12,912 research outputs found

    Financial and Economic Review 22.

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    Resilience and food security in a food systems context

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    This open access book compiles a series of chapters written by internationally recognized experts known for their in-depth but critical views on questions of resilience and food security. The book assesses rigorously and critically the contribution of the concept of resilience in advancing our understanding and ability to design and implement development interventions in relation to food security and humanitarian crises. For this, the book departs from the narrow beaten tracks of agriculture and trade, which have influenced the mainstream debate on food security for nearly 60 years, and adopts instead a wider, more holistic perspective, framed around food systems. The foundation for this new approach is the recognition that in the current post-globalization era, the food and nutritional security of the world’s population no longer depends just on the performance of agriculture and policies on trade, but rather on the capacity of the entire (food) system to produce, process, transport and distribute safe, affordable and nutritious food for all, in ways that remain environmentally sustainable. In that context, adopting a food system perspective provides a more appropriate frame as it incites to broaden the conventional thinking and to acknowledge the systemic nature of the different processes and actors involved. This book is written for a large audience, from academics to policymakers, students to practitioners

    “Oh my god, how did I spend all that money?”: Lived experiences in two commodified fandom communities

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    This research explores the role of commodification in participation in celebrity-centric fandom communities, applying a leisure studies framework to understand the constraints fans face in their quest to participate and the negotiations they engage in to overcome these constraints. In fan studies scholarship, there is a propensity to focus on the ways fans oppose commodified industry structures; however, this ignores the many fans who happily participate within them. Using the fandoms for the pop star Taylor Swift and the television series Supernatural as case studies, this project uses a mixed-methodological approach to speak directly to fans via surveys and semistructured interviews to develop an understanding of fans’ lived experiences based on their own words. By focusing on celebrity-centric fandom communities rather than on the more frequently studied textual fandoms, this thesis turns to the role of the celebrity in fans’ ongoing desire to participate in commodified spaces. I argue that fans are motivated to continue spending money to participate within their chosen fandom when this form of participation is tied to the opportunity for engagement with the celebrity. While many fans seek community from their fandom participation, this research finds that for others, social ties are a secondary outcome of their overall desire for celebrity attention, which becomes a hobby in which they build a “leisure career” (Stebbins 2014). When fans successfully gain attention from their celebrity object of fandom, they gain status within their community, creating intra-fandom hierarchies based largely on financial resources and on freedom from structural constraints related to education, employment, and caring. Ultimately, this thesis argues that the broad neglect of celebrity fandom practices means we have overlooked the experiences of many fans, necessitating a much broader future scope for the field

    Economia colaborativa

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    A importância de se proceder à análise dos principais desafios jurídicos que a economia colaborativa coloca – pelas implicações que as mudanças de paradigma dos modelos de negócios e dos sujeitos envolvidos suscitam − é indiscutível, correspondendo à necessidade de se fomentar a segurança jurídica destas práticas, potenciadoras de crescimento económico e bem-estar social. O Centro de Investigação em Justiça e Governação (JusGov) constituiu uma equipa multidisciplinar que, além de juristas, integra investigadores de outras áreas, como a economia e a gestão, dos vários grupos do JusGov – embora com especial participação dos investigadores que integram o grupo E-TEC (Estado, Empresa e Tecnologia) – e de outras prestigiadas instituições nacionais e internacionais, para desenvolver um projeto neste domínio, com o objetivo de identificar os problemas jurídicos que a economia colaborativa suscita e avaliar se já existem soluções para aqueles, refletindo igualmente sobre a conveniência de serem introduzidas alterações ou se será mesmo necessário criar nova regulamentação. O resultado desta investigação é apresentado nesta obra, com o que se pretende fomentar a continuação do debate sobre este tema.Esta obra é financiada por fundos nacionais através da FCT — Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., no âmbito do Financiamento UID/05749/202

    Institutional constellations and policy instruments for offshore wind power around the North Sea

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    This paper analyses how institutional constellations and their associated mode of risk allocation are reflected in the choice of policy instruments for the promotion of offshore wind power. Using the Varieties of Capitalism framework we expect that governments in Liberal Market Economies (LME) tend to use policy instruments that privatise investments and risk-taking, while those in Coordinated Market Economies (CME) use policy instruments that facilitate investments and shared risk-taking in the earlier, more riskful phase of technological development. We test our expectations through a longitudinal comparative analysis of the use of policy instruments and the deployment of offshore wind power in Denmark, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands between 1990 and 2020. Our results confirm the market oriented nature of policy instruments employed by the LME case of the United Kingdom throughout, while we witness initially lower levels of market orientation among the CME cases of Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. Though the market orientation of Germany's policy instruments declined half way to build up domestic momentum, we generally see an increased use of market oriented policy instruments over time by the CME. Putting the trajectories together we witness an overall convergence in the use of policy instruments which we attribute to the liberalisation of the energy sector in the EU as well as to policy-learning effects. The results have generic relevance and can also be used to inform future national strategies and policies for deploying new low-carbon technologies, such as electrolysis for green hydrogen, which face similar risks and challenges

    Seed certification and maize, rice and cowpea productivity in Nigeria: An insight based on nationally representative farm household data and seed company location data

