Final report on marginal abatement cost curves for the evaluation of the market stability reserve
Computable general equilibrium (CGE) models are wide-spread tools for policy evaluation in the national and international context. They typically feature a detailed representation of productive industries and can track the impacts of price based policies or scarcity of production factors across the economy. Calibrated to benchmark equilibria given in form of social accounting matrices (SAMs), they represent both production and the consumer basket as nested constant elasticity of substitution (CES) functions. Positive elasticities of substitution in the production functions give industries (or representative households) the possibility to react to price changes by increasing demand of cheaper inputs and demanding less of the more expensive goods for the production of any unit of output (or utility). Production sectors adjust their activity levels such that they make zero economic profit, and representative consumers spend on consumption such that their income balances expenditures (which thus include saving). Market balance conditions for each commodity in the model set the prices such that demand and supply at those prices clear.
Comparing Policies to Confront Permit Over-Allocation
Instability in cap-and-trade markets, particularly with respect to permit price collapses has been an area of concern for regulators. To that end, several policies, including hybrid price-quantity mechanisms and the newly introduced "market stability reserve" (MSR) systems have been introduced and even implemented in some cases. I develop a stochastic dynamic model of a cap-and-trade system, parameterized to values relevant to the European Union's Emission Trading System (EU ETS) to analyze the performance of these policies aimed at adding stability to the system or at least at reducing perceived over-allocations of permits. Results suggest adaptive-allocation mechanisms such as a price collar or MSR can reduce permit over-allocations and permit price volatility in a more cost-effective manner than simply reducing scheduled permit allocations. However, it is also found that the performance of these adaptive allocation policies, and in particular the MSR, are greatly affected by assumed discount rates and policy parameters.
Palaeomicrobiology: current issues and perspectives
Palaeomicrobiology is an emerging field that is devoted to the detection, identification and characterization of microorganisms in ancient remains. Data indicate that host-associated microbial DNA can survive for almost 20,000 years, and environmental bacterial DNA preserved in permafrost samples has been dated to 400,000–600,000 years. In addition to frozen and mummified soft tissues, bone and dental pulp can also be used to search for microbial pathogens. Various techniques, including microscopy and immunodetection, can be used in palaeomicrobiology, but most data have been obtained using PCR-based molecular techniques. Infections caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites have all been diagnosed using palaeomicrobiological techniques. Additionally, molecular typing of ancient pathogens could help to reconstruct the epidemiology of past epidemics and could feed into current models of emerging infections, therefore contributing to the development of appropriate preventative measures.