Public Incentives Research Articles

Optimal Active Debris Removal mission planning to inform policy decisions

Active Debris Removal (ADR) will be important to ensure the long-term sustainability of the space environment and to preserve benefits derived from space for those here on Earth. Effective ADR relies on optimal mission planning to select Space Objects (SOs) with the highest risk. The Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) concept is discussed as a method to increase the quantity of ADR over market equilibrium to promote space sustainability and accelerate the development of commercial ADR. The MIT Orbital Capacity Assessment Tool - Monte Carlo (MOCAT-MC) is utilized to obtain information about the probability of collision with other SOs and the number of debris generated over a long propagation and is combined with the criticality of spacecraft index, a static ranking index, to obtain the MIT Risk Index (MITRI), which quantifies the risk posed by an SO. A Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used with a binary chromosome encoding to perform evolutionary optimization and identify the optimal mission route by solving a mixed integer nonlinear problem while respecting spacecraft Δv and thrust constraints. MITRI is demonstrated as an efficacy metric to inform subsidy pricing for an AMC. Three potential AMC case studies are described: a government customer selecting objects for removal, a servicer selecting and optimizing an object set based on total environmental risk and subsidy, and a commercial operator paying for optimized remediation in their particular region of space. MITRI provides a mechanism to align private and public incentives for risk reduction.

Green High-Rise Buildings

Objectives: The study aims to critically analyze green high-rise buildings and their associated challenges based on peer-reviewed journals published between 2020 and 2024, in order to understand the effectiveness of sustainable practices applied to tall buildings. Theoretical Framework: The study explores the concepts of green and sustainable buildings, differentiating their respective short- and long-term approaches in the context of building, occupant, and environmental interactions. It also considers the concept of green retrofitting, which involves upgrading existing buildings to improve their efficiency and reduce their environmental impact. Method: The research was conducted through a bibliographic review of peer-reviewed articles, focusing on terms such as “green high-rise building” and “green skyscraper.” The analysis included 72 articles categorized into four main areas: economic sustainability, water management, energy efficiency, and environmental comfort. Results and Discussion: The results indicate that elements such as green facades and renewable energy systems are widely used to reduce the environmental impact of tall buildings. Key themes discussed include energy efficiency and the economic value of green buildings. Technical and economic challenges are emphasized, but it is believed that local-scale research can help overcome these obstacles. The benefits of green retrofitting are highlighted, as it improves energy efficiency, increases property value, and contributes to climate change mitigation. Research Implications: The research suggests that sustainable practices in tall buildings are essential for sustainable urban development and mitigating the effects of climate change. Legal and public incentives are recommended to support these initiatives, promoting more resilient cities. Originality/Value: This article contributes by demonstrating how sustainable practices applied to tall buildings can address urban environmental challenges and foster conscious development. It also offers an updated and critical view of green high-rise buildings and their challenges. By identifying the most effective practices and technical and economic obstacles, it contributes to the evolution of knowledge in sustainable construction, providing a foundation for future local and interdisciplinary research.

Comunità energetiche e nuova gestione della distribuzione dell’energia elettrica

Recent regulatory frameworks in Europe and other regions have introduced mechanisms that allow direct electricity transactions between end users, nowadays several of them being equipped with generation units, if they are connected to the same power distribution network. The authors of this paper, together with the participants of the panel “Le comunità energetiche rinnovabili e il loro sviluppo” (Academy of Sciences of Bologna Institute, 9 May 2024), consider that these schemes, in particular in the case of collective users and energy communities, can facilitate the ongoing energy transition and decarbonization of the electricity sector. The topic is timely and was the subject of an issue of the AEIT magazine (November/December 2023). This paper aims to summarize the basic concepts and the expected impact of energy communities on the operation of power distribution networks, while projecting a future in which these communities operate independently of public incentives.

