1,677 research outputs found
Macro-micro feedback links of water management in South Africa : CGE analyses of selected policy regimes
The pressure on an already stressed water situation in South Africa is predicted to increase significantly under climate change, plans for large industrial expansion, observed rapid urbanization, and government programs to provide access to water to millions of previously excluded people. The present study employed a general equilibrium approach to examine the economy-wide impacts of selected macro and water related policy reforms on water use and allocation, rural livelihoods, and the economy at large. The analyses reveal that implicit crop-level water quotas reduce the amount of irrigated land allocated to higher-value horticultural crops and create higher shadow rents for production of lower-value, water-intensive field crops, such as sugarcane and fodder. Accordingly, liberalizing local water allocation in irrigation agriculture is found to work in favor of higher-value crops, and expand agricultural production and exports and farm employment. Allowing for water trade between irrigation and non-agricultural uses fueled by higher competition for water from industrial expansion and urbanization leads to greater water shadow prices for irrigation water with reduced income and employment benefits to rural households and higher gains for non-agricultural households. The analyses show difficult tradeoffs between general economic gains and higher water prices, making irrigation subsidies difficult to justify.Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Water Supply and Systems,Water and Industry,Water Conservation
Optimal Taxation with Endogenous Population Growth and the Risk of Environmental Disaster
This study considers a market economy where firms produce goods from labor and capital and households supply labor, rear children, save in capital, promote their members' health and longevity by health care and derive utility from their consumption and children, without caring of their adult offspring. There is a risk that population growth and capital accumulation trigger a lethal environmental disaster. Optimal policy is solved by a game where the government is the leader and the representative household the follower. The solution yields precautionary taxes on both capital income and health care.Peer reviewe
Uncertain Climate Policy and the Green Paradox
Unintended consequences of announcing a climate policy well in advance of its implementation have been studied in a variety of situations. We show that a phenomenon akin to the so-called “Green-Paradox” holds also when the policy implementation date is uncertain. Governments are compelled, by international and domestic pressure, to demonstrate an intention to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Taking actual steps, such as imposing a carbon tax on fossil energy, is a different matter altogether and depends on a host of political considerations. As a result, economic agents often consider the policy implementation date to be uncertain. We show that in the interim period between the policy announcement and its actual implementation the emission of green-house gases increases vis-à-vis business-as-usual
Current challenges in software solutions for mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomics
This work was in part supported by the PRIME-XS project, grant agreement number 262067, funded by the European Union seventh Framework Programme; The Netherlands Proteomics Centre, embedded in The Netherlands Genomics Initiative; The Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre; and the Centre for Biomedical Genetics (to S.C., B.B. and A.J.R.H); by NIH grants NCRR RR001614 and RR019934 (to the UCSF Mass Spectrometry Facility, director: A.L. Burlingame, P.B.); and by grants from the MRC, CR-UK, BBSRC and Barts and the London Charity (to P.C.
Determination of alpha_s using Jet Rates at LEP with the OPAL detector
Hadronic events produced in e+e- collisions by the LEP collider and recorded
by the OPAL detector were used to form distributions based on the number of
reconstructed jets. The data were collected between 1995 and 2000 and
correspond to energies of 91 GeV, 130-136 GeV and 161-209 GeV. The jet rates
were determined using four different jet-finding algorithms (Cone, JADE, Durham
and Cambridge). The differential two-jet rate and the average jet rate with the
Durham and Cambridge algorithms were used to measure alpha(s) in the LEP energy
range by fitting an expression in which order alpah_2s calculations were
matched to a NLLA prediction and fitted to the data. Combining the measurements
at different centre-of-mass energies, the value of alpha_s (Mz) was determined
to be
alpha(s)(Mz)=0.1177+-0.0006(stat.)+-0.0012$(expt.)+-0.0010(had.)+-0.0032(theo.)
\.Comment: 40 pages, 17 figures, Submitted to Euro. Phys. J.
Colour reconnection in e+e- -> W+W- at sqrt(s) = 189 - 209 GeV
The effects of the final state interaction phenomenon known as colour
reconnection are investigated at centre-of-mass energies in the range sqrt(s) ~
189-209 GeV using the OPAL detector at LEP. Colour reconnection is expected to
affect observables based on charged particles in hadronic decays of W+W-.
Measurements of inclusive charged particle multiplicities, and of their angular
distribution with respect to the four jet axes of the events, are used to test
models of colour reconnection. The data are found to exclude extreme scenarios
of the Sjostrand-Khoze Type I (SK-I) model and are compatible with other
models, both with and without colour reconnection effects. In the context of
the SK-I model, the best agreement with data is obtained for a reconnection
probability of 37%. Assuming no colour reconnection, the charged particle
multiplicity in hadronically decaying W bosons is measured to be (nqqch) =
19.38+-0.05(stat.)+-0.08 (syst.).Comment: 30 pages, 9 figures, Submitted to Euro. Phys. J.
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