Climate change,fossil fuel prices and depletion: The rationale for a falling export tax

This paper examines how world prices affect depletion of exhaustible fossil fuels for export and the role of an export revenue tax in curbing depletion. Both effects are studied for a small open economy affected by climate change. We find that setting an export revenue tax rate to fall over time at the marginal social cost of depletion due to lower productivity from climate change encourages a resource exporter to leave an optimal stock in the ground – unextracted and unburnable. Growing prices during the past decade similarly curb depletion. Falling prices bring forward extraction. Because production is independent of consumption, the marginal social cost is independent of utility parameters which are difficult to estimate. Slowing fossil fuel extraction and the effective export of emissions is a contemporary challenge for climate policy. Our findings identify both why an export revenue tax should decline over time and an estimable target rate of decline to help meet this challenge amid changing world prices.     

Anticipatory policymaking in global venues: Policy change,adaptation, and the UNFCCC

The subfield of public policy depicts policymaking as reactive process wherein public officials respond to existing social problems. While this depiction holds true in many cases, it fails to account for instances where policy change occurs in anticipation of emerging threats or hazards. “Anticipatory problems” are projected to occur in the future, and it is the prospect of their occurring that generates policy debate. This paper examines the policymaking pattern engendered by anticipatory policy problems, highlighting the ways in which they challenge and support existing assumptions about the process of policy change. To illustrate this distinctive dynamic, this paper will present a case study examining the evolving debate over climate change adaptation policy within United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).     

Biofuel policies and the environment: Do climate benefits warrant increased production from biofuel feedstocks?

We examine whether climate benefits warrant policies promoting biofuel production from agricultural crops when other environmental impacts are accounted for. We develop a general economic-ecological modelling framework for integrated analysis of biofuel policies. An economic model of farmers' decision making is combined with a biophysical model predicting the effects of farming practices on crop yields and relevant environmental impacts. They include GHG emissions over the life cycle, nitrogen and phosphorus runoff, and the quality of wildlife habitats. We apply our model to crop production in Finland. We find that under current biofuel production technology the case for promotion of biofuels is not as evident as has been generally thought. Only reed canary grass for biodiesel is unambiguously desirable, whereas biodiesel from rape seed and ethanol production from wheat and barley cause in most cases negative net impacts on the environment. Suggested policies in the US and the EU tend to improve slightly the environmental performance of biofuel production.     

Forest management under fire risk when forest carbon sequestration has value

We develop a multiple forest use model to determine the optimal harvest date for a forest stand producing both timber and carbon benefits under a risk of fire. An empirical application is provided for a forest owner producing maritime pine in Southwest of France. Our results indicate that a higher risk of fire will decrease the optimal rotation period. On the contrary, higher carbon prices increase the optimal harvesting age. To investigate the contradictory effects of fire risk and carbon price on forest rotation, we identify the set of carbon prices and fire risks that lead to a given rotation age. We also show that forest owner's willingness to pay for a risk reduction can be substantial (37.33 euros by ha and by year to reduce the annual fire risk from 1.26% to 0.07%).     

The evaluation of forest crop damages due to climate change. An application of Dempster–Shafer method

In order to assess damage risk caused by climate change in forest areas, Dempster–Shafer theory of evidence and fuzzy measures were applied to develop a framework for the estimation of economic forest damage. According to the definition of risk supported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a function of hazard and resilience lines of evidence was defined. The results of the hazard and resilience assessment were used to develop an economic framework based on Faustmann studies. The evaluation model, implemented through a spatial analysis procedure, was carried out linking Faustmann formula with hazard and resilience raster maps. The model permitted to estimate in monetary terms two possible costs to be supported: the first one is expressed as the expected damage to the forest crop on the basis of the current obtainable woody assortments and the second one referred to the potential expenses to pay in order to mitigate the risk. Finally, the framework was tested on an area of central Italy (Tuscany region).     

