This document presents the StarLink corn case in four sections. The StarLink corn had been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1998 for use only in animal food and other non-alimentary industrial products, due to the potential human allergy reactions. But in September 2000,...

In the United States and most industrialized countries, regulatory policies and decision-making pertaining to food safety, occupational health and environmental protection are science-based. The actual pace and complexity of technological innovation, however, make it increasingly necessary to...

Nuclear power lost significant credibility after the accident in Japan of 2011, leading to downward revisions about its development in the coming years. Yet, the British government has just approved the construction of a nuclear power plant in the UK, at a strike price which has puzzled many...

For the post-Kyoto period, Turkey strongly emphasizes the establishment of national emission trading system by 2015 and its integration with the EU ETS along its accession process to the EU. In this paper, we study the mechanisms of adjustment and economic welfare consequences of various ETS...

Because of the time value of money (that is, a dollar today can be invested to yield more than a dollar tomorrow), a project's costs and benefits in different periods are not comparable. Therefore, a discount rate that will convert future sums into present values is used in cost-benefit...

Cet article procède à une synthèse de la littérature sur la question de la valeur psychologique du temps. Il discute des différents déterminants du taux d'actualisation et la possibilité d'avoir une fonction d'escompte de type hyperbolique. L'approche historique permet de retracer les...

This paper assesses current regulatory and accounting developments in the OECD area against their purported goals. It specifically considers the different approaches to valuing pension liabilities and questions the possibility of convergence between funding and business accountants' valuation...

This paper provides a stylised assessment of the impact of investment-relevant pension fund regulations and accounting rules on contribution and investment strategies within the context of an asset-liability model (ALM) specifically designed for this purpose. The analysis identifies a...

The objective of this study is to analyse what the quantitative funding requirements for pension funds with defined benefit plans would be, if Solvency II (based on the QIS 3 methodology) would be applied. Also possible extensions of the Solvency II methodology that seem necessary in order to...

This article provides an overview of the literature on the psychological value of time. It discusses various determinants of the discount rate and the possibility of hyperbolic discounting. The historical approach helps us to trace the origins of the concept of psychological value of time. This...