The emerging threat of artificial intelligence on competition in liberalized electricity markets: A deep Q-network approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danial Esmaeili Aliabadi ◽  
Katrina Chan
Keyword(s):  
Electricity Markets ◽  
Information Disclosure ◽  
End Users ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Bidding Strategies ◽  
Q Learning ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Available Information ◽  
The Impact

Abstract BackgroundAccording to sustainable development goals (SDGs), societies should have access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy. Deregulated electricity markets have been established to provide affordable electricity for end-users through advertising competition. Although these liberalized markets are expected to serve this purpose, they are far from perfect and are prone to threats, such as collusion. Tacit collusion is a condition, in which power generating companies (GenCos) disrupt the competition by exploiting their market power. MethodsIn this manuscript, a novel deep Q-network (DQN) model is developed, which GenCos can use to determine the bidding strategies to maximize average long-term payoffs using available information. In the presence of collusive equilibria, the results are compared with a conventional Q-learning model that solely relies on past outcomes. With that, this manuscript aims to investigate the impact of emerging DQN models on the establishment of collusive equilibrium in markets with repetitive interactions among players. Results and ConclusionsThe outcomes show that GenCos may be able to collude unintentionally while trying to ameliorate long-term profits. Collusive strategies can lead to exorbitant electric bills for end-users, which is one of the influential factors in energy poverty. Thus, policymakers and market designers should be vigilant regarding the combined effect of information disclosure and autonomous pricing, as new models exploit information more effectively.

Does environmental information disclosure affect the performance of energy-intensive firms’ borrowing ability? Evidence from China

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 685-705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haiqing Hu ◽  
Chun-Ping Chang ◽  
Minyi Dong ◽  
Wei-Na Meng ◽  
Yu Hao
Keyword(s):  
Capital Market ◽  
Information Disclosure ◽  
Cost Of Capital ◽  
Environmental Information ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Environmental Information Disclosure ◽  
Loan Size ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Positive Effect

In recent years, a growing strand of China’s listed companies chose to disclose environmental information, which may potentially affect their financial performance then further influence its performance of financial supports. To quantitatively investigate the impact of enterprise’s environmental information disclosure on the ability of firms’ borrowing in China, this paper divides the measurements of information disclosure into five categories and evaluates firms’ performance in capital market through its availability of a loan and the cost of capital. In total, 97 listed energy-intensive companies in China are selected and their data covering the period of 2000–2014 are utilized for empirical study. The empirical results indicate that enterprise’s environmental information disclosure appears to have a significantly positive effect on the loan size available, while the cost of capital is less sensitive to environmental information disclosure. The empirical evidence also suggests that, among the five aspects of information disclosure measurements, the future plan and monetary information are the most influential factors of the cost of capital.

Earth-grab by corporate feudalism and how to go about resisting it

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 612-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amiya Kumar Bagchi
Keyword(s):  
Living Standards ◽  
Term Survival ◽  
The People ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Will ◽  
Indigenous Minorities ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

The need for a new economy is great and the obstacles are many: growing inequalities within and between nations and regions, new complicity between corporations and non-democratic political regimes and failure of workers worldwide to make common cause. There are alternative models, indicating that a more egalitarian approach does not necessarily reduce living standards. Environmental degradation cannot be addressed by a technological fix: the threat to our long-term survival is pre-figured in the impact of climate change and corporate rapacity on the land and sea resources of the indigenous minorities who live as humanity has lived for most of its existence. A 10-point plan for a follow-up to the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals is suggested, but it will work only if solidarity networks can be built across divides of ascribed race, religion and nominal income levels, to express the will of the people in place of the government representatives who are prepared to gamble the future of humanity for corporate profit and power.

scholarly journals Challenges of Gauging the Impact of Area-Based Fishery Closures and OECMs: A Case Study Using Long-Standing Canadian Groundfish Closures

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy L. Shackell ◽  
David M. Keith ◽  
Heike K. Lotze
Keyword(s):  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Effective Area ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Population Growth Rates ◽  
Research Survey ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Marine Areas ◽  
The Impact

