Suchergebnisse

Large emissions of greenhouse gases are expected to cause major environmental problems in the future. European policy makers have therefore declared that they aim to implement cost-efficient and fair policies to reduce carbon emissions. The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the cost of the EU policies for 2020 can be reduced through the inclusion of carbon sequestration as and abatement option while also equity is improved. The assessment is done by numerical calculations using a chance-constrained partial equilibrium model of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and national effort-sharing targets, where forest sequestration is introduced as an uncertain abatement option. Fairness is evaluated by calculation of Gini-coefficients for six equity criteria to policy outcomes. The estimated Gini-coefficients range between 0.11 and 0.32 for the current policy, between 0.16 and 0.66 if sequestration is included and treated as certain, and between 0.19 and 0.38 when uncertainty about sequestration is taken into account and policy-makers wish to meet targets with at least 90 percent probability. The results show that fairness is reduced when sequestration is included and that the impact is larger when sequestration is treated as certain.

While much has been written about the construction of the Guayaquil and Quito railroad, little has been written about the important connection between the subsidiary companies organized by the railroad and the development of the Ecuadorian Corporation, the first modern holding company to be organized in Ecuador. The objective of this article is to present the history of the Ecuadorian Corporation from its beginnings in 1897 with the organization of the Guayaquil and Quito Railway Company to its dissolution in 1986 as a result of a hostile take over by the Rooney Pace corporation. In exploring the connection between the railway company and the Ecuadorian Corporation, emphasis has been placed on the roles of Archer Harman, the promoter of the railway company and its subsidiaries, Evermont Hope Norton, the founder of the Ecuadorian Corporation, and Hope Norton Stevens, his grandson and successor. The methodology for this article was based on an analysis of the unpublished primary sources of the Guayaquil and Quito Railway Company and its subsidiaries and of the Ecuadorian Corporation. The article concludes with an analysis of the important contribution made by the Ecuadorian Corporation to the economic development of Ecuador.

The paper analyses the role of ideas, past experience and crises in the process leading to theoretical and political disputes and the changes of monetary and banking policy in Sweden in 1844/45. It also analyses the role of institutional settings and types of actors involved in the decision-making process. A comparative approach is deployed. Policy changes at the time in the poor and peripheral Sweden is contrasted with the well-known developments in England. The results suggest that current events and past experience were important factors. Purely theoretical considerations played a somewhat lesser role in determining the policy-change. Institutional peculiarities and country characteristics did not significantly alter the core outcomes, but certain specific features. Probably an influx of ideas, policies and experiences from England also influenced policy choices in the case of Sweden.