BOD7 production function of the Finnish pulp and paper industry

2001

Traditional neoclassical production theory analyzes the relationship in a production process between inputs and outputs which have a positive market value for the producer. The externalities of production, which have nonpositive market values, are discarded or included as the cost in a cost function. This paper studies the relationship between biological oxygen demand (BOD) emissions, an output of nonpositive value, and traditional factors of production, that is, investments, labor, output, and raw materials. An emissions production function is theoretically presented and empirically estimated with data from the Finnish pulp and paper industry. The approach is based on the observation that …

Natural versus manufactured capital: win–lose or win–win? A case study of the Finnish pulp and paper industry

2001

Abstract The effect of investments on environmental variables has been discussed through the win–win rhetoric, specifically in micro-level analysis. On the macro-level the win–win rhetoric has been replaced by the arguments for and against the substitutability of natural and manufactured capital. Here these two concepts belonging to different levels of analysis are linked by looking at the environmental and economic effects of chosen investment strategies in a traditionally capital-intensive industry over time. The paper shows that, rather than generalise the existence of win–win situations or the substitutability of capital, these positions are determined by purely situational factors. As …

Environmental accounting as a tool for SMEs in environmentally induced economic risk analysis

2000

An industry in transition : environmental significance of strategic reaction and proaction mechanisms of the Finnish pulp and paper industry

2000