Evaluating environmental and social performance of large Portuguese companies: a balanced scorecard approach

A thematic balanced scorecard format was used to address environmental and social performance evaluation of 13 large companies operating in Portugal. Financial aspects of environmental and social company activities are also included. Companies were categorized as to their actual performance status using a predefined performance framework. Three categories were found: compliance with the law while emphasizing pollution control, pollution prevention and eco‐efficiency. Management tools and procedural matters were found to be most relevant for categorization. Often, reported information did not allow for quantitative evaluation of environmental burden reduction. Use of the thematic balanced scorecard format was useful to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of links between objectives and measurements, initiatives and achievements. Improvement as to environmental performance was found to be paralleled by increased social performance, suggesting that a multi‐level ‘sustainability’ performance categorization of these Portuguese companies is feasible. Driving forces for environmental management initiatives were found to differ by category of performance. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

高效电动机在化工生产中的应用

文章以江西海利贵溪公司7000t/a高纯度甲萘威原药生产装置为例,对高效电动机的应用进行技术经济分析,说明高效电动机在化工生产中应用的重要意义。     

The incentive for export subsidies under imperfect competition

By taking into account factor market interactions, the theory of strategic trade policies can consistently explain the fact that less efficient countries offer greater export subsidies to the most technologically advanced industries because in these countries there may be greater differences in efficiency of production technology between industries than in more efficient countries.     

一种多层次多属性信息分类编码模型的设计与应用

根据信息管理系统中对信息分类的需求，分析了以往常用的分类方法中存在的一些不足和弊端，提出了一种多层次多属性信息分类编码模型，并应用于中国石油天然气集团公司库尔勒沙漠运输公司物资材料管理。此信息分类编码模型具有良好的柔性结构，编码结构灵活。采用此模型的编码方法可解决各类信息的分类编码编制问题。     

Technical efficiency and CO2 abatement policies in the Dutch glasshouse industry

This paper develops a short-run microeconomic simulation model of the Dutch glasshouse industry in order to investigate the relation between technical efficiency and marginal abatement costs of CO₂ emission. The model is also used to determine the effects of an emission tax and systems of tradable and non-tradable quota for groups of firms with different rates of technical efficiency. The results show that marginal abatement costs are very responsive to changes in technical efficiency. Furthermore, it is found that firms with a low technical efficiency are faced with a higher profit reduction under different abatement policies than firms with a high technical efficiency.     

Measuring the Impact of Corporate Investment Announcements on Share Prices: The Spanish Experience

We bring together three disparate strands of literature to develop a comprehensive empirical framework to examine the efficiency of security analysts' earnings forecasts in Singapore. We focus specifically on how the increased uncertainty and the negative market sentiment during the period of the Asian crisis affected the quality of earnings forecasts. While we find no evidence of inefficiencies in the pre-crisis period, our results suggest that after the onset of the crisis, analysts (1) issued forecasts that were systematically upward biased; (2) did not fully incorporate the (negative) earnings-related news; and (3) predicted earnings changes which proved too extreme.     

开放条件下我国银行业的效率改进及风险管理——兼论国有商业银行改革

在我国开放格局业已确定,而国有商业银行改革尚未完成之际,银行业面临的新挑战集中体现在效率与风险两个方面.效率改进的关键在于内部治理,而这却依赖于银行内部制衡机制的建立,制衡的另一方应是民营资本和机构投资者,而不是外资银行.风险防范应从微观和宏观着手.微观上,银行应加强内部风险意识和国际竞争意识;宏观上,监管层应借鉴国际经验,加强对外资银行的监管和对本国银行零售业的保护.     

Market Structure, Efficiency and Rising Consolidation of the Banking Industry in the Euro Area

Four factors are fundamentally altering the financial landscape in the Euro Area: deregulation, further disintermediation provoked by the common currency and common monetary policy, technological advances and increased competition from non‐bank intermediaries. Faced with the combined pressures of these factors, banks are devising strategies to do business in this new environment. They respond by attempting to improve their efficiency and/or market power through consolidation and balance sheet restructuring. This article examines whether the ongoing process of consolidation should be rationalized on the basis of the benefits of economies of scale and scope or to the attempt of banks to tackle excess capacity problems. Empirical findings reveal a significant effect of efficiency measures on banking profitability indices. Also, we argue that further disintermediation caused by common currency and common monetary policy poses a threat to banks' profitability. Finally, these results have some implications for merger and antitrust policy as well as for supervisory and regulatory practices.     

Public Investment and Income Taxation: Redistribution vs. Productive Performance

This paper deals with government investment in a static two-type self-selection model of optimum income taxation. It is shown that the second-best investment rule is consistent with efficient production, provided that public investment has no influence on relative factor prices. Otherwise, however, redistributive income taxation implies that optimal investment expenditures exceed (or fall below) the efficient level as long as they raise (or decrease) the wage rate of the unskilled individuals relative to the wage rate of the skilled individuals.