Foreign Direct Investment and the Choice of Environmental Policy

We use a simple two-country oligopoly model of intra-industry trade to examine the implications of foreign direct investment for the pollution haven hypothesis and environmental policy. Countries which lower environmental standards to be more competitive in world markets generate pollution havens if environmental policy is exogenous. However, if FDI is a viable option as a mode of entry, profit-shifting considerations weaken in favour of environmental considerations and FDI recipients tighten environmental policy, reducing incentives to relocate production. Interestingly, when countries are sufficiently similar in their environmental awareness, "grey" countries can become greener than originally "green" countries but firms in the latter still engage in FDI in the former, in spite of the stricter standard they face, in order to level the playing field. We derive conditions under which FDI-receiving countries have incentives to manipulate their environmental standards to prevent or attract FDI, potentially eliminating or creating pollution havens.Environmental policy; Foreign Direct Investment; Pollution Haven Hypothesis.

Output-Based Allocation of Environmental Policy Revenues and Imperfect Competition

Environmental policies with output-based refunding of the revenues effectively combine a tax on emissions with a subsidy to output. Three similar forms exist: tradable performance standards, an emissions tax with rebates, and tradable permits with output-based allocation. Two arguments for including an output subsidy are imperfect competition, in which an environmental regulation alone could exacerbate output underprovision, and imperfect participation, in which imposing a regulation on a subset of polluters could cause output to shift to exempt firms. However, both these scenarios imply that output shares among program participants are likely to be significant. In this situation, output-allocated permits offer less of a subsidy than a fixed rebate, and they can lead to inefficient shifting of production among participants. Rebating the emission tax reduces the incentive to abate, nor will marginal abatement costs be equalized if costs differ. These results hold in a Cournot duopoly model whether emission rates are determined simultaneously or strategically in a two-stage model.emission tax, permit allocation, earmarking, tradable performance standards

Assessing heat pumps as flexible load

In a future power system featuring significant renewable generation, the ability to manipulate domestic demand through the flexible operation of heat-led technologies such as heat pumps and micro-combined heat and power could be a critical factor in providing a secure and stable supply of electrical energy. Using a simulation-based approach, this study examined the linkage between the thermal characteristics of buildings and the scope for flexibility in the operating times of air source heat pumps. This was assessed against the resulting impact on the end-user’s comfort and convenience. A detached dwelling and flat were modelled in detail along with their heating system in order to determine the temporal shift achievable in the heat pump operating times for present-day and future dwellings. The simulation results indicated that the scope for shifting heat pump operating times in the existing building stock was limited, with time shifts of only 1–2 h achieved before there was a serious impact on the comfort of the occupant. However, if insulation levels were dramatically improved and substantial levels of thermal buffering were added into the heating system, sizable time shifts of up to 6 h were achievable without a significant impact on either space or hot water temperatures

The Multilateral Instrument: Avoidance of Permanent Establishment Status and the Reservations on behalf of Australia and the UK

This paper considers fully probabilistic system models. Each transition is quantified with a probability—its likelihood of occurrence. Properties are expressed as automata that either accept or reject system runs. The central question is to determine the fraction of accepted system runs. We also consider probabilistic timed system models. Their properties are timed automata that accept timed runs iff all timing constraints resent in the automaton are met; otherwise it rejects. The central question is to determine the fraction of accepted timed system runs

Citizen Suit Attorney Fee Shifting Awards: A Critical Examination of Government-“Subsidized” Litigation

