energy substitution when model selection depends on the focus abstract in contrast to conventional model selection criteria the focused information criterion fic allows for the purpose specific choice of model specifications this accommodates the idea that one kind of model might be highly appropriate for inferences on a particular focus parameter but not for another ever since its development the fic has been increasingly applied in the realm of statistics but this concept appears to be virtually unknown in the literature on energy and production economics using the classical example of the translog cost function and production data for 35 u s industry sectors 1960 2005 this paper provides for an empirical illustration of the fic and demonstrates its usefulness in selecting production models thereby focusing on the ease of substitution between energy and capital versus energy and labor

fixed price equilibria in a multifirm model abstract in a simple temperary equilibrium model with three commodities labour goods and money and two sectors there are different firms each having its own production function there now exist four types of fixed price equilibria keynesian classical repressed inflation undercounsumption in the last type consumers are not rationed some producers are rationed on the goods market and other producers on the labour market there exist three different aggregate production functions that have to be applied in keynesian classical and repressed inflation situations respectively for the fourth case no aggregate production function exists

estimating elasticities of substitution with nested ces production functions where do we stand abstract prompt by an increasing interest by climate change modelers a rich literature estimating elasticities of substitution in a nested ces production framework has recently developed this article reviews such literature we critically describe the nesting structures estimation approaches data sources and aggregation econometric techniques and types of substitution elasticities used by previous literature to offer a comprehensive description of the various options available to a researcher attempting this estimation we also provide suggestions for potential improvements to the estimation process in particular we warn researchers to use ces production functions with caution in empirical applications given their restrictive build in assumptions

a dynamic auction for differentiated items under price rigidities a number of heterogeneous items are to be sold to several bidders each bidder demands at most one item the price of each item is not completely flexible and is restricted to some admissible interval in such a market economy with price rigidities a walrasian equilibrium usually fails to exist to facilitate the allocation of items to the bidders we propose an ascending auction with rationing that yields a constrained walrasian equilibrium outcome the auctioneer starts with the lower bound price vector that specifies the lowest admissible price for each item and each bidder responds with a set of items demanded at those prices the auctioneer adjusts prices upwards for a minimal set of over demanded items and chooses randomly a winning bidder for any item if the item is demanded by several bidders and its price has reached its highest admissible price we prove that the auction finds a constrained walrasian equilibrium outcome in a finite number of steps

the new institutional economics this outstanding book presents new original contributions from some of the world s leading economists including ronald coase douglass c north masahiko aoki oliver e williamson and harold demsetz it demonstrates the extent and depth of the new institutional economics research programme which is having a worldwide impact on the economics profession

on supply constrained equilibria abstract the paper gives sufficient conditions for the existence of an equilibrium with price rigidities and quantity rationing where i demand is never rationed ii net trades of an a priori chosen numeraire are never rationed and iii supply is rationed only when relative prices are downward rigid

price sensitivity of energy demand in norwegian industries the production side of the latest version of the norwegian msg model has been developed to allow for substitution between various energy goods and between energy and other inputs the production structure and behavior are specified for 19 sectors of the model within the framework of neoclassical production theory formalized by generalized leontief cost functions the main elements of the production model are presented along with the empirical results from estimation of the derived demand relations the analysis focuses on the price sensitivity of energy demand as measured by different types of price elasticities

the determinants of aggregate energy use in west germany factor substitution technological change and trade this paper examines the determinants of production related energy use in west germany over the period 1976 1994 the approach is to estimate a system of share equations for energy capital low skilled labor high skilled labor and materials in the west german production sector taking account of biased technological change and increasing trade orientation while technological change is found to be energy saving increased openness is energy using i e tends to increase the energy share factor substitution biased technological change and trade contribute to the year to year volatility of energy intensity in the proportion 66 30 4 the results are robust across several specifications examined

the role of energy in real business cycle models abstract this paper modifies hansen s 1985 analysis of a real business cycle mode with indivisible labor by explicitly including energy as a productive input and modelling the relative price of energy as an exogenous random process one goal is to determine the extent to which the introduction of energy price shocks reduces the reliance of the real business cycle model on unobserved technology shocks the other goal following christiano and eichenbaum 1991 is to compare the correlation between real wages and hours predicted by the energy inclusive model to that predicted by hansen s model