Punishment or reward? Environmental information disclosure in Chinese listed companies based on evolutionary game systems

AbstractIn February 2022, the Chinese government implemented a mandatory environmental information disclosure policy for publicly traded corporations. To assess the factors influencing environmental information disclosure, we developed a tripartite evolutionary game system model based on strategic interactions between the government, enterprises and the public. Afterwards, we conducted a simulation to examine the systemic interaction equilibrium among the parties involved. Additionally, we assessed critical factor changes in decision‐making for three stakeholders: initial strategy selection, related policy subsidies, regulatory penalties and public incentives. Incorporating Gaussian white noise into the evolutionary game model enhances the realism of simulations, allowing for a more accurate representation of how random disturbances affect decision‐making among the government, the public and enterprises. The study reveals that the active participation of the public in information disclosure activities has a certain degree of substitution effect on the government's choice to regulate high‐quality information disclosure by enterprises actively. The penalty mechanism is more effective than the subsidy mechanism. The public's decision‐making process is susceptible to the direct economic benefits that enterprises can gain from disclosing low‐quality environmental information.

Removing development incentives in risky areas promotes climate adaptation

As natural disasters grow in frequency and intensity with climate change, limiting the populations and properties in harm’s way will be key to adaptation. This study evaluates one approach to discouraging development in risky areas—eliminating public incentives for development, such as infrastructure investments, disaster assistance and federal flood insurance. Using machine learning and matching techniques, we examine the Coastal Barrier Resources System (CBRS), a set of lands where these federal incentives have been removed. We find that the policy leads to lower development densities inside designated areas, increases development in neighbouring areas, reduces flood damages and alters local demographics. Our results suggest that the CBRS generates substantial savings for the federal government by reducing flood claims in the National Flood Insurance Program, while increasing the property tax base in coastal counties.

The Role of Public Incentives in Promoting Innovation: An Analysis of Recurrently Supported Companies

The Role of Public Incentives in Promoting Innovation: An Analysis of Recurrently Supported Companies

An exergy-based analysis of the effects of public incentives on the so-called “energy efficiency” of the residential sector, with emphasis on primary resource use and economics of scale

Improving building efficiency is essential for reducing energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and operational costs. In OECD Countries the average share of the Residential and Commercial Sector for space conditioning accounts for 30–37% of the cumulative final energy use. The current situation is somewhat typical of post-industrialized Countries: while the technology for reducing the external thermal losses and for installing more energy-conscious devices and procedures (including real-time monitoring and better design of the enclosures) is readily available, the cost of such measures is often perceived as excessive for the private user. For this reason, some governments have resolved to launch incentivization campaigns to encourage both private and public actors to invest in building efficiency. This strategy has been successful and its large-scale application -even if enacted on a preliminary basis- led to substantial reductions of the energy load per square meter −50 to 100 kWh/(m2yr)- so that subsidies and incentives are likely to assume a major role in shaping the energy conversion market. Technologies that are deemed “more environmental benign” or “of strategic interest” will receive institutional funding to promote their implementation, the funds being allocated both to design techniques, new materials and less energivorous devices. Since the funding is usually provided in the form of tax rebates, this approach is not devoid of problems: in fact, previous campaigns at regional and national level in the primary Energy Conversion and in the Transportation Sector have resulted in monumental failures. While it is clearly in the interest of a community to enact a reduction of their final energy uses, it is also true that such incentivization plans, if not properly and carefully implemented, may constitute an economic and ecological “doping” of the market (detail price increases, material and components shortages, etc.). This paper is a follow-up of a previous study conducted in 2021–22 that proposed a rational and thermodynamic-based approach to the issue: in that paper we presented an innovative cost/benefit procedure that considers the primary exergy savings of an “energy saving” intervention and the installation/operation costs and combines them with the statistically foreseeable savings in the improvement of the building seismic class. The method is intended to serve as a possible model for future policy decisions, and it makes use of the fundamental principles of Exergy Analysis augmented by a conventional cost/benefit analysis and by basic resilience considerations. The case study analyzed in the previous paper is re-examined here in the light of some recent normative developments the Eco-Sisma-Bonus (“Superbonus”), the incentivization plan launched between 2014 and 2020 by the Italian Government.

