The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and U.S. Energy Markets

The dynamic mutual relationship between the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon permit price and energy prices in the U.S. is examined. Results show that the RGGI and electricity markets are not closely linked, although the carbon permit price is usually closely interrelated with energy prices. The loose relationship between the RGGI and electricity markets can be explained by the recent low carbon credit demand which stems from the low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions existent in the particular area covered by the RGGI. The low GHG emissions result from fuel switching due to recent low natural gas prices. Unlike the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, natural gas is the key driver of the RGGI system

コールドスプレー法を用いた傾斜機能遮熱コーティングの新構想

要約のみTohoku University小川和洋課

Three Essays in Energy, Environmental and Regional Economics

This dissertation is comprised of three studies on the relationship between energy and environmental issues and the regional economy. The first study presents evidence that electricity influx to the U.S. Northeast increased after the introduction of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon emissions abatement program. Electricity influx means that emissions reductions achieved in the region are offset by increased emissions in other electricity-producing regions, as local generation is replaced with electricity imports. The empirical analysis is conducted using the synthetic control method. Results indicate that electricity imports increased after RGGI's establishment in 2009—with the increase predominantly coming after the emission cap was reduced in 2014—which suggests that leakage is occurring.I then switch to exploring recent new energy development activity. In the second essay, I study a potential negative externality associated with hydraulic fracturing. More specifically, I examine the impact of unconventional drilling on housing prices. A prospective home buyer may want to avoid a place near sites that have been drilled using unconventional drill technologies, since those activities may lead to a variety of negative impacts including noise and underground water contamination. Adopting a hedonic price model, I estimate the avoided cost in two counties, Canadian and Payne, in Oklahoma. However, an environmental pollutant source and housing price may be difficult to explain with linear model, and I apply a semiparametric approach to deal with the possible non-linear relationship. The empirical results are consistent with in terms of physical housing characteristics and locational aspects in all cases, and find only a minimal impact of drilling activity on housing prices in the benchmark models. Further, the semiparametric estimation supports the finding that there is a limited relationship between unconventional drilling and housing prices in these counties.In the third essay, I study a possible positive impact associated with recent energy development. I examine the regional employment change associated with recent energy developments in Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Those three states have experienced a drastic increase in unconventional drilling, further, Kansas and Oklahoma show a rapidly growing wind energy sector. Those two types of relatively new energy development activities could be a beneficial source for employment in rural areas. Considering heterogeneous boom periods in the energy development activities in the three states, I apply a panel fixed effects model. I additionally incorporate a spatial econometrics specification to deal with spatial autocorrelation concerns. The results indicates that energy development activity does increase regional employment, but only for a small subset of industries. Moreover, the agricultural sector is negatively affected by energy development in most cases. In addition, unconventional drilling activity provides a larger positive impact on local employment than does activity for local wind farms.Agricultural Economic

Dynamic Interactions between Carbon and Energy Prices in the U.S. Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Region

Numerous studies have investigated the dynamic interrelationship between carbon emission trading market and energy markets. Previous studies focused on the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme ascertain that carbon market and energy markets are closely attached, and find that electricity market is the main driver of the system. Our research on U.S. Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) using Lag Augmented Vector Autoregression reveals that the RGGI market and electricity market in the region are tied but not strongly, unlike the EU-ETS. This loose relationship between the two markets might be explained by the recent weak carbon credit demand stemming from fuel switching and low electricity demand. Another finding is that natural gas is the main driver of the RGGI system, which is possibly due to from the recent shale gas boom. Keywords: Carbon emission trading; Lag Augmented Vector Autoregression; Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative  JEL Classifications: C32; Q52; Q5

Stretchable, Patch-Type, Wireless, 6-axis Inertial Measurement Unit for Mobile Health Monitoring

Wearable devices which measure and transfer signals from the human body can provide useful biometric data for various biomedical applications. In this paper, we present an implementation of the advanced Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) with wireless communication technology for mobile health monitoring. The device consists of rigid silicon-based components on a flexible/stretchable substrate for applications in epidermal electronic devices to collect precise data from the human body. Using the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) System-on-a-chip (SoC), the device can be miniaturized and portable, and the collected data can be processed with low power consumption. The dimensions of the implemented system are approximately 40 mm × 40 mm × 100 mm. Also, the device can be attached closely to human skin, which results in minimized signal distortion due to body movements or skin deformations. In order to achieve device flexibility and stretch ability, the interconnection wires are designed as serpentine-shaped structures on a stretchable substrate. The previously reported “cut-and-paste” method is utilized to fabricate the device that produces complex, twisty interconnections with thin metal sheets. The implemented patch-type, wireless, 6-axis IMU is expected to have potential in various applications, such as health monitoring, dependency care, and daily lifelogging

Does Al Qaeda Central Still Matter?

