a review of the recent empirical literature on displaced workers this article reviews the empirical literature on job displacement job displacement is widespread and strongly countercyclical tending to peak during economic downturns but concentrated in indus

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

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

optimal hedging decisions for taiwanese corn traders on the way to liberalisation abstract this paper examines the impacts of exchange rate risk on taiwanese traders decisions to hedge corn imports on us futures markets the results yield the conclusion that in the absence of a market that provides proper tools to hedge against exchange rate risk the taiwanese economy is incurring an observable social loss thus further liberalisation is essential taiwan s experiences can serve as an example for developing countries as the world economy is becoming increasingly integrated

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

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

sustainability in light of competitiveness abstract there is cause for concern that many current practices in the strategic use of advanced manufacturing technologies are unsustainable since they lead to increased resource consumption in the aggregate this article examines the ways the current generation of production technologies structure the formation and growth of product markets and explains why firms driven to stay competitive are adopting manufacturing strategies based on reducing the time it takes to develop and manufacture new products as experience in the use of advanced manufacturing technologies has accumulated distinctive patterns in market organization have emerged which in turn cause more firms to adopt these technologies in effect the markets and productions systems have co evolved faster product cycles presage new product variants and faster product obsolescence linked to intensified customers needs this interdependency of market needs and the strategic use of manufacturing technologies has significance for drafting sustainable consumption policy

the effect of advance notification of plant closings on unemployment using data from the 1984 displaced worker survey the authors model the determinants of time without work following job displacement for a large sample of workers laid off because of plant shutdowns between 1979 and 1984 the major focus of the paper is on the role of advance notification in mitigating unemployment the estimating procedure accommodates right censored observations stemming from continuing or open ended spells of unemployment advance notification is found to have significantly reduced the duration of unemployment of those notified workers who did not draw unemployment insurance benefits and in particular of those who left the plant prior to termination advance notice had much less effect on the time without work of notified workers whose spell length of unemployment was long enough for them to collect unemployment insurance benefits

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

the impact of advance notice of plant closings on earnings and the probability of unemployment the authors analyze data from the 1988 cps displaced workers survey to assess the effects of written advance notice of plant closings on post displacement employment and earnings the results sugge

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

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

measuring sustainable welfare a new approach to the isew abstract sustainability and welfare assessment is a contemporary theme of major scientific and policy relevance requiring the consideration of multiple dimensions and diverse perspectives the economic approach to sustainability and welfare assessment has frequently relied on alternatives or adjustments to gdp widely used as an indicator of macroeconomic performance several authors have proposed alternative indicators such as the isew which intend to measure sustainability and economic welfare in a way that avoids the limitations of gdp namely accounting for the value of externalities the distribution of income and natural resources depletion since daly and cobb 1989 there have been proposed improvements to the isew however its aptitude to represent a sound alternative to gdp is still the subject of scientific debate this paper presents a new approach to the isew named modified isew including new components and methodological changes for the estimation of the index these have the purpose of avoiding some of the index shortcomings and allow for a direct comparison with the gdp which are advantages over previous studies an application is developed for the us case taking advantage of wide data availability and the possibility of comparing the results with previous works the results obtained provide a clearer picture of the success or failure of environmental and social policies namely by avoiding the tampering effect resulting from the cumulative accounting of environmental externalities this work also emphasizes the inadequacy of gdp as a welfare indicator as well as the need to develop and adopt alternative indicators

offshore commodity hedging under floating exchange rates exchange rate uncertainty can have significant effects on the optimal hedging behavior of offshore commodity traders in this paper the standard commodity hedging framework is extended first to incorporate exchange rate uncertainty and second to forward cover transactions in the foreign exchange market the implications of exchange rate movements and forward cover decisions for offshore commodity hedgers are illustrated using data relevant to hedging australian export wheat on the chicago board of trade

