Search

Increasing levels of variable renewable energy require additional flexible resources in the global energy system. In countries with energy-intensive industries, flexibility may be increased through industrial demand side management (IDSM). In most studies, the potential of IDSM is estimated from a technical or theoretical viewpoint. However, IDSM capacity is only utilized if the industry finds it profitable, and thus the economic potential should also be assessed. The focus of this paper is on the intra-day IDSM potential of a paper mill site that is active in the Nordic power market. An optimization model is built to estimate the costs that occur when the paper mill executes regulating power bids, if the original production schedule has been optimized against a spot price forecast. The costs are estimated for different sizes of bids and a marginal cost curve is provided for pricing them. Using this marginal cost curve, the market potential of the case mill site is assessed. It is found that this potential is greatly influenced by the costs of executing regulating power bids. The results indicate that transmission system operators and policy makers should account for economic factors when assessing the potential of market based IDSM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] The waste generated by the suppliers of the Spanish paper industry is estimated. [•] An Economic Input Output Life Cycle Assessment Models (IO-LCA) is employed. [•] No direct relationship between impact on output and on waste generation was found. [•] The major contributors to waste generation were mining and forestry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2006.10.004 Byline: Philippe Barla Keywords: Environmental management systems; ISO 14001; Environmental performance Abstract: This paper tests whether adopting the international norm ISO 14001 significantly impacts environmental performance in Quebec's pulp and paper industry. Using monthly data collected from 37 plants between 1997 and 2003, we show that: (i) ISO certification does not lead to a reduction in total suspended solid emissions or in quantity of rejected process water; (ii) discharge of biological oxygen demand decreases by about 9% following certification; (iii) contrary to the group of plants that did not adopt the ISO norm, the adopting plants did not experience a significant negative trend in emissions over our sample period. Moreover, our results show that the impact of ISO is very variable across adopting plants. If some plants considerably reduce emissions following certification, we find that most adopters either maintain or even increase emissions after being ISO accredited. Author Affiliation: GREEN and Departement d'economique, Universite Laval, Que., Canada G1K 7P4 Article History: Received 20 July 2005

The market expectations hypothesis related to term premia for commercial papers issued by United States corporations is analyzed.

Abstract: To overcome declining markets and low-cost competition, Canadian pulp and paper (P&P) mills are considering the diversification of their product platform. Investing in bioenergy is emerging as a promising way to boost the sector. In this paper, we present a mathematical programming approach to evaluate the profitability of bioenergy investments in the case of a P&P mill, while assessing technical and associated economic risks. The mill, called the integrated forest biorefinery (IFBR), could produce a set of high-value bioproducts from biomass generated in the mill or supplied from outside. P&P activity generates residues, such as black liquor and pulp sludge, which could be used to produce bioenergy. P&P activity should then be well managed, by considering the possibility of temporarily stopping the production of P&P, while assuming the costs associated with the shutdowns. The objective is to develop a mathematically-based approach for investors and stakeholders, within the forest sector that aims to optimise the value creation network of the IFBR and to maximise the profitability of future investments in bioenergy, while optimising the existing P&P activity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The potential of the paper-bill spread to foresee business cycle changes dwindled in the 1980s as liquidity of commercial paper increased. The latter incited investors to consider paper as an approximate alternative for Treasury bills. Consequently, shocks to the paper and bill markets did not significantly affect the paper-bill spread but were actually incorporated by proportional yield alterations in both markets. This findings veer away from explanations that attribute the predictive decline to market contractions and to changes in paper and bill supplies unrelated to business conditions.

Abstract: As a significant fraction of municipal solid waste, waste paper is a potential source for producing bioethanol. In the present paper, bioethanol production from various waste papers (newspaper, office paper, cardboard and magazine) using an enzyme complex (Cellic Ctec 1) was evaluated from an economic standpoint. Four bases cases without pre-treatment and two state-of-the-art cases (including dilute acid pre-treatment for office paper and oxidative lime pre-treatment for newspaper) were constructed using laboratory experimental data, literature values, expert consultations and simulation using AspenPlus™. Several scenarios were also carried out to assess the sensitivity of various technology parameters (i.e. solids loading in saccharification, anaerobic digestion and fermentation efficiency, and sugar yields in pre-treatment). The sensitivity analysis suggested that the economic performance of bioethanol produced from waste paper could be improved significantly with an up to 25% reduction in minimum ethanol selling price (MESP) by increasing solids loading in saccharification and with a 6% reduction in MESP by enhancing fermentation efficiency. The comparison of the bioethanol selling price at pump (reference year 2009) and the petrol price showed bioethanol produced from newspaper, office paper and cardboard were economically competitive with petrol. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Ming dynasty (1368-1644) abandoned the paper money system established by the Sung dynasty (960-1279) due to inflation problems caused by over-issuance. It was driven to do so by competition from metallic currencies which raised 'interest elasticity of paper money demand.' This is proven using the Cagan adaptive expectations model and the money-in-utility model. Likewise, the Southern Sung government's dependence on a leaning-with-the-wind feedback approach to prevent self-generating inflation is discussed.

