Should energy efficiency be traded off for other product attributes? : an analysis of air-conditioner regulation in Japan

This paper examines the functioning of energy efficiency standards and labeling policies for air conditioners in Japan. The results of our empirical analysis suggest that consumers respond more to label information, which benchmarks the energy efficiency performance of each product to a pre-specified target, than to direct performance measures. This finding provides justification for the setting, and regular updating, of target standards as well as their use in calculating relative performance measures. We also find, through graphical analysis, that air conditioner manufacturers face a tradeoff between energy efficiency and product compactness when they develop their products. This tradeoff, combined with the semi-regular upward revision of minimum energy efficiency standards, has led to the growth in indoor unit size of air conditioners in recent years. In the face of this phenomenon, regulatory rules were revised so that manufacturers could adhere to less stringent standards if the indoor unit size of their product remains below a certain size. Our demand estimates provide no evidence that larger indoor unit size causes disutility to consumers. It is therefore possible that the regulatory change was not warranted from a consumer welfare point of view.

(Tables 1,2) Site characteristics and phenotypic attributes of King Penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) on Possession Island

In colonial species, it is often assumed that locations in the center of the colony are of highest quality and provide highest breeding success. We tested this prediction, known as the "central-periphery model," in a King Penguin colony in the subantarctic Crozet Archipelago. Breeding activity and survival of 150 penguins, fitted with transponder tags, were monitored over an entire breeding season. Among these 150 birds, 50 bred on the slope at the upper periphery of the colony, where the rates of predation and parasitism by ticks were high. Fifty birds bred in the center of the colony, where rates of predation and tick parasitism were low, and 50 bred at the lower end of the colony, where the rate of tick parasitism was low but predation and flooding were important risks. We predicted that the center of the colony should provide the safest breeding place and consequently be characterized by the highest breeding success and be used by the highest-quality individuals. Yet we found that penguins breeding in the center of the colony had the same breeding success as those at both peripheral locations. In addition, penguins breeding on the upper slope had a higher survival rate than penguins breeding at the center or bottom of the slope and were likely of higher quality. Our study does not support the central-periphery model and emphasizes the complexity behind the relationships among breeding site, breeding success, and individual quality.

Permafrost cores and active layer pits on Herschel Island: core attributes

Twelve permafrost cores and active layer pits were drilled/dug on Herschel Island in order to estimate the soil organic carbon and total nitrogen contents in the first 30, 100 and 200 cm of ground. The data are the core information obtained during sampling.

Second Central American Integration Fund loan : proposal and recommendations for the review of the Development Loan Committee /

"AID-DLC/P-560 revised."

Inter-American Development Bank act amendment : hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Eighty-ninth Congress, first session on S.805, to amend the Inter-American Development Bank act to authorize the United States to participate in an increase in the resources of the fund for special operations of the Inter-American Development Bank. February 5 and 8, 1965.

Mode of access: Internet.

To amend the Electronic Fund Transfer Act : hearing before the Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs of the Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, House of Representatives, Ninety-sixth Congress, first session, on H.R. 3552 ... May 1, 1979.

"Serial 96-15."

International Monetary Fund : efforts to advance U.S. policies at the Fund : report to Congressional Committees /

"GAO-01-214."

Articles of agreement, International monetary fund and International bank for reconstruction and development, United Nations monetary and financial conference, Bretton Woods, N.H., July 1 to 22, 1944.

Mode of access: Internet.

Educational fund : speech of Hon. Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont, in the Senate of the United States, April 26, 1876.

Mode of access: Internet.

The Fund agreement in the courts /

Parts I-VII published in 1962 as no. 2 of the International Monetary Funds's Monograph series. All parts published originally as a series of articles in the Fund's journal, "Staff papers."

Special reports on trip and vehicle attributes: based on data from 1990 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey (NPTS).

Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C.

Sensitivity analysis of vehicle design attributes that affect vehicle response in critical accident situations - part 1: user's manual. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Report of the Daniel Guggenheim fund for the promotion of aeronautics. 1926/27-1929.

List of publications of the fund is given in report for 1929, p. 9-10.