Following the European Commission Guidance on Strengthening the Code of Practice on Disinformation the European Commission Communication on the European Democracy Action Plan the European Commission Communication "Tackling online disinformation: a European approach, the Council Conclusions of 28...

Public procurement requirements and voluntary standards are increasingly used to foster environmental product innovations. However, quantitative evidence on their individual and joint effects is absent, and their conceptualization remains at an early stage. This paper makes two contributions....

Following the European Commission Guidance on Strengthening the Code of Practice on Disinformation the European Commission Communication on the European Democracy Action Plan the European Commission Communication "Tackling online disinformation: a European approach, the Council Conclusions of 28...

This paper studies temporal factors influencing the effectiveness of don't drive appeals (DDAs) which policy-makers use to encourage motorists to voluntarily reduce driving during transitory high pollution episodes. We derive and empirically validate a theoretical framework for DDAs where the...

This paper explores the possibility of using voluntary carbon credits to retire coal-fired power plants early. It introduces carbon emission trading using the example of the substantial European emissions trading market. It presents recommendations for phasing out coal power plants and discusses...

This report provides a extensive overview of voluntary agreements (VAs) on food loss and waste reduction across Europe, detailing approaches, impacts and lessons learned, drawing from information gathered from 13 EU Member States, examples from Norway and the UK, and one international coalition...

This report provides a extensive overview of voluntary agreements (VAs) on food loss and waste reduction across Europe, detailing approaches, impacts and lessons learned, drawing from information gathered from 13 EU Member States, examples from Norway and the UK, and one international coalition...

With the strong growth of the internet the energy consumption of data transmission has dramatically increased. The potential new electrical load represented by this equipment needs to be addressed by EU energy and environmental policies. It is important that the electrical efficiency of...

The looming climate crisis calls for the development of novel forms of response, but so far, climate change action does not meet its ambitions to tackle the issue. Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCMs) are one proposed solution to bridge the gap. However, VCMs are criticized for not providing real...

The work aimed to analyse the sustainability efforts – the greening – of five industry sectors in Brazil: aluminium, chemical, steel, cement, and oil and gas. These sectors were chosen because they are the industries with the highest carbon emissions. The research sought to verify the...

This paper studies the impact of voluntary climate commitments by banks on their lending activity. We use administrative data on the universe of bank lending from 19 European countries. There is strong selection into commitments, with increased participation by the largest banks and banks with...

Private actors have been actively working on standards that certify products and their production processes to minimize negative externalities. The number of Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) has been increasing over the last few decades, raising interest in understanding their impact on...

The article examines the peculiarities of the exercise of freedom of contract and freedom of entrepreneurial activity by state-owned enterprises in the USSR under the conditions of the state monopoly in the production of property goods, planned regulation of production and administrative-command...

This article puts forth the concept of protocol power as the disproportionate influence of dominant platform actors to shape and set industry-wide standards, and thus determine certain rules of inclusion at the technical, existential level of protocol. In this way, protocol power shapes and...

Earnout provisions (“earnouts” hereafter) provide for contingent payments in M&A agreements and play a role in reducing information asymmetry. However, in China, earnouts are not solely driven by negotiations between acquirers and targets but are also related to regulatory preference. The...

Voluntary sustainability standards offer potential for sustainable development by improving the livelihoods of smallholder cash crop farmers while conserving biodiversity. However, their overall implications remain poorly understood, as studies have mostly focused on assessing their effects on...

Increasing food demand will most likely be met with agricultural intensification and land clearing, exacerbating environmental consequences associated with food supply. The mechanisms and trade-offs between agriculture and the environment are heterogeneous and not well understood, yet key to...

The main objective of the study is to examine the effect of board characteristics, such as board independence, board diversity (BDv) and absence of chairman-duality, and commitment to environmental disclosures on the voluntary adoption of integrated reporting (IR) in the Indian companies. India...

Previous research shows that humans display complexity aversion. In this article, we test for the presence of complexity aversion and its determinants in the context of voluntary climate action, where individual choices interact with the complex regulatory framework of the EU Emission Trading...

Loot boxes in video games are a form of in-game transactions with randomized elements. Concerns have been raised about loot boxes' similarities with gambling and their potential harms (e.g. overspending). Recognizing players' and parents' concerns, in mid-2020, the Entertainment Software Rating...

This paper explores the potential of voluntary consumption quotas as a strategy to address resource supply shortages. The results of an incentivized online experiment are presented in which a Nash demand game was used to model an energy consumption problem. Participants had the option to join an...

We study whether the threat of exit by institutional investors can induce firms to voluntarily disclose their environmental policies. To address concerns about reverse causality and omitted variables, we implement a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to conduct our empirical tests. The...

The 2009 National Salt Reduction Initiative (NSRI) set sodium content targets for packaged food products in the United States. Some manufacturers voluntarily pledged to meet NSRI targets by 2014. We quantify the causal effect of the NSRI on sodium content reductions. Our identification rests on...

We investigate whether the sustainability implications of firms’ innovative pursuits are associated with their disclosure choices. We find that firms with a greater percentage of patents granted in environmentally sound technologies provide more innovation disclosure in conference calls...

Institutional investors have limited resources dedicated to engagement activities, yet, in manycases they hold thousands of stocks in their portfolios. We exploit the introduction of the tieringclassification system by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) in 2016 for signatories reportingunder...

The aim of this chapter is to inform reflection on business self-regulation (or corporate social responsibility, ‘CSR’) in addressing climate change by drawing on developments in ‘business and human rights’ and the experience accumulated in the EU. Despite dissimilarities in addressing...

Rice cultivation in Sub-Saharan Africa produces a negative externality in the form of higher malaria risk. Larval source management, such as the application of bio-larvicides in rice fields, is available to mitigate the problem. However, the cost of larvicide and the corresponding spraying...