The effect of inspections on the self-reported quality emission levels of pulp and paper facilities in Quebec was studied in a basic model which considered the discharges of biological oxygen demand and total suspended solids. It was recognized that both the Canadian and US governments have inadequate resources to monitor and implement environmental regulations. It was concluded that inspections and the probability of inspections have a significant negative effect on emissions. In addition, regulators are given more information due to more frequent reporting.

Data indicate the unreliability of information from the spread for industrial production growth in predicting economic activity contrary to what Benjamin M. Friedman and Kenneth N. Kuttner postulated in a series of articles since 1989. Two outliers in the data indicate the predictive content of the spread, namely, the 1974 Franklin National Bank episode and the imposition of the Carter Credit controls in 1980.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2009.03.019 Byline: Ghislaine Lydon Keywords: Institutions; Islamic law; Literacy; Early modern trade; Religion and economics Abstract: This article contributes to the literature on Islamic institutional history by examining how the discounting of documents in Islamic legal practice constrained the organization of early modern Muslim trade. It is argued that the reliance on literacy, on the one hand, and an Islamic legal framework, on the other, gave early modern Muslim traders a comparative advantage in economic organization, but the lack of faith in paper as documentary evidence in Islamic law posed fundamental constraints to the development of Muslim economies. Author Affiliation: Department of History, University of California, 6265 Bunche Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90292, USA Article History: Received 17 November 2007; Revised 23 March 2009; Accepted 23 March 2009

Abstract: The Scandinavian mechanical pulp and paper industry has been facing great challenges during the past decades, mainly because of declining demand for newsprint, and higher prices on raw material and energy. One way of increasing profitability is to produce more value-added products besides the production of pulp and paper. In this study, integration potentials of three possible future biomass gasification-based energy mills with an existing thermo-mechanical pulp (TMP) mill, co-located with a sawmill, have been evaluated. The product gas was utilized for electricity production in a gas turbine, for production of methanol or for production of Fischer–Tropsch (FT) liquids. Integration of the energy mills showed good potential as the TMP mill constitutes a heat sink for which the excess heat from the energy mills can be utilized all year round. However, since there is little excess heat from the TMP mill at the required level to be utilized for biomass drying, for example, heat integration is typically one way. It has also been shown that integration of biomass gasification with a TMP mill results in larger CO2 emissions reduction than stand-alone operation. Still, compared to co-firing biomass in a coal power plant, the energy mills all have lower potentials for CO2 emissions reduction. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The use of scholarly publications that have not been formally published in e.g. journals is widespread in some fields. In the past they have been disseminated through various channels of informal communication. However, the Internet has enabled dissemination of these un-published and often unrefereed publications to a much wider audience. This is particularly interesting seen in relation to the highly disputed open access advantage as the potential advantage for low visibility publications has not been given much attention in the literature. The present study examines the role of working papers in economics during a 10-year period (1996–2005). It shows that working papers are increasingly becoming visible in the field specific databases. The impact of working papers is relatively low; however, high impact working paper series have citation rate levels similar to the low impact journals in the field. There is no tendency to an increase in impact during the 10 years which is the case for the high impact journals. Consequently, the result of this study does not provide evidence of an open access advantage for working papers in economics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper shows that interest rate uncertainty rather than leading economic indicators primarily brought about the rapid rise in treasury bills and is a predictor of real industrial output .

The relation between cost benefit analysis (CBA) and cost effectiveness analysis(CEA) is established which is in contradiction to study conducted by Dolen and Edlin.

Joseph Henrich's argument on the problem of group selection is presented. The reason for the argument is not simply to uphold the importance of social structure but also to assert that group selection arguments sustain additional units and levels of selection above the genetic level.

Abstract: Objectives: There is an important need to evaluate therapeutic approaches for osteoarthritis (OA) in terms of cost-effectiveness as well as efficacy. Methods: The ESCEO expert working group met to discuss the epidemiological and economic evidence that justifies the increasing concern of the impact of this disease and reviewed the current state-of-the-art in health economic studies in this field. Results: OA is a debilitating disease; it is increasing in frequency and is associated with a substantial and growing burden on society, in terms of both burden of illness and cost of illness. Economic evaluations in this field are relatively rare, and those that do exist, show considerable heterogeneity of methodological approach (such as indicated population, comparator, decision context and perspective, time horizon, modeling and outcome measures used). This heterogeneity makes comparisons between studies problematic. Conclusions: Better adherence to guidelines for economic evaluations is needed. There was strong support for the definition of a reference case and for what might constitute “standard optimal care” in terms of best clinical practice, for the control arms of interventional studies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The author reviews Charles R. Plott's works which extend the methodology and research of nobel prize winners Daniel Kahneman and Vernon L. Smith.

