87 research outputs found
Rebuilding a Sense of Place
No full textFor many environmentalists, Aldo Leopold\u27s work provides an enduring ethic for conservation and preservation. Yet even while Leopold\u27s ideals continue to be valued, taught, and ascribed to, it seems that more and more people are saying the words without experiencing the message. Even those who profess to be environmentalists rarely know the sense of place chat inspired Leopold, Muir and Thoreau. Through the increasing geographic mobility of people throughout the United States, and the associated loss of community, our nation is rapidly losing the sense of place chat these men, and many other men and women throughout our history, once understood. The pioneer of the American west, who built her home out of prairie sod, must have developed this feeling. So must the farmer who worked the same piece of land his father, and his father\u27s father worked. Hundreds of families who lived and worked in one community for decades grew into a sense of place year by year
Incentive Regulation, New Business Models, and the Transformation of the Electric Power Industry
No full textThe electric utility sector is in the midst of paradigmatic change. Market forces include decreased load growth, technological advances in distributed energy resources, pressures for decarbonization, and demands for increased efficiency and new utility services. Meanwhile, as the utility monopoly is undermined and profits slow, financial analysts signal increasing risk to potential utility investors. Suggestions for transforming the existing regulatory structure abound. At the broadest level, such proposals reflect an established divide between energy policy, which traditionally focuses on economics and markets, and environmental law, which is based in the protection of natural resources and ecosystems. To marry the two camps and reach the desired end goals of both industry and environmental advocates, an integrated approach—merging economic, regulatory, and environmental perspectives—must be taken. A key aspect of the analysis must be the recognition that regulation creates incentives, and incentive-based regulation can and should be used to further goals for the new utility system. This Article: (1) identifies regulatory and economic incentives embedded in the current utility system; (2) assesses current market trends and new utility goals; and (3) analyzes the intersection of embedded regulatory incentives and key proposals for regulatory changes in light of the new goals. It finds that proposals for regulatory change often fail to account for existing regulatory incentives, and ignore opportunities to use regulatory incentives to modify and encourage desired utility behavior. It concludes with recommendations for ways to incorporate incentive-based regulation in proposals for new utility regulatory structures
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Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks: Adapting Public Utility Commissions to Meet Twenty-First Century Climate Challenges
No full textClimate change and efforts to address it have put the electric utility system under increasing pressure to adapt and evolve. Key to the success of these efforts will be the support of public utility commissions, the state agencies that oversee retail electric utilities. In an effort to determine how these commissions will make decisions, this Article explores the history, enabling legislation, and jurisdiction of commissions. It concludes that the authority and purpose of commissions has been narrowly defined to focus almost exclusively on short-term rate impacts to current utility customers. As a result, efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, modernize or transform the electric grid, or expand the path for new technologies such as electric vehicles, will not come from commissions and in fact may be blocked by the same. Accordingly, this Article offers options for modernization, ultimately recommending a melding of economic and environmental goals through a long-term planning process that balances cost and risk, yet remains squarely within the jurisdiction and historical purpose of the regulatory commission.This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by Harvard Law School and can be found at: http://www3.law.harvard.edu/journals/elr/
Social capital and inequality in immigrant entrepreneurship: pathways and barriers
No full textImmigrant entrepreneurs who belong to marginalized populations face significant financial, social, cultural, and legal barriers (Hernandez, 2024). While founding and sustaining a new business is not an equal experience for all (Guzman & Kacperczyk, 2019), entrepreneurship offers marginalized people a pathway to greater economic inclusion and social mobility (Min & Bozorgmehr, 2003; Hwang & Phillips, 2023; Rider et al., 2023). Furthermore, despite the risks associated with new enterprises, immigrants are more likely than their native-born counterparts to become entrepreneurs (Kerr & Kerr, 2020). Considering this evidence, entrepreneurship has the potential to offer marginalized immigrants a pathway to economic inclusion and social mobility. As organizational scholars and members of an unequal society with growing anti-immigrant sentiment, it is crucial to investigate the mechanisms that could reduce barriers to entrepreneurial entry and growth for marginalized immigrants. The literature on social capital identifies it as a powerful resource facilitating entrepreneurial success (Burt, 1992; Lin et al., 2001; Adler and Kwon, 2002; Samila & Sorenson, 2017; Portes & Sensenbrenner, 1993). However, in the context of immigrant entrepreneurship, the role of social capital is far from straightforward.. Immigrants, being foreign to the host country, often lack access to the social networks that facilitate entrepreneurial entry, especially in the absence of resource-rich ethnic enclaves (Portes & Stepick, 1985). Even when such networks exist, cultural norms or an overreliance on insular perspectives within these enclaves can limit entrepreneurial ambition and growth (Portes, 2014). Finally, first-order barriers such as marginalized identities may further constrain immigrants’ ability to cultivate resourceful social ties. This symposium tackles such intricacies in the literature to advance our understanding of social capital and inequality in the context of immigrant entrepreneurship. It will feature research that explores how social capital shapes inequities in immigrant entrepreneurship and examines interventions to mitigate these disparities. Key questions addressed include: a) Can social capital offset financial inequities that hinder entrepreneurial entry? b) How do multiple overlapping identities of people influence their engagement with entrepreneurial ecosystems and networks? c) What interventions, such as macro policy changes or digital tools, can reduce the social network-driven inequities faced by immigrant entrepreneurs? The Impact of Financial Constraints on Entrepreneurship: The Moderating Role Of Social Capital Author: Inara Tareque; Columbia Business School Navigating Identity Networks in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Author: Nada Basir; University of Waterloo Author: Bessma Momani; University of Waterloo Author: Melissa Finn; University of Waterloo Author: Leslie Nichols; Wilfrid Laurier University The Entrepreneurial Dynamics of Trade Liberalization: Immigrants as Agents of Change Author: Ashlee Li; Author: Astrid Marinoni; Georgia Institute of Technology A Digital Refuge: How WhatsApp Offers Stability Amidst Mobility to NYC Asylum Seekers Author: Sandra Portocarrero; The London School of Economics & Political Science Author: Rohini Jalan; McGill Universit
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