12,516 research outputs found
Two- and Three-Dimensional Representations of Thomas Bewick Woodblocks
No full textThe Bell Museum at the University of Minnesota owns fouteen wood blocks that were engraved in the workshop of Thomas Bewick to illustrate his History of British Birds, 2 vols. (Newcastle, 1797, 1804), as well as a block for a tail piece printed in The Fables of Aesop (Newcastle, 1818). This data set includes representations of these blocks captured using four digitization methods. 3D models were produced using structured light scanning and photogrammetry. Next, we used reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) to create interactive visualizations of the blocks' surfaces under variable lighting conditions. Finally, a high resolution two-dimensional image was generated for each block using a GIGAmacro device.Hancher, Michael; Luce, Donald T; McFadden, Colin; Porter, Samantha T. (2019). Two- and Three-Dimensional Representations of Thomas Bewick Woodblocks. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://doi.org/10.13020/hw8q-c585
The Porter Hypothesis at 20: Can Environmental Regulation Enhance Innovation and Competitiveness?
No full textTwenty years ago, Harvard Business School economist and strategy professor Michael Porter stood conventional wisdom about the impact of environmental regulation on business on its head by declaring that well designed regulation could actually enhance competitiveness. The traditional view of environmental regulation held by virtually all economists until that time was that requiring firms to reduce an externality like pollution necessarily restricted their options and thus by definition reduced their profits. After all, if there are profitable opportunities to reduce pollution, profit maximizing firms would already be taking advantage of those opportunities. Over the past 20 years, much has been written about what has since become known simply as the Porter Hypothesis (“PH”). Yet, even today, there is conflicting evidence, alternative theories that might explain the PH, and oftentimes a misunderstanding of what the PH does and does not say. This paper provides an overview of the key theoretical and empirical insights on the PH to date, draw policy implications from these insights, and sketches out major research themes going forward. Il y a bientôt vingt ans, Michael Porter, économiste et professeur de stratégie de la Harvard Business School, a remis en question le paradigme généralement accepté quant à l’impact des réglementations environnementales sur la performance d’affaires, en affirmant que des politiques environnementales bien conçues pouvaient en fait améliorer la compétitivité des entreprises. Jusqu’alors, le point de vue dominant, accepté par la quasi-totalité des économistes, stipulait que d’imposer aux entreprises de réduire une externalité comme la pollution réduisait nécessairement les options à leur disposition et, par définition, leurs profits. Après tout, s’il y a des opportunités profitables de réduire la pollution, les firmes qui maximisent leurs profits auraient dû les identifier par elles-mêmes. Depuis 20 ans, beaucoup de choses ont été écrites sur ce qu’il est convenu d’appeler l’Hypothèse de Porter. Aujourd’hui, il y a diverses théories pour expliquer l’Hypothèse de Porter. Les résultats empiriques ne sont pas concluants et il subsiste une certaine confusion sur ce que dit et ne dit pas l’Hypothèse de Porter. Ce texte présente un survol des grands enjeux théoriques et empiriques entourant l’Hypothèse de Porter, en tire les grandes implications en termes de politiques publiques et propose des avenues de recherche pour le futur.Porter Hypothesis, environmental policy, innovation, performance , Hypothèse de Porter, politiques environnementales, innovation, performance
Unmasking the Porter hypothesis: Environmental innovations and firm-profitability
No full textWe examine impacts of different types of environmental innovations on firm profits. Following Porter's (1991) hypothesis that environmental regulation can improve firms' competitiveness we distinguish regulation induced and voluntary environmental innovations. We find that innovations which reduce environmental externalities reduce firms' profits, as long as they are induced by regulations. However, innovation that increases a firm's material or energy efficiency in terms of material or energy consumption has a positive impact on profitability. This positive result holds both for regulation induced and voluntary innovations, although the effect is significantly larger for regulation-driven innovation.We conclude that the Porter hypothesis does not hold in general for its 'strong' version but has to be qualified by the type of environmental innovation. Our finding rest on firm level data from the German part of the Community Innovation Survey in 2009. --Environmental innovation,environmental regulation,Porter hypothesis,competitiveness
Can Environmental Regulations be Good for Business? an Assessment of the Porter Hypothesis
