Input-orientated data envelopment analysis framework for measuring and decomposing economic, environmental and ecological efficiency : an application to OECD agriculture

This paper presents an input-orientated data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework which allows the measurement and decomposition of economic, environmental and ecological efficiency levels in agricultural production across different countries. Economic, environmental and ecological optimisations search for optimal input combinations that minimise total costs, total amount of nutrients, and total amount of cumulative exergy contained in inputs respectively. The application of the framework to an agricultural dataset of 30 OECD countries revealed that (i) there was significant scope to make their agricultural production systemsmore environmentally and ecologically sustainable; (ii) the improvement in the environmental and ecological sustainability could be achieved by being more technically efficient and, even more significantly, by changing the input combinations; (iii) the rankings of sustainability varied significantly across OECD countries within frontier-based environmental and ecological efficiency measures and between frontier-based measures and indicators.

A comment on "Inherited Trust and Growth"

Algan and Cahuc (2010) argue that “inherited trust” is a key factor in explaining growth rates across countries. They derive a measure of inherited trust by linking respondents’ “home countries: in the United States General Social Survey (1972-2004) and the 2000 wave of the World Values Survey. Algan and Cahuc then estimate trust levels for people born before 1910 (inherited trust in 1935) and afterwards (inherited trust in 2000). They show a strong link between economic growth rates and inherited trust. We do not challenge this result, but we do argue that: (1) The 2000 World Values Survey has many anomalous results; (2) the estimates for inherited trust in 1935 are mostly based upon tiny samples for most ethnic heritage groups in the General Social Survey; and (3) Algan and Cahuc’s findings are based upon two-tailed rather than one-tailed tests. We reestimate their model using the more reliable waves of the World Values Survey and find much weaker relationships between inherited trust in 1935 and trust in the home country. We also suggest caution in the overall measure of inherited trust in 1935.

The influence of human rights on land rights and spatial information

This paper reviews the growing influence of human rights issues on land rights, administration, management and tenure. In the last few decades, attention focussed on integrating economic and environmental considerations to achieve sustainable land use. The World Trade Organisation began in 1995. As a condition of membership, nations undertook legislative programmes aimed at reducing price distortions and barriers to international trade. Reducing trade barriers has direct effects on agricultural production as a major land use. Similarly, as signatories to the 1992 Rio Declaration, nations undertook caring for and reporting on the state of the environment. However, quality of life is also an issue in deciding what is sustainable development. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed in 1948, provided a framework for a series of international human rights conventions. These conventions now influence national legislative programmes. The purpose of this paper is to review some of the implications of human rights on rights in land and the production and use of spatial information.

Surgical treatment approaches and reimbursement costs of surgical site infections post hip arthroplasty in Australia : a retrospective analysis

BACKGROUND: The treatment for deep surgical site infection (SSI) following primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) varies internationally and it is at present unclear which treatment approaches are used in Australia. The aim of this study is to identify current treatment approaches in Queensland, Australia, show success rates and quantify the costs of different treatments. METHODS: Data for patients undergoing primary THA and treatment for infection between January 2006 and December 2009 in Queensland hospitals were extracted from routinely used hospital databases. Records were linked with pathology information to confirm positive organisms. Diagnosis and treatment of infection was determined using ICD-10-AM and ACHI codes, respectively. Treatment costs were estimated based on AR-DRG cost accounting codes assigned to each patient hospital episode. RESULTS: A total of n=114 patients with deep surgical site infection were identified. The majority of patients (74%) were first treated with debridement, antibiotics and implant retention (DAIR), which was successful in eradicating the infection in 60.3% of patients with an average cost of $13,187. The remaining first treatments were 1-stage revision, successful in 89.7% with average costs of $27,006, and 2-stage revisions, successful in 92.9% of cases with average costs of $42,772. Multiple treatments following 'failed DAIR' cost on average $29,560, for failed 1-stage revision were $24,357, for failed 2-stage revision were $70,381 and were $23,805 for excision arthroplasty. CONCLUSIONS: As treatment costs in Australia are high primary prevention is important and the economics of competing treatment choices should be carefully considered. These currently vary greatly across international settings.

Econometric Modelling with Time Series : Specification, Estimation and Testing

This book provides a general framework for specifying, estimating, and testing time series econometric models. Special emphasis is given to estimation by maximum likelihood, but other methods are also discussed, including quasi-maximum likelihood estimation, generalized method of moments estimation, nonparametric estimation, and estimation by simulation. An important advantage of adopting the principle of maximum likelihood as the unifying framework for the book is that many of the estimators and test statistics proposed in econometrics can be derived within a likelihood framework, thereby providing a coherent vehicle for understanding their properties and interrelationships. In contrast to many existing econometric textbooks, which deal mainly with the theoretical properties of estimators and test statistics through a theorem-proof presentation, this book squarely addresses implementation to provide direct conduits between the theory and applied work.

