the peak of oil production timings and market recognition abstract energy is essential for present societies in particular transportation systems depend on petroleum based fuels that world oil production is set to pass a peak is now a reasonably accepted concept although its date is far from consensual in this work we analyze the true expectations of the oil market participants about the future availability of this fundamental energy source we study the evolution through time of the curves of crude oil futures prices and we conclude that the market participants among them the crude oil producers already expect a near term peak of oil production this agrees with many technical predictions for the date of peak production including our own that point to peak dates around the end of the present decade if this scenario is confirmed it can cause serious social and economical problems because societies will have little time to perform the necessary adjustments

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

immiserized growth in liberalized agriculture abstract this paper offers a simple model that reconciles rivalrous claims about liberalization s impact on low income agrarian economies growth can accompany smallholder welfare reduction the model developed here reverses the causality of bhagwati s immiserizing growth model price shocks cause welfare effects that drive output response rather than output shocks causing price shocks and then welfare effects as in the trade theoretic original immiserized growth seems a plausible explanation for some important cases e g the malagasay case considered here in which liberalization appears to have engendered both real agricultural growth and heightened food security stress among smallholder food producers

fostering change to sustainable consumption and production an evidence based view this note from the field is an edited version of a policy brief summarizing the key findings from the first half of the sustainable consumption research exchange network score for the policy programs in the field of sustainable consumption and production scp we recommend a framework for action to change to scp that mentions the key domains to include food mobility and energy use housing the last two clearly related to urban development it should use a systemic perspective on the scp challenge and differentiate between developed fast developing and base of the pyramid economies score focuses mainly on developed economies and here we propose to differentiate between 1 measures that fit with mainstream beliefs and paradigms here governments could make operational agreements on implementation of instruments like green public procurement stimulating ecodesign etc 2 problems where a rough agreement on goals exists but where change is radical or means are uncertain and hence planning difficult here governments could foster visioning experimentation and support e g international collaboration in leapfrogging programs 3 problems that outright clash with the mainstream beliefs and paradigms here governments could foster informed deliberation on the more fundamental issues related to markets governance and growth 2007 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

using portfolio theory to improve resource efficiency of invested capital limited literature provides concrete theory based methods for quantifying the effects of sharing capital this paper describes the potential contribution of portfolio theory to quantify the effects and optimize the employment of capital human tangible financial and service employing capital in a theoretical and quantitative manner in the context of sustainability insights illustrate how portfolio principles can yield benefits including the fulfillment of needs using fewer resources consistent with sustainability in particular pooling assets to meet uncertain demands from different users of an asset pool may yield benefit from diversification effects suggests future research avenues such as the management of high value critical value and expiring resources to support sustainability

welfare analysis and intertemporal substitution abstract this paper explores the structure of welfare comparisons when direct utility is weakly separable over time the lifetime welfare effect of a reform is then the sum of atemporal hicksian variations and intertemporal variations reflecting intertemporal substitution these latter are shown to be of only second order importance in lifetime welfare comparisons approximations to the intertemporal variations when preferences are intertemporally additive are derived pointing to the welfare significance in this context of not only the intertemporal elasticity of substitution but also within period income effects numerical examples illustrate the analysis and suggest possible orders of magnitude

egypt s development in the seventies this paper seeks to examine aspects of the changes in the economic performance and management of the economy that occurred in egypt during the 1970s this era of change began with the death of nassar in 1970 and was given its impetus in 1973 with the presentation of the new policy of opening egyptian economy and society to the rest of the world this liberalization was a movement away from a ussr type of physical planning toward a greater use of market mechanisms to guide the economy section i is a brief discussion of the general social and political environment within which the economy had to be managed and development effected in section ii the conventional national accounts are examined and tables showing gdp gross domestic product growth balance of payments exports and employment by sector are presented in section iii monetary developments and exchange rate issues are reviewed and tables provide data on government revenues and expenditures foreign exchange in deposits and growth in liquidity the final section offers some conclusions about the development process that the egyptian story reveals the delicate political and social environment within which economic policy is made is a factor in every decision egypts social and political stability is 1 of its great assets and to jeopardize it by policies that may penalize key groups is to be avoided the government hopes to provide all egyptians with a high level of consumption by the year 2000 at no cost to the people themselves by means of a series of large sector projects this approach will not succeed unless a way is found to use foreign exchange to create an indigenous dynamic to enable egypts own resources to achieve continually increasing productivity what foreign exchange rich countries are now learning is that the heart of development must be indigenous resources and their commitment to the nations development

