Tracking Nature Inscribed : Nature in rights and bureaucratic

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Banks’ buffer capital: How important is risk?

Most banks hold a capital to asset ratio well above the required minimum defined by the present capital adequacy regulation (Basel I). Using bank-level panel data from Norway, important hypotheses concerning the determination of the buffer capital are analysed. Focus is on the importance of: (i) risk, particularly credit risk, (ii) the buffer as an insurance, (iii) the competition effect, (iv) supervisory discipline, and (v) economic growth. A negative or nonsignificant risk effect is found, which suggests that introducing a more risk-sensitive capital regulation (Basel II) is likely to affect Norwegian banks. Support is found for the hypothesis that buffer capital serves as an insurance against failure to meet the capital requirements.Banking; Excess capital; Risk; Panel data

None-of-These Bias in Stated Choice Experiments

We conduct a within-sample test of hypothetical bias and parameter equality between a hypothetical stated choice (SC) experiment using pictures and a real choice (RC) experiments using products. With exception of the none-of-these alternative-specific dummy, we cannot reject parameter equality between the two datasets. However, when we estimate the models separately with no parameter restrictions, the SC experiment gave WTP estimates that were approximately 50 percent higher and marginal WTP estimates that were almost two times as high as the corresponding estimates from the RC experiment. However, even though the monetary value of the WTP disparity was large, the disparity between the WTP estimates from the two data sets was not statistically significant.choice experiment, hypothetical bias, color, mixed logit, salmon, willingness to pay, Consumer/Household Economics, C81, C93, D12, Q22,

UNDERSTANDING THE DEMAND SIDE AND COORDINATING THE SUPPLY SIDE FOR CONNECTED GOODS AND SERVICES

regional development, multifunctionality, municipalities, demand, coordination, networks, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance,

The Effect of Color on Consumer WTP for Farmed Salmon

Atlantic salmon is recognized for its pink-red color. The color is due to deposition of color pigments in the muscles. Wild salmon absorb the pink-red color pigment astaxanthin from the crustaceans they eat. To impart the pink-red color in farmed salmon, synthetically produced astaxanthin is added to their feed. The more astaxanthin, the redder the flesh becomes. In conventional salmon farming, the relatively expensive astaxanthin constitutes approximately 15% of the total feed costs. In this study, we use a stated choice experiment with pictures to investigate consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for salmon with different degrees of redness. The results show that consumer WTP increases with the redness of the salmon. However, when consumers were informed about the origin of the color, the WTP for the above-normal-red salmon was reduced.choice experiment, color, mixed logit, salmon, WTP, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q13, Q22,

Pressure Calculation in Polar and Charged Systems using Ewald Summation: Results for the Extended Simple Point Charge Model of Water

Ewald summation and physically equivalent methods such as particle-mesh Ewald, kubic-harmonic expansions, or Lekner sums are commonly used to calculate long-range electrostatic interactions in computer simulations of polar and charged substances. The calculation of pressures in such systems is investigated. We find that the virial and thermodynamic pressures differ because of the explicit volume dependence of the effective, resummed Ewald potential. The thermodynamic pressure, obtained from the volume derivative of the Helmholtz free energy, can be expressed easily for both ionic and rigid molecular systems. For a system of rigid molecules, the electrostatic energy and the forces at the atom positions are required, both of which are readily available in molecular dynamics codes. We then calculate the virial and thermodynamic pressures for the extended simple point charge (SPC/E) water model at standard conditions. We find that the thermodynamic pressure exhibits considerably less system size dependence than the virial pressure. From an analysis of the cross correlation between the virial and thermodynamic pressure, we conclude that the thermodynamic pressure should be used to drive volume fluctuations in constant-pressure simulations.Comment: RevTeX, 19 pages, 2 EPS figures; in press: Journal of Chemical Physics, 15-August-199

Pagan myth in confrontation with Christianity: Skírnismál and Genesis

Skírnismál is the only one of the Eddaic lays which is dedicated to the god of vanir, Freyr. The poem deals with the offer of marriage to the giantess Gerör which the messanger, Skírnir, takes to htunheimr on Freyr's behalf. Regarding the question of age and interpretation of the lay, various suggestions have been made by scholars. A central question for scholars has been whether the poem contains genuine pagan myth. In recent years several scholars have argued that the lay is late and that, in spite of its preoccupation with pre-Christian mythology, it deals mainly with medieval ideology. We shall focus instead on a point which has not hitherto been recognized: the possible connection between Skírnismál and the Jewish-Christian myth of the fall in Genesis. It is possible that the poet of Skírnismal borrowed ideas from several traditions, from Nordic, mythological ones and at the same time from biblical tradition, from the myth of the fall in Genesis. This conclusion means that the pagan, mythological tradition of the North was recreated at the time of Conversion, for the biblical elements in Skírnismál are used within the frame of a lay which, in its deepest conception, belongs to the pre-Christian tradition