the optimal biopower capacity in co firing plants an empirical analysis abstract biomass fuels carry appealing features in replacing traditional fossil fuels especially coal in power generation due to the bulk sparse and low energy density drawbacks of biomass many studies implicitly indicate small and limited scale in biopower generation this study contributes to the bioenergy literature by explicitly studying the optimal biopower capacity of biopower co firing technology in coal fired power plants which has practical implications for potential biopower practitioners investors and policymakers this study indicates that the optimal biopower capacity of biomass co firing in coal powered plants is intermediate i e 12 mw on average in order to take advantage of economies of scale without incurring high transportation cost regional variations are also found in the aspects of production cost and optimal capacity due to local characteristics local biomass availability plays a critical role in shaping biopower s generation cost optimal capacity and cost changing patterns

why don t remittances appear to affect growth although measured remittances by migrant workers have soared in recent years macroeconomic studies have difficulty detecting their effect on economic growth this paper reviews existing explanations for this puzzle and proposes three new ones first it offers evidence that a large majority of the recent rise in measured remittances may be illusory arising from changes in measurement not changes in real financial flows second it shows that even if these increases were correctly measured cross country regressions would have too little power to detect their effects on growth third it points out that the greatest driver of rising remittances is rising migration which has an opportunity cost to economic product at the origin net of that cost there is little reason to expect large growth effects of remittances in the origin economy migration and remittances clearly have first order effects on poverty at the origin on the welfare of migrants and their families and on global gross domestic product but detecting their effects on growth of the origin economy is likely to remain elusive

supply of biomass bioenergy and carbon mitigation method and application this study develops an analytical framework for deriving the supply of biomass feedstock and subsequently electricity and co2 displacement generated from the biomass this systematic approach minimizes the total cost of both feedstock and electricity production and involves the determination of the optimal power plant size and the derivation of the supply curves the analytical framework is applied to the case of logging residues in the us both the theoretical and empirical results point to the importance of simultaneously considering feedstock production energy conversion and environmental benefits costs in bioenergy project development leading to useful policy implications for bioenergy development and deployment

finance and the sources of growth at various stages of economic development this article studies the effects of financial development on the sources of growth in different groups of countries recent theoretical work shows that financial development may affect productivity and capital accumulation in different ways in industrial versus developing countries this hypothesis is tested with panel data from 74 countries using gmm dynamic panel techniques results are consistent with the hypothesis finance has a strong positive influence on productivity growth primarily in more developed economies in less developed economies the effect of finance on output growth occurs primarily through capital accumulation jel o4 g1

promotion policies for renewable energy and their effects in taiwan abstract taiwan is an interesting case in bioenergy development and its government has employed several subsidies to promote bioenergy such as released land compensation and energy crop subsidies however how farmers respond to these economic incentives is not clear the study employs the concept of big data by incorporating data on the input output of crop production demand elasticities international trade and tariffs processing technologies commodity prices and energy prices for more than 85 of taiwanese agricultural and forest commodities the study first utilizes a mathematical programming model to examine the effectiveness of these policies in terms of bioenergy production and ghg greenhouse gas emissions reduction and then applies the dynamic structural equation model to analyze the interactions among important input and output factors such as social welfare energy prices bioenergy production ghg emissions and co 2 trade prices the results show that 1 the ghg price is more effective than the coal price in the sense of reducing the ethanol production 2 the gasoline price has a negative impact on contemporary electricity production while the coal and ghg prices have positive impacts 3 current ethanol production has a negative influence on current ghg emissions reductions and 4 the gasoline price coal price ghg price and ghg emissions reductions have a significant positive impact on contemporary welfare

who formulates renewable energy policy a swedish example a broad participation by stakeholders and an extensive reliance on expert advice are often seen as preconditions for a legitimate and successfully implemented renewable energy policy however we have lacked systematic data for testing this argument this article s contribution is to examine the actors who take part in the making of swedish energy policy with the help of data on the composition of various committees of inquiry over the last twenty years 1988 2009 swedish renewable energy policy is often characterised with words like pioneering and forerunner suggesting that the policy making process in this area engages many different experts and stakeholders our data give only some support to this argument results point to a noteworthy predominance of politicians civil servants and representatives of state agencies within the policy process producers of uranium and fossils based energy have been engaged more often than producers of renewable energy experts have played a prominent role but this is mostly due to the participation of expert bureaucrats rather than of scientists the study suggests that a better understanding of the making of energy policy both in sweden and elsewhere requires greater attention to the networks and role of various state employees

