selection of energy performance contracting business models a behavioral decision making approach abstract as a market based mechanism which can actively promote energy efficiency energy performance contracting epc is now universally accepted throughout china and has been incorporated into various business models four of these business models are frequently adopted in china the share savings model the guaranteed savings model the energy cost trust model and the finance lease model the choice of a suitable business model has been recognized as one of the most important factors in the effective implementation of epc projects in this paper the selection of epc business models is formulated as a multi criteria decision making mcdm problem when selecting an epc business model it is natural for decision makers dms to express their preferences opinions in linguistic terms given the characteristics of epc projects taking dms psychological behavior into account is of considerable and realistic significance todim an acronym in portuguese of interactive and multicriteria decision making has been verified as an effective behavioral decision making method to address the problem of epc business model selection an extended todim method based on multi granularity linguistic terms and entropy measure is proposed the sensitivity and comparison analyses show that dms psychological behavior can affect the selection order with respect to the given epc business models one case of a real life campus epc project demonstrates that the validity and applicability of the proposed extended todim method for solving the epc business model selection problem

structure and performance the task of economic history jhe cliometric revolution in ecoknomic history wedded neoclassical economics and quantitative methods in order to describe and explain the performance of economies in the past economic history gained in rigor and scientific pretension but at the expense of exploring a much more fundamental set of questions about the evolving structure of economies that underlies performance 2 cliometricians have turned their backs on a long tradition stretching back from joseph schumpeter to karl marx to adam smith these scholars regarded economic history as essential because it added a dimension to economics its purpose was to analyze the parameters held constant by the economist if economics is a theory of choice subject to specified constraints a task of economic history was to theorize about those evolving constraints the failure of economic historians to provide their colleagues with a historical dimension to their perspective has reduced the effectiveness of economists in dealing with contemporary problems failure of economists to appreciate the transitory character of the assumed constraints and to understand the source and direction of these changing constraints is a fundamental handicap to further development of economic theory the challenge to the economic historian which has equally compelling implications for the economic theorist is to explain the transformation of the structure of the american economy in the past century 3 in the rest of this essay i shall explore this issue in order to specify some of the dimensions of the economic historian s task

capture and ideology in the economic theory of politics the economic theory of regulation long ago put public interest theories of politics to rest these theories have correctly been viewed as normative wishings rather than explanations of real world phenomena they have been replaced by models of political behavior that are consistent with the rest of microeconomics anthony downs 1957 james buchanan and gordon tullock 1965 george stigler 1971 sam peltzman 1976 recently however debate has arisen over whether some version of a public interest theory of regulation will have to be readmitted to our thinking about actions and results in the political arena what is at issue is the empirical importance of the altruistic publicly interested goals of rational actors in determining legislative and regulatory outcomes james kau and paul rubin 1979 kalt 1981 peltzman 1982 this study assesses the nature and significance of publicly interested objectives in a particular instance of economic policymaking u s senate voting on coal strip mining regulations the existence of such objectives is of course no contradiction of the economic view of human behavior kenneth arrow 1972 gary becker 1974 and may well be rooted in genetic biological history becker 1976 jack hirshleifer 1978 generally however individuals altruistic publicly interested goals have been given little attention this reflects the judgment that such goals are so empirically unimportant as to allow the use of occam s razor in positive models or well founded apprehensions that these goals are unusually difficult to identify measure and analyze notwithstanding the latter problem we find that approaches which confine themselves to a view of political actors as narrowly egocentric maximizers explain and predict legislative outcomes poorly the tracking and dissecting of the determinants of voting on coal strip mining policy suggest that the economic theory of politics has been prematurely closed to a broader conception of political behavior

a characterization of ramsey equilibrium abstract consider a perfect foresight equilibrium model with a single capital good a borrowing constraint and many infinitely lived households with fixed but different discount factors the steady state capital stock is held by the most patient household quart j econ 95 1980 375 382 econ j 38 1928 543 559 an example shows the total capital can exhibit an equilibrium cycle in contrast to the stability property of the one household case in the example only the most patient household saves and his income deceases in capital we give a condition implying income is increasing in capital and use it to show any equilibrium converges to the steady state

