Dynamic adaptation to resource scarcity and backstop availability: theory and application to groundwater

In this paper we analyse the optimal management of a renewable resource (groundwater) with stock-dependent extraction cost and a backstop substitute, facing two-sector linear demands. Application to the Kiti region in Cyprus demonstrates the model’s performance and is used to test for the difference between optimal and myopic behaviour. It is found that the presence of a backstop resource diminishes the importance of optimal dynamic behaviour, whereas in the absence of backstop the optimal control solution yields a value for social welfare significantly larger than the myopic policy.backstop technology, endogenous adaptation, Gisser–Sanchez effect, groundwater resource management, multistage optimal control, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Convergence in Income Inequality: Further Evidence from the Club Clustering Methodology across States in the U.S.

This paper contributes to the sparse literature on inequality convergence by empirically testing convergence across states in the U.S. This sample period encompasses a series of different periods that the existing literature discusses -- the Great Depression (1929–1944), the Great Compression (1945–1979), the Great Divergence (1980-present), the Great Moderation (1982–2007), and the Great Recession (2007–2009). This paper implements the relatively new method of panel convergence testing, recommended by Phillips and Sul (2007). This method examines the club convergence hypothesis, which argues that certain countries, states, sectors, or regions belong to a club that moves from disequilibrium positions to their club-specific steady-state positions. We find strong support for convergence through the late 1970s and early 1980s, and then evidence of divergence. The divergence, however, moves the dispersion of inequality measures across states only a fraction of the way back to their levels in the early part of the twentieth century

LCA for emerging waste treatment technologies: theoretical approach and practical application

Our work is focusing on the assessment of the life cycle environmental performance of emerging technologies on waste treatment, by applying the LCA principles and tools (EASETECH, SimaPro). These technologies aim at the valorisation of waste for the production of bio-based products, the recovery of materials from waste and the optimization of established waste treatment technologies. A summarizing scheme including the feedstock types and the main processes used as well as the resulting products is illustrated in Figure 1. The technology readiness level (TRL) of the examined treatment schemes ranges between 3-6, while this diversification is also obvious within the treatment schemes themselves. The main aim for conducting LCA in all of the aforementioned emerging technologies is to timely inform the design and development process in order to support decision making for future investments. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract. Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the presentation

Are there environmental Kuznets curves for US state-level CO2 emissions?

The paper assesses the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, across 48 contiguous states of the US, using recent advances in panel data techniques, given the existence of cross-sectional dependence, which in turn, makes reliance on time-series evidence biased. The Common Correlated Effects (CCE) estimation procedure of Pesaran, (2006), allows us to obtain state-level results, while staying in a panel set-up to accommodate for cross-sectional dependence, in the presence of cointegration in the relationship between emissions and a measure of output, and its squared value – a function that captures the inverted u-shaped relationship postulated by the EKC. Our results show that, the EKC hypothesis holds for only 10 of the 48 states, and hence implies that, the remaining 38 states should reform a number of their environmental regulatory policies to prevent environmental degradation, since otherwise, lower levels of emissions would only be possible at the expense of production.http://www.elsevier.com/locate/rser2018-03-31hb2017Economic

Military Service, Destination Image and Repeat Visitation on a Greek Border Island

The obligatory military service for adult Greek male citizens creates a particular form of domestic “tourism”, although the members of the Armed Forces are not officially included in tourism statistics. Aim of this paper that takes as a case study the Greek border island of Samothrace in the Northern Aegean is to discuss how the so-called here “army tourism” could be used to develop a competitive advantage for the destination. A structured questionnaire method has been used in order to a) identify aspects of the soldiers’ “tourist” behaviour, b) evaluate destination image from the soldiers’ point of view, c) find out whether the soldiers wish to return as tourists to the island or not and underline the reasons leading to this decision and finally d) analyze the soldiers’ word-of-mouth

Price convergence patterns across U.S. states

This study examines the convergence patterns of prices across 50 U.S. states over the period 1960-2007, by applying the convergence algorithm developed by Peter C. B. Phillips and Donggyu Sul (2007). The empirical findings suggest the rejection of full convergence across the 50 U.S. states’ prices, and the presence of 11 subgroups, or convergence clubs. The main implications of this paper point to the low degree of market integration across the U.S. states, the limitations of using a unique national price deflator to calculate real U.S. state variables, and the different effects that national monetary policy decisions will have on U.S. state prices.The Ministerio de Economía y Competitividahttp://www.panoeconomicus.rsam2020Economic

Forecasting returns of major cryptocurrencies : evidence from regime-switching factor models

DATA AVAILABILITY : Data are available from : https://coinmarketcap.com. The link is mentioned in the manuscript.The returns of cryptocurrencies tend to co-move, with their degree of co-movement being contingent on the (bullish- or bearish-) states. Given this, we use standard factor models and regime-switching factor loadings to forecast the returns of a specific cryptocurrency based on its lagged information and informational contents of 14 other cryptocurrencies, with these 15 together constituting 65% of the market capitalization. Considering top five cryptocurrencies namely, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Dogecoin, and Litecoin, we find significant forecastability and evidence that factor models, in general, outperform the benchmark random-walk model, with the regime-switching versions standing out in the majority of the cases.http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frlhj2023Economic

Military Service, Destination Image and Repeat Visitation on a Greek Border Island

The obligatory military service for adult Greek male citizens creates a particular form of domestic “tourism”, although the members of the Armed Forces are not officially included in tourism statistics. Aim of this paper that takes as a case study the Greek border island of Samothrace in the Northern Aegean is to discuss how the so-called here “army tourism” could be used to develop a competitive advantage for the destination. A structured questionnaire method has been used in order to a) identify aspects of the soldiers’ “tourist” behaviour, b) evaluate destination image from the soldiers’ point of view, c) find out whether the soldiers wish to return as tourists to the island or not and underline the reasons leading to this decision and finally d) analyze the soldiers’ word-of-mouth

Time-varying impact of uncertainty shocks on the US housing market

This paper investigates the impact of uncertainty shocks on the housing market of the United States using the time-varying parameter factor augmented vector autoregression (TVP-FAVAR). We use a comprehensive quarterly time-series dataset on real economic activity, price, and financial variables, besides housing market variables, covering the period 1963:Q1 to 2014:Q3. In addition to housing prices, we also consider variables related to home sales, permits and starts. In general, the results of the cumulative response of housing variables to a one standard deviation positive uncertainty shock at the one-, four-, eight-, and twelve-quarter-horizon tends to change over time, both in terms of sign and magnitude, with the uncertainty shock primarily negatively affecting the housing variables, in particular prices, permits and starts, in longer-runs (i.e., two- and three-years-ahead horizons).http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet2020-07-01hj2019Economic

Conventional and unconventional monetary policy reaction to uncertainty in advanced economies : evidence from quantile regressions

This paper investigates how the Federal Reserve (Fed) and the Bank of England, Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank reacted in the aftermath of the financial crisis by making use of both conditional and unconditional interest rate quantiles regressions and data on shadow short rate of interest and a measure of uncertainty. Firstly, the unconditional quantile regression offers some support for increased reaction by the Fed as the ZLB is approached. Secondly, the decreased reaction of the Fed and other monetary policy makers towards uncertainty particularly at lower conditional quantiles of interest rates lends support to expansionary mechanism in place during this time. Hence uncertainty is key to policy reaction, and more so during episodes of crisis.The Open University of Cyprushttps://www.degruyter.com/view/j/sndeam2021Economic