Satellite Power System (SPS)

Potential organizational options for a solar power satellite system (SPS) were investigated. Selection and evaluation criteria were determined to include timeliness, reliability, and adequacy to contribute meaningfully to the U.S. supply; political feasibility (both national and international); and cost effectiveness (including environmental and other external costs). Based on these criteria, four organizational alternatives appeared to offer reasonable promise as potential options for SPS. A large number of key issues emerged as being factors which would influence the final selection process. Among these issues were a variety having to do with international law, international institutions, environmental controls, economics, operational flexibility, congressional policies, commercial-vs-governmental ownership, national dedication, and national and operational stategic issues

Methodological Aspects of Environmental Labour Market Analysis

High and persistent unemployment rates and increasing awareness of environmental degradation in many industrial countries have promoted the interest in the labour market effects of environmental policy. Environmental labour market analysis is fraught with many difficulties, however. Being unaware of these problems may result in misunderstandings and mislead policy makers. In environmental labour market analysis two kinds of questions have to be distinguished: firstly, accounting for the number of persons working directly or indirectly for environmental protection activities and secondly, identifying the net effect of environmental policy on the labour market balance. Answering the first question is not conceptionally contentious. However, elaborating quantitative estimates poses a variety of problems of delimitation and data collection which are discussed in some detail in section 2. This section also presents the results of studies assessing environmental employment in Germany in various dimensions. Section 3 deals with problems arising when one attempts to answer the question of how many additional jobs are created through environmental policies. This requires an assessment of secondary economic effects of environmental policy the size and even the direction of which depend on a variety of framework conditions in a complex way. Quantitative estimates can only be based on model simulations; thus the features of the models applied become crucial for the results. Some rules for making such estimates are discussed. The most important mechanisms to be taken into account are presented. Some examples of empirical studies for Germany are presented in order to illustrate the argument. The most important conclusion we draw is that the delimitations, methods and assumptions underlying any estimates of the labour market effects of environmental policy have to be clearly stated.

Improving policy understanding by means of secondary analyses of policy evaluation : a concept development

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International Scientist Mobility and the Locus of Technology Transfer

University technology transfer has attracted considerable attention in the literature with a focus on the institutions, the agents involved in technology commercialisation or the differentiation between formal and informal technology transfer mechanisms. There has, however, been little systematic research on how the mobility of university scientists influences their propensity to engage in technology transfer activities and, particularly, on how mobility influences the locus of such activities. This paper therefore analyses the link between university scientists' technology transfer activities and their international mobility patterns. We characterise scientist mobility along the two dimensions frequency' and intensity' resulting in an individual mobility pattern. We argue that the mobility pattern as well as the scientist's personal characteristics affects the likelihood whether a transfer of technology occurs to a firm in the scientist's home and/or host country. Based on a sample of more than 500 German university scientists, our results indicate that a substantial share of scientists engages in technology transfer both to the home as well as to the host country. There are, however, considerable differences regarding the factors influencing the locus of technology transfer. --scientist mobility,university technology transfer,internationalisation

Global Demand for Environmental Goods and Services on the Rise: Good Growth Opportunities for German Suppliers

According to conservative calculations, over $580 billion was spent worldwide on environmental goods and services and renewable energy technologies1 in 2004. So-called "green spending" is set for strong growth in the future on account of the long-term expansion of the global economy and mounting environmental challenges. Significant opportunities for growth and employment in Germany are also offered by forecasted trends in the market for green technologies. DIW Berlin has developed a method to quantify future global demand for environmental goods and services based on alternative economic scenarios. The method places a key focus on the international trade of environmental goods and services. Our calculations predict that the effective annual demand for environmental goods and services in Germany will increase from$75 billion in 2004 to between $106 and 171 billion by 2020 (at 2004 prices and exchange rates).The high growth in German exports is responsible in particular for this trend. Nevertheless, sensitivity calculations indicate that demand could also grow at a much slower rate through 2020 under unfavorable economic conditions.Environmental Goods and Services Sector, World Trade, Scenarios

Infomap Bioregions: Interactive mapping of biogeographical regions from species distributions

Biogeographical regions (bioregions) reveal how different sets of species are spatially grouped and therefore are important units for conservation, historical biogeography, ecology and evolution. Several methods have been developed to identify bioregions based on species distribution data rather than expert opinion. One approach successfully applies network theory to simplify and highlight the underlying structure in species distributions. However, this method lacks tools for simple and efficient analysis. Here we present Infomap Bioregions, an interactive web application that inputs species distribution data and generates bioregion maps. Species distributions may be provided as georeferenced point occurrences or range maps, and can be of local, regional or global scale. The application uses a novel adaptive resolution method to make best use of often incomplete species distribution data. The results can be downloaded as vector graphics, shapefiles or in table format. We validate the tool by processing large datasets of publicly available species distribution data of the world's amphibians using species ranges, and mammals using point occurrences. We then calculate the fit between the inferred bioregions and WWF ecoregions. As examples of applications, researchers can reconstruct ancestral ranges in historical biogeography or identify indicator species for targeted conservation.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 2, tables, for interactive application, http://bioregions.mapequation.or

Women Outside the Household in Early Modern Germany

During the early modern period, women were highly regulated by society. This regulation included everything from sumptuary laws restricting consumerism and clothing to exclusion from guilds and other occupational restrictions. Women were generally expected to remain within the household sphere and were discouraged from deviating from traditional norms. However, some early modern German women were able to challenge and subvert these expectations. Given the prescribed gender roles often enforced within early modern German society, what prominent roles and industries, if any, were women able to participate in outside of the household? “Women Outside the Household in Early Modern Germany” utilizes a case study approach to analyze the ability of early modern German women to participate in the fields of medicine, commerce, and scholarship. A variety of circumstances, including social status, financial stability, and familial support, either supported or further restricted the ability of early modern German women to participate in these fields. Through the efforts of these women, gender norms within early modern Germany were challenged, and some women were able to find more avenues for their talents