Lies,damned lies and statistics: the accuracy of survey responses

That survey research is error prone is not a new idea and different varieties of non-sampling error have been investigated in the literature as well as consideration being given in many statistics textbooks to the issue of sampling error. The paper here considers research upon corporate environmental reporting. It compares information provided by corporate environmental reports with information that survey respondents claim their organization’s environmental report contains. This enables the accuracy of the claims to be assessed. Consideration is given to two different industries the Water industry and the Energy industry. Errors due to inaccurate reporting by survey respondents are shown to be relatively infrequent and respondents appear just about as likely to claim they report information that they do not, in fact, report as to fail to indicate that they report information that is, in fact, actually reported.     

Environmental Taxation and Vertical Cournot Oligopolies: How Eco-industries Matter

This article specifies what an optimal pollution tax should be when dealing with a vertical Cournot oligopoly. Polluting firms sell final goods to consumers and outsource their abatement activities to an environment industry. It is assumed that both markets are imperfectly competitive. Thus, the tax is a single instrument used to regulate three sorts of distortions, one negative externality and two restrictions in production. Consequently, the optimal tax rate is the result of a trade-off that depends on the firms’ market power along the vertical structure. A detailed analysis of Cournot-Nash equilibria in both markets is also performed. In this context, the efficiency of abatement activities plays a key-role. It gives a new understanding to the necessary conditions for the emergence of an eco-industrial sector.      

LOGISTICS SALIENCE IN A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT

The primary purpose of this paper was to empirically explore some of the reasons that logistics has become more important, or salient, in comparison to other functions within the firm. A survey of 296 managers across multiple industries in the U.S. found logistics becomes more important within the firm when the industry increases in uncertainty, when there is an emphasis on time‐based competition, when there is greater adoption of information technology, and when there is an emphasis on cross‐functional integration.     

The Impact of Regulation Fair Disclosure on Information Asymmetry and Trading: An Intraday Analysis

This study examines the impact of Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD) on liquidity, information asymmetry, and institutional and retail investors trading behavior. Our main findings suggest three conclusions. First, Regulation FD has been effective in improving liquidity and in decreasing the level of information asymmetry. Second, retail trading activity increases dramatically after earnings announcements but there is a significant decline in institutional trading surrounding earnings announcements, particularly in the pre‐announcement period. Last, the decline in information asymmetry around earnings announcements is closely associated with a lower participation rate in the pre‐announcement period and more active trading of retail investors after earnings releases.     

A change in market responses to the environmental management ranking in Japan

This article investigates stock price reactions to the release of the environmental management ranking issued by Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei newspaper) from 1998 to 2005, by using a standard event study methodology. An examination of stock price movements of the top 100 manufacturing companies reveals that stock prices during the sample period did not respond significantly to the release of the ranking within a 3-day event window. However, market responses became significantly positive after 2003, while they were significantly negative in 1999 and 2000. The stock prices of upgraded companies in particular reacted negatively before 2000, but positively after 2002. These results indicate that market reactions were changed between 2001 and 2002, when the Japanese government showed its strong commitment to environmental policies by establishing the Ministry of the Environment and signing the Kyoto Protocol, following a number of legislations.     

Experiments in Environmental Economics and Some Close Relatives

Abstract.  It is not only the great number of papers written on environment economics that make it worth dealing with this special branch of experimental research, but the environmental problem in all its facets seems to serve as a catalyst for identifying some methodological problems of the experimental method. For this reason, we will not only try to give an overview of recent experiments in environmental economics but also add some thoughts on the methodological implications of this work. We identify three direct connecting factors for the experimental method and environmental economics. First, social dilemmas are, in many cases, at the core of environmental problems. Experiments are able to test theoretical hypotheses for individual behavior in such social dilemma situations. The second connecting factor comes from the field of applied experimental work and can be characterized as the testbedding of institutional arrangements for the solution of environmental problems. The last direct application of experimental methods to environmental economics concerns the individual evaluation of environmental resources.     

投资者利益保护与新兴市场证券发行管制

本文构建了一个模型,说明在一个非有效程度比较高的证券市场中,公司可以通过发行新股融资侵占外部公众投资者的利益。此时,证券发行的门坎管制和规模限制对保护投资者利益是必要和有效的;如果事后的投资者利益的法律保护等监管制度的有效性弱, 证券发行管制就更有必要,以此来限制经营能力较差的公司为NPV<0的项目融资。对融资和投资分离的研究还表明,限制上市公司融资规模可以减少管理层基于自我利益的过度融资和低效投资。随着投资者保护的法律制度完善和执行有效,信息披露规范,加上机构投资者力量壮大,市场评价能力增强,可以放松证券发行事前的门坎限制和融资规模限制,逐步实现证券发行市场化。     

环境污染治理与经济增长:模型与中国的经验研究

通过建立一个人力资本内生增长模型,将环境及环境污染治理引入内生增长框架下进行分析,其中重点探讨了在达到均衡增长路径过程中经济增长、环境污染与环境污染治理的关系,同时考察了维持可持续发展需要具备的条件。在此基础上,运用中国的数据对理论模型的一些结果进行了计量检验。结果表明,清洁要素以及技术的使用是可持续发展的关键,中国对环境污染一直以来缺乏足够的重视,目前仍然需要加大环境污染治理力度,提高环境污染治理的效率,地方政府的行为在其中会起到重要作用。     

全球化背景下中国人才流失的环境因素——基于全球58国的比较分析

在经济全球化背景下,发展中国家人才流失问题突出。中国同样面临着这个问题的严峻考验。本文从考察人才流失的环境角度进行分析,建立了人才环境三级指标体系并计算出生活环境指数、工作环境指数和宏观环境指数。通过建立回归方程,我们发现人才流失和环境指数有很强的相关关系,说明改善人才环境能很好解决当前人才流失问题。文章最后根据我国实际情况,给出了相关的政策建议。     

基于衍生型环境BSC的绩效评价指标体系设计——以石化企业为例

衍生型环境BSC的构建使环境管理对经济成功贡献之间所暗存的因果关系更明晰化、可视化,为促进企业成功实施环保战略提供了管理工具和方法。在国内外相关文献的理论指导下,探讨了衍生型环境BSC的绩效评价指标体系的构建路径和基本架构。把环保战略转化为因果关系耦合的目标和指标,是构建衍生型环境BSC绩效评价指标体系的重要依据。衍生型环境BSC需要从四个维度——财务、客户、内部流程和学习与成长——挖掘与环境相关的内容。结合石化企业的行业背景和企业资料进行了案例分析,为其构建衍生型环境BSC提供一种思路和框架。