assessing the economic costs of a foot and mouth disease outbreak on brittany a dynamic computable general equilibrium analysis abstract outbreaks of animal diseases such as foot and mouth disease fmd are of great concern for agriculture in this paper we quantify the potential dynamic impacts of such a disease on brittany a french region with an important livestock sector in order to do this we develop a dynamic computable general equilibrium model that allows us to measure the impacts on the livestock sectors and downstream food industries we study the impacts of a fmd outbreak including the culling infected animals a temporary decline in demand and restrictions on movements of live animals and meats during the fmd outbreak period our results show that economic losses following this disease are spread over many periods even with a one time shock we also find that the impacts on the various primary sectors and downstream food sectors are quite different depending on their initial trade position our general equilibrium results show the great incidence of potential constraints affecting factor markets capital and wage constraints severely increase the aggregate costs of such disease these results challenge the definition of a simple efficient management policy for this disease

the egyptian farm labor market revisited abstract egyptian evidence loomed large in the old debate between proponents of surplus labor and their neo classical critics the paper uses the recent experience of this labor market to revisit the issues the unprecedented changes engendered by the oil boom basically confirm the neo classical view one may discern the following stylized facts of the egyptian farm labor market 1 both supply and demand for labor are inelastic with respect to the wage 2 real wages are very flexible rising and then falling sharply with international oil prices 3 supply shifts explain these real wage changes 4 these are in turn primarily the outcome of international labor migration 5 regional wage disparities remained roughly constant during the past decade the conclusion draws some implications for poverty alleviation and for the political economy question of how the benefits of the regional oil boom were shared

characterising b corps as a sustainable business model an exploratory study of b corps in australia abstract although there have been several attempts to define a business model that prioritises sustainability the initiatives do not involve a radical change to the prevailing business model sustainable business models are emerging that promise to transform the prevailing business model by prioritising positive social and environmental outcomes based on interviews with 14 australian companies this paper examines the b corp model to enrich understanding of the characteristics of sustainable business models that align profit and societal impact the paper found that the b corp model has a socially and environmentally embedded mission and purpose with a dominant objective of creating positive societal impacts for its stakeholders rather than maximising profit b corps internalise their social and natural contexts and attempt to engage in institutional work to provide thought leadership around sustainability and to drive change on a broader scale questions remain about the scalability of the b corp model and whether it will be adopted by large public listed companies to catalyse a shift in the current economic order or whether it will remain a niche of small privately owned companies

sustainable homeservices toward household services that enhance ecological social and economic sustainability abstract the idea of services replacing products is increasingly offered as a solution to making the production and consumption patterns of the affluent consumers more sustainable however the discussion about sustainable services or sustainable product service systems tends to emphasize the eco efficiency perspective rather than explicitly capture all sustainability aspects social or socioeconomic considerations are often forgotten or by passed without scrutiny this paper argues that there is the need for a concept of sustainable services in which the social sustainability aspect is also recognized with equal attention since a major part of private consumption occurs in the household context living at home and moving to and from it this paper will put forth the concept of sustainable homeservices and will suggest a way to assess sustainability of services directed to households for assessing the sustainability of services directed to households a set of indicators relating to the ecological social and economic dimensions of sustainability is proposed with the aim of giving an idea of how to assess homeservices in practical terms the paper will also exemplify how one could operationalize these indicators on an ordinal rating scale the conclusion is that it is possible to assess the sustainability of a homeservice in a relative fashion using no service or the product alternative as the point of comparison households alone have a limited capacity to influence their consumption choices because other actors set the frame for this reason institutional arrangements for making services easily available to households are outlined it appears that housing organizations have a central role in the alternative option for organizing the supply of service provision they are involved in five of the seven alternative ways of supplying services that could be identified the role of the housing organization can vary from direct supply to lighter forms such as cooperative arrangements with external service providers or resident involvement

