Environmental Management Systems and Local Community Perceptions: the Case of Petrochemical Complexes Located in Ports

Most oil refineries and factories producing basic chemical products are located in port areas, with the result that industrial complexes potentially have a strong environmental impact on their area of influence. These externalities result in a loss of welfare for citizens residing in neighbouring areas. In a context of sustainable development, companies must integrate concerns about the natural environment in their business strategy. External stakeholders, as residents, find it difficult to visualize the actions firms take to reduce their environmental impact, and the adoption of voluntary certified environmental management systems (EMSs) acts as a signal indicating the adequate environmental behaviour of these companies. These certifications enable companies to achieve the social legitimacy they need for long‐term survival and competitiveness. In the context of a petrochemical industrial complex located in the port of Castellón (Spain), this paper primarily discusses whether such certifications – which act as signals of firms’ desirable environmental conduct – translate into higher trust in firms and lower risk perception by residents. Contrary to what might be expected, despite the widespread use by companies of voluntary and certified EMSs, the research findings confirm a relatively high citizen perception of risk regarding the industrial complex and a low trust in companies. On the other hand, the findings also show a low trust in the public institutions responsible for authorizing and monitoring firms’ activities and for enforcing possible sanctions in non‐compliance cases. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Accurate minimum capital risk requirements: A comparison of several approaches

In this paper we estimate, for several investment horizons, minimum capital risk requirements for short and long positions, using the unconditional distribution of three daily indexes futures returns and a set of short and long memory stochastic volatility and GARCH-type models. We consider the possibility that errors follow a t-Student distribution in order to capture the kurtosis of the returns’ series. The results suggest that accurate modelling of extreme observations obtained for long and short trading investment positions is possible with an autoregressive stochastic volatility model. Moreover, modelling futures returns with a long memory stochastic volatility model produces, in general, excessive volatility persistence, and consequently, leads to large minimum capital risk requirement estimates. Finally, the models’ predictive ability is assessed with the help of out-of-sample conditional tests.     

Influence of brand equity on the behavioral attitudes of customers: Spanish Tourist Paradores

Quality & Quantity - The objective of this research is to contrast an explanatory model of how brand equity influences the customer’s behaviour and behavioural intentions. It will take...     

Sequential innovation,patent policy,and the dynamics of the replacement effect

I study how patent policy—characterized by patent length and forward protection—affects Research and Development (R&D) dynamics, leadership persistence, and market structure. Firms' R&D investments increase as the patent's expiration date approaches. Through forward protection, followers internalize the leader's replacement effect. In protective systems, this internalization is substantial, reversing Arrow's traditional result: followers invest less than leaders at every moment of the patent's life. I study the policy that maximizes innovative activity. Overly protective policies decrease innovation pace through two mechanisms: delaying firms' investments toward the end of the patent's life and decreasing the number of firms performing R&D.     

Is the emperor wearing new clothes? A social assessment of the European Union 2007–2013 financial framework

ABSTRACT

Over the years, European leaders have proudly waved a social flag as one of the European Union’s (EU) constituent and differentiating elements. This commitment is assessed here through the social footprint of the European 2007–2013 multiannual financial framework among the EU countries and, worldwide, using an extended multiregional input–output model. The focus is on the quantity and the quality of income and jobs generated. We find that well-known differences among its northern, southern and eastern regions threaten the EU’s intentions for high social standards, enabling first- and second-class winners. Core EU countries account for the most of the Funds and, thus, most of the positive economic and social impacts, mainly through spillovers from peripheral regions. Beyond the EU borders, Funds expenditures induce capital compensation boosts in emerging countries not balanced by a similar labor compensation impulse. Indeed, China captures the bulk of low-skilled and temporary employment.     

The Weakness Of Symbolic Boundaries: Handling Exclusion Among Montevideo's Squatters

This article argues that material conditions limit the possibilities of symbolic boundaries becoming markers of social differentiation, especially among stigmatized groups. Using squatter settlements in Montevideo, Uruguay, as a case study, it shows that symbolic boundaries are hard to maintain when material conditions and the stigmas associated with certain places work against them. Based on participant observation and oral histories, it analyses how squatters experienced the move to a squatter settlement. It argues that, for many, it was a way to resist exclusion, a struggle to belong to the city and to protect a social position that structural changes under neoliberalism had put at risk. This required engaging in difficult symbolic boundary work to distinguish themselves from cantegriles—poor and crowded older shantytowns—and claim dignity as workers and residents of a regular city neighbourhood. Yet, there were many limits to their fight in an increasingly fragmented city. Through follow‐up visits to several settlements over almost two decades and tracking the case in the local press, through available survey data and secondary literature, this article offers a longitudinal perspective of symbolic boundaries in the making.     

Routing design for less-than-truckload motor carriers using Ant Colony Optimization

One of the most important challenges that confronts less-than-truckload carriers serving many-to-many distribution networks consists of determining how to consolidate flows of small shipments. The objective is to determine a route for each origin–destination pair that minimizes the cost while still guaranteeing a certain level of service. This research studies different aspects of the problem and provides a metaheuristic algorithm (based on Ant Colony Optimization techniques) capable of solving real-life problems in a reasonable computational time. The viability of the approach has been tested with a real case in Spain and encouraging results have been obtained.     

Uncertainty about Government Policy and Stock Prices

We analyze how changes in government policy affect stock prices. Our general equilibrium model features uncertainty about government policy and a government whose decisions have both economic and noneconomic motives. The model makes numerous empirical predictions. Stock prices should fall at the announcement of a policy change, on average. The price decline should be large if uncertainty about government policy is large, and also if the policy change is preceded by a short or shallow economic downturn. Policy changes should increase volatilities and correlations among stocks. The jump risk premium associated with policy decisions should be positive, on average.     

The relevance of supply shocks for inflation: the spanish case

A retrenchment in crossborder credit is under way, the product of both market forces and political pressure on international banks to lend at home (Economist, 2009). In addition, banks, particularly the largest, have also dramatically expanded their retail banking operations over the past few years (Hirtle and Stiroh, 2007). Our goal, in this article, is to study the effects of default risk on equity returns through bank interest margin management under a renewed focus on domestic retail banking, a trend often attributed to the stability of banking activities. Specifically, this article explores the determinants of optimal bank interest margins based on an option-based firm-theoretical model with multiple sources of structural breaks due to political pressure. The model demonstrates how capital regulation and political pressure on foreign lending return and risk conditions jointly determine the optimal bank interest margin decision. We show that a more stringent capital requirement is linked with lower equity return, but higher default risk of the bank in the return to domestic retail banking. An increased focus on the political pressure on foreign lending return is linked with higher equity return and default risk of the bank. It is also showed that an increased focus on the political pressure on foreign lending risk decreases the bank's equity return and default risk. We conclude that the return to domestic retail banking may be a relatively stable activity when the political pressure decision impacts only the expected risk of the bank's foreign lending and not the return.