fairness and the optimal allocation of ownership rights we report on several experiments on the optimal allocation of ownership rights the experiments confirm the property rights approach by showing that the ownership structure affects relationship specific investments and that subjects attain the most efficient ownership allocation despite starting from different initial conditions however in contrast to the property rights approach the most efficient ownership structure is joint ownership these results are neither consistent with the self interest model nor with models that assume that all people behave fairly but they can be explained by the theory of inequity aversion that focuses on the interaction between selfish and fair players

opec s production under fluctuating oil prices further test of the target revenue theory abstract oil production cutbacks in recent years by opec members to stabilize price and to increase revenues warrant further empirical verification of the target revenue theory trt we estimate a modified version of griffin 1985 target revenue model using data from 1973 to 2000 the sample period unlike previous investigations includes phases of both price increase 1970s and price decrease 1980s 1990s thus providing a better framework for examining production behavior the results like the earlier study are not supportive of the strict version of the trt however evidence negative and significant elasticity of supply of the partial version are substantiated further empirical estimates do not support the competitive pricing model hypothesizing a positive elasticity of supply opec s loss of market share and the drop in the share of oil based energy should signal an adjustment in pricing and production strategies

the energy rebound effect in china s light industry a translog cost function approach abstract china is in its industrialization and urbanization development stage which requires strong energy support with the largest population in the world the energy endowment of china is relatively small therefore energy conservation is one of the key tools for china s sustainable development and energy security when making policies for conservation the chinese government needs to deal with rebound effect carefully in 2012 china s light industry consumed 316 million tons of coal equivalents accounting for 9 percent of the country s total energy consumption which is about the total amount of energy consumed by south korea based on the translog cost function the magnitude of rebound effect in china s light industry is estimated for the first time using the dynamic ordinary least squares and seemingly unrelated regression methods considering the asymmetric effects of energy prices on energy consumption the rebound effect is approximately 37 7 and all the inputs are substitutes except for labor and energy the different magnitude of rebound effect between light and heavy industry is discussed and some policy implications are provided for more effective energy conservation allowing for the rebound effect

codes of ethics as contractarian constraints on the abuse of authority within hierarchies a perspective from the theory of the firm abuse of authority is an unsolved problem in the new institutional theory of the firm this paper attempts a double attack to this problem by developing a contractarian view of corporate codes of ethics from the ex ante standpoint the paper elaborates on the idea of a social contract based on co operative bargaining games and deduces from it the fair efficient constitution of the firm endorsed by means of a well devised corporate code of ethics from the ex post standpoint codes of ethics are proved to be self enforcing norms by showing how they put at work the mechanism of a repeated game of reputation within hierarchical transactions firms characterised by incomplete contracts and unforeseen events to accomplish this task a theory of rationality in the face of unforeseen contingencies is sketched by working out the idea that the domain of a principle of ethics defines a fuzzy event i e an event to which also the ex ante unforeseen unimaginable states of the world belong to a certain degree

can market oriented economic reforms contribute to energy efficiency improvement evidence from china since china accelerated its market oriented economic reforms at the end of 1992 its energy intensity has declined 3 6 annually over 1993 2005 however its energy intensity declined 4 2 annually during its first reform period 1979 1992 therefore can we conclude that the accelerated marketization since the end of 1992 has made no contribution to its energy efficiency improvement in order to answer this challenging question we examine the changes of energy own price elasticity as well as the elasticities of substitution between energy and non energy capital and labor in china during the periods of 1979 1992 and 1993 2003 generally in transition or developing economies holding the technology and output level fixed if the energy own price elasticity algebraic value declines or the substitution elasticity between factors rises they will contribute to energy efficiency improvement our empirical study finds that 1 during 1979 1992 the energy own price elasticity is positive 0 285 and capital energy labor energy are both morishima complementary which indicates a distorted energy price and inefficient allocation and 2 during 1993 2003 the own price elasticity for energy is negative 1 236 and capital energy and labor energy are both morishima substitute all factor demands become more elastic and all elasticities of substitution increase the implication is that the accelerated marketization contributes substantially to energy efficiency improvement since 1993 c 2006 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

