Risk Perception and Drug Safety Evaluation

The authors present a Risk communication framework based on a survey of empirical research concerning public Risk perceptions. They also apply it to the area of pharmaceutical regulation to suggest more effective regulatory strategies

Strategic Trade Policy with Endogenous Choice of Quality and Asymmetric Costs

This paper examines the strategic trade policy incentives for investment policies towards quality improvements in a vertically differentiated exporting industry. Firms first compete in qualities and then export to a third country market based on Bertrand or Cournot competition. Optimal policies are asymmetric across the two producing countries. Under Bertrand competition, the low-quality country subsidizes investment to raise export quality, while the high-quality country imposes a tax so as to reduce the quality of its already high quality exports. Under Cournot competition, the results are reversed with a tax in the low-quality country and a subsidy in the high-quality country.

Managing Forests for Multiple Tradeoffs: Compromising on Timber, Carbon, and Biodiversity Objectives

In this paper, we develop a multiple objective, decision-making model that focuses on forest policies that simultaneously achieve carbon uptake and maintenance of ecosystem diversity objectives. Two forest carbon measures are used – a nominal (undiscounted) net carbon uptake as a proxy for long-term carbon sequestration and discounted net carbon uptake that captures the “fast” carbon accumulation aspect. Ecosystem diversity is expressed in terms of desired structures for forest and afforested agricultural land. Economic effects of possible strategies are examined by comparing attainment of these objectives with the net discounted returns from commercial timber harvests and agricultural activities. The tradeoffs between timber and non-timber objectives are obtained by means of compromise programming. Two measures of distance between the current objective values and the ideal ones are used to assess attainment of multiple goals. We explore how the choice of a measure affects the decisions and overall performance. The model is applied to the boreal forest and accompanying marginal agricultural lands in the Peace River region of northeastern British Columbia.biological and ecosystem diversity, compromise programming, forest carbon sequestration, forest management, multiple objectives

Forest Management Zone Design with a Tabu Search Algorithm

Increased conflicts between timber production and environmental protection led some analysts to advocate land-use segregation, often referred to as forest management zoning. The objective of zoning is to create ecologically desirable non-fragmented forest reserves and group timber production areas. We formulate an integer programming model of forest zoning that explicitly addresses clustering of spatial units allocated to timber production and reserve zones while also promoting separation of these zones. A tabu search algorithm is developed, implemented and tested using a case study. The case study results indicate that up to 5% of the net financial return is sacrificed with a 'satisfactory' grouping of units within each zone. A 'good' separation between the reserves and timber production zone is achieved at the cost of further decline of the net financial return up to 11% relative to the unconstrained case.forest planning, integer programming, reserves, tabu search, timber production, zoning

Climate Change Adaptation and Flood Management in Metro Vancouver Regional Area: Can an Exercise in Herding Cats be Successful?

Climate change poses novel challenges for cities, threatening long-term sustainability objectives and necessitating investments in resilience. Climate change exacerbates the challenge of identifying the range of impacts of natural hazards in terms of scale and frequency. This study focuses on climate change adaptation responses with regard to flood management in the Metro Vancouver regional area, which is the last large non-amalgamated region in Canada. It is comprised of 24 local authorities and a regional government with delegated and distributed authority for flood management and other responsibilities. The area is subject to river flooding, intense rain storms and an increasing rate of sea level rise. The study identifies mechanisms by which the municipalities make sense of the existing hazards as well as how they design and invest into responses for future risks under conditions of uncertainty. Given the geographic, demographic and socio-economic differences across municipalities in the region, the study found a diverse set of responses in planning regimes in regard to the long-term risks as well as the short-term political pressures that municipalities face. This resulted in a significant variability of planning policies and practices across the region, which could potentially reduce overall regional ability to adapt to change. The paper concludes with a discussion of measures that can be taken to strengthen the regional coordination process

Climate Change Adaptation and Flood Management in Metro Vancouver Regional Area: Can an Exercise in Herding Cats be Successful?

Climate change poses novel challenges for cities, threatening long-term sustainability objectives and necessitating investments in resilience. Climate change exacerbates the challenge of identifying the range of impacts of natural hazards in terms of scale and frequency. This study focuses on climate change adaptation responses with regard to flood management in the Metro Vancouver regional area, which is the last large non-amalgamated region in Canada. It is comprised of 24 local authorities and a regional government with delegated and distributed authority for flood management and other responsibilities. The area is subject to river flooding, intense rain storms and an increasing rate of sea level rise. The study identifies mechanisms by which the municipalities make sense of the existing hazards as well as how they design and invest into responses for future risks under conditions of uncertainty. Given the geographic, demographic and socio-economic differences across municipalities in the region, the study found a diverse set of responses in planning regimes in regard to the long-term risks as well as the short-term political pressures that municipalities face. This resulted in a significant variability of planning policies and practices across the region, which could potentially reduce overall regional ability to adapt to change. The paper concludes with a discussion of measures that can be taken to strengthen the regional coordination process

Can Forest Management Strategies Sustain The Development Needs Of The Little Red River Cree First Nation?

In this study, we explore whether projected socio-economic needs of the Little Red River Cree Nation (LRRCN) can be met using the natural resources to which they have access. To answer this question, we employ a dynamic optimization model to assess the capacity of the available forest base to provide for anticipated future needs of the LRRCN. Results for alternative management strategies indicate that decision-makers face significant tradeoffs in deciding an appropriate management strategy for the forestlands they control.boreal forest, First Nations, forest management, sustainability

Choose and focus : Japanese Business Strategies for the 21st Century : [book review]

Other UBCUnreviewedOthe

Health and Intellectual Property Rights: The Dynamics of Coordinated Compliance in the Provision of Pharmaceuticals to the Chinese People

Ilan Vertinsky explores the ways China interprets its international obligations to support the rights of its people to health and affordable basic medicines. He will discuss the various policies introduced to achieve the affordable medicine objectives and examine their effectiveness. He will then examine the apparent conflict between these objectives and China's obligations under the World Trade Organization agreement, Trade-Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to protect intellectual property and explore the extent to which China utilizes available TRIPS flexibilities. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of the political economy of the pharmaceutical sector explaining the dynamics of coordinated compliance in the supply of affordable medicines.Graduate and Postdoctoral StudiesOther UBCUnreviewedFacult

OR/MS Implementation in Valle, Colombia, S. A.: A Profile of a Developing Region

The purpose of the study was to explore the processes of diffusion of management science and operation research managerial technologies into industrial organizations in a developing region. The study focused mainly on the impact of cultural and environmental variables on the process of diffusion. Two complementary strategies of research were employed: (1) A community study of organizations in the region, and (2) A longitudinal case study of implementations of OR/MS. The paper presents a profile of OR/MS implementation and managerial innovation in the region. The implications of environmental and organizational infra-structures as well as profiles of attitudes toward the formation of possible implementation and diffusion strategies are analyzed. In addition an inventory of propositions are offered to form a base for future cross-cultural analysis of implementation processes of managerial innovation.