The effects of corporate and country sustainability characteristics on the cost of debt: an international investigation

We investigate the relationship between corporate and country sustainability on the cost of bank loans. We look into 470 loan agreements signed between 2005 and 2012 with borrowers based in 28 different countries across the world and operating in all major industries. Our principal findings reveal that country sustainability, relating to both social and environmental frameworks, has a statistically and economically impactful effect on direct financing of economic activity. An increase of one unit in a country's sustainability score is associated with an average decrease in the cost of debt by 64 basis points. Our international analysis shows that the environmental dimension of a country's institutional framework is approximately twice as impactful as the social dimension, when it comes to determining the cost of corporate loans. On the other hand, we find no conclusive evidence that firm-level sustainability influences the interest rates charged to borrowing firms by banks. Our main findings survive a battery of robustness tests and additional analyses concerning subsamples, alternative sustainability metrics and the effects of financial crisis.

Selective environmental stress caused by magmatic sulfur emissions from continental flood basalt eruptions

Several biotic crises during the past 300 million years have been linked to episodes of continental flood basalt volcanism, and in particular to the release of massive quantities of magmatic sulphur gas species. Flood basalt provinces were typically formed by numerous individual eruptions, each lasting years to decades. However, the environmental impact of these eruptions may have been limited by the occurrence of quiescent periods that lasted hundreds to thousands of years. Here we use a global aerosol model to quantify the sulphur-induced environmental effects of individual, decade-long flood basalt eruptions representative of the Columbia River Basalt Group, 16.5–14.5 million years ago, and the Deccan Traps, 65 million years ago. For a decade-long eruption of Deccan scale, we calculate a decadal-mean reduction in global surface temperature of 4.5 K, which would recover within 50 years after an eruption ceased unless climate feedbacks were very different in deep-time climates. Acid mists and fogs could have caused immediate damage to vegetation in some regions, but acid-sensitive land and marine ecosystems were well-buffered against volcanic sulphur deposition effects even during century-long eruptions. We conclude that magmatic sulphur from flood basalt eruptions would have caused a biotic crisis only if eruption frequencies and lava discharge rates had been high and sustained for several centuries at a time.

A força motriz das organizações : potencializando a capacidade tecnologica atraves da gerencia inovadora

A Dissertação procura demonstrar a viabilidade de capacitação das organizações empresarias dos países em desenvolvimento - notadamente as brasileiras - para atuar sob o padrão de competitividade econômica intensivo em conhecimento, a despeito das defasagens estruturaís das economias desses países. A partir da estratégia de potencialização da capacidade tecnológica nas organizações, tal proposição é comprovada através da aplicação da teoria da gestão contemporânea, combinada com as experiências de "practitioners" organizacionais e com as evidências empíricas colhidas junto a dirigentes da amostra de 28 empresas. Inicialmente, é esboçado o significado atual de tecnologia, sob a perspectiva organizacional, e analisadas as principais transformações da ambiência externa que interferem na gestão da capacidade tecnológica das empresas. Em seguida, o estudo define duas estratégias consideradas viáveis à capacitação tecnológica empresarial, quais sejam: a) aprendizagem tecnológica e capacitação organizacional e b) modalidades de cooperação tecnológica inter-empresarial, com ênfase na gestão das "joint-ventures" internacionais. O estudo conclui que apesar da crise do Estado e da instabilidade, vigentes na economia brasileira, identifica-se, em seu setor produtivo nichos de empresas engajadas em processos de capacitação tecnológica, através das estratégias aqui abordadas. aptas a competir no mercado global do próximo milênio. Essas evidências confirmam a viabilidade de tais estratégias, tornando-as úteis às empresas que desejam atualizar-se frente as atuais tendências de gestão tecnológica.

Brazil and Turkey, a comparative analysis of both countries' economic development and institutional design from the Great Depression to the early 21st century

Apos uma década de rápido crescimento econômico na primeira década do século 21, Brasil e Turquia foram considerados duas das economias emergentes mais dinâmicas e promissoras. No entanto, vários sinais de dificuldades econômicas e tensões políticas reapareceram recentemente e simultaneamente nos dois países. Acreditamos que esses sinais e a sua simultaneidade podem ser entendidos melhor com um olhar retrospectivo sobre a história econômica dos dois países, que revela ser surpreendentemente paralela. Numa primeira parte, empreendemos uma comparação abrangente da história econômica brasileira e turca para mostrar as numerosas similaridades entre os desafios de política econômica que os dois países enfrentaram, assim como entre as respostas que eles lhes deram desde a virada da Grande Depressão até a primeira década do século 21. Essas escolhas de política econômica comuns dão forma a uma trajetória de desenvolvimento notavelmente análoga, caracterizada primeiro pela adoção do modelo de industrialização por substituição das importações (ISI) no contexto da recessão mundial dos anos 1930; depois pela intensificação e crise final desse modelo nos anos 1980; e finalmente por duas décadas de estabilização e transição para um modelo econômico mais liberal. Numa segunda parte, o desenvolvimento das instituições econômicas e políticas, assim como da economia política subjacente nos dois países, são analisados comparativamente a fim de prover alguns elementos de explicação do paralelo observado na primeira parte. Sustentamos que o marco institucional estabelecido nos dois países durante esse período também têm varias características fundamentais em comum e contribui a explicar as escolhas de política econômica e as performances econômicas comparáveis, detalhadas na primeira parte. Este estudo aborda elementos do contexto histórico úteis para compreender a situação econômica e política atual nos dois países. Potencialmente também constitui uma tentativa de considerar as economias emergentes numa perspectiva histórica e comparativa mais ampla para entender melhor as suas fraquezas institucionais e adotar um olhar mais equilibrado sobre seu potencial econômico.

Atores sociais e política ambiental urbana do Município de Mossoró/RN pelo prisma das cartografias sociais analíticas

It starts with the understanding that the relationship between society / nature is largely problematic in a context of socio-environmental crisis. In this context, we use the principle of hope to plan and work out new ways of understanding social reality, the relationship between science and alternative knowledge. The research is to investigate how the actors influence the social construction of urban environmental policy of the city of Mossoró / RN with reference to the processes of implementing the Master Plan and Agenda 21 of the municipality. The hypothesis of this research is that the Environmental Policy in Mossley has a normative character that is expressed primarily in the creation of an institutional political framework to manage environmental issues involving so incidental and or functional society participation mossoroense. Thus questioned who are the actors that build environmental policy Mossoró / RN. The specific objectives of this research are: Identify the environmental dimension of the Master Plan Agenda 21 articulated Mossoró / RN mapping information from the managers, engineers and members of the Municipal Environment and Municipal Council of Cities on the operation of urban environmental policy mossoroense and how it is performed by the Manager of Environmental Management in conjunction with the Department of Environment and Territorial Development (SEDETMA) and Executive Management of Urban Development. As a methodology, we used the method of the sociology of absences and emergencies in conjunction with the ecology of knowledge and productivity. It is a qualitative research and documentary, which was used as the Master Plan documents Mossoró / RN, minutes of meetings of boards and complementarity were carried out 12 semi-structured interviews with managers and directors of the Urban Environmental Policy of the Municipality of Mossoró / RN. They used also the social analytical or thematic maps for the translation of the dialogue among social partners, managers and directors who make the Environmental Policy Council. We conclude that these dialogues and experiences point to the construction of an environmental policy more participatory and effective, committed to individual and collective transformation of society mossoroense

The debt crisis: a re-appraisal

The 1980s' debt crisis is a landmark in developing economies' growth and stabilization. According to the most quoted empirical articles, external shocks and vicissitudes gave rise to crisis just because of delays in stabilization policies, engendered by internal conflicts and institutional immaturity. I review some of these papers, and find out some problems - in the measurement of shocks and foreign indebtedness, namely - whose corrections lead to opposite results: external shocks and foreign indebtedness explain that crisis regardless of domestic policies. At the same time, the strong correlation of income distribution to terms of trade changes and foreign indebtedness suggest that inequality may have contributed differently to that crisis: either through an economic channel, or through a political channel based on delays in reforms.

Regional hydroclimatic variability and Brazil's 2001 energy crisis

Purpose - This paper seeks to address the issue of persistent and widespread drought conditions during 2000 and 2001, which were the apparent cause of the decline of water levels in the reservoirs of Brazilian hydroelectric power plants. Design/methodology/approach - This issue is addressed here through a case study of the hydroclimatology of the Paraíba river basin, in Southeast Brazil, home to four large multi-purpose operational reservoirs. Findings - The data analysis shows that neither changes in the frequency nor magnitude of extreme hydrological events (droughts and floods) nor in annual rainfall amounts can be detected from the existing climate record. The explanation is consistent with the fact that the terrestrial water and energy cycles are tightly, and non-linearly, coupled through evapotranspiration. Research limitations/implications - Therefore small change in the seasonality of rainfall can have a significant impact on the basin's overall hydrologic regime, and thus on the availability of water resources. Originality/value - Often, adaptation and resilience to climate variability are discussed in the context of catastrophic events such as floods and droughts. This study suggests that a different type of impacts, those associated with subtle, yet persistent changes of seasonality in the terrestrial water cycle, cannot be ignored in studies of long-term sustainability of water resources. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

The environmental dimension in development planning

Includes bibliography

Environment, crisis and development planning

Includes bibliography

SMEs in the environmental goods and services market: identifying areas of opportunity, policies and instruments: case studies: Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico

Includes bibliography

Governance crisis and the Andean region: a political economy analysis

Includes bibliography

Water rights markets: institutional elements

Includes bibliography

Public institutions and explicit and implicit environmental policies

Includes bibliography

Has investor protection been rendered obsolete by the Argentine crisis?

Includes bibliography

Global economic crises, environmental-resource scarcity and wealth concentration

Includes bibliography