Suchergebnisse

"This book is about biology and human ecology as they relate to climate change. Let's take it as read that climate change is one of the most urgent and fascinating science-related issues of our time and that you are interested in the subject: for if you were not you would not be reading this now. Indeed, there are many books on climate change but nearly all, other than the voluminous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, tend to focus on a specialist aspect of climate, be it weather, palaeoclimatology, modelling and so forth. Even books relating to biological dimensions of climate change tend to be specialist, with a focus that may relate to agriculture, health or palaeoecology. These are, by and large, excellent value provided that they cover the specialist ground which readers seek. However, the biology of climate change is so broad that the average life-sciences student, or specialist seeking a broader context in which to view their own field, has difficulty in finding a wide-ranging review of the biology and human ecology of climate change. Non-bioscience specialists with an interest in climate change (geologists, geographers, atmospheric chemists, etc.) face a similar problem"--

This paper focuses on the production economics issuessurrounding the vertical separation of infrastructurefrom rail services with regard to passenger operations. Acase study of the British passenger railway privatisationis used. The British approach to rail reform is unique in three aspects. Firstly, the extent of horizontal separation of the former state owned railway, with the former monolithic state enterprise being divided into 104 individual autonomous units. Secondly, with only five years between the government white paper and full implementation of the revised structure, the time-frame over which these structural changes were implemented was very short. Thirdly, the extent of the involvement of the private enterprise in these reforms, with 96 of the autonomous units highlighted above transferred to theprivate sector.The most significant finding is that the size of train operating companies matter. In any vertical separation of the railway therefore, consideration needs to be given to the size (and hence number) of the train service provider(s). Furthermore, it was suggested that all British TOCs were operating on the downward part of the average cost curve i.e. all were too small in terms of trainkilometre production. Therefore, one of the key areas forproductivity gains for TOCs would be in the area of scaleeconomies. Finally, based upon estimates of the price elasticity of infrastructure, it would appear that in the British example the regulator has been reasonably successful in controlling the market power of the monopoly operator, Railtrack.