La communauté scientifique s’accorde sur la responsabilité de l’homme dans les menaces actuelles pesant sur la biodiversité. La forte érosion de la biodiversité mondiale pointe les limites biophysiques de renouvellement du capital naturel (espèces, paysages, services écosystémiques…). Postulant que la durabilité d’un système économique passe par le maintien du stock de capital naturel, Costanza et Daly ont introduit les concepts de « durabilité faible » et de « durabilité forte » pour caractériser les biens selon leur niveau de substituabilité (dans le cadre de la durabilité forte, le capital naturel devient non substituable). A leur suite, afin d’adapter le concept de durabilité forte aux problématiques de développement et d’aménagement, Toman suggère en 1994 de distinguer les capitaux naturels critiques présentant des enjeux de préservation forts des capitaux naturels de moindre importance. Il propose d’appliquer une logique de durabilité forte aux premiers pour ne pas les laisser décroître en dessous de seuils donnés dits normes minimales de sauvegarde et, d’utiliser les seconds comme supports du développement, appliquant alors une logique de durabilité faible.Partant les cadres conceptuels de Costanza, Daly et Toman, ma thèse évalue la faisabilité et les arbitrages inhérents à la mise en œuvre de la durabilité forte dans une action publique de préservation de la biodiversité, en l’occurrence, la compensation écologique qui conditionne les opérations d’aménagement à compenser les pertes écologiques qu’ils engendrent. Mon objectif fut de me centrer sur une action publique ayant des assises spatiales afin de mettre en évidence les déterminants individuels permettant sa mise en œuvre et d’évaluer les seuils, notamment spatiaux, nécessitant des arbitrages entre enjeux de développement économique et conservation de la biodiversité.Dans un premier chapitre, je propose et applique empiriquement sur trois régions françaises, une méthode pluridisciplinaire (reprenant des éléments d’écologie) de catégorisation des milieux naturels en fonction de leur niveau de durabilité. La spatialisation empirique de mes catégories fait ressortir la place prédominante de l’agriculture et une forte variabilité des niveaux de durabilité selon la nature biophysique et anthropique des espaces. Dans le second chapitre, j’évalue, à partir des cadres de l’économie comportementale, l’acceptabilité de la compensation écologique par les agriculteurs. Je mets en évidence de fortes disparités dépendantes des types de production et de l’histoire personnelle des agriculteurs. Dans mon dernier chapitre, j’évalue empiriquement les contraintes spatiales inhérentes à l’atteinte d’une durabilité forte à partir d’un modèle théorique d’allocation de l’effort de compensation à l’échelle régionale. Un premier résultat de ma thèse est donc une définition opératoire de la nature ordinaire, adaptée à la mise en œuvre d’une action publique sur l’environnement (en l’occurrence le dispositif de compensation écologique). Je montre que, si l’on cantonne les aménagements à la nature ordinaire, l’objectif de durabilité forte devient atteignable, à condition que l’agriculture soit le pivot du dispositif. Mon second résultat met en lumière les comportements des agriculteurs eu égard aux politiques visant la préservation d’une biodiversité. Il montre, à rebours des résultats standard en économie comportementale, que les agriculteurs réagissent plus favorablement à une biodiversité moins spécifique et que les niveaux d’acceptabilité de la mesure sont hétérogènes selon leur type de production (bio vs conventionnel) et leur histoire personnelle (héritier agricole versus néo-agriculteur). / Non fourni

Biodiversity offsetting mechanisms are increasingly applied worldwide as a new solution to the current biodiversity crisis. The offsetting approach is idealised as a means to achieve no net loss of biodiversity. Offsetting mechanisms aim to quantify residual biodiversity losses and enable developers to account for residual impacts off-site. Despite rising global application, the effectiveness of offsetting is by no means assured. The question of whether and how offsetting can be operationalised to achieve no net loss has become a key focal point in debates surrounding their effectiveness. Environmental Impact Assessment, or EIA, has been portrayed as an obvious 'vehicle' for integrating offsetting into existing corporate management systems and planning systems, and therefore a key factor over how offsetting mechanisms operate. This research critically investigated the nature of integration and interactions between EIA and offsetting using a three phase qualitative research design, which brought together analysis of emerging policy, expert interviews and in-depth case studies.

