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The Economics of Natural Gas Storage
by Anna CretìWithin the context of an evolving global market for natural gas and restructuring efforts in the European market, gas storage is an important element. Providing additional flexibility, promoting competition, and enhancing supply security are crucial factors for natural gas sector liberalization. Storage in Europe has come to the center of the energy policy debate mainly due to very cold temperatures in winter 2005/06 and gas price increases during that time period. This book covers four main topics: development of commercial storage; access regulation; capacity allocation and market power; storage and security of gas supply. Each Chapter puts forth an innovative analytical model discussed or applied to realistically explain specific issues in one of the four biggest European gas consuming countries (France, Germany, Italy and the UK).
The Economics of Science: Volume 1: Illustrations and Philosophical Preliminaries
by David TyfieldDramatic and controversial changes in the funding of science over the past two decades, towards its increasing commercialization, have stimulated a huge literature trying to set out an "economics of science". Whether broadly in favour or against these changes, the vast majority of these frameworks employ ahistorical analyses that cannot conceptualise, let alone address, the questions of "why have these changes occurred?" and "why now?" Nor, therefore, can they offer much insight into the crucial question of future trends. Given the growing importance of science and innovation in an age of both a globalizing knowledge-based economy (itself in crisis) and enormous challenges that demand scientific and technological responses, these are significant gaps in our understanding of important contemporary social processes. This book argues that the fundamental underlying problem in all cases is the ontological shallowness of these theories, which can only be remedied by attention to ontological presuppositions. Conversely, a critical realist approach affords the integration of a realist political economy into the analysis of the economics of science that does afford explicit attention to these crucial questions; a ‘cultural political economy of research and innovation’ (CPERI). Accordingly, the book sets out an introduction to the existing literature on the economics of science together with novel discussion of the field from a critical realist perspective. In arguing thus across levels of abstraction, however, the book also explores how concerted engagement with substantive social enquiry and theoretical debate develops and strengthens critical realism as a philosophical project, rather than simply ‘applying’ it. Divided into two volumes, in this first volume the book explores the ‘top’ and ‘tail’ of the argument, regarding substantive and philosophical aspects. Starting with substantive illustrations, we explore the social challenges associated with the contemporary commercialization of science and the movement towards a knowledge-based bio-economy. Having shown the explanatory benefits of assuming a realist political economy perspective, the book then turns to the task of reconstructing and justifying that theoretical perspective. True to the overall argument regarding attention to ontological presuppositions, this starts with critical realism’s critique of mainstream economics but also develops critical realism itself towards what may be called a ‘transcendental constructivism’.
The Economics of Sustainable Development
by Shunsuke Managi Surender KumarThis book provides a look at the current status and future potential of sustainable development in India. Macroeconomic developments, regional disparity and poverty situation, the trend in natural resource depletion and environmental degradation, trajectory of economic development, and conventional wealth are discussed. A history of environmental regulations and the current state of the environment in India are provided along with the possible reasons for non-compliance of environmental standards in the country. This book studies many different aspects of industries in India from supply and demand sides and efficiency and productivity analyses are provided in detail. Before the liberalization of its economy began in 1991, India had been one of the most over-regulated and closed economies in the world. Market productivity is examined and tests whether the post-reform period shows any improvement in productivity and efficiency in comparison to the pre-reform period. Other subjects are discussed, including the economic value that the urban population of India places on improving the air quality, the cost of sustainable industrial development, industrial water use and analysis of the relationship between the price of oil and the macro economy as it applies to India.
Economics of Sustainable Energy
by Jaan S. Islam M. R. Islam Meltem Islam M. A. MughalEvery year, as soon as reports on global economic inequality remind us about the direction our civilization is heading, there is a hysterical reaction, but hysteria dies down within weeks and we go back to the lifestyle that brought us here today. Often the blame is laid on the Millennial generation for their “apathy,” “lust for comfort,” and “bratty” attitude. Yet, business insider surveys indicate it’s the same Millennial generation that overwhelmingly cares for the state of the world and the direction in which our civilization is heading. Nearly 50% of them ranked climate change and destruction of nature as their primary concern. This is followed by concern for war and global conflict, and then global economic inequality. The vast majority of those surveyed are willing and eager to make lifestyle changes. This book breaks open the hypocrisy of our civilization and stops the blame game in its tracks and identifies the root causes of today’s world economy, ecology, and global politics. The book demonstrates that changes in lifestyle are necessary but not sufficient. No economic policy or technology development mode has a chance to survive, let alone thrive unless supported by the political establishment. In this process, the government plays a pivotal role. The challenge is to change the attitude of the government from a ‘self-serving’ controlling mode to a representative philanthropic mode. This new system of economic development and political governance is inspired by a long-forgotten understanding of political economics: medieval Islamic economics. In reviewing the history of economics from trade, currencies, and interest, the strengths and weaknesses of various economic developments over our centuries are evaluated. Based on the historical analysis, a step by step procedure is outlined for this fundamental change in our society today. As a whole, this book is the first of modern era to offer such a comprehensive analysis, complete with solutions to the entire crisis of today’s civilization. Whether for the student, engineer in the field, economist, or even layperson interested in the subject, this groundbreaking new work is a must-have. Covering one of the most important subjects in our world today, it is a valiant attempt at solving one of the biggest problems facing all of us.
