investment and upgrade in distributed generation under uncertainty the ongoing deregulation of electricity industries worldwide is providing incentives for microgrids to use small scale distributed generation dg and combined heat and power chp applications via heat exchangers hxs to meet local energy loads although the electric only efficiency of dg is lower than that of central station production relatively high tariff rates and the potential for chp applications increase the attraction of on site generation nevertheless a microgrid contemplating the installation of gas fired dg has to be aware of the uncertainty in the natural gas price treatment of uncertainty via real options increases the value of the investment opportunity which then delays the adoption decision as the opportunity cost of exercising the investment option increases as well in this paper we take the perspective of a microgrid that can proceed in a sequential manner with dg capacity and hx investment in order to reduce its exposure to risk from natural gas price volatility in particular with the availability of the hx the microgrid faces a tradeoff between reducing its exposure to the natural gas price and maximising its cost savings by varying the volatility parameter we find that the microgrid prefers a direct investment strategy for low levels of volatility and a sequential one for higher levels of volatility

investigating the cost performance of uk credit unions using radial and non radial efficiency measures abstract this paper examines the relative efficiency of uk credit unions radial and non radial measures of input cost efficiency plus associated scale efficiency measures are computed for a selection of input output specifications both measures highlighted that uk credit unions have considerable scope for efficiency gains it was mooted that the documented high levels of inefficiency may be indicative of the fact that credit unions based on clearly defined and non overlapping common bonds are not in competition with each other for market share credit unions were also highlighted as suffering from a considerable degree of scale inefficiency with the majority of scale inefficient credit unions subject to decreasing returns to scale the latter aspect highlights that the uk government s goal of larger credit unions must be accompanied by greater regulatory freedom if inefficiency is to be avoided one of the advantages of computing non radial measures is that an insight into potential over or under expenditure on specific inputs can be obtained through a comparison of the non radial measure of efficiency with the associated radial measure two interesting findings emerged the first that uk credit unions over spend on dividend payments and the second that they under spend on labour costs

collective learning tacit knowledge and regional innovative capacity lawson c and lorenz e 1999 collective learning tacit knowledge and regional innovative capacity reg studies 33 305 317 the paper reviews key ideas in the firm capabilities literature and shows how they can be usefully extended to develop a conception of collective learning among regionally clustered enterprises the paper also explores the relationship between codifiable and tacit knowledge in the innovation process and investigates the claim that tacit knowledge because it is difficult to transfer in the absence of labour mobility may constitute a basis for sustained regional competitive advantage the closing section uses case study material based on minneapolis and cambridge to illustrate the importance for innovation of a regional capability for combining and integrating diverse knowledge and of the sources of such capabilities as pre conditions for successful high technology regions lawson c et lorenz e 1999 l apprentissage collectif la connaissance implicite et la capacite regio

demand for football and intramatch winning probability an essay on the glorious uncertainty of sports the aims of this study are i to identify the main determinants of the demand for french premiere division football matches using all matches played during the 1997 1998 season ii to estimate a team specific probability of success and iii to propose an updating process for the intramatch winning probability the methodology is tested empirically over an out of sample data set using matches of the 1998 1999 season the results show that football appears to be an inferior product affected by both socio economic and football variables and that the main football variables have only a tenuous explanatory power concerning the final outcome of a given match

a new production function bowled by a googly this paper clarifies the nature of the ces production function described in a recent paper by bairam howells and turner bht in this journal it is shown that the standard constant returns to scale ces function is a special case of the bht function in all other cases the bht function is not homogeneous of any degree in its inputs and hence cannot be considered a neoclassical production function further the bht function is restrictive in that it does not admit homogeneous non constant returns to scale ces functions

an optimization methodology for identifying robust process integration investments under uncertainty uncertainties in future energy prices and policies strongly affect decisions on investments in process integration measures in industry in this paper we present a five step methodology for the identification of robust investment alternatives incorporating explicitly such uncertainties in the optimization model methods for optimization under uncertainty or stochastic programming are thus combined with a deep understanding of process integration and process technology in order to achieve a framework for decision making concerning the investment planning of process integration measures under uncertainty the proposed methodology enables the optimization of investments in energy efficiency with respect to their net present value or an environmental objective in particular as a result of the optimization approach complex investment alternatives allowing for combinations of energy efficiency measures can be analyzed uncertainties as well as time dependent parameters such as energy prices and policies are modelled using a scenario based approach enabling the identification of robust investment solutions the methodology is primarily an aid for decision makers in industry but it will also provide insight for policy makers into how uncertainties regarding future price levels and policy instruments affect the decisions on investments in energy efficiency measures

a general multiple distributed lag framework for estimating the dynamic effects of promotions game attendance resulting from ticket sales is the single largest revenue stream for major league baseball mlb teams we propose a general multiple distributed lag framework following the koyck family of models for estimating mlb attendance drivers and focus specifically on the differential direct and carryover effects of in game promotions by setting various model constraints the proposed framework incorporates different forms of serial correlation and promotion specific dynamic effects using information model selection heuristics we select an optimal model of attendance drivers for the pittsburgh pirates 2010 2012 mlb seasons we demonstrate that our newly proposed model with an unrestricted serial correlation structure performs best we find that although kids promotions have the highest direct effect on attendance giveaway and entertainment promotions have substantial carryover effects and the largest total effects we use our results to optimize the pirates promotional schedule and find that a reallocation of resources across promotional categories can increase profits between 39 and 88 data as supplemental material are available at http dx doi org 10 1287 mnsc 2013 1856 this paper was accepted by eric bradlow special issue on business analytics

football spectator no show behaviour in the german bundesliga despite an extensive literature on stadium attendance demand our understanding of those factors shaping spectator no show behaviour is rudimentary at best here we explore such behaviour by using

the demand for standing and seated viewing accommodation in the english football league using match attendance data collected from a postal survey of football league clubs separate demand equations are estimated for standing and seated viewing accommodation some significant differences between attendance patterns for the two types of accommodation are identified current form the championship significance of the match and a geographical distance variable are found to be important determinants of standing attendance while the club s historical record is of particular importance for seated attendance the paper also discusses the implications of the results in view of the current moves towards the conversion of stadia to all seated accommodation

