Current Share Research Articles

Land and clean energy trade-off: estimating India’s future land requirement to fulfil INDC commitment

PurposeFor India, with its low agricultural productivity and huge population, land acquisition has always been a serious policy challenge in the installation of land-intensive power projects. India has experienced a large number of projects getting stalled because of land conflict. Yet, there is a paucity of literature pertinent to India that tries to estimate future land requirements taking into consideration of land occupation metric.Design/methodology/approachIn the present study, the dynamic land transformation and land occupation metrics of nine energy sources, both conventional and renewable, are estimated to further determine the magnitude of land requirement that India needs to prepare itself to fulfil its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) commitments. This is illustrated through two different scenarios of energy requirement growth rates, namely, conservative and advanced.FindingsThis analysis suggests that, while nuclear energy entails the lowest dynamic land transformation when land occupation metric is taken into account, waste to energy source possesses least land requirement, followed by coal-fired source. Hydro energy source has highest requirement both in terms of dynamic land transformation and land occupation. It is also seen that land requirement will be 96% and 120% more in INDC scenario than business as usual (i.e. if India continues with its current share of renewables in its energy portfolio in 2030) considering a conservative and an advanced growth rate, respectively.Research limitations/implicationsSome policy recommendations are provided that may aid policymakers to better address the trade-off between clean energy and land and incorporate it into policy planning. This study has not been able to consider future technical efficiency improvement possibilities for all energy sources, which can be incorporated in the proposed framework for further insight.Originality/valueThis paper provides a framework for estimation of future land requirement to fulfil India’s INDC energy plans which is not available in existing literature. The authors confirm that this manuscript is an original work.

Investing preventive care and economic development in ageing societies: empirical evidences from OECD countries

BackgroundThe proportion of the elderly aged 65 years old or above will reach 16% in 2050 worldwide. Early investment in effective prevention would generally reduce the morbidity, complication, functional disability, and mortality of most chronic illnesses and save resources in both healthcare and social services. This research aims to investigate how the optimal allocation of medical resources between prevention and treatment adds value to the population’s health as well as examine the interaction between ageing, health, and economic performance.MethodsThis research undertakes ageing-health analyses by developing an economic growth model. Based on the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries’ experiences over the period from 2000 to 2017, this research further examines the hypothesis that an ageing society could increase demand for preventive and curative healthcare.ResultsTheoretical analysis found that the prevention share for maximizing growth is the same as that for minimizing ill health and maximizing welfare; this share increases with treatment share and ageing ratios. Estimation results from OECD countries’ experiences indicate that when treatment share increases by 1%, the prevention demand increases by 0.036%. A one-percent increase in the ageing ratio yields a change in prevention share of 0.0368%. The optimal share of prevention health expenditure to GDP would be 1.175% when the prevalence rate of ill health isat 6.13%; a higher or lower share of prevention would be accompanied with a higher prevalence of ill health. For example, a zero and 1.358% preventive health expenditure would be associated with an 18.01% prevalence of ill health, while the current share of prevention of 0.237% is associated with a 10.26% prevalence of ill health.ConclusionThis study shows that appropriate prevention is associated with decreases in the prevalence rates of ill health, which in turn attains sustainable growth in productivity. Too much prevention, however, could lead to higher detection of new chronic diseases with mild severity, which would result in longer illness duration, and higher prevalence rates of ill health. With suitable allocation of medical resources, the economic growth rate will help to cancel out increases in healthcare spending for the elderly and for expenses needed for the improvement of the population’s health as a whole.

An Unfair Affinity Toward Fairness: Characterizing 70 Years of Social Biases in BHollywood (Student Abstract)

Bollywood, aka the Mumbai film industry, is one of the biggest movie industries in the world with a current movie market share of worth 2.1 billion dollars and a target audience base of 1.2 billion people. While the entertainment impact in terms of lives that Bollywood can potentially touch is mammoth, no NLP study on social biases in Bollywood content exists. We thus seek to understand social biases in a developing country through the lens of popular movies. Our argument is simple -- popular movie content reflects social norms and beliefs in some form or shape. We present our preliminary findings on a longitudinal corpus of English subtitles of popular Bollywood movies focusing on (1) social bias toward a fair skin color (2) gender biases, and (3) gender representation. We contrast our findings with a similar corpus of Hollywood movies. Surprisingly, we observe that much of the biases we report in our preliminary experiments on the Bollywood corpus, also gets reflected in the Hollywood corpus.