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity was established in 1993. Canada is a signatory nation that has adopted, and exceeded, the UN Aichi biodiversity target to protect 10% of coastal and marine areas through marine protected areas or “other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECMs) by 2020. However, the science of OECMs as contributors to biodiversity conservation is relatively young and their definition and efficacy testing continue to evolve. Here, we examine whether areas closed to fishing on the Scotian Shelf in Atlantic Canada, where the groundfish community had collapsed in the early 1990s, have the potential to serve as OECMs for groundfish recovery. Using long-term research survey data, we show that three long-term area-based fishing fleet closures did not enhance per capita population growth rates of the majority of 24 common groundfish species. At a regional scale, 10 out of 24 species are currently at less than 50% of their pre-collapse (1979–1992) biomass, reflecting a sustained diminished productivity, even though fishing mortality has been drastically reduced through a moratorium in 1993. Additional measures are needed to protect severely depleted groundfish, especially when the causes of continued diminished productivity are still largely unresolved. The importance of OECMs as a risk-averse approach toward sustainability is globally accepted and they can be considered a tool toward the overarching UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG-14). Our study provides further impetus toward articulating the criteria of OECMs and improving their design, monitoring, and testing, while placing OECMs within the broader context of sustainable ecosystem-based management.

scholarly journals Hidden scars: the impact of violence and the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s mental health

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Najat Maalla M’jid
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Long Term Impact ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Hidden Scars ◽  
Do So

Abstract More than 1 billion children are exposed to violence every year. The devastating immediate and long-term impact of violence on the mental health of children is well established. Despite commitments made by the international community to end violence against children and support their mental health, there has been a serious lack of investment and capacity to provide quality, rights-based, culturally appropriate mental health care globally. The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified these challenges. This article outlines how the risk of children experiencing violence has increased and how the pandemic has weakened the capacity of child protection and mental health services to respond. The article argues for child protection, mental health and other core services to be prioritized during and after the pandemic. A failure to do so will undermine the international community’s ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and to fulfil its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Sustainable Development Goals and Multilateral Agreements

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arild Underdal ◽  
Rakhyun E. Kim
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Goal Setting ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Governance System ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Overall Performance ◽  
The Impact

This chapter explores goal setting, as exemplified by the Sustainable Development Goals, as a governance strategy for reforming or rearranging existing international agreements and organizations so as to enhance their overall performance in promoting sustainable development. It discusses the political and entrepreneurial challenges peculiar to bringing existing international institutions into line, and identifies the conditions under which goal setting could be an effective tool for orchestration. The chapter concludes that, because of their ecumenical diversity and soft priorities, the Sustainable Development Goals are not likely to serve as effective instruments for fostering convergence. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides neither an overarching norm that can serve as a platform for more specific goals nor an integrating vision of what long-term sustainable development in the Anthropocene means. In the absence of such an overarching principle and vision, the impact of the Sustainable Development Goals on global governance will likely materialize primarily as spurring some further clustering of existing regimes and organizations within crowded policy domains. The Sustainable Development Goals cannot be expected to generate major architectural reforms that will significantly reduce the fragmentation of the global governance system at large.

Market reaction to open innovation announcements

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawid Szutowski
Keyword(s):  
Open Innovation ◽  
Information Disclosure ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Companies ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Positive Effect

Purpose Open innovation is of crucial importance for all companies operating in the economics of widely distributed knowledge. However, the effects of its disclosure remain largely uncharted in the case of service companies. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to measure the impact of open innovation announcements on the market value (MV) of service enterprises. Design/methodology/approach The research covered 398 open innovation announcements released by service companies. It was conducted in the whole of the European Union in the period February 2011-December 2016. The data were analysed in the short and long term with the use of event-study and buy-and-hold methods. Findings The results indicated the significant positive effect of open innovation disclosure in both short and long term. At the same time, the market was not able to immediately fully value the information in the short run and tended to overestimate the positive effect of the innovation announced. No significant leakage and dissemination effects were observed prior to the announcement. There was no significant difference in the magnitude of positive and negative reactions to the releases. Practical implications From the point of view of business practice the research proved the benefits of information disclosure and supported the long-term planning. From the investors’ viewpoint, it signalled the small risk of significant fluctuations resulting from aggressive trading prior to the announcement and unwinding part of the acquired position afterwards. Originality/value The paper attempts to fulfil the research gap on the impact of the announcements on open innovation on the MV of companies.

scholarly journals Economic Sanctions and Academia: Overlooked Impact and Long-Term Consequences

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Bezuidenhout ◽  
Ola Zeinalabdin Abdelrahim Karrar ◽  
Javier Lezaun ◽  
Andy Nobes
Keyword(s):  
Academic Research ◽  
National Development ◽  
Economic Sanctions ◽  
Jus Post Bellum ◽  
Moral Behaviour ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Research And Education ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
The Impact