optimal technology choice and investment timing a stochastic model of industrial cogeneration vs heat only production abstract in this paper we develop an economic model that explains the decision making problem under uncertainty of an industrial firm that wants to invest in a process technology more specifically the decision is between making an irreversible investment in a combined heat and power production cogeneration system or to invest in a conventional heat only generation system steam boiler and to purchase all electricity from the grid in our model we include the main economic and technical variables of the investment decision process we also account for the risk and uncertainty inherent in volatile energy prices that can greatly affect the valuation of the investment project the dynamic stochastic model presented allows us to simultaneously determine the optimal technology choice and investment timing we apply the theoretical model and illustrate our main findings with a numerical example that is based on realistic cost values for industrial oil or gas fired cogeneration and heat only generation in switzerland we also briefly discuss expected effects of a co 2 tax on the investment decision

community currencies and sustainable development a systematic review community or complementary currency systems have spread all around the world most often they have been promoted as tools to foster sustainable development albeit they differ in terms of specific objectives while many case studies have tried to assess the actual impact of these systems there has been no global analysis summarizing their global impact this paper aims to fill the gap by exploring whether complementary currencies contribute to the three pillars of sustainable development we use the systematic review methodology on an original dataset gathering most academic publications on the topic in english french and spanish our main findings suggest that community currencies mostly contribute to social sustainability and that their economic benefits are somewhat limited due to their small scale and the lack of awareness on their scope moreover very few studies explicitly identify environmental outcomes finally this review reveals some limits regarding current methods for impact assessment in this field therefore it encourages more standardization to provide greater accuracy and strengthen the legitimacy of community currencies in order to foster their continued development

secondary currency an empirical analysis abstract many cases exist of multiple currency usage throughout history as two leading examples secondary currencies were widespread during both the great depression in the united states and the 2002 recession in argentina what are the determinants of multiple currency usage and what is the effect on economic activity both issues are empirically addressed using individual level surveys collected by the authors in argentina during 2002 and 2003 the evidence supports the theoretically predicted determinants of secondary currency acceptability put forth in monetary theory in particular findings show that the acceptability of the secondary currency increases when the supply of national currency is low the relative transaction cost of the secondary currency is low and the individual trading technologies are less effective moreover the acceptability of the secondary currency has real effects on economic activity among those who use the secondary currency the monthly income gain is more than 15 of the average argentine s monthly income excluding trades of used goods this amounts to a 0 6 increase in gdp

smarter than metering coupling smart meters and complementary currencies to reinforce the motivation of households for energy savings a crucial argument in the debate around smart meter deployment in the eu is the potential for households to save energy one strand of research in this field has investigated the effects on household energy consumption of the feed back provided by smart meters however another aspect that deserves attention is the motivation for households to use the feed back to save energy this paper explores how the emerging trend of using complementary currencies for sustainability policies could translate into new interventions adapted to the smart meter deployment and capable of promoting more autonomous forms of motivation compared to interventions using official currencies three systems designs rewarding regulatory and hybrid are presented and discussed within the framework of self determination theory because the rewarding system s1 can contribute positively people s basic needs for autonomy competence and relatedness it could lead to more autonomous forms of motivation the conclusions regarding the regulatory system s2 are less clear although the hybrid variant s3 that integrates mechanisms from the rewarding system into the regulatory system could be perceived as more consonant with people s basic need for autonomy

government policy and industrial investment in cogeneration in the usa abstract this paper presents an economic analysis of investment in cogeneration in selected industries and assesses the impact of investment tax credits policy directed at cogeneration we use a dynamic partial equilibrium model that is derived under the assumption that investment in cogeneration occurs if and when the annualized cost of the incremental investment is less than the annualized benefits of avoiding electricity purchase from the utilities policy simulations show that investment in cogeneration is economically feasible even without the tax credits the tax credit policy marginally increases investment in cogeneration the welfare distortions and revenue loss to the us treasury are also estimated external benefits required per barrel of oil to offset distortion costs would come to 2 83

using a choice experiment to estimate the benefits of a reduction of externalities in urban areas with special focus on electrosmog traffic noise air pollution and electromagnetic pollution i e nonionizing radiation also called electrosmog are typical negative local externalities in urban areas they are side effects of human and economic activities e g road transport telecommunication and they affect individuals well being negatively without compensation in recent years the increased number of mobile phone antennas in residential areas and thus the increased intensity of radiated power has aroused public concern discussions and protests the view of an antenna is annoying an increasing number of inhabitants in this article the stated choice experiment ce is used to estimate the willingness to pay wtp residents in the cities of zurich and lugano place on the reduction of these three environmental loads estimation results reveal that there is a positive and significant wtp for a reduction of air pollution and traffic noise levels to those limit values fixed by the government respondents also show wtp for reducing

evaluating changes in league structure the reorganization of the scottish football league this article investigates the relationship between league structure and the demand for professional team sport using data from the scottish football league sfl 1971 to 1980 the sfl was restructured in 1975 and thus provides an excellent opportunity for the empirical analysis of the influence of league structure the general channels by which league structure affects demand are explored estimates are made of the impact on individual clubs by predicting what attendances would have been in the absence of the league reorganization finally the distribution of attendances across clubs is examined for evidence of the influence of league structure

the impact of water price uncertainty on the adoption of precision irrigation systems we examine whether a firm is more or less likely to adopt precision technology when input prices are stochastic the results are important to determining whether programs and contracts that reduce input price uncertainty may deter the adoption of conservation practices an economic model of the technology adoption decision shows that the net effect of input price risk is ambiguous and depends on several factors including the shutdown effect the mean price effect the precision expansion effect and the risk aversion effect an empirical implementation of the model relies on data on water price and irrigation technology adoption observed in a california irrigation district over the period 1999 2002 the results show that a stable input price increases the adoption of precision technology but the impact depends on crop choice and land quality characteristics

