The common agricultural policy—Where now?

The outcome of the Athens and Brussels summits was a cruel disappointment for all European optimists. The brunt of the consequences of this diplomatic failure will be borne by the Common Agricultural Policy. Is it now time to write its obituary?     

An empirical analysis of air pollution emissions policy for the U.K. residential sector

In this paper an analysis of the U.K. government's air pollution emissions policy for the residential sector is undertaken. The analysis covers emissions arising from water and space heating, electric appliances and cooking appliances. Using an integrated economic-engineering model, the effects of the Energy Savings Trust and the imposition of Value Added Tax on residential fuel will be evaluated in terms of energy consumption and pollution emissions. It is found that the initial proposed policy was not sufficiently stringent to meet the government's environmental objectives, and that subsequent events have undermined the government's programme even further. Unless alternative policies are introduced, emissions from the residential sector will play an important role in jeopardizing the ability of the U.K. government to meet its international obligations.     

Consumer Culture,Ecology and the Possibility of Cosmopolitan Citizenship

This article argues that the study of citizenship needs to be engaged with questions raised by consumer cultures and ecological concerns. The article begins by investigating the different ways in which we might view contemporary consumer societies from the vantage point of citizenship. I go on to examine the relationship between citizenship and environmental questions. Finally, I argue that the social transformations brought about by the development of a consumer society and questions of ecological risk mean that citizenship needs to find cosmopolitan forms of expression. Unless ethical agendas are able to develop the practice of citizenship in this direction, we are unlikely to be able to find adequate political responses to some of the key dilemmas of our age.     

Anonymity and continuous social choice

Continuity of social choice is reformulated in terms of the quotient topology on profiles of individual preferences induced by the equivalence class corresponding to anonymity. It is shown that Chichilnisky's impossibility continues to hold.     

Analysis of ultra-high-frequency financial data using advanced Fourier transforms

This paper presents a novel application of advanced methods from Fourier analysis to the study of ultra-high-frequency financial data. The use of Lomb–Scargle Fourier transform, provides a robust framework to take into account the irregular spacing in time, minimising the computational effort. Likewise, it avoids complex model specifications (e.g. ACD or intensity models) or resorting to traditional methods, such as (linear or cubic) interpolation and regular resampling, which not only cause artifacts in the data and loss of information, but also lead to the generation and use of spurious information.     

Reactions of the London Stock Exchange to Company Trading Statement Announcements

Using event study methodology, we examine market reactions to nearly 2,000 trading statements during the period 1995‐2001. We find that profit warnings outnumber upgrades by 50%, and, in line with previous US studies, we find that market reaction to the actual announcements is considerably greater for profit warnings than for upgrades.Sub-samples demonstrate significant market reaction to profit warnings for all sizecontrolled portfolios, but that reaction to the announcements is greatest for small companies.Examination of pre- and post-announcement CARs shows no pre-announcement market anticipation of the announcements.Post-announcement there is a significant positive abnormal return on the day after the announcement of bad news for the small company subsample.Other post-announcement results are small and insignificant.Trading volume results are consistent with this picture. Finally, when the trading statements are examined for news on turnover and margin changes, we find that the market reaction to margin changes is greater than market reaction to turnover changes.     

VALUING NON-MARKET GOODS USING CONTINGENT VALUATION

Abstract. Contingent valuation is a technique being developed by economists for the valuation of environmental commodities not traded in markets. This paper discusses the major problem areas associated with this method of value estimation. These comprise bias (strategic, hypothetical and design biases); the discrepancy between willingness-to-pay and compensation demanded; the aggregation procedure; the choice of question format; and non-use values. Some evidence from comparative studies is reported, and comments made on the accuracy of contingent valuation answers, Finally, the conditions under which contingent valuation seems to operate best are set out.     

Counting carbon: historic emissions from fossil fuels,long-run measures of sustainable development and carbon debt

This article examines how to account for the welfare effects of carbon dioxide emissions, using the historical experiences of Britain and the USA from the onset of the industrial revolution to the present. While a single country might isolate itself from the detrimental effects of global warming in the short run, in the long all countries are unable to free ride. Thus, we support the use of a single global price for carbon dioxide emissions. The calculated price should decrease as we move back in time to take into account that carbon dioxide is a stock pollutant, and that one unit added to the present large stock is likely to cause more damage than a unit emitted under the lower concentration levels in the past. We incorporate the annual costs of British and US carbon emissions into genuine savings, and calculate the accumulated costs of their carbon dioxide emissions. Enlarging the scope and calculating the cumulative cost of carbon dioxide from the four largest emitters gives new insights into the question of who is responsible for climate change.