Optimal Investment in Energy Efficiency under Uncertainty

41 p.

The Private Provision of International Impure Public Goods: the Case of Climate Policy

33 p.

The Equivalency Principle for Discounting the Value of Natural Assets: An Application to an Investment Project in the Basque Coast

25 p.

Effects of Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage in Germany on European Electricity Exchange and Welfare

28 p.

Evaluation of Two Alternative Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies: A Stochastic Model

30 p.

Financial Futures Markets and Their Impact on the Real Economy in Middle and Low Income Countries

This project analyses the influence of the futures market on middle and low income countries. In it, I attempt to show that investments made by large investment funds in this market, as well as by certain pension plans, bring major consequences whose effects are more evident in less developed countries. The cornerstones of the work are as follows; to attempt to see the existing relationship between the commodity futures market and its underlying assets; analysing products such as wheat, rice and corn in-depth, because these are the most basic foodstuffs at a global level; to determine how an increase in trading in these markets can affect the lives of people in the poorest countries; to analyse investor concern regarding the consequences that their investments may have. Throughout the project we will see how large speculators use production forecasting models to determine the shortage of a commodity in order to take a position in the futures market to profit from it. In addition we will see how an increase in trading in this market causes an increase in the price of the underlying asset in the spot market. As for investor concern, I can say it is negligible, but the idea of running pension plans or investment funds that follow some social criteria has been welcomed by those interviewed, which makes me think that different legislation is possible. This legislation will only come into existence if it is demanded by the people. A fact that now becomes complicated because without a minimum financial basis, they cannot even know how the large investment funds trade with hunger in the world. The day when most people understand how large speculators profit from famine will be the day to put pressure on governments to begin to put limits on speculation. This makes financial awareness necessary in order to achieve a curb in excessive speculation.

La aplicación empresarial del marketing viral y el efecto boca-oreja electrónico. Opiniones de las empresas

[ES] La práctica tradicional del boca-oreja, natural desde hace años como modo de publicidad efectiva sin recurrir a grandes inversiones ni contrataciones en medios masivos se ha convertido en una nueva posibilidad de marketing con la llegada de las nuevas tecnologías e Internet. Así ha aparecido una nueva estrategia de marketing que consiste en explotar las redes sociales preexistentes para producir incrementos exponenciales en conocimiento de marca, denominada marketing viral. El efecto "boca-oreja online" que genera es una herramienta poderosa para las empresas, aunque su verdadero potencial está aún por descubrir. El objetivo del presente trabajo de investigación es analizar este fenómeno a través de una amplia revisión bibliográfica del término, así como un estudio empírico consistente en una entrevista en profundidad realizada a una muestra de importantes empresas españolas. Los resultados indican que el marketing viral puede ser empleado para el beneficio, tanto de grandes empresas con grandes presupuestos, como de pequeños negocios. Las experiencias exitosas de su utilización demuestran que, cuando se usa integrado en el resto de estrategias comerciales de la empresa, puede mejorar la recomendación de la marca e incrementar su notoriedad en el mercado. El marketing viral puede ser ventajoso a la hora de lanzar un nuevo producto al mercado, sin embargo, la efectividad y la medición de las campañas son vistas por muchos académicos y profesionales como un punto débil de la estrategia.

Design and implementation of a cloud computing adoption decision tool: Generating a cloud road

Migrating to cloud computing is one of the current enterprise challenges. This technology provides a new paradigm based on "on-demand payment" for information and communication technologies. In this sense, the small and medium enterprise is supposed to be the most interested, since initial investments are avoided and the technology allows gradual implementation. However, even if the characteristics and capacities have been widely discussed, entry into the cloud is still lacking in terms of practical, real frameworks. This paper aims at filling this gap, presenting a real tool already implemented and tested, which can be used as a cloud computing adoption decision tool. This tool uses diagnosis based on specific questions to gather the required information and subsequently provide the user with valuable information to deploy the business within the cloud, specifically in the form of Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions. This information allows the decision makers to generate their particular Cloud Road. A pilot study has been carried out with enterprises at a local level with a two-fold objective: To ascertain the degree of knowledge on cloud computing and to identify the most interesting business areas and their related tools for this technology. As expected, the results show high interest and low knowledge on this subject and the tool presented aims to readdress this mismatch, insofar as possible. Copyright: © 2015 Bildosola et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Torlojutze sekuentzien optimizazioa elementu finituen bidez Offshore aplikazioetan.

[EU]Gradu Amaierako Lan honetan offshore presiopeko hodien (gasa nahiz petrolioa garraiatzen duten hodien) brida bidezko loturetako torlojutze sekuentziak aztertuko dira. Aplikazio hauek suposatzen duten inbertsio ekonomikoa dela eta, ihesak ekiditeko asmoz, ezinbestekoa da brida hauek elkarri lotzeko dituzten torlojuen kargak uniformeki bananduta egotea torloju guztietan, interakzio elastikoak eta pibotamendu mugimenduak helburu hori zailtzen badute ere. Gaur egun torlojutze sekuentziak ASME-k araututa baldin baditu ere, ez dira batere erosoak, torloju guztiak ordena zehatz batean estutu behar direlako, eta estutze hauek ez direlako egoerarik erosoenetan egiten, denbora asko galduz. Horregatik, sinpletasuna lortzeko eta denbora eta dirua aurrezteko, torlojutze sekuentzia horiek optimizatzea izango da helburu nagusia. Aipaturiko lana aurrera eramateko, bi brida modeloren torlojutze analisiak egin beharko dira, berauek parametro batzuen menpe jarrita, estutze sekuentzietan duten eragina ikusi ahal izateko.

Valuation of Wind Energy Projects: A Real Options Approach

We address the valuation of an operating wind farm and the finite-lived option to invest in it under different reward/support schemes: a constant feed-in tariff, a premium on top of the electricity market price (either a fixed premium or a variable subsidy such as a renewable obligation certificate or ROC), and a transitory subsidy, among others. Futures contracts on electricity with ever longer maturities enable market-based valuations to be undertaken. The model considers up to three sources of uncertainty: the electricity price, the level of wind generation, and the certificate (ROC) price where appropriate. When analytical solutions are lacking, we resort to a trinomial lattice combined with Monte Carlo simulation; we also use a two-dimensional binomial lattice when uncertainty in the ROC price is considered. Our data set refers to the UK. The numerical results show the impact of several factors involved in the decision to invest: the subsidy per MWh generated, the initial lump-sum subsidy, the maturity of the investment option, and electricity price volatility. Different combinations of variables can help bring forward investments in wind generation. One-off policies, e.g., a transitory initial subsidy, seem to have a stronger effect than a fixed premium per MWh produced.