reports underline the complex role of tax payments when it comes to csr examination of determinants of disclosure shows that firms with lower effective tax rates negative media coverage in tax matters and industry specific stakeholder pressure were generally more inclined to disclose tax information which is in line with predictions based on stakeholder and legitimacy theory finally the article discusses the importance of cultural and social norms when it comes to tax related sustainability reporting and provides theoretical as well as regulatory implications

does environmental performance affect financial performance a meta analysis abstract what do we know about the impact of environmental regulations performance on firm performance after more than three decades of theoretical as well as empirical research the results seem to remain inconclusive some papers suggest that regulations harm firms while others claim that regulations may contribute positively and give an impetus to innovations therefore i examine the heterogeneity in financial environmental performance nexus empirically carrying out a meta regression analysis of 64 outcomes from 37 empirical studies to uncover the underlying factors which can influence the observed variation in the empirical results the results suggest both that the empirical method used matters for the nexus and that the likelihood of finding a negative link between environmental and financial performance significantly increases when using simple correlation coefficients instead of more advanced econometric analysis the results also indicate that the portfolio studies tend to report a negative link between environmental and financial performance this likely reflects the omitted factors in portfolio studies the positive link is found more frequently in common law countries than in civil law countries the results also point to the importance of appropriate time coverage to establish a positive link between environmental and financial performance

sustainability performance for brazilian electricity power industry an assessment integrating social economic and environmental issues the increased pressure on companies to address sustainability issues has resulted in the development of several voluntary corporate sustainability integration approaches the array of existing approaches is large and overwhelming resulting in companies not understanding what corporate sustainability really means for their businesses considering environmental economic and social issues this paper aims at assessing the performance of the brazilian electricity power industry in terms of its sustainability performance an analysis of global reporting initiative gri indicators for the energy sector lead to an assessment of its sustainability performance by applying data envelopment analysis dea specified with a directional distance function ddf five scenarios were created i flexible weights ii triple bottom line iii social issues iv economic issues and v environmental issues with considering i flexibility weights almost all companies are efficient we also found a significant difference when we compared i with the other four scenarios ii iii iv and v taking into account the triple bottom line scenario ii the results indicate that companies were less efficient when compared with the flexible weights scenario i taking into account the last three scenarios iii iv and v only four companies were considered as providing top benchmarks in sustainability performance

green growth from a growing eco industry to economic sustainability abstract there are many questionable assumptions in the discussion of economic growth one of them is the idea that governments are able to achieve sustained high growth another one is the believe that the solution to pressing financial and social problems centers on higher growth it is also questionalble however to say that giving up on economic growth as a paradigm is the necessary condition to tackle the environmental crisis in actuality solving such problems is about radical growth in environmental and resource saving technologies it is also about radical de growth in products and processes that undermine long term living and production conditions this paper describes some best practice cases of green growth and the conceptual generalisations given by the oecd and other established institutions in europe and asia it traces the transformation of the concept of green growth and evaluates the strategy that accompanies it

sustainability performance disclosures the case of independent power producers abstract independent power producers ipps investing across borders represent a crucial sector that produces an adverse impact on greenhouse gas emissions ghg the main purpose of this study is to articulate issues pertinent to sustainability performance among contemporary ipps which seek funding from the capital markets a framework employing a sustainability performance scorecard is developed based on an interdisciplinary literature review that spans the fields of corporate finance financial reporting and sustainability by examining the sustainability performance as disclosed by three cross border ipps from the u s europe and the emerging economy of asia this comparative case study unveils the current weaknesses in comparability relevance and usefulness in disclosures among the ipps it points out potential information asymmetry to decision making of the primary stakeholders who seek to invest in renewable and sustainable energy while countering short termism over financial returns a concerted policy effort on disclosures about sustainability performance would be crucial to channeling effective private investments into the development of renewable and sustainable energy

regime destabilisation as the flipside of energy transitions lessons from the history of the british coal industry 1913 1997 this paper investigates a neglected aspect of the transitions literature the destabilisation of existing regimes and industries it presents an analytical perspective that integrates four existing views on destabilisation and conceptualizes the process as a multi dimensional and enacted phenomenon involving technical economic political and cultural processes this perspective is illustrated with two historical cases of the british coal industry 1913 1967 1967 1997 these cases are also used to articulate five lessons regarding the overall destabilisation process and five lessons regarding the economic and socio political environments of industries the conclusion section translates the historical lessons into insights with relevance for the contemporary challenge of climate change and transitions to low carbon energy systems