El artículo discute si Al Qaeda central es todavía relevante o no. Tras estudiar la actividades de Al Qaeda central cuyo objetivo es provocar la violencia en Afganistán y Pakistán, así como los planes continuos de ataques directos contra los Estados Unidos, el artículo muestra que la capacidad operativa de Al Qaeda es más sólida y fuerte que la que Estados Unidos y otros investigadores y eruditos han anticipado. Además, el apoyo virulento y la contribución Al Qaeda en la Península Arábiga a la red de Al Qaeda muestra que la longevidad de Al Qaeda depende de la relación con sus afiliados. El artículo concluye que, en estas condiciones, Al Qaeda central todavía ocupa un lugar en las discusiones de seguridad global

An empirical investigation of the quality of accounting numbers: A cross-country context

Ohlson (1991) and Feltham and Ohlson (1993) provide two different but equivalent formulations of stock price. First, the theoretical stock price equals book value adjusted for the present value of future expected abnormal earnings. Second, the stock price is a function of book value, abnormal earnings, and operating assets. Based on these models, this study examines the differences in the quality of accounting numbers in six countries: the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), Japan, Canada, France, and Germany. According to the first model, current price-to-book (PB) ratio predicts future return-on-equity (ROE) better than current ROE does. Only the French sample weakly supports the hypothesis. The samples for the US, Canada, and Germany exhibit the dominance of ROE over PB in predicting future ROEs. The second model predicts that goodwill is an increasing function of the persistence of abnormal earnings and the degree of understatement of operating assets. The US and UK samples support the hypotheses. The Japanese, German, and French samples do not support the hypotheses. This study also provides the ranking of the quality of accounting numbers among the six countries in three dimensions of earnings quality: (i) the degree of accounting conservatism, (ii) persistence of earnings, and (iii) the strength of the relationship between unrecorded goodwill and abnormal earnings. An overall rank for each country is provided based on the rank scores in each earnings quality dimension. The UK ranks the highest in each dimension of earnings quality and in overall ranking. This study contributes to the financial statement analysis literature in two ways. First, the results of this study provide insights into the empirical validity of the accounting valuation model proposed by Ohlson (1991) and Feltham and Ohlson (1993). Second, the results show that there are substantial differences in the quality of accounting numbers in different countries. One limitation of this study is that it assumes the quality of accounting numbers for firms in each country to be the same

A Study on the Impact of Unconventional (and Conventional) Drilling on Housing Prices in Central Oklahoma

Shale energy development activity may benefit some aspects of a regional economy (such as increased jobs or tax revenue); however, there may also be negative impacts to the local environment, such as noise and underground water contamination. We study the impact of unconventional drilling activity on housing price in an area of the country with a long history of crude oil production. A prospective home buyer may want to avoid a place near sites that have been drilled using unconventional drill technologies such as horizontal fracturing. Adopting a hedonic price model, we estimate the impact of distance to and density of unconventional drilling on housing prices in two central counties in Oklahoma during the period 2001–2016. We also apply a semiparametric approach to deal with the possibility that the relationship between an environmental pollutant source and housing price is nonlinear. The empirical results are consistent in terms of physical housing characteristics and locational aspects in all cases, with drilling activity having only a minimal effect in benchmark models. Further, the semiparametric estimation results support the findings that drilling activity has only limited impacts on local housing prices

Numerical Analysis of Factors Influencing the Ground Surface Settlement above a Cavity

In this study, ground stability was evaluated through vertical displacement distribution and surface settlement results. In particular, a finite element analysis was conducted considering various factors (namely, cavity type and area, traffic load, pavement thickness, and elastic modulus) that affect a road above a cavity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of pavement layer and traffic load condition on surface settlement according to the cavity shape. Field measurement results were analyzed and compared with the results of previous studies to verify the reliability of the numerical analysis method applied herein. After performing the numerical analysis using the verified method, ground stability was evaluated by analyzing the underground mechanical behavior of a road above a cavity. To this end, the correlations among the vertical displacement distribution, surface settlement, and influencing factors obtained from the analysis results were analyzed. In the numerical analysis, the ground was simulated with a hardening soil model based on the elastoplastic theory. This mechanical soil model can accurately reproduce the behavior of actual ground and can closely represent the mechanical behavior of the soil surrounding a cavity according to the cavity generation. In addition, the elapsed time was not considered when applying a load on the pavement layer, and a uniformly distributed load was applied. Consequently, it was found that, with increasing cavity area and traffic load and decreasing pavement thickness and elastic modulus, the vertical displacement and maximum surface settlement above the cavity increased, and the reduction in ground stability was greater. Furthermore, the reduction in ground stability was greater when the cavity was rectangular than when it was circular