A Proposal of an International Environmental Reporting Grid: What Interest for Policymakers,Regulatory Bodies,Companies, and Researchers?: Reply to Discussion of “Mandatory Environmental Disclosures by Companies Complying with IAS/IFRS: The Case of France,Germany and the UK”

This article offers the authors' insights concerning the issues raised by Professor Trevor Wilkins in commentaries on the article “Mandatory environmental disclosures by companies complying with IAS/IFRS: the case of France, Germany, and the UK” (Barbu et al., 2014). As suggested by Professor Wilkins, we demonstrate the utility of the international environmental reporting grid proposed in Barbu et al. (2014, Table 3): (1) for IASB policymakers and other regulatory bodies, (2) for companies to improve their environmental reporting, (3) for further research, and (4) for understanding the economic and financial consequences of IAS/IFRS-compliant environmental information.     

Yet another look at Léon Walras's theory of tâtonnement

Starting with a detailed discussion of the theorem of equivalent redistributions, Part 1 examines the central role played by the distributional neutrality of tâtonnement in Walras's pure theory of exchange. Part 2 extends this discussion to Walras's attempts at reaching a similar result when dealing with the successive versions of his theory of production before 1900. Part 3 contrasts Walras's and Edgeworth's respective technologies of exchange in order to demonstrate that a distributionally neutral tâtonnement is an intrinsic part of Walras's theory of exchange. Finally, and besides briefly summarizing the results, the conclusion develops the crucial connection between the necessity of a converging and distributionally neutral tâtonnement in pure economics with Walras's theories of property and justice.     

Patinkin,Walras and the 'money-in-the-utility-function' tradition

This paper concentrates on Patinkin's use of Walras' model in his attempt at providing a proper theory of the price of money integrated with the theory of relative prices. Patinkin stands as the last major contributor to a Walras-Hicks-Patinkin tradition based on an attempt at introducing money into the agent's utility function. More in Hicks than in Walras' footsteps, Patinkin gives a clear priority to money as a store of value over an assumed function as a means of exchange. It is also shown how confident the profession was in the early 1950s in the ability of general equilibrium to provide theoretical foundations to the neo-classical synthesis. However, the similitudes between the technique used by Walras and Patinkin are only a smokescreen behind which very different intentions are hidden.     

Taming wicked problems: towards a resolution of tourism access to Traditional Owner lands in the Kimberley region,Australia

This paper names and describes the longstanding issue of tourism access to the Kimberley coast region in northwest Australia. Tourism access is a problem because it occurs without appropriate permissions from the Traditional Owners. The granting of access permission is a fundamental component of the local Traditional Owner ontology, or concept of being. Tourism activities cannot be culturally sustainable without appropriate Traditional Owner permissions. We argue that this seemingly simple issue is a “wicked problem” and must be recognised as such to facilitate its “taming” to create a culturally sustainable local tourism industry. The paper first examines the cultural and historical context, establishing a more nuanced understanding of the problem. Framed in Rittel and Webber's definition of a wicked problem, it then describes its complex and intercultural nature, highlighting repeated and continuing efforts and failures by key parties to address it, linked to an ingrained lack of political will. We conclude that operators could take ownership of the wicked problem and contribute to taming it by proactively engaging in a direct relationship with Traditional Owners based on transformational learning. The paper contributes to tourism planning studies, to the concept of the Just Destination and to indigenous tourism understanding.     

Limits to agri-environmental schemes uptake to mitigate human–wildlife conflict: lessons learned from Flamingos in the Camargue,southern France

Agri-environment schemes (AES) favouring the maintenance of hedges were implemented in the Camargue (southern France) as it has previously been proven to reduce the risk of damage caused by Greater Flamingo incursions into rice fields. Given the persistent incursions, we estimated the economic cost of damage from 2007 to 2009, the uptake rate of hedge-related AES and explored the limits of these schemes as a mitigation effort. Semi-structured and key informant interviews, site mapping and field visits were made to verify claims and estimate damage. Number of plants/m² and fertile stems/plant were estimated on 1,498 and 312 grids, respectively, spread over 26 rice fields. Damaged areas of rice fields forayed by flamingos presented from 1.35 to 3.06 t/ha lower yield than undamaged areas. We estimated 228€/ha average loss in forayed fields for a total of 400,000€ in yield loss in 2008. Administrative constraints limited AES and free seedlings distribution, preventing the problem from being addressed at an appropriate scale. The trivial financial support for hedge management relative to more lucrative AES with lower constraints resulted in low uptake rate. We propose that modifications of AES take into account landscape factors over administrative boundaries and that the financial support for AES be scaled up relative to other subsidies in order to address the efforts necessary to achieve landscape changes to reduce human–wildlife conflict.     

R&D Intensity and Corporate Financial Policy: Some International Evidence

This paper presents evidence on the financial policies of firms strongly engaged in research and development activities. By referring to the under-investment paradox, the asset substitution problem, the asset specificity proposition and the information asymmetry literature, we postulate that R&D-intensive firms should adopt specific financial policies. In conformity with our hypotheses, empirical results based on a sample of R&D-intensive and non-R&D firms in four major industrialized countries (Europe, the UK, Japan and the US) show that R&D-intensive firms exhibit significant lower debt and dividend payment levels, but shorter debt maturities and higher cash levels than non-R&D ones.     

INCOMPLETE MARKETS IN INFINITE HORIZON: DEBT CONSTRAINTS VERSUS NODE PRICES1

The general equilibrium model with incomplete markets is here extended to infinite horizon economies populated by a finite number of infinitely lived agents. the crucial issue that divides the infinite horizon setting from the finite horizon setting is in the nature of borrowing constraints, which added to spot constraints, define a plausible budget set for individual agents. the paper relates seven alternative definitions of equilibrium and states corresponding equilibrium existence theorems when assets are one-period and purely financial.     

Politique du logement et lutte de classes au Chili (1970-75)*

To analyse the historical evolution of the building sector in Chile, and the way in which it reflects and affects the social structure as a whole, it is necessary to consider two aspects:

• 1 the building sector, considered as a specific part of the production sphere, a specific system of economic and social interests;
• 2 the building front, where the social practices of the conflicting forces express the needs of the reproduction of the labour force, and the class struggle in the building sector, opposed to speculation and capital accumulation processes.

Before 1970, the capital interests were dominant, strongly organized through the Chilean Building Chamber and its influence on government policy-making, and linked with US imperialism, particularly at the finance level. With the Popular Unity Government, a series of measures expressed the shift to the dominant interests of the working class: nationalization of the main private banks; control of the housing market; organization, control and partial socialization of the building industry; breaking of urban segregation patterns; national agreement on wages policy. The construction front was affected by new forms of class struggle: construction brigades, unemployed brigades, popular planning and, at the same time, new forms of economic and political retaliation by capital. This led first to the employers' strike and then, through the constitution of a capitalist class bloc supported by imperialism, to the coup d'etat, which restored the fullest opportunity for exploitation, speculation, segregation, and the power of the Chilean Building Chamber.