Nondiscretionary residential water use : the impact of habits and water-efficient technologies

Several studies published in the last few decades have demonstrated a low price-elasticity for residential water use. In particular, it has been shown that there is a quantity of water demanded that remains constant regardless of prices and other economic factors. In this research, we characterise residential water demand based on a Stone-Geary utility function. This specification is not only theory-compatible but can also explicitly model a minimum level of consumption not dependent on prices or income. This is described as minimum threshold or nondiscretionary water use. Additionally, the Stone-Geary framework is used to model the subsistence level of water consumption that is dependent on the temporal evolution of consumer habits and stock of physical capital. The main aim of this study is to analyse the impact of water-saving habits and water-efficient technologies on residential water demand, while additionally focusing attention on nondiscretionary uses. This is informed by an empirical application using data from a survey conducted among residents of Brisbane City Council, Australia. The results will be especially useful in the design of water tariffs and other water-saving policies.

The impact of mining and smelting activities on property values : a study of Mount Isa city, Queensland, Australia

Much publicity has been given to the problem of high levels of environmental contaminants, most notably high blood lead concentration levels among children in the city of Mount Isa because of mining and smelting activities. The health impacts from mining-related pollutants are now well documented. This includes published research being discussed in an editorial of the Medical Journal of Australia (see Munksgaard et al. 2010). On the other hand, negative impacts on property prices, although mentioned, have not been examined to date. This study rectifies this research gap. This study uses a hedonic property price approach to examine the impact of mining- and smelting-related pollution on nearby property prices. The hypothesis is that those properties closer to the lead and copper smelters have lower property (house) prices than those farther away. The results of the study show that the marginal willingness to pay to be farther from the pollution source is AUS $13 947 per kilometre within the 4 km radius selected. The study has several policy implications, which are discussed briefly. We used ordinary least squares, geographically weighted regression, spatial error and spatial autoregressive or spatial lag models for this analysis.

Defence industry projects : investigating the impact of major project manager attributes on stakeholder relationships and project success

This thesis identifies attributes, skills and behaviours that major project managers require for stakeholder relationships competence and project success within a major project environment. It develops valid and reliable measures of internal and external stakeholder relationships competence, tests a complex conceptual model and explores the effectiveness of the QUT Executive Masters of Complex Project Management and Strategic Procurement in developing major project managers' stakeholder relationships competence. Implications of this thesis are for government and industry in identifying factors associated with major project success, as this will lead to better major project outcomes potentially resulting in time and monetary savings of years and billions of dollars.

Cents and Sustainability : Securing Our Common Future by Decoupling Economic Growth from Environmental Pressures

The focus of Cents and Sustainability is to respond to the call by Dr Gro Brundtland in the seminal book Our Common Future to achieve, 'a new era of economic growth - growth that is forceful and at the same time socially and environmentally sustainable'. With the 20th anniversary of Our Common Future in 2007, it is clearly time to re-examine this important work in a modern global context. Using the framework of ‘Decoupling Economic Growth from Environmental Pressures’, Cents and Sustainability investigates a range of new evidence and research in order to develop a deeper understanding of how, and under what conditions, this 'forceful sustainable growth' is possible. With an introduction by Dr Jim MacNeill (former Secretary General to the Brundtland Commission, and former Director, OECD Environment Directorate 1978 -1984), the book will carry forewords from Dr Gro Brundtland (former Chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development), Dr Rajendra Pachauri (Chief, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and joint recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the IPCC), and Dr Kenneth Ruffing (former Deputy Director and Chief Economist of the OECD Environment Directorate 2000 - 2005). Beginning with a detailed explanation of decoupling theory, along with investigation into a range of issues and barriers to its achievement, the book then focuses on informing national strategies for decoupling. Then putting this into action the book focuses on five key areas of decoupling, namely greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, freshwater extraction, waste production, and air pollution, and in each case showing compelling evidence for significant cost effective reductions in environmental pressures. The book concludes with a detailed case study of the groundbreaking application of public interest litigation to combat air pollution in Delhi, India.