There is an often-overlooked nexus between economic sanctions, academia, and sustainable development. The paper unpacks the implication of economic sanctions for the maintenance of robust academic systems capable of addressing national development goals. We show how sanctions place “invisible barriers” limiting access to necessary resources and curtailing their effective use. Furthermore, the impact of sanctions persists long after they are formally lifted. To develop our argument, we draw on a national survey of Sudanese academics focused on the impact of 20 years of economic sanctions on their work. It identifies key areas of academic research and education that have been impacted by international sanctions. It also discusses how the 2017 lifting of these sanctions is unlikely to overcome the long-term implications of the sanctions on academia. The paper concludes by problematising the current interpretation of jus post bellum, or moral behaviour after conflict. It suggests that the responsibility to make reparations in the form of support for academic systems applies to countries who impose economic sanctions.

scholarly journals Investigation of Dynamic Incentive of Supply Chain under Information Asymmetry for Screening

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianheng Zhou ◽  
Shaokun Li ◽  
Bill Wang
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Information Asymmetry ◽  
Information Disclosure ◽  
Product Lines ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
New Markets ◽  
Extant Literature ◽  
Control Information ◽  
The Impact

More and more high-end brand companies are exploring new markets by extending low-end product lines. When selecting agents in new markets, a principal often faces the problem of identifying the promotional ability of agents. This paper aims to study the dynamic incentive of supply chain under information asymmetry for the information screening in long-term supply chain cooperation. Also, it pioneers the rhythm of information disclosure in the extant literature. By establishing three two-stage supply chain models, this paper analyzes the impact of agents’ information disclosure speed on the brand. We find that it is better to separate agents earlier out of the brand perspective; the semiseparated contract is beneficial for the brand to control information disclosure speed more flexibly and get more profits from the retailer. But, from the perspective of the supply chain, it is also possible to prefer the mixed contract. Under certain conditions, the pooling contract could also increase the profits of supply chain and improve the allocation efficiency of supply chain.

scholarly journals An updated checklist to the biodiversity data of ladybeetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) of the Azores Archipelago (Portugal)

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
António Soares ◽  
Isabel Borges ◽  
Hugo Calado ◽  
Paulo Borges
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Mixed Forest ◽  
Abundant Species ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Number Of Species ◽  
Terrestrial Biodiversity ◽  
Available Information ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Native Host

A recently-published review from 2021 presents a comprehensive checklist of ladybeetles of Portugal, including the Azores and Madeira Archipelagos. Until then, the available information was very scattered and based on a single revision dating back to 1986, a few international catalogues and databases, individual records and studies on communities of agroecosystems. However, no information was available on faunal composition across the Azorean islands and their habitats, using standardised inventories. Here, we present data about the biodiversity of ladybeetles and their distribution and abundance in five Islands of the Azores (Faial, Graciosa, Pico, São Jorge and São Miguel). Surveys included herbaceous and arboreal habitats from native to anthropogenic-managed habitats: ruderal road vegetation, vegetable garden, mixed forest of endemic and non-native host plants, coastal prairies, coastal mixed vegetation, cornfields and urban areas. We aimed to contribute to the ongoing effort to document the terrestrial biodiversity of Portugal, including the Archipelago of the Azores, within the research project AZORESBIOPORTAL–PORBIOTA (ACORES-01-0145-FEDER-000072). In this study, a total of 1,487 specimens of Coccinellidae belonging to 19 species are reported for several habitats. The listed species are from one single sub-familiy (Coccinellinae) and six tribes; Chilocorini (one species), Coccidulini (three species), Coccinellini (six species), Noviini (one species), Scymnini (seven species), Stethorini (one species). The number of species collected per island differed; Faial (10 species), Graciosa (four species), Pico (seven species), São Jorge (seven species) and São Miguel (12 species). For six species, new island records are given. Currently, the number of species known to occur in the Azores are 32, including two doubtful records. The majority of species are Scymnini, being Scymnus (Scymnus) interruptus (Goeze, 1777) and Scymnus (Scymnus) nubilus Mulsant, 1850, the most abundant species (relative abundance 71.1%). This database will be the baseline of a long-term monitoring project allowing assessment of the impact of ongoing global changes in the distribution and abundance of ladybeetles.

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