Policy Uncertainty and Private Investment in Developing Countries

A resurgence in private investment is a necessary ingredient of a sustainable recovery in heavily-indebted developing countries. Policy reforms in these countries involve a serious dilemma, especially when they include structural and microeconomic features. On the one hand, entrepreneurs, workers, and farmers must respond to the signals generated by the reform for the new policies to be successful. On the other hand, rational behavior by the private sector calls for withholding investment until much of the residual uncertainty regarding the eventual success of the reform is eliminated. This paper shows that even moderate amounts of policy uncertainty can act as a hefty tax on investment, and that otherwise sensible reforms may prove damaging if they induce doubts as to their permanence. A simple model is developed to link policy uncertainty to the private investment response.

Carbon Sinks and Reservoirs: The Value of Permanence and Role of Discounting

Scientists are enthusiastic about storing carbon in terrestrial sinks and geological reservoirs in order to obviate the need for lifestyle-changing reductions in fossil-fuel use. Estimating relative costs of various options depends on how permanence is assessed and whether physical carbon is discounted. We demonstrate that, in carbon markets, terrestrial sinks credits cannot be traded one-for-one for emission reduction credits and the conversion factor would depend on how long sinks keep CO2 out of the atmosphere as compared with emission reductions and, discounting physical carbon. As a result, the authority could not determine a conversion factor and the market would be required to do so.climate change, carbon offset, carbon sinks, discounting physical carbon

Biological Carbon Sequestration and Carbon Trading Re-Visited

Biological activities that sequester carbon create CO2 offset credits that could obviate the need for reductions in fossil fuel use. Credits are earned by storing carbon in terrestrial ecosystems and wood products, although CO2 emissions are also mitigated by delaying deforestation, which accounts for one-quarter of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. However, non-permanent carbon offsets from biological activities are difficult to compare with each other and with emissions reduction because they differ in how long they prevent CO2 from entering the atmosphere. This is the duration problem. It results in uncertainty and makes it hard to determine the legitimacy of biological activities in mitigating climate change. Measuring, verifying and monitoring the carbon sequestered in sinks greatly increases transaction costs and leads to rent seeking by sellers of dubious sink credits. While biological sink activities undoubtedly help mitigate climate change and should not be neglected, it is shown that there are limits to the substitutability between temporary offset credits from these activities and emissions reduction, and that this has implications for carbon trading. A possible solution to inherent incommensurability between temporary and permanent credits is also suggested

How to Produce a Representation of Fraud in Urban Transportation? Between Knowledge for the System and Knowledge about the System

The topic addressed in this paper is that of the relationship between knowledge and organizations. Referring simultaneously to a research work about fraud by a transportation system, and to a management research tradition, the author accounts for the direct (knowledge production) and indirect (evolution or stability of the management system) results of the research work. The perspective developed stresses the meta-level of knowledge, and highlights the main features of the management system that determine the meta-level of knowledge: tools and place. Finally, the paper opens up to epistemological questions about the role of researchers and proposes as a guideline Hatchuel's epistemological project.transport

Biological Carbon Sequestration and Carbon Trading Re-Visited

Under Kyoto, biological activities that sequester carbon can be used to create CO2 offset credits that could obviate the need for lifestyle-changing reductions in fossil fuel use. Credits are earned by storing carbon in terrestrial ecosystems and wood products, although CO2 emissions are also mitigated by delaying deforestation, which accounts for one-quarter of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. However, nonpermanent carbon offsets from biological activities are difficult to compare with each other and with emissions reduction because they differ in how long they prevent CO2 from entering the atmosphere. This is the duration problem; it results in uncertainty and makes it difficult to determine the legitimacy of biological activities in mitigating climate change. While there is not doubt that biological sink activities help mitigate climate change and should not be neglected, in this paper we demonstrate that these activities cannot be included in carbon trading schemes.carbon offset credits, climate change, duration of carbon sinks, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Biological Carbon Sequestration and Carbon Trading Re-visited

Under Kyoto, biological activities that sequester carbon can be used to create CO2 offset credits that could obviate the need for lifestyle-changing reductions in fossil fuel use. Credits are earned by storing carbon in terrestrial ecosystems and wood products, although CO2 emissions are also mitigated by delaying deforestation, which accounts for one-quarter of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. However, non-permanent carbon offsets from biological activities are difficult to compare with each other and with emissions reduction because they differ in how long they prevent CO2 from entering the atmosphere. This is the duration problem; it results in uncertainty and makes it difficult to determine the legitimacy of biological activities in mitigating climate change. While there is not doubt that biological sink activities help mitigate climate change and should not be neglected, in this paper we demonstrate that these activities cannot be included in carbon trading schemes.carbon offset credits from biological activities, climate change, duration of carbon sinks

The Unsung Vigilance: A History of Sentinel

At risk of over using a popular cliché, there are objects everywhere on the Gettysburg College campus that are “hidden in plain sight.” For some objects, it is easy to stay hidden in this manner. Though we as college students and faculty pass them each day, they are simple plaques embedded in the cement paths we walk on, or the porticos of the academic buildings we enter without even thinking. Yet for other objects, it remains a perpetual mystery as to how even the infamously dense mind of the modern young adult could fail to, at least notice. The sculpture Sentinel, the massive conglomeration of stone and mortar standing 10 feet tall, is one such object. The plaque that is embedded in the ground at the foot of this monstrosity provides only vague enlightenment. [excerpt] Course Information: Course Title: HIST 300: Historical Method Academic Term: Fall 2009 Course Instructor: Dr. Michael J. Birkner \u2772 Hidden in Plain Sight is a collection of student papers on objects that are hidden in plain sight around the Gettysburg College campus. Topics range from the Glatfelter Hall gargoyles to the statue of Eisenhower and from historical markers to athletic accomplishments. You can download the paper in pdf format and click View Photo to see the image in greater detail.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/hiddenpapers/1008/thumbnail.jp