This paper examines the Swedish travel agencies that offer voluntary carbon offsetting to their costumers. Tourism is expanding in a fast rate globally with international arrivals predicted to reach 1,8 billion by 2030 (UNWTO, 2008). Economic development and more availability of individual free time are two of the most significant drivers to this growth in tourism. Globalization has also resulted in the growth and increase of mobility on a global scale (Harvey, 2000). The reduction of cost and time of mobility in space, driven partly by technological innovation in the transport sector has resulted in the increase of mobility (Harvey, 2000). Tourism is inseparable with transport; an increase in tourism therefore results in an increase of emissions related to tourism transports (Duval, 2007). One of the most alarming challenges facing tourism is the increase of green house gases. A number of Swedish travel agencies are offering voluntary carbon offsetting to their costumers as a way of tackling the problem off the increase of emissions related to tourism. This study however shows that the interest and motivation to buy voluntary offsetting from travel agencies are low, and gives some incentive to why that’s the case. Swedish travel agencies effort to sell voluntary carbon offsetting to their costumers must be seen as a failure, both in numbers and in doing any significant impact on the mitigation of climate change related to tourism.

本论文集由三篇关于公司金融和金融市场的文章组成。 / 第一篇文章主要探讨关于中国的控股股权的利益。通过研究1999到2006年的股权协议转让的数据，我发现控股股权相比于那些可比较的非控股股权存在显著溢价。平均值为24.97%溢价反映了控股股权的利益。回归分析发现，控股股权的利益和股权结构，公司特征以及制度环境有关。被收购对象的无形资产比例越高，控股股权的利益越少；发行了B股或者H股也会减少控股股权的利益；被私人公司收购的公司往往伴随着更高控股股权的利益。同时，控股股权的利益和非公有经济发展以及要素因子市场发展呈现负相关。进一步的研究表明，那些有较高控股股权的利益的公司往往伴随着更高的其他应收账款，关联交易额比例以及融资额比例，虽然影响不太显著。因此，我推断那些有更高控股股权的利益的公司可能更多地被其大股东侵占了利益。 / 第二篇文章主要研究关于中国股票市场上的“羊群效应“。通过应用Christie 和Huang (1995) 以及Chang (2000) 的模型，发现深圳和上海股票市场所没有“羊群效应“。 在子样本上的进一步分析发现，在2007股市泡沫期间和2008全球金融危机期间也没有“羊群效应“。最后，我使用分位数回归方法，来解决“羊群效应是否对于股市收益分歧的分位数是否敏感的问题。结果表明，在收益分歧的各个分位数上，收益分歧始终随着市场收益率增加，再次证明没有“羊群效应“的存在。 / 第三篇主要分析关于芝加哥气候交易所碳排放的价格和波动性。分析表明，某些年份的碳排放期货收益率具有长期记忆效应，有些年份则没有。但是不同年份期货收益率波动性则全部具有很强的长期记忆效应。同时，我发现FIGARCH模型很好的描述了碳价格的波动特性并且估计出了长期记忆的参数。进一步验证了碳期货收益率具有长期记忆效应。这个结论表明碳排放期货市场还不是弱式有效的。 / This thesis consists of three essays on corporate finance and financial markets. The first essay investigates the private benefits of control in China. By analyzing block share transfers in China from 1999 to 2006, I find that the controlling blocks are usually priced at significant positive premiums compared with the non-controlling ones. The premiums, with a mean of 24.97%, reflect the private benefits of control in China. Cross-sectional regression analysis shows that the benefits of corporate control vary with ownership structure, firm characteristics and institutions. In particular, targets with high intangible asset ratios have less private benefits of control; cross-listing in the B or H share market reduces private benefits and companies acquired by private firms are associated with higher private benefits. Moreover, it is found that private benefits of control are negatively associated with the non-state economy and factor market development index. Finally, further analysis shows some evidence that other receivables, amount of connected transaction, and amount of financing increase moderately with private benefits. Hence, firms with higher value of private benefits are likely to experience more tunneling activities conducted by their controlling shareholders. / The second essay examines herd behavior in the Chinese stock market. Employing the cross-sectional standard deviation testing methodology proposed by Christie and Huang (1995), it is found that herd behavior does not exist in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets. The empirical evidence based on Chang et al. (2000) suggests no evidence of herd behavior as well. I also investigate the herd behavior in the 2007 bubble period and 2008 global financial crisis period and