Ice(berg) transport costs

Iceberg transport costs are a key ingredient of modern trade and economic geography models. Using detailed information on Boston’s nineteenth-century global ice trade, we show that the cost of shipping the only good that truly melts in transit is not well-proxied by this assumption. Additive cost components account for the largest part of per unit ice(berg) transport costs in practice. Moreover, the physics of the melt process and the practice of insulating the ice in transit meant that shipping ice is subject to economies of scale. This finding supports, from an unexpected historical angle, recent efforts to incorporate more realistic features of the transportation sector in trade and economic geography models

Altitudinal variation in soil organic carbon stock in coniferous subtropical and broadleaf temperate forests in Garhwal Himalaya

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Himalayan zones, with dense forest vegetation, cover a fifth part of India and store a third part of the country reserves of soil organic carbon (SOC). However, the details of altitudinal distribution of these carbon stocks, which are vulnerable to forest management and climate change impacts, are not well known.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This article reports the results of measuring the stocks of SOC along altitudinal gradients. The study was carried out in the coniferous subtropical and broadleaf temperate forests of Garhwal Himalaya. The stocks of SOC were found to be decreasing with altitude: from 185.6 to 160.8 t C ha^-1and from 141.6 to 124.8 t C ha^-1in temperature (<it>Quercus leucotrichophora</it>) and subtropical (<it>Pinus roxburghii</it>) forests, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results of this study lead to conclusion that the ability of soil to stabilize soil organic matter depends negatively on altitude and call for comprehensive theoretical explanation</p

The human capital transition and the role of policy

Along with information and communication technology, infrastructure, and the innovation system, human capital is a key pillar of the knowledge economy with its scope for increasing returns. With this in mind, the purpose of this chapter is to investigate how industrialized economies managed to achieve the transition from low to high levels of human capital. The first phase of the human capital transition was the result of the interaction of supply and demand, triggered by technological change and boosted by the demands for (immaterial) services. The second phase of the human capital transition (i.e., mass education) resulted from enforced legislation and major public investment. The state’s aim to influence children’s beliefs appears to have been a key driver in public investment. Nevertheless, the roles governments played differed according to the developmental status and inherent socioeconomic and political characteristics of their countries. These features of the human capital transition highlight the importance of understanding governments’ incentives and roles in transitions

Premodern debasement: a messy affair

The paper argues that in premodern Europe, the practice of debasement was far more ‘messy’ than research has generally recognised. First, high information costs often prevented the effective control of mint officials who could exploit their resulting autonomy in order to debase coins on their own account. Second, these costs made it impossible to monitor markets closely enough to enforce regulations. Attempts by governments to debase coins by increasing their nominal value therefore ‘worked’ only if they conformed to the market rates of these coins. Finally, high information costs prevented the creation of closed areas where the domestic currency enjoyed a monopoly. The resulting trade in coinage created incentives for governments to issue inferior copies of their neighbour’s coins – a practice that had the same consequences as a debasement – and forced the affected governments to follow suit by debasing their own coinage, too

Over het atmosferische gedrag en de emissie van submicrone verkeersaerosolen

Different processes can influence the perticle size distribution of fresh automobile aerosols. Dispersion, deposition and polydispers coagulation according to Fuchs (1964) are discussed. The monodispers coagulation theory of Davies (1979) and the formula describing the gradient coagulation are extended to polydispers aerosols. Also a critical review is given of the behavious of submicron particles under the influence of the relative humidity and the reentrainment of these particles by tubulence.A survey is given of the electrical aerosolanalyzer and condensation nucleus counter. The control and comparison of these instruments is treated next. After that a literature review of the particle size distributions of traffic aerosols and the emissions which can be calculated from these distributions is presented.The emission in particles/km per vehicle can be derived from the size distribution measurements of aerosols and tracergas concentrations along a road, because the dispersion is known for the tracergas. As the aerosol samples were taken at different distances from the road, with different residence times, the velocity of coagulation and deposition can be deduced. Also one model is used to describe the three processes dispersion, deposition and coagulation. With the measurements along a road an experimental verification of this model was possible.The measured particle size distributions in a tunnel were a steady state concentration. The loss of aerosol bij dispersion, deposition and coagulation is compensated by the traffic emission. With this steady state concentration and the emission by traffic found during the roadexperiments the coagulation constant of submicron particles can be calculated. As a conclusion from these calculations a preference can be given to the theory of DAVIES (1979) above the theory of FUCHS (1964) describing the value of the coagulation constant. With a model that describes the steady state concentration in the tunnel as a function of the emission and removal mechanisms the traffic emission in the tunnel could be calculated.The emissions from the road and tunnel experiments have been evaluated and are in a reasonable agreement. The following emission in particles per vehicle is presented with a variation coefficient between 20% for the bigger particles and 70% for particles of 0.01 μm

Samenvattende resultaten van de CARGO - inventarisatie van arbeidsgezondheidskundig onderzoek in Nederland in 1990

Door de Commissie Arbeidsgezondheidskundig Onderzoek (CARGO) is een inventarisatie uitgevoerd van het Nederlandse arbeidsgezondheidskundig onderzoek. Bijna de helft van het onderzoek vond plaats bij 32 universitaire groepen, ongeveer eenderde gebeurde bij een zestal TNO-instituten en de rest werd gedaan bij 25 BGD-en en andere instellingen. Ongeveer eenderde van het onderzoek betrof chemische factoren. Gelet op de resultaten die momenteel geboekt zijn bij het voorkómen van schade aan de gezondheid door toxische stoffen, vindt CARGO dat het onderzoek naar chemische factoren onverminderd doorgang moet vinden. Al eerder heeft de CARGO 'witte plekken' geconstateerd ten aanzien van beleidsrelevante informatie, biologische factoren, longziekten en huidaandoeningen. Onderzoek naar normstelling, preventie, het overheidsbeleid en de bijsturing daarvan dient te worden uitgebreid. Onderzoeks- en ontwikkelingsinspanning naar toegankelijkheid van het arbeidsproces, de zelfwerkzaamheid van bedrijven, het betrekken van werknemers bij systemen van zelfzorg en door werknemers te gebruiken instrumenten dienen te worden versterkt. Occupational health research in the Netherlands