the relation between energy and non energy inputs in india s manufacturing industries the purpose of this paper is to examine the substitution possibilities among energy inputs and other non energy factors of production in response to price changes we relate this study to india s manufacturing industries this is of special interest since in the recent years indian industries have been gradually moving towards a high energy intensive structure of production in 1970 71 the mining and the manufacturing sector accounted for 52 9 per cent of the total commercial energy consumed in india in coal equivalent terms 8 p 1301 in this study we compute cross and own price elasticities of demand for all inputs a knowledge of the substitution possibilities is of paramount importance in economic planning consider for instance three situations first the effect of rising energy prices will tend to raise the demand for capital if capital and energy are substitute inputs second if energy and capital are complements the higher price for energy will tend to reduce the demand for both new capital equipment and energy thus the availability of cheap and ample supply of energy is significant in determining capital intensity and the future rates of capital formation in the literature on economic development this aspect of the choice of techniques has been by and large neglected third if there are limited substitution possibilities between energy and other inputs the adjustment by industry to higher prices of energy may be quite difficult and costs of production may rise precipitously necessitating a drastic change away from energy based production techniques in section ii of this paper we discuss the technique of analysis and describe the sources of data section iii presents the results and section iv is confined to the concluding remarks

the demand for capital labor and energy in european manufacturing industry before and after the oil price shocks the price and substitution elasticities for factor inputs capital labor fuels and electricity are estimated for total manufacturing industry on the basis of a pooled crosscountry time series analysis for nine west european countries the impact of the economic disturbances in the 1970s on the price sensitivity of demand is analyzed by estimating a translog cost function for two separate periods 1960 72 and 1973 80 hicks neutral technical change is rejected for both periods the results indicate some quite significant changes in the elasticities over the two periods

factor substitution in u s manufacturing does plant size matter we use micro data for 10 412 u s manufacturing plants to estimate the degrees of factor substitution by industry and by plant size we find that 1 capital labor energy and materials are substitutes in production and 2 the degrees of substitution among inputs are quite similar across plant sizes in a majority of industries two important implications of these findings are that 1 small plants are typically as flexible as large plants in factor substitution consequently economic policies such energy conservation policies that result in rising energy prices would not cause negative effects on either large or small u s manufacturing plants and 2 since energy and capital are found to be substitutes the 1973 energy crisis is unlikely to be a significant factor contributing to the post 1973 productivity slowdown

factor substitution and economies of scale and utilisation in kuwait s crude oil industry abstract the cost structure of the crude oil industry in kuwait has been examined with specific focus on factor substitution and economies of scale and utilisation this has been done by estimating translog cost functions both long run and short run using time series data covering the period from 1976 to 1996 the results indicate that the implied production structure is non homothetic and the pattern of scale effect is labour saving but capital and material using the evidence also supports the presence of an induced exogenous technical change which is non neutral labour and capital using and material saving the elasticity of substitution between capital and labour is positive implying that the two inputs are substitute the results also indicate the existence of diseconomies of scale in the production of crude oil but no economies or diseconomies of utilisation

enlightened corporate governance specific investments by employees as legitimation for residual claims while much has been written on specificity e g in texts on new institutional economics agency theory and team production theory there are still some insights to be learnt by business ethicists this article approaches the issue from the perspective of team production and will propose a new form of corporate governance enlightened corporate governance which takes into consideration the specific investments of employees the article argues that in addition to shareholders employees also bear a residual risk which arises due to their specific investments this residual risk presents a valid and legitimate basis for residual claims in this way employees can be seen as residual claimants due to the fact that their income depends upon a hazardous quasi rent therefore this article will call on the fiduciary duty of board members to protect those employees who are exposed to such residual risks and may thus be vulnerable as a result this leads to a fundamental change of perspective on the theory of the firm a change which will adopt the theories of new institutional economics agency theory and team production theory in order to promote business ethics research against this background enlightened corporate governance aims to follow the criterion of specific investments as a legitimate basis for residual claims furthermore it seeks to understand the consequences for board members and to promote the sharing of control and ownership the article will close with some discussion of the implications and future prospects for business ethics