success factors for agricultural biogas production in sweden a case study of business model innovation as government officials policymakers and the general public increasingly express their concern about global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions scientists search for alternative sources o

emergence of green business models the case of algae biofuel for aviation emergent business models seek to take advantage of new market mechanisms driven by technological changes particularly those related to the production and delivery of clean or sustainable energy such business models often function at the intersection of various industries with global views and the resulting systems have distinct social political environmental economic technological and business dimensions such holistic systems are not only difficult to develop but also require support from a broad range of actors with effective regulations and policies in place such that the firm functions within a framework that integrates various factors this study substantiates such a framework by detailing the nascent algae based bio fuel industry that caters to the aviation sector while arguing that businesses in the energy industry can emerge as a next practice platform that drive a sixth wave of innovation the framework begins with three basic enablers innovation flexibility and sustainability and explains how value from renewable energy technologies can be created and captured sustainably and innovatively with new market mechanisms implemented by firms with green business models

technical change employment and supply response of agriculture in the nile delta a system wide approach abstract in this paper a system wide model of crop production in the delta region is developed in order to comprehensively analyze egyptian agricultural policies and also to identify the main causes of the slow growth of the sector in the seventies previous studies based on single crop models have blamed the government s price policies as the culprit our estimation results show that although there might have been some gains from appropriate changes in the relative prices of crops price policies in general were not responsible for the poor performance of the sector since the aggregate supply response of crops to the price levels in indeed quite low the main factor which seems to explain the slow growth of agriculture is the decline in the level of investment in irrigation and drainage investment in land reclamation on the other hand has had negative effects on the short run growth of the sector on the question of the impact of increased mechanization on egyptian agriculture we find that mechanical power has essentially displaced animals in crop production without much affecting the growth rate of the sector or its employment opportunities directly

towards a new taxonomy of circular economy business models abstract circular economy has undoubtedly become one of the hot topics in public debates about new and more sustainable industrial paradigms and strategies in this respect the fashion of circular economy is in the fact that it aims at overcoming the dominant linear take make disposal economy model i e a traditional open ended economy model developed with no built in tendency to recycle which is reflected by treating the environment as a waste reservoir su et al 2013 circular economy indeed bases on the establishment of closed production systems where resources are reused and kept in a loop of production and usage allowing generating more value and for a longer period despite the interest for circular economy by politicians and practitioners scholars particularly in the strategic management field are still struggling with a lack of a framework explaining how companies willing to become circular adapt their existing business model or create a new one by extensively reviewing through the lens of business model literature the extant contributions on circular economy we propose a taxonomy of circular economy business models based on the degree of adoption of circularity along two major dimensions i the customer value proposition interface i e the implementation of the circularity concept in proposing value to customers ii the value network i e the ways through which interacting with suppliers and reorganizing the own internal activities the taxonomy is then initially tested through some explorative case studies showing in practice the ability of the framework to properly distinguish different modes of adoption of circular economy

sustainable business model adoption among s p 500 firms a longitudinal content analysis study in this study we examine the diversity of sustainable business models adopted by the largest global corporations those listed in the s p 500 index over the period 2005 2014 we examine press release communications during this period which represent public data about business relevant events we expect that examining this communication can reveal longitudinal patterns in the adoption of sustainable business activities and models empirically we utilize academic and practitioner expert panels to build a set of keywords across nine sustainable business model archetypes and utilize automated content analysis to examine the breadth and nature of a firm s sustainable business activities and practices we find evidence of the increasing prominence of different types of sustainable business models over time in particular the results show that large capitalized firms have mostly adopted the environmentally oriented archetypes and to much lesser extent the societal and organizational ones

understanding the diffusion of sustainable product service systems insights from the sociology of consumption and practice theory the sustainable product service system spss concept highlights that achieving sustainability requires changes in both production and consumption nevertheless attention has focused mainly on production this paper enriches the spss approach with insights from the sociology of consumption and practice theory to provide a deeper understanding of the use of products and services in daily life contexts the paper advances three key insights related to a the internal dynamics of user practices b the strength of linkages of practice elements loose and tight coupling c external linkages to other practices these insights are mobilised to provide a deeper understanding of the uptake and diffusion of innovations such as spss the insights are illustrated with two cases in which interventions designed to stimulate diffusion have had differential success energy efficient light bulbs and low temperature laundry implications for understanding the diffusion of spss are discussed

