The Banking Crisis, Banking Policy Regimes and the Value of a Bank

This paper studies the value of a bank under different banking policy regimes. As banks run into financial distress, authorities in different countries have used different approaches to deal with the crisis. The Nordic countries provide examples of different policy approaches. The results show that the uncertainty over the banking policy regime and changes in this uncertainty can have a major impact on the value dynamics of bank shares. The model produces moral hazard problems both before and after public sector intervention. On the other hand, bank support can increase the original shareholders' incentive to inject new capital into the bank. The model also implies that the government may have an incentive to cheat the bank's shareholders in order to ensure more capital injections from them.banking crisis; banking policy regime; bank support

Input price risk and optimal timing of energy investment: choice between fossil- and biofuels

We consider energy investment, when a choice has to be made between fossil fuel and biomass fired production technologies. A dynamic model is presented to illustrate the effect of the different degrees of input price uncertainty on the choice of technology and the timing of the investment. It is shown that when the choice of technology is irreversible, it may be optimal to postpone the investment even if it would otherwise be optimal to invest in one or both of the plant types. We provide a numerical example based on cost estimates of two different power plant types.irreversible investment; price uncertainty; biomass; real options

Uncertainty and stepwise investment

We analyze the optimal investment strategy of a firm that can complete a project either in one stage at a single freely chosen time point or in incremental steps at distinct time points. The presence of economies of scale gives rise to the following trade-off: lumpy investment has a lower total cost, but stepwise investment gives more flexibility by letting the firm choose the timing individually for each stage. Our main question is how uncertainty in market development affects this trade-off. The answer is unambiguous and in contrast with a conventional real-options intuition: higher uncertainty makes the single-stage investment more attractive relative to the more flexible stepwise investment strategy

On investment, uncertainty, and strategic interaction with applications in energy markets

The thesis presents dynamic models on investment under uncertainty with the focus on strategic interaction and energy market applications. The uncertainty is modelled using stochastic processes as state variables. The specific questions analyzed include the effect of technological and revenue related uncertainties on the optimal timing of investment, the irreversibility in the choice between alternative investment projects with different degrees of uncertainty, and the effect of strategic interaction on the initiating of discrete investment projects, on the abandonment of a project, and on incremental capacity investments. The main methodological feature is the incorporation of game theoretic concepts in the theory of investment. It is argued that such an approach is often desirable in terms of real applications, because many industries are characterized by both uncertainty and strategic interaction between the firms. Besides extending the theory of investment, this line of work may be seen as an extension of the theory of industrial organization towards the direction that views market stability as one of the factors explaining rational behaviour of the firms.reviewe

Some Female Types in the Novels of Emile Zola

The purpose of this thesis is to attempt to group under certain classifications some of the most interested and typical of the many female characters that appear in Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series. For this study thirteen novels published between 1871-1893 and including all the major works of Les Rougon-Macquart series have been chosen. In background and choice of character they include the great city, the village and the farm, the aristocracy, the bourgeoisie and the peasant. In this way it is hoped to present some of the most striking and unusual women who illustrate this great panorama of the Second Empire