Spirofluorene based small molecules as an alternative to traditional non-fullerene acceptors for organic solar cells

Nowadays, world is moving from conventional energy sources to non-conventional energy sources like solar energy, wind power, hydropower and those energy sources which can be regenerate as they are consumes. The current share of solar energy in global energy production is substantially increasing due to its cheap source as compared to conventional sources. With the passage of time, scientist's developed large variety of solar cells but now demand for solar cells (SCs) is to develop new, cheap and more technologically advance low cost small molecule based organic solar cells with non-fullerene acceptors for mass production at industrial scale. Herein current research work, we designed four Spirofluorene based 3D configurated small molecules (M1–M4) and evaluated its different optoelectronic properties by using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT). After this theoretical study, we believes that this study would be beneficial in future investigations of donor–acceptor type materials for organic photovoltaic devices.

Recycling of tungsten: Current share, economic limitations, technologies and future potential

Recycling is an essential part of the global tungsten flow. A wide variety of recycling technologies for tungsten exists today. Processes are tailored to deal with different scrap types and to produce well-defined recycling products. The paper presents the current share of recycling in the global tungsten flow and elaborates on the economy of recycling. The available recycling technologies and their industrial relevance is summarized. Based on the tungsten end-use pattern and the associated tungsten products, the future potential of tungsten recycling is discussed.

Greater Mekong subregion should become a green farm in Asia: prerequisites, plans, implementation

The agriculture remains a strategic sector of the economy, despite the widespread decline in its share in GDP production and employment. Its development is observed as a key factor in maintaining food security, as well as reducing poverty. That is why various farming methods are subject of particular interest, including organic production, which can maintain the ecological balance, preserve and increase the productivity of the main and most valuable resource of this sector — land, thus providing a longterm sustainable model of agricultural development. In addition, organic products are in great demand in the world market, which certainly makes impressive prospects for export development. "Green products" have a higher value added, which contributes to labor productivity increase and enhance the profi ts of farms. As a result, the development of organic production is a direct path to increase exports in monetary terms and to raise the living standards of the rural population, which is especially important in the GMS countries.The article highlights the advantages of organic farming, considers the stages of the emergence of "green agriculture", shows its dynamics in the GMS countries, the sectoral structure, and their export potential in the world and the region. The author concludes that GMS countries have great potential to become a major supplier of safe and environmentally friendly agricultural products, having already earned trust in premium markets and built up a reputation. However, despite all the advantages described and the gradual increase in the number of lands transferred to organic "rails", the current share of organic farms in the total lands does not exceed 0.5 %. In addition, the development of organic production is faced with a number of problems and contradictions. The key factor restraining the transition to "green production" is the duration of its conversion, causing the risks of farms falling into the "poverty trap".

Revisiting the determinants of individual sustainable investment—The case of Japan

This study empirically examines individual sustainable investment behavior of households’ decision-makers in Japan from three perspectives. Based on data from a representative online survey among financial decision makers in Japanese households, we analyze (i) the individual awareness of sustainable investments, (ii) the current share of sustainable investments in individual investors’ portfolios, and (iii) the individual investors’ intention to invest sustainably in the future. We find evidence for huge information deficits among Japanese individual investors indicating that individual sustainable investment in Japan is still in its infancy. Financial literacy, social signaling or word-of-mouth learning, perceived financial performance, and risk preferences are the most important determinants of current individual sustainable investments. Remarkably, non-financial factors such as personal attitudes and values seem to be less important than in Western countries. Nevertheless, the intention to invest sustainably in the future is also driven by individual environmental values and ecological political identification.