Industrial policy and strategy: a contextual perspective and descriptive typology

Abstract Defining what “industrial policy” is, and correspondingly defining and differentiating “industrial strategy” from this legacy term, is of analytic consequence to understanding what these concepts mean in the current public and business policy debates taking place in the world’s developed and developing economies. Of import to these debates, however, is accurately understanding the role of industrial strategy and its symbiotic relevance to industrial policy. In this paper, the author develops a typology allowing the analyst to utilize five key components—governance approach, public research and development investment, public incentives, public disincentives, and industry/sectoral participation—to evaluate the proposed national approach (vertical or horizontal) to industrial strategy. To illustrate this industrial strategy typology, the author uses examples from the People’s Republic of China (vertical) and the USA (horizontal). Recent legislation has moved the USA to a balanced approach of vertical and horizontal industrial strategies (incorporating both central planning and market-based approaches).

An integrated PROMETHEE II-Roadmap model: Application to the recovery of residual agroforestry biomass in Portugal

Rural fires are currently one of the main global disasters, and Portugal is among the countries that have suffered from them for decades. These fires pose economic, environmental, and social threats to the country. A primary cause of rural fires is the burning of biomass to clear agroforestry residues. Thus, combating rural fires requires more effective forest management, particularly the removal of forest residues that serve as fuel. These residues, also known as biomass, have significant potential for energy production and biofuel use. This paper proposes a model that integrates the PROMETHEE decision-making method with the roadmapping. This proposed model includes 7 steps, including the planning of the roadmap, the definition of the decision problem, gathering information and building the roadmap. The proposed model was applied to develop a roadmap proposal for the recovery of surplus agroforestry biomass in Portugal, identifying the most emerging conversion technologies in the national context. With the roadmap developed, it was possible to understand that the recovery of surplus agroforestry biomass in Portugal involves several sectors. The energy sector is one of those that can benefit from the recovery of leftover agroforestry biomass, both from the point of view of carbon neutrality and energy independence. Forestry management is another of the great advantages of recovering leftover forestry biomass and, consequently, reducing the number of fires. In the context of recovery, combustion is the most widely used technology for producing energy or heat. The technology identified as most emerging in the upcoming years is gasification. Investment in scientific research is essential for the success of this sector, as is the development of public incentive policies and more engagement from all stakeholders. This paper conclude that valorizing agroforestry residues can reduce rural fire risks while promoting energy independence, sustainable regional development, and innovation in Portugal.

Role of Hydroponics in Improving Water-Use Efficiency and Food Security

Hydroponic agriculture offers a soilless cultivation method that can enhance crop yields and sustainability. With decreasing arable land and water availability, hydroponics is positioned to complement conventional farming approaches to support global food security. This paper reviews the current status and future innovations in precision hydroponic technologies. Leading application crops, geographic adoption patterns, growth potential in developing countries, and technological advances are analyzed. Key challenges limiting widespread implementation are discussed, including infrastructural costs, lack of expertise, and inadequate research investments. Proposed legislation and standardization efforts in major markets are outlined. Ongoing improvements in automation, renewable energy integration, biocontrols and tailored crop varieties can further overcome limitations. The paper offers recommendations to promote hydroponics through targeted research initiatives, public incentives and localized equipment development. With appropriate regulatory support and sustained funding commitment, hydroponic systems can bolster food ecosystem resilience. The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the interlinked risks in concentrated, centralized agriculture. More decentralized precision approaches can enhance stability. Hydroponics and vertical farming innovations can enable sustainable intensification to meet future nutritional demands. Adoption efforts to date have focused on profitable vegetable and herb markets in advanced economies, but expanding technical skills training and appropriate technologies globally would support wider implementation. With further commercial maturation and policy regulations keeping pace with innovations, hydroponics can be an integral strategy for sustainable crop production worldwide.

CHALLENGES AND OBJECTIVES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ELECTRIC AUTOMOTIVE MODELS IN BRAZIL

The article addresses the implementation of electric cars in Brazil, highlighting fundamental challenges and objectives. Amid the search for solutions, the technological transition presents complex challenges, such as the need for efficient charging infrastructure, economic considerations and overcoming barriers in the primary energy sector. The main objective is to understand and address obstacles, from expanding the charging network to issues related to costs and the energy matrix, in order to guide public and social policies. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of partnerships, public incentives and comprehensive strategies to make electric cars not only a viable option, but also economically competitive compared to fossil fuel-powered vehicles, highlighting the need for sustainable energy solutions to support the projected increase in electrical energy consumption.

