Will the EU-ETS instigate airline network reconfigurations?

Based on the proposal of the European Commission on including the aviation sector into the European Emission Trading Scheme, a route-based analysis is conducted simulating cost and demand implications for selected airlines. For a scenario of €20/tons CO₂, results indicate that the EU-ETS CO₂-based cost increases for the airlines are between €9 and €27 per route and therefore, as an individual factor, are not high enough to instigate major route reconfigurations among European airlines.     

Steel rails versus iron rails: Evidence from Canada

The results shown in Fig. 1 and in Table 2 argue that steel was a cost-minimizing choice for railroad companies in Canada by 1870, given the assumed 5:1 ratio of steel rail life to iron rail life and an average life for the latter of less than 7 years. The evidence in Table 1 shows that there was a very rapid switch from iron to steel over the decade from 1870. This evidence suggests that there is no case for the inertia argument in Canada.It is possible that there was inertia in the United States but not in Canada. Such a situation is possible if the two countries were completely separate entities. But this was not the case. First, the Canadian lines were built as through lines to carry freight from the American midwest to the Atlantic seaboard and were thus in direct competition with American lines. The vigorous competition which resulted can be seen in the freightrate situation of the 1870s. Second, there was some degree of overlapping ownership between the Canadian and American railroads. Both the Grand Trunk and the Great Western owned lines in Michigan and in New England, while the Canada Southern was organized under the presidency of Milton Courtwright of Erie, Pennsylvania. At least for those railways with overlapping ownership, it seems reasonable to assume that decisions were made in the same fashion on both sides of the border.     

Marketing and the law

Marketing decisions are particularly vulnerable to legal rulings made in both the courts and the legislatures. The effective management of those legal implications challenges the modern marketing professional. Grasping marketing’s overall legal environment, including its governing case law, regulatory statutes, and future trends, is essential. This review will provide analysis of recent court cases and legislation, with particular emphasis on creatively assisting the marketer’s management of the legal factor.     

Testing two trade models in Latin American agriculture

The Heckscher–Ohlin and Markusen models state that countries export the goods intensive in the use of their relatively abundant factor. Latin American agricultural trade is consistent with both models. The paper then shows that Latin American agricultural trade is primarily explained by country differences in relative factor abundance between countries rather than differences in technology. This finding does not reject the Heckscher–Ohlin model but rejects one of Markusen's models.     

Model specification tests: A simultaneous approach

In econometrics, specification tests have been constructed to verify the validity of one specification at a time. It is argued that most of these tests are not, in general, robust in the presence of other misspecifications, so their application may result in misleading conclusions. Using the Lagrange Multiplier principle we develop efficient test procedures that are capable of testing a number of specifications simultaneously. These tests will ‘confirm’ the validity (or invalidity) of a general model requiring the estimates of the restricted model only. Through an extensive Monte Carlo experiment we study the performance of these tests and some commonly used one-directional tests. We also suggest a Multiple Comparison Procedure, to identify different sources of errors. This, we hope, will lead to a better specification of econometric models.     

Efficient tests for normality,homoscedasticity and serial independence of regression residuals: Monte Carlo Evidence

In this paper we study the performance of various tests for normality (N), homoscedasticity (H) and serial independence (I) of regression residuals (u) under one, two and three directional departures from H_O:u～NHI.     

Routing and refueling plans to minimize travel time in alternative-fuel vehicles

A driver who drives an alternative-fuel vehicle (AFV) from an origin point to a destination point needs to consider how to get there (i.e., the routing problem), when to stop, and how and when to refuel (i.e., the refueling plan). In this study, models and algorithms are proposed that optimize a one-way-trip path such that the total travel time from the origin to the destination is minimized. The travel time consists of the setup time, the refueling time and the driving time. The setup time includes waiting for the AFV to be served at a refueling station and the preparation time of charging the machine. We categorized the problems into two types: (1) the refueling plan problem when the routing decision is given and (2) an integrated problem of routing and refueling. Another axis of categorization is when (1) setup time and refueling times are site-independent and (2) parameters are site-dependent. We propose optimal algorithms for site-independent problems and the integrated problem of routing and refueling planning with site-independent parameters. We also conduct experiments and sensitivity analyses for the site-dependent integrated problems of routing and refueling.     

Impact of introducing eco-innovation measures on productivity in transport sector companies

This paper analyses the impact of factors related to innovation and the environment, among others, on labour productivity in the Spanish transport sector. The methodological approach used in this study was based on the CDM structural model. The main advantage of this model is its capacity to integrate investment in R&D and the generation of knowledge and production innovation. The data used in the estimations were obtained from the Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC) database. PITEC is a panel-type database jointly prepared by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE) and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT). The econometric results show that reducing the environmental impact has a statistically significant and positive effect at all stages of the innovative process and above all on labour productivity of transport firms, where the improvement of labour productivity can reach 8.35% compared to non-ecoinnovative companies. This finding could alert firms in the transport sector to the need to improve their activities by adopting environmentally proactive attitudes.