Compliance and Imperfect Intertemporal Carbon Trading

This paper examines three compliance mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol: (i) the restoration rate, (ii) the commitment period reserve rule, and (iii) the suspension mechanism, all potentially constraining greenhouse gas emissions trading across time and space. The joint effect of these mechanisms on prices and costs is studied in a twoperiod model under various assumptions about the competitiveness of the permit market and US participation. The analytical results indicate that the restoration rate can make discounted permit prices decrease over time. With the commitment period reserve, marginal costs may not only be lower, but also higher than the permit prices. The suspension rule will under quite general circumstances not affect prices and costs; only shift non-compliance from future sellers to future buyers. The numerical results suggest that with imperfect permit markets and non-participation of the US in the Kyoto Protocol in 2010, none of the three rules becomes binding.compliance; market power; emissions trading; Kyoto Protocol

Coalition formation and strategic permit trade under the Kyoto Protocol

This paper discusses coalition formation with side payments in markets for transferable property rights where strategic agents prevail on both sides of the market. Our concern is emissions permit trading under the Kyoto Protocol. While a seller cartel is not profitable, our analysis indicates that coalitions between sellers and buyers pay off. Three stable cartels are found. None involve all agents, yet they all induce overall e¢ ciency. To support a stable coalition, the EU, Japan and Canada may pay together between 0 and 13 billion US dollars per year to Russia. The permit price and society-wide emission reductions are nil.Emissions trading; Kyoto Protocol; cartel formation; merger profitability.

A Multi-class Dementia Classification Assessment Utilizing GAN to Convert MRI Scans from the 1.5T Domain to the 3.0T Domain

Dementia is the seventh leading cause of death among all diseases and increases rapidly. With 10 million new cases every year, research is crucial for finding a treatment to cure dementia in the future. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination enables qualified professionals to analyze and detect discrepancies and anomalies in the brain. The quality and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of MRI scans are directly proportional to the magnetic field strength used. For example, machines using a magnetic field strength of 3.0 Tesla (T) can generate scans with a higher SNR than magnetic field strengths of 1.5T and 0.5T but require more facilitation on the premises and considerable financial resources. This thesis will explore how generative adversarial networks can improve the level of detail and SNR of MRI scans from the 1.5T domain to approach that of the 3.0T domain. GANs have proven to perform satisfactorily in similar scenarios, but only in binary classification tasks. This thesis investigates how the Pix2Pix GAN can be modified to use three-dimensional images. Furthermore, this thesis evaluates the performance through a multi-class convolutional neural network (CNN), classifying cognitively normal, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer’s disease. An average performance measure of 0.84 and an average AUC score of 0.949 was achieved by classifying the generated 3.0T* MRI images, improving the evaluation of the 1.5T domain from 0.80 and 0.710, respectively. However, the small dataset size and the short training duration of the GAN could be limitations for the GAN performance. Nevertheless, this work presents a clear potential for increasing the SNR ratio for the 1.5T domain, which could be expanded to the 0.5T domain

Simulating the Carbon Permit Market with Imperfect Observations of Emissions: Approaching Equilibrium through Sequential Bilateral Trade

It is still unclear how the Parties of the Kyoto Protocol will deal with emission trading and compliance given the fact that emissions of greenhouse gases are not perfectly observable and underreporting of emissions may occur. This paper gives an analytical and numerical analysis of the carbon permit market given imperfect observation of emission levels. Our setting is such that Parties must undershoot their emission targets to be able to verify compliance with the Protocol if unreported emissions are accounted for. Targets can be met by traditional emission abatement, by investing in monitoring (reducing unreported emission) or by trading in permits. The paper proves that sequential bilateral trade converges to an equilibrium where marginal abatement costs equal marginal monitoring costs across all Parties. The method is applied for the fossil fuel related carbon emissions of the Parties of the Kyoto Protocol. Our numerical findings indicate that USA, Japan and the European Union could increase their compliance costs significantly when uncertainty in the emission levels is included. Although Central Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine are assigned to have larger uncertainties in emission levels, their net costs may be reduced as they can sell emission reductions at a higher price. Compared to the no trade case, we find that emissions trading may lead to somewhat lower aggregate uncertainty in greenhouse gas accounts

Estimates of carbon sequestration coefficients for forestry grown on Norwegian agricultural land

This working paper documents the derivation of carbon sequestration coefficients for forest grown on Norwegian agricultural land. These figures will serve as input to the established model Jordmod – an economic model of the Norwegian agricultural sector. The purpose is to carry out greenhouse gas policy analysis. Associated with this paper is a GAMS program (The General Algebraic Modeling System), which computes the figures. The structure of this working paper is made to facilitate reading the program (given in Appendix A). The main issue is the expected woody biomass production on agricultural land. While there is plenty of data and information about wood productivity of forest land, agricultural land is not classified in terms of its abilities to produce woodwork. So our main point of departure is to look at forest land statistics, and from that, construct coefficients to be applied on the agricultural land

Om prinsipper for prioritering av den forebyggende innsatsen knyttet til flom og skred på nasjonalt nivå

Menneskeliv og eiendom har til alle tider vært utsatt for tapsrisiko forårsaket av uønskede naturgitte hendelser. Eksempler på dette er flom og skred som følge av ekstrem nedbør og materielle ødeleggelser som følge av voldsomt kraftig vind. Når det gjelder mulighetene for å ta forholdsregler i forhold tap forårsaket av naturgitte hendelser, kompliseres det av det de normalt bare kan predikeres med en viss sannsynlighet. Det vil ofte heller ikke være noe mønster over tid med hensyn til forekomsten av slike hendelser. Sannsynlighetene for svært store katastrofer er små vurdert ut fra eksisterende erfaringsmateriale. Til gjengjeld kan konsekvensene være svært store, og de kan føre til store følgevirkninger. Både for enkeltindivider og samfunn vil beslutninger når det gjelder tiltak for å redusere de økonomiske og materielle følgene av naturskade, være beslutninger under usikkerhet. Dette notatet tar opp en del prinsipielle spørsmål knyttet til prioriteringer innenfor den forebyggende innsatsen knyttet til flom og skred. Mens det i enkelte tilfeller vil bli gitt relativt klare anbefalinger, reises det også spørsmål som av ulike årsaker vil bestå mer eller mindre ubesvart

Market clearing and price formation

Considered here is decentralized exchange of privately owned commodity bundles. Voluntary transactions take the form of repeated bilateral barters. Under broad and reasonable hypotheses the resulting process converges to comepetitive equilibrium. Price-taking behavior is not assumed. Prices emerge over time; they need neither be anticipated nor known at any interim stage.exchange economies; price equilibrium; stochastic approximation.

Arbeidsmiljøutvikling i komplekse organisasjoner. Arbeidsmiljø- og arbeidsklimaundersøkelser fra versjon 1.0 til versjon 2.0

Masteroppgave i kunnskapsledelse (MKL) - Nord universitet 201