Electrification of the boat fleet of the Albufera Natural Park of Valencia: methodology, economic and environmental assessments

This article presents a methodology for calculating the energy needs to propose the electrification of a fleet of small boats. A technical, economic and environmental analysis of the transition to electric mobilityof thefleet of boats in the wetland of the AlbuferaNatural Park ofValencia(Spain)is presented and analysed. The environmental benefits of this transition are exploredand aneconomic assessment is done, including the evaluation of the necessary public incentives to capture all the benefits related tothistransitionand make it feasible.

The impact of climate change policies on financial stability of China

Climate transition risks pose growing financial stability concerns, but research on quantifying climate policy impacts remains underexplored. This paper helps address this gap by evaluating how carbon tax (CT) and green supporting factor (GSF) influence China’s financial stability. An innovative dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model incorporating the banking sector is developed to quantify transmission channels, improving on conceptual studies. It reveals that more intense climate policies heighten impacts on financial stability, with CT improving it but GSF hampering it in the long run. However, both policies negatively affect stability initially, albeit insignificantly. These diagnostics underscore calibrating policy intensities and sequencing to balance climate and economic objectives. Furthermore, this study reveals asymmetric effects on polluting and non-polluting enterprises, with the former seeing reduced output and lending but the latter gaining. The differentiated approach proposed, tailored to firm emissions levels, provides key insights for unlocking smooth green transitions while maintaining financial system resilience. The paper makes important contributions by bringing together climate policies, adaptation, and financial stability. The findings offer insights into achieving a smooth climate transition while maintaining financial stability. Specific implications include starting with low CT on the heaviest emitters, gradually lowering risk weights for green lending, and using public incentives and investment to aid polluting firms’ transition. This study offers valuable quantitative insights for developing country-specific climate financial risk policies.

An evaluation method of academic output that considers productivity differences

There are productivity differences among academic fields. Researchers who work in academic fields that have low productivity are pressured to publish more, and this policy may cause researchers to publish more in journals that have lenient standards and publish articles that are not necessarily valuable for their academic field. The problem is not solved by normalizing journals’ impact factors by the subjects because the normalized impact factors do not reflect the difficulty of publication in that subject. In this paper, we propose an evaluation method –Reference Group Similarity Index-that addresses the productivity differences issue. The method uses the publications of a reference group of departments that are believed to have the right publication incentives. Then, other departments are evaluated to the degree that their publications are similar to that of the reference group. We apply the method to the top 50 economics departments according to USNews rankings and show that the department rankings that we get from the Reference Group Similarity Index are largely consistent with the USNews Rankings.

Is it worth subsidising the cultural sector? New insights from Italian theatre companies

We study the impact of public subsidies on the efficiency of performing arts through an empirical analysis of Italian theatres (including opera houses, permanent theatres, and theatre production companies), using an output-oriented approach. Firstly, we discuss the previous works on efficiency and its determinants in the presence of public subsidies. Secondly, the stochastic frontier analysis true random-effects model and the IV GMM second stage regressions are used together with a procedure to measure the marginal effects of subsidies. Our findings suggest that the impact of public funds on technical efficiency of the Italian theatrical firms is positive and significant. The elasticity of public subsidy on efficiency is smaller than one. However, the return on subsidies amounts to 87 on average. These returns vary between Italian performing arts sub-sectors, and are very high for theatre production companies, low for permanent theatres, and very low for opera houses. We also find that the technological progress is negative for the theatrical Italian sector and it leads to the decline in total factor productivity over time, providing empirical support to the presence of Baumol’s disease in the sector. Overall, since Italian theatres technical efficiency could be increased at least by 25–27%, policy makers could work on public incentives in such a way as to avoid that, due to asymmetric information between government and theatrical firms, subsidies are provided (and criticised) indiscriminately.