local currencies for purposive degrowth a quality check of some proposals for changing money as usual this article provides a quality check of the degrowth movement s proposal of local currencies as tools for advancing socially equitable and ecologically sustainable degrowth the article draws comprehensively upon mainly english language academic research about four widespread local currency types lets time banks hour currencies and convertible local currencies clcs to assess their performance with respect to four degrowth related criteria community building advancement of alternative values in economic exchange facilitation of alternative livelihoods and eco localization lets have been found to support alternative livelihoods under quite uncommon conditions and contribute indirectly to eco localization by moderately facilitating informal resale repair and sharing of commercially produced goods although their burdensome management and confinement to small memberships limit their usefulness time banks help expand social networks and are best at reaching the socially excluded however they are confined to unskilled personal services and dependent on grant funding hour currencies do not stand out with regard to any criteria but may have a minor capacity to promote local purchasing clcs are best at attracting local businesses but no significant evidence of their said capacity to localize supply chains has surfaced as yet and their business friendly design works to the detriment of other criteria in sum existing research provides a very weak basis for advocating local currencies as tools for purposive degrowth local currencies are here categorized as two utopian socialist approaches the behind society s back variety of lets and hour currencies and the appeal to elites variety of time banks and clcs marx and engels s critiques of these approaches remain valid successful monetary systems require resources that are not available behind society s back notably the power to levy taxes and designate by which means they can be paid local currencies that appeal for elite support without mass popular backing have shaken off most radical connotations and are vulnerable to changing policy agendas given the present historical conjuncture of popular outrage against the banking sector this paper argues that the degrowth movement would improve its chances of contributing to purposive degrowth by prioritizing government centred ecological reform of the monetary system over local currencies

degrowth and the supply of money in an energy scarce world abstract degrowth is going to happen whether governments want it or not because as fossil fuels run out incomes will shrink along with the energy supply this degrowth can either be unplanned and catastrophic or managed and relatively benign this paper argues that three tools are essential to avoid degrowth becoming a catastrophic collapse these are i a system to share the benefits from using increasingly scarce fossil fuels ii new ways of financing businesses and iii the introduction of debt free regional and local currencies

back to which bretton woods liquidity and clearing as alternative principles for reforming international money in the face of the current crisis there is growing demand for regulation often invoked in terms of a return to bretton woods the bretton woods conference of 1944 was indeed the last explicit attempt to define a rule for international set tlements in fact post world war ii currency negotiations gave place to a confrontation between two alternative visions of the international monetary system the two plans set forth by the u s and by the u k embody two alternative principles the first aims at producing international liquidity on the basis of a reserve currency white s plan for an international stabilization fund the second aims at providing a pure means and measure for the multilateral clearing of current accounts in the form of a currency unit keynes s plan for an international clearing union the former has undoubtedly prevailed however it is questionable whether it is the most appropriate way to manage global imbalances indeed the principle eventually embodied in the bretton woods system and persisting even after its demise tends to identify money with a reserve asset making possible and even necessary the accumulation of global imbalances despite original intentions to reabsorb them on the contrary the principle that inspired the alternative plan was intended to deprive money of the character of a reserve asset thus making it the rule for international exchanges rather than an object of regulation among others this paper outlines the two principles both in historical perspective and in the perspective of future reforms particularly in relation to the recent proposal by the governor of the people s bank of china to go back to the principles of the keynes plan

the demand for rugby league evidence from causality tests during the last few years there has been an upsurge of interest in the determinants of the demand for professional team sports typically traditional demand estimation techniques are used to examine the determinants of attendance this paper attempts to show that the use of these techniques may be misleading existing studies implicitly or explicitly assume a direction of causality econometric estimation techniques are then applied to examine this direction of causality however no account is taken of possible spurious regression and time series properties of the data are not fully explored these omissions may have led to faulty policy recommendations in attempting to rectify traditional approaches this study will examine the time series properties of rugby league attendence and success prior to engaging in estimation

complementary credit networks and macroeconomic stability switzerland s wirtschaftsring abstract the swiss wirtschaftsring economic circle credit network founded in 1934 provides residual spending power that is highly counter cyclical individuals are cash short in a recession and economize by greater use of wir credits a money in the production function mipf specification implies that transactions in wir form a stabilizing balance that makes up for the lack of ordinary currency thus unlike the ordinary money wir money is negatively correlated with gdp in the short run this implication is confirmed by empirical estimates such credit networks play a stabilizing role that should be considered in monetary policy

the demand for semi pro league football in malaysia 1989 91 a panel data approach this article arguments the literature on the demand for professional team sports by estimating a demand function for attendance at home matches in the malaysian semi pro football league mspfl between 1989 and 1991 a single equation demand attendance function based on a pooled cross section and time series panel data set of 399 games is estimated by ordinary least squares a fixed effects dummy variable covariance model and an error components model our findings confirm the importance of market size and championship prospects for the home team but not the visiting team as well as divisional status and star players the first match of the season and derby matches also increased attendance

uncertainty of outcome or strengths of teams an economic analysis of attendance demand for international cricket a significant body of theoretical literature has argued that popular interest in sporting contests between teams is heavily influenced by how difficult it is to predict the result ex ante empirical research has however been unable to reach a consensus on the magnitude of uncertainty of outcome on demand in this article we seek to resolve this impasse by distinguishing between uncertainty of outcome in the short run and uncertainty of outcome in the long run we also show that it is important to control for the independent effect of absolute team strength when testing the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis using data on over 380 test cricket matches played in england australia and new zealand since 1980 we find that short run uncertainty of outcome has a significant impact on attendance demand and that absolute team strength has better explanatory power for attendance demand than does long run uncertainty of outcome our results suggest some policy implications for the management and organization of international cricket

local clearing unions as stabilizers of local economic systems a stock flow consistent perspective various examples of complementary currencies have recently emerged in europe in response to the impact of the 2007 financial crisis they have been variously labelled as social local and alternative money but their economic meaning has still to be discussed on the one hand they have been hailed as innovative tools for socio territorial policies with a focus on localist anti globalist and anti capitalist values on the other the emphasis on the value of currencies as instruments of alternative territorial development runs the risk of overshadowing issues concerning the specific features of such projects the first part of this paper puts forward an interpretation of the current situation as a crisis of the liquidity principle and suggests that the principle of clearing instead represents the primary point of reference for any institutional arrangement aimed at restoring a balanced relationship between lenders and borrowers a critical review of known european complementary monetary circuits is followed by examination of the sardex clearing system the paper then goes on to argue by means of a stock flow consistent model that complementary monetary circuits can serve to stabilise local economic systems in particular a local clearing union for local exchanges has the effect of stabilising the profits of firms while attenuating the impact of the credit crunch at same time

