Kanwalroop Kathy Dhanda

Chaos in oil prices? Evidence from futures markets

Abstract We test for the presence of low-dimensional chaotic structure in crude oil, heating oil, and unleaded gasoline futures prices from the early 1980s. Evidence on chaos will have important implications for regulators and short-term trading strategies. While we find strong evidence of non-linear dependencies, the evidence is not consistent with chaos. Our test results indicate that ARCH-type processes, with controls for seasonal variation in prices, generally explain the non-linearities in the data. We also demonstrate that employing seasonally adjusted price series contributes to obtaining robust results via the existing tests for chaotic structure. Maximum likelihood methodologies, that are robust to the non-linear dynamics, lend support for Samuelsons hypothesis on contract-maturity effects in futures price-changes. However, the tests for chaos are not found to be sensitive to the maturity effects in the futures contracts. The results are robust to controls for the oil shocks of 1986 and 1991.

Gender Inequity and Quality of Life: A Macromarketing Perspective

Consumption inequities have been explored within the consumer behavior and public policy literatures in marketing, but few investigations within these domains have examined their global dimensions. To help fill this gap, the authors investigate the gender aspects of consumer inequality worldwide using measures of quality of life at the societal level. After a brief introduction, a discussion of the theoretical foundation of our work and the measures used to examine inequities between men and women are presented. Analyses and results come next, followed by global policy recommendations and future research directions.

The role of information technology and systems in reverse logistics: a case study

Reverse logistics is a process whereby a manufacturer accepts products from consumers for possible remanufacturing, recycling, reuse or disposal. Recovery of used products is receiving increased attention due to growing environmental concerns. Though studies have shown that reverse logistics practices can result in substantial cost savings for companies, there has been some reluctance implementing these methods. Our research shows that information systems and information technology may play an important role in the support of this process. To this end, we address several questions related to reverse logistics: What are the drivers – internal, external, and legislative – that impact reverse logistics? What exemplar companies have saved money by implementing reverse logistics programs? What is the role of information technology within reverse logistics? Our paper will explore this area through a case study of a company that is involved in the practice of reverse logistics. We hope that this application will shed light on the operations of a recycling outfit and the role of information technology and systems within this reverse chain. For the purpose of this paper, the company will be referred to as XYZ.

Technological Achievement and Human Development: A View from the United Nations Development Program

The primary purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between technological achievement and human development so that the human rights community may better understand the impact of the digital divide worldwide. Using data collected by a variety of international organizations and in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme, this research explores the creation, diffusion, and utilization of technology within the context of vast socioeconomic inequalities among nations. The paper opens with a brief introduction to the technology revolution, followed by a discussion of the digital divide. Data descriptions are presented in the next section, along with findings that show comparisons across technology achievement categories. The paper closes with suggestions for abridging the digital divide, and policy implications for the global community.

Global Consumption and Distributive Justice: A Rawlsian Perspective

The purpose of this investigation is to examine consumption inequities on a global basis from the ethical perspective advanced by the philosopher John Rawls. The first three Sections of the article describe the Rawlsian approach to distributive justice in detail, with a special emphasis on its application to primary goods and services. Then an examination of the extent to which Rawlsian justice exists globally is presented in Section IV using data collected and/or verified by the United Nations. The paper closes with implications and future research directions for creating a just world.

Prescriptive measures for environmental performance: emission standards, overcompliance, and monitoring

This paper studies optimal regulation when a regulator can exploit two levers: traditional enforcement and certification. The objective is to demonstrate how regulation can be adapted by combining theory and empirical regularities in the existing literature. The key result is that a regulatory scheme that allows the regulator to exploit overcompliance certification as well as traditional enforcement can achieve substantively greater environmental performance: a firm now has clear incentives to overcomply, and the others have to improve environmental performance through more stringent optimal standards.

The role of carbon offsets in achieving carbon neutrality: an exploratory study of hotels and resorts.

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the area of carbon offsets and carbon neutrality within the context of hotels and resorts. In theory, carbon markets assist organizations in reducing their carbon footprint by purchasing carbon offsets. This conceptual paper aims to explore this market, analyze its operations and evaluate the participants. The expectation is that this original research will provide a foundation for analyzing this market to make sense of the widely disparate views about carbon neutrality held by companies in the hospitality sector. Design/methodology/approach – The research study aimed to uncover what claims are currently made about carbon neutrality, what properties are making these claims and are these claims legitimate? A broad Internet search was conducted to collect a sample of hotels and resorts that marketed carbon neutrality as a feature of their properties. Next, a five-point Likert type scale was constructed to analyze every hotel and resort in terms of legitimate reflection o...

Confronting the Environmental Consequences of the High Technology Revolution Beyond the Guise of Recycling

Conversations among aging baby-boomer executives reveal the profound changes in technology that have transformed their professional and personal lives. From PCs to laptops to Palm Pilots, from CDs to DVDs to high-definition televisions, and from pagers to cell phones to digital cameras, we now live in a world where technology is part of our every waking moment. The benefits are widespread and have contributed significantly to productivity advancements throughout the developed world. Yet the dark side of technology is electronic waste or ewaste, which has become one of the most vexing environmental problems of the early 21st century. In the technical report and accompanying video by the same name (Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia), the authors and their contributors seek to expose us to the grim environmental situation caused by the high technology revolution. E-waste is defined as of a wide range of electronic products, including “large household appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners, hand-held cellular phones, personal stereos, and consumer electronics to computers” (p. 5).

Advertising, technology, and the digital divide: A global perspective

The primary purpose of this paper is to examine the digital divide so advertisers recognize opportunities, threats, and responsibilities in their use of the Internet to promote goods and services worldwide. Through data collected by a variety of international organizations and in cooperation with the United Nations, this research explores the diffusion of information and communications technology within the context of vast socioeconomic inequalities across and inside nations. The paper opens with a brief discussion of the impact of the technological revolution on advertising, followed by a look at the digital divide. Data descriptions are presented in the next section, along with findings that provide regional comparisons. The paper closes with implications for advertising practice as well as global policy.

Consumption and Environmental Degradation: A Long-Term View

This chapter develops and examines a model of the relationship between consumption and environmental degradation, using per capita gross domestic product (GDP) as the proxy for consumer behavior and per capita carbon dioxide emissions as the indicator of pollution. The time paths of emissions and consumption are modeled within a dynamic framework representative of ever-changing global economic and social conditions, and the result is expressed as an optimization problem from which Hamiltonian conditions are derived. Optimal control theory can be used to solve problems in dynamic economic analysis, and the Hamiltonian approach is one way of solving this class of problems. These conditions are analyzed through the use of a phase diagram, and the empirical section of the chapter reveals the relationship between CO2 emissions and GDP values for the aggregate of 148 nation states studied by the United Nations, as well as for developed, developing, and underdeveloped countries as classified by the United Nations. The results of our analysis are not encouraging unless significant changes are made to the policies of leading nations, and the chapter closes with a discussion of alternative policy paths that may ease the identified trends in environmental degradation.