review of us esco industry market trends an empirical analysis of project data abstract this comprehensive empirical analysis of us energy service company esco industry trends and performance employs two parallel analytical approaches a survey of firms to estimate total industry size and a database of 1500 esco projects from which we report target markets and typical project characteristics energy savings and customer economics we estimate that industry investment for energy efficiency related services reached us 2 billion in 2000 following a decade of strong growth esco activity is concentrated in states with high economic activity and strong policy support typical projects save 150 200 mj m2 year and are cost effective with median benefit cost ratios of 1 6 and 2 1 for institutional and private sector projects the median simple payback time spt is 7 years among institutional customers 3 years is typical in the private sector reliance on dsm incentives has decreased since 1995 preliminary evidence suggests that state enabling policies have boosted the industry in medium sized states escos have proven resilient in the face of restructuring and will probably shift toward selling energy solutions with energy efficiency part of a package we conclude that appropriate policy support both financial and non financial can jump start a viable private sector energy efficiency services industry that targets large institutional and commercial industrial customers

energy conservation through energy service companies empirical analysis from china abstract china s energy service companies escos have developed only modestly despite favorable political and market conditions we argue that with sophisticated market institutions still evolving in china trust based relations between escos and energy customers are essential for successful implementation of energy efficiency projects chinese escos who are predominantly small and private enterprises perform poorly in terms of trust building because they are disembedded from local business social and political networks we conclude that in the current institutional setting the esco model based on market relations has serious limitations and is unlikely to lead to large scale implementation of energy efficiency projects in china

bureaucratic discretion or congressional control regulatory policymaking by the federal trade commission this paper extends stigler and peltzman s approach to regulation by incorporating a legislature the model yields comparative statics results and hence testable implications the paper then tests between two opposing approaches about regulatory agency behavior the first assumes agencies operate independently of the legislature and hence exercise discretion the second assumes that congress controls agency decisions the recent behavior of the federal trade commission provides the empirical setting substantial evidence is found for the specific predictions of the model including the hypothesis of systematic congressional influence over ftc decisions

human capital accumulation and endogenous public expenditures in this paper we present an overlapping generations model where individuals accu mulate human capital through formal schooling we model the role of the public sector in schooling as one of collecting taxes from households and providing inputs to the learning technology public expenditures on schools are determined endogenously under plausible restrictions our model s predictions qualitatively match the observations on schooling pub lic expenditures on education and student teacher ratios jel classification el 3 e62 accumulation de capital humain et depenses publiques endogenes dans ce memoire les auteurs presentent un modele de generations qui se chevauchent ofu les individus accumulent du capital humain via l education formelle le r6le du secteur public dans l education est defini comme celui de collecteur d imp6ts aupres des menages et de fournisseur d intrants dans la technologie d apprentissage les depenses publiques en education sont determinees de maniere endogene a partir de restrictions plausibles les predictions du modele s arriment qualitativement aux observations sur le monde scolaire aux depenses publiques en educa tion et aux ratios 6leves enseignants

fiscal restraints and voter welfare this paper explores the logic of fiscal restraints in a political agency model with both moral hazard and adverse selection the role of the political process is both to discipline incumbents who may act against the public interest and to sort in those politicians who are most likely act in voters interests we use the model to examine the optimality of inefficient taxation limits on the size of government increasing transparency and yardstick competition some conclusions are surprising for example we show that some forms of fiscal restraint can only be desirable when incumbents are sufficiently likely to be benevolent

economic reforms and cycles of state intervention abstract this paper views recent programs of state shrinking within a long term cyclical perspective it argues that the recent crisis of the state in latin america and eastern europe is a product of the excessive and distorted pattern of state growth during the expansionary phase of the cycle the current phase is one of necessary reform and privatization but there will be no final minimal state as theorized by the neoliberals on the contrary the cyclical pattern will produce a reorganized state ready to intervene and grow again the paper discusses both the economic and the political forces at work in these cycles invoking not only kondratieff but also hirschman unless the present generation of reformers learn to recognize the cyclical context within which they are operating and to accept that a strong reformed state is required for the resumption of growth and the consolidation of democracy they risk promoting measures which may eventually prove harmful both to market oriented reform and to political liberty

explaining the contract terms of energy performance contracting in china the importance of effective financing abstract energy service company esco uses energy performance contracting epc to provide energy saving services to its clients under an epc both esco and the client invest in the energy efficiency measures according to a negotiated share of investment within the length of the contract the esco and its client divide up the saved energy bill according to a negotiated share once the contract expires the client claims all of the saved energy bills if the energy efficiency measures still last different epc projects have different contract terms including total investment share of investment and length of contract these contract terms directly determine the resulted energy savings thus it is essential and important to look at how these contract terms are formed and what are the major influencing factors this paper first builds a theoretical bargain model between esco and its client to find out the structural relationship among these contract terms then using the information of about 140 epc contracts in china in 2010 and 2011 the paper empirically estimates the impacts of various factors on the contract terms and the resulted energy savings we find that cost of capitals for escos and the clients especially for escos is a major factor influencing contract terms and the resulted energy savings thus providing effective financing is critical for the development of epc in china