farm costs and food miles an assessment of the full cost of the uk weekly food basket changes in both farm production and food transport have resulted in the imposition of new levels of environmental costs this study analyses the full costs of foods in the average weekly uk food basket by calculating the costs arising at diverent stages from farms to consumers plates of the 12 commodities assessed livestock produce contributes the most costs per kg the external cost of uk agriculture up to the farm gate is estimated to be 1 51 bn yr i1 it is calculated that a switch to organic production could lead to avoided costs of 1 13 bn yr i1 agricultural and food produce accounts for 28 of goods transported on uk roads currently imposing estimated external costs of 2 35 bn yr i1 the contribution made by sea and air transport is currently trivial owing to low volumes however road transport to carry food from the shop to home is estimated to impose a further 1 28 bn yr i1 to total external costs subsidies not targeted at environmental improvements cost consumers 2 88 bn yr i1 thus the real cost of the per capita uk food basket 24 79 is calculated to be 2 91 more per person wk i1 11 8 if externalities and subsidies are included with farm externalities 81 p domestic road transport 76 p government subsidies 93 p and shopping transport 41 p contributing the most we assess a variety of scenarios for adoption of organic farming localised food systems and sustainable transport to indicate the substantial potential to reduce environmental costs in the uk food system 2005 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

plant closings and their regulation in maine 1971 1982 this paper describes the plant closing regulations adopted in maine during the 1971 81 period and documents a pattern of relatively poor compliance with the advance notice and severance pay requirements of the law data on the number of workers laid off in major plant closings on prenotification of workers and on state and local unemployment rates provide the basis for an econometric estimate of the effects of closings with and without early notification on local unemployment rates and the size of the local labor force the results suggest that advance notification significantly lowers the unemployment resulting from a closing

labor market conditions and the reemployment of displaced workers the authors of this study use data from the january 1984 current population survey to examine the impact of local labor market conditions on the financial losses of displaced manufacturing workers they find that strong overall growth in the local economy reduced the economic losses of white collar workers whose industry of displacement was declining but not of blue collar workers in the same situation most older poorly educated blue collar workers with long tenure at their pre layoff job suffered large financial losses even when displaced in a growing local economy all workers including those who were young and well educated suffered large financial losses when located in a depressed local economy

hedging multiple price uncertainty in international grain trade commodity and freight futures contracts are analyzed for their effectiveness in reducing uncertainty for international traders a theoretical model is developed for a trader exposed to several types of risk ols hedge ratio estimation is compared to the sur and the multivariate garch methodologies explicit modeling of the time variation in hedge ratios via the multivariate garch methodology using all derivatives and taking into account dependencies between prices results in reductions in risk even after accounting for transaction costs results confirm that while the commodity futures contracts are important for hedging risk freight futures are a useful mechanism for reducing risk copyright 2000 oxford university press

determination of the recommended hedging ratio the traditional literature on commodity futures markets defined a hedge as a futures market position which is equal but opposite to the individual s cash market position more recent studies have recognized that the futures market position need not equal the cash market position to constitute a hedge many researchers have theoretically solved for the optimal futures and cash market positions for example heifner johnson ward and fletcher and telser determined the optimal futures and cash market positions simultaneously peck determined the optimal futures market position assuming that the cash market position was given the formulas for the optimal futures and cash holdings differ from study to study because of the different underlying assumptions however general implications can be deduced from these studies concerning the size of the optimal hedging ratio i e the ratio of the optimal futures position to the optimal cash position in this paper it is argued that the optimal hedging ratios consistent with the results obtained by johnson ward and fletcher and telser are identical to the optimal hedging ratio derived byheifner 1972 1973 the exercise provides a major implication for hedging strategy which is consistent with all of these studies that the optimal hedging ratio is independent of the individual s risk aversion even though the optimal positions are themselves not independent of the risk parameter this implication is also valid for the minimum risk hedging ratio derived by johnson ederington and mckinnon finally the optimal hedging ratio in peck remains dependent on the risk parameter because the cash market position is assumed to be given

