Growing cities

Towns and cities existed throughout Africa’s past. However since the late twentieth century Africans are witnessing a historically unprecedented transition from living mainly in rural areas to residing in cities. What are the driving-forces behind African urbanization? And what are the welfare consequences of rapid urban growth without sufficient economic growth in Africa

On Geography and Institutions as Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment. A cross country comparative analysis of sub-Saharan African relative to developing countries

This work explores what factors determine foreign direct investment (FDI) in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) relative to non-sub-Saharan African countries, using a panel data set which encompasses most of the world´s developing countries between 1997 and 2006. The results indicate that institutions and infrastructure development promoted FDI to non-SSA but did not induce FDI to sub-Saharan Africa. Geography played a modest and indirect role. The marginal benefit from openness to trade was higher for SSA, which is closely related to resource-seeking FDI that did not translate into sustained economic growth, neither institutional change, but consequently crowded out the second FDI wave of manufacturing. At the same time, FDI into value-added manufacturing largely located in non-SSA countries acted as engine for scaling the economic development ladder through institutional improvement for a number of non-SSA countries. Hence, FDI has the potential to act as a reliable and equitable driver of sustained economic development and poverty alleviation. The destiny of the “resource curse” linked to FDI failure marks the novelty of this paper in the FDI and development literature.Foreign direct investment, developing countries, sub-Saharan Africa, resource curse, geography, institutions

Economics of using fossil fuels and tackling climate change

This cumulative thesis consists of three individual research articles and primarily contributes to the environmental and resource economics literature. Motivated by the recent U.S. shale gas boom, the first article aims to improve the understanding of endogenous technological change in models of resource extraction. Consistent with current trends, the theory explains how gas prices can follow a U-shaped path. Furthermore, it shows that a carbon tax could drastically change the temporal patterns of shale gas extraction. The second article introduces the option of solar geoengineering in an integrated assessment model of climate change. It provides an analytic description of an optimal deployment strategy, models realistic strategic interactions between regions, and analyzes the effects of solar geoengineering on the social cost of carbon. The third article focuses on Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) and the storage in different reservoir types. It investigates optimal CDR deployment, and derives implications for optimal mitigation efforts

Falsifying falsificationist legal theory - a refutation of Bernhard Schlink’s “interpretations as hypotheses”

A number of attempts have been made to conceptualise legal reasoning along falsificationist lines. This paper criticises a recent one by Bernhard Schlink. After familiarising the reader with falsificationism, I argue that falsificationism is premised on an epistemological asymmetry between singular observation statements and universal hypotheses, and that absent such an asymmetry in the context of statutory interpretation, framing jurisprudence in falsificationist terms is unwarranted and misleading. To get off the ground, legal falsificationism would need to combine with some kind of broadly intuitionist moral cognitivism, but even then, it would still misrepresent what is going on in legal reasoning. The arguments in this paper apply mutatis mutandis to all falsificationist theories of legal and ethical reasoning. I point to some by Albert, Canaris and Larenz

Lagrangian model using CFD flow data to predict the current-voltage characteristics of a solid oxide fuel cell repeat unit

A model framework is presented to predict the current-voltage (I-U) characteristics and hence the electrical performance of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) repeat unit, i. e., a planar SOFC with adjacent current collector plates. The model uses as input residence times obtained from 3D CFD data for the fuel flowing through the anodic gas channels of a current collector plate. These residence times are then used by an electrochemical model to predict the fuel conversion along different flow paths for various electrical loads. This way, the overall (I-U) behaviour of the repeat unit follows from combining the fuel conversion rates (and respective electrical currents) for the individual flow paths. Since we use a Lagrangian reference frame for the electrochemical model, for a given electrical load, only a simple time-integration of a first-order ODE is required. Therefore, this modelling approach is very efficient and well suited for extensive parameter studies, e. g., to optimise the fuel residence times with respect to the electrical performance of the repeat unit. To ensure its reliability, the model has been validated by comparison with both experimental data and other (I-U) models

Transient electrically detected magnetic resonance spectroscopy applied to organic solar cells

The influence of light-induced paramagnetic states on the photocurrent generated by polymer:fullerene solar cells is studied using spin-sensitive techniques in combination with laser-flash excitation. For this purpose, we developed a setup that allows for simultaneous detection of transient electron paramagnetic resonance as well as transient electrically detected magnetic resonance (trEDMR) signals from fully processed and encapsulated solar cells. Combining both techniques provides a direct link between photoinduced triplet excitons, charge transfer states, and free charge carriers as well as their influence on the photocurrent generated by organic photovoltaic devices. Our results obtained from solar cells based on poly(3-hexylthiophene) as electron donor and a fullerene-based electron acceptor show that the resonant signals observed in low-temperature (T = 80 K) trEDMR spectra can be attributed to positive polarons in the polymer as well as negative polarons in the fullerene phase, indicating that both centers are involved in spin-dependent processes that directly influence the photocurrent

The impact of the AO foundation on fracture care : an evaluation of 60 years AO foundation

Objectives Sixty years ago, the Association of Osteosynthesis (AO) was founded with the aim to improve fracture treatment and has since grown into one of the largest medical associations worldwide. Aim of this study was to evaluate AO's impact on science, education, patient care and the MedTech business. Design/methods Impact evaluations were conducted as appropriate for the individual domains: Impact on science was measured by analyzing citation frequencies of publications promoted by AO. Impact on education was evaluated by analyzing the evolution of number and location of AO courses. Impact on patient care was evaluated with a health economic model analyzing cost changes and years of life gained through the introduction of osteosynthesis in 17 high-income countries (HICs). Impact on MedTech business was evaluated by analyzing sales data of AO-associated products. Results Thirty-five AO papers and 2 major AO textbooks are cited at remarkable frequencies in high ranking journals with up to 2000 citations/year. The number of AO courses steadily increased with a total of 645'000 participants, 20‘000 teaching days and 2‘500 volunteer faculty members so far. The introduction of osteosynthesis saved at least 925 billion Swiss Francs [CHF] in the 17 HICs analyzed and had an impact on avoiding premature deaths comparable to the use of antihypertensive drugs. AO-associated products generated sales of 55 billion CHF. Conclusion AO's impact on science, education, patient care, and the MedTech business was significant because AO addressed hitherto unmet needs by combining activities that mutually enriched and reinforced each other