No full textThe Porter hypothesis asserts polluting firms can benefit from environmental policies, arguing that well-designed environmental regulations stimulate innovation, which, by increasing either productivity or product value, leads to private benefits. As a consequence, environmental regulations would benefit both society and regulated firms. This point of view has found a receptive audience among policy makers and the popular press but has been severely criticized by economists. In this paper, we present some of the arguments in this debate and review the empirical evidence available so far in the economic literature.Environmental regulations, Porter Hypothesis, Competitiveness
Uncertain R&D and the Porter Hypothesis
No full textEver since Michael Porter proposed that environmental regulations can improve competitiveness, much economic research has examined the potential for such outcomes. Attempts to model Porter hypothesis outcomes in a way consistent with neoclassical economics have focused on things such as strategic relationships between firms, moral hazard problems, and economies of scale. In this paper, I offer a simpler alternative. The results of any R&D project are uncertain. Calibrating a simple model of induced R&D with uncertainty so that the expected value of research is only positive with environmental policy, I find that between 8 and 24 percent of simulations result in cases where post-regulation profits are higher than pre-regulation profits. This result is consistent both with Porter finding specific cases with complete innovation offsets and with macro-level findings that environmental policy is not costless. I conclude by discussing the implication of these results for environmental policy and future research.
The Independent Sign Bias: Gaining Insight from Multiple Linear Regression
No full textAs electronic data becomes widely available, the need for tools that help people gain insight from data has arisen. A variety of techniques from statistics, machine learning, and neural networks have been applied to databases in the hopes of mining knowledge
from data. Multiple regression is one such method for modeling the relationship between a set of explanatory variables and a dependent variable by fitting a linear equation to observed data. Here, we investigate and discuss some factors that influence whether the resulting regression equation is a credible model of the
data.Pazzani, Michael J. and Bay, Stephen D. (1999). "The Indepdendent Sign Bias: Gaining Insight from Multiple Linear Regression" Proceedings of the Twenty First Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.This research was funded in part by the National Science
Foundation grant IRI-9713990
D. Michael Quinn
No full textBlack and white photograph of author D. Michael Quinn, probably around 198
D. Michael Quinn
No full textBlack and white photograph of author D. Michael Quinn, probably around 198
The Porter Hypothesis at 20: Can Environmental Regulation Enhance Innovation and Competitiveness?
No full textTwenty years ago, Harvard Business School economist and strategy professor Michael Porter stood conventional wisdom about the impact of environmental regulation on business on its head by declaring that well designed regulation could actually enhance competitiveness. The traditional view of environmental regulation held by virtually all economists until that time was that requiring firms to reduce an externality like pollution necessarily restricted their options and thus by definition reduced their profits. After all, if there are profitable opportunities to reduce pollution, profit maximizing firms would already be taking advantage of those opportunities. Over the past 20 years, much has been written about what has since become known simply as the Porter Hypothesis (“PH”). Yet, even today, there is conflicting evidence, alternative theories that might explain the PH, and oftentimes a misunderstanding of what the PH does and does not say. This paper provides an overview of the key theoretical and empirical insights on the PH to date, draw policy implications from these insights, and sketches out major research themes going forward.
Can Environmental Regulations be Good for Business? an Assessment of the Porter Hypothesis
No full textThe Porter hypothesis asserts polluting firms can benefit from environmental policies, arguing that well-designed environmental regulations stimulate innovation, which by increasing either productivity or product value, leads to private benefits. As a consequence, environmental regulations would benefit both society and regulated firms. This point of view has found a receptive audience among policy makers and the popular press but has been severely criticized by economists. In this paper, we present some of the arguments in this debate and review the empirical evidence available so far in the economic literature.Porter Hypothesis, Environmental Regulations, Competitiveness
- …
