Search results for "ECONOMICS"
showing 10 items of 14389 documents
Cost–benefit analysis of water-reuse projects for environmental purposes: A case study for Spanish wastewater treatment plants
2011
Water reuse is an emerging and promising non-conventional water resource. Feasibility studies are essential tools in the decision making process for the implementation of water-reuse projects. However, the methods used to assess economic feasibility tend to focus on internal costs, while external impacts are relegated to unsubstantiated statements about the advantages of water reuse. Using the concept of shadow prices for undesirable outputs of water reclamation, the current study developed a theoretical methodology to assess internal and external economic impacts. The proposed methodological approach is applied to 13 wastewater treatment plants in the Valencia region of Spain that reuse ef…
Economic valuation of environmental benefits from wastewater treatment processes: An empirical approach for Spain
2009
Economic research into the design and implementation of policies for the efficient management of water resources has been emphasized by the European Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC). The efficient implementation of policies to prevent the degradation and depletion of water resources requires determining their value in social and economic terms and incorporating this information into the decision-making process. A process of wastewater treatment has many associated environmental benefits. However, these benefits are often not calculated because they are not set by the market, due to inadequate property rights, the presence of externalities, and the lack of perfect information…
Assessing farming eco-efficiency: a Data Envelopment Analysis approach.
2010
This paper assesses farming eco-efficiency using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques. Eco-efficiency scores at both farm and environmental pressure-specific levels are computed for a sample of Spanish farmers operating in the rain-fed agricultural system of Campos County. The determinants of eco-efficiency are then studied using truncated regression and bootstrapping techniques. We contribute to previous literature in this field of research by including information on slacks in the assessment of the potential environmental pressure reductions in a DEA framework. Our results reveal that farmers are quite eco-inefficient, with very few differences emerging among specific environmental …
Sustainable Forest Operations (SFO): A new paradigm in a changing world and climate
2018
The effective implementation of sustainable forest management depends largely on carrying out forest operations in a sustainable manner. Climate change, as well as the increasing demand for forest products, requires a re-thinking of forest operations in terms of sustainability. In this context, it is important to understand the major driving factors for the future development of forest operations that promote economic, environmental and social well-being. The main objective of this paper is to identify important issues concerning forest operations and to propose a new paradigm towards sustainability in a changing climate, work and environmental conditions. Previously developed concepts of f…
Ecological Efficiency of Voluntary Conservation of Boreal-Forest Biodiversity
2008
Current networks of protected areas are biased in many countries toward landscapes of low productivity. Voluntary conservation incentives have been suggested as a socially acceptable way to supplement existing networks with more productive, privately owned areas of high priority for nature conservation. The limited resources committed to nature conservation demand cost-efficiency. Efficiency, however, depends not only on costs incurred to society from alternative ways of maintaining biodiversity but also on ecological values that can be captured. We examined the ecological efficiency of the new market-based voluntary program to preserve forest habitats on private land in southwestern Finlan…
An Undying Breed? The Electoral Mobilization of Supporters’ Networks by the Conservative and Labour Parties in the UK
2020
International audience
The Stackelberg equilibrium as a consistent conjectural equilibrium
2011
International audience; We consider a static game with conjectural variations where some firms make conjectures while others do not. Two propositions are proved. We first show that there exists a continuum of conjectural variations such that the conjectural equilibrium locally coincides with the Stackelberg equilibrium (Proposition 1). Second, we define the conditions under which a conjectural equilibrium is a locally consistent equilibrium (i.e. such that conjectures are fulfilled). The conceptof (local) consistency is restricted to firms making conjectures. Two conditions on consistency are featured: consistency within a cohort and consistency among cohorts. The Stackelberg equilibrium fu…
Evaluating the protecting effects of two consolidants applied on Pietra di Lecce limestone: A neutronographic study
2020
Abstract In this work a combined laboratory-based and neutronographic investigation was carried out on a type of limestone, known as Pietra di Lecce stone, widely used in Italian Baroque as construction material. The limestone was treated with two different commercially-available coatings, namely nanosilica and nanolime, and artificially weathered by salt crystallization and temperature/relative humidity jumps. The aim was to provide an experimental evidence of the protective and consolidating effectiveness of the two treatments by looking at the water absorption process occurring inside the pore network of the analyzed stones. The analysis of the wetting front position revealed significant…
Economic effects of the consolidation of water utilities in Japan
2014
Water utilities are affected by economies of scale. However, in Japan most water utilities are small-scale water services. Therefore, they face enormous difficulties in terms of financial and personnel resources. To take advantage of economies of scale, the consolidation of water utilities has been promoted since 1965 by Japanese water authorities. The measure has been successful to some extent; nevertheless, consolidation has not progressed in recent years as was expected. This paper identifies the main barriers that hinder the consolidation of water utilities in Japan and describes the new promotion plan for the consolidation of water utilities developed by the Japan Water Works Associati…
Informal Constitutional Changes in Romania
2015
Constitutional change has been one of the most interesting debates in the recent constitutional law scholarship. A distinction has been drawn between formal and informal constitutional changes, by using as a criterion the compliance with the requirements of the constitutional text regarding constitutional change. Usually, informal constitutional change is determined by various factors, among which the lack of clarity or the extreme rigidity of the Constitution. Constitutional Courts are among the authorities who are frequently responsible of making informal constitutional changes. The present article comprises a brief introduction on the differences between formal and informal constitutiona…