the triple c approach to local industrial policy abstract in both developed and developing countries there is mounting evidence that clustering and networking help small and medium sized manufacturers to raise their competitiveness the role of public policy in this process is less clear the european experience suggests that local and regional government can play an important role equally if not more interesting experiences can be found in developing countries their analysis constitutes the core of this paper the lessons can be summarized as the triple c which stands for customer oriented collective and cumulative

the demand for league football a demand equation is estimated for total football league attendances for the period 1948 49 to 1979 80 plausible values are obtained for the elasticities of demand with respect to income and to a price variable which includes the cost of travel to the stadium the values imply that football spectating is an inferior good with a low price elasticity equations are also estimated for the league s separate divisions the implications of the results for the football league clubs are discussed

sustainable user innovation from a policy perspective a systematic literature review abstract sustainable innovation is typically viewed through the lens of the producer innovator whereas end users or consumers are perceived to play only a peripheral role in the development of sustainable products and services a growing literature stream however sharply departs from this view by suggesting that end users often play a critical role with regard to sustainable innovation to further consolidate this field the purpose of this paper is threefold first the paper summarizes and synthesizes key insights within the field based on 84 papers published from 1992 to 2015 second we offer a framework to understand the current observed barriers and drivers to this innovation process suggesting two distinct end user innovation types independent and facilitated the end users motivation ability and opportunity to innovate serve as the deductive analytical tool utilized for discerning these drivers and barriers third the paper suggests how this form of innovation may be ameliorated from a policy perspective the paper reveals that the literature on end user innovation within sustainability is both diverse and compartmentalized hence policy mechanisms designed to support this type of innovation process need to be tailored to the independent or facilitated framework in which the end user resides and to take into account how each framework is necessitated by a different actor logic and motivation resulting in the pursuit of different innovation types it is concluded that the literature focusing on independent end user innovation typically highlights policy aimed at enabling end users with the necessary skills and resources to innovate whereas literature focusing on facilitated end user innovation typically emphasizes creating platforms that enable the effective introduction of end user knowledge into an already existing framework the paper offers an overview and a framework for researchers to further explore this diverse and compartmentalized field practitioners may especially benefit from the proposed policy tools including the overview of potential tools for drawing on end user competences and resources

combined heat and power economics abstract combined heat and power is a joint product system generating electricity and heat both relatively non storable commodities with temporally fluctuating demands a peak load pricing model of the chp system is developed to investigate the pricing and capacity decisions involved in this two market system various market structures are considered and the pricing implications investigated the solutions have several interesting features including possible peak load switching where a decentralized chp system exports electricity to the central system and operates in a local heat market then ceteris paribus higher central electricity system prices imply lower optimal local heat market prices in this latter case the tariff offered by the electricity supply industry for chp generated electricity has implications for investment and for pricing in the heat market this tariff is therefore examined further the case for marginal cost pricing is shown to have several attractive features

the demand for english league football a club level analysis a demand equation is estimated for 19 large urban based english football league clubs over the period 1962 3 to 1991 2 in order to analyse the economic determinants of club attendances while controlling for football specific factors attendances are measured with and without correction for admission of season ticket holders using an error correction specification to model attendances it is shown that both adjusted and unadjusted attendances respond to real ticket prices in the long run in 17 and 18 clubs respectively the price elasticity is typically larger for adjusted attendances suggesting that casual spectators are more price sensitive than season ticket holders among football specific factors league position goals scored and promotion and relegation between the divisions are all important determinants of attendance patterns

the brazilian soccer championship an efficiency analysis this article analyses the top brazilian football league from 2003 to 2011 by estimating a cost function and using a stochastic frontier model among the covariates the number of fans per club and club remoteness is taken into account the brazilian clubs are then ranked according to their technical efficiency during the 2000 2011 period based on the results the policy implication is presented and the economic implications arising from the study are also considered

modeling of industrial energy consumption an introduction and context industrial energy accounts for roughly one third of total global energy consumption and is expected to continue to use a similar share in the foreseeable future however this is one of the hardest end uses to analyze model and forecast the reasons for modeling industrial energy consumption are as varied as the ways in which energy is used in production processes this has led to the application of a broad set of emperical tools from several different disciplines in this article we provide an introduction and context for a compendium or survey of the methods used in this area this special issue of energy economics is designed to provide both newcomers and accomplished researchers with an overview of the current state of development in the are of industrial energy modeling

the demand for football in the regions of england and wales dobson s m and goddard j a 1996 the demand for football in the regions of england and wales reg studies 30 443 453 this paper investigates the determinants of the demand for football in the regions of england and wales using annual time series data over a 37 year period we use a dynamic error correction model to identify economic and football specific factors which determine attendances in the short run and long run the short run influences on demand are performance admission price and goal scoring performance and the unemployment rate are identified as significant long run determinants of attendance although the relationship between attendance share and performance seems to exhibit a strong regional dimension we find only weak evidence of regional variation in the coefficients of the attendance model itself dobson s m et goddard j a 1996 la demande de football aux regions de l angleterre et des pays de galles reg studies 30 443 453 cet article examine les determinants de la de

collective efficiency growth path for small scale industry this study is concerned with the growth of small local industry in developing countries and explores one particular route for understanding and fostering such growth it focuses on the clustering of firms and the competitive advantage which they derive from local external economies and joint action captured in the concept of collective efficiency following a conceptual discussion the article explores the economic and institutional conditions which enhance or hinder collective efficiency this includes a case study which suggests that responding to opportunity and crisis requires shifting from mere reliance on external economies to joint action and from ascribed to earned trust

