Industry-academe linkages in the Philippines: Embedding foreign investors,capturing institutions?     

《Geoforum》2015

The global sourcing of services from developing countries has made human capital a key local asset for attracting foreign direct investment. This paper analyses to what extent individual companies engage in linkages and collaborations with universities and how the education sector responds to the new demands of the knowledge economy. Offshore services are generally recognised as ‘footloose’ investments with limited local linkages. A case study of industry-academe linkages in the growing business process outsourcing sector in the Philippines finds that foreign investors engage in active embedding and develop linkages with human resource providers, leading to increased territorial embeddedness. This paper investigates the kind of linkages created, which actors engage in them and their motivations, to understand the resulting implications for local economic development. Interviews with foreign investors and higher education institutions reveal that most collaboration is initiated by large call centre companies and focuses on entry-level skills development for their operations. I argue that multinational corporations have been able to capture local institutions and introduce changes in the education system to supply mainly lower-end skills. While increasing the available talent pool and raising the competitiveness for further investments, this presents challenges for upgrading into higher value-added services and potentially transforms the country into a dependent market economy.  相似文献   

Shaping climate policy in the housing sector in northern Chinese cities     

Michel Colombier 《Climate Policy》2013,13(4):453-473

What are relevant urban development investment strategies for improving building energy efficiency (BEE) and decarbonizing the urban district heating supply in rapidly urbanizing China? Different trajectories of BEE and energy supply technologies are compared in the urban context in a northern Chinese city. Vigorous improvement of BEE will significantly enhance the prospective financial capacity to facilitate deployment of backstop technologies (e.g. carbon capture and storage) in order to decarbonize the energy supply and achieve the long-term targets of low-carbon buildings. Carbon finance instruments should be used to facilitate public policy to accompany the necessary transition in the urban development process. The government-run efficiency procurement scheme will overcome the problem of insufficient incentive and high transaction costs associated with individual Clean Development Mechanism projects. Appropriate investment strategies (allocation of financial resources over the time frame) will allow local governments to harness the large potentials of carbon emissions mitigation while minimizing the risk of long-term technical lock-in in the built environment in Chinese cities.  相似文献   

Encouraging clean energy investment in developing countries: what role for aid?     

Mark T. Buntaine  William A. Pizer 《Climate Policy》2013,13(5):543-564

A large portion of foreign assistance for climate change mitigation in developing countries is directed to clean energy facilities. To support international mitigation goals, however, donors must make investments that have effects beyond individual facilities. They must reduce barriers to private-sector investment by generating information for developers, improving relevant infrastructure, or changing policies. We examine whether donor agencies target financing for commercial-scale wind and solar facilities to countries where private investment in clean energy is limited and whether donor investments lead to more private investments. On average, we find no positive evidence for these patterns of targeting and impact. Coupled with model results that show feed-in tariffs increase private investment, we argue that donor agencies should reallocate resources to improve policies that promote private investment in developing countries, rather than finance individual clean energy facilities.

Policy relevance

We suggest that international negotiations could usefully shift the focus of climate change finance towards adaptation in exchange for mitigation-improving policy reforms in developing countries. There is little evidence that mitigation-related financing is having broader effects on energy production, so new financial arrangements should be the focus of future negotiations. Additionally, international donors should focus efforts on reforming policies to attract private investment.  相似文献   

Funding low-carbon investments in the absence of a carbon tax     

Julie Rozenberg  Stéphane Hallegatte  Baptiste Perrissin-Fabert  Jean-Charles Hourcade 《Climate Policy》2013,13(1):134-141

Introducing a carbon tax is difficult, partly because it suggests that current generations have to make sacrifices for the benefit of future generations. However, the climate change externality could be corrected without such a sacrifice. It is possible to set a carbon value, and use it to create ‘carbon certificates’ that can be accepted as part of commercial banks’ legal reserves. These certificates can be distributed to low-carbon projects, and be exchanged by investors against concessional loans, reducing capital costs for low-carbon projects. As the issuance of carbon certificates would increase the quantity of money, it will either lead to accelerated inflation or induce the Central Bank to raise interest rates. Low-carbon projects will thus have access to cheaper loans at the expense of either ‘regular’ investors (in case of higher interest rates) or of lenders and depositors (in case of accelerated inflation). Within this scheme, mitigation expenditures are compensated by a reduction in regular investments, so that immediate consumption is maintained. It uses future generation wealth to pay for a hedge against climate change. This framework is not as efficient as a carbon tax but is politically easier to implement and represents an interesting step in the trajectory towards a low-carbon economy.  相似文献   

Funding low carbon cities: local perspectives on opportunities and risks     

Rory Sullivan  Andy Gouldson  Phil Webber 《Climate Policy》2013,13(4):514-529

There are compelling reasons for policy makers to be interested in the low-carbon agenda. More than half of the world's population lives in, and more than half of the world's economic output comes from, cities. Up to 70% of global carbon emissions can also be attributed to consumption that takes place in cities. Recent research has shown that cost-effective investments in low-carbon options could deliver a 40% reduction in GHG emissions from cities by 2020, while also providing wider economic benefits such as enhanced competitiveness and increased employment. As yet, however, investments in low-carbon cities have not been made at scale due mainly to the scale of the finance required, local government budgetary constraints, and perceptions about their costs and benefits. With a focus on the UK, a contemporary account is provided of what local authorities see as the major financial risks associated with funding low-carbon cities. Practical proposals – which also have more general relevance to the future financing of low-carbon cities around the world – are offered on how local authorities, in conjunction with central government, the private sector, and institutional investors, can effectively manage these risks.