The impact of aerosols on the sensible and latent heat fluxes in Beijing

In recent decades, rapid urbanization together with industrialization has led to an increase in anthropogenic emissions, resulting in high air pollution concentrations and poor air quality particularly in developing countries, such as in China. Due to both the enhanced environmental and severe public health risks poor air quality is causing and the climate impacts of aerosols, it is of great interest to study and understand aerosol particles and their impact on our surroundings. Aerosols affect the radiative properties of the atmosphere and the surface energy balance. The impact of aerosols on the surface radiative fluxes of the urban surface energy balance is widely known, but the impact on the turbulent energy fluxes, which are important components in the energy balance, has until now remained unclear. To extend the knowledge of aerosol impacts on all the energy balance components, a simple urban land surface model (SUEWS) during the period of 2006-2009 is used, together with aerosol data, Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), received from an AERONET station located in Beijing. With the use of commonly measured meteorological variables together with parameters defined for the study area of 1 km radius around a meteorological tower, the components of the urban surface energy balance are simulated by the model. For further data analysis, the data are divided into thermal seasons and pollutant categories according to the available AOD-data. Extreme polluted conditions are achieved during 24 % for the time of available AOD-data, additionally showing relatively less situations with poor air quality (8 %) in winter compared to 27 % observed in summer. The aim of this study is to analyse how much aerosol particles can modify the different surface energy balance components, particularly focusing on the turbulent fluxes. The model is evaluated against observed turbulent fluxes in the same tower, showing an overestimation of the sensible heat flux and an underestimation and a better model performance of the latent heat flux. Still, the diurnal behaviour of the fluxes is shown to be well reproduced by the model. The behaviour of the modelled components is further investigated, showing a clear monthly variation for almost all the fluxes contributing to the surface energy balance. The behaviour of the total energy balance is in general controlled by the wet (occurring from May to October) and dry periods, distinguishing the climate in Beijing. The sensible heat flux is the dominant flux in March, accounting for 59 % of the available energy, whereas during the wet periods, higher portion of the available energy is consumed by the turbulent latent heat flux (61 % in August). Adding the effect of aerosols, the results clearly show how the net radiative flux is decreased in poor air quality conditions, giving differences of 138 W/m2 in the median flux due to aerosol loading in the atmosphere. The main finding of this study is that aerosols also influence the turbulent fluxes, with largest aerosol impact on the sensible heat flux occurring during thermal spring (66 W/m2 difference between clean and polluted air conditions). Likewise, in summer, when the latent heat flux is the largest contributor for consuming the available energy, the influence of aerosols is most visible (25 W/m2 difference). This study highlights the importance of maintaining measurements of aerosol concentrations and characteristics of the pollutants over urban areas due to their influence not only on the radiative fluxes, but all the components of the surface energy balance, which can further alter the water circulation and give rise to other environmental risks. These findings can therefore be used in urban planning and issues related to water management and air pollution regulations.Antropogena utsläpp har ökat i och med snabb urbanisering och industrialisering, vilket har skett under de senaste årtionden och gett upphov till dålig luftkvalitet, speciellt i utvecklingsländer, så som in Kina. Dålig luftkvalitet ökar både miljörisker samt orsakar allmänna hälsoproblem, vilket tillsammans med klimatinverkan av aerosoler ökar intresset hos forskare att förstå aerosol partiklar samt hur de påverkar vår omgivning. Ett välkänt fenomen är hur aerosoler påverkar nettostrålningen vid markytan, medan oklarheter uppstår gällande hur de inverkar på de turbulenta energitermerna, som består av sensibla och latenta värmeflöden. Med hjälp av en enkel modell (SUEWS), som kan simulera de olika energitermerna i urbana miljöer, tillsammans med aerosoldata (Aerosol Optical Depth, AOD) från Beijing, försöker jag i min studie utvidga kunskapen gällande aerosolernas inverkan på alla energitermer. Modellen är kompetent att simulera dessa termer med hjälp av allmänna meteorologiska data för forskningsperioden 2006–2009, samt parametrar som på det bästa möjliga sättet motsvarar forskningsområdet, som omfattar en cirkel med 1 km radie runt det meteorologiska tornet i Beijing. För vidare dataanalys delas data i termiska årstider samt i föroreningskategorier enligt tillgänglig AOD-data. Förhållanden med extremt förorenad luft påträffas för 24 % av studietiden. Graden av hur förorenad luften är varierar per årstid, då förhållanden med dålig luftkvalitet förekommer till endast 8 % på vintern jämfört med 27 % under sommaren. Syftet med mitt arbete är därmed att analysera till hur stor grad aerosolpartiklar påverkar de olika energitermerna i markytans energibalans, med speciell betoning gällande de turbulenta termerna. Modellen utvärderas med hjälp av observerade värden av turbulenta energitermerna erhållna av mätningar vid tornet i Beijing. Fastän modellen tydligt övervärderar sensibla värmeflödet och undervärderar latenta värmeflödet, visar det sig att modellen dock klarar av att återskapa dygnsvariationen av energitermerna väl. Beteendet av de simulerade energitermerna undersöks, vilket även framhäver hur termerna tydligt varierar per månad. Klimatet i Beijing, kännetecknat med torr (november till april)- och regnperioder (maj till oktober), bestämmer i stort sett hur de olika turbulenta termerna förhåller sig till varandra. Förnimbara värmeflödet dominerar i mars och står för 59 % av energin som finns tillgängligt, medan en större del av energin förbrukas av latenta värmeflödet under regnperioder (61 % i augusti). Då aerosolernas inverkan tas i beaktan, visar resultaten av denna studie hur nettostrålningen tydligt minskar vid sämre luftförhållanden (maximalt 138 W/m2 skillnad mellan rena och förorenade förhållanden). Huvudforskningsresultatet är dock att aerosolerna även tydligt påverkar de turbulenta energitermerna. Aerosoler påverkar sensibla värmeflödet mest under våren (66 W/m2 skillnad) då även största delen av energin som är tillgängligt förbrukas av samma term. Samma trend påträffas även hos latenta värmeflödet, där aerosolernas inverkan är tydligast på sommaren (25 W/m2 skillnad). Studien framhäver hur viktigt det är att bibehålla information gällande aerosolkoncentrationer i luften samt deras egenskaper i urbana miljöer, eftersom aerosoler inte bara påverkar nettostrålningen, men också alla andra termer i markytans energibalans och kan därmed vidare påverka vattencirkulationen samt öka andra miljörisker i tättbefolkade urbana områden. Resultaten av denna studie kan ytterligare användas som hjälp i urban planering samt ärenden gällande vattenförvaltning och reglering av luftutsläpp

Traffic effects of locating grocery stores: - environmental and economic effects of locating shopping centres outside of the C.B.D.

Recent policy in Finland regarding retail trade for daily products has been to invest in large shopping centres and hypermarkets located outside main city areas, often close to traffic interchanges. This has led to a number of problems. Small local shops located in the city have had difficulties in surviving. Often these large shopping areas can only be reached by car, which causes problems for those without private transportation possibilities. For retailers, however, these centres represent a logistically efficient way to operate with respect to both goods supply and customer demand. Thus, the traffic effects and the economic and environmental efficiency of such strategies can be questioned. Is it from the vantage point of society better to make longer but less frequent trips compared to the older pattern of frequent local trips? This study examined different locational alternatives: large shopping areas outside the city versus shops located at various places throughout the city and an alternative, where shopping is partly done by electronic commerce with home deliveries. The aim was to measure and compare the traffic effects of these approaches. As a result it was found out that locating four new hypermarkets in the region would increase the yearly mileage of private car traffic and goods transport by 6 percent. The land-use alternative, where there were no hypermarkets, would decrease the yearly mileage by 25 percent and the land-use alternative of home shopping would decrease the yearly mileage by 17 percent. &nbsp