managing electric power system transition in china abstract this research studies the low carbon transition of the electric power sector in china using a multi level perspective mlp of niches socio technical regime and landscape as well as literature on innovation systems three lines of thought on transition process are integrated in the paper to probe the possible transition pathways in china a mlp analysis is presented to understand the current niches regime and landscape of china s power sector a brief analysis on the future macroscopic socio economic transition in the process of industrialization urbanization and modernization of chinese society and its implication on power landscape are depicted to prove the urgency and magnitude of transition in china and why systematic transition management is needed five transition pathways namely reproduction transformation substitution reconfiguration de alignment re alignment and reconfiguration with their possible technology options are presented the paper goes further to propose an interactive framework for managing the transition to a low carbon energy system in china representative technology options are appraised by employing innovation theory to indicate the logic of policymaking within the framework institutional gaps in realizing the transition are also addressed the work presented in the paper will be useful in informing policy makers and other stakeholders and may provide references for power sector transition management in other countries

dependence on foreign investment and economic growth in the third world estimates of the extent to which third world countries have experienced slower rates of growth than those in the industrialized west since i960 indicate a weak relation between initial wealth and subsequent economic growth that follows an inverted u shape pattern while the lowest growth rates are found among the poorest countries of the third world the highest growth rates are found not in the industrialized west but in the wealthiest third world countries drawing on contending arguments associated with modernization and dependency perspectives the relationship between foreign investment and growth within the third world is examined results undermine the idea that foreign investment inhibits growth suggesting instead that flows of foreign investment may facilitate growth especially among the initially wealthier countries of the third world

environmental reporting in the spanish wind energy sector an institutional view abstract the aim of this paper is to explore the relevance of institutional influences on corporate environmental reporting practices the wind energy sector in spain was chosen for analysis because of its rapid growth and significant impact on moves towards cleaner energy production a content analysis of recent sustainability reports 2005 2009 from seven main wind energy companies facilitated a longitudinal comparison of the levels of compliance with global reporting initiative indicators of sustainability results show that initial institutional pressures for reporting have been replaced by imitation by companies of each other s practices leading to a reduction in the differences between environmental disclosures results confirm the importance of examining different institutional pressures on disclosure practices to development of policy however a key finding is that the disclosures have been minimal and their lack of effectiveness and unreliability mean they are not conducive to the notion of increasing transparency in the wind generated clean energy electricity sector as a result the credibility of relying on a voluntary sustainability standard such as the global reporting initiative gri as an incentive for informative environmental reporting is challenged

competitive and responsible the relationship between corporate social and financial performance in the energy sector abstract our key research objective in this study is to examine whether investments in corporate social responsibility csr have an effect on corporate financial performance cfp or vice versa the context is the energy industry in which sustainability issues are of vital importance our data set is compiled from the kld database and thomson one we use panel data on energy sector companies covering the years 1991 and 2009 in order to assess granger causality between csr strengths concerns and cfp we consider strengths and concerns separately and use both accounting and market based measures of cfp our findings indicate differing impacts on financial performance csr concerns granger cause both profitability and market value whereas csr strengths seem only to granger cause market value these effects appear after different delays furthermore as cfp does not seem to granger cause csp in most of the model specifications our results do not support bidirectional causality between csp and cfp

foreign direct investment and income inequality in mexico 1990 2000 in this article we explore the relationship between the investments of multinational corporations foreign direct investment and income inequality in mexico we argue that mexico s liberalization of foreign direct investment fdi inflows in the 1990s provides a natural experiment to test how fdi affects income inequality in a middle income country we use an instrumental variables approach as our identification strategy to mitigate problems of endogeneity and omitted variable bias in an empirical test of the determinants of changes in income inequality from 1990 to 2000 we find that increased fdi inflows are associated with a decrease in income inequality within mexico s thirty two states the authors would like to thank lawrence broz john freeman matt gabel geoff garrett quan li eddy malesky layna mosley katie ridgeway pablo pinto john stringer and andy sobel for comments and suggestions jacob gerber and mariana medina provided excellent research assistance thanks also to patricio aroca gonzalez for generously providing us with his data we acknowledge the financial support of the weidenbaum center on the economy government and public policy nate jensen s contribution to this article was written as a global fellow at ucla s international institute

the kuznets curve and the great u turn income inequality in u s counties 1970 to 1990 the authors examine the determinants of inequality in the distribution of family income in approximately 3 100 counties of the united states in 1970 1980 and 1990 such a study provides a window on global trends in social inequality during the period which spans the tail end of the kuznets curve and the more recent upswing in income inequality results from random effects regression models that control for unmeasured heterogeneity among states reveal the continued importance of the kuznetsian pattern of declining inequality with economic development a positive effect of urbanization on inequality a declining positive impact of sector dualism an increasing positive effect of educational heterogeneity and a persistent effect of racial dualism several variables associated with the recent upswing in inequality have significant effects female labor force participation negative female headed households positive percent of the population over age 65 changes from positive to negative over the period manufacturing employment negative and unemployment ambiguous they also discuss methods of estimating the gini coefficient for income inequality at the county level and measures of sector farm nonfarm dualism racial black white dualism and educational heterogeneity