supply constrained equilibria in economies with indexed prices abstract in an exchange economy prices are rigid and the prices are restricted by index functions the indexes can be of a general type and can be different for each commodity indexed prices can appear in other indexes also considered are restrictions in terms of a general price index existence of a dreze equilibrium and particularly a supply constrained dreze equilibrium is proved the system of indexes must be solvable in terms of unconstrained prices and for the unconstrained commodities a monotonicity condition must hold

toward a stakeholder theory of the firm the saturn partnership this paper seeks to engage the organization theory community in contemporary debates over the role of the corporation in american society by using the case of the saturn corporation to develop and illustrate a stakeholder theory of the firm one normative and three positive questions are posed for a stakeholder theory the normative question is why should stakeholder models be given serious consideration at this moment in history the positive questions are 1 under what conditions is a stakeholder firm likely to emerge in the united states 2 what are the critical determinants of performance in a stakeholder firm and 3 what will determine the sustainability and diffusion of this organizational form in the american environment the history design features and dynamics of the labormanagement partnership at saturn are used to illustrate and interpret a specific case of employees as stakeholders saturn s original mission governance structure and internal processes fit the characteristics of a stakeholder firm employees establish themselves as influential definitive stakeholders by using their knowledge to improve organizational performance the local union likewise contributes to firm performance by organizing workers into a dense social network that contributes to problem solving conflict resolution and quality improvement however the legal and political environment in which the firm operates produces considerable uncertainty over the sustainability and diffusion of saturn s features in particular and the stakeholder organizational form in general additional hypotheses and research questions are proposed to continue theory building around the more general model of the stakeholder firm researchers are encouraged to take up the analysis of stakeholder models and thereby contribute to the contemporary and future debates over the role of the corporation in american society

unemployment equilibrium in an economy with linked prices wage inflexibility has been widely regarded in modern writing as a cause of unemployment almost any keynesian or non walrasian equilibrium which involves equilibrium excess supplies also contain some form of wage or price inflexibility yet the micro mechanism of wage inflexibility its causes and form remains somewhat a mystery in this paper we study the allocation of resources in an economy in which prices of some goods or services are linked to other goods or services this is not wage rigidity in the traditional sense but it is a form of rigidity which is widely observed following the recent literature on non walrasian equilibrium see for example dreze 1975 barro and grossman 197 l grandmont and laroque 1976 malinvaud 1977 and many others one would expect the allocation to be attained via a set of quantity constraints on net trades we show in this paper however that the allocation mechanism in the economy will not require a general set of limitations on excess supplies and excess demands but rather will tend to have the following two properties

the energy demand in the manufacturing sector of pakistan some further results abstract the purpose of this study was to re examine the role of energy in the manufacturing sector of pakistan using a partial equilibrium approach gl restricted cost function along with the factor demand equations were estimated using zellner s iterative procedure higher energy prices do not seem to adversely affect investment in capital substitution possibilities between energy and non energy inputs are very limited and therefore energy price hikes may directly affect the cost of production inter fuel cross price elasticities indicate that there are substitution possibilities between electricity and gas

the capital energy substitutability debate a new look over the last twenty years many studies have been made of the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor the reported estimates are highly variable and reveal an apparent dichotomy between cross sectional and time series studies the former suggest that capital and energy are substitutes while the latter suggest the converse all these studies reported allen partial elasticities of substitution we suggest that the morishima elasticity may be a more useful measure for the issues of concern to capital energy substitution we calculate the morishima elasticities from parameters estimated in a selection of earlier studies and find no excessive variability nor any evidence of the time series cross section dichotomy capital and energy are morishima substitutes copyright 1995 by mit press