地位竞争动机对个体知识共享行为的影响

知识共享行为是学术界和企业界关注的焦点,虽然以往文献从多个角度和层次研究了组织中的知识共享行为,但忽视了地位竞争动机对个体知识共享决策的内在作用机制。基于地位竞争动机差异,将个体地位动机区分为支配型和威望型,以职场排斥为中介变量、组织公平氛围为调节变量,构建地位竞争动机对知识共享行为的影响过程模型,基于13个组织630套上下级配对样本数据进行实证检验。结果显示,支配型地位竞争动机负向影响知识共享行为,威望型地位竞争动机正向影响知识共享行为,职场排斥、组织公平氛围分别发挥中介效应和调节效应。结果为知识共享领域研究提供了新的视角和框架,揭示了地位竞争动机对知识共享促进和抑制作用的两面性,对企业管理实践有一定的现实意义。     

制造企业如何从事件中提升创新质量——基于事件系统理论的企业成长案例研究

基于事件系统理论,应用探索性案例研究方法,以两家本土知名制造企业为纵向研究案例,揭示创新氛围、创新能力、创新开放度在创新质量提升中的作用,可为其它制造企业提供指导。研究发现：事件空间、事件强度影响制造企业创新能力,企业在被动性事件中通过利用性创新能力识别创新机会,在主动性事件中通过探索性创新能力获取创新机会和资源;创新氛围有助于促进利用性创新能力向探索性创新能力转变,创新开放度有助于提升主动性事件对创新质量的促进效果;在制造企业成长历程中,被动性事件和主动性事件的交互作用形成创新质量提升的正反馈,被动事件变少、主动事件变多,创新质量得以提升。研究结论对中国本土制造企业如何在复杂动态的事件环境中进行创新管理、促进创新质量提升具有一定实践启示。     

双元视角下调节聚焦对国防研发人员创新行为的影响机制

调节聚焦作为个体实现目标的动机调节系统,对个体创新行为具有重要作用,是组织行为学领域关注的热点。基于调节聚焦等相关理论,从二维视角深入考察个体调节聚焦对其双元创新的过程机理与边界机制。对527名国防科技研发人员进行问卷调研分析,结果发现：①促进聚焦和防御聚焦均正向预测双元创新及其平衡性与互补性,促进聚焦的预测作用更强;②探索式失败学习和利用式失败学习同时中介上述关系;③正向组织差错管理氛围正向调节促进聚焦与双元创新及其互补性的关系,负向组织差错管理氛围正向调节防御聚焦与双元创新及其互补性的关系。     

Farming systems and Conservation Agriculture: Technology,structures and agency in Malawi

Conservation Agriculture (CA) is advocated as an agricultural innovation that will improve smallholder famer resilience to future climate change. Under the conditions presented by the El Niño event of 2015/16, the implementation of CA was examined in southern Malawi at household, district and national institutional levels. Agricultural system constraints experienced by farming households are identified, and in response the technologies, structures and agency associated with CA are evaluated. The most significant constraints were linked to household health, with associated labour and monetary impacts, in addition to the availability of external inputs of fertiliser and improved seed varieties. Our findings show that such constraints are not adequately addressed through current agricultural system support structures, with the institutions surrounding CA (in both Government extension services and NGO agricultural projects) focusing attention predominantly at field level practice, rather than on broader system constraints such as education and health support systems. Limited capacity within local institutions undermines long term efforts to implement new technologies such as CA. It is vitally important that the flexibility of farmers to adapt new technologies in a locally-appropriate manner is not closed down through national and institutional aims to build consensus around narrow technical definitions of a climate-smart technology such as CA. To enable farmers to fully utilise CA programmes, interventions must take a more holistic, cross-sectoral approach, understanding and adapting to address locally experienced constraints. Building capacity within households to adopt new agricultural practices is critical, and integrating healthcare support into agricultural policy is a vital step towards increasing smallholder resilience to future climate change.     

Agriculture and global climate stabilization: a public good analysis

The stabilization of global climate presents one of the most complex problems in public good provision the world has faced. Continuation of “business as usual” policies, leading to warming of more than 2 degrees over the next year, will produce significant damage to agricultural systems and catastrophic damage to the natural ecosystems that ultimately support agriculture. The best solution to the public goods problem is a “contract and converge” agreement in which the ultimate outcome is a common global entitlement to CO₂ emissions per person.