Economic impact assessment of public incentives to support farm-to-school food purchases

Farm-to-school projects have been widely supported by policy makers with funding provided at state and federal levels. Still, many of the outcomes of this inflow of policy and funding remain unclear, often due to insufficient data to examine them. In 2018, New York State (USA) announced the 30% NY Initiative that substantially increases school lunch reimbursements if school districts purchase at least 30% of their ingredients as New York food products. With detailed food purchasing data from the second largest school district in the state and the largest to qualify for enhanced reimbursement, we estimate the gross and net economic impacts of the policy through a customized input–output model. We observe clear shifts in food spending categories that suggest changes in what and where foods were purchased. Results demonstrate net positive value added impacts of the policy even when a negative impact is applied to account for the cost of the policy to taxpayers. For every dollar in gross domestic product lost in the state to support the program, $1.06 of gross domestic product is expected to be added. However, the results are only true to the extent that the increase in local food spending is commensurate with an expansion of the related farm and food product industries to meet that demand. Specifically, at least 67% of the growth in local food spending must contribute to new aggregate demand for the related food product industries, rather than reallocation from other local marketing channels.

Green economy with efficient public incentives

There is a widespread interest among institutions and economic agents for a reduction of the environmental impact of the production system. An important role seems to be played by the ability of public institutions to push the transition toward a green economy also through the application of fiscal policies that envisage a system of rewards and penalties, respectively, for those companies which adopt green strategies and those which do not. It is clear that readjusting older production systems to new pollution regulations can lead in the short term to profitability reductions for the companies implementing them, even though it is possible to assume increases in profitability over medium-long time horizons. One possible approach to this issue is the classical econometric one, which analyzes the effect of different parameters of multivariate models, that influence the level of pollution due to production systems with different propensity for environmental protection. Optimal control models have been also considered with control variables relating to the technologies of production systems and public incentive policies for the green economy: see for example (Tan et al. in J Syst Sci Inf 9(1):61–73, 2021). In recent years, many scholars have studied the relationship between environmental regulation and enterprise technological innovation using evolutionary games, involving mainly economic incentives and fiscal strategies (see see Suyong et al. in Appl Math Comput 355(15):343–355, 2019; Zhang and Li in Appl Math Model 63:577–590, 2018). In our article, we propose a dynamical model where the public administration uses pollution penalties as a control variable in order to push a production sector toward better performances concerning two targets, pollution level and profitability. To this end, we consider the effects of competitiveness among firms and technology innovation.

Economic Efficiency of Investment in Facilities and Equipment for Grains Storing

Abstract Serbia disposes with strong tradition in crop production, followed by significant natural resources and favorable climate conditions. Despite the good results in grain production, farms are in general economically so weak to possess and use the storing facilities, while they sell the products immediately after the harvest. After reconsidering the lack of storing facilities and consequences it affects, strategic strivings in strengthening of farm competitiveness initiate in previous period public support turned to building of storage capacities and purchase of necessary equipment. In paper was presented the assessment (by the use of dynamic and static methods) of economic effectiveness of investment in storing capacities, i.e. silos, showing that this investment (supported by public incentives) could represent the economically justified business decision for certain farms turned to crop, specifically grains production.

Estado de exceção e responsabilidade tributária corporativa em tempo de pandemia de COVID-19

Insert in the moment of abnormality caused by the Coronavirus crisis:, it is necessary to know and measure the multi-sectorial consequences of this pandemic and how the legal system can contribute to alleviate any problems. In the tax and business area, there was a breakdown in the collection of taxes and in the tax planning of several companies. On the other hand, the State suffered a strong fiscal impact with the large collection deficit. Therefore, this article intends to analyze, based on the postulates of good governance, how the corporate tax liability will be at this atypical moment. The pregnant question of understanding whether Compliance would be a way of maintaining legal security and protecting trust for the subjects involved in the mandatory tax relationship. Revealing that compliance with tax legislation goes through the guarantee of public incentives, in other words, there must b e a state conformity. Methodologically, the work will follow the deductive method from bibliographic sources.

UNCTAD Insights: The role of innovation policies in SME internationalization: Evidence from Türkiye

This research note investigates the relative innovation performance and international presence of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Türkiye. Using administrative data for the period 2006–2020, the empirical analysis shows that government support for research and development (R&D) correlates positively with firms’ innovation activities and R&D expenditure. The results also suggest that innovation activities increase the probability of outward foreign direct investment. The results have important policy implications for Türkiye and developing countries in general. The findings highlight the key role of public incentives in targeting innovative activities towards internationalization of SMEs.