Explanatory analysis of the key factors in an energy sustainability index

The need to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases in energy generation has led to international and national bodies recommending and encouraging a series of policies and measures to boost so-called green energy generation and achieve sustainability in the energy sector. In order to assess the energy sustainability path of countries worldwide, we first propose a dynamic analysis of an energy sustainability index (ESI) based on the methodology of composite indicators built on a large dataset of 136 heterogeneous countries and 38 variables observed in 3 years (2000, 2005 and 2011). Second, to isolate the influence of socio-demographic and economic characteristics on the energy sustainability of countries, we perform quantile regression with clustered data. Our findings demonstrate that major changes are required in developing countries, where development is pursued mainly through the use of energy sources based on fossil fuels. To ensure access to sustainable energy, policy makers need to consider and improve the key factors according to the ESI’s quantiles. In particular, human development variables (i.e., life expectancy and the percentage of completed secondary schooling attained in the population) and the variables related to civil rights and institutions (e.g., percentage of women in national parliaments) are crucial in promoting energy sustainability. By contrast, high unemployment rates, high congestion costs and the continued use of highly polluting energy sources have the effect of reducing energy sustainability.     

Is the Economy Overheating?

In the last year total output has risen 4 per cent and manufacturing is up 6 per cent. Unemployment has fallen by 400,000. The current account, which was in surplus in the first half of the year, has moved back into deficit. Does this mean that the economy is “over- heating”? In the context of our forecast we examine this issue; we consider how rapidly supply can increase and how fast demand is increasing. We conclude that the growth of output in the last year was initially driven by supply and that, more recently, domestic demand has been growing very rapidly. The emergence of a current account deficit is evidence of excess domestic demand but from now on we expect demand to grow less rapidly. With non-oil supply expanding at a rate in excess of 3 per cent, we forecast steady output growth and little change in either inflation or the current account. In our judgement, the economy, though hot, is not overheating.     

浅谈新时期中国面临的石油危机

伴随着中国经济的高速发展,影响中国战略机遇期的新因素不断增加,其中中国面临的石油危机日益凸显,包括石油供求关系、南海争端、石油进口、运输及战略储备都影响到了我国石油安全。因此,为缓解中国石油市场供需压力、保障能源安全和减少石油对外依存度,我们应该审时度势,建立石油多元化战略、有效应对南海争端、完善石油战略储备体系,保证我国新时期经济更好、更快的发展。     

The US current account,sustainability, and the international monetary system

In this paper, we examine the sources of the US current account imbalances and discuss the role of the international monetary system in enabling the US in carrying such external deficits. There is evidence that the stochastic properties of the US current account are not compatible with the intertemporal national budget constraint. We argue that this is likely to be related to the dominant role of the U.S. dollar as an international reserve asset, which allows the US to meet international demand for safe assets and allows borrowing at very low interest rates. Results from a structural VAR model indicate that temporary shocks dominate the current account in the short run, whereas domestic permanent supply shocks and preference shocks contribute significantly to US current account movements in the long run. To the extent that temporary shocks stem from aggregate demand, stabilizing aggregate demand is important in achieving long-term sustainability in the current account. Finally, the paper discusses the role of the international financial system and the international role of the U.S. dollar in contributing to US external imbalances.     

现行经济适用房制度存在高效实施障碍的原因探析

经济适用房制度是我国住房保障制度的一个重要组成部分,为解决我国中低收入家庭住房问题发挥了重要作用。但是,随着住房改革的不断深入,经济适用房制度在实施中也显现出一些问题,影响了其保障性住房功能的有效发挥。本文浅析了我国现行经济适用房制度不能高效运行的原因,以期通过采取相应的措施以完善经济适用房制度,更好地满足中低收入家庭的基本住房需求。     

The Political Economy of Confucian Harmony: A Xunzian Vision

A global market economy of pure instrumental rationality now poses a growing threat, jeopardizing common citizenship, the capacity for human flourishing, and harmony between humans and nature. Growing skepticism about the sustainability of market capitalism and its moral legitimacy propels us to search for a new economic model in which humans are no longer held hostage to the unbridled pursuit of self‐interest and limitless possession at the expense of the well‐being of others and nature and that attempts to overcome the old conflict between capitalism and socialism. We can call this alternative model “moral economy,” an economic system that reconciles private interests with the public good broadly construed. In this article I reconstruct the Confucian ideal of moral economy by paying close attention to Xunzi's ethical and political thought. Xunzi, one of the key classical Confucians, stipulates the threshold of sufficiency by extending the ruler's care to the most destitute of society as well as giving moral priority to their basic needs without dismissing the foundational importance of individual merit and contribution. Rejecting both pure economic meritocracy and dogmatic egalitarianism, Xunzian Confucianism aims to create a political economy of harmony where various distributive values (need, equality, and merit, among other things) each have their own place.     