energy transitions in small scale regions what we can learn from a regional innovation systems perspective the prevalent theories in the debate on sustainability transitions have been criticised for not sufficiently addressing energy change processes at the local level this paper aims to enhance our understanding of local energy reorganisation processes drawing on the regional innovation systems ris approach we argue that local development dynamics result from the interaction of various subsystems science politics public administration industry finance intermediaries and civil society the analysis of the involved subsystems and their interaction shows how energy transitions are shaped by different individual and organisational actors as well as institutions on the local level empirical evidence from case studies on the german cities of emden and bottrop illustrates our theoretical conceptualisation of energy transitions we conclude by presenting characteristic interaction patterns for energy transition drawn from the two cases

outline of the economic and technical problems associated with the co combustion of biomass in poland abstract the paper presents the economic and technical problems associated with the use of biomass in co combustion processes in the energy sector in poland the particular attention was paid to the extent of the use of biomass in the energy sector the technologies and techniques applied as well as the economic determinants as it results from the analyses the co combustion of biomass in poland is a predominant direction in the green energy production co combustion processes are carried out mainly with the use of direct combustion technologies in the largest entities operating in the energy market the widespread use of biomass in the polish energy sector results in specific problems such as those associated with the prices of green certificates and the import of biomass currently the polish renewable energy sector is developing as intended however the validity of the funds spending which aimed at supporting renewable energy sources res may raise some doubts this results from insufficient monitoring of the amount of energy produced on the basis of renewable sources which in 2012 led to over production of the res based energy and consequently to a significant decrease in prices of green certificates

sectoral implications of farm program modifications the overall and distributional effects of farm programs and selected revisions are examined using a mathematical programming sector model the model incorporates market distortions caused by price supports target prices program participation deficiency payments and marketing loans current farm programs are found to increase producer prices depress consumer prices and in turn result in excess production and higher consumption and exports domestic and foreign consumers as well as domestic producers are subsidized by farm programs social deadweight loss occurs as government payments exceed welfare benefits received by consumers and producers society as a whole benefits from reductions in program provisions

economic impacts of biofuels deployment in andalusia this paper aims to estimate the economic impacts of increasing the production capacity of the installed biofuel plants in andalusia southern spain a computable general equilibrium cge approach is used to calculate the changes in the economic sectors activity in employment as well as in gdp and other macroeconomic variables relevant to biofuel plants in andalusia under two distinct scenarios i based on an operating biodiesel plant with 90 ktoe year of installed capacity ii upgrading to 2174 ktoe by 2013 in compliance with the regional plan andaluz de sostenibilidad energetica pasener 2007 2013 results show that compliance with the pasener goal would increase the activity level of the economic sectors considered by 3 04 the total induced employment generated would reach 167 975 equivalent full time jobs lasting one year and the gdp would increase by 9 82

remittances and the dutch disease abstract using data for el salvador and bayesian techniques we develop and estimate a two sector dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model to analyze the effects of remittances on emerging market economies we find that whether altruistically motivated or otherwise an increase in remittance flows leads to a decline in labor supply and an increase in consumption demand that is biased toward non tradables the higher non tradable prices serve as incentive for an expansion of that sector culminating in reallocation of labor away from the tradable sector a phenomenon known as the dutch disease quantitative results also indicate that remittances improve the welfare of households because they smooth income flows and increase consumption and leisure levels a bvar analysis provides results that are consistent with the dynamics of the model

global land use implications of first and second generation biofuel targets recently an active debate has emerged around greenhouse gas emissions due to indirect land use change iluc of expanding agricultural areas dedicated to biofuel production in this paper we provide a detailed analysis of the iluc effect and further address the issues of deforestation irrigation water use and crop price increases due to expanding biofuel acreage we use globiom an economic partial equilibrium model of the global forest agriculture and biomass sectors with a bottom up representation of agricultural and forestry management practices the results indicate that second generation biofuel production fed by wood from sustainably managed existing forests would lead to a negative iluc factor meaning that overall emissions are 27 lower compared to the no biofuel scenario by 2030 the iluc factor of first generation biofuels global expansion is generally positive requiring some 25 years to be paid back by the ghg savings from the substitution of biofuels for conventional fuels second generation biofuels perform better also with respect to the other investigated criteria on the condition that they are not sourced from dedicated plantations directly competing for agricultural land if so then efficient first generation systems are preferable since no clear technology champion for all situations exists we would recommend targeting policy instruments directly at the positive and negative effects of biofuel production rather than at the production itself

