Monoidal derivators and additive derivators

One aim of this paper is to develop some aspects of the theory of monoidal derivators. The passages from categories and model categories to derivators both respect monoidal objects and hence give rise to natural examples. We also introduce additive derivators and show that the values of strong, additive derivators are canonically pretriangulated categories. Moreover, the center of additive derivators allows for a convenient formalization of linear structures and graded variants thereof in the stable situation. As an illustration of these concepts, we discuss some derivators related to chain complexes and symmetric spectra

Private ex-ante transaction costs for repeated biodiversity conservation auctions: a case study

The European Union’s Council Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development has introduced promising changes in rewarding farmers by the implementation of conservation auctions and granting farmers’ transaction costs. The paper therefore deals with the evaluation of private transaction costs within a case study using repeated auctions to reward plant biodiversity. Based on a review of the current literature the paper develops a specific definition of transaction costs as well as a methodology to measure and calculate the farmers’ private transaction costs. The case study enfolds two field experiment auctions and two corresponding surveys. The transaction costs are measured by the use of written questionnaires and will be discussed both as a first reference value of farmers’ transaction costs as well as compared to the individual payments within the case study auctions in order to investigate the real-life performance of this specific application of repeated conservation auctions in biodiversity protection efforts.agri-environmental policy, biodiversity conservation auctions, transaction costs, ecological services, plant biodiversity, experimental economics, EAFRD-Regulation

Strictly Endogenous Growth with Non-renewable Resources Implies an Unbounded Growth Rate.

Conventional endogenous growth theory relies on the assumption of constant returns to ”broad capital”. As Solow pointed out, the strength of this assumption is revealed by recognizing that even the slightest touch of increasing returns creates explosive growth: infinite output in finite time! But Solow’s observation ignored natural resources. What happens if non-renewable resources enter the ”growth engine”? In this case (strictly) endogenous growth requires the technology to be such that there is no upper bound on the sustainable per capita growth rate.endogenous growth; semi-endogenous growth; non-renewable resources; knife-edge

An empirical examination of repeated auctions for biodiversity conservation contracts

The European Union’s Council Regulation on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development has introduced auctioning as a new instrument for granting agri-environmental payments and awarding conservation contracts for the recent multi-annual budgetary plan. This paper therefore deals with the conception and results of two case study auctions for conservation contracts. Results of two field experiments show much differentiated bid prices in the model-region and budgetary cost-effectiveness gains of up to 21% in the first auction and up to 36% in the repeated auction. Besides these promising results, some critical aspects as well as lessons to be learned will also be discussed in this paper to improve the design and performance of upcoming conservation auctions.agri-environmental policy, discriminatory-price auction, multi-unit auction, ecological services, plant biodiversity, experimental economics