This book provides a comprehensive and unique perspective on China's oil and natural gas industry and a practical roadmap to reforms.The book begins with a thorough examination of the status quo of China's oil and natural gas industry. It explores the evolution, transition, and characteristics of the oil industry of China, and unveils the problems that caused ineffectiveness of the oil and petroleum products market, namely, the dominance of monopoly enterprises, price regulation, and restr...

In China, the government controls a large part of resources, such as land, energy, bank savings, and so on. This book studies the efficiency and fairness of resources allocation by governmental administration in China. The book states that it is neither fair nor efficient to allocate resources by the governmental administrations. These resources should be allocated by the market.The book analyzes the resources allocation by government administration in three key areas namely education, hea...

Medical expenditure has become a heavy burden on the public sector and the family system in many countries. Expanding the coverage and reimbursement of medical insurance has become a common way to reduce the burden. This book will elaborate on how medical insurance may increase the burden instead.It explains why the existing medical insurance system results in increased medical costs, where higher costs may offset the benefits of certainty brought by medical insurance, forming the 'paradox...

Regulatory Governance and Risk Management will be the first book addressing the diffusion of risk-based governance in the coal mining industry from a health and safety standpoint. More specifically, it aims to understand a puzzling phenomenon. Since the 1990s, the approach of risk-based governance has been widely adopted in almost all developed countries in Europe and commonwealth countries. It, however, has diffused much more slowly in the U.S. Using a diffusion approach and comp...

Every consumer in a modern economy is indirectly exposed to the work of a price reporting agency (PRA) each time they fill up their car, take a flight or switch on a light, and yet the general public is completely unaware of the existence of PRAs. Firms like Platts, Argus and ICIS, which are referenced every day by commodity traders and which influence billions of dollars of trade, are totally unfamiliar to consumers.The Price Reporters: A Guide to PRAs and Commodity Benchmarks bri...

In the energy sector of Canadian economic and political life, power has a double meaning. It is quintessentially about the generation of power and physical energy. However, it is also about political power, the energy of the economy, and thus the overall governance of Canada. Power Switch offers a critical examination of the changing nature of energy regulatory governance, with a particular focus on Canada in the larger contexts of the George W. Bush administration's aggressive en...

First published in 1993, this book traces and analyses the changing policies of American offshore oil companies concerning the exploration and development of the Outer Continental Shelf in the period from 1970 to 1976 — covering environmental legislation, the oil embargo, presidential initiatives, and proposed international laws. Where previous studies concerning the Outer Continental Shelf had only examined broad policy issues on an international level, this study focuses on those America...

A thoroughly updated introduction to the current issues and challenges facing managers and administrators in the investor and publicly owned utility industry, this engaging volume addresses management concerns in five sectors of the utility industry: electric power, natural gas, water, wastewater systems and public transit.Beginning with a brief overview of the historical development of the industry, the author examines policy issues including the consequences of dealing with deter...

After a quarter century of almost general condemnation and rebuttal of the entire nationalization experience, it appears that there are second thoughts about governmental direct intervention in the economy. Reappraising State-Owned Enterprise deals with a topic often undervalued in the past decade but which now, with the crisis of 2008-2009, calls for greater attention: the direct intervention of the State as Entrepreneur.The collection of essays in this volume – prepared ...

This book is a collection of research articles and critical review articles, describing the overall approach to energy management. The book emphasizes the technical issues that drive energy efficiency in context of power systems. This book contains case studies with and without solutions on modelling, simulation and optimization techniques. It covers some innovative topics such as medium voltage (MV) back-to-back (BTB) system, cost optimization of a ring frame unit in textile industry, rec...

Is there a chance that public or private research and development institutions can improve the efficiency of the R&D process? This book gives a positive answer by designing an integrated concept of the science technology cycle and the innovation system of each technology. The position of a new technology in the sciencetechnology cycle is identified by several indicators from patent analysis, citations and market information data. The innovation system supports the search for a comprehensiv...

Historically, there has been a lack of parity between women and men in senior corporate roles, particularly in major companies with the biggest market capitalisation. This can be partly explained by inequalities of career opportunity and also women’s self-perceptions. Yet there are plenty of examples in business and other worlds, notably politics, that women can perform effectively in the highest leadership roles.Some countries have actively encouraged greater female representation...