Multi Pollutant Yardstick Schemes as Environmental Policy Tools

We consider environmental regulation of n risk-averse, multiple pollutant firms. We develop a “yardstick competition” scheme where the regulatory scheme depends on the dierence between a firm’s “aggregate” performance and the average “aggregate” performance of the industry. Whether this instruments dominates Pigovian taxation depends on the complete structure of the covariance matrix of the “common” random terms in measured pollution. Moreover, if the number of firms is large enough, the “yardstick scheme” is always superior to Pigovian taxation. This analysis also provides new arguments in favor of strict liability rather than negligence liability as regulatory tool.yardstick competition, multitasking, environmental regulation, asymmetric information

Monetization of Environmental Externalities (Emissions) from Bioenergy

Bioenergy from agriculture is today in the heart of sustainable development, integrating its key components: environment and climate change, energy economics and energy supply, agriculture, rural and social development. Each bioenergy production route presents externalities that must be assessed in order to compare one bioenergy route to another (bio)energy route. The lack of primary and reliable data on externalities is, nevertheless, an important nontechnological barrier to the implementation of the best (bio)energy routes. In this article, we want to monetize one environmental externality from bioenergy: emissions (GHG: CO2, CH4, N2O, O3; CO, NOx, SO2, metal, and PM). We have to monetize emissions on the basis of their effects on health, global warming, and soil and water quality. Emissions will be quantified through Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and ECOINVENT database. Impacts on health will be monetized on the basis of mortality (number of life expectancy years lost multiplied by Value Of Life Year (VOLY)) and morbidity (number of ill persons multiplied by Cost Of Illness (COI)). Impacts on global warming will be monetized by Benefits Transfers from the Stern Review and its critics. Finally, impacts on soil and water quality will be monetized by Averting Behaviour or Defensive Expenses methods. Monetization results will be gathered, weighted, and incorporated in states and firms’ decisionmaking tools. They would enhance capacity of policy makers and managers to chose the best (bio)energy routes.Sustainable development, externality, monetization, bioenergy, emissions

Detailed requirements document for the radiant heat transfer facility post-test data reduction program

The requirements and functional specifications for a program to process test data obtained by the Radiant Heat Data Acquisition System are defined

A theoretical framework for incentives in the public sector

This note considers the provision of incentives in public organizations that face the following three constraints. First, no lateral entry is possible. Second, the outside opportunities of bureaucrats are independent of their performance. Third, the organization cannot design incentive schemes with stochastic wage bills. In our incentive scheme., the organization contains three jobs. Every period, the organization recruits two agents for the ``field" jobs. At the end of the period, one agent is put in retirement and the other is promoted to the ``executive" job. An agent will be promoted if he has obtained the highest performance on the managerial aspects of the ``field" job, and has passed an endogenous standard of performance on the technical aspects of this ``field" job. This system (1) provides incentives for optimal efforts in the ``field" job AND (2) improves on a purely random allocation system of the “executiveâ€. There are problems of time consistency, though.

Co-variation between stressful events and rumination predicts depressive symptoms : an eighteen months prospective design in undergraduates

Rumination is a maladaptive form of emotion regulation and seems to be the cognitive mechanism linking stress to depressive symptoms. However, it remains to be investigated whether individuals' variation in rumination in relation to the occurrence of stressful events (e.g., phasic co-variation between stressful events and rumination) prospectively predict the experience of depressive symptoms in lengthy follow-up moments. In this eighteen months prospective design, a large unselected sample of undergraduates was tested before, during, and after a period with prominent naturally occurring stressful events. The multilevel results show that the co-variation of stressful events and ruminative thinking predicts the experience of depressive symptoms at 3 and 15 months follow up moments, also when statistically controlling for baseline depressive symptoms. Moreover, the data demonstrate that the phasic elevations of rumination in relation to the occurrence of stressful events are more predictive of depressive symptoms compared with the stable aspects of rumination measured at one occasion. At the clinical level, the current findings seem to suggest a process-oriented intervention to target the phasic ruminative cognitions where individuals need to learn to control rumination exactly at moments of stress. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The Importance of the interface design in a foreign language teaching program

None provided

When Germany sends troops abroad: the case for a limited reform of the Parliamentary Participation Act

"The Parliamentary Participation Act has proved to be a valuable tool for ensuring the democratic legitimacy of any decision to send Bundeswehr troops abroad. Since it came into force in 2005, the German Bundestag has given its assent to more than 70 requests of the Federal Government for the deployment of German troops abroad, or the extension of such mandates, and has not rejected a single application. Nevertheless, there is a problem: Germany's partners see participation with military personnel in the NATO Command Structure and in the Airborne Early Warning Command AWACS as a logical consequence of their membership of the Alliance. Participation is not called into question during deployment. This is not the case in Germany, where participation during deployment has become the subject of fine-spun legal argument and heated political debate. Within the Alliance, the German stance, which has repeatedly led to withdrawals from AWACS, is perceived as being contradictory, lacking in solidarity, and not compatible with Germany's significant position. A limited reform of the Act could provide a remedy, and the new legislative period is an opportune moment for taking action." (author's abstract