oil consumption and economic efficiency a comparative analysis of advanced developing and emerging economies abstract this paper investigates the economic efficiency oil consumption relationship in 42 countries during the period 1986 2006 in a first stage by using dea window analysis countries economic efficiencies are obtained in a second stage an econometric analysis based on robust gmm estimators reveals an inverted u shape relationship between oil consumption and economic efficiency in order to capture heterogeneities among countries development stages the analysis has been separated into two groups advanced economies and developing emerging economies the results show that advanced economies have much higher turning points compared to emerging and developing economies it appears that oil consumption increases countries economic efficiency in addition the consumption patterns of oil products and its derivatives have changed through years and among countries the different turning points from the econometric analysis indicate the dependence of oil consumption in advanced economies higher turning points is driven mainly by household purchasing activities and their standards of living transport housing and water food etc finally it appears that oil consumption is the main driver behind the progress of industrialization and urbanization regardless of the country s development stage

the effects of supply and interest rate shocks in commodity futures markets this paper extends previous studies of futures markets to highlight the role of expectations in the analysis of supply and interest rate shocks shocks which are expected to be permanent generally will create larger movements in spot and futures prices than shocks which are regarded as transitory further the reactions of spot and futures prices may differ both qualitatively and quantitatively depending on whether new information refers to events in the current period or to likely developments in some future period the results demonstrate the potential importance of capturing expectations effects in empirical studies of futures market behavior

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

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

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

trade and the environment from a southern perspective the relationship between free trade and the environment is one of the main issues of contention between environmental and ecological economics environmental economics assumes a positive relationship between free trade economic growth and environmental policies environmental externalities may cause important damage however trade is not to be blamed for this instead the fault lies with policy inadequacies at the national level on the other hand some ecological economists criticise the assumptions of environmental economics especially the immobility of production factors and the positive correlation between income and environmental quality they plead for measures to prevent deterioration of northern environmental standards in a race to the bottom due to ecological dumping from the south in this paper we argue that neither environmental economics nor northern ecological economics take into account the structural conditions determining the international trade system based on some new empirical evidence on material flows we stress the notion of environmental cost shifting if physical and political ecology perspectives are adopted a southern approach to the trade and environment issue may arise 2001 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

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

hedging strategy for crude oil trading and the factors influencing hedging effectiveness abstract this study analyzes the hedging effectiveness of different hedge type and period by korean oil traders both crude oil price and exchange rate risks are considered theoretical models are formulated to estimate the hedge ratios by separate and complex hedge types the hedging period covers 1 12 months this study also performs some statistical works to investigate the relationship between the hedging effectiveness and the crude oil price sensitivity to exchange rate in addition the relationship between the hedging effectiveness and the volatilities of crude oil price and exchange rate is analyzed

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

advance notice job search and postdisplacement earnings three to 5 years after job displacements workers receiving the advance notice mandated by current law earn approximately 10 more than their nonnotified counterparts this differential is not the result of firms systematically notifying persons with favorable reemployment prospects early warnings are disproportionately obtained by individuals expected to earn relatively low wages in subsequent employment it is not clear however whether prenotification has a causal effect the notification differential may occur because the advance notice is frequently provided by employers offering other kinds of adjustment assistance such as job counseling skill retraining supple mental unemployment benefits or outplacement assistance

flexible exchange rates prices and the role of news lessons from the 1970s recent experience with flexible exchange rate systems has led to renewed interest in the operation of foreign exchange markets as reflected in many recent studies of the principal determinants of exchange rates the 1970s witnessed the dramatic alteration of the international monetary system from a regime of pegged exchange rates which prevailed for about a quarter of a century since the bretton woods conference into a regime of flexible though managed rates as a consequence of the emergence of the new legal and economic system traders national governments and international organisations were confronted with new economic problems choices and instruments during the 1970s ex change rates fluctuated widely and inflation rates accelerated the international monetary system had to accommodate extraordinarily large oil related shocks which affected trade flows in goods and assets huge oil payments had to be recycled uncertainties concerning future developments in international politics reached new heights and the prospects for the world economy got gloomier these developments placed unprecedented pressures on the markets for foreign exchange as well as on other asset markets they were associated with a large slide in the value of the us dollar and resulted in speeding up the creation of new institutions like the european monetary system which provided the formal framework for the management of exchange rates among members

