1,721,004 research outputs found
The willingness to pay for Renewable Energy Sources (RES): the case of Italy with different survey approaches and under different EU “climate vision”. First results.
Full text linkIn reference to the “Renewable Sources” EU Directive 2001/77/CE the Italian goal, for 2010, is to attain the share of 22% in RES electricity production. In such context it becomes crucial to explore the existence of consumer’s Willingness to Pay (WTP) in order to use green energy in the electricity production. This study is founded on a national survey with 1601 phone interviews made, in Italy, at the end of November 2006. This paper focus much on three issues. First one, how the different elicitation affects respondents choices, second one on the relationship between a “single point value” and “a valuation distribution” and finally on the gaps between different formats as: bidding game and dichotomous referendum (single bounded) contingent valuation method. In all the elicitations formats we make a “certainty correction” proposing five degree of acceptance: definitely yes and no (DY, DN), probably yes and no (PY, PN) and don’t know (DK). In order to apply the quantitative analysis, the original dataset has been appropriately treated, recoding DK, PN and PY responses. With regard to the results we found a significant path dependences in respondents answers due to the elicitation formats. Another important result is that also in “conservative” way we found a substantial willingness of consumers to partially cover the cost of Italian RES goal.bidding game, contingent valuation, renewable energy sources, descending and ascending elicitation format
Learning Curve and Wind Power
Full text linkThis study explores the reasons why countries have chosen subsidies to green electricity instead of implementing the more common Pigouvian tax on polluting emissions. I focus on the learning by doing effects from the production of wind power on the cost of future production as a justification for the observed policies. In doing so, I present two models that differ in the way I introduce learning. Under reasonable parameter values, the price paid to a firm for the energy produced from wind power is heterogeneous, and varies among the firms that produce energy from wind power according to the index of productivity of the firm itself. The suggested strategies of this research differ from the main price-driven schemes adopted by EU members; by comparing such results with European Union policy, the paper show that EU policy is not optimal.learning by doing, environmental policy, Pigouvian taxes, subsidies.
Evaluating Discrete Dynamic Strategies in Affine Models
Full text linkWe consider the problem of measuring the performance of a dynamic strategy, rebalanced at a discrete set of dates, whose objective is that of replicating a claim in an incomplete market driven by a general multi-dimensional affine process. The main purpose of the paper is to propose a method to efficiently compute the expected value and variance of the hedging error of the strategy. Representing the pay-off the claim as an inverse Laplace transform, we are able to get semi-explicit formulas for strategies satisfying a certain property. The result is quite general and can be applied to a very rich class of models and strategies, including Delta hedging. We provide illustrations for the cases of interest rate models and Heston's stochastic volatility model.
A comparative analysis of different business ethics in the perspective of the Common Good
Full text linkThe paper concerns the connection between different tipologies of business ethics (kantian, utilitarian, aristotelic) and the alternative vision of economic development, company’s organizational and managerial context together with interest in Common Good more or less associated to profit to which they have given rise. In this comparison virtue ethics stands out for its capacity of creating, specially through the business virtue of generosity, social capital so precious to economic development at every level, for its capability of increasing people’s well-being, and for its capacity to make the production of relational goods (among which Common Good), on which people’s happiness depends, easier. Gift’s paradigm recovery can also be helpful to prevent other financial and economic crisis like the actual one which has had, like less striking but deepest cause, the triumph of avarice’s vice on the virtues of giving (generosity and justice).Business Ethics, Gift’s Economy, Generosity, Charity, Mercy, Social Capital, Relational Goods, Common Good
Temporary job protection and productivity growth in EU economies
Full text linkThe present study examines cross-national and sectoral differences in Total Factor Productivity (TFP) in fourteen European countries and ten sectors from 1995 to 2007. The main aim is to ascertain the role of employment protection of temporary contracts on TFP by estimating their effects with a “difference-in-difference” approach. Results show that deregulation of temporary contracts negatively influences the growth rates of TFP in European economies and that, within sectoral analysis, the role of this liberalisation is greater in industries where firms are more used to opening short-term positions. By contrast, in our observation period, restrictions on regular jobs do not cause significant effects on TFP, whereas limited regulation of product markets and higher R&D expenses positively affect efficiency growth.productivity, labour regulation.
Labour regulation, corporate governance and varieties of capitalism
Full text linkThe literature aimed at exploring labor regulation and cross-country comparisons has left partly unexplored two major points: the first is the influence of employees within managerial processes, through the channel of employee representation at firm level. The second point concerns potential complementarities or substitutions between patterns of ownership or shareholder protection and labour regulation. The paper offers a critical overview of some selected studies that have started at filling these gaps by considering labour institutions for their influence on the ‘balance’ of power inside the firm, between owners, management, and employees. Firstly, it examines the literature which gives a central importance to the effects of legal origins on labour regulation and labour market outcomes. Secondly, it reviews the studies which focus on informal rules and de-facto practices and favour a stakeholder approach. A particular concern is paid to the overall consequences of the different institutional setups in the perspective of the “varieties of capitalism”, in which systems of labour regulation exert their function by strategical interactions with other institutions. Finally, it presents recent theoretical and empirical studies centring on employee investments in firm-specific human capital and on institutional devices which have the effect of tying the fortunes of the employee together with those of the firm. In the varieties of capitalism characterised by general skills and patterns of radical innovation, it is emphasized the internal governance exerted by ‘critical employees’. In economies with firm and industry specific skills, cooperation of employees with management in more shareholder value oriented firm (‘negotiated shareholder system’) are the more successful roads.Stakeholders, Corporate Governance, Varieties of Capitalism.
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
- …