bioenergy policy and market development in finland and sweden abstract the use of biomass in finland and sweden has steadily increased over the past 25 years up to approximately 20 of the primary energy supply in 2001 in both countries most biomass originates from forests forest biomass is now an integral part of modern energy systems although primarily in industry and in the heating sector for example biomass accounts for 7 9 and 53 of the fuel mix in district heating in finland and sweden respectively the general energy policy of both countries has supported biomass for energy over the entire period although specific policies have changed with time research development and demonstration has been continuously supported and some subsidy schemes have been applied in particular for district heating systems dhs and combined heat and power heavy taxation of competing fossil fuels seems to have been the most effective policy instrument although this has been directed mainly at the heat and transportation fuel markets electricity taxes are imposed on consumption industry is largely exempt and do not discriminate significantly between the sources of electricity starting in 2003 sweden will have a quota based system a renewable portfolio standard which is expected to increase biomass based electricity production both countries possess vast and not fully exploited biomass resources in the form of forests and have a history of rational and large scale forestry strong actors exist both with regard to forest ownership and the industrial processing of forest products the user side in particular represented by dhs can also be characterised by strong and professional management over time structures have developed that facilitate an increased use of biomass for energy for example the forest industry infrastructure and extensive district heating actors within these structures have had the ability to react to policies resulting in a stable growth in biomass use

ethanol production food and forests this paper investigates the direct and indirect impacts of ethanol production on land use deforestation and food production a partial equilibrium model of a national economy with two sectors and two regions one of which includes a forest is developed it analyses how an exogenous increase in the ethanol price affects input allocation land and labor between sectors energy crop and food the total effect of ethanol prices on food production and deforestation is decomposed into three partial effects first the well documented effect of direct land competition between rival uses arises it increases deforestation and decreases food production second an indirect displacement of food production across regions possibly provoked by the reaction of international food prices increases deforestation and reduces the food sector s output finally labor mobility between sectors and regions tends to decrease food production but also deforestation the total impact of ethanol production on food production is negative while there is an ambiguous impact on deforestation

remittances financial development and growth abstract despite the increasing importance of remittances in total international capital flows the relationship between remittances and growth has not been adequately studied this paper studies one of the links between remittances and growth in particular how local financial sector development influences a country s capacity to take advantage of remittances using a newly constructed dataset for remittances covering about 100 developing countries we find that remittances boost growth in countries with less developed financial systems by providing an alternative way to finance investment and helping overcome liquidity constraints this finding controls for the endogeneity of remittances and financial development does not depend on the particular measure of financial sector development used and is robust to a number of robustness tests including threshold estimation we also provide evidence that there could be an investment channel trough which remittances can promote growth especially when the financial sector does not meet the credit needs of the population

burning peat in ireland an electricity market dispatch perspective abstract this paper examines peat power production in ireland under the three pillars of energy policy security competitiveness and environment peat contributes to energy security as an indigenous fuel it reduces dependency on imports during a period of low capacity margins the operation of the peat plants is useful from a system security perspective peat generation is being financially supported by consumers through an electricity levy the fuel also has high carbon intensity it is not politically viable to consider peat on equal economic criteria to other plant types because of history and location this paper reviews electricity generation through combustion of peat in ireland and quantifies the costs of supporting peat utilising economic dispatch tools finding the subsidy is not insignificant from a cost or carbon perspective it shows that while peat is beneficial for one pillar of energy policy security the current usage of peat is not optimal from a competitiveness or environmental perspective by switching from the current must run mode of operation for peat to the dispatched mode used for the other generation significant societal savings in the range 21 m per annum can be achieved as well as reducing system emissions by approximately 5 per year

price dispersion in bitcoin exchanges abstract bitcoin is traded in a number of exchanges and there is a large and time varying price dispersion among them we identify the sources of price dispersion using a standard time varying vector autoregression model with stochastic volatility and we find that shocks to transaction fees and bitcoin price growth explain on average 20 and sometimes more than 60 of the variation of price dispersion