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

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

hidden linkages between resources and economy a beyond gdp approach using alternative welfare indicators taking gdp as the standard economic indicator for economic welfare recent resources economy studies indicate the dematerialization of the economy the so called decoupling effect this conclusion seems to alleviate concerns over resource scarcity and limits to growth and feeds optimism for green growth and sustainability prospects however the validity of gdp as the sole and unambiguous measure of the ultimate outcome of the economy has been severely disputed there is nowadays increasing interest in broader welfare measurements that capture more aspects of economic output and hence constitute better approximations of well being the present paper provides an overview of the above discussion and sets out to explore the relevance of three alternative welfare indicators the human development index hdi the index of sustainable economic welfare isew and the genuine progress indicator gpi as a basis for evaluating the dependency of welfare and its major engine the economy on natural resources increasing welfare appears to require a disproportionate use of resources strong and increasing dependency on resources at the global level and in giant countries such as china and india may have serious implications for current sustainability policies and the united nations sustainable development goals

how countries resource use history matters for human well being an investigation of global patterns in cumulative material flows from 1950 to 2010 abstract global resource use has been expanding rapidly after 1950 and improved material living conditions and human well being of large parts of the global population we here apply a cumulative long term perspective to gain broader insights into the material requirements of human well being the role of trade and the history of environmental pressures than the usual perspective of annual or most recent flows would reveal furthermore we investigate environmental pressures expressed as cumulative extraction per area over the last 60 years to both ends we utilize cumulative data on material flows on domestic material inputs dmi and domestic extraction de for 148 countries from 1950 to 2010 and the social progress index we find that a high level of well being required at least 460 t cap of cumulative material inputs from 1950 to 2010 an analysis of the relation between cumulative flows and current human well being shows statistically significant that at similar levels of cumulative material inputs biophysical export orientation of a country has a weak negative influence on well being when the sustainable development goals are to be achieved the scientific community and policy makers have to consider the history of development of resource use to better understand the future challenges ahead

advance notice and unemployment new evidence from the 1988 displaced worker survey this paper examines how advance notice of layoff affects the incidence and duration of unemployment following displacement the authors use the displaced worker survey for 1988 which unlike earlier surveys in the series contains information on written notice the results are mixed longer written notice may more than double the proportion of white collar workers who move directly to new employment but written notice has no such positive effects for blue collar workers regardless of its length informal unwritten notice benefits male workers either by improving their chances of avoiding unemployment white collar men or by reducing the average spell of unemployment blue collar men

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

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

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

managing multiple international risks simultaneously with an optimal hedging model abstract a risk management model based on portfolio theory which accounts jointly for price quantity interest rate and exchange rate risks is developed and applied to cocoa and coffee production and exports in the ivory coast utilizing commodity and financial futures markets jointly the results show that a government export agency can reduce risks from 27 to 89 by following a multicommodity hedging program which manages several risks simultaneously the model and technique developed are applicable to many multiproduct firm and international risk management situations

limits to the growth paradigm abstract this paper is a synthesis of several current controversies it makes four broad claims 1 that economic growth as conventionally measured is not and never has been the most important contributor to increasing human welfare 2 that technological progress has always been the primary source of both growth and welfare considered separately 3 that trade was at best a minor contributor to growth in the past and is probably now contributing negatively to both national wealth and equity hence to welfare in western europe and north america and 4 that both growth of gdp and trade are increasingly incompatible with environmental protection in fact while increasing prosperity breeds environmental sensitivity many of the processes by which it is achieved are environmentally destructive the paper assembles and presents some of the key arguments and evidence

does anticipated monetary policy matter an econometric investigation a heated debate has arisen over the policy ineffectiveness proposition associate with the work of lucas sargent and wallace it postulates that anticipated aggregate demand policy will have no effect on business cycle fluctuations so that one deterministic feedback policy rule is as good as any other from the point of view of stabilizing the economy this paper develops a methodology for empirically analyzing rational expectations models displaying this neutrality result and then applies it to the important question of whether anticipated monetary policy matters to the business cycle

