Industrial Activity and the Environment Article

Industrial Activity and the Environment - Article Example Besides some economic benefits, industrial revolution produced much environmental impacts in a shorter period of time. However, it will be impossible to close all the industries to cut down the pollution. There is a need to find some ways to enable economic growth as well as reducing the environmental pollution. The article that I have selected is â€Å"Industrial Activity and the Environment in China: An Industry-Level Analysis† written by Matthew A. Cole, Robert J.R. Elliott and Shanshan Wu. The article discusses the economic aspects with respect to the environmental perspective. However, China is considered as the reference country to depict the industrial growth and the concentration of different harmful pollutants to the atmosphere. As China has the world’s biggest population, the number of industries in China is increasing day by day and with the increase China has become the biggest producer of carbon dioxide. It is estimated that with this massive amount of air pollution about 300, 0000 people die annually. There is a need to consider the environmental health with the economic growth. Despite the fact that the China has the world’s biggest population, the average air pollution decreased due to the certain efforts of China’s environmental regulatory authorities. Results show that the average atmospheric SO2 levels decreased around 1997 to 2002, while, a little increase was seen in 2000. However, an increase in the average atmospheric SO2 is seen around 2002 to 2004. Similarly the average level of soot emission also decreased around 1997 to 2002 and a minor increase was seen around 2002 to 2004. The similar case is with the dust emissions from industries. These are the three major components of air pollution. The decrease in these three components consequently lowered the pollution intensity, which was at the recorded level in 1998 and now it is on the lowest level. The major producers of the pollutants are the China’s m anufacturing industries like the steel/iron industries in China. Thus the industries are considered as the dirtiest industries among all other. Besides the Steel and iron manufacturing industries, chemical industries, Non-Metallic Mineral producers and Paper and Products industries are also considered as the industries that are producing risk for the environment. It can be noticed that Iron and steel industry, which is considered as the dirtiest industry, is growing with a rapid pace. However, the intensity of the SO2 emission decreased, the similar case is seen with dust and soot emissions. There are several determinants of industrial pollution in China, the first and the most important is the Pollution demand that may involve the energy use, factor intensities, size, efficiency, vintage and innovation. As the demand for energy is rising day by day there is need to generate more energy and generation more energy may involve the utilization of more fossil fuel resources and thus emi tting more pollutants into the atmosphere. Factor intensities of an industry may influence the emissions of more pollutants into the atmosphere. Factor may involve the material and human factors. Size of industry may have some relation with the production of the pollutants. As, more productions may give rise to more pollution emitted into the atmosphere. The other important factor that may have inverse proportion with the amount of pollution is the efficiency of the industry. More efficiency means more products utilizing less amount of energy. Newer

Financial modeling Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Financial modeling - Essay Example But this is not to say that financial modeling cannot be performed manually.There are various financial models that a company can use in evaluating its investment projects. The only challenge for the company is to identify the model that will provide the most accurate information that can help the company make the right decision.With the advent of technology and computer, many models nowadays are calculated and evaluated using computer software which makes the whole process easy and faster. It is a fact that in a competitive world, companies should be able to make fast, timely and accurate investment decisions. But this is not to say that financial modeling cannot be performed manually.There are various financial models that a company can use in evaluating its investment projects. The only challenge for the company is to identify the model that will provide the most accurate information that can help the company make the right decision.Some of there models include Value- at- risk mod els, Interest rate models, Equity pricing models, Asset allocation models, Trading models, Investment portfolio models that can be used on equity or derivatives, Business simulation models that include Monte Carlo simulation and binary free and genetic algorithms used in optimization decisions.This is a model of calculating the probability of a collection of investment securities generating returns more than the anticipated. It is a model of analyzing past market performance, security correlation and the security movements. A basic value-at-risk model involves all types of market uncertainties e.g. interest, stock, goods and currency risks. It enables the determination of an estimate on the value of portfolio risk (maximum loss) based on the past performance of the portfolio at a given rate of certainty. The various models under the value-at-risk include the variance-covariance method, historical simulation and Monte Carlo simulation models. Variance-covariance It uses past values of security movements and relationship to determine the estimate of the future loses that could occur. Security movements and security relationship risk is calculated for a given period of time. Historical simulation models It generates a lot of results of the security value. It uses security risk and their associated probabilities to generate these results which are used to estimate the value of VaR. Interest rate models Some of the most commonly used interest rate financial models are the Black-Derman-Toy (BDT) model, Black -Karainsky (BK) model, Heath- Jarrow-Morton (HJM) model and the White-Hull model, Black-Derman-Toy Interest Rate Model It is mainly used for determining the value of derivatives by considering a preliminary zero rate term structure and the movement of the yield by constructing a tree explaining the interest rates. This model can also be a single-factor or multi-factor. The Heath-Jarrow-Morton model It uses statistical data and processes to derive the value of the derivatives by considering preliminary zero rate term structure and the up and down movement of future rates. Hull-white model It is a single factor that uses the preliminary term structure of interest rates with the up and down movement term structure to construct a trinomial free of short rates. Equity pricing models One of the widely used equity pricing model is the Capital Assets Pricing Model developed by William Sharpe and John Litner. It works on the premise that the return of a given security is affected by the risk called systematic. This risk is measured using beta () and it cannot be diversified away by holding a portfolio of securities. This model evolved from the portfolio theory which did not