Using a Demand System to Estimate Extended Input–Output Multipliers

The interface between household income and expenditure has always been considered to be a key component in the construction of input–output models. However, it can be argued that households are too often treated as if they were just another in dustry in the input–output table. In this paper, we seek to address this problem by developing a new modelling framework in which a micro demand system is used to estim ate the relationship between income and expenditure. This demand system is conjoined with an input–output table for the UK economy, and the system as a whole is solved as a computable general equilibrium model. Comparisons are made between the Jacobian multipliers generated by this model and those derived from a more traditional input–output model in which the income-expenditure linkage is estimated using static coefficients.     

探讨正确引导独立学院学生消费的新方法

适度的消费能够促进国民经济的发展,反之,消费超前或滞后都会给我国经济的发展带来不利影响。大学生作为我国社会的一个庞大群体,其消费理念以及消费水平直接关系到国民经济能否持续、快速、健康的发展,而独立学院的学生作为大学生群体中的特殊成分,由于其家庭背景、校园环境、心理状态以及所受教育等方面的特殊性,使得他们具有自己独特的消费理念,譬如,攀比性消费行为突出、盲目追求品牌性消费行为,本文从独立学院大学生消费现状出发,探讨正确引导独立学院学生消费的新方法。     

A modified Teunter-Syntetos-Babai method for intermittent demand forecasting

Intermittent demand refers to the specific demand pattern with frequent periods of zero demand. It occurs in a variety of industries including industrial equipment, automotive and specialty chemicals. In some industries or some sectors of industry, even majority of products are in intermittent demand pattern. Due to the usually small and highly variable demand sizes, accurate forecasting of intermittent demand has always been challenging.However, accurate forecasting of intermittent demand is critical to the effective inventory management. In this study we present a band new method - modified TSB method for the forecasting of intermittent demand. The proposed method is based on TSB method, and adopts similar strategy, which has been used in mSBA method to update demand interval and demand occurrence probability when current demand is zero. To evaluate the proposed method, 16289 daily demand records from the M5 data set that are identified as intermittent demands according to two criteria, and an empirical data set consisting three years’ monthly demand history of 1718 medicine products are used. The proposed mTSB method achieves the best results on MASE and RMASE among all comparison methods on the M5 data set. On the empirical data set, the study shows that mTSB attains an ME of 0.07, which is the best among six comparison methods. Additionally, on the MSE measurement, mTSB shows a similar result as SES, both of which outperform other methods.     

基于局部调整模型的我国现阶段货币需求函数分析

借鉴成本最小化行为引发的局部调整模型,采用1999年一季度至2005第三季度数据,建立我国短期动态货币需求函数。回归结果显示,实际货币需求的收入弹性为0.166,利率弹性为-0.096,通货膨胀弹性为-0.645,基本符合一般市场经济特质。根据我国近期宏观调控目标进行短期动态预测,得出2005年四季度至2006年四季度名义货币供应量M1季度同比增长率平均为13.2%,表明在当前错综复杂的经济形势下,特别是外部冲击形成空前压力下,我国货币政策应保持谨慎紧缩倾向。     

Input–Output Anatomy of China's Energy Use Changes in the 1980s

China significantly reduced the energy intensity of its economy in the 1980s. In this paper, we conduct a structural decomposition analysis to explain China's energy use changes between 1981 and 1987—the years for which we have input–output tables. We find that China's energy saving during this period came about primarily by changes in how to produce (production technology changes) rather than changes in what to consume (final demand shifts). The driving force of the energy intensity decline was energy efficiency improvements, which were multiplied across the entire economy through inter-industry input–output linkages.     