digitalization and energy consumption does ict reduce energy demand abstract this article investigates the effect of digitalization on energy consumption using an analytical model we investigate four effects 1 direct effects from the production usage and disposal of information and communication technologies ict 2 energy efficiency increases from digitalization 3 economic growth from increases in labor and energy productivities and 4 sectoral change tertiarization from the rise of ict services the analysis combines empirical and theoretical findings from debates on decoupling energy consumption from economic growth and from debates on green it and ict for sustainability our main results effects 1 and 3 tend to increase energy consumption effects 2 and 4 tend to decrease it furthermore our analysis suggests that the two increasing effects prevail so that overall digitalization increases energy consumption these results can be explained by four insights from ecological economics a physical capital and energy are complements in the ict sector b increases in energy efficiency lead to rebound effects c ict cannot solve the difficulty of decoupling economic growth from exergy d ict services are relatively energy intensive and come on top of former production in future digitalization can only boost sustainability when it fosters effects 2 and 4 without promoting effects 1 and 3

oil production responses to price changes an empirical application of the competitive model to opec and non opec countries abstract falling oil prices over the last decade accompanied by over production by some opec members and the growth of non opec supply warrant further empirical investigation of the competitive model to ascertain production behavior a supply function based on a modification of griffin s model is estimated using data from 1973 1997 the sample period unlike griffin s however includes phases of price increase 1970s and price decrease 1980s 1990s thus providing a better framework for examining production behavior using the competitive model the opec results do not support the competitive hypothesis instead a negative and significant price elasticity of supply is obtained this result offers partial support for the target revenue theory for most of the non opec members the estimates support the competitive model opec s loss of market share and the drop in the share of oil based energy should signal adjustments in price and quantity based on a competitive world market for crude oil

rejecting capital skill complementarity at all costs any serious empirical study of factor substitutability has to allow the data to display complementarity as well as substitutability the standard approach reflecting this idea is a translog specification this is also the approach used by numerous studies analyzing the relative capital skill complementarity hypothesis formulated by griliches 1969 according to this hypothesis the degree of substitutability between skilled labor and capital is lower than that for unskilled labor and capital yet the results of empirical studies investigating this hypothesis are controversial this paper offers a straightforward explanation using a translog approach reduces the issue of actor substitutability or complementarity to a question of cost shares our review of translog studies mentioned in hamermesh s 1993 summary on the demand for heterogeneous labor demonstrates that this argument is empirically relevant all these studies can be reconciled with each other on the basis of the cost share argument

engineering and econometric interpretations of energy capital complementarity comment in a recent paper in this review ernst berndt and david wood provide a useful clarification of gross and net complementarity pointing out that energy and capital can be gross substitutes in a production subfunction and yet net complements in the aggregate production function using this theoretical proposition they attempt to reconcile the econometric findings of energy capital complementarity with other studies finding energy capital substitutability their reconciliation rests on the finding that those studies finding energy capital substitutability considered only capital k labor l and energy e by omitting materials m one obtains only a gross elasticity the net elasticity which allows for the additional substitution between the kle aggregate and m can indicate energy capital complementarity in fact klem studies generally find energy and capital complementarity the purpose of this comment is to question whether the net and the gross elasticity distinction provides such a reconciliation among the econometric results i agree that this explanation tends to reduce the disparity between the original berndt wood elasticity estimate and griffin gregory yet three independent sources of evidence suggest that the omission of m is not a sufficient explanation and probably not even a major explanation for the disparity of findings first the difference between the gross elasticity in a kle submodel and the net elasticity in a klem model depends critically on the elasticity of substitution between m and kle let us adopt the berndt wood notation and consider their mathematical example which demonstrates the possibility of gross capital energy substitutability as in the griffin gregory study with net capital energy complementarity

modelling energy and non energy substitution a brief survey of elasticities estimating the degree of substitution between energy and non energy inputs is the key for any evaluation of environmental and energy policies yet given the variety of substitution elasticities the central question arises as to which measure would be most appropriate apparently allen s elasticities of substitution have been the most used measures in applied production analysis in line with frondel 2004 this paper argues that cross price elasticities are preferable for many practical purposes this conclusion is based on a survey of classical substitution measures such as those from allen morishima and mcfadden the survey highlights the fact that cross price elasticities are their essential ingredients

