POLICY ISSUES IN WATER QUALITY

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Bayesian hierarchical models for analysing the spatial distribution of bioclimatic indices

A methodological approach for modelling the spatial distribution of bioclimatic indices is proposed in this paper. The value of the bioclimatic index is modelled with a hierarchical Bayesian model that incorporates both structured and unstructured random effects. Selection of prior distributions is also discussed in order to better incorporate any possible prior knowledge about the parameters that could refer to the particular characteristics of bioclimatic indices. MCMC methods and distributed programming are used to obtain an approximation of the posterior distribution of the parameters and also the posterior predictive distribution of the indices. One main outcome of the proposal is the spatial bioclimatic probability distribution of each bioclimatic index, which allows researchers to obtain the probability of each location belonging to different bioclimates. The methodology is evaluated on two indices in the Island of Cyprus.Peer Reviewe

GATS and the electricity and water sectors

This paper discusses the impact of the GATS agreement of the World Trade Organisation on the electricity and water sectors

Federal Workforce: Sustained Attention to Human Capital Leading Practices Can Help Improve Agency Performance

[Excerpt] A careful consideration of federal pay is an essential part of fiscal stewardship and is necessary to support the recruitment and retention of a talented, agile, and high-performing federal workforce. High-performing organizations have found that the life-cycle of human capital management activities—including workforce planning, recruitment, on-boarding, compensation, engagement, succession planning, and retirement programs—need to be aligned for the cost-effective achievement of an organization’s mission. However, despite some improvements, strategic human capital management—and more specifically, skills gaps in mission critical occupations—continues to be a GAO high-risk area. This testimony is based on a body of GAO work primarily issued between June 2012 and March 2017. It focuses on (1) lessons learned in creating a more market driven, results-oriented approach to federal pay, and (2) opportunities, in addition to pay and benefits, that OPM and agencies could use to be more competitive in the labor market and address skills gaps

(Self-) Enforcement of Joint Implementation and Clean Development Mechanism Contracts

International climate protection investments (Joint Implementation and Clean Development Mechanism projects) are burdened with problems of contract enforcement, which prevent the realisation of efficiency gains associated with these investments. The paper analyses this problem from the perspective of non-cooperative game theory and proposes two different solutions to the co-operation problem. The first analyses the potential role of national environmental authorities in facilitating credible commitment of the project host operating under its jurisdiction. It is argued that the threat of punishing the project host if he breaches the contract may serve this purpose. The effective level of punishment is derived. The second option involves strategic delegation of contract implementation to a third party operating under the same jurisdiction as the project host. Again, the paper explores the conditions that ensure incentive-compatibility. Both options are based on the idea that the project sponsor may commit himself credibly by becoming a Stackelberg leader.Joint Implementation, Clean Development Mechanism, climate protection, international environmental agreements, international investments, contract enforcement, co-operation, incentive compatibility

SWP5.1: Report of all three rounds of the Delphi Inquiry on the European Market for Organic Food

Experts on organic food marketing and rural development from a variety of occupational backgrounds in 18 European countries were sent three subsequent questionnaires including feedback on the results of the previous round in this Delphi inquiry into the market for organic food and impact for rural development in Europe. The response to all three rounds has been good (response rate of 51% between the 1st and 3rd round). In broad terms the response of 129 experts to the third confirmed the tentative conclusions of the second round and provided some additional insights