The stockholders face severe restrictions on their ability to sell their shares and diversify the risk of their personal wealth. The cost of the liquidity restrictions on stockholders using a continuous-time portfolio choice framework is examined.

It is shown that John Nyman's criticism of the health policy debate is largely irrelevant to the question of demand-side cost sharing.

A solution to the non-existence of competitive equilibria in an economy where satiation is possible is presented. Based on an economic situation with many agents and where paper money is one of the commodities without transaction costs, it is concluded that competitive equilibrium may exist by using money as a net positive supply even if preferences may be satiated when the agents are permitted to select a consumption set within a given budget.

The works of Belk (1995), Dittmar et al. (1995) and Marell et al. (1995) on different aspects of spending and consumption are reviewed. The study of Dittmar and colleagues is similar to the Belk study in that both address gender differences. It is also similar to Marell et al.'s work in the sense that the two bodies of research are based on the belief that consumer behavior is influenced by the perceived gap between a current state and a more abstract ideal.

The ability of government to make public investments in infrastructure to spur economic growth is debatable. Previous research has come up with a plethora of normative policies without considering the possiblity of doing more harm than good. The macroeconomic perspective of these studies can be better evaluated using a microeconomic view. In general, the economic growth model being aimed for assumes a different price and allocation structure which should be studied in greater depth using micro approaches.

A discussion on the environmental impact of the paper and pulp industry, in Canada, is presented. The evaluation of the industry includes the level of production and its effect on the environment.

The relationship of environmental constraints with the differences between plant-level efficiency and the feasibility of enhancements in environmental performance and productivity are investigated. Results indicate that not all production inefficiencies can be attributed to environmental constraints. A 1990 estimate shows that the average production loss caused by environmental constraints is 9.4%.

This study investigates how exposure to a field of study influences students’ major choices. If students have incomplete information, exposure potentially helps them to learn about the scope of a field as well as how well the field matches their interest and abilities. We exploit a natural experiment where university students have to write a research paper in business, economics, or law during their first year before they choose a major. Due to oversubscription of business papers, the field of the paper is assigned quasi-randomly. We find that writing in economics raises the probability of majoring in economics by 2.7 percentage points. We show further that this effect varies across subfields: the effect is driven by assignment to topics less typical of the public's perception of the field of economics, suggesting students learn through exposure that the field is broader than they thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rotogravure printing is the preferred method when large print runs are required, such as for catalogues. Penetration of ink into the paper is not desirable as this increases the amount of ink needed to obtain a certain print density. Thus the differences in ink demand between different papers have a significant impact on the economics of the process. In order to control the ink penetration, paper is often coated with a thin layer of kaolin clay. The extent of penetration depends on the structure of this coating and the characteristics of the ink used.High spatial resolution gallium ion SIMS has been used to study ink penetration by embedding the paper in resin and imaging in cross-section, as well as depth profiling the ink film on the paper. For inks that react with the embedding resin however, the former technique fails. More recently, focused ion beam (FIB) cross-sections were used to visualise the penetration of ink into the paper. The more conductive nature of the ink used here compared with the coating gave high contrast between them, allowing easy assessment of the penetration. Results obtained from this method on paper with two different coatings were consistent with print gloss, print density and size of the printed dots. Ink is seen to have penetrated further into a paper coating with a ‘blocky’ morphology than one with a ‘platey’ morphology. This is consistent with the smaller dot area, lower print gloss and lower print density achieved on the blocky paper coating. TEM sections were obtained using the FIB with ex situ lift-out, providing a more direct view of the ink-paper interface. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

During the classical gold standard era, the lira 'shadowed' gold, since Italy was not formally committed to gold. When lira was allowed a limited depreciation, the government gained some seignorage that shadowed the official gold rate giving the government fiscal flexibility.