The Economics of Telecommunication Services: An Engineering Perspective (Textbooks in Telecommunication Engineering)
by Pramode Verma Fan ZhangThis textbook characterizes the economics of telecommunication services from an engineering perspective. The authors bring out the fundamental drivers of the industry and characterize networks from a graph theoretic perspective, including random, small world, and scale free networks. The authors relate the topology of a telecommunication network using circuit and packet switched architectures to throughput and other performance parameters. The pricing model proposed in this book is based on the cost of displaced opportunity as opposed to the cost of the elements of the network engaged in delivering a service. The displaced opportunity is characterized by the revenue associated with the service that the network could have alternatively delivered most efficiently using an identical level of resources. The book addresses other topics such as regulation in legacy networks, and net neutrality. Finally, the book introduces the application of game theory in a multi-vendor, multi-services competitive marketplace. The book aims to bridge the gap between the science of economics as practiced by economists and practice of pricing from a telecommunication engineer’s perspective. This book is suitable for use by senior undergraduate or graduate students of telecommunication engineering or researchers and practitioners in telecommunication engineering.
Economics of the International Coal Trade: The Renaissance of Steam Coal
by Lars SchernikauThe world today depends on oil, coal and gas (in that order of importance) for over 80% of its primary energy. From the time humans tamed fire, wood or bio-mass became the primary energy source. Coal took over from biomass during the Industrial Revolution and accounted for over 60% of world primary energy by the early 1900s. The current age is often referred to as the Oil Age, which seems appropriate now that about 35% of the world's primary energy still comes from oil. However, coal is experiencing a renaissance. Today about one quarter of the world's primary energy and more than 40% of the world's electricity comes from coal. In addition, about two thirds of the world's steel is produced using coal. The author predicts that coal will become even more important in the decades to come, mainly driven by demand from China and India. This book focuses on the role of coal for today's energy and, most importantly, electricity markets. It starts with a review of coal as a resource, profiling the major steam coal exporting nations and the structure of the supply market. The low investment rate in coal compared to other fossil fuels is discussed, and environmental and safety issues with coal production are reviewed. The book examines how coal is used in the modern world. It compares coal to other energy resources and speculates on a greater role for coal in the medium-term future. It examines the structure of the steam coal market, contract terms, derivative markets, FOB costs, and introduces the WorldCoal market model. The final chapter summarizes conclusions and predictions. The author predicts more and larger merger attempts in the coal supply arena and further efforts to manage this development through public policy, greater investment by market participants in logistics and upstream assets, and the development of exchange-based coal trading through standardized coal volumes. The author also outlines why he believes coal prices will rise, eventually catching up with gas.
Economics of the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Industry: Supply Chain, Trade and Innovation (Routledge Studies in the Economics of Innovation)
by Ramesh BhardwajThis book provides a comprehensive examination of the pharmaceutical and medical device industry, including analysis of its current trade and innovation strategies.Opening with a survey of the global pharmaceutical and medical device industry, Bhardwaj outlines the growing trade and trade interdependence among countries in the global supply chain. He adopts a trade competitiveness approach to analyze patterns of product specialization and examines the drug discovery process and its challenges in translating bioscientific knowledge into lifesaving products. Bhardwaj argues that further economic integration, collaborative R&D, and digital technologies may help accelerate productivity and address global challenges of escalating drug costs, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), and pandemic risks. The book also considers how the industry may further green its supply chain, and thus contribute to SDG Goals 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing) and 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), before closing on a review of China and India, major players who have the potential to become drivers of low-cost medical products and innovations.With its evidence-based analysis, this book will be of great interest to researchers in pharmaceutical studies, supply chain management, global health, and health economics, as well as policymakers and professionals interested in the global issues facing the industry.
