Does the Optimal Size of a Fish Stock Increase with Environmental Uncertainties?

We analyze the effect of environmental uncertainties on optimal fishery management in a bio-economic fishery model. Unlike most of the literature on resource economics, but in line with ecological models, we allow the different biological processes of survival and recruitment to be affected differently by environmental uncertainties. We show that the overall effect of uncertainty on the optimal size of a fish stock is ambiguous, depending on the prudence of the value function. For the case of a risk-neutral fishery manager, the overall effect depends on the relative magnitude of two opposing effects, the ‘convex-cost effect’ and the ‘gambling effect’. We apply the analysis to the Baltic cod and the North Sea herring fisheries, concluding that for risk neutral agents the net effect of environmental uncertainties on the optimal size of these fish stocks is negative, albeit small in absolute value. Under risk aversion, the effect on optimal stock size is positive for sufficiently high coefficients of constant relative risk aversion.     

PUBLIC SERVICE PERSPECTIVES ON REFORMS OF ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION AND SUPPLY: A MODULAR ANALYSIS

ABSTRACT ** : This article analyzes organizational change in electricity distribution and retail businesses and its impact on public service issues. Organizational change has resulted from the European electricity directives, especially the EU Electricity directive 2003/54/EC , which has imposed major transformations on these activities, requiring legal unbundling of electricity distribution networks by 1 July 2007. Organizational change has also resulted from an adaptation of companies to the newly competitive environment. This has led to a diversity of organizational choices across Europe. We analyze this diversity by using a modular approach, which decomposes reforms in electricity distribution and retail into logical ‘blocks’. We then examine how European countries have dealt with two policy and regulatory issues related to customer protection in that new environment: the regulation of quality of distribution, which is a task of regulators, and energy affordability policies for vulnerable customers, which are a central aspect of public service policies in the electricity sector.     

Auswirkungen der EU-Vermittlerrichtlinie auf die deutsche Vermittlerlandschaft

Die Umsetzung der EU-Richtlinie 2002/92/EG über die Versicherungsvermittlung in deutsches Recht trat am 22. Mai 2007 in Kraft. Seither sind für jeden Vermittler eine Gewerbeerlaubnis und eine Registrierung erforderlich, um den Beruf ausüben zu dürfen. Bei der eigentlichen Beratung gibt es die Pflicht zur Information, Beratung und Dokumentation.     

Prophylaxe und Diagnostik bei Verstopfung

Zusammenfassung  Die Krankenbeobachtung — Für die Basisdiagnostik der chronischen Obstipation gibt es von haus?rztlicher Seite klare Vorstellungen. Doch auch die Pflege ist hier gefordert, insbesondere hinsichtlich der Krankenbeobachtung und der Einsch?tzung der Problematik.