remittances finance and growth does financial development foster the impact of remittances on economic growth abstract there is no consensus in the literature regarding the long run impact of remittances on economic growth previous studies have shown that it might be related to financial development in the transfer receiving country but the direction of the link remained unclear i contribute to this literature by using a newly created index of overall financial development and two different estimation methods i measure the importance of remittances given financial development for economic growth in developing countries as there is no widely accepted measure of financial sector development i estimate an index of overall financial conditions it is created by means of an unobserved components model and used to determine the relevance of the financial sector as a transmission channel for remittances to affect economic growth i show that the more financially developed a country is the smaller the impact of remittances on economic growth remittances can foster growth but the effect is significant only at low levels of financial development this is in line with previous studies which found remittances and financial development to be substitutes however the interaction between the two factors becomes weaker once size depth and efficiency of the financial sector are taken into account my results suggest that while attracting migrants transfers can have important short run poverty alleviating advantages in the long run it might be more beneficial for governments to foster financial sector development

the regional economic impacts of biofuels a review of multisectoral modelling techniques and evaluation of applications allan g j the regional economic impacts of biofuels a review of multisectoral modelling techniques and evaluation of applications regional studies the regional economic impact of biofuel production depends upon a number of interrelated factors the specific biofuels feedstock and production technology employed the sector s embeddedness in the rest of the economy through its demand for local resources and the extent to which new activity is created these issues can be analysed using multisectoral economic models some studies use input output io and social accounting matrix sam modelling frameworks whilst a nascent computable general equilibrium cge literature has begun to examine the regional impact of biofuel development this paper reviews compares and evaluates these approaches for modelling the regional economic impacts of biofuels

renewable energy and macroeconomic efficiency of oecd and non oecd economies abstract this article analyzes the effects of renewable energy on the technical efficiency of 45 economies during the 2001 2002 period through data envelopment analysis dea in our dea model labor capital stock and energy consumption are the three inputs and real gdp is the single output increasing the use of renewable energy improves an economy s technical efficiency conversely increasing the input of traditional energy decreases technical efficiency compared to non oecd economies oecd economies have higher technical efficiency and a higher share of geothermal solar tide and wind fuels in renewable energy however non oecd economies have a higher share of renewable energy in their total energy supply than oecd economies

a comparison of bioenergy policies and institutional frameworks in the rural areas of emilia romagna and norway abstract this paper explores the relationship between bioenergy rural development and related innovation processes in two case studies emilia romagna in italy and norway for a better understanding of the impacts of different policy regimes on bioenergy innovation regional innovation systems theory is used to explain the results emerging from the case studies and to identify the presence of potential elements for innovation we used policy and relevant literature analysis and a grounded approach based on semi structured interviews of relevant actors involved in the local bioenergy system the main findings show that the case studies present consistent differences in terms of policy instruments and socio political dynamics emilia romagna has major weaknesses and threats that hinder innovation but some positive potential elements for the future norway presents stronger local elements for innovation within local bioenergy systems such as the employment of local resources and knowledge but critical market and policy features that threaten further innovation developments the conclusion draws on the comparative analysis to discuss policy implications of the study

poolability and the finance growth nexus a cautionary note abstract the present contribution tests whether countries can be pooled when studying the finance growth nexus overall our results point toward a pragmatic positive answer though considerable heterogeneity is present among developing countries

economic feasibility of utilizing forest biomass in district energy systems a review abstract recent global protocols and agreements have motivated countries to use biomass for energy generation however the barriers in biomass utilization including variations in biomass availability high moisture content low bulk density and dispersed distribution of biomass have made investors reluctant to invest in bioenergy projects in some parts of the world in this paper in addition to a brief summary of the conversion technologies used for energy generation a review of the world literature on techno economic assessment of district energy systems using forest biomass as the primary fuel with references extending over two decades is provided although energy generation from forest biomass is found to be expensive in many countries the review of literature revealed important factors that increased the share of biomass in energy production in other countries these important factors include using more efficient technologies providing governmental grants and subsidies setting new policies in favor of biomass utilization increasing emission reduction targets and introducing tradable carbon credits the feasibility of utilizing forest biomass in district heating systems has been examined in the literature mainly based on the costs while considering social and environmental profiles of these systems could improve their acceptance future research studies on assessing the performance of biomass district energy systems should consider environmental and social impacts of these systems in addition to their costs