Regional trade-offs between mine water and energy use : a water treatment case study

The mining industry faces concurrent pressures of reducing water use, energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in coming years. However, the interactions between water and energy use, as well as GHG e missions have largely been neglected in modelling studies to date. In addition, investigations tend to focus on the unit operation scale, with little consideration of whole-of-site or regional scale effects. This paper presents an application of a hierarchical systems model (HSM) developed to represent water, energy and GHG emissions fluxes at scales ranging from the unit operation, to the site level, to the regional level. The model allows for the linkages between water use, energy use and GHG emissions to be examined in a fl exible and intuitive way, so that mine sites can predict energy and emissions impacts of water use reduction schemes and vice versa. This paper examines whether this approach can also be applied to the regional scale with multiple mine sites. The model is used to conduct a case study of several coal mines in the Bowen Basin, Australia, to compare the utility of centralised and decentralised mine water treatment schemes. The case study takes into account geographical factors (such as water pumping distances and elevations), economic factors (such as capital and operating cost curves for desalination treatment plants) and regional factors (such as regionally varying climates and associated variance in mine water volumes and quality). The case study results indicate that treatment of saline mine water incurs a trade-off between water and energy use in all cases. However, significant cost differences between centralised and decentralised schemes can be observed in a simple economic analysis. Further research will examine the possibility for deriving model up-scaling algorithms to reduce computational requirements.

Technology, Natural Resources and Economic Growth: Improving the Environment for a Greener Future

Description Through a combination of global data analysis and focused country level analysis, this timely book provides answers to the most pertinent country and industry specific questions defining the current relationship between technology, natural resources and economic growth. Contents Contents: Preface Part I: Global Analysis 1. Economic Growth and the Environment 2. Energy Substitution and Carbon Dioxide Emissions 3. Pollution, Natural Resources, and Economic Growth 4. Trade Openness and Environmental Quality 5. Environmental Productivity 6. Energy Price-induced Technological Change 7. Trade-induced Technological Change 8. Regional Economic Integration Part II: Country-Level Analysis 9. Emissions Trading in the United States 10. Increasing Returns to Pollution Abatement in the United States 11. Policy-induced Competitiveness in the United States 12. Trade Liberalization, Technology, and the Environment 13. Policy Implementation and its Effectiveness in China 14. Clean Technological Inventions in Japan 15. Intervention of Economic Policy and its Nonlinear Effects in Japan 16. The Next Emerging Giants: India and Africa 17. Conclusion Index Further information Through a combination of global data analysis and focused country level analysis, this timely book provides answers to the most pertinent country and industry specific questions defining the current relationship between technology, natural resources and economic growth. Shunsuke Managi takes a distinctive approach by focusing on the design and implementation of environmental regulations that encourage technological progress and, in doing so, looks at ways to ensure productivity improvements in the face of increasingly stringent environmental regulations and natural resource depletion. The findings in this important book demonstrate how successful environmental policies can contribute to efficiency by encouraging, rather than inhibiting, technological innovation. Technology, Natural Resources and Economic Growth will provide a valuable resource for a wide readership including postgraduate students, researchers, academics and policy makers working in the fields of environmental and ecological economics.

A Tradable Permit System in an Intertemporal Economy

It is known that in an intertemporal competitive economy, a tradable permit system may not achieve efficiency without setting appropriate permit interest rates (i.e., rewards for holding permits). To find the rates, however, we need to know in advance the path of efficient permit prices, which is difficult to obtain. This study intends to solve this problem in two ways. First, we analyze a special case in which the permit interest rates are given by a simple rule. For example, if the marginal abatement cost of pollution emission is constant, then the appropriate rate is to equal the monetary interest rate. As is the case for global warming, if the damage is caused in the future far beyond the planning period of the environmental program, the appropriate rate coincides with the marginal self-recovery of environmental stock under certain conditions. As a second approach, we propose a tradable permit system with a permit bank, as a mechanism by which the permit interest rates are generated endogenously without governmental intervention other than the issuance of permits. However, we also show that this approach raises the problem of indeterminacy of the equilibrium. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

Non-separability and substitutability among water pollutants : evidence from India

The design and implementation of environmental policy often involve more than one pollutant, and must consider pollution as a byproduct of the production of marketable output. In this paper, we test the implicit assumption in the empirical literature that (1) production of marketable output, pollution and abatement are separable, and (2) different pollutants can be abated separately. Using unique plant-level data in India, we reject the null hypotheses of separability between marketable output and pollutants, and between different pollutants. Firms must incur abatement costs for reducing pollution levels. In addition, complement and substitute relationships between water pollutants are demonstrated with statistical significance.

Changes in environmentally sensitive productivity and technological modernization in China's iron and steel industry in the 1990s

Technological modernization is widely believed to contribute positively both to economic development and to environmental and resource conservation, through improvements in productivity and strengthening of business competitiveness. However, this may not always be true, particularly in the short term, as it requires substantial investments and may impose financial burdens on firms undertaking such investments. This study empirically examines the effects of technological modernization in China's iron and steel industry in the 1990s on conventional economic productivity (CEP) and environmentally sensitive productivities (ESPs). We employ a directional distance function that can handle multiple inputs and outputs to compute relative production efficiencies. We apply these models to the data covering 27 iron and steel firms in China between 1990 and 1999-a period when the Chinese iron and steel industry modernized rapidly. We find that ESPs have continuously improved, even in the period when the CEP declined.