SCALE ECONOMIES OF THE FRANCHISED BUSES AND FERRIES OF HONG KONG, 1948–1998

The privatization of state transport operators has been driven by empirical discoveries in transport economic research of the constant or even diseconomies of scale of these operators. With reference to public records and official statistics, this paper is an initial attempt to examine the scale economies of and output relationship between major bus and ferry operators in Hong Kong during the period 1948–1998. The two franchised bus and two franchised ferry companies each experienced unique scale effects during different periods and correlated with each other in terms of production. The paper will also discuss the possible reasons for this phenomenon and policy concerns related to this finding.     

Stakeholders' Engagement in Promoting Sustainable Development: Businesses and Urban Forest Carbon

To better understand how businesses' motivation and support for green projects varies by their organizational objectives and characteristics, this study investigates a case of urban forestry carbon credits in a broader context of climate change mitigation efforts. Companies and organizations currently participating in the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) were surveyed regarding their perception of consumers' concerns with climate change, attitudes toward government regulations, factors important to their emission management decisions, and their interest in buying and paying premiums for carbon credits sourced from urban forestry. Statistical analysis of the responses reveals noticeable differences among various types of business organizations. The findings are useful for understanding how businesses respond to different kinds of green products and will help in the development of green product markets. Finally, the results will help in developing effective environmental policies that respond well to businesses' objectives and preferences. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

The Potential Environmental Benefits of Co‐Operative Businesses Within the Climate Change Agenda

The economic benefits of agricultural co‐operatives are well rehearsed and have received significant attention in the literature, especially in regard to the resource efficiencies flowing from collective action that might be absent from investor‐owned firms. This article provides evidence to show how these resource efficiencies might also manifest themselves as environmental advantages, which may not be available through investor‐owned firms due to the different purpose of, and motivation for, business activity. Specifically, the article explores how co‐operative businesses may deliver climate change benefits by examining case studies of alternative co‐operative functions that provide a mix of qualitative and quantitative evidence. Results show that, where co‐operative businesses achieve efficiencies through economies of scale, knowledge and skills transfer, sharing of risks and other means, this can also lead to coincidental reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that may not be achieved if investor‐owned activity prevails. Whilst coincidental at present, the future exploitation of this phenomenon could lead to valuable market advantage or aid sustainable development policy. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Productivity and efficiency dynamics in Indian banking: An input distance function approach incorporating quality of inputs and outputs

Banking technology is typically characterized by multiple inputs and multiple outputs that are associated with various attributes, such as different types of deposits, loans, number of accounts, classes of employees and location of branches. These quality differentials in inputs and outputs are mostly ignored in empirical studies. These omissions make the practical value of productivity studies in organizations like banks questionable because quality is a key component of performance. This paper proposes using hedonic aggregator functions (as a tool of aggregating inputs and outputs with quality attributes) within an input distance function framework and analyzes the impact of banking deregulation on efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) change in the Indian banking industry using panel data for the period 1996–2005. Empirical results indicate that banks have improved their efficiency (from 61% in 1996 to 72% in 2005) during the post‐deregulation period, and the gain in efficiency of state‐owned banks has surpassed that of private banks. Improvement in capital base, as indicated by increased capital adequacy ratio, played an important role in ushering efficiency gain. The return to scale estimate suggests that state‐owned banks are operating far above their efficient scale and cost savings can be obtained by reducing their size of operations. Overall, TFP growth was above 3.5% annually. Both technical progress and technical efficiency change consistently played an important role in shaping TFP growth. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

HOUSEHOLD INCOME PLUS HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTION: THE DISTRIBUTION OF EXTENDED INCOME IN THE U.K.

This paper provides new estimates of the distribution of extended income amongst non-elderly, one-family households in the U.K. by combining household money income data and valuations of household production time. Extended income is substantially more equal than money income and extending the income definition changes income relativities significantly between families with and without earners and between married couple families and singles.     

Socioeconomic predictors of forest use values in the Peruvian Amazon: A potential tool for biodiversity conservation

Conservation is a crisis discipline requiring rapid action with limited funds. This study examines the potential of socioeconomic variables to predict forest use values. If natural resource use can be predicted from socioeconomic data, conservation planners could rapidly identify and focus conservation programs on the sectors of local populations that most intensively utilize local flora and fauna. Families in three communities in the northern Peruvian Amazon were surveyed over a 6-month period. Data were collected on use of flora and fauna from six locally determined use categories (food, medicine and poisons, wood, weavings, adornments, and “other”) in forest types of three age classes (fallow fields—very young forests, young secondary forests, and old secondary forests). Forest use values were the dependant variables calculated in $/ha/year. Socioeconomic variables included: age, education, family size, residence time, land worked, land owned, number of fishing nets, chickens, pigs, cows, and/or mules owned (all proxies for productive assets), and level of ecological knowledge (ability of informants to correctly identify forest species and answer basic questions about their biology). Ordinary least square multiple regressions were run independently for each forest type. Regressions were also run separately for the two most valuable use categories, food and wood. Low R² adjusted values (all < 0.3) reflect the difficulty in predicting human behavior due to confounding variables and complex interactions. Residence time and a household's community of residence were the most significant predictors of forest use values. Households in Vista Alegre, the community with the highest density of people and smallest landholdings per household, extracted the highest value of forest products per hectare. The longer a family stayed in any community the higher the value of forest goods they extracted. If families that lived in an area longest are the most intensive extractors of forest products, they should be a major focus for conservation programming. In addition, the higher value of products extracted from forests by some families may make them more open to strategies seeking to protect long-term viability of the resources they utilize. The importance of residence time also indicates that planners need to account for changes in the resource use patterns of stakeholders over time.     

FAIR TRADE IS COUNTERPRODUCTIVE AND UNFAIR: REJOINDER

This is a rejoinder to a criticism of Henderson (2008 ) by Alastair Smith. Our conclusion is that Henderson's basic case, although nicked around the edges by developments since the original was written, still stands. Moreover, we point out that Smith's criticism of Henderson's point that Fair Trade could help kill the banana actually supports Henderson's case. Finally, Smith's proposed 'trade, not aid' solution does not contradict Henderson (2008 ). Refusing to buy Fair Trade coffee and other products and, instead, buying quality coffee and other products would not reduce trade, as Smith seems to imply.