the social costs of second best policies evidence from agricultural ghg mitigation abstract this paper investigates the social costs of second best agricultural greenhouse gas ghg mitigation policies adjustments along the land use and input intensity margins are represented within a regionalized optimization model of california crop production calibrated to economic and agronomic information second best policies relying on spatially aggregated ghg emission factors lead to small abatement efficiency losses while policies targeting a single ghg lead to moderate losses in contrast policies targeting a single input entail large abatement efficiency losses which nonetheless can be reduced by combining instruments

the costs of carbon sequestration a revealed preference approach increased concem by policy makers with the threat of global climate change has brought with it considerable attention to the possibility of encouraging the growth of forests as a means of sequestering carbon dioxide national academy of sciences nas 1992 james p bruce et al 1996 1 the kyoto protocol to the united nations framework convention on climate change 1997 which establishes emission reduction targets for the united states and other industrialized nations states that carbon sequestration can be used by participating nations to achieve their targets moreover even before the kyoto agreement this approach had become an explicit element of both u s and intemational climate policies u s department of energy 1991 united nations general assembly 1992 william j clinton and albert gore 1993 this high level of interest has been due in part to suggestions that sufficient lands are available to use the approach to mitigate a substantial share of annual carbon dioxide c02 emissions greg marland 1988 daniel a lashof and dennis a tirpak 1989 mark c trexler 1991 and claims that growing trees to sequester carbon is a relatively inexpensive means of combating climate change roger a sedjo and allen m solomon 1989 daniel j dudek and alice leblanc 1990 nas 1992 in other words the serious attention given by policy makers to carbon sequestration can partly be explained by implicit assertions about respective marginal cost functions i develop and demonstrate a method by which the costs of carbon sequestration can be estimated on the basis of evidence from landowners behavior when confronted with the opportunity costs of alternative land uses the simplest of previous economic analyses derived single point estimates of average costs associated with particular sequestration levels marland 1988 sedjo and solomon 1989 dudek and leblanc 1990 edwin s rubin et al 1992 omar masera et al 1995 often it has been assumed that land opportunity costs are zero g van kooten et al 1992 j k winjum et al 1992 new york state energy office 1993 robert k dixon et al 1994 another set of studies essentially engineering costing models has constructed marginal cost schedules by using information on revenues and costs of production for altemative uses on representative types or locations of land and then sorting these in ascending order of cost robert j moulton and kenneth r richards 1990 richards et al 1993 simulation models include a model of the lost profits due to removing land from agricultural production peter j parks and ian w hardie 1995 a mathematical programming model of the agricultural sector and the timber market richard m adams et al 1993 a related model incorporating the effects of agricultural price support programs j m callaway and bruce mccarl 1996 and a dynamic simulation model of forestry susan swinehart 1996 lastly an analysis by andrew j plantinga 1995 adopts land use elasticities from an econometric study to estimate sequestration costs we draw on some of the best features of the previous studies including the carbon levelization method of moulton and richards john f kennedy school of government harvard university 79 john f kennedy street cambridge ma 02138 and resources for the future richard newell supplied excellent research assistance and valuable comments on a previous version were provided by lawrence goulder william nordhaus andrew plantinga kenneth richards two anonymous referees participants in seminars at the universities of california at los angeles and santa barbara the university of maryland the university of michigan the university of texas harvard university stanford university yale university resources for the future and the national bureau of economic research the author alone is resdonsible for any errors 1 after fossil fuel combustion deforestation is the second largest source of carbon dioxide emissions estimates of annual global emissions from deforestation range from 0 6 to 2 8 billion tons compared with slightly less than 6 0 billion tons annually from fossil fuel combustion cement manufacturing and natural gas flaring combined r a houghton 1991 t m smith et al 1993

the inefficiency of bitcoin bitcoin has received much attention in the media and by investors in recent years although there remains scepticism and a lack of understanding of this cryptocurrency we add to the literature on bitcoin by studying the market efficiency of bitcoin through a battery of robust tests evidence reveals that returns are significantly inefficient over our full sample but when we split our sample into two subsample periods we find that some tests indicate that bitcoin is efficient in the latter period therefore we conclude that bitcoin in an inefficient market but may be in the process of moving towards an efficient market