sustainable consumption the new economics and community currencies developing new institutions for environmental governance seyfang g 2006 sustainable consumption the new economics and community currencies developing new institutions for environmental governance regional studies 40 781 791 sustainable consumption is gaining currency as a new environmental policy objective but there is a limit to the changes in consumption behaviour that individuals can make within current socio economic frameworks the new economics literature argues that sustainable consumption is characterized by five factors localization reducing ecological footprints community building collective action and building new social institutions these form a set of indicators for the evaluation of initiatives and policies community currencies have been put forward as a new tool to promote sustainable consumption but until now there has been no appraisal of their ability to deliver this goal three different community currency types are described and their effectiveness and potential in enabling more sustainable consumption patterns are assess

local exchange trading systems as a response to the globalisation of capitalism the globalisation of capitalism has disadvantaged those people and places marginal to the capitalist development process the local exchange trading system represents a possible approach to the challenge of relocalising social and economic identity despite the growing importance of local exchange trading systems lets in the uk geographical research into the concept is limited this paper examines the potential of lets as a response to the hegemonic influence of global capitalism the empirical evidence focuses on the development and operation of lets in glasgow the research analyses both successful and unsuccessful lets in the city examines the prospects for further development of lets in the uk and considers the potential value of the concept particularly for people and places disadvantaged by the capitalist market economy

measuring and decomposing economies of diversification an application to biogas fuelled cogeneration plants in austria abstract this paper investigates the existence and the degree of economies of diversification for small scaled renewable fuelled cogeneration systems using 2014 cross sectional data from 67 austrian biogas plants it is the first study applying the recently introduced concept of economies of diversification proposed by chavas and kim 2010 which is a generalization and decomposition of economies of scope economies of diversification are decomposed into three additive parts a part measuring complementarity among outputs a part reflecting economies of scale a part reflecting convexity in addition this paper extends the decomposition introduced by chavas and kim 2010 in such a way that the contribution of each input to economies of diversification and its components can be investigated the results indicate substantial cost savings from diversification for very small scaled plants 100 kwel most of the cost savings come from scale economies for larger plants 250 kwel positive complementarity and convexity effects are the main source of economies of diversification and outweigh the negative effect from scale diseconomies in addition to substantial fuel feedstock cost reductions significant costs saving effects from the jointness in labour and other inputs positively contribute to the complementarity effect while on average capital and labour costs positively contribute to economies of scale feedstock costs work in the direction of diseconomies of scale

switching outputs in a bioenergy cogeneration project a real options approach abstract environmental concerns have stimulated the search for economically feasible renewable energy projects one such alternative is the use of biomass for energy generation which has increasingly been the focus of interest traditional valuation methods on the other hand fail to capture the value of the embedded options that exist in many of these projects which may lead to non optimal investment decisions in this article we analyze the feasibility of installing a cogeneration unit in an industrial plant in brazil in order to extract value from biomass residue currently discarded which can be used for thermal and electric energy generation the cogeneration unit also allows the firm the flexibility to optimally choose between an increase in production or the generation of surplus energy for sale in the short term market once additional investment in interconnection to the grid is made we model the uncertainty over future energy prices as a mean reverting process with jumps and seasonality and the embedded flexibility as a bundle of european options under the real options approach the results indicate that the investment in the cogeneration plant is warranted and that the option to switch outputs adds significant value to the project which suggests that biomass residue may be a sustainable energy alternative in this case

failures on the market and market failures a complementary currency for bankruptcy procedures one of the most widespread implications of the great financial crisis has been the increase in bankruptcies across advanced economies the traditional approach to the problem of insolvencies is constrained by deeply ingrained concepts of money and credit and by the institutions in which those concepts are embodied according to which the only way to discharge a debt is a payment in money this paper deals with a peculiar project elaborated within the italian ministry of justice to address the problem of the growing amount of uncollectibles involved in bankruptcy procedures the project entails a new form of articulation between money and credit which overturns the traditional logic of liquidation by transforming creditors of bankruptcy procedures passively waiting to be paid into active operators capable of sustaining demand this goal is pursued by converting part of their credits into purchasing power that can be immediately spent in the auctions for the assets of bankrupt companies thereby increasing the efficiency of bankruptcy procedures accelerating the reallocation of assets and maximising the satisfaction of creditors the projects may be seen as a complementary currency characterised by a functional and not by a territorial delimitation it incorporates some of the features that have been recently experimented with with varying degree of success within both the official and alternative monetary systems endogenous money creation targeted loans and demurrage the present paper aims at illustrating the theoretical underpinnings of the project and its implication for the question of devising an alternative to current financial institutions

short term generation asset valuation a real options approach this paper discusses using real options to value power plants with unit commitment constraints over a short term period we formulate the problem as a multistage stochastic problem and propose a solution procedure that integrates forward moving monte carlo simulation with backward moving dynamic programming we assume that the power plant operator maximizes expected profit by deciding in each hour whether or not to run the unit that a certain lead time for commitment and decommitment decisions is necessary to start up and shut down a unit and that these commitment decisions once made are subject to physical constraints such as minimum uptime and downtime we also account for the costs associated with starting up and shutting down a unit last we assume that there are hourly markets for both electricity and the fuel used by the generator and that their prices follow ito processes using numerical simulation we show that failure to consider physical constraints may significantly overvalue a power plant

a microeconomic analysis of decentralized small scale biomass based chp plants the case of germany alternative energy sources such as biomass chp plants have recently gained significantly in importance and action is due both on the large scale corporate level and on the small scale hence making the scope and economic outline of such projects easily intelligible without losing relevant details seems a key factor to further promote the necessary developments the model setup presented in this paper may therefore serve as a starting point for generating numerical results based on real life cases or scenarios its focus lies on the economic analysis of decentralized biomass chp plants it presents a new approach to analyzing the economic aspects of biomass chp plants implementing a formal microeconomic approach as germany claims a leading role in the market for renewable energy production the paper also takes a closer look on the effects of german energy policy with respect to biomass chp plants

growing green money mapping community currencies for sustainable development abstract parallel sustainable monetary systems are being developed by civil society groups and non governmental organisations ngos informed by ecological economics perspectives on development value economic scale and growth and responding to the unsustainability of current global financial systems these parallel systems of exchange or community currencies are designed to promote sustainable development by localising economic development building social capital and substituting for material consumption valuing work which is marginalised in conventional labour markets and challenging the growth based monetary system however this international movement towards community based ecological economic practices is under researched this paper presents new empirical evidence from the first international study of the scope and character of community currencies it identifies the diversity scale geography and development trajectory of these initiatives discusses the implications of these findings for efforts to achieve sustainable development and identifies future research needs to help harness the sustainability potential of these initiatives

an economic evaluation of the potential for distributed energy in australia we present here economic findings from a major study by australia s commonwealth scientific and industrial research organisation csiro on the value of distributed energy technologies de collectively demand management energy efficiency and distributed generation for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from australia s energy sector csiro 2009 the study covered potential economic environmental technical social policy and regulatory impacts that could result from their wide scale adoption partial equilibrium modeling of the stationary energy and transport sectors found that australia could achieve a present value welfare gain of around 130 billion when operating under a 450 ppm carbon reduction trajectory through to 2050 modeling also suggests that reduced volatility in the spot market could decrease average prices by up to 12 in 2030 and 65 in 2050 by using local resources to better cater for an evolving supply demand imbalance further modeling suggests that even a small amount of distributed generation located within a distribution network has the potential to significantly alter electricity prices by changing the merit order of dispatch in an electricity spot market changes to the dispatch relative to a base case can have both positive and negative effects on network losses

selective spatial closure and local economic development what do we learn from the argentine local currency systems summary this paper discusses local currency systems as an instrument of selective spatial closure to mitigate impacts of externally induced changes and to promote endogenous local economic development drawing on data collected in argentina it was found that local currency systems provided relatively protected economic spaces thus enabling poor households and especially women to launch micro enterprises and diversify income sources they also supported existing enterprises by offering an emergency market outlet and when combined with other measures by building local trading and production networks following recent theory on local economic development the argentine case represents an example of local economic regeneration

sport event attendance as a function of education evidence from the uk abstractthis article studies the role of education in the decision to attend sporting events the overall objective is to verify whether more educated individuals are more likely to go to sports events than their less educated counterparts if education socializes persons to focus on sports it would then partially offset negative alternatives such as alcohol drug abuse and unlawful behaviours creating a positive externality sport events consumption is extensive highlighting the potential economic importance of the sports education externality to establish the role of education in sport attendance this article applies a probabilistic linear regression model to data from the uk the econometric formulation associates sport event attendance in the left hand side with education in the right hand side while controlling for the socioeconomic variables that are known to affect a consumer s decision to go to a sport event gender age income employment status children marital status and geographical

limits to growth and sustainable development grappling with ecological realities abstract the paper has three main sections the first discusses the limits to growth debate of the 1970s identifying concern with three potential kinds of limits ecological limits to the physical scale of economic activity limits to the economic welfare to be derived from growth of economic activity and social limits to economic growth the second section explores the same issues through the sustainable development literature of the late 1980s and the 1990s to date the principal change over the 20 years concerned a period also framed by the stockholm environment conference and unced is far greater acceptance of the existence of threatening environmental damage and the need for active policy to address it no consensus has yet emerged however on the relationship between economic growth and welfare or ecological or social sustainability the third section indicates the scale of the task if global economic growth is to be reconciled with ecological sustainability and advocates a strategy for sustainability that principally involves differentiating between north and south and forging new economic relations between them

investment in new power generation under uncertainty benefits of chp vs condensing plants in a copula based analysis abstract in this paper we apply a spread based real options approach to analyze the decision making problem of an investor who has the choice between an irreversible investment in a condensing power plant without heat utilization and a plant with combined heat and power chp generation our investigation focuses on large scale fossil fueled generation technologies and is based on a stochastic model that uses copula functions to provide the input parameters of the real options model we define the aggregated annual spread as assessment criteria for our investigation since it contains all relevant volatile input parameters that have an impact on the evaluation of investment decisions we show that the specific characteristics of chp plants such as additional revenues from heat sales promotion schemes specific operational features and a beneficial allocation of co 2 allowances have a significant impact on the option value and therefore on the optimal timing for investment for the two fossil fueled chp technologies investigated combined cycle gas turbine and steam turbine we conclude from our analysis that a high share of chp generation reduces the risk exposure for the investor the maximal possible chp generation depends significantly on the local heat demand in the surroundings of the power plant considering this the size of the heat sink available could gain more relevance in the future selection process of sites for new large scale fossil power plants

counterfactual comparisons of investment options for wind power and agricultural production in the united states lessons from northern ohio abstract we analyze potential efficiency gains in wind power projects by comparing counterfactual investment decisions in two different scenarios under a real options framework the first scenario is a standard wind power investment where the investor rents the land from local farms in the second scenario the wind power investor buys the land and commercializes both electricity and crop production thus reducing the revenue risk through the diversification both scenarios have a waiting option with the wholesale prices leading the installation decision we model the electricity price as a mean reverting process with jumps and with different jumping probabilities for the different seasons of the year corn prices follow a mean reverting process the waiting flexibility was modeled as a bundle of european options the results indicate that the waiting option is exercised in 100 of our simulations in both scenarios suggesting the still important role of government policies to stimulate wind power more importantly in more than 90 of the simulations the second scenario brought value to the investment furthermore net present values are more sensitive to reductions in capital costs than electricity prices these results can form the basis for more effective policies for the wind power sector

transaction network analysis for studying local exchange trading systems lets research potentials and limitations the numerous studies of local exchange trading systems lets have so far been based mostly on qualitative approaches the aim of this paper is to introduce the method of transaction network analysis as an important complement to these studies enabling one to quantitatively describe functioning of lets in terms of the actual flows of currency materialized transactions and topology of the exchange network the types of information markedly missing in most of the existing lets studies we demonstrate the potentials of the method on the case of the lets initiative rozle se based in brno czech republic looking at the transaction flows using the network analysis approach we identify the key members of the group network characteristics of the exchange system and its development over time this allows us not only to provide a complex description of the system but also to simulate certain scenarios e g removal of a key person from the network within the discussion of potentials and limitations of applying transaction network analysis for studying lets and other community currency initiatives e g time banks on a larger scale we also provide a free accessible software tool for doing so and invite other researchers to cooperate on the task

functional form and new production functions some comments and a new ves function this paper discusses new production function forms which are devised to generalise two restrictive features of the maintained hypotheses concerning homogeneity and the substitution effect of the original acms function

the ecology of money a critical assessment abstract this paper assesses the proposal to transform the monetary system into an ecology of money that is into a system made of a large diversity of complementary currencies its central aim is to examine whether this proposal could provide a systemic solution to both the ecological and financial crises as several authors most notably lietaer and douthwaite have argued to this end it analyses the two main arguments in favour of this proposal first it focuses on the claim that an ecology of money would be more resilient and less prone to crisis than the present monetary system it shows that this argument suffers from several conceptual flaws and argues that it fails to provide sufficient normative reasons to favour an ecology of money second this paper analyses the claim that an ecology of money could help defeat the monetary growth imperative that supposedly plagues our economies the paper raises serious doubts about the existence of such an imperative and questions the claim that an ecology of money could contribute to weaken it in a significant way

team roster turnover and attendance in major league baseball empirical support is shown for the propositionthat sports fans prefer the composition of their home team to remain the same from season to season controlling for price income population team quality league year the stadium effects the regression results indicate that for each percentage point increase in the turnover of the composition of the team attendance will fall by about 0 7 the implications of this heretofore ignored tendency are briefly discussed

a simplified exposition of smooth pasting abstract the decision on when to make an irreversible investment is considered as a trade off between the instantaneous size of the net benefit and the time at which it is obtained the benefit can be larger by waiting longer but then it will also have to be more discounted smooth pasting arises as a first order condition for maximum expected profit the relationship to the standard approach is illustrated by a geometric brownian price process

impact of league restructuring on team sport attendances the case of rugby league an econometric analysis of attendances at rugby footbal league matches in england over the period 1966 1990 is presented the major finding is that the move from one to two leagues in 1973 had a substantial impact on attendances teams in the upper league experienced greater attendances ceteris paribuswhilst those in the lower league had reduced attendances

measuring economies of scope for cogeneration systems in korea a nonparametric approach this study empirically identifies the existence and the degree of economies of scope for cogeneration systems in korea we derive the index of economies of scope and estimate it by using a nonparametric approach of linear programming method based on the empirical results we explicitly present that there exist economies of scope for cogeneration in korea with total cost reduction of 13 1 in addition we show that the cost saving effects from the jointness in capital and labor are also significant in addition to that in fuel

money and the commons an investigation of complementary currencies and their ethical implications the commons is a concept increasingly used with the promise of creating new collective wealth in the aftermath of the economic and financial crises finance and money have been criticized and redesigned to serve the collective interest in this article we analyze three types of complementary currency cc systems community currencies inter enterprise currencies and cryptocurrencies we investigate whether these systems can be considered as commons to address this question we use two main theoretical frameworks that are usually separate the new commons in organization studies and the common good in business ethics our findings show that these monetary systems and organizations may be considered as commons under the common good framework since they promote the common interest by creating new communities nevertheless according to the new commons framework only systems relying on collective action and self management can be said to form commons this allows us to suggest two new categories of commons the social commons which fit into both the new commons and the common good frameworks and the commercial commons which fit the common good but not the new commons framework this research advances a new conceptualization of the commons and of the ethical implications of ccs

college football attendance a panel study of the football bowl subdivision panel data with an instrumented real ticket price are used to estimate a regular season game day attendance and per cent of capacity regression equations better team performance whether short term season wins intermediate term bowls games in last 10 years or long term lifetime winning percentage higher undergraduate enrolment traditional rivalries and video coverage increase per cent of capacity used poor weather more rain or cloud cover higher travel costs and larger local population decrease it fan interest wanes as a season progresses but this is offset as a team wins more games games played near a national football league stadium those with conference opponents non fbs opponents and non bcs opponents have lower stadium utilization the substantive results of the analysis do not change when attendance is used as the dependent variable rather than per cent of capacity

broadcasting and sport the broadcasting of sport is heavily regulated our main finding is that common trends and differences in the quality quantity and price of televised sport across europe and usa cannot be adequately explained without reference to policy interventions by national and supranational government and by competition and regulatory authorities these interventions have a significant impact on the organization and governance of sports as well as the structure of broadcasting markets and the conduct of broadcasting companies foreclosure of broadcasting markets through exclusive long term contracts bundling and vertical integration access of viewers to major sporting events and collective selling stand out as the most significant policy issues we conclude by noting a number of policy implications copyright 2003 oxford university press

adding value to randomization with qualitative analysis the case of microcredit in rural morocco this paper analyzes microcredit demand and use to draw lessons on how households appropriate microcredit services it introduces qualitative analysis to a randomized study findings suggest that microcredit demand and use is shaped not only by agro ecological conditions but by two major partially interrelated factors debt related norms articulated with the perception of the sanction in case of repayment default and the social life of microcredit namely how social actors credit officers and local leaders engage with microcredit on a conceptual perspective we argue that microcredit markets do not result from supply confronting demand but instead are historical political and social constructs

credit unions and low income communities since the late 1980s the number of community based credit unions in britain has grown steadily these are financial co operatives based on low income neighbourhoods owned and controlled by local residents which aim to provide savings and low cost credit facilities to their members although located in economically disadvantaged communities credit unions are not exclusively used by the poor while better off groups save and borrow more a greater proportion of low income users would not have purchased goods and services in the absence of a credit union credit unions are making useful but marginal contributions to the credit and debt problems of low income families they could probably achieve more with additional resources but any intervention by external agencies should be sensitive and avoid damaging the strong mutual aid foundations upon which credit unions are based

the governance features of social enterprise and social network activities of collective food buying groups abstract collective food buying groups such as community supported agriculture or self organised citizen groups for delivery of food baskets have emerged throughout the world as an important niche innovation for promoting more sustainable agri food systems these initiatives seek to bring about societal change they do so however not through protest or interest based lobbying but by organising a protected space for learning and experimentation with lifestyle changes for sustainable food consumption and production practices in particular they aim to promote social learning on a broad set of sustainability values beyond a focus on fresh and healthy food only which characterizes many of the individual consumer oriented local food chain initiatives this paper analyses the governance features of such local food buying groups by comparing 104 groups in five cities in belgium we find that the social networking activities of these groups as compared to the social enterprise activities have led to establish specific governance mechanisms whereas the main focus of the social enterprise activities is the organisation of the food provisioning logistics the focus of the social network activities is the sharing of resources with other sustainable food initiatives dissemination of information and broader discussion on sustainability issues