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    Despite the potential importance of seed quality to agricultural productivity growth, many governments in sub-Saharan Africa lack the capacity to expand quality assurance systems even where there is expressed interest. This study aims to evidence the value of quality assurance systems with an analysis of efforts to produce and distribute certified seed in Nigeria. We assess the associations between quantities of certified seeds produced and spatial variations in production locations proxied by headquarter locations of seed companies producing certified seeds, on the one hand, with spatial variations in the use of certified seed, yields, and output at the farm level, on the other hand. Our analysis covers three crops that are important to food security in Nigeria: maize, rice, and cowpea. Our analysis integrates information on seed quantities produced and locations of seed companies with nationally representative panel data from a survey of farm households and spatially explicit rainfall and temperature data. We find a positive relationship between certified seed production in proximity to farm households and farm-level use of certified seeds, yields, and output, although this effect is diminishing at the margin. These diminishing marginal effects may be partly due to two factors. First, the yield gains from certified seeds tend to vary considerably within each state, suggesting that either quality issues persist in the seed supply chain or farmers are not using complementary inputs or appropriate management techniques when using quality seed. Second, it may be that as certified seed becomes more available to farmers, its use spreads from higher-return farms to lower-return farms, thereby diminishing the gains on the extensive margin. Although more rigorous assessments of causal effects and cost-effectiveness are needed to validate these findings, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that there are diminishing returns to seed quality assurance. Policymakers, regulators, and seed providers may benefit from identifying optimal, crop-specific target quantities or rates for certified seed production rather than aiming for certification of all seed produced in a market

    Types of International Commercial Agreements and Their Legal Regulation

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    The purpose of writing this article is to classify international commercial contracts on various grounds. First, depending on the subject of the international contract: 1) specific contracts for international investments; 2) international contracts for the sale of goods; 3) international lease agreements; 4) international financial leasing agreements; 5) international factoring agreements; and 6) international contracts, etc. Secondly, we can distinguish simple international agreements (for example, an international sale and purchase agreement), as well as complex (mixed and unnamed). The latter are becoming more widespread in international trade. European countries carry out legal regulation of this kind of contracts both within the framework of civil law, trade law, tax law, as well as special legislation. So, among the most common in practice mixed (complex) foreign economic agreements are international leasing, franchising, distribution, factoring agreements, investment agreements, etc. Depending on the nature of the delivery and the specifics of the relationship between counterparties: 1) an international (cross-border) contract with a one-time delivery of goods, after the execution of which legal relations between the parties to the transaction terminate; 2) an international (crossborder) contract with a periodic regular supply of goods from the seller to the buyer within a certain period. The methods used in this article were: comparative legal, logical, historical, didactic, imperial

    Central-provincial Politics and Industrial Policy-making in the Electric Power Sector in China

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    In addition to the studies that provide meaningful insights into the complexity of technical and economic issues, increasing studies have focused on the political process of market transition in network industries such as the electric power sector. This dissertation studies the central–provincial interactions in industrial policy-making and implementation, and attempts to evaluate the roles of Chinese provinces in the market reform process of the electric power sector. Market reforms of this sector are used as an illustrative case because the new round of market reforms had achieved some significant breakthroughs in areas such as pricing reform and wholesale market trading. Other policy measures, such as the liberalization of the distribution market and cross-regional market-building, are still at a nascent stage and have only scored moderate progress. It is important to investigate why some policy areas make greater progress in market reforms than others. It is also interesting to examine the impacts of Chinese central-provincial politics on producing the different market reform outcomes. Guangdong and Xinjiang are two provinces being analyzed in this dissertation. The progress of market reforms in these two provinces showed similarities although the provinces are very different in terms of local conditions such as the stages of their economic development and energy structures. The actual reform can be understood as the outcomes of certain modes of interactions between the central and provincial actors in the context of their particular capabilities and preferences in different policy areas. This dissertation argues that market reform is more successful in policy areas where the central and provincial authorities are able to engage mainly in integrative negotiations than in areas where they engage mainly in distributive negotiations

    A holistic risk management framework for renewable energy investments

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    Private investments are critical enablers to achieving energy access for over 770 million people worldwide. Despite decreasing capital costs, investments in renewable energy (RE) projects in developing countries are low due to unattractive risk-return profiles. Through understanding key risks drivers and their interactions, actionable insights can be drawn to mitigate investment risks, making energy more accessible. This paper reviews RE risks and methods used for risk assessment and mitigation for developed and developing countries with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa countries (SSA). The review finds that while risk analysis and evaluation mainly employed semi-quantitative multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) and system dynamics (SD) methods for developing countries, qualitative methods were used to identify mitigations. The methods assessed technical and economic risks at a minimum, while MCDA and SD methods can assess social, political, and policy risks. The efficacies of mitigations were tested using SD and quantitative methods such as agent-based modelling and Monte Carlo simulation. The paper further introduces a ‘holistic multi-dimensional investor risk management framework’ which can be used to identify actions to improve investment risks in a structured manner. The framework addresses four fundamental limitations observed in the existing literature, recognising that RE risks are complex and involve multidisciplinary perspectives having interactions and feedbacks with other risks, actors, and their actions. This review provides a valuable reference to investors, policymakers, and researchers, providing a catalogue of risks, methods deployed in literature, including a framework to identify impactful actions to improve risk levels
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