Scale,Technique and Composition Effects in Manufacturing SO<Subscript>2</Subscript> Emissions

Combining two data sources on emissions with value-added and employment data, this paper constructs six data bases on sulfur dioxide (SO₂) intensities that vary across countries, sectors and years. This allows us to perform a growth decomposition exercise where the change in world manufacturing emissions is decomposed into scale, composition and technique effects. The sample covers the period 1990–2000, and includes 62 countries that account for 76% of world-wide emissions. While manufacturing activity has increased by a rough 10% (scale effect), we estimate that emissions have fallen by about 10%, thanks to the adoption of cleaner production techniques (the technique effect) and a small shift towards cleaner industries (between-sector effect). As output and productivity gains have been biased towards large emerging countries like China and India, which are both clean in terms of emissions per unit labor and dirty in terms of emissions per dollar, the sign and magnitude of the between-country effect depends on the choice regarding the scaling factor ( − 2% for employment,  + 25% for value-added, with a corresponding adjustment of the technique effect). The paper also shows that these estimates are robust to changes in aggregation across entities (regions or countries) and across industries, and that composition changes are correlated with changes in prices and trade intensities.

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Nudging using the ‘dish of the day’ strategy does not work for plant‐based meals in a Danish sample of adolescent and older people

Adequate nutrition is an important factor for health and well‐being in adolescents and later years. Fruits and vegetables are part of a healthy diet as important source of nutrients, but their intakes are lower than the recommendations in European countries. This study aimed to compare the choices made by adolescents and older people between three similar dishes, one based on meat, one on fish and one on vegetables, in two different conditions: a neutral (control) situation and an intervention situation in which the vegetable‐based meal was designated ‘dish of the day’. The comparisons of choices will be made within the same age group (adolescents in the control group vs. adolescents in the intervention group; older people in the control group vs. older people in the intervention group). A quasi‐randomised field trial design was used with a sample of 94 adolescents (aged 10–19 years) and 97 older people (aged ≥65 years), who were randomly allocated to intervention or control groups. In the control situation participants were asked to choose between three similar meals, one meat, one fish and one the VeggiEat dish. In the intervention, the VeggiEat dish was labelled the ‘Dish of the day’. All dishes were provided free of charge, displayed side by side in the same order and served in same portions. The dish choices showed no differences between the control and intervention groups in both age groups, and no differences were found among the other variables analysed. This nudging strategy, ‘dish of the day’, seems not to work for the Danish sample of adolescents and older people. Future nudging studies with these populations are needed in order to find the best strategy to move adolescents' and older people's food habits toward a healthier pattern.     

Visual and Interactive Comparative Analysis of Individual Opinions: A Group Decision Support Tool

This study proposes the use of the visual, interactive and comparative analysis (VICA) methodology to encourage consensus-building in decision making processes involving multiple criteria and multiple participants working in cooperative groups. The tool was applied to the Electre TRI (VICA-Electre TRI) method which utilises comparative analyses plus visuals and the interactive exchange of individuals’ opinions within the group. It aims at reducing complexity, presenting updates about each member’s progress in the decision making process and fostering the search for consensus. The methodology was implemented in a spreadsheet format (Microsoft Excel) to make it as accessible as possible while also facilitating its acceptance and efficient use within organizations.     

Pricing Participating Inflation Retirement Funds Through Option Modeling and Copulas

Abstract

Pension plans and life insurances offering minimum performance guarantees are very common worldwide. In the Brazilian market, the customers of a common type of defined contribution plan have the right to receive, over their savings, the positive difference between the return of a specified investment fund, usually a fixed income fund, and the minimum guaranteed rate, commonly defined as the composition of a fixed interest rate and a floating inflation rate. This instrument can be characterized as an option to exchange one asset, the minimum guaranteed rate, for another, the return of the specified investment fund. In this paper we provide a closed formula to evaluate this liability that depends on two stochastic rates assuming bivariate normality. We also explore the use of copulas for the modeling of the dependence structure and price the options using Monte Carlo simulation to compare the effects of the copula specification in their values. An application with real data is provided. The model makes use of a one-factor Vasicek framework for the term structures of interest rate and inflation rate.     

Has Distance Died? Evidence from a Panel Gravity Model

The estimated coefficient of distance on the volume of tradeis generally found to increase rather than decrease throughtime using the traditional gravity model of trade. This distancepuzzle proved robust to several ad hoc versions of the modelusing data for 1962–96 for a large sample of 130 countries.The introduction of an "augmented" barrier to trade functionremoves the paradox, yielding a decline in the estimate of theelasticity of trade to distance of about 11 percent over the35-year period for the whole sample. However, the "death ofdistance" is shown to be largely confined to bilateral tradebetween rich countries, with poor countries becoming marginalized.     

Evaluating the Technical Provisions for Traditional Brazilian Annuity Plans: Continuous-Time Stochastic Approach Based on Solvency Principles

This article presents an approach for evaluating the liabilities of traditional Brazilian annuity plans, using a continuous-time stochastic approach based on modern solvency principles. The technical provisions are obtained by means of conditional expectation, under a real-world measure and considering the peculiar characteristics of each plan and the financial guarantees and profit participations (bonus and dividend plans) embedded in the annuity plans. We assume that policyholder behavior is not optimal, but we also illustrate a calculation of provision assuming optimal policyholder behavior to show the differences between both assumptions. In this article all explicit provisions formulas are derived, and several relevant conclusions about the values of these provisions are discussed.     

Pioneers for Profit: St. Petersburg Entrepreneurs in Services

Russian private entrepreneurs in services are truly pioneering,because many services— especially trade, financial services,and most business and consumer services—are poorly developed.This article uses 1992 and 1993 survey data from St. Petersburgto assess the characteristics of these entrepreneurs, theirfirms, and the markets in which they deal. Evaluation of thefirms' performance establishes how well they are doing and providesinsight into the determinants of success. Their performancewas surprisingly good and can be attributed to several factors,including the existence of a substantial gap between the desiredand the actual levels of many services and the high level ofeducation and motivation of the entrepreneurs themselves. Policypriorities are to achieve macroeconomic stability, a transparentlegal framework and simplified regulations, a well-designedtax code, further privatization of real estate, and better accessto finance. Direct assistance programs would be useful in providinginformation, counseling, and financing to small and medium-sizefirms.     

Voluntary Export Restraints and Resource Allocation in Exporting Countries

This article analyzes the resource implications of voluntaryexport restraints (VERs) for exporting countries. A simple analyticalmethod is used to demonstrate that, by reducing the marginalrevenue of its factors of production, a VER causes an industryin the exporting country to contract, and that the efficiencylosses from a VER depend on the ease with which sales can bediverted from the restricted toward the unrestricted markets.The method is applied to test the effects of the U.S. OrderlyMarketing Agreement (OMA) for producers of leather footwearin the Republic of Korea during the period 1977–81. Weestimate that the marginal revenue product of factors employedin leather footwear declined by as much as 9 percent becauseof the OMA, an estimate that is corroborated by inspection oftime series on output, employment, and wages of the Korean footwearsector. This implies that there was pressure on the Korean footwearindustry to contract as a result of the OMA.     

Determinants of the demand for imports of Venezuela

In this study we use disaggregated annual data to estimate real income and relative price elasticities of demand for imports of Venezuela. After comparing our estimates with those of previous studies, we conclude that (1) Venezuela has made progress in developing domestic substitutes for imports, and (2) the degree of ‘openness’ in Venezuela increased after 1961. We also find evidence that during the period 1974–1979, the increase in the market value of Venezuela's oil reserves led to an increase in all categories of imports.