Eco‐innovation motivations and ecodesign tool implementation in companies in the Nordic textile and information technology sectors

The current sustainability challenges and the required systemic transformation highlight the need for innovations on multiple levels. Ecodesign integrates environmental aspects into product and process design to reduce environmental impacts, whereas eco‐innovation also concerns nontechnological solutions. In this paper, we formulate a model that combines eco‐innovation targets ad mechanisms with sustainability maturity, which also concerns stimuli and barriers faced by companies and ecodesign tools used. The results are based on a questionnaire sent to 902 textile and information technology (IT) companies (N = 104) in the Nordic countries. The tools that Nordic textile and IT companies use in particular are life cycle assessment, type I ecolabel, and carbon footprint. Internal stimuli, especially general willingness, were important for eco‐innovativeness, while legislation and customer demand also pushed companies forward. Specific no‐go barriers were not identified, although increase in costs was a common barrier. The respondents focus often on technological product innovations, but rarely on functional innovation, renting of products, and so forth. This highlights the need to address the availability of the right kind of tools to support a broader suite of innovation that can drive toward the circular economy.     

Do Customers Affect the Value Relevance of Sustainability Reporting? Empirical Evidence on Stakeholder Interdependence

In spite of the strategic importance of sustainability reporting in current business practice and the resulting increase in research on its value relevance, studies accounting for stakeholder interdependence are scarce. On the basis of the instrumental stakeholder theory, we investigate whether customers have an impact on the value relevance of sustainability reporting. Using a sample of US listed firms, we show that the value relevance of sustainability reporting is affected by customer profile differences, thereby confirming customer–shareholder interdependence. However, customer profile effects are only predominant if firms' profitability levels are low and disappear as profitability increases. Overall, our findings provide a more nuanced understanding of the value relevance of sustainability reporting. Therefore, we offer managers fine‐grained guidance for value relevant sustainability reporting. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

An institutional perspective of public policy and network effects in the renewable energy industry: enablers or disablers of entrepreneurial behaviour and innovation?

This study extends theory on the effects of public policies stimulating technology demand and of industry network ties on firm-level entrepreneurial behaviour. We take an institutional perspective to develop a theoretical model examining the mechanisms through which public policies, regulatory uncertainty, and industry network ties affect firm-level entrepreneurial decision-making processes and the ability to introduce highly innovative products and to sustain superior performance. We focus on firm-level effects, which enables the study of the tension between institutional pressures of homogeneity and competitive pressures of heterogeneity for entrepreneurial decision-making processes in environments characterized by policy-induced market demands. To test our hypotheses, we draw on data from a large-scale survey among German renewable energy firms. Our results show that public policies can constrain firm innovativeness and risk-taking behaviour because they steer firms towards a more conservative attitude and discourage the pursuit of high-risk innovation projects. However, firms can counteract these influences and enhance their innovativeness by maintaining close network ties with research associations as we find that innovativeness and a highly innovative product portfolio are key success factors. In summary, these findings provide important implications for the study of public policy effects, industry network ties and entrepreneurial behaviour.     

Integrated thinking and sustainability reporting assurance: International evidence

Recently, there has been increasing demand by stakeholders for firms to demonstrate how they create value within the context of their operating environment. Consequently, a new reporting approach, integrated reporting (IR), was conceptualised with its development linked to the firm's integrated thinking (IT). Yet very little is known about the effects of IT on firms' reporting decisions. Hence, we investigate whether IT influences firms' decision to publish an assured sustainability report. Using an international dataset, we find that IT is positively associated with sustainability reporting assurance. We also find that this association is moderated by the type of legal system such that for firms in code law countries, the IT effects are reduced. Nevertheless, the effects of IT remain strong, indicating that IT is important for reporting decisions regardless of the firm's contextual setting. These findings have implications for policymakers and organisations interested in promoting high-quality sustainability reporting.     

Close the loop: Evidence on the implementation of the circular economy from the Italian fashion industry

Fashion is widely considered as one of the most polluting and destructive industries to the environment and is a resource-intensive industry in which opportunities to reduce environmental impacts abound. By relying on an exploratory approach, this paper features an investigation into the circular economy (CE) practices of four purposefully selected Italian fashion companies. The study endorses the overlooked perspective of the product lifecycle (vis-à-vis the business model perspective), consistent with the key principles of the CE, to provide a comprehensive picture of CE practices implemented. This study engages with the current debate on the relationship between the concepts of sustainability and CE, supporting the idea that there is a beneficial relation between the two. The analysis shows the emergence of categories of CE-related practices as well as CE implementation challenges. The study also provides granular insights into the nature of these challenges that hinder the implementation of CE and demonstrates how they can be turned into sources of competitive advantage. Drawing on this emblematic evidence, we develop a set of theoretical and managerial implications.     