short and long run credit constraints in french agriculture a directional distance function framework using expenditure constrained profit functions this empirical application investigates the eventual presence of credit constraints using a panel of french farmers the credit constrained profit maximization model proposed by fare grosskopf and lee is extended in three ways first we rephrase the model in terms of directional distance functions to allow duality with the profit function second we model credit constraints in the short run and investment constraints in the long run using short and long run profit functions third we lag the expenditure constraint one year to account for the separation between planning and production we find empirical evidence of credit and investment constraints financially unconstrained farmers are larger perform better and seem to benefit from a virtuous circle where access to financial markets allows better productive choices

social acceptance of renewable energy innovation an introduction to the concept this paper introduces the special issue on social acceptance of renewable energy innovation it is a collection of best papers presented at an international research conference held in tramelan switzerland in february 2006 while there are ambitious government targets to increase the share of renewable energy in many countries it is increasingly recognized that social acceptance may be a constraining factor in achieving this target this is particularly apparent in the case of wind energy which has become a subject of contested debates in several countries largely due to its visual impact on landscapes this paper introduces three dimensions of social acceptance namely socio political community and market acceptance factors influencing socio political and community acceptance are increasingly recognized as being important for understanding the apparent contradictions between general public support for renewable energy innovation and the difficult realization of specific projects the third dimension market acceptance has received less attention so far and provides opportunities for further research particularly from management scholars

price responsiveness efficiency and the impact of structural adjustment on egyptian crop producers abstract this paper examines the role of prices and the impact of the structural adjustment reforms undertaken by the government of egypt in 1986 on the producers of five major crops the results indicate that the program had a positive net impact on the welfare of individual crop producers evaluated as a gain in production efficiency crop profitability was also found to be highly responsive to input and output prices the results highlight the importance of market based prices in agricultural development

farm debt default and foreclosure an economic rationale for policy action economic analysis of farm programs typically focusses on economic costs here we show that because of market failures and imperfections there are possible economic benefits to be derived from programs which reduce or eliminate the threat of default and foreclosure a production model of an indebted firm is developed and serves as a basis for an aggregate model which identifies possible costs and benefits from a program of transfers to indebted farmers the challenge facing policy makers is to design programs which capture the benefits of reducing the probability of default while minimizing perverse incentive effects of such programs

biofuel support policies in europe lessons learnt for the long way ahead biofuel consumption in the eu is growing rapidly but major efforts will need to be undertaken if the eu s objectives for 2010 and beyond are to be achieved this article analyses the strengths and weaknesses of different biofuel support policies based on the experiences gained in pioneering countries and explores scenarios for their possible impacts in the long term it comes to the conclusion that important pre conditions such as fuel standards and compatibility with engines are in place or being introduced on an eu wide basis current and future policy support therefore focuses on creating favourable economic or legal frameworks to accelerate the market penetration of biofuels the ambitious targets endorsed in terms of biofuel market shares require the implementation of efficient policy instruments at the same time large consumption volumes and the advent of innovative production technologies make it possible for member states to promote specific types of biofuels depending on their main objectives and natural potentials this will require complementary instruments such as subsidies for production facilities user incentives or feedstock subsidies

the value of big data in servitization abstract servitization has become a pervasive business strategy among manufacturers enabling them to undergird their competitive advantage however it has at least one weakness while it is used worldwide also in economies with lower production costs services in manufacturing are slowly becoming commoditized and will become a necessary though not sufficient condition for reaching an above average competitive advantage consequently in this article we propose a new basis for competitive advantage for manufacturing enterprises called a big data strategy in servitization we scrutinize how manufacturers can exploit the opportunity arising from combined big data and servitization therefore the concept of a big data strategy framework in servitization is proposed the findings are benchmarked against established frameworks in the big data and servitization literature its impact on competitive advantage is assessed through three theoretical perspectives that increase the validity of the results the main finding is that through the proposed strategy new revenue streams can be created while opening the possibility to decrease prices for product services through the proposed strategy manufacturers can differentiate themselves from the ones that are already servitizing this article introduces the possibility of influencing the most important of the five vs in big data value in addition to the other four vs volume variety velocity and verification as in regards to servitization the article adds a third layer of added value information beside the two existing ones product and service the results have strategic implications for managers