The Economics of the Sulphur Industry (Routledge Revivals)
by Jared E. HazletonBetween the 1950’s and 1970’s, the Sulphur industry continued to grow despite occasional shortages and excesses. In this study originally published in 1970, Hazleton focuses on the Frasch sulphur industry to explore issues such as competing sources of sulphur, the possibilities of sulphur being obtained as a result of pollution-abating policies and the conditions under which future supplies are likely to become available. This title will be of interest to students of Environmental Studies.
The Economics of U.S. Nonindustrial Private Forests (Routledge Revivals)
by Marion ClawsonThe nonindustrial private forests are a large and valuable national resource and the best possible understanding of their characteristics, capabilities, and potentials is useful for the formation of national policy on natural resources. In this title, originally published in 1979, Marion Clawson presents an informative description and analysis of the nonindustrial private forests of the United States and offers his best judgement as to the economic potential of these forests to produce wood and other forest outputs. This book is directed to foresters, economists, policy makers, conservationists, and students interested in environmental issues.
The Economics of Water: Rules and Institutions (Springer Water)
by Georg Meran Markus Siehlow Christian von HirschhausenThis open access textbook provides a concise introduction to economic approaches and mathematical methods for the study of water allocation and distribution problems. Written in an accessible and straightforward style, it discusses and analyzes central issues in integrated water resource management, water tariffs, water markets, and transboundary water management. By illustrating the interplay between the hydrological cycle and the rules and institutions that govern today’s water allocation policies, the authors develop a modern perspective on water management. Moreover, the book presents an in-depth assessment of the political and ethical dimensions of water management and its institutional embeddedness, by discussing distribution issues and issues of the enforceability of human rights in managing water resources. Given its scope, the book will appeal to advanced undergraduate and graduate students of economics and engineering, as well as practitioners in the water sector, seeking a deeper understanding of economic approaches to the study of water management.
The Economics of Water Utilization in the Beet Sugar Industry (Routledge Revivals)
by Allen V. Kneese George O. LöfOriginally published in 1965, this case study of the beet sugar industry undertaken by George O. G. Lof and Allen V. Kneese illustrates the economic importance of water to industry. This study delves into the history and technology of the beet sugar industry to demonstrate the economic impact of the water environment and how water waste can be reduced in other industries. This title will be of interest to students of environmental studies.
Economics of Wildfire Management
by Michael S. Hand Krista M. Gebert Jingjing Liang David E. Calkin Matthew P. Thompson Mo ZhouIn this age of climatic and financial uncertainty, it becomes increasingly important to balance the cost, benefits and risk of wildfire management. In the United States, increased wildland fire activity over the last 15 years has resulted in drastic damage and loss of life. An associated rapid increase in fire management costs has consumed higher portions of budgets of public entities involved in wildfire management, challenging their ability to fulfill other responsibilities. Increased public scrutiny highlights the need to improve wildland fire management for cost effectiveness. This book closely examines the development of basic wildfire suppression cost models for the United States and their application to a wide range of settings from informing incident decision making to programmatic review. The book also explores emerging trends in suppression costs and introduces new spatially explicit cost models to account for characteristics of the burned landscape. Finally, it discusses how emerging risk assessment tools can be better informed by integrating management cost models with wildfire simulation models and values at risk. Economics of Wildfire Management is intended for practitioners as a reference guide. Advanced-level students and researchers will also find the book invaluable.
Economics Without Laws: Towards a New Philosophy of Economics
by Łukasz HardtThis book offers a vision of economics in which there is no place for universal laws of nature, and even for laws of a more probabilistic character. The author avoids interpreting the practice of economics as something that leads to the formulation of universal laws or laws of nature. Instead, chapters in the book follow the method of contemporary philosophy of science: rather than formulating suggestions for practicing scientists of how they should do research, the text describes and interprets the very practice of scientific research. This approach demonstrates how economists can explain economic phenomena not by subsuming them under general laws, but rather by building models of these phenomena, by referring to causes, or even by investigating what is in the nature of given factors, events, or circumstances to produce.
The Economization of Life
by Michelle MurphyWhat is a life worth? In the wake of eugenics, new quantitative racist practices that valued life for the sake of economic futures flourished. In The Economization of Life, Michelle Murphy provocatively describes the twentieth-century rise of infrastructures of calculation and experiment aimed at governing population for the sake of national economy, pinpointing the spread of a potent biopolitical logic: some must not be born so that others might live more prosperously. Resituating the history of postcolonial neoliberal technique in expert circuits between the United States and Bangladesh, Murphy traces the methods and imaginaries through which family planning calculated lives not worth living, lives not worth saving, and lives not worth being born. The resulting archive of thick data transmuted into financialized “Invest in a Girl” campaigns that reframed survival as a question of human capital. The book challenges readers to reject the economy as our collective container and to refuse population as a term of reproductive justice.