deadweight costs and the size of government abstract we provide a model for analyzing effects of the tax system and spending programs on the determination of government spending and taxpayer welfare an improvement in the efficiency of either taxes or spending would reduce political pressure for suppressing the growth of government and thereby increase total tax revenue and spending we demonstrate the similarity of the political responses to revenue shocks spending shocks changes in tax efficiency and changes in spending program efficiency empirical analysis of oil shocks intergovernmental grants and other autonomous changes in taxes or spending indicates that cause and effect is not only from spending to tax structures

the growth of government in the united states an economic historian s perspective abstract this paper first outlines the salient features of the growth of government in american history secondly it offers a neoclassical explanation of that history in which increasing specialization and division of labor brought on by the scientific technological revolution of the nineteenth century drastically altered the demand for and supply of government finally it argues that institutions matter and describes the way the particular structure of governments was important in the timing and pace of its growth

the size of government most research on the causes of growth in government expenditure has focused on the demand for government services in this paper we argue that in fact this growth may have occurred because of changes in supply changes in technology leading to increased specialization and thus increased opportunity costs of self production have led to increased market production and increased record keeping also female labor force participation has increased both of these factors serve to reduce the efficiency cost of collecting taxes if the demand for government spending has not changed this increase in supply would lead to a larger public sector we estimate a system of simultaneous equations for the period 1929 1970 incorporating this hypothesis and the results are consistent with the theory we are able to explain virtually all of the growth of government increases in female labor force participation seems to be a very important variable in this explanation

macroeconomic conditions in the u s and congressional voting on environmental policy 1970 2008 using the environmental scorecard ratings of congressmen and senators published annually by the league of conservation voters we explore empirically whether political support for pro environment legislation aggregated across each legislative body is sensitive over time to changing economic conditions that is whether there is a political trade off between economic conditions and the environment using lcv scorecard ratings from 1970 to 2008 we find evidence consistent across both the house and senate that political support for the environment is related to per capita income but this general tendency can be decomposed into sharp differences by party

promoting energy efficiency financing and escos in developing countries mechanisms and barriers abstract developing countries have tremendous potential to increase energy efficiency but face several barriers before the potential can be realised a lack of access to appropriate financing mechanisms is one of the important barriers energy service companies escos a market oriented mechanism to improve energy efficiency had successful experiences in developed countries such as the usa and canada and developing countries such as south korea escos are in nascent stage in many developing countries and face several barriers that include market finance and institutional barriers poor energy pricing policies high transaction costs etc market development through active involvement of governments as a customer information provider and policy maker is required to promote escos development of specialised energy efficiency financing windows in appropriate financial institutions development of skills for energy efficiency project appraisal and design of specialised financial products are other measures to accelerate the diffusion of energy efficiency

what encourages local authorities to engage with energy performance contracting for retrofitting evidence from german municipalities municipalities aiming at mitigating climate change by implementing new energy efficiency technologies face budgetary and capacity constraints outsourcing through energy service contracting could provide a solution this paper reports results from a survey of 1298 municipalities concerning barriers to retrofitting public street lighting and the possible role of energy service contracting to overcome these barriers using a logistic regression analysis the authors investigate determinants of opting for energy service contracts in the specific context of led retrofits results point to an advantage of outsourcing in a financially and capacity constrained environment which corresponds with the main reasons for engaging in contracting minimising investments and financial risks however municipalities often do not fully grasp the risks associated with retrofitting especially using a novel technology such as led in relation to that they underestimate the risk reduction potential of energy performance contracts epc previous experience with outsourcing increases the probability to engage in servitization although certain existing partnerships particularly with utilities prevent municipalities from considering energy performance contracts interestingly engaging an energy consultant has a negative propensity to use energy service contracts while pre negotiated standardised contracts for energy performance contracts have a positive influence

getting the incentives right energy performance contracts as a tool for property management by local government energy conservation is a challenging and difficult task because disincentives in the building sector inhibit innovation the municipality of rotterdam experimented with an energy performance contract that aimed to avoid disincentives and replace them with a stimulus for innovation this article investigates whether the design requirements for performance management found in the management literature were fulfilled during the development of the contract and its implementation the outcomes of the experiment show substantial energy conservation around 30 percent the existing incentive structure was changed through the use of a performance management contract and perverse effects that are mentioned in the literature were limited the incentives established between the commissioning party and the contractor triggered better performance and innovation although balancing the responsibilities between the principal and the agent was demanding and time consuming energy performance contracts are a useful piece of the sustainability puzzle but tailor made refinements are necessary