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

customer power strategic investment and the failure of leading firms why might firms be regarded as astutely managed at one point yet subsequently lose their positions of industry leadership when faced with technological change we present a model grounded in a study of the world disk drive industry that charts the process through which the demands of a firm s customers shape the allocation of resources in technological innovation a model that links theories of resource dependence and resource allocation we show that established firms led the industry in developing technologies of every sort even radical ones whenever the technologies addressed existing customers needs the same firms failed to develop simpler technologies that initially were only useful in emerging markets because impetus coalesces behind and resources are allocated to programs targeting powerful customers projects targeted at technologies for which no customers yet exist languish for lack of impetus and resources because the rate of technical progress can exceed the performance demanded in a market technologies which initially can only be used in emerging markets later can invade mainstream ones carrying entrant firms to victory over established companies

public attitudes to biofuel use in aviation evidence from an emerging tourist market abstract aviation generates substantial carbon footprint which is projected to increase due to the continuous growth in international tourism especially in emerging markets this carbon footprint should be mitigated to bring the tourism industry towards its sustainability goals within a portfolio of prospective carbon mitigation measures biofuels represent a technological innovation which holds substantial potential to reduce the carbon significance of aviation the success of technological innovations often depends on public opinion the role of public opinion is particularly relevant in the aviation context where safety considerations of technological innovations may determine consumer choice focusing on poland an emerging tourist market in europe this study explored public opinion on biofuel use in aviation it found that public understanding of the perspectives of aviation biofuel technology including its safety is limited and needs to be reinforced public distrust in the national institutions of power and the industry sector representatives in poland calls for educational and public awareness raising campaigns to be delivered by the third sector organisations

is peakoilism coming peak oil research and the association for the study of peak oil and gas aspo have contributed a great deal to improve people s recognition of peak oil although peak oil is becoming a part of public recognition it is still hard to say whether peak oil discussion will develop into a theory such as peakoilism on one hand there are still some difficult problems in peak oil research on the other hand the peakoilers have the potential for scientific research and have their allies the climate change researchers and the new energy advocates oil is a limited non renewable resource and an oil peak is inevitable peak oil theory is a kind of development theory rather than a crisis theory which promotes reasonable utilization of the limited oil resources promotes conservation and encourages the development of renewable energy

egypt s multiproduct agricultural technology and agricultural policy based on the hypothesis that egyptian farmers maximise economic profits the multiproduct translog profit function is used to estimate input demand and output supply functions for corn rice and cotton crops grown in egypt s nile delta elasticity estimates indicate a generally high degree of price responsiveness the estimates are used to evaluate egyptian agricultural policies concerning labour mechanisation and output prices the results show that egypt s agricultural policies of taxing output and subsidising certain inputs have hada substantial negative impact on agricultural productivity

biofuel economics in a setting of multiple objectives unintended consequences this paper examines biofuels from an economic perspective and evaluates the merits of promoting biofuel production in the context of the policies multiple objectives life cycle implications pecuniary externalities and other unintended consequences the policy goals most often cited are to reduce fossil fuel use and to lower greenhouse gas emissions but the presence of multiple objectives and various indirect effects complicates normative evaluation to address some of these complicating factors we look at a several combinations of policy alternatives that achieve the same set of incremental gains along the two primary targeted policy dimensions making it possible to compare the costs and cost effectiveness of each combination of policies for example when this approach is applied to u s produced biofuels they are found to be 14 31 times as costly as alternatives like raising the gas tax or promoting energy efficiency improvements the analysis also finds the scale of the potential contributions of biofuels to be extremely small in both the u s and eu mandated u s corn ethanol production for 2025 reduces u s petroleum input use by 1 75 and would have negligible net effects on co2 emissions and although eu imports of brazilian ethanol may look better given the high costs of other alternatives this option is equivalent at most to a 1 20 reduction in eu gasoline consumption

