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This paper presents a study of the socio-technical ordering of time around wood-fuelled heating systems of detached houses. It analyses the sequences and rhythms that organize the work of domestic heating, its synchronization with other daily activities, and tempo as the subjective experience of time in these activities. The study is based on a large, pre-existing Finnish free-form diary collection. We suggest that domestic energy technologies become useable and useful through the gradual embedding that involves the temporal organization of everyday life. As a result, technologies that organize time are not only convenient in an invisible way but also act as taken-for-granted coordinates and rhythms of human pursuits in everyday life. In many countries, wood-fuelled heating systems remain a common renewable energy technology in detached houses and stand as one option to lower related carbon emissions. However, the broader use of wood is compromised by time and convenience.

Abstract Closed-Loop Supply Chain (CLSC) focuses on acquiring the cores/product returns from consumers, recovering their residual value, and remarketing them. Extant literature on core acquisition management suggests that researchers have not considered behavioral aspect of consumers. On the other hand, marketing literature suggests that researchers neglected technical issues related to core acquisition in a CLSC while discussing consumers' disposition behaviors. We propose a conceptual framework that extends the existing CLSC setting by introducing consumers’ disposition behavior. We develop eleven research propositions based on which we design a survey. The survey was sent to decision making executives of different remanufacturing industries to solicit their perception. Participants were also asked to make paired comparisons using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), based on which an action oriented framework is developed. Firms that have CLSC operation can use our framework to ensure enhanced quality product returns which in turn increase profitability. Finally, possible future extensions are discussed.

This paper questions the assumption, commonly used in theoretical and policy research, that scarcity rents make up a large proportion of market prices for oil and coal. We show that the empirical literature, simple calculations of historical and future scarcity rent shares, and possible theoretical explanations all imply the same overall conclusions: that scarcity rents seem to have been marginal or non-existent historically; that they almost certainly do not dominate fossil resource prices today; and that there will be other factors shaping the prices in the upcoming decades. We therefore argue that using the scarcity rent as the main or only basis for policy or for explaining empirical outcomes is ill-advised.

Abstract The study reveals that the total factor productivity in the GFCV continued to increase throughout the study period except for a brief period between 1983-84 and 1984-85 which was mainly the result of the decline in the industrial demand for gas and a decelerated growth rate in residendial demand. The productivity gains were found to be highly sensitive to the rates of depreciation and discount rates assumed. The estimated terms of trade suggest that the increase in gas prices was lower than the increase in the aggregate input prices the GFCV paid, particularly to capital and labour. However, while the price index of reticulated gas increased to 2.17, the purchase price declined to 0.96 over the study period. The productivity gains by the GFCV seem to have been shared with its customers.

Should the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) be used to drill for oil, or should this type of economic development be forbidden, in favor of protecting environmental amenities? In economics, this is a classical question of the allocation of resources, and we propose to answer it in a similar manner in this case, even though such reasoning is not typical of debates in this field. We answer the ANWR challenge with arguments favoring solutions emerging from private property arrangements, and provide an illustrative example of markets at work. We take neither side, but urge that the free enterprise system be allowed to address the issue. It is our claim that this is a superior system, as entrepreneurs who make mistakes suffer economic penalties, and this feedback mechanism is either entirely missing in political and bureaucratic institutions, or at the very least greatly attenuated there.

In this paper we examine the price effects on crude oils of removing the U.S. export ban on Alaskan North Slope crude oil in 1996. We estimate the long-run impact of removing the export ban through the use of a time series intervention analysis. The results indicate that Alaskan crude oil prices increased between $0.98 and $1.30 on the West Coast spot market relative to prices of comparable crude oils as a result of removing the export ban. However, we find no evidence that West Coast prices for refined oil products—regular unleaded gasoline, diesel fuel, and jet fuel—increased as a result of lifting the ban.

Financial incentives in contracts can impact contractor's focus on safety. To elaborate on this issue the relationship between an oil company and a drilling contractor is used. We analyse how an operator influences the actions of a drilling contractor with the aid of financial and other incentives, both in connection with the tender process and contract design. The case material is rig contracts from the North Sea.

Space travel, often used by the authors as an equivalent to ‘space tourism’, and outer-space migration should become part of the sustainability discourse – that is the most tempting argument of the...

Tourism has been recognized as a significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions sector on a global scale. Yet, only few studies assess tourism's share in national emissions. This paper compares and ana ...