Stephen H. Schneider and Kristin Kuntz-Duriseti
One of the principal tools in analyzing climate change control policies is integrated assessment modeling. While indispensable for asking logical “what if” questions, such as the…
Abstract
One of the principal tools in analyzing climate change control policies is integrated assessment modeling. While indispensable for asking logical “what if” questions, such as the cost-effectiveness of alternative policies or the economic efficiency of carbon taxes versus R&D subsidies, integrated assessment models (IAMs) can only produce “answers” that are as good as their underlying assumptions and structural fidelity to a very complex multi-component system. However, due to the complexity of the models, the assumptions underlying the models are often obscured. It is especially important to identify how IAMs treat uncertainty and the value-laden assumptions underlying the analysis.In particular, IAMs have difficulty adequately addressing the issue of uncertainty inherent to the study of climate change, its impacts, and appropriate policy responses. In this chapter, we discuss how uncertainty about climate damages influences the conclusions from IAMs and the policy implications. Specifically, estimating climate damages using information from extreme events, contemporary spatial climate analogs and subjective probability assessments, transients, “imaginable” surprises, adaptation, market distortions and technological change are given as examples of problematic areas that IA modelers need to explicitly address and make transparent of IAMs are to enlighten more than they conceal.
Abstract
Details
Keywords
Timothy C. Weiskel and Richard A. Gray
To provide a brief illustration of how the circumstances of economic underdevelopment and ecological decline are reciprocally linked, we can begin by tracing the post‐World War II…
Abstract
To provide a brief illustration of how the circumstances of economic underdevelopment and ecological decline are reciprocally linked, we can begin by tracing the post‐World War II history of Africa. Political histories of the post‐war period abound for almost all parts of the continent, since it was during this era that many African colonies struggled for and won political independence. Detailed ecological histories of colonialism and the post‐colonial states, however, are just beginning to be researched and written. Nevertheless, several broad patterns and general trends of this history are now becoming apparent, and they can be set forth in rough narrative form even though detailed histories have yet to be compiled.
David E. Bowen, Raymond P. Fisk, John E.G. Bateson, Leonard L. Berry, Mary Jo Bitner, Stephen W. Brown, Richard B. Chase, Bo Edvardsson, Christian Grönroos, A. Parasuraman, Benjamin Schneider and Valarie A. Zeithaml
A small group of pioneering founders led the creation and early evolution of the service research field. Decades later, this article shares timeless service wisdom from ten of…
Abstract
Purpose
A small group of pioneering founders led the creation and early evolution of the service research field. Decades later, this article shares timeless service wisdom from ten of those pioneering founders.
Design/methodology/approach
Bowen and Fisk specified three criteria by which to identify a pioneering founder. In total, 11 founders met the criteria (Bateson, Berry, Bitner, Brown, Chase, Edvardsson, Grönroos, Gummesson, Parasuraman, Schneider and Zeithaml) and were invited to join Bowen and Fisk – founders that also met the criteria as coauthors. Ten founders then answered a set of questions regarding their careers as service scholars and the state of the field.
Findings
Insightful reflections were provided by each of the ten pioneering founders. In addition, based on their synthesis of the reflections, Bowen and Fisk developed nine wisdom themes for service researchers to consider and to possibly act upon.
Originality/value
The service research field is in its fifth decade. This article offers a unique way to learn directly from the pioneering founders about the still-relevant history of the field, the founders' lives and contributions as service scholars and the founders' hopes and concerns for the service research field.