Does air pollution fuel irrational behaviors in stock investments?

This paper investigates the influence of air pollution on irrational behaviors in stock trading through behavioral experiments in laboratory, simulating air pollution by burning straw and mosquito coils. The results of this study show that air pollution significantly improves disposition effect and repurchase effect in an asymmetric way, which are thought as irrational behaviors in stock investments, making subjects prefer selling winning stocks (part of disposition effect) and repurchasing stocks that have fallen in price since the sale (part of repurchase effect). Furthermore, regret, a negative emotion, is the psychological mechanism by which air pollution influences the irrational behaviors.

Special collections for applying artificial intelligence techniques to encourage economic growth and maintain sustainable societies.

Efficient resource use requires substantial evaluation and re-evaluation of production processes. Since not all production details can be properly and timely monitored and adjusted, improvement of resource allocation has long been a critical issue in commodity production, technique selection, and sustainable development. The progress of artificial intelligence (AI) offers a possibility. For example, with deep learning techniques and extensive data analysis, most previously unincorporated or unknown information associated with a firm's activities can be appropriately reflected and calculated. Once the firms take the report, a more efficient and economically friendly production strategy could be made. The central theme of this special collection is to invite studies on how the design and application of AI benefit not only the fields of computer science and information engineering but also the interdisciplinary fields, including renewable energy development, environmental protection, and economic analysis. Fourteen papers are published in this special collection.

Prospects of Taiwan's solar energy development and policy formulation.

Taiwan lacks energy stock and has been paying great attention to developing renewable energy to improve energy security and sustain economic growth. Solar energy is attractive to Taiwan's government as the recorded radiation is substantial, and a significant amount of fallow land is available for panel installation. This study investigates the potential solar energy production from Crystalline silicon (c-Si) and cadmium Telluride thin-film (CdTe) cell systems, estimates each system's capital requirement, and compares the economic and environmental benefits to explore effective investment strategy. The results show that, on average, the c-Si module could produce 10,644 GWh per year while the CdTe mode would yield a total electricity of about 9365 GWh. The useful life also plays an essential role in the investment requirement. With a 30-year useful life, the systems can reduce the annualized installation and maintenance cost to about NT$3.16 billion. In terms of offset efficiency, every MWh produced would result in at least 13.63-15.49 metric ton of carbon emission offset, and the offset value per GWh can be up to NT$5.77 million, which provide attractive economic incentives to energy suppliers. We point out that the acquisition of low-cost financing sources such as green bonds, as well as the improvement of current emission trading systems (ETS), would greatly benefit solar energy development.