product services as a research field past present and future reflections from a decade of research in the last decade many researchers institutes and programs in the eu paid attention to product service systems pss given this massive effort it is time to take stock is pss research a theoretical field in its own right is the pss concept indeed the road to the factor 10 world is it the road to enhanced competitiveness what is needed to really use the potential of the concept this paper discusses these questions summarizing the analysis done in the pss review book new business for old europe various eu sponsored projects and the conceptual approach chosen in a new research network on sustainable consumption and production called score 2006 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

demand pull government policies to support product service system activity the case of energy service companies escos in the uk product service systems psss constitute a family of service based business models designed to satisfy our societal needs in an economically and environmentally sustainable manner to date however pss application has remained niche due to a variety of critical barriers this paper explores how demand pull national government policies could support pss activity by addressing these barriers and cultivating market demand lessons are drawn from a case study of how regulatory economic incentive informative and procurement policies have supported energy service company esco activity in the uk a sub set of the pss family focused on energy service provision subsequently five policy recommendations are presented to support pss activity 1 balancing economic incentives and regulatory disincentives 2 promoting indirect policy support 3 redesigning existing market structures 4 promoting locally led pss activity and 5 creating stable policy frameworks the paper warns however that national government policy cannot easily address all pss barriers such as customer preferences international developments technological progress and inherent business model weaknesses pointing to the need for other complementary solutions furthermore other governance actors beside national government could also implement pss supporting policies

the role of policy labels keywords and framing in transitioning waste policy abstract the last decade has seen a new wave of ambitious policies in order to address the mounting ecological damage caused by high levels of consumerism and the depletion of resources to manufacture short life cycle products in this paper zero waste and sustainable materials management are examined as prominent labels of an evolving waste policy discourse towards waste prevention and reduction and material cycles using discourse analysis key documents are comparatively assessed presenting the origins of these two concepts and how they entered the waste policy domain the different framing tactics and governance models are then presented the findings demonstrate that the different discourse paradigms around the concept of waste and materials influences what policy initiatives measurement tools and outcomes are pursued although zero waste and sustainable materials management are gaining popularity as indicators of shifting waste policy towards sustainable production and consumption policy particularly with increasing discussion and application of circular economy governance models in europe and china a distinction still exists between the conceptualisation and implementation within and across the two concepts it is in this transition towards a circular economy that it is valuable to review the role of policy labels keywords and framing context in waste policy and the ability of enhanced waste management to assist in the development of more sustainable and environmentally acceptable economic and social behaviour models

farm consumption behavior in the presence of uncertainty and restrictions on credit farm consumption behavior has an important indirect role in determining the ability of farms to invest and grow in this paper i examine the effect on farm consumption behavior of the presence of quantitative restrictions on farm borrowing using a form of the life cycle model which allows for both consumption and production by the household the effect of borrowing restrictions on consumption behavior is tested econometrically for a sample of dutch farm households the results suggest that the life cycle model without borrowing restrictions is rejected by the data

comparing drivers barriers and opportunities of business models for renewable energies a review abstract this article systematically reviews the emerging field of research on business models for renewable energies differentiating between developing and industrialized countries the key findings on developing countries are as follows first there is a lack of quantitative data second opportunities are driven primarily by unfulfilled basic needs and micro finance whereas corruption and weak electricity grids are the main barriers and third business models should be replicable the key findings on industrialized countries are as follows first opportunities are driven primarily by climate change mitigation and energy efficiency improvements second stuck thought patterns and high costs of energy storage are important barriers and third cooperation is a key in future business models to handle increasing complexity this review reveals implications for researchers and policy makers promising avenues for future research are the analysis of intermodal business models and opportunities concerning energy self supply and renewable district heating policy makers are advised to design legal frameworks that account for the global nature of the renewable energy challenge and are simultaneously adapted to regional disparities

do futures benefit farmers simulations are used to analyze welfare and market and farm level effects of making futures available to producers of a storable commodity key features of the model are the explicit consideration of dynamic impacts due to inventories and of aggregate market effects associated with futures adoption by some producers application to the natural rubber market shows that futures availability can lead to sizeable market and farm level effects futures availability enhances consumer welfare reduces non adopter welfare and yields important welfare gains for adopters when their market share is small and welfare losses when they account for a sufficiently large market share