no evidence of herding is documented. Finally, quantile regression is employed to test whether or not herd behavior is sensitive to different quantiles of return dispersion distributions. It is found that in the lower and upper tail of return dispersion distribution, return dispersion generally increases with market return movements, indicating that no herd behavior is observed. / The third essay studies the price movement and volatility of the carbon futures in Chicago Climate Exchange. Firstly, the long-term dependence of future returns and volatilities is investigated by employing the modified rescaled range (R/S) statistics. Most of the return series have long-term memory features and the evidence for long-term dependence in volatilities is pronounced for all series. Next, the Fractionally Integrated GARCH (FIGARCH) model is applied to investigate the volatility of return series and estimate the long memory parameters in return series. The estimated degrees of integration are significantly greater than zero but less the unity, which demonstrates the presence of an explicit long memory feature in return series. The results indicate that the market is not weak-form efficient. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Liu, Xiaojin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / 摘要 --- p.iii / Table of Contents --- p.v / Chapter Chapter 1: --- The private benefits of control: evidence from China --- p.1 / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2. --- Related literature and institutional setting --- p.3 / Chapter 2.1 --- Related literature --- p.3 / Chapter 2.2 --- Background on the Chinese stock market --- p.6 / Chapter 3. --- Variable description --- p.7 / Chapter 3.1 --- Measuring private benefits of control --- p.7 / Chapter 3.2 --- Ownership structure --- p.10 / Chapter 3.3 --- Firm characteristics --- p.11 / Chapter 3.4 --- Institutions --- p.13 / Chapter 4. --- Sample description --- p.15 / Chapter 5. --- Main empirical results --- p.16 / Chapter 5.1 --- Testing significance of private benefits of control --- p.16 / Chapter 5.2 --- Ownership structure, firm characteristics, and private benefits of control --- p.17 / Chapter 5.3 --- Institutions and private benefits of control --- p.18 / Chapter 5.4. --- Further evidence of tunneling --- p.19 / Chapter 6. --- Conclusion --- p.20 / References --- p.22 / Tables --- p.25 / Appendix --- p.35 / Chapter Chapter 2: --- An empirical analysis of herd behavior in the Chinese stock market --- p.41 / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.41 / Chapter 2. --- Methodology and data --- p.46 / Chapter 3. --- Empirical results --- p.49 / Chapter 3.1 --- Dummy regression --- p.49 / Chapter 3.2 --- Nonlinearity in return dispersions and market return --- p.51 / Chapter 3.3 --- Investigating herd behavior in subsamples: the 2007 bubble period and 2008 global financial crisis period --- p.52 / Chapter 4. --- Further analysis: a quantile regression approach --- p.53 / Chapter 5. --- Conclusion --- p.55 / References --- p.57 / Tables --- p.60 / Appendix --- p.71 / Chapter Chapter 3: --- Price movement and volatility of the carbon market: evidence from Chicago Climate Exchange --- p.74 / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.74 / Chapter 2. --- Related literature and background on carbon futures in the Chicago Climate Exchange --- p.75 / Chapter 2.1 --- Related literature --- p.76 / Chapter 2.2 --- Background on Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) --- p.79 / Chapter 3. --- Methodology and sample description --- p.80 / Chapter 3.1 --- Lo’s modified Rescaled Range (R/S) statistic --- p.80 / Chapter 3.2 --- The Fractionally Integrated GARCH (FIGARCH) model --- p.81 / Chapter 3.3 --- Sample description --- p.82 / Chapter 4. --- Empirical results --- p.82 / Chapter 4.1 --- Lo's modified R/S statistic test --- p.83 / Chapter 4.2 --- FIGARCH model --- p.84 / Chapter 5. --- Conclusion --- p.85 / References --- p.87 / Tables --- p.90 / Appendix --- p.95

