SEIN Environmental Impacts of Business eJournal最新文献

{"title":"Coordinating International Standards: The Formation of the ISO","authors":"J. Yates, Craig N. Murphy","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.962455","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.962455","url":null,"abstract":"In the article on €U“tandardizationÂ€Ý in the 14th edition of the EncyclopA¦dia Britannica, Paul Gough Agnew, the long-time Secretary of the American Standards Association (ASA), argued: In the flow of products from farm, forest, mine, and sea through processing and fabricating plants, and through wholesale and retail markets to the ultimate consumer, most difficulties are met at the transition points€O¢points at which the product passes from department to department within a company, or is sold by one company to another or to an individual. The main function of standards is to facilitate the flow of products through these transition points. Standards are thus both facilitators and integrators. In smoothing out points of difficulty, or €U¢ottlenecks,Â€Ý they provide the evolutionary adjustments which are necessary for industry to keep pace with technical advances. They do this in the individual plant, in particular industries, and in industry at large. They are all the more effective as integrators in that they proceed by simple evolutionary steps, albeit inconspicuously.2 Albeit inconspicuous, standard setting has been among the nuts and bolts of globalizing industrial capitalism since its beginning, assuring that things needing to work together fit from product to product, industry to industry, and country to country. The foci of the first two of the now 229 €U´echnical committeesÂ€Ý of the non-specialized international standards organizations that emerged after the two world wars€O´he interwar International Standards Association [ISA] and the post-World War II International Organization for Standardization [ISO]€Oire iconic: €U“crew ThreadsÂ€Ý and €U‚olts, Nuts and Accessories.Â€Ý Over the past two decades, voluntary standardization processes, invented by turn-of-the-twentieth-century engineers working in national and international technical committees, have increasingly been 1 We would like to thank Madame Beatrice Frey at ISO for her help in providing us access to original documents from UNSCC and ISO, and Stacy Leistner at ANSI for his help in providing access to the minutes from AESC and ASA meetings. 2 Quoted as epigraph of Dickson Reck, ed., National Standards in a Modern Economy, (New York, 1956), v. 3 applied to issues that have little in common with those of fitting one mechanical part to another, such as work processes (ISO 9000), environmental pollution (ISO 14,000), and human rights (SA 8000 and the planned ISO 26000).","PeriodicalId":219371,"journal":{"name":"SEIN Environmental Impacts of Business eJournal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132444973","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sulfur Dioxide Allowance Trading and Technological Progress","authors":"Surender Kumar","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.951141","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.951141","url":null,"abstract":"This study estimates allowance price induced technological progress using directional output distance function for a panel data of 80 plants of US fossil fuelled electricity generating industry over the period 1995 to 2001. This application yields several important insights. First, we observe the presence of larger allowance price induced technical change effects in the plants that participated in allowance trading in comparison to the other plants. This supports the argument that emission permits spur higher technological advancements in comparison to performance based technological standards. Second, the magnitude of output bias arising from exogenous forces is greater than the output bias arising from allowance prices. Third and finally, the estimates of elasticity of substitution show that over the period of time further reduction in SO2 emissions is becoming costlier.","PeriodicalId":219371,"journal":{"name":"SEIN Environmental Impacts of Business eJournal","volume":"61 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114752087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Intergenerational Equity in Natural Resource Extraction: Rhetoric or Rationality?","authors":"T. Kowal","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.961767","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.961767","url":null,"abstract":"Whether we would rather live in a world that takes a more responsible ecological approach is a moot point. Whether we like it or not, the world we have is the world we inherited. Judging by the frenzy of growth in the world market, future generations might start to bear some heavy burdens due to our choices with regards to natural resources. The problem is that, while we may lament this state of affairs, it is perhaps not in our nature to change our course, at least in our private choices. The market works on economic principles, and these principles are based upon the innate and irrepressible human tendency to maximize his wealth. Only if mankind shared the norm that sustainability and intergenerational equity are of utmost value could the market effect a change in extraction behaviors. This paper explores the ways in which norms inform our decision-making, and how they are still highly useful today, since we still suffer from an incomplete data set from which to make complex ecological decisions. Logging and mining (renewable and nonrenewable resources) both illustrate the inability of industry to take stock of intergenerational equity. Although the arguments in favor of taking up the cause of intergenerational equity are, at bottom, rhetorical, they seem to strike a chord with us. The problem that is left, then, is how to take what we believe to be right, and incorporate that value into the economics of natural resources extraction. That is, how can we rationalize the rhetoric?","PeriodicalId":219371,"journal":{"name":"SEIN Environmental Impacts of Business eJournal","volume":"54 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114482404","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ownership: Evolution and Regulation","authors":"J. Franks, C. Mayer, Stefano Rossi","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.354381","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.354381","url":null,"abstract":"This article is the first study of long-run evolution of investor protection and corporate ownership in the United Kingdom over the twentieth century. Formal investor protection emerged only in the second half of the century. We assess the influence of investor protection on ownership by comparing cross-sections of firms at different times in the century and the evolution of firms incorporating at different stages of the century. Investor protection had little impact on dispersion of ownership: even in the absence of investor protection, rates of dispersion of ownership were high, associated primarily with mergers. Preliminary evidence suggests that ownership dispersion in the United Kingdom relied more on informal relations of trust than on formal investor protection.","PeriodicalId":219371,"journal":{"name":"SEIN Environmental Impacts of Business eJournal","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114546750","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Does it Really Pay to Be Green? Determinants and Consequences of Proactive Environmental Strategies","authors":"Peter M. Clarkson, Yue Li, G. Richardson, Florin P. Vasvari","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.955890","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.955890","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines what factors affect firms' decisions to adopt a proactive environmental strategy and whether pursuing proactive environmental strategies leads to improved financial performance. Using longitudinal data from 1990 to 2003 for the four most polluting industries in the US (Pulp & Paper, Chemical, Oil & Gas, and Metals & Mining), this research empirically models the causal relations between firms' environmental performance and their financial resources and management capability. Our results show that positive (negative) changes in firms' financial resources in the prior periods are followed by significant improvements (declines) in firm's relative environmental performance in the subsequent periods. In addition, we also find that significant improvements (declines) in environmental performance in the prior periods can lead to improvements (declines) in financial performance in the subsequent periods after controlling for the impact of Granger causality. Finally, 3SLS analysis suggests that the positive association between environmental performance and financial performance is robust. Overall, our results are consistent with predictions of the resource-based view of the firm and indicate that although becoming \"green\" is associated with improvement in firm performance, such a strategy cannot be easily mimicked by all firms.","PeriodicalId":219371,"journal":{"name":"SEIN Environmental Impacts of Business eJournal","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116837668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From BAT (Best Available Technique) to BCAT (Best Combination of Available Techniques)","authors":"Thierry Bréchet, Henry Tulkens","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.970316","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.970316","url":null,"abstract":"Technological choices are multi-dimensional and thus one needs a multidimensional methodology to identify best available techniques. Moreover, in the presence of environmental externalities generated by productive activities, ‘best’ available techniques should be best from Society’s point of view, not only in terms of private interests. In this paper we develop a comprehensive modeling tool, based on methodologies appropriate to serve these two purposes, namely linear programming and internalization of external costs. We conclude that in this context there is in general not a single best available technique (BAT), but well a best combination of available techniques to be used (BCAT). We take a fictitious but plausible numerical example in the lime industry. For a hypothetical plant that has to meet a given demand, we build an original technical economic model within which two scenarios are considered : minimizing the private costs and minimizing the generalized costs (private costs plus external costs). In the first case, only the cheapest fuel is used in all kilns. But in the second case, where the environmental external costs are included, fuel switches occur and cleaner techniques are used. Estending the analysis to the choice of kilns, we find that the socially best combination of available techniques (S-BCAT) is not a fixed one : it varies as a function of the external costs. We therefore trace in a single diagram the whole profile of these best techniques as successive solutions of our linear programs. We conclude by stressing that external cost internallization does influence not only the choice of techniques, but also their appropriate use. Moreover, local environmental conditions play a major role in that choice and in determining that use.","PeriodicalId":219371,"journal":{"name":"SEIN Environmental Impacts of Business eJournal","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127719491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Costs of Alternative Environmental Policy Instruments in the Presence of Industry Compensation Requirements","authors":"A. Bovenberg, L. Goulder, Mark R. Jacobsen","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.956847","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.956847","url":null,"abstract":"A suture anchor is described having a central shaft and at least one outwardly extending longitudinal rib. The ribs may have bone engaging elements such as threads or barbs on their outer surfaces. A bone boring tool having more than one set of sharpened cutting edges is described which creates a non-circular hole in bone approximating the anchor cross section geometry. The suture anchor is inserted into the shaped hole in bone and is rotated about its axis by the driver to engage the ribs with the bone.","PeriodicalId":219371,"journal":{"name":"SEIN Environmental Impacts of Business eJournal","volume":"95 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114688913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Trade, Standards, and Poverty: Evidence from Senegal","authors":"M. Maertens, J. Swinnen","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.950485","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.950485","url":null,"abstract":"Summary In the debate on trade and poverty it is argued that standards act as trade barriers and cause marginalization of the poor. This paper quantifies income and poverty effects of high-standards trade and integrates labor market effects, by using company and household survey data from the vegetable export chain in Senegal. We find that exports grew sharply despite increasing standards, contributing importantly to rural incomes and poverty reduction. Tightening standards induced a shift from smallholder contract farming to integrated estate production, altering the mechanism through which poor households benefit: through labor markets instead of product markets.","PeriodicalId":219371,"journal":{"name":"SEIN Environmental Impacts of Business eJournal","volume":"40 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127091670","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Closer Look at Business Education: Accounting","authors":"Rich Leimsider","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.941447","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.941447","url":null,"abstract":"Accounting fraud became a mainstream public concern in the wake of the numerous scandals in recent years. Consequently, many business programs around the country reconsidered the manner in which social, environmental, and ethical issues were integrated into accounting curricula. Our analysis identifies two principal types of new curriculum - those that emphasize legal, governance, and ethical considerations, and those that are arguably more forward-looking and value-creating, including topics such as full cost accounting, differential accounting standards, and social auditing.","PeriodicalId":219371,"journal":{"name":"SEIN Environmental Impacts of Business eJournal","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115283889","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Grading Estimates of the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulation","authors":"W. Harrington","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.937357","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.937357","url":null,"abstract":"I review two recent estimates of the costs and, in one case, benefits of federal regulation. The first is found in the Office of Management and Budget’s 2005 report to Congress on the benefits and costs of federal regulations (OMB 2005b). OMB estimates annual benefits in 2004 to be $70 to $277 billion and costs to be $34 to $39 billion, but these estimates omit a great deal; the cost estimate, in particular, is generally acknowledged to be an underestimate. The other estimate, written by Mark Crain (Crain 2005) and sponsored by the Small Business Administration, uses a different approach and generates an estimate of $1 trillion. Crain also finds that the burden on small firms is much greater than the burden on large firms. In the final section of the paper, I also review a recent comparison, presented in the 2005 report to Congress, of ex ante and ex post estimates of the benefits and costs of individual regulations. I find the Crain report to be deeply problematic and the OMB’s ex ante/ex post comparison slightly less so.","PeriodicalId":219371,"journal":{"name":"SEIN Environmental Impacts of Business eJournal","volume":"127 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131432869","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}