Environmental Options and Technological Innovation: An Evolutionary Game Model

This paper analyses the effects on economic agents' behaviour of an innovative environmental protection mechanism that the Public Administration of a tourist region may adopt to attract visitors while protecting the environment. On the one hand, the Public Administration sells to the tourists an environmental call option that gives them the possibility of being (partially or totally) reimbursed if the environmental quality in the region turns out to be below a given threshold level. On the other hand, it offers the firms that adopt an innovative, non-polluting technology an environmental put option that allows them to get a reimbursement for the additional costs imposed by the new technology if the environmental quality is above the threshold level. The aim of the paper is to study the dynamics that arise with this financial mechanism from the interaction between the economic agents and the Public Administration in an evolutionary game context.Environmental Bonds, Call and Put Options, Technological Innovation, Evolutionary Dynamics

Maladaptation to environmental degradation and the interplay between negative and positive externalities

Available online 14 January 2022, Version of Record 2 February 2022. Part of special issue: SI: Advances in Sustainability Economics Edited by Lucas Bretschger, Simone Valente. The Full special issue is available in Open Access until 24 March 2022 on the Publisher's site - via the DOI link.This paper investigates the possible dynamics that may emerge in an economy in which agents adapt to environmental degradation by increasing the produced output to repair the damages of environmental degradation. The analyzed economy is characterized by both positive and negative externalities. On the one hand, an increase in production-related environmental degradation lowers the net income left at disposal for consumption and investment; on the other hand, it induces an increase in labor and capital to repair environmental damages from production, which enhances the positive externalities occurring in the production process. From the analysis of the model we show that there can be two steady states but only the one with lower capital level can be locally attractive. Both local and global indeterminacy may arise in the model, even with decreasing returns to scale. It follows that one cannot predict a priori which path the economy will follow when converging to an equilibrium, nor the equilibrium the dynamics will eventually converge to. In particular, the trajectories emerging from the model may eventually lead the economy to be trapped in a Pareto-dominated equilibrium with lower capital and higher environmental degradation levels. Moreover, the interplay between positive and negative externalities generates a rich set of possible trajectories that may lead to opposite extreme outcomes, namely, either infinite growth or the collapse of the economy

Linguistic adaptation and validation of Italian version of OSA-18, a quality of life questionnaire for evaluation of children with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAS).

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Computational modeling of immune system of the fish for a more effective vaccination in aquaculture

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A new bio-based organogel for the removal of wax coating from indoor bronze surfaces

Abstract In this research, we propose an advanced system for the cleaning of wax-based coatings applied on indoor bronzes. To this aim we developed a new kind of eco-friendly gel based on PHB (poly-3-hydroxybutyrate) used as thickening agent, biodiesel (BD) and dimethyl carbonate (DMC). BD is a mixture of methyl esters obtained from palm oil, which acts as cleaning agent while DMC was added as additional solvent to partially solubilize PHB and forming a gelly phase. For the first time a PHB-based gel obtained by mixing two solvents with different proprieties was proposed, expanding the range of possible formulations, that can be used according to the specific restoration purpose. After the preliminary characterization of chemical and physical properties of the gel, an ad hoc analytical protocol was implemented to evaluate both the cleaning efficiency and the release of residues on the treated surfaces. Standard samples were prepared following ancient recipes and submitted to spectroscopic and chromatographic analysis before and after the cleaning procedures. Finally, the performances of PHB-DMC/BD gel were assessed on a real case of study presenting a wax-based coating: the Pulpito della passione attributed to Donatello and dated back to 1460. In situ analysis demonstrated the high cleaning efficiency of the proposed systems also for the removal of aged coatings

The Eocene-Oligocene boundary climate transition:an Antarctic perspective

Antarctica underwent a complex evolution over the course of the Cenozoic, which influenced the history of the Earth’s climate system. The Eocene-Oligocene boundary is a divide of this history when the ice-free ‘greenhouse world’ transitioned to the ‘icehouse’ with the glaciation of Antarctica. Prior to this, Antarctica experienced warm climates, peaking during Early Eocene when tropical-like conditions existed at the margins of the continent where geological evidence is present. Climate signals in the geological record show that the climate then cooled, but not enough to allow the existence of significant ice until the latest Eocene. Glacial deposits from several areas around the continental margin indicate that ice was present by the earliest Oligocene. This matches the major oxygen isotope positive shift captured by marine records. On land, vegetation was able to persist, but the thermophylic plants of the Eocene were replaced by shrubby vegetation with the southern beech Nothofagus, mosses and ferns, which survived in tundra-like conditions. Coupled climate–ice sheet modelling indicates that changing levels of atmospheric CO2 controlled Antarctica’s climate and the onset of glaciation. Factors such as mountain uplift, vegetation changes, ocean gateway opening and orbital forcing all played a part in cooling the polar climate, but only when CO2 levels reached critical thresholds was Antarctica tipped into an icy glacial world.CE acknowledges funding by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitivity (grants CTM2017-89711-C2-1/2-P), cofunded by the European Union through FEDER funds. IS was supported by the Australian Research Council Discovery Project 180102280. A.T. Kennedy Asser was supported by NERC funding (grant no. NE/L002434/1) Edward Gasson is funded by the Royal Society. EG is funded by the Royal Society. AS thanks the European Research Council for Consolidator Grant #771497 (SPANC)

Dataset of characteristic remanent magnetization and magnetic properties of early Pliocene sediments from IODP Site U1467 (Maldives platform)

This data article describes data of magnetic stratigraphy and anisotropy of isothermal remanent magnetization (AIRM) from "Magnetic properties of early Pliocene sediments from IODP Site U1467 (Maldives platform) reveal changes in the monsoon system" [1]. Acquisition of isothermal magnetization on pilot samples and anisotropy of isothermal remanent magnetization are reported as raw data; magnetostratigraphic data are reported as characteristic magnetization (ChRM).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Working too much in a polluted world: A North-South evolutionary model

This paper examines a simple North-South growth model where negative externalities may contribute to reinforce economic growth. Agents' welfare depends on three goods in the model: leisure, a common access renewable natural resource (one in each hemisphere) and a non-storable consumption good. Production and consumption of the latter good deplete the renewable natural resource. To protect against such environmental deterioration, agents may increase their labor supply in order to produce an additional amount of the consumption good to be used as a substitute for the depleted natural resource. The consequent growth in production and consumption may generate a further depletion of the natural resource. This may lead to a self-enforcing growth process in a polluted world where individuals work and produce "too much" (i.e. more than socially optimal). We examine the choices of the two hemispheres using a two-population evolutionary game with transboundary pollution across hemispheres. Each agent chooses whether to work low or high. If an agent works low, she can consume the good only to satisfy basic needs (subsistence consumption). If the agent works high, she can consume an additional amount of the good as a substitute for the natural resource (substitution consumption). We assume that people who work high in the North can also have access to the Southern natural resource (e.g. they can afford a holiday in some developing country where natural resources are still relatively unpolluted), whereas the opposite is not true. We show that economic growth in the North and/or in the South may lead to stationary states that are Pareto dominated by states of the world with a lower level of production and consumption. Moreover, negative environmental externalities from the North to the South may foster growth in the South, which may have in turn feedback effects on growth in the North. Finally, we discuss possible welfare effects of transferring the environmental impact of Northern production to the South and show that such a policy may decrease welfare in both hemispheres