Climate Change Mitigation Policy: The Effect of the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme on New Radiata Pine Forest Plantations in New Zealand

Climate change is one of the toughest challenges facing the world today. Putting a price on carbon emissions is an important step towards climate change mitigation. A cap and trade system is one of the ways to create a carbon price. The New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZETS) is the world’s first economy-wide cap and trade system that covers all sectors and all 6 greenhouse gases. Forestry is a major part of the NZETS, allowing foresters to earn carbon credits for new forests planted on and after 1st January 1990 (afforestation and reforestation). At the same time, the NZETS also makes foresters liable for harvesting new forests planted on and after 1st January 1990, and deforesting forests existing on and before 31st December 1989. In this paper, we perform an economic analysis of how a carbon price will likely affect the returns and forestry management behaviour in new forests in New Zealand. Previous works have used the NPV/LEV (fixed harvesting) analysis where the forest is assumed to be harvested (in future) at the estimated optimal rotation age regardless of timber prices at that time. Other works have employed the Real Options approaches (flexible harvesting) where sophisticated models such as Partial Differential Equations and simulations analyse the effects of bringing forward the harvest decision if timber prices are favourable, and deferring the harvest decision if timber prices are unfavourable. Often, these methods tend to have higher data requirements, employ different assumptions and are much more complex to estimate. Because of these differences, it may be difficult to compare the results of NPV/LEV analysis with Real Options. Our work here applies the binomial tree method, which is a relatively simple method that can generate both LEV (fixed harvesting) and Real Options (flexible harvesting) results on a common model with the same data requirements and assumptions. This allows for better comparability of forestry management behaviour and effects of carbon price. The forestry valuations are analysed under a stochastic timber price and a constant carbon price. This paper concludes with some implications on policy in New Zealand.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Rationality and its Other

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Topology of Function Spaces

This dissertation is a study of the relationship between a topological space X and varioushigher-order objects that we can associate with X. In particular the focus is on C(X), the setof all continuous real-valued functions on X endowed with the topology of pointwise convergence,the compact-open topology and an admissible topology. The topological propertiesof continuous function universals and zero set universals are also examined. The topologicalproperties studied can be divided into three types (i) compactness type properties, (ii) chainconditions and (iii) sequential type properties.The dissertation begins with some general results on universals describing methods ofconstructing universals. The compactness type properties of universals are investigatedand it is shown that the class of metric spaces can be characterised as those with a zeroset universal parametrised by a sigma-compact space. It is shown that for a space to have aLindelof-Sigma zero set universal the space must have a sigma-disjoint basis.A study of chain conditions in Ck(X) and Cp(X) is undertaken, giving necessary andsufficient conditions on a space X such that Cp(X) has calibre (kappa,lambda,mu), with a similar resultobtained for the Ck(X) case. Extending known results on compact spaces it is shown that if aspace X is omega-bounded and Ck(X) has the countable chain condition then X must be metric.The classic problem of the productivity of the countable chain condition is investigated inthe Ck setting and it is demonstrated that this property is productive if the underlying spaceis zero-dimensional. Sufficient conditions are given for a space to have a continuous functionuniversal parametrised by a separable space, ccc space or space with calibre omega1.An investigation of the sequential separability of function spaces and products is undertaken. The main results include a complete characterisation of those spaces such that Cp(X)is sequentially separable and a characterisation of those spaces such that Cp(X) is stronglysequentially separable

Formation of Relativistic Axion Stars

Axions and axion-like particles are compelling candidates for the missing dark matter of the universe. As they undergo gravitational collapse, they can form compact objects such as axion stars or even black holes. In this paper, we study the formation and distribution of such objects. First, we simulate the formation of compact axion stars using numerical relativity with aspherical initial conditions that could represent the final stages of axion dark matter structure formation. We show that the final states of such collapse closely follow the known relationship of initial mass and axion decay constant $f_a$. Second, we demonstrate with a toy model how this information can be used to scan a model density field to predict the number densities and masses of such compact objects. In addition to being detectable by the LIGO/VIRGO gravitational wave interferometer network for axion mass of $10^{-9} < m_a < 10^{-11}$ eV, we show using peak statistics that for $f_a < 0.2M_{pl}$, there exists a "mass gap" between the masses of axion stars and black holes formed from collapse

Measuring the Effects of Parental Involvement in Academic and Extracurricular Activities on a Child’s Self-Efficacy

Abstract The purpose of this study was to see what effect parental involvement in both academic and extracurricular activities had on the academic achievement and self-efficacy of students in a parochial middle school class in eastern Tennessee. The researchers hypothesize that parental involvement has a positive effect on a child’s academic achievement and this study was conducted to provide evidence for this hypothesis. In this study, 39 parents and 16 students from an eighth grade classroom were surveyed. Among other things, the parents were questioned about how important they felt it was to do the following: attend extracurricular activities their child was involved in, help their child with homework, communicate to the child that he or she is smart and can succeed in school, and attend parent/teacher conferences. The researchers asked the students if they thought having their parents involved helped them in school, how they felt about their ability to perform well in school, and how motivated they felt to succeed. The results showed that most students felt confident in their ability to succeed in school and that most parents were supportive and involved