[en] Our willingness to embrace climate change policies depends on our perception of their benefits and costs. Evaluation of these costs and benefits requires careful economic analysis. Yet the standard tools for such assessment - computable general equilibrium (CGE) models - are inadequate on several grounds. Their underlying theory suffers from well-known logical difficulties; in general, their equilibria may be neither unique, stable, nor efficient. Moreover, real-world phenomena such as increasing returns to scale, learning, and technological innovation are neglected in CGE models. These phenomena make the resulting equilibria in the models inefficient; in the real world they can lock society into sub-optimal technology choices. They introduce uncertainty and path-dependence, annihilating the concept of a single efficient allocation produced by the unfettered market. Yet conventional economics assesses the cost of policies solely on the basis of their departure from a purportedly efficient equilibrium - ignoring deeper structural changes that are often decisive in practice. New socioeconomic theories and models are emerging that allow for bounded rationality, the limiting and enabling character of institutions, technological change, and the complexities and uncertainties in economic evolution. Meanwhile, existing models should be modified to better reflect real-world phenomena and to abandon unfounded assumptions about the inherent ''inefficiencies'' of government intervention in the market. (author)

[en] A simulation's disaggregated assessment of a transmission upgrade across different stakeholders and cost/benefit categories reveals how market-network dynamics can produce counterintuitive results

[en] The computerized system NARIS (Nuclear Accident Risk Information System) was developed in order to support the estimation of health effects and the establishment the effective risk reduction strategies. Using the system, we can analyze the distribution of health effects easily by displaying the results on the digital map of the site. Also, the thematic mapping allows the diverse analyses of the distribution of the health effects. The NARIS can be used in the emergency operation facilities in order to analyze the distribution of the health effects resulting from the severe accidents of a nuclear power plant. Also, the rapid analysis of the health effect is possible by storing the health effect results in the form of a database. Therefore, the staffs of the emergency operation facilities can establish the rapid and effective emergency response strategies. The module for the optimization of the costs and benefits and the decision making support will be added. The technical support for the establishment of the optimum and effective emergency response strategies will be possible using this system

[en] This paper shows that to achieve grid level of reliability with wind solar and storage units alone is impossibly expensive so practical designs have always incorporated standby generation of some sort or other. This paper describes a simulation technique that enables a cost minimal, balanced hybrid system design. (author)

[en] The notions of 'risk' and 'benefit' in the area of radioactivity and applications in the nuclear field are discussed. (P.A.)

[en] The cost-benefit study of Nordhaus (1994) is representative for the neoclassical approach towards global warming. Nordhaus found that no substantial emission cuts are warranted. Most of his critics have concentrated on the issue of discounting and demanded that a lower discount rate should be applied. These criticisms first miss the point and second lead to ethically dubious, inconsistent conclusions and inefficient policy choices. They miss the point because the real problem of Nordhaus's methodology is his implicit underlying assumption of perfect substitutability between natural and other forms of capital. Given the validity of this assumption, lowering the rate of discount is inconsistent with current savings behaviour, is ethically dubious because future generations will be much richer than the current one anyway, and is inefficient because scarce financial resources are channelled into emissions abatement that exhibits rates of return far inferior to alternative public investments. Any call for aggressive emission abatement must therefore directly attack the perfect substitutability assumption of neoclassical economics. The real disagreement is about whether consumption growth can compensate for environmental degradation caused by global warming. Discounting is not the issue, but substitutability is. (author)

No abstract available

[en] This paper provides an economic perspective of adaptation to climate change. The paper specifically examines the role of markets and government in efficient adaptation responses. For adaptations to be efficient, the benefits from following adaptations must exceed the costs. For private market goods, market actors will follow this principle in their own interest. For public goods, governments must take on this responsibility. Governments must also be careful to design institutions that encourage efficiency or they could inadvertently increase the damages from climate change. Finally, although in a few cases actors must anticipate climate changes far into the future, generally it is best to learn and then act with respect to adaptation

[en] Research on social decision making theory and voting; public regulation and pricing; spatial planning of real estate markets; technological risks and crisis management; and private demands on public services is presented

[en] Coastal flood defense systems can consist of multiple lines of defense. In case of a system with a front and a rear defense (e.g. a storm surge barrier and levees), the front defense can improve the reliability of the rear defense by reducing the load on this rear defense. This paper develops a framework in order to assess whether including the influence of such a load reduction influences the economically optimal safety targets of both defenses. The economic optimization is carried out using two approaches: a simplified method developed to explore the behavior of the economic optimization with a front and rear defense, and a numerical framework geared towards practical applications. The numerical framework provides more flexibility in defining risk, cost and damage functions, and emphasizes on the applicability and tractability of the necessary steps from an engineering perspective. Both approaches are used in a hypothetical case study in order to quantify the effect of including a load reduction on the economically optimal safety targets. The results indicate that if a front defense can create a significant risk reduction in a cost efficient manner, more efficient economically optimal safety targets can be found by including the load reduction. - Highlights: • In a coastal system, a front defense improves the reliability of the rear defense. • This interaction is analytically incorporated in a simplified economic optimization. • For more complex (realistic) economic optimization, a numerical framework is proposed. • Including the interaction of a coastal system improves flood prevention investments.