1,721,013 research outputs found
Environmental Policy Tools and Firm-Level Management Practices : Empirical Evidence for Germany.
Get PDFOn the basis of abundant facility and firm-level data for German manufacturing, originating from a recent OECD-survey, this paper empirically investigates the relevance of a variety of incentives for environmentally innovative behavior of facilities, the respective influence of pressure groups, and the impact of both regulatory and market-based policy instruments, such as eco-taxes. Since the early 1990s, Environmental Management Systems (EMS), specifically, have become a vital voluntary complement to mandatory environmental policies based on regulation and legislation. EMS may be perceived as an organizational environmental innovation that may lead to improved environmental performance. While the paper provides a descriptive analysis of the determinants for EMS-adoption and incentives that may trigger environmental innovation activities within German facilities, the major questions that will be addressed in this paper are: (1) How can public authorities support the introduction of management practices that may lead to improved environmental performance? (2) What are the main determinants of environmentally innovative behavior of firms? Specifically, we are interested in the role that market forces and regulation play in the process of complex firm decisions on innovation and environmental performance. While the relevant literature on these issues is dominated by case studies, our large-scale survey indicates that the most important reasons why firms contemplate introducing EMS are to improve the efforts to achieve regulatory compliance, to improve the corporate image, and to create cost savings with respect to both waste management and resource input. Among pressure groups, internal stakeholders - management employees and corporate headquarters - appear to be more influential with respect to EMS-adoption and environmental innovation than external forces, such as public authorities. --Environmental Management Systems,EMAS,Environmental Policy Instruments
Financial development and energy consumption in Central and Eastern European frontier economies
No full text
Financial development and energy consumption in Central and Eastern European frontier economies
Get PDFa b s t r a c t This study examines the impact of financial development on energy consumption in a sample of 9 Central and Eastern European frontier economies. Several different measures of financial development are examined including bank related variables and stock market variables. The empirical results, obtained from dynamic panel demand models, show a positive and statistically significant relationship between financial development and energy consumption when financial development is measured using banking variables like deposit money bank assets to GDP, financial system deposits to GDP, or liquid liabilities to GDP. Of the three stock market variables investigated, only one, stock market turnover, has a positive and statistically significant impact on energy consumption. Both short-run and long-run elasticities are presented. The implications of these results for energy policy are discussed
Eco-Efficiency for the G18: Trends and Future Outlook
No full textEco-efficiency is an important ecological indicator for tracking the progress of how countries’ environmental-adjusted economic activity changes over time. The objective of this research is to calculate country-level eco-efficiency for a group of 18 major countries (G18) that are part of the G20. First, the data envelope analysis (DEA) method is used to calculate eco-efficiency scores. Second, the Malmquist productivity index (MPI) is used to examine how eco-efficiency changes over time. Eco-efficiency is forecast to the year 2040 using automated forecasting methods under a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario. Over the period 1997 to 2040, eco-efficiency varies widely between these countries with some countries reporting positive growth in eco-efficiency and other countries reporting negative growth. Eco-efficiency leaders over the period 1997 to 2019 and 2019 to 2040 include Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States. Laggards include Canada, China, India, and Indonesia. These laggard countries recorded negative growth rates in eco-efficiency over the period 1997 to 2019 and 2019 to 2040. Negative eco-efficiency growth points to a worsening of environmental sustainability. Large variations in eco-efficiency between countries make it more difficult to negotiate international agreements on energy efficiency and climate change. For the G18 countries, the average annual change in MPI over the period 1997 to 2019 was 0.5%, while the forecasted average annual change over the period 2019 to 2040 was a 0.1% decrease. For the G18 countries, there has been little change in eco-efficiency. The G18 are an important group of developed and developing countries that need to show leadership when it comes to increasing eco-efficiency
The oil price exposure of global oil companies
No full textThis study investigates the impact that global oil market risk factors have on the oil price risk of oil company stock prices. Results indicate that oil prices and market risk are both positive and statistically significant priced risk factors. Oil price risk is negatively impacted by increases in oil reserves. Oil price risk is positively impacted by increases in oil production. Oil price risk is more sensitive to changes in production rates than to changes in reserve additions rates.
- …