ahp based risk analysis of energy performance contracting projects in russia abstract understanding and properly managing risks that could potentially affect the target and performance based profits of energy performance contracting epc projects are essential it is particularly important for the establishment and success of energy service companies escos acting in the vulnerable environment of the vast but highly energy inefficient russian market this study systematically explores common risk factors and causes of risk associated with epc projects executed in three russian sectors 1 industrial 2 housing and communal services and 3 public several interviews with the russian epc experts were accomplished and a qualitative risk assessment by using an analytic hierarchy process ahp approach the data were obtained from a web based questionnaire survey conducted among russian epc project executors for each focus sector a specific preference based ranking of the identified risk factors and causes of risk was derived the ahp results show that causes of risk related to the financial and regulatory aspects contribute most to the riskiness of epc projects performed in all three focus sectors in russia calling for the special attention of epc policy and business makers due to sectorial particularities and different actors involved we conclude that there is a need for elaboration of sector specific contractual schemes for epc projects

analysis of esco activities using country indicators energy service companies escos are private sector instruments that offer energy emission improvement energy saving energy efficiency energy conservation emission reduction projects in the developed and in some developing countries literature reveals that energy emission improvements of countries may be related to their innovation and r d activity levels in this work we use a literature data on the activities and the sectors targeted by escos in 38 countries summarized in terms of the age of esco market aem number of esco companies ne and total value of esco projects ve along with the global innovation index gii data of the countries we investigate the relationships among the esco indicators eis aem ne ve sectors targeted by escos and the country indicators cis gii and per capita gdp energy consumption co2 emission we observe noteworthy dependencies between the eis and cis using the simple trend equations we estimate the missing ves in the original data we also project as a hint for the size and orientation of the upcoming turkish esco market the set of eis and the distribution of the sectors that are likely to be targeted by escos in turkey

towards a sustainable society the status and future of energy performance contracting in china abstract associated with the rapid economic growth last decades have witnessed significant increases of both energy production and energy consumption in china it is also recognized that the air pollutants emissions brought by excessive fossil energy consumptions have caused serious environmental problems it is imperative to save energy and reduce emissions in china as an innovative market mechanism energy performance contracting epc can effectively reduce the energy consumption china has released a series of laws polices regulations and plans that include epc related contents due to the massive demand as well as the facilitation efforts from the governments epc has developed rapidly in china for instance the number of employees the aggregate investment and the total output value of energy service companies increased by 31 8 times 56 times and 73 2 times between 2005 and 2013 the evolution of policy system of epc in china is examined in this study the results show that legal protection policy guidance and fiscal incentives are main measures to promote the development of epc these policies showcase china s efforts on achieving energy conservation enhancing energy efficiency and improving environmental performance by encouraging the implementation of epc however the analysis also reveals some existing issues further development of epc depends on a number of factors such as a complete legal security system a mature market mechanism flexible economic incentives and the specific development plan for epc the experiences gained in china are helpful for promoting the development of epc industry especially in the developing countries

the co evolutionary relationship between energy service companies and the uk energy system implications for a low carbon transition abstract the energy service company esco business model is designed to reward businesses by satisfying consumers energy needs at less cost and with fewer carbon emissions via energy demand management and or sustainable supply measures in contrast the revenue of the incumbent energy utility company euco model is coupled with the sale of units of energy which are predominantly sourced from fossil fuels the latter is currently dominant in the uk this paper addresses two questions first why has the esco model traditionally been confined to niche applications second what role is the esco model likely to play in the transition to a low carbon uk energy system to answer these the paper examines the core characteristics of the esco model relative to the euco model the paper then examines how escos have co evolved with the various dimensions of the energy system i e ecosystems institutions user practices technologies and business models to provide insight into how escos might help to shape the future uk energy system we suggest that institutional and technological changes within the uk energy system could result in a more favourable selection environment for escos consequently enabling the esco model to proliferate at the expense of the euco model

do cio it budgets explain bigger or smaller governments theory and evidence from u s state governments given the recent concern on big governments and rising budget deficits in the united states and european nations there has been a fundamental economic debate on the proper boundary and role of governments in a society inspired by this debate we study the relationship between information technology it and government size drawing on a broad range of the literature from multiple disciplines such as information systems industrial organization and political sciences we present several theoretical mechanisms that explain the impact of it on government expenditures using a variety of data on it spending and state government expenditures we find that greater it investments made by a state chief information officer cio are associated with lower state government spending it is estimated that on average a 1 increase in state cio budgets is associated with a reduction of as much as 3 49 in state overall expenditures this study contributes to the literature by identifying a key technological factor that affects government spending and showing that it investments can be a means to restrain government growth