local development conceptual bases and policy implications coffey w j and polese m 1985 local development conceptual bases and policy implications reg studies 19 85 93 although local development is frequently cited as an option within the broader context of regional policy the concept remains vague the bases of the local development approach lie in its complementarity with three traditional pillars of regional theory and policy capital and infrastructure policies migration as an adjustment mechanism and growth centre strategies in examining the potential utility of local development as an effective element of regional development policy we emphasize the emergence of local entrepreneurship and the role of the state in stimulating local initiatives local development policy may be generalized in terms of three options involving financial assistance access to information and social animation

african enterprise clusters and industrialization theory and reality abstract using six case studies from africa this paper examines the theoretical argument that geographic and sectoral clustering enables enterprises to overcome constraints to growth and development findings were both theoretical and practical theoretically the study underscored the strength of the collective efficiency framework but found that certain anomalies could only be explained by other contextual variables grouping the six case studies revealed important differences among them and showed that each group plays its own part in the industrialization process groundwork clusters prepare the way industrializing clusters begin the process of specialization differentiation and technological development and complex industrial clusters produce competitively for wider markets the paper concludes with practical implications for african governments donors and the business community

the demand for cricket the case of the john player league multiple regression analysis is used to estimate attendance functions 1976 and 1977 for the john player league one of the one day competitions in english top class cricket likely determinants of attendance are grouped according to whether they are economic locational team performance player attraction seasonal and residual preference factors the results suggest implications for the management of the game in respect of pricing strategy scheduling the structure of competition player qualification rules payment scales and television policy

performance and revenue in professional league football evidence from granger causality tests using a dataset comprising annual performance measured by final league position and gate revenue for 77 football league clubs which maintained unbroken league membership between 1946 and 1994 the relationship between performance and revenue is investigated using cointegration and causality tests a cointegrating relationship between performance and revenue is established in only 10 cases out of 77 although it is argued that some caution is required in interpreting these results due to the low power of the relevant tests in relatively small samples in granger causality tests more evidence is found of causality running from lagged revenue to current performance than of causality in the opposite direction while the dependence of performance on revenue seems to be greater for the smaller clubs than for the larger these results lend empirical support to the popular view that unless checked by mechanisms for revenue redistribution within the league the natural tendency is for success to become concen

attendance at australian rules football a panel study the demand for australian rules football is examined using data on attendance at individual matches played between 1981 and 1986 an estimation methodology which is appropriate for a dynamic model with panel data is adopted and it is found that attendance at football is price inelastic and an inferior good the effect of habit in consumption behaviour stadium size uncertainty of outcome and team success are also shown to be important determinants of attendance

recovery of a mexican cluster devaluation bonanza or collective efficiency abstract mexico as many other developing countries in latin america and elsewhere has been moving in the 1980s toward a liberalized trade regime after a long period of import substitution this paper analyzes the impact of trade liberalization on the cooperative behavior of shoe firms located in a cluster in guadalajara the empirical evidence shows that cooperation has increased it also suggests that cooperation positively influences firms performance and together with a favorable market environment contributes to the cluster s recovery the study is based on fieldwork carried out in guadalajara in 1996 qualitative information was collected through in depth interviews and quantified responses came from a questionnaire survey covering a sample of 63 shoe manufacturing enterprises

competitive balance versus competitive intensity before a match is one of these two concepts more relevant in explaining attendance the case of the french football ligue 1 over the period 2008 2011 the aim of this article is to investigate the determinants of attendance at french football ligue 1 matches over the period 2008 2011 with an emphasis on examining the effects of both competitive balance and intensity before a match competitive balance is measured by the point difference between the two teams concerned by a match in the championship competitive intensity is measured by the point difference for the home team in relation to ranks with sporting stakes results show that competitive balance has an insignificant impact whereas competitive intensity has a significantly positive impact implications are drawn

production functions in the sports industry an empirical analysis of professional cricket production functions are estimated for english county cricket using samples of data for the county championship and the john player league in the seasons of 1981 83 results suggest possible lessons for the management and conduct of the game at the level of the individual club in particular the allocation of resources for developing playing skills the composition of playing staffs selection of teams for particular games and strategies on the field results also provide statistical evidence for some points of conventional wisdom regarding the professional game

attendance demand and core support evidence from limited overs cricket in this paper we construct and estimate a model for match attendances in english one day limited overs league cricket our dataset separates pay at gate spectators from club members enabling us to distinguish between the attendance decisions of casual spectators and those of the potentially more committed core supporters in addition to providing a more direct analysis of the relatively underdeveloped issue of core support we also investigate variability within the core apart from providing further evidence regarding demand determination in professional team sports we consider some specific policy implications particular to the peculiar sport of cricket

on the choice of production functions the case of us manufacturing industries a new ces bairam 1989 1991 production function that has the cobb douglas and leontief functions as special cases is considered and estimated for the nondurable goods and durable goods sectors in us manufacturing the translog and ces functions cannot be estimated properly due to multicollinearity whereas the cobb douglas and new ces functions yield coefficients that have the correct sign and are significant at the 1 or 5 level both sectors exhibited increasing returns to scale though the nondurable goods sector is more efficient than the other sector although the cobb douglas function cannot be rejected the new ces functions has the maximized value of the log likelihood function and the advantage that the variable output elasticity with respect to inputs can be tested

the determination of transfer fees in english nonleague football in recent years a number of studies have analysed the player transfer market in english professional football this paper examines whether similar factors operate to determine transfer fees in the semiprofessional or nonleague game an empirical model of the nonleague player transfer market is developed in which observed transfer fees are determined by player characteristics time effects selling club characteristics and buying club characteristics using data on 114 transfer fees covering the period 1988 to 1997 we find evidence that the data generating process for transfer fees is broadly similar in both professional and nonleague football