exploring a pioneering bioenergy system the case of enkoping in sweden in order to contribute to knowledge on how to expand bioenergy this paper examines an example of success from sweden the idea is to identify factors that can explain the difference between success and failure of bioenergy systems in the aftermath of the oil crises in the 1970s the local government in the town of enkoping in sweden was cautioned by the local swedish military regiment to shift towards domestic energy supplies rather than imported fossil fuels during the decades that followed the local energy companies developed a pioneering bioenergy system there are 3 important conditions relevant to explain the success 1 the introduction of the carbon tax in sweden provided market conditions making bioenergy sufficiently competitive with fossil fuels 2 the know how developed by the local energy companies through experimentation and collaboration with research institutions encouraged investments in local opportunities and 3 the formation of partnerships in a regional network of actors including private companies providing biofuels and technology research institutions and local government helped to co ordinate the development of the bioenergy system less

remittances institutions and economic growth summary there is considerable debate regarding the relative contribution of international migrants remittances to sustainable economic development while officially recorded remittances to developing countries have increased over the last decade research has not come to a consensus over whether remittances have a positive or negative impact on long run growth this paper argues that contradictory findings have emerged when looking at the remittances growth link because of an omitted variable bias specifically remittances will be more likely to contribute to longer term growth in countries with higher quality political and economic policies and institutions

economic potential of biomass based fuels for greenhouse gas emission mitigation use of biofuels diminishes fossil fuelcombustion thereby also reducing net greenhousegas emissions however subsidies are neededto make agricultural biofuel productioneconomically feasible to explore the economicpotential of biofuels in a greenhouse gasmitigation market we incorporate data onproduction and biofuel processing for thedesignated energy crops switchgrass hybridpoplar and willow in an u s agriculturalsector model along with data on traditionalcrop livestock production and processing andafforestation of cropland net emissioncoefficients on all included agriculturalpractices are estimated through crop growthsimulation models or taken from the literature potential emission mitigation policies ormarkets are simulated via hypothetical carbonprices at each carbon price level theagricultural sector model computes the newmarket equilibrium revealing agriculturalcommodity prices regionally specificproduction input use and welfare levels environmental impacts and adoption ofalternative management practices such asbiofuel production results indicate no rolefor biofuels below carbon prices of 40 perton of carbon equivalent at these incentivelevels emission reductions via reduced soiltillage and afforestation are more costefficient for carbon prices above 70 biofuels dominate all other agriculturalmitigation strategies

on the inefficiency of bitcoin abstract urquhart 2016 investigated the market efficiency of bitcoin by means of five different tests on bitcoin returns it was concluded that the bitcoin returns do not satisfy the efficient market hypothesis we show here that a simple power transformation of the bitcoin returns do satisfy the hypothesis through the use of eight different tests the transformation used does not lead to any loss of information

does renewable and or non renewable energy consumption matter for total factor productivity tfp growth evidence from the brics abstract studies proved that output growth is mainly associated with the total factor productivity tfp growth and variables that affect the tfp have an important explanatory power on output in this regards the aim of this study is to examine the causal relationship between different types of energy consumption and tfp growth in the brics from 1992 to 2012 a panel bootstrap granger causality test by konya 2006 68 was employed to investigate the direction of possible connection between energy consumption and tfp growth results show that no remarkable causal link exists between renewable energy consumption and tfp growth in the brics however in the case of non renewables energy consumption creates a positive externality that contributes economic development in brazil and south africa by the growth of tfp as well as energy use itself in this respect policies that promote coal and non renewable electricity consumption in south africa and natural gas consumption in brazil may be beneficial for their economic development

measuring financial asset return and volatility spillovers with application to global equity markets we provide a simple and intuitive measure of interdependence of asset returns and or volatilities in particular we formulate and examine precise and separate measures of return spillovers and volatility spillovers our framework facilitates study of both non crisis and crisis episodes including trends and bursts in spillovers and both turn out to be empirically important in particular in an analysis of sixteen global equity markets from the early 1990s to the present we find striking evidence of divergent behavior in the dynamics of return spillovers vs volatility spillovers return spillovers display a gently increasing trend but no bursts whereas volatility spillovers display no trend but clear bursts