Policy relevance

Cities house more than half of the world's population, generate more than half of the world's economic output, and produce between 40% and 70% of all anthropogenic GHG emissions. In the UK, 70% of such emissions are under the influence of its local authorities. Thus, one of the key public policy challenges for the low-carbon transition is how it should be financed. There are several obstacles and related risks to this transition, including financial and legal obstacles and the differing views and perceptions of stakeholders. These can be attenuated, somewhat, by national government support at scale, local authority leadership, and cooperation between other authorities and the private sector, and the development of tools and guidance to reduce transaction costs.  相似文献   

Investment risk and return under renewable decarbonization of a power market     

José I. Muñoz 《Climate Policy》2013,13(2):87-105

How does financial performance risk affect investments in low-carbon electricity-generating technologies to achieve climate policy targets? A detailed risk simulation of price formation in the Great Britain wholesale power market is used to show that the increasing replacement of fossil facilities with wind, ceteris paribus, may cause a deterioration of the financial risk–return performance metrics for incremental investments. Low-carbon investments appear to be high risk, low return, and as such may require a progressively higher level of support over time than envisaged by the conventional degression trajectories. The increasing riskiness of the wholesale market will to some extent offset the benefits of lower capital costs and operational efficiencies if investors need to satisfy cautious debt coverage ratios alongside positive expected returns. This increased risk is additional to the well-known ‘merit order effect’ of low-carbon investments progressively depressing wholesale prices and hence their expected investment returns.

Policy relevance

Policy support for renewable technologies such as wind is usually based upon levelized costs and is expected to reduce over time as capital costs and operational efficiencies improve. However, levelized costs do not take full account of the risk aversion that investors may have in practice. Expected policy support reductions may be moderated to some extent by the increased financial performance risk that intermittent technologies bring to the power market. The annual risk-return profiles for incremental investments deteriorate for all technologies as wind replaces fossil fuels. This extra risk premium will need to be incorporated into evaluating policy incentives for new investments in a decarbonizing power market.  相似文献   

Commitments through financial options: an alternative for delivering climate change obligations     

《Climate Policy》2013,13(1):9-21

Governments willing to commit themselves to maintain carbon prices at or above a certain level face the challenge that their commitments need to be credible both for investors in low-carbon technology and for foreign governments. This article argues that governments can make such commitments by issuing long-term put option contracts on the price of CO₂ allowances. This mechanism gives investors the right, but not the obligation, to sell allowances to the government at the strike price. From the investors' point of view, a government is therefore fully committed to a price floor for allowances in the future. This proposed approach alters the incentives that a government faces when considering noncompliance and serves to prevent non-compliance. The proposal fares well when assessed against criteria to determine its suitability in legitimacy, enforcement, proportionality, lack of interference from other contracting States, and transparency. It also allows for fine-tuning through the number and duration of issued options and the strike price. A robust contract structure is proposed to protect against government interference that might threaten the credibility of commitments.  相似文献   

JAPAN'S DIRECT MANUFACTURING INVESTMENT IN THE UNITED STATES     

Kang-tsung Chang 《The Professional geographer》1989,41(3):314-328

Japan is the most important foreign investor in the United States. Japanese companies are trade-oriented and have ownership-specific advantages in select industries; their US investment is aimed at protecting their market share. The distribution of Japanese plants correlates well with US manufacturing, except that the West Coast and states that aggressively sought Japanese investment have more employees in Japanese plants. Japanese presence in US manufacturing is most prominent in consumer electronics, steel, automobiles, and high-technology industries.  相似文献   

基于重心模型的环境污染和治理投资偏离分析     

杨磊  高向东 《亚热带资源与环境学报》2012,7(2)

利用重心的概念和模型,采用2000-2009年各省工业废水、工业废气和工业固体废弃物的排放量和污染治理投资额等数据,计算出各自的重心和重心演变路径．从移动方向、移动距离和相互关系3个方面分析环境污染重心和治理投资重心各自的动态变化和空间演变轨迹,结果显示：2000-2009年,工业废水、废气和固体废弃物污染重心从移动方向来看总体向西部偏移,而且移动距离有快速西移的趋势,表明当前西部地区在环境污染方面有加重的趋势．另外,环境污染重心和投资治理重心之间存在偏离,例如,工业废水排放重心偏北,而工业废水治理投资重心偏南,并且与工业废水重心相比,工业废气和工业固体废弃物排放重心和治理投资重心偏离度要小．  相似文献   

Book Review and Doctoral Theses     

《Norsk geografisk tidsskrift. Norwegian journal of geography》2012,66(2):99-103

The article discusses the importance of services as agents of internationalisation. Services are seen as dynamic agents of change, and services and commodities are considered composite in production processes. Modes of entering the global scene such as trade in services, foreign direct investment, forming of alliances, franchising and intrafirm trade are focused on, and limits to globalisation are highlighted. Some services, particularly advanced business services, more easily fall prey to institutional and cultural constraints than others. Empirically, Norway is analysed as an arena of international services against the background of its historical tradition particularly in shipping and affiliated activities. Recently, however, manufacturing has gained in importance, mainly in exports and to a lesser extent in imports, due to the petroleum economy. This appears to indicate that export of services has lost momentum over time. The development profile in shipping is highly negative. The negative picture changes somewhat when not only the trade balance, but also investment abroad is considered. In this respect, services have grown in relative importance, notably in the financial sector and in telecommunications. When juxtaposing outgoing and incoming investments, petroleum-related services have gained an increased export and investment surplus in recent years, from a balance in the mid-1990s.  相似文献