The Relationship between Governance Quality and the Cost of Equity Capital in Italian Listed Firms: An Update

This paper investigates the relationship between corporate governance quality and the cost of equity capital, intended as the discount rate the market applies to a firm’s expected future cash flows to evaluate the current share price. Using data from the Italian listed corporations in 2018, this paper combines several attributes like board independence, board size, the existence of the internal audit, and CEO duality incorporated in a corporate governance quality index. Our results do not provide evidence of a statistically significant relationship between the corporate governance score and the firm’s equity capital cost. A possible explanation is that in recent years a greater homogeneity, and a generalized increase in corporate governance quality standards, has been observed in the Italian framework with worse companies that closed the gap with those with higher performances. Hence, lower variability in the corporate governance index results in a not significant effect of a composite index on reducing the cost of equity capital.

Data analytics for optimizing extreme fast charging: a survey

Electric vehicles have become a trend as a replacement to gasoline-powered vehicles, and been promoted by worldwide policy makers as a solution to combat environmental problems and stimulate economy. Whereas the current market share of electric vehicles is still low, one main obstacle is no enough extreme fast charging, which requires high capital costs and strategic planning. Proper placement of extreme fast charging stations can maximize investment utility, promote public acceptance of electric vehicles, minimize adverse effects on transportation and power networks, and improve penetration market rate for electric vehicles. As such, the research on extreme fast charging station siting and sizing has received considerable attention in the past decade, where optimization modeling has become the main approach. This survey is to review various optimization models, examine their characteristics and evaluate their applications. We also discuss challenges/limitations of the optimization modeling approach for the extreme fast charging location planning, and point out future research directions. Our study can serve as a tutorial/reference to the extreme fast charging location optimization modeling, and attempts to attract more talents and research interests in this exciting field.

Can regional trade integration facilitate renewable energy transition to ensure energy sustainability in South Asia?

This paper primarily aimed to assess the impacts of regional trade integration on the prospects of undergoing renewable energy transition in selected South Asian economies between 1992 and 2015. The overall results from the econometric analyses, controlling for the cross-sectional dependency and slope heterogeneity issues, highlight the importance of promoting intra-regional trade among the South Asian economies to boost the renewable energy consumption shares and renewable electricity output shares in the total final energy consumption and aggregate electricity output figures, respectively. Besides, the non-linearity of the nexuses between intra-regional trade shares and renewable energy consumption shares and between intra-regional trade shares and renewable electricity output shares are also ascertained. The threshold intra-regional trade shares concerning the renewable energy consumption and renewable electricity output shares are predicted at 20.53% and 17.50%, respectively. However, the predicted threholds are significantly higher than the current average intra-regional trade share in South Asia. Moreover, the panel causality analysis reveals unidirectional causal relationships stemming from intra-regional trade shares to renewable energy consumption and renewable electricity output shares. Besides, greater FDI inflows are found to reduce the overall use of renewable energy while higher levels of economic growth and CO2 emissions are found to catalyze renewable energy use in South Asia. Furthermore, the results also implicate a non-linear U-shaped association between positive crude oil price shocks and renewable energy consumption and renewable electricity output shares. Therefore, these findings impose critically important policy implications for liberalizing the intra-regional trade barriers, reducing dirty foreign direct investment inflows, expediting economic growth, reducing fossil fuel dependency and abating carbon dioxide emissions to facilitate renewable energy transition in South Asia.

Future profitability and stock returns of innovative firms in Australia

This paper examines the impact of innovation on future profitability and stock returns. We first replicate and confirm the findings of Hirshleifer et al. (2018) in the U.S. setting. Consistent with Hirshleifer et al. (2018) we find that innovation is associated with: (1) higher and more persistent profitability suggesting that more innovative firms are able to maintain a competitive advantage and (2) positive future stock returns suggesting mispricing of innovation in current share prices. When we extend these analyses to the Australian setting we continue to find that innovative firms experienced sustained profitability but unlike Hirshleifer et al. (2018) we find no evidence of mispricing. We argue that the general paucity of innovation in Australia and the two-tier registration system which allows investors to differentiate between the quality of patents, enable Australian investors to better price innovation.