Silicon Carbide (SiC) is an important wide band gap semiconductor with outstanding electronic properties. With figures of merit far better than silicon, SiC is believed to replace and outcompete silicon in many applications using high frequencies, high voltage and high temperatures. With the introduction of seeded sublimation technique, a realisation of substrates with large diameter and high quality became possible. Recent progress in the bulk growth using high temperature chemical vapour deposition (HTCVD) has shown excellent results with high purity substrates with semi insulating (SI) properties. The availability of high quality SI substrates allows the fabrication of microwave devices with low rf losses such as the Metal Schottky Field Effect Transistor (MESFET). With the introduction of the hot-wall CVD technique, thick low doped n-type epitaxial layers have been grown for high power devices (> 4 kV) such as the PiN diode. The main contribution of the present work relates to the investigation of growth of MESFET structures. The goal has been to demonstrate the ability to grow MESFET structures using the hot-wall CVD technique. The challenge with abrupt interfaces and controlled doping has been investigated. A comprehensive investigation has been made on how nitrogen and aluminum dopant atoms incorporate into the SiC lattice using the hot-wall CVD technique. Fundamental research of MESFET structures has been combined with growth of device structures for both Swedish and European groups as well as industries. The research has been focused towards the understanding of dopant incorporation, characterization of doped epitaxial layers, the growth of device structures, the modelling of temperature distribution in a hot-wall susceptor and the development of growth systems for future up scaling. In paper 1 we present how the nitrogen dopant is incorporated into the SiC lattice. The influence of several different growth parameters on the nitrogen incorporation is presented. Equilibrium thermodynamical calculations have been performed to give a further insight into the incorporation mechanism. The investigation shows that the N2 molecule itself does not contribute directly to the nitrogen incorporation, however, molecules like the HCN and HNC are more likely. In paper 2 the incorporation of the aluminum dopant into the SiC lattice is investigated in a similar way as the nitrogen incorporation in paper 1. The results show that the aluminum incorporation in SiC is mainly controlled by the carbon coverage on the SiC surface. The investigation shows that it is difficult to obtain high aluminum doping on carbon face whereas the silicon face is sensitive to changes of the growth parameters. High growth rate resulted in a diffusion controlled incorporation. In Paper 3 we present the results from the growth of MESFET structures as well as characterization of the structures and final device properties. Knowledge taken from paper 1 and 2 was used to improve the abruptness of the grown structures. Paper 4 presents the results obtained by low temperature photoluminescence (LTPL) on separately grown 4H-SiC epitaxial layers. Doping calibration curves for nitrogen in the doping range from 1⋅1014 to 2⋅1019 cm-3 are presented. A discussion concerning the Mott transition is also presented. Paper 5 presents the results of the use of simulation to investigate the heating of a hot-wall CVD reactor. New susceptor and coil design are tested. The simulation has been verified with experimental heating tests which show excellent agreement. The new design has a temperature variation of less than 0.5 % over more than 70% of the total susceptor length in addition to a decreased power input of 15 %. In the final two papers, paper 6 and 7, we present work of growth of AlN on SiC. Thin films were grown and characterized with different techniques concerning crystal quality and thickness. The use of infrared reflectance and the features of the AlN reststrahl reflectance band allowed us to determine the thickness of AlN films as thin as 250 Å

Attorneys’ Fees in Antitrust Litigation: Making the System Fairer

(Excerpt) Section 4(a) of the Clayton Act entitles prevailing plaintiffs in private antitrust actions to recover, in addition to treble damages, their reasonable attorneys\u27 fees. Unique when adopted as part of the Sherman Act in 1890, this fee-shifting provision has been imitated, at least in part, in over 100 federal statutes. In providing for attorneys\u27 fees, Congress intended to promote private enforcement of the antitrust laws and to insulate the treble damages recovery from expenditures for legal fees. Fee-shifting is mandatory where a plaintiff prevails, but the court has some leeway in setting the amount of the fee. The controversy over the quantum of proof necessary to establish the fee award has been extensively litigated in the district and circuit courts. Although there is now widespread agreement on the principles for measuring fee awards, the criteria include a subjective component that may yield vastly differing results in cases involving similar facts

The Basel II accord : internal ratings and bank differentiation

The Basel Committee plans to differentiate risk-adjusted capital requirements between banks regulated under the internal ratings based (IRB) approach and banks under the standard approach. We investigate the consequences for the lending capacity and the failure risk of banks in a model with endogenous interest rates. The optimal regulatory response depends on the banks' inclination to increase their portfolio risk. If IRB-banks are well-capitalized or gain little from taking risks, then they will increase their market share and hold safe portfolios. As risk-taking incentives become more important, the optimal portfolio size of banks adopting intern rating systems will be increasingly constrained, and ultimately they may lose market share relative to banks using the standard approach. The regulator has only limited options to avoid the excessive adoption of internal rating systems. JEL Klassifikation: K13, H41