dynamic factor demands and the effects of energy price shocks a dynamic model is used to understand how sharp changes in energy prices affect investment behavior employment and energy use the authors discuss the theory behind their model selection model specifications estimation methods and data list parameter estimates and elasticities for the selected model and describe the simulations they conclude that 1 the data strongly reject the hypothesis of constant returns to scale within their specification of aggregate production 2 the data indicate adjustment costs on labor are small and 3 their results help reconcile some of the conflicting estimates of energy demand elasticities appearing in recent literature 23 references 3 figures 3 tables

energy substitution in u s manufacturing a regional approach one response of economists to energy market developments of the 1970s was to launch a series of studies in which the objective was to estimate energy substitution parameters characterizing important sectors of the u s economy relatively high substitution elasticities between energy and other inputs would permit firms to mitigate the effects of energy price increases by shifting to less energy intensive factor proportions the seminal work in this effort was carried out by berndt and wood 5 griffin and gregory 14 pindyck 28 halvorsen 16 and fuss 12 the research was substantially abetted by developments in production theory where the work of mcfadden 23 diewert 8 and christensen jorgenson and lau 6 yielded new and flexible production and cost function forms empirical work on energy substitution has continued 2 for the most part the data analyzed have been highly aggregative applying to say total u s manufacturing or perhaps to the various two digit sectors comprising that total to date little effort has been given to investigating energy substitution relationships at the regional level in the u s this is unfortunate since we know that the u s economy is actually composed of regions which are differently endowed with resources have developed at different rates and are comprised of different sectoral mixes the distinct possibility exists that regions differ in terms of the way in which energy inputs relate to other inputs in production furthermore even though the energy crisis may seem to be a national phenomenon national policy responses are worked out within a context of shifting and colliding regional conflicts stemming in large part from real or imagined perceptions of how energy market developments impact different regions it would seem especially important therefore to identify

the impact of green innovation on energy intensity an empirical analysis for 14 industrial sectors in oecd countries abstract this paper analyses the impact of green innovation on energy intensity in a set of 14 industrial sectors in 17 oecd countries over the 1975 2005 period we create a stock of green patents for each industrial sector and estimate a translog cost function to measure the impact of green innovation on energy intensity next to other factors such as input substitution and autonomous technical change we find that green innovation has contributed to the decline in energy intensity in the majority of sectors the median elasticity of energy intensity with respect to green patenting is estimated at 0 03 in our sample hence a 1 increase in green patenting activities in a given sector is associated with a 0 03 decline in energy intensity the magnitude of the effect is robust across various specifications and is larger in more recent years a decomposition exercise shows that overall half of the decrease in energy intensity over the sample period is related to changes in input prices and half to changes in production technologies

perspectives on positive political economy this volume serves as an introduction to the field of positive political economy and the economic and political processes with which it is concerned this new research tradition is distinct from both normative and historical approaches to political economy grounded in the rational actor methodology of microeconomics positive political economy is the study of rational decisions in a context of political and economic institutions more analytical than traditional approaches it is concerned with the derivation of principles and propositions against which real world experience may be compared its focus is on empirical regularities and its goal is theoretical explanation the field has focused on three main areas of research models of collective action constraints on competitive market processes and the analysis of transaction costs developments in all of these areas are covered in the book the first part of the volume surveys the field while the second part displays positive political economy at work examining a variety of subjects the final part contains essays by leading political economists on the theoretical foundations of the field

capital energy substitution evidence from a panel of irish manufacturing firms abstract we use a translog cost function to model production in the irish manufacturing sector over the period from 1991 to 2009 we estimate both own and cross price elasticities and morishima elasticities of substitution between capital labour materials and energy we find that capital and energy are substitutes in the production process across all firms we find that a 1 rise in the price of energy is associated with an increase of 0 04 in the demand for capital the morishima elasticities which reflect the technological substitution potential indicate that a 1 increase in the price of energy causes the capital energy input ratio to increase by 1 5 the demand for capital in energy intensive firms is more responsive to increases in energy prices while it is less responsive in foreign owned firms we also observe a sharp decline in firms responsiveness in the first half of the sample period

