With the emergence of new technologies such as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, large new deposits of oil and gas are poised to become economically viable. As this happens, substantially increased deliveries will make their way into the market, benefiting both producers and consumers. However, these potential benefits cannot be fully realized with the existing transmission capacity...

I examine inefficiencies in Japanese water utility companies. Efficiency in this context is defined as a firm’s capacity to maximize output given a fixed level of inputs. The findings suggest that the average operation rate, customer density and size variables are associated with lower levels of inefficiency (or higher levels of efficiency), while water purification (a conditioning variable cap...

The paper explores how agricultural water pricing could contribute to lowering water demand when uses are unobserved (asymmetric information). The topic of the paper is justified by the fact that most water authorities worldwide do not control water uses at the farm scale. The study draws inspiration from the pricing policies of a Reclamation and Irrigation Board in Northern Italy. It analyses ...

The use of transferable discharge permits as a water pollution control policy is rapidly increasing in the United States. Drawing on evidence from existing water quality trading programs, this paper provides a taxonomy of the forms that such markets take. Four main structures are identified: exchanges, bilateral negotiations, clearinghouses, and sole-source offsets. Each of these structures has...

We examine the competitive advantage enjoyed by dark venues over stock exchanges due to rules regulating the minimum price variation (MPV) for quoting equity securities. The MPV rule requires quotes above $1.00 per share to be in pennies, but it permits subpenny trades to facilitate price improvement for marketable orders. This exception to the penny quote rule benefits dark venues by allowing ...

The resin of Ferula gumosa (galbanum) has been used in Persia for thousands of years. The habitats of this exceptional and endemic Iranian species is closely correlated to the parameters of rainfall and, mostly, to the usual winter fog. Within the last decades, the scarcity of the raw material was the reason for a dramatic increase in adulterations. Currently, more than five times the amount ac...

The resin of Ferula gumosa (galbanum) has been used in Persia for thousands of years. The habitats of this exceptional and endemic Iranian species is closely correlated to the parameters of rainfall and, mostly, to the usual winter fog. Within the last decades, the scarcity of the raw material was the reason for a dramatic increase in adulterations. Currently, more than five times the amount ac...