Stakeholder engagement is evolving: Do investors play a main role?

Stakeholder engagement, an essential component of the sustainability reporting strategy, is changing, as is the position of the different stakeholders in this evolving scenario. In this paper, we explore the effect of the pressure that a specific group of stakeholders, investors, exerts on the quality of the sustainability information disclosed. We intend to analyze if there has been a change in the role that investors play in sustainability reporting. By focusing on investors, we are paying attention to one of the less studied groups within the sustainability stakeholders. To this aim, we carry out a content analysis of the sustainability information disclosed by U.S. (shareholder-oriented country) and Spanish (stakeholder-oriented country) listed companies during the years 2013 to 2016. Our findings confirm the key role that investors play in the companies' sustainability strategies, demanding more and better sustainability information. We also find a reduction in the quality of sustainability disclosures in Spanish companies in the last year of our sample, showing a relevant change in this country that has been leading the sustainability rankings until now. The results of this paper are useful to investors and companies, as they reflect the changes on the information they demand, and for regulators, in order to create the adequate legal framework that will improve the quality of reporting. Regulators and financial agents should acknowledge this new scenario to adapt norms and actions accordingly.     

System economics: Overcoming the pitfalls of forecasting models via a multidisciplinary approach

In areas from medicine to climate change to economics, we are faced with huge challenges and a need for accurate forecasts, yet our ability to predict the future has been found wanting. The basic problem is that complex systems such as the atmosphere or the economy can not be reduced to simple mathematical laws and modeled accordingly. The equations in numerical models are therefore only approximations to reality, and are often highly sensitive to external influences and small changes in parameterisation — they can be made to fit past data, but are less good at prediction. Since decisions are usually based on our best models of the future, how can we proceed? This paper draws a comparison between two apparently different fields: biology and economics. In biology, drug development is a highly inefficient and expensive process, which in the past has relied heavily on trial and error. Institutions such as pharmaceutical companies and universities are now radically changing their approach and adopting techniques from the new field of systems biology to integrate information from disparate sources and improve the development process. A similar revolution is required in economics if models are to reflect the nature of human economic activity and provide useful tools for policy makers. We outline the main foundations for a theory of systems economics.     

Rediscovering Deep Time: Sustainability and the Need to Re‐Engage With Multiple Dimensions of Time in Leadership Studies

The current article makes the case that increasing our comfort with and responsiveness to extended timescales—both the far future and past—is essential to leadership against the backdrop of wicked challenges that shape the current and future leadership landscape. We offer a loose structure of four dimensions of time—present, near, distant, and deep time—to help advance this work. We frequently fail in thinking about the broader impact of our leadership work for generations to come and to ground that work in our extended, collective history. In order to think about lasting leadership, and particularly when utilizing a framework of sustainability and peace, it is essential that we critically examine our relationship with time and better incorporate it into our leadership theory, practice, development, and education. We need to further develop our ability to relate to and make sound decisions based on an informed consideration of the futures we wish to create and the deep histories that have led us to where we are now.     

Sustainable Tuna – Can the Marketplace Improve Fishery Management?

Tuna is a major global seafood commodity and thus of significance to retailers in most countries, but especially in countries consuming large quantities of canned tuna such as the United Kingdom, United States and many European countries. Some key species are under heavy fishing pressure, and companies realize that without conservation oriented management their future supplies may be in jeopardy. Sustainable sourcing policies are becoming an integral part of supply chains for seafood products. Under the influence of public opinion bodies such as the media and environmental NGOs, many retailers have adopted seafood sourcing policies in the past decade. The business strategy of any particular company in seeking to support sustainable fishing can vary, but may include the pursuit of market opportunities, protection from damaging publicity and corporate social responsibility commitments. Companies that seek to involve themselves in fishery sustainability issues need to be committed to broad based partnerships with other companies and NGOs, and transparency about all aspects of their decision making, intentions and progress. The sustainable seafood movement has proven persistent and adaptable, and this is increasing the number of retailers seeking sustainable tuna. In a demand driven market economy this growth will surely be influential. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment