Carbon management accounting and financial performance: Evidence from the European Union emission trading system

Companies are responding to the effects of climate change by reducing CO₂ emissions as a way of managing stakeholder interests and complying with legal and regulatory requirements. In Europe, the emissions trading system is consolidated as a limiting market and control scheme to support business climate change management through a collaborative relationship between government and industry. This work focuses on the economic accounting field, analysing carbon management accounting and its impact on financial performance in scenarios attached to that trading system. The methodological approach used is quantitative, empirically testing the hypotheses through a multiple regression analysis with a sample of 350 European companies. The results attest to the importance of carbon management accounting (CMA) control and its effects on financial performance. Compared with European emission trading, the results failed to display significant differences in the relationship studied between those that make up this type of market and those that do not.     

Technological innovation and the demand for labor by firms in expansion and recession

ABSTRACT

With firm data from the Spanish Community Innovation Survey (CIS) for the period 2003–2014, we find a positive and significant effect of innovation in the demand for labor when firms introduce product and process innovations in the same time period. The effect of innovation on the demand for labor is countercyclical, higher in the recession, after 2008, than in the expansion, before 2008, but the probability that firms innovate in product and process is counter-cyclical, i.e. lower in the recession. Altogether, the elasticity of the demand for labor to the probability that firms introduce product and process innovations remains stable throughout the sample period, at around 0.035. Innovation contributes to stabilize average employment during the cycle, more so when the innovation is in product, alone or together with process, than when it is only in process. These results are broadly consistent with product and process innovations shifting firms’ demand and production functions upwards, but differentially in expansions (less product market competition) than in contractions (more competition).     

CEO letters: Social license to operate and community involvement in the mining industry

This paper aims to analyse how the discourse of CEO letters and other factors influence community involvement and Social Licence to Operate (SLO) in the mining industry. The analysis is based on qualitative information disclosed in sustainability reports and CEO letters from 32 mining firms. Content analysis was undertaken to obtain data for the study, and then a regression analysis and a multiple correspondence analysis were used to test the hypotheses defined in the study. The results indicate that the CEO discourse influences how a firm expresses the importance of gaining its SLO, the philanthropic activities in which companies become involved and the destinations of the investments in the communities in which they operate. The results also show changes in the discourse between 2011 and 2015, which are, in part, explained by the difficult situation experienced by the sector during this period. The paper contributes to the Corporate Social Responsibility literature by integrating different theories from this field into the SLO framework. The analysis carried out and the results obtained are useful for both CEOs and Sustainability Managers, especially in managing their relationships with the communities where they operate or intend to operate.     

Strategic Moves and Organizational Survival in Turbulent Environments: The Case of Spanish Banks (1983–97)*

abstract The main purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of ‘strategic moves’ (or strategic change) on the likelihood of organizational survival in a population of firms which has undergone radical transformations in its environment. To this end, we propose and test two competitive hypotheses which are the result of two other theoretical perspectives about the consequences of strategic change: the adaptation view (classic strategic management and dynamic capabilities) and the ecological approach. While from the former, in general, it is assumed that strategic change has a positive effect on the likelihood of organizational survival, from the ecological approach, it is frequently argued that attempts at reorganization in general and strategic change in particular tend to be associated with an increase in the likelihood of organizational extinction. The sample used to test the two proposed hypotheses is the Spanish bank population over the period 1983–97. The results confirm the positive and significant effect of strategic moves (or strategic change) on the likelihood of organizational survival, in line with the conclusions of the adaptive perspective and other empirical research carried out in different settings. This paper introduces two important methodological innovations: (a) the definition and measurement of ‘strategic moves’ (or strategic change) by using a new cluster algorithm, the MCLUST; and (b) the control of the non‐observable heterogeneity using panel data models for ‘probit’ regression.     

Financial Constraints for Innovation in Brazil

This paper analyzes the presence of financial constraints for investment in innovation in Brazil. Dynamic investment models are estimated for a panel dataset of 206 Brazilian non-financial firms in the period 1995–2006. Results show that innovation of Brazilian firms is subject to financial constraints in line with previous international evidence. Innovation of Brazilian firms is adversely affected by leverage and also depends on internally generated funds. The models presented incorporate relevant firm characteristics for financial constraints. Our findings suggest the need for further advances at micro- and macroeconomic levels in Brazil to mitigate the observed financial constraints.     

The consumption-real exchange rate anomaly: nontraded goods and distribution services

An empirical analysis of risk sensitivity of supply response is attempted here for seven major field crops in California over a twenty-two year period 1949–70. Two distinct types of risk sensitivity are evidenced by the empirical trend e.g., for crops like alfalfa, sugarbeets and sorghum, where short run adjustment factors are important, the year-to-year acreage changes reflect the negative impact of price and returns risk very strongly. For other crops like rice and barley, where long run factors of adjustment are important, the impact of price changes rather than the variance of prices or returns are more important. This pattern of risk sensitivity has important economic implications for welfare gains resulting from price support and stabilization policies pursued by the federal government.     

The long-run decline in the share of agricultural and food products in international trade: a gravity equation approach to its causes

The objective of this study is to determine the causes of the loss of share of agricultural products and food in international trade. The article compares, using a gravity model, the impact of various factors upon bilateral trade in agricultural products, in manufactures and in total trade, between 1963 and 2000 for a representative sample of 40 countries. The results clearly demonstrate how the low demand elasticity for agricultural products and food, the high degree of protectionism to which they were subjected and their meagre share in intra-industrial trade are the principal causes of their relatively slow growth.     

Looking backward to look forward: water use and economic growth from a long-term perspective

Recent research has examined the relationship between natural resources and economic growth. Considered vitally important, not only for humanity’s well-being but also for the integrity of the ecosystem, the relationship between water use and economic growth has nevertheless traditionally attracted little attention by analysts. This article studies water use trends from 1900 to 2000 throughout the world and their relationship to the main determinants of economic growth. To do this, we first analyse water use trajectories. Second, to proceed with the determinants of water use, we reformulate the Ehrlich and Holdren’s impact, population, affluence, technology (IPAT) equation (1971), decomposing water use trends into changes in economic demands and in water use intensity on the basis of a decomposition analysis. Finally, a simple scenario analysis is conducted, to project future water use trends under different economic, demographic and technological assumptions.

?The empirical evidence shows that economic and population growth have been crucial in explaining the increase in water use over the past 100 years, with significant regional differences. Nevertheless, the decline in water use intensity has been responsible for a significant reduction in the growth of total water use.