An Economy Based on Carbon Dioxide and Water: Potential of Large Scale Carbon Dioxide Utilization
by Michele Aresta Iftekhar Karimi Sibudjing KawiThis book is devoted to CO2 capture and utilization (CCU) from a green, biotechnological and economic perspective, and presents the potential of, and the bottlenecks and breakthroughs in converting a stable molecule such as CO2 into specialty chemicals and materials or energy-rich compounds. The use of renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal, hydro) and non-fossil hydrogen is a must for converting large volumes of CO2 into energy products, and as such, the authors explore and compare the availability of hydrogen from water using these sources with that using oil or methane. Divided into 13 chapters, the book offers an analysis of the conditions under which CO2 utilization is possible, and discusses CO2 capture from concentrated sources and the atmosphere. It also analyzes the technological (non-chemical) uses of CO2, carbonation of basic minerals and industrial sludge, and the microbial-catalytic-electrochemical-photoelectrochemical-plasma conversion of CO2 into chemicals and energy products. Further, the book provides examples of advanced bioelectrochemical syntheses and RuBisCO engineering, as well as a techno-energetic and economic analysis of CCU. Written by leading international experts, this book offers a unique perspective on the potential of the various technologies discussed, and a vision for a sustainable future. Intended for graduates with a good understanding of chemistry, catalysis, biotechnology, electrochemistry and photochemistry, it particularly appeals to researchers (in academia and industry) and university teachers.
The Economy of Green Cities: A World Compendium on the Green Urban Economy
by Monika Zimmermann Richard SimpsonThis volume bridges the gap between the global promotion of the Green Economy and the manifestation of this new development strategy at the urban level. Green cities are an imperative solution, not only in meeting global environmental challenges but also in helping to ensure socio-economic prosperity at the local level.
Economy Of Machinery And Manufacture #2
by Charles Babbage"...it was my intention to have delivered the present work in the form of a course of lectures at Cambridge; an intention which I was subsequently induced to alter. The substance of a considerable portion of it has, however, appeared among the preliminary chapters of the mechanical part of the Encyclopedia Metropolitana."
Economy-Wide Modeling of Water at Regional and Global Scales (Advances in Applied General Equilibrium Modeling)
by Glyn WittwerThis book deals with the economic modelling of water at the global, national and sub-national levels. It presents a multi-faceted analysis and, while it outlines the theories behind various models, its main purpose is to analyse policy issues and present insights arising from modelling, including a chapter analysing the macroeconomic implications of climate change. Arguably the most compelling reason for publishing a book on the economic modelling of water arises from the fact that agriculture accounts for approximately 70% of water used for economic purposes, while only contributing 4% of global income. Given that water is an essential commodity, this discrepancy may in part be symptomatic of an undervaluation of water due to immature and incomplete markets. In turn, this undervaluation has led to an ongoing misallocation of water. When economic models include water accounts that feed into production functions, they model impacts on the marginal product of water. Policies that improve the link between the marginal product and price of water will improve water allocation, while advanced economic models such as those presented here can enhance our ability to explore the possible impacts of improved policy.
Econophysics and Companies: Statistical Life and Death in Complex Business Networks
by Hideaki Aoyama Yoshi Fujiwara Yuichi Ikeda Hiroshi Iyetomi Wataru SoumaEconophysics is an emerging interdisciplinary field that takes advantage of the concepts and methods of statistical physics to analyse economic phenomena. This book expands the explanatory scope of econophysics to the real economy by using methods from statistical physics to analyse the success and failure of companies. Using large data sets of companies and income-earners in Japan and Europe, a distinguished team of researchers show how these methods allow us to analyse companies, from huge corporations to small firms, as heterogeneous agents interacting at multiple layers of complex networks. They then show how successful this approach is in explaining a wide range of recent findings relating to the dynamics of companies. With mathematics kept to a minimum, the book is not only a lively introduction to the field of econophysics but also provides fresh insights into company behaviour.
Econophysics Approaches to Large-Scale Business Data and Financial Crisis: Proceedings of Tokyo Tech-Hitotsubashi Interdisciplinary Conference + APFA7
by Hideki Takayasu Tsutomu Watanabe Misako TakayasuThe new science of econophysics has arisen out of the information age. As large-scale economic data are being increasingly generated by industries and enterprises worldwide, researchers from fields such as physics, mathematics, and information sciences are becoming involved. The vast number of transactions taking place, both in the financial markets and in the retail sector, is usually studied by economists and management and now by econophysicists. Using cutting-edge tools of computational analysis while searching for regularities and "laws" such as those found in the natural sciences, econophysicists have come up with intriguing results. The ultimate aim is to establish fundamental data collection and analysis techniques that embrace the expertise of a variety of academic disciplines. This book comprises selected papers from the international conference on novel analytical approaches to economic data held in Tokyo in March 2009. The papers include detailed reports on the market behavior during the financial crisis of 2008 and discussions on the mechanism of bubbles and crashes, with proposals for avoiding new crises. Filled with up-to-date research, this book will interest researchers and students, finance professionals, and scholars in diverse fields.