growth effects of foreign and domestic investment over tha past few years numerous studies in sociology have concluded that foreign investment harms poor nations these studies have focused on the coefficient for foreign capital stock controlling for flow new investment and defying logic have inferred that a negative coefficient for stock reflects dependency effects that retard economic growth since capital stock is the denominator for investment rate the greater the stock the lower the investment rate for a given level of new investment hence the negative coefficient for capital stock found in dependency studies indicates a beneficial investment effect not a harmful effect this point is demonstrated by reanalysis of the data used in dependency studies in these data foreign investment spurs growth earlier analysts have concluded otherwise only because their conclusions have belied their findings

tax avoidance as a sustainability problem this manuscript proposes that tax avoidance can be better understood and mitigated as a sustainability problem tax avoidance is not just a financial problem for tax authorities but one that erodes critical common spaces necessary for the smooth functioning of regulatory compliance organizational integrity and society defining tax avoidance as a sustainability problem offers a broader and more holistic understanding of the organizational and societal consequences of tax avoidance behavior sustainability is also a mature and legitimized concept that can readily incorporate taxation a variety of established sustainability metrics have the capacity to incorporate anti tax avoidance measures or publicize firms that engage in fair tax practices this manuscript concludes that integrating sustainability principles in conjunction with important extant work on corporate social responsibility and taxation can advance the goals of decreasing the occurrence and acceptability of tax avoidance

aggressive tax avoidance by managers of multinational companies as a violation of their moral duty to obey the law a kantian rationale managers of multinational companies often favour an aggressive tax avoidance strategy that pushes the legal limits onto the advantage of shareholders and the disadvantage of the spirit of democratically legitimized tax laws the public and media debate whether such aggressive behaviour is immoral aggressive tax avoidance is a subset of the aggressive legal interpretations potentially observable in all fields which places little weight on the will of a democratically legitimized legislation a thorough ethical analysis based on the deontological approach of kant demonstrates that aggressive tax avoidance as a special case of operating on the edge of legal boundaries is potentially immoral applying the kantian contradiction of conception or will test shows that this maxim might not be conceived or willed as a general law of nature if all natural or legal persons aggressively interpret laws on all subjects and in every imaginable situation then central principles of the system of law we all rely upon would be severely compromised therefore aggressive tax avoidance by managers of multinational companies may violate the managers moral duty to obey not only the letter but also the intention or spirit of the law the validity of the argumentation depends critically on the formulation and interpretation of the respective maxims and on assumptions about the legal system preserving central elements of kantian philosophy the article demonstrates the complexity of a philosophical argumentation which tries to justify the moral intuitions that underpin the common negative evaluation of aggressive legal strategies in business

transition pathways for a uk low carbon electricity future abstract achieving long term targets for greenhouse gas emissions reductions such as the uk s legally binding target of reducing its emissions by 80 by 2050 will require a transition in systems for meeting and shaping energy service demands involving radical substitution to low carbon supply technologies and improvements in end use energy efficiency this paper describes the development and high level analysis of a set of transition pathways to a uk low carbon electricity system explaining key features of the core pathways developed and the distinctiveness and value of the approach the pathways use an action space concept to explore the dynamic interactions between choices made by actors which are influenced by the competing governance framings or logics that different actors pursue the paper sets out three core transition pathways market rules central co ordination and thousand flowers in which market government and civil society logics respectively dominate it summarises the key technological and institutional changes in these pathways and the roles of actors in bringing these about this leads to an identification of the key risks to the realisation of each of the pathways and of the challenges for individuals businesses social movements and policy makers in taking action to bring them about and sustain them

sustainable energy policy for asia mitigating systemic hurdles in a highly dense city abstract greenhouse gas emission ghg has been increasingly a sensitive issue that is across border and impacting global public interests while the use of renewable energy technology is perceived as a means to enable delivery of emission free solutions its penetration into the energy market has not been timely and significant enough as projected in prior studies this article aims to illustrate some of the critical hurdles as the policy makers start formulating environmentally friendly energy consumption means for the public in asian economies in particular through analyzing the characteristics in the case of hong kong the authors unveil the challenges for this highly dense city to reach a landscape of alternative energy resources for its transition into a sustainable economy education and engagement with the public about a sustainable future alignment of stakeholders economic interests and absorption capacity of emerging technologies are argued as the three main challenges and initiatives in mitigating the underlying systemic hurdles that remain to be overcome observing the current responses to the externalities by the policy makers in hong kong this study articulates the critical challenges to mitigate these specific systemic hurdles embedded in the existing infrastructure of a highly dense city possible mitigating measures to enable deployment of integrative sustainable energy solutions in dealing with climate change are discussed

what do we know about global income inequality in this paper we review the recent literature on global interpersonal income inequality while all estimates agree that the level is very high with a gini of between 0 630 and 0 686 in the 1990s there is no consensus regarding the direction of change we discuss methodological issues including the use of national accounts versus survey based estimates of mean income or consumption and the choice of purchasing power parity exchange rates findings of a rise or fall in global income inequality are not robust across different estimation methods and datasets given the diversity of estimates and various sources of uncertainty including gaps and errors in the underlying data we conclude there is insufficient evidence to determine the direction of change in global interpersonal inequality in recent decades