the impact of advance notice a comment on a study by nord and ting in their analysis of the effects of advance notification of plant closings nord and ting ilr review july 1991 claim that much can be expected of current legislation that mandates a 60 day prenotification standard because the outcomes of voluntary arrangements in an interval preceding implementation of the legislation point to substantial reductions in both joblessness and earnings losses for workers given over two months warning of their impending layoff they also suggest that many of the disparate results reported in the earlier plant closing literature reflect the inability to distinguish between formal and informal notice on the basis of the 1984 and 1986 displaced worker surveys

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

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

how does environmental regulation affect production location of non carbon ecological footprint abstract the aim of the paper is to investigate how the location of non carbon ecological footprint home or abroad changes along with environmental regulation ecological footprint measures the amount of biocapacity required to sustain the consumption patterns of human beings employing panel data analysis the relationship between income and footprints that result from domestic production and importsis investigated for 87 countries during the period 2004 2010 within the environmental kuznets curve ekc framework we find that an ekc relationship cannot be validated for income gdp per capita and non carbon footprints of production and of imports besides the analysis shows that countries reach the turning points for import footprint at lower levels of income once stringency of environmental regulation and enforcement of environmental regulation are accounted for environmental regulations push the economic structure towards a cleaner transformation by which resources can be exploited more effectively and short run losses in economic growth can be avoided in the medium and long run conditional on a successful transformation toward higher value added and cleaner production processes

economic growth and land use changes the declining amount of wilderness land in norway abstract the paper presents the evidence and analyses of macroeconomic factors explaining the reduction of wilderness land in norway the analysis is at the county level 18 counties for the years 1988 and 1994 and the regressions are carried out as cross section models as well as pooled fixed effects models using a new and probably unique database that categorizes the total area in norway into four zones of distance from larger technical installations wilderness land has been defined in three ways reflecting different qualities of the same type of natural resource land as more than 5 3 and 1 km from closest man made encroachment respectively the explanatory variables comprise gdp per capita gdp per capita squared and population density the main finding from the cross sections analysis is that the relative amount of wilderness land wilderness land as a fraction of the total area within each county is negatively related to the level of economic activity as measured by gdp per capita secondly the fixed effects model reveals a negative relationship between economic growth and the reduction of wilderness land these effects are tighter for wilderness land defined within a short distance from existing encroachments a high level of economic activity and high economic growth per capita is therefore associated with less wilderness land and hence the study gives no support for any environmental kuznets curve ekc relationships

anticipated money inflation uncertainity and real economic activity this paper critically examines a number of maintained hypotheses that are necessarily being tested along with the basic notion derived from the rational expectations re formulation of lucas 1972 19 73 that only unanticipated money matters the trend stationary representation of secular real output of lucas and others is replaced by a difference stationary representation found by nelson and plosser 1980 to be consistent with u s historical data the impact of inflation uncertainty on real activity is considered attention is paid to possible mis measurement of agents ex ante anticipated money growth it is found that three alternative measures of anticipated money growth produce a stable impact on growth of output and employment contemporaneous and lagged values of unanticipated money growth have no significant additional explanatory power in the presence of any one of the three measures of anticipated money growth beyond this it is impossible to reject the hypothesis that the initial positive real impact of anticipated money is not temporary inflation uncertainty is found to act as a significant depressant of real economic activity in the presence of all tested combinations of anticipated and unanticipated money growth this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

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

inflation uncertainty and real economic activity an alternative approach a bstracct increased uncertainty about inflation is shown to encourage inflation hedging which in turn reduces the macroeconomic costs of that uncertainty portfolio theory and empirical evidence support the contention that only the portion of inflation volatility that cannot be hedged has real economic effects additional empinrcal results suggest that i increased inflation volatility in the early seventies was eventually followed by portfolio reallocations that allowed for greatly improved inflation hedging and ii the deletenrous effect of inflation uncertainty on real economic activity shown in previouis studies is significantly smaller after 1975