ОРГАНИЗАЦИОННО-ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКАЯ НАДЕЖНОСТЬ СТРОИТЕЛЬСТВА ОБЪЕКТОВ АТОМНОЙ ЭНЕРГЕТИКИ НА ГЛОБАЛЬНЫХ РЫНКАХ АЭС НА ПРЕДИНВЕСТИЦИОННЫХ ЭТАПАХ

The problems of ensuring the growth of the export potential of investment projects of nuclear power plants in the global markets of nuclear and energy construction by modeling and managing the organizational and economic reliability of their life cycles at the preinvestment phase are investigated. The relevance of this topic is determined by a significant level of uncertainty in the field of reliability of the imp- lementation of international investment projects of nuclear power plants, when more than 60% of nuclear reactors in the world are being built with a delay in construction and with an increase in costs. The aim of the research is to develop methodological approaches and practical re- commendations for modeling and integrated management of indicators of organizational and economic reliability of the construction of nuclear power facilities in the global NPP market at pre-investment stages. The article demonstrates the scientific results: a methodology for modeling the organizational and economic reliabi- lity of the life cycle of industrial construction of nuclear power plants; features and development trends of this type of industrial construction in the global NPP market; recommendations in the field of investment management of indust- rial construction to increase the organizational and economic reliability of NPP construction based on a controlled factor space and multicriteria optimization of calendar schedules. The investigated conceptual approach in the field of modeling and managing the organizational and economic reliability of the life cycles of industrial construction and operation of nuclear power plants in global markets is defined as a promising market tool for increasing the competitiveness of Russian divisions of Rosatom State Corporation. This implies ensuring the growth of industrial construction of nuclear power plants on the international market from the current share of Rosatom State Corporation of 26% (130 billion US dollars) to 40–50% for the period up to 2035, by increasing the organizational and economic reliability of the implementation of these types investment projects.

Cashless Payments and Economic Growth in Selected European Countries

<p>Purpose of the article: The aim of the paper was to show connections between the instruments of cashless payments and economic growth. The goal was to find the answers to the following research questions: What is the current share of payments with the use of particular forms of cashless payments in total payments?; What forms of cashless payments are connected with economic growth measured by real GDP per capita in the group of countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe?; What is the relation between the value of cashless payments and economic growth measured by real GDP per capita in the group of countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe?</p><p>Research methods: Spearman’s rank correlation.</p><p>Research results: The authors have found that the highest share in terms of the number of payments in total payments in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe constituted payments with the use of payment cards, then, the payments with the use of a transfer order. Whereas, in the countries of Western Europe, apart from the fact that high percentage of payments in total constituted payments with the use of payment cards and transfer orders, more and more payments are made with the use of the instruments of e-money. Examining mutual relationships, information about correlational connections that occur between economic growth measured by GDP per capita and value of payments with the use of some instruments of cashless payments was obtained. The main conclusion that can be drawn after data analysis is positive relationships between the value of payments with the use of a transfer order, payment card and economic growth found both in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the countries of Western Europe. In the countries of Western Europe, the payments with the use of a direct debit turned out to be insignificant, whereas the payments with the use of instruments of e-money were signifiant. Taking into account the force of relationships, it can be said that higher positive correlation is shown by the value of payments with the use of a transfer order with reference to real GDP per capita in the countries of Western Europe (0.80). In the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, it is only 0.48. Mutual connections between the value of payments with the use of payment cards and economic growth are similar in both groups of countries. What is interesting, high impact on real GDP per capita – about 0.80 – is shown by the payments with the use of instruments of e-money. This study may represent a contribution to further research, that is, an analysis of cause-and-effect relationships in the field of cashless payments and economic growth, including division of countries in terms of, for example, the level of wealth.</p><p>Added value: Analysis of current literature on the impact of cashless payments on economic growth and an empirical analysis.</p>

EVALUATION OF GAS INDUSTRY COMPETITIVENESS IN THE FOREIGN MARKET

The evaluation of the Russian oil and gas companies' competitiveness in the foreign market under the tough market conditions is of particular importance as it is crucial to retain company's current position and market share. The article makes qualitative and quantitative evaluation of Russian companies in the global gas market. To analyze the competitiveness of the gas industry company in the foreign market, the authors used a dynamic method of evaluating competitiveness coupled with a SWOT analysis. The dynamic evaluation method offers an opportunity to identify the basic factors that influenced the level of competitiveness of the entity under study and, accordingly, determine the main reserves for increasing its competitiveness. Based on the study conducted, recommendations were made on the increase in competitiveness in the current situation of unstable demand and volatile energy prices. By analyzing the PJSC Gazprom level of competitiveness, as well as its external and internal environment, indicators were identified the regulation of which will lead to the progressive development of the organization and increase in its competitiveness. The practical relevance of the study lies in the possibility to use both the research outcome and the proposed methods in a development strategy for the gas industry company.Keywords: advantages, competitiveness management, SWOT-analysis, oil and gas companies.JEL Classifications: L10, F23, N70DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.10275

Opportunities and Barriers of Hydrogen–Electric Hybrid Powertrain Vans: A Systematic Literature Review

The environmental impact of the road transport sector, together with urban freight transport growth, has a notable repercussions in global warming, health and economy. The need to reduce emissions caused by fossil fuel dependence and to foster the use of renewable energy sources has driven the development of zero-emissions powertrains. These clean transportation technologies are not only necessary to move people but to transport the increasing demand for goods and services that is currently taking place in the larger cities. Full electric battery-powered vans seem to be the best-placed solution to the problem. However, despite the progress in driving range and recharge options, those and other market barriers remain unsolved and the current market share of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) is not significant. Based on the development of hydrogen fuel cell stacks, this work explains an emerging powertrain architecture concept for N1 class type vans, that combines a battery-electric configuration with a fuel cell stack powered by hydrogen that works as a range extender (FC-EREV). A literature review is conducted, with the aim to shed light on the possibilities of this hybrid light-duty commercial van for metropolitan delivery tasks, providing insights into the key factors and issues for sizing the powertrain components and fuel management strategies to meet metropolitan freight fleet needs.

Refueling infrastructure planning in intercity networks considering route choice and travel time delay for mixed fleet of electric and conventional vehicles

The range anxiety has been a major factor that affects the market acceptance of electric vehicles. Even with the recent development of battery technologies, a lack of charging stations and range anxiety are still significant concerns, specifically for intercity trips. This calls for more investments in building charging stations and advancing battery technologies to increase the market share of electric vehicles and improve sustainability. This study suggests a configuration for plug-in electric vehicle charging infrastructure to support long-distance intercity trips of electric vehicles at the network level. A model is proposed to minimize the total system cost including infrastructure investment (building charging stations/spots) and travel time delays (charging time, waiting time in the queue, and detour time to access charging stations). This study fills existing gaps in the literature by capturing realistic patterns of travel demand and considering flow-dependent charging delays at charging stations. Furthermore, the proposed model, which is formulated as a mixed-integer program with nonlinear constraints, solves the optimization problem at the network level. At the network level, impacts of charging station locations on the traffic assignment problem with a mixed fleet of electric and conventional vehicles need to be considered. To this end, a traffic assignment module is integrated with a simulated annealing algorithm. The numerical experiments show a satisfactory application of the model for a full-scale case study (intercity network in Michigan). The solution quality and efficiency of the proposed solution algorithm are evaluated against those of an enumeration approach for a small case study. The results suggest that even for the current market share and charging stations’ setting, a significant investment is needed to support intercity trips without range anxiety issues and with acceptable delays. Furthermore, through sensitivity analyses, the required infrastructure and battery investments to support intercity trips with acceptable delays are established for hypothetical increased market shares and battery size in the future.

Single-Line-to-Ground Fault Feeder Selection Considering Device Polarity Reverse Installation in Resonant Grounding System

This paper proposes a new method to select single-line-to-ground (SLG) fault feeder in resonant grounding power distribution system based on compensation characteristic of extinction coil in different frequencies. The proposed method is insusceptible to the influence of device polarity reverse installation. Firstly, through analyzing the zero sequence equivalent circuit under a SLG fault, the difference of zero sequence current share in fundamental frequency and second-harmonic frequency is investigated. And then, according to the change of current share (CCS), fault feeder selection criterion and steps are established. Finally, numerous simulation tests demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in identifying the faulty feeder or the faulty bus. Besides, its reliability is also verified by tests with different system parameters and different fault conditions. Specially, device polarity reverse installation tests and comparisons are also implemented, which shows the advantages of the proposed method in dealing with device polarity reverse installation.

Sharing the safe operating space: Exploring ethical allocation principles to operationalize the planetary boundaries and assess absolute sustainability at individual and industrial sector levels

AbstractIn the light of increasing human pressures on the Earth system, the issue of sharing in the face of scarcity is more pressing than ever. The planetary boundary framework identifies and quantifies nine environmental boundaries and corresponding human pressures. However, when aiming to make the concept operational for decision support it is unclear how this safe operating space (SOS) within each of the planetary boundaries should be shared. This study proposes a two‐step approach, where the operating space is first downscaled to the individual level using ethical allocation principles and next scaled up to a higher organizational level using different upscaling methods. For the downscaling, three allocation principles are demonstrated: egalitarian (equal per capita); grandfathering (proportional to current share of the total impacts); and ability to pay (proportional to economic activity). For upscaling from the individual level final consumption expenditure is used as a proxy for the priority that the individual gives to the product or sector. In an alternative upscaling approach, an additional upscaling factor is based on the eco‐efficiency (ratio between turnover and environmental impact) of the product or sector. A demonstration of the method's application is given by applying the framework to two of the planetary boundaries, climate change and biogeochemical flows, with the Danish, Indian and global dairy sectors as cases. It is demonstrated how the choices of allocation and upscaling approaches influence the results differently in the three cases. The developed framework is shown to support an informed and transparent selection of allocation principles and upscaling methods and it provides a step toward standardization of distributing the SOS in absolute environmental sustainability assessments.

Metallic resources in smartphones

53 metallic elements from smartphones were investigated with regard to metal prices, metal production, and content in comparison to mined ores. The metal content of the 7.42 billion smartphone devices sold from 2012 to 2017 could theoretically maintain the global supply for 91 days for Ga, 73 days for Ta, 23 days for Pd, 14 days for Au, and 6 days for REE. The pure metal value of a single smartphone device for the investigated metals currently sums to 1.13 US $; it averaged at 1.05 US $ from 2012 to 2017 with the highest value of 1.32 US $ in 2012. The Au content is low (16.83 mg per device), yet constitutes the highest value with a current share of approximately 72% of total value for all measured metals, followed by Pd (10%). Approximately 82% of total metal value can be recycled with current standard recycling methods for Au, Cu, Pd, Pt, which only comprise 6 wt% of the total device. The printed circuit board (pcb) contains 90% of the measured Au, 98% of Cu, 99% of Pd, 86% of In, and 93% of Ta. The Au, Pd, Cu, Pt, Ta, In, Ga contents in a smartphone pcb are significantly higher than the metal content in currently mined ores. Magnets contain 96% of the measured REE and 40% of the measured Ga, with higher concentrations than ores for REE and Ga. For Co and Ge, metal content in smartphones (w/o batteries) is lower than in ores. • Detailed content of 53 metals from smartphones is investigated. • Metal concentrations in smartphones are compared with currently mined ores. • Fluctuating metal prices can affect recycling efforts. • Potential recycling options and obstacles for metals in smartphones are discussed.

Rerouting Europe's gas transit landscape - Effects of Russian natural gas infrastructure strategy on the V4

The Russian gas transit through Ukraine and the possibility of circumnavigating the historically dominant route poses a serious challenge to European gas markets. With the application of market modelling tools, this paper examines Russian export strategies to Europe using different transit route combinations. Although the cessation of Ukrainian transit would not endanger the security of gas supply in Europe, it would result in higher prices in all scenarios. In scenarios that include Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream 2, Ukrainian transit is non-essential for Russia to maintain its current share of EU gas imports. At the same time, the results show that limiting Ukrainian transit is less profitable for Russia: even if all the planned infrastructure is completed, shutting this route would result in losses of close to 5 billion € per year in Russian gas sales. Since it appears inevitable that Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream 2 will be built, a no transit scenario is a real possibility thereafter. In this case the V4 should lobby for Balkan Stream, with investment costs borne by Gazprom. However, if there are continued deliveries via Ukraine there is no need for Balkan Stream.