This thesis represents the first comprehensive attempt at providing conceptual and scholarly coherence to the topic of stranded assets and the environment. Over the last five years the topic has risen up the agenda and has become of significant interest to scholars and practitioners alike, as it has influenced a number of pressing issues facing investors, companies, policymakers, regulators, and civil society in relation to global environmental change. The thesis reveals how the topic developed and emerged, notably through a unique first-person account based on autoethnography and close dialogue. Four self- contained papers demonstrate the wide applicability of stranded assets, and further existing, relatively well-developed literatures (namely carbon budgets and stranded costs) and also two much less developed literatures (namely the calibration of climate policy to minimise stranded assets and policy mechanisms to quickly and efficiently strand assets). Though a significant amount has been written on stranded assets over a short period, there remain significant gaps in the literature. The thesis identifies substantial research opportunities, particularly to better connect our understanding of physical and societal environment-related risks; to improve our knowledge of perception and behaviour in relation to the creation and management of stranded assets; to expand the scope of work into new sectors and geographies; and to place stranded assets in an appropriate historical perspective. Stranded assets is, if anything, a geographical concept. The thesis makes the case for economic geography as the disciplinary home for stranded assets. The sub-discipline can both contribute to the development of stranded assets as a scholarly endeavour and itself benefit from interacting with a topic that intersects with some of the most pressing contemporary issues related to environmental sustainability.

Global warming is an international problem which has led to that many corporations today has an increased environmental awareness. This thesis includes a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) approach which evaluates whether carbon offsetting is a profitable alternative for corporations and society wide. The study is predominately focusing on the emissions of the greenhouse gas . The calculations of CBA show the difference between the scenarios with or without the carbon offsetting. In the CBA approach effects are divided into benefits and costs. The study includes a case study of Husqvarna AB and is carried through with aim to get a decision support whether or not to make the corporation carbon neutral. Basic data from Husqvarna AB has been used.

<p>Global warming is an international problem which has led to that many corporations today has an increased environmental awareness.</p><p>This thesis includes a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) approach which evaluates whether carbon offsetting is a profitable alternative for corporations and society wide. The study is predominately focusing on the emissions of the greenhouse gas . The calculations of CBA show the difference between the scenarios with or without the carbon offsetting. In the CBA approach effects are divided into benefits and costs.</p><p>The study includes a case study of Husqvarna AB and is carried through with aim to get a decision support whether or not to make the corporation carbon neutral. Basic data from Husqvarna AB has been used.</p>

<p>Global warming is an international problem which has led to that many corporations today has an increased environmental awareness.</p><p>This thesis includes a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) approach which evaluates whether carbon offsetting is a profitable alternative for corporations and society wide. The study is predominately focusing on the emissions of the greenhouse gas . The calculations of CBA show the difference between the scenarios with or without the carbon offsetting. In the CBA approach effects are divided into benefits and costs.</p><p>The study includes a case study of Husqvarna AB and is carried through with aim to get a decision support whether or not to make the corporation carbon neutral. Basic data from Husqvarna AB has been used.</p>

As response to climate change, the UN and the EU have adopted a market-based approach aiming to reduce Greenhouse gases via flexible market-based mechanisms, constituted by carbon trading and carbon offsetting. The approach rests on the notion that sustainable development and environmental protection are compatible with a liberal market and economic growth. However, this rather complex issue is debated among stakeholders and the perspectives of the matter vary. As an important societal institution, Swedish newspapers play a central democratic role by interpreting, conveying and discussing responses to climate change. By having this informative role, Swedish newspapers influence the public agenda. This study aims to analyze and describe how carbon trading and carbon offsetting are presented in Swedish newspapers by revealing patterns within their content. The research was conducted via a content analysis of 204 articles in the two leading newspapers in Sweden, Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter covering the years 2007 and 2014. The results could be summarized as: (i) the issue is described through a variety of contexts with strong influence of ideological messages, (ii) the elites in society in general and domestic political parties/allianes in particular are the most dominant stakeholder groups in the debate, (iii) the approach seems to be linked to the messages of Swedish liberal/conservative parties, (iv) the political orientation of the newspapers do not influence the choice of political parties given a voice in the articles, (v) the level of connection between cabon trading/carbon offsetting and sustainable development varies among the articles.

Our study examines some design alternatives for a carbon market by exploring the fledgling Alberta carbon market. We attempt to evaluate the performance of these designs on the bases of trade volume, cost efficiency and stability. To achieve this we construct an empirically-calibrated but simple agent-based model, certain aspects of which we selectively modify to incorporate various design options. We make comparisons among these options based on data simulated from the ensuing family of models. We find strong evidence that in general, market design features such as source-of-credits, the scale of the market, and pricing-mechanism are very important considerations that influence the performance of the market. In addition, we find support for the notion that the level of the price cap relative to the average cost of abatement in the market matters, and beyond a threshold, higher price caps are associated with lower levels of performance. / vii, 155 leaves ; 29 cm