Environmentalism in the EU-28 context: the impact of governance quality on environmental energy efficiency

Environmental policies are a significant cornerstone of a developed economy, but the question that arises is whether such policies lead to a sustainable growth path. It is clear that the energy sector plays a pivotal role in environmental policies, and although the current literature has focused on examining the link between energy consumption and economic growth through an abundance of studies, it does not explicitly consider the role of institutional or governance quality variables in the process. Both globalization and democracy are important drivers of sustainability, while environmentalism is essential for the objective of gaining a “better world.” Governance quality is expected to be the key, not only for economic purposes but also for the efficiency of environmental policies. To that end, the analysis in this paper explores the link between governance quality and energy efficiency for the EU-28 countries, spanning the period 1995 to 2014. The findings document that there is a nexus between energy efficiency and income they move together: the most efficient countries are in the group with higher GDP per capita. Furthermore, the results show that governance quality is an important driver of energy efficiency and, hence, of environmental policies.University of Granad

On a Method of Calculating Regional Price Differentials with Illustrative Evidence from India by

Acknowledgments: The authors are grateful to Professors Nikhilesh Bhattacharya and Probal Chaudhuri for their helpful advice during the work on this paper. The authors, also, thank Geoffrey Lancaster for his painstaking and skilful research assistance. Ranjan Ray acknowledges the financial assistance from an Australian Research Council (Large) Grant. The disclaimer applies. In this paper we propose a method of estimating multilateral regional price index numbers from a given household level data set on item-wise unit values/prices. The method is closely related to the Country-Product Dummy variable model of Summers (1973). This method is likely to be particularly useful in studies of regional comparisons of poverty and inequality, optimal commodity taxes and tax reforms. To illustrate the method, we use it to calculate the regional consumer price index numbers for Eastern, Western and Southern India (taking Northern India as the reference region) separately for three categories of rural and urban households, viz., all households and those below and above the poverty line, using household level unit records of the NSS 50 th round (1993–94) Consumer Expenditure Survey

Study of strontium doping on the structural and magnetic properties of YMnO3ceramics

Structural and Magnetic properties are investigated for the Sr doped YMnO3samples with different composition synthesized by a solid state reaction method. Sr doped YMnO3is the most distorted perovskite of the RMnO3 series (R=rare earths); the observed sinusoidal magnetic structure is in contrast with those exhibited by the less-distorted members, which are commensurate-type antiferromagnetic structures. A typical anti ferromagnetic (AFM) to paramagnetic (PM) phase transition is observed for the sample with concentration x = 0.12 and the Néel temperature (TN) is about 160 K. With decreasing temperature, the sample with x = 0.12 exhibit a magnetic transition from a paramagnetic (PM) to a ferromagnetic (FM) state. © 2013 VBRI press

Intrinsic and extrinsic transport properties of Pr0.67Ba0.33MnO3:Ag2O composites

We have studied the electrical resistivity, magnetoresistance (MR), and specific heat of (1 − x) Pr0.67Ba0.33MnO3:xAg2O (x = 0–30 mol% Ag2O) composite manganites. Two insulator–metal-like transitions (TP1 ∼ 194 K and TP2 ∼ 160 K) are observed in the electrical resistivity behaviour of the pristine material Pr0.67Ba0.33MnO3 (PBMO). With Ag2O addition, TP1 becomes sharper whereas TP2 disappears beyond 25 mol% Ag2O addition. Electrical resistivity also decreases in the composites in the whole temperature range of measurement. Intrinsic MR (due to grain) gets enhanced from 22% for the pure sample to ∼40% for 30% Ag2O sample with 0.6 T field. Extrinsic MR (due to grain boundary), however, is found to decrease with Ag2O addition. Peak MR enhances in composite at the same temperature and at low temperature, beyond the peak, it is almost constant in a large temperature window. Anomaly observed in the specific heat (CP) near the high temperature insulator–metal transition temperature for various samples signifies the onset of magnetic ordering. Also CP vs T trend is similar in all the samples indicating that Ag2O addition does not produce any magnetic inhomogeneity

Synthesis and characterisation of lead free BaFe12O19 –(K0.5Na0.5)NbO3 magnetoelectric composites, and the comparison of various synthetic routes

Polycrystalline lead-free (1-x)BaFe12O19–x(K0.5Na0.5)NbO3 magnetoelectric ceramic composites (x = 10, 20 and 30 wt%) were fabricated for the first time, comparing various synthesis techniques, namely solid state reaction, sol-gel, co-precipitation and citrate combustion methods for the synthesis of the ferrite phase. As well as the four synthesis routes, comparisons were made between uniaxial pressing and cold isostatic pressing of the samples prior to sintering at 1200 °C/2 h. Formation of separate magnetic hexaferrite BaFe12O19 (BaM) and ferroelectric (K0.5Na0.5)NbO3 (KNN) phases in the composites was confirmed using x-ray diffraction. The microstructural features revealed distribution of BaM and KNN grains in all the composite systems. Piezoresponse (PFM) and magnetic force (MFM) modes of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) were utilised to assess responses from piezoelectric and magnetic grains. Localised piezoelectric hysteresis loops were measured on KNN grains in composites made by all four methods. Typical hard magnetic hysteresis loops for BaM were observed exhibiting high coercivity values (up to 281 kA m−1 or 3530 Oe), and those composites made using solid state reaction and citrate combustion methods, which contained no impurity phases, had close to maximum magnetisation values (equivalent to ~70 A m2 kg−1 for the BaM phase). SEM, MFM and magnetisation measurements all suggested that the grain size of the BaM in the composites made using solid state reaction, co-precipitation and citrate combustion methods was around 1 µm, and consisting of single magnetic domains. As a result, it is likely that these samples will exhibit a high degree of magnetoelectric coupling

Photovoltaic effect in transition metal modified polycrystalline BiFeO3 thin films

We report photovoltaic (PV) effect in multiferroic Bi0.9Sm0.1Fe0.95Co0.05O3 (BSFCO) thin films. Transition metal modified polycrystalline BiFeO3 (BFO) thin films have been deposited on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrate successfully through pulsed laser deposition (PLD). PV response is observed under illumination both in sandwich and lateral electrode configurations. The open-circuit voltage (V-oc) and the short-circuit current density (J(sc)) of the films in sandwich electrode configuration under illumination are measured to be 0.9 V and -0.051 mu A cm(-2). Additionally, we report piezoresponse for BSFCO films, which confirms ferroelectric piezoelectric behaviour