Econophysics of Agent-based models
by Frédéric Abergel Asim Ghosh Hideaki Aoyama Anirban Chakraborti Bikas K. ChakrabartiThe primary goal of this book is to present the research findings and conclusions of physicists, economists, mathematicians and financial engineers working in the field of "Econophysics" who have undertaken agent-based modelling, comparison with empirical studies and related investigations. Most standard economic models assume the existence of the representative agent, who is "perfectly rational" and applies the utility maximization principle when taking action. One reason for this is the desire to keep models mathematically tractable: no tools are available to economists for solving non-linear models of heterogeneous adaptive agents without explicit optimization. In contrast, multi-agent models, which originated from statistical physics considerations, allow us to go beyond the prototype theories of traditional economics involving the representative agent. This book is based on the Econophys-Kolkata VII Workshop, at which many such modelling efforts were presented. In the book, leading researchers in their fields report on their latest work, consider recent developments and review the contemporary literature.
Ecopharmacovigilance
by Leobardo Manuel Gómez-OlivánThe indiscriminate use of medications and their inadequate disposal have resulted in them being released into the environment via municipal, hospital and industrial discharges. This volume critically examines the presence of pharmaceuticals in aquatic ecosystems, the hazards they entail, and how to minimize their impact on the environment. The topics covered include: historical findings that have made the development of the discipline ecopharmacovigilance possible; the main exposure routes, fate and life cycle of pharmaceuticals in water; occurrence data and the impact on biodiversity; methods used for the detection, analysis and quantification of pharmaceuticals in water and for their removal; current legislation on the presence of emerging contaminants in water; biosensors for environmental analysis and monitoring; and the measures needed to reduce the existing problems. This book is aimed at students, academics and research workers in the fields of toxicology, ecology, microbiology and chemistry, as well as those in the pharmaceutical industry, health sector professionals, and members of government bodies involved in environmental protection and legislation.
Ecophysiology, Abiotic Stress Responses and Utilization of Halophytes
by Münir Öztürk Mirza Hasanuzzaman Kamrun NaharHalophytes are those plant species that can tolerate high salt concentrations. There are diversified species of halophytes suited for growth in various saline regions around the world, e.g. coastal saline soil, soils of mangrove forests, wetlands, marshlands, lands of arid and semiarid regions, and agricultural fields. These plants can be grown in soil and water containing high salt concentrations and unsuitable for conventional crops, and can be good sources of food, fuel, fodder, fiber, essential oils, and medicine. Moreover, halophytes can be exploited as significant and major plant species for the desalination and restoration of saline soils, as well as phytoremediation. This book highlights recent advances in exploring the unique features of halophytes and their potential uses in our changing environment.
Ecophysiology and Biochemistry of Cyanobacteria
by Rajesh Prasad RastogiThis book emphasizes and presents the latest information on eco-physiology and biochemistry of cyanobacteria with special emphasis on their biodiversity, molecular mechanisms of some important biological processes and survival mechanisms under myriad of environmental conditions as well as bioremediation. Cyanobacteria are the most dominant prokaryotic floras on the Earth’s surface, and are of great importance in terms of ecological, economical and evolutionary perspectives. They are oldest groups of photosynthetic autotrophs, which create oxygenic atmosphere for the development and sustainability of ecosystems with different life forms. The book presents an integrative approach to their possible biotechnological application in the field of bio-energy and various aspects of biochemistry, biophysics and structural biology of photosynthesis. The various chapters describe the different applications of cyanobacteria as bio-energy sources and in phycoremediation. The contents incorporated in this book can be used as a textbook by undergraduate and post-graduate students, teachers, and researchers in the most interesting fields of physicochemical ecology and biochemistry of cyanobacteria.
Ecophysiology and Responses of Plants under Salt Stress
by M. M. Azooz Parvaiz Ahmad M.N.V. PrasadThis book will shed light on the effect of salt stress on plants development, proteomics, genomics, genetic engineering, and plant adaptations, among other topics. Understanding the molecular basis will be helpful in developing selection strategies for improving salinity tolerance. The book will cover around 25 chapters with contributors from all over the world.