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The role of technology in combating climate change
No full textClimate change has been one of the most pressing issues of this century, and it requires urgent and concerted global action. In the meantime, technology has become a critical tool in mitigating and adapting to its impacts. This essay, through a method of literature review, explores how various technological innovations, such as renewable energy, carbon capture, artificial intelligence, and smart infrastructure, play a role in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, fostering climate resilience, and promoting energy transitions. Through case studies and secondary research, this paper demonstrates how a wide range of technological innovations help reduce carbon emissions and strengthen climate resilience. The findings underlined the importance of technological innovations in transitioning to a low-carbon economy while also revealing some existing barriers such as high cost, policy gaps, and social resistance. Finally, the essay argues that global cooperation, a strong policy framework, and equitable use of technological solutions are essential for further success
The impulsive approach to procyclicality: measuring the reactiveness of risk-based initial margin models to changes in market conditions using impulse response functions
No full textIn recent years, many derivatives market participants received large margin calls in episodes of elevated market volatility such as the onset of the Covid-19 global pandemic and the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine. The lack of some market participants’ preparedness to meet these calls resulted in liquidity stress and reinvigorated the policy debate about how reactive margin should be to changes in market conditions. This debate has been hampered by the lack of a generally accepted way of measuring the reactiveness of the models used to calculate initial margin. The first contribution of this paper is to provide such a measure. We consider a step function in volatility, and examine the responses of various initial margin models to paths of risk factor returns consistent with this impulse, introducing the impulse response function as a convenient means of presenting this reaction. The results presented demonstrate that a model's impulse response is a robust and useful measure of its reactiveness. This approach could be used both to measure initial margin model reactiveness, or procyclicality as it is often termed, and to capture the uncertainty in this measurement. It also provides significant, novel insights into the behaviour of some economically important margin models. In particular, the tendency of some filtered historical simulation value at risk models to over-react to sharp stepwise increases in volatility is demonstrated and the reasons for it are explored. The behaviour of two widely-used anti-procyclicality tools, the buffer and the use of a stressed period, are also analysed: the latter is found to be more successful at mitigating procyclicality than the former. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the results presented
Eslanda Robeson at LSE
No full textIn 1933 Eslanda Robeson embarked on a course in Anthropology at LSE, which fuelled a growing interest in Africa, the British Empire, and the lives of African people in Europe, writes Caroline Bazambanza
Why should organizational scholars study migration?
No full textMigration is one of the most significant forces shaping economies and societies, yet it remains largely understudied in organizational research. At the same time, scholars in other fields with long traditions of studying migration tend to overlook the essential role of organizations. This lack of dialogue is striking because organizations are often the central arena in which migrants interact with others and through which they impact society and the economy. We explain how scholars of migration and organizations can benefit each other by exploring two broad issues. First, we consider what an organizational lens can add to the existing migration literature. We argue that organizational heterogeneity plays an essential role in determining the causes and effects of migration. Second, we consider how taking migration seriously can yield theoretical advancements for organizational scholars. We present examples that introduce potentially novel theoretical concepts or that enrich existing theories. Our aim is to broaden the research agenda for scholars interested in migration or organizations and to motivate organizational scholars to engage more deeply with one of the most consequential issues of our time
How field service technicians adapt to and shape their work practices during digital transformation
No full textAs digital transformation (DT) reshapes field service companies, technicians' work practices are inevitably affected. Little is known about how technicians navigate this transformation. Our three-year practice-theoretical longitudinal qualitative insider case study on digitally enabled maintenance implementation reveals technicians respond through assimilative, adaptive, or resistive actions compared to managerial intent. While other actors may influence these responses, technicians generally strive to uphold the organizing principles of their established practices, often with limited awareness of broader implications across time and space. This study highlights the importance of a holistic, contextual approach to understanding technicians' work practices during DT
Born in smog: the short- and long-run health consequences of acute air pollution exposure in historical London, 1892-1919
No full textThere is strong evidence that exposure to atmospheric pollution is detrimental to health. However, most current and historical research has focussed on the shortrun consequences of exposure to pollution on health, and historical researchers have not been able to assess the effects of pollution on a wide range of health indicators. This paper uses fog events at a daily level as a proxy for acute extreme pollution events in historical London (1892-1919). It tests whether exposure to fog at birth and at the time of sickness influenced a wide range of indicators of child health in the short and long term, including birth outcomes (birth weight, length, stillbirth, premature birth and neonatal death), mortality risk (mortality before age 15), growth outcomes (heights and weights in infancy, childhood and adolescence), and morbidity outcomes (incidence, prevalence and sickness duration from respiratory diseases and measles). Being born on a fog day did not have strong effects on birth or growth outcomes or on morbidity outcomes for upper respiratory diseases. However, being born on a fog day increased mortality risk from respiratory diseases and increased incidence, prevalence and sickness duration from measles, influenza and other lower respiratory diseases. I also find short-run effects of fog on sickness duration from influenza and measles. Overall, the mixed results suggest that atmospheric pollution caused significant ill health in historical London but only for limited dimensions of health
Making sense of evil law
No full textIn this paper, I seek to introduce, define, and ultimately defend the concept of ‘evil law’. Firstly, I look at the reasons – both theoretical and moral – why using the concept of evil law is valuable. Secondly, I argue that evil law is distinct from merely bad or unjust law and can be defined as law, which, if interpreted in its best light, will inflict or enable intolerable harm (including atrocities) to victims themselves. Thirdly, I claim that evil law is indeed law despite objections based on both its external and internal immorality. Fourthly and finally, I reject the challenge that using the vocabulary of evil law is empty at best and dangerous at worst
A ‘working lives’ approach to platform work: accounting for informality, social reproduction, and gender norms
No full textBuilding on recent interventions in platform work scholarship that centre social reproduction and draw attention to informal economies in the Global South, this paper advances a ‘working lives’ framework to account for the entanglements of production/reproduction, informality and precarity, and gender norms in the shaping of platform work. Based on interviews with women engaged in delivery work through digital platforms in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Delhi, India, the paper shows that women enter platform delivery work compelled by adverse socio-economic conditions and work-life histories of informality. Women organise their participation in platform delivery work, making use of its location flexibility, for and around the needs of the household. Further, they operationalise this flexibility to navigate gendered constraints, such as, curtailed radius of work to ensure safety and continued responsibility for housework and childcare. The paper, empirically novel in accounting for narratives of women in the Global South, offers the analytical framework of ‘working lives’, combining long-term and place-based perspectives with everyday perspectives, with attention to social norms, for research on platform work globally