Abstract: The present study was performed to explore a new approach to systematization of the management of paper-based clinical pathways by developing a new system requiring little capital investment. A new system was developed and incorporated into an existing network at a hospital with a paper-based clinical pathway management system. The effectiveness of this new system was examined by comparing the management efficiency of clinical pathways before and after its introduction, and by comparison of the new system with other such systems currently in place at other medical institutions with regard to efficiency. In addition, the acceptability of the system for other medical institutions was examined by providing free access to the software on the Internet. The development costs of the new system were low. Although the new system has been in place for more than 3 years, no problems have yet been encountered in either the existing network system or in the management system itself. The new system allows the processing of statistics and analysis of circulation or variance automatically, neither of which were possible in the original paper-based system. We provided open access to the system as free software on the Internet, and it has since been downloaded by many medical institutions and enterprises in Japan. This system is very useful for institutions where it is difficult to introduce expensive new systems for systematic management of clinical pathways, such as electronic medical records, because of problems regarding capital or system management, and it may also be useful in other countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Poverty reduction strategy papers represent both a primary policy device of international development institutions, and an instance of a wider international convergence of public policy around global integration and social inclusion. Charting the emergence of these approaches, this paper argues that this convergence has a number of structural predilections which favor the technical and juridical over the political economic, and a disciplinary framework over a practical contest. Drawing extensively on decentralized governance and poverty reduction programs in Uganda, this paper shows how these predilections obscure power relations and restrict practical and political options, while exacting heavy establishment and compliance costs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A comprehensive case study of Mumbai (Bombay), India was undertaken to investigate the economic, social and environmental impact of international trade of waste paper for recycling purposes between industrialized and developing countries. Analysis of a Western approach vis-a-vis informal policy for waste paper recovery concludes that employment is maximum under informal policy measure and public response playsan important role in maintaining environmental quality. The study further shows that income inequality is more under informal policy, andwithout policy public cost will increase continuously in the future.The net present value of the informal policy is found to be higher than that for the formal policy. Econometric study on input substitution in the Indian paper industry suggests limited substitution possibilities between domestic and imported waste paper. Results from a static material balance flow model indicate that environmental impacts are less with increased trade and economically the paper sector in India benefits from free trade. Based upon the results of the study, somepolicy recommendations have been made that may enhance the efficiency of waste paper recycling in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper entitled “An economic analysis of energy requirements and input costs for tomato production in Turkey” used energy input–output analysis in tomato (industrial type) production and compare it with production costs. The research also pursued to analyze the effect of farm size. As a result of that research, the authors claimed that the better benefit–cost ratio was found on the large farms and it was more successful in economic performance. However, there are some minor and major miscalculations that could, and perhaps should be added to the result section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Optimal Fibre Flow Model, a combined optimization and simulationmodel, calculates the optimal combination of energy recovery and recycling of waste paper for paper and board production. In addition, the environmental impact is estimated by using an environment load unit-index (ELU-index). The ELU-index assigns an environmental load valueto emissions and to the use of non-renewable resources such as oil and coal. Given a 'forced' utilization rate for the Scandinavian forest industry, optimization of marginal revenue shows environmental impact to be at a minimum with a utilization rate of about 30% in Scandinavia and 73% (an assumed upper limit) for the rest of Europe. If instead environmental impact is minimized, the utilization rate for Scandinavia is almost the same, while the utilization rate for the rest ofEurope is 53% (a lower assumed level). Given a fixed use of virgin fibres for the rest of Western Europe, a comparison of the environmental load at different 'forced' utilization rates for the Scandinavian forest industry shows no significant differences between the economicand environmental optimizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A conference on current research and educational programs in production of crops for bio-fuel was sponsored and organized by the EARTH University and the University of Florida in November, 2008. The meeting addressed current research on crops for bio-fuel production with discussions of research alternatives for future crop production systems, land use issues, ethics of food vs. fuel production, and carbon sequestration in environmentally sensitive tropical and sub-tropical regions of the Americas. The need and potential for development of graduate and undergraduate curricula and inter-institutional cooperation among educational institutions in the region were also discussed. Delegations from Belize, Brazil, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Honduras, Panama, The Dominican Republic, and the United States including ministers of Agriculture and Energy attended this meeting. Over a two-day period, four working groups provided a framework to facilitate networking, motivate task oriented creative thinking, and maintain a timely accomplishment of assigned duties in the context of the conference themes. Participants in the conference were assigned to one of four working groups, each following given topics: Agronomy, Environment, Socio-Economics and Education/Extension. It was the consensus of representatives of industry, academic and regulatory community assembled in Costa Rica that significant research, education and socio-economic information is needed to make production of bio-fuel crops sustainable. Agronomic research should include better crop selection based on local conditions, improved production techniques, pest and disease management, and mechanical cultivation and harvesting. Another conclusion was that tailoring of production systems to local soil characteristics and use of bio-fuel by-products to improve nutrient use efficiency and reduction of environmental impact on water quantity and quality is critical to sustainability of bio-fuel crop production. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]