the demand for energy in swedish manufacturing industries the price sensitivity of energy demand and the substitution possibilities between energy and other aggregate production factors in swedish manufacturing industries are analyzed both homothetic and nonhomotethic specifications of a translog cost function are estimated using annual data for the period 1952 1976 for total swedish manufacturing and for 12 manufacturing subsectors the results indicate that relative changes in energy prices have significant effects on energy consumption there is evidence however that adjustment to higher energy prices may be accompanied by a deceleration in investment

energy capital substitutability complementarity the dichotomy abstract changes in the price of energy affect not only the demand for energy but also the rates of capital formation and labour utilization these changes depend on the functional relationship between energy and the primary factor inputs in particular the relationship between energy and capital has been characterized by major conflicting evidence time series data classify the two inputs as complements by contrast pooled cross section studies conclude that capital and energy aresubstitutes in the production process in this case higher priced energy will stimulate the demand for investment while several reconciliation attempts on this disparity deserve marked attention the most prominent explanation is that time series studies reflect short term relationships and cross section analyses capture long term effects

who should control a corporation toward a contingency stakeholder model for allocating ownership rights a number of companies allocate ownership rights to stakeholders different from shareholders despite the fact that the law attributes these rights to the equity holders this article contributes to an understanding of this evidence by developing a contingency model for the allocation of ownership rights the model sheds light on why companies despite pressures from the law vary in their allocation of ownership rights the model is based on the assumption that corporations increase their chance to survive and prosper if the stakeholders supplying critical contributions receive the ownership rights according to the model critical contributions involve 1 contractual problems due to specific investments long term relationships and low measurability 2 the assumption of the uncertainty resting on the company and 3 the supply of scarce and valuable resources the model is dynamic because it also provides a basis for understanding why the allocation of ownership rights changes with time finally the article presents the strategies companies can use to realize an efficient distribution of ownership rights among their stakeholders

estimating the potential for electricity savings in households abstract improving efficiency in the use of energy is an important goal for many nations since end use energy efficiency can help to reduce co 2 emissions furthermore since the residential sector in industrialised countries requires around one third of the end use electricity it is important for policy makers to estimate the scope for electricity saving in households to reduce electricity consumption by using appropriate steering mechanisms we estimate the level of technical efficiency in the use of electricity using data from a swiss household survey we find an average inefficiency in electricity use by swiss households of around 20 to 25 bottom up economic engineering models estimate the potential in switzerland to be around 15 in this paper we use a sub vector input distance frontier function based on economic foundations our estimates lie at the upper end of the electricity saving potential estimated by the afore mentioned economic engineering approach

limits to substitution and irreversibility in production and consumption a neoclassical interpretation of ecological economics abstract there are many methodological approaches within ecological economics one of the principal modes of analysis is a modified version of the standard neoclassical model this paper examines the parallels which emerge between the ideas of some ecological economists concerning production and the ideas of others concerning consumption when these ideas are interpreted in the neoclassical paradigm it is well known that ecological economics is characterized by arguments concerning limits to substitution between inputs energy natural capital etc vs manufactured capital labor etc in production and the implications these have for sustainability however various authors have also expressed concerns regarding limits to substitution in consumption either between environmental assets and other goods or between basic needs commodities and other goods though the specific reasons for non substitution are different in the production and consumption cases the underlying theme is that individual commodities and other inputs have unique physical or other properties which make them poor substitutes ideas about irreversibility in production and economic development are also prominent in ecological economics likewise many authors have argued for similar irreversibilities in consumption behavior in analogy to the term technological change i coin the term preferential change to describe these phenomena the linking themes in this case are that the economy environment system is evolutionary in character and that external effects intended and unintended consequences of actions or processes imposed on other parties or resources are all pervasive