the effects of militarization on biofuel consumption and co2 emission abstract the cointegration and causal relation among co2 emissions economic growth militarization and biofuel consumption were tested from 1984 to 2015 period for unite states us the autoregressive distributed lag and three supplementary long run estimators the dynamic ols canonical cointegration regression and fully modified ols were employed to reveal the long run impacts of economic growth militarization and biofuel consumption on co2 emissions toda and yamamoto s mwald and rao f tests were applied to find out the direction of causality the evidence of bi directional causality between biofuel consumption and economic growth between economic growth between militarization and biofuel consumption and co2 emissions and between biofuel consumption and co2 emissions was determined the results of forecast error variance determined 50 1 of the forecast error variance of co2 emissions is explained by the forecast error variance of militarization and 59 4 by energy consumption

mapping the cost risk of agricultural residue supply for energy application in rural china this research aims to shed light on the interaction mechanism of cost risks for biomass material supply in power generation especially for biomass coal dual fuel systems firstly a game model is established to analyze interactions among factors including unit procurement cost unit transportation cost basic price and coal price for crop residue collection secondly a monte carlo simulation is implemented to compare the profit increase under material competition with that under price alliance the methodology is illustrated with a case study in a biomass power plant in shandong province china it shows that developing a price alliance will benefit both the allied enterprises and the local collection area in most circumstances thirdly a risk tolerance area approach is applied in mapping the cost risk and in explaining the risky circumstances of the case study

when does a carbon tax on fossil fuels stimulate biofuels a carbon tax is an efficient economic instrument to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide released from fossil fuel burning if designed properly it could also help significantly to promote renewable energy using a multi sector multi country computable general equilibrium model this study investigates under what circumstances a carbon tax would help stimulate penetration of biofuels into the energy supply mix for road transportation in various countries and regions around the world this study shows that a carbon tax cum biofuel subsidy policy where a carbon tax is introduced to fossil fuels and part of the tax revenue is used to finance the biofuel subsidy would significantly help stimulate market penetration of biofuels on the other hand a carbon tax alone policy where the entire tax revenue is recycled to households through a lump sum transfer does not help stimulate biofuels significantly even at higher tax rates although the carbon tax cum subsidy policy would cause higher loss in economic output at the global level as compared to the carbon tax alone policy the incremental loss is relatively small the key policy insight drawn from the study is that if a carbon tax were to be implemented in an economy for the purpose of climate change mitigation recycling part of its revenue to finance biofuel subsidies would significantly help stimulate biofuels

potential environmental impacts of increased reliance on corn based bioenergy this paper integrates economic and physical models to assess a how increases in agricultural commodity prices driven by ethanol production and other factors affect land use and cropping systems in the us midwest and b how the changes in land use and cropping systems in turn affect environmental quality in the region the empirical framework includes a set of econometric models that predict land conversion crop choices and crop rotations at the parcel level based on commodity prices land quality climate conditions and other physical characteristics at the sites the predictions are then combined with site specific environmental production functions to determine the effect of rising commodity prices on nitrate runoff and leaching soil water and wind erosion and carbon sequestration results suggest that increasing commodity prices will result in widespread conversions of non cropland to cropland fifty percent of the region s pasture and range land will be converted to cropland with 6 corn rising commodity prices will also result in dramatic changes in crop mix and rotation systems in the midwest with 6 corn the total acreage of corn will increase by 23 and 40 in the corn belt and lake states respectively the acreage of continuous corn will increase considerably in both regions as well these changes in land use and crop mix will have a large impact on agricultural pollution approaches to mitigating the environmental impacts are discussed

are the direct and indirect growth effects of remittances significant development economists believe that migrant workers remittances are an important source of funds for long run growth therefore recent studies have investigated the growth effects of remittances and reached different conclusions in many such studies the growth of output is simply regressed on both remittances and the channels through which remittances affect growth thus there is no distinction between the indirect and direct growth effects of remittances and such specifications may give unreliable estimates because of the correlation between the channels and remittances in this paper we make a distinction between the indirect and direct effects of remittances our model is estimated with panel data of 40 high remittance recipient countries and a system gmm panel data estimation method

supply chain and logistics issues of bio energy production abstract within the concert of renewable energy technologies bio energy can play a decisive role during the next decades when smartly designed and applied under favorable conditions in this respect efficient and effective supply chain and logistics management represent one key parameter this paper presents a literature review of articles published in english speaking peer reviewed journals from 2000 to 2009 which cover the interface of bio energy production and issues of logistics and supply chain management first the articles are assessed according to descriptive criteria such as journal year of publication and research design applied then issues and challenges of designing and operating biomass chains that secure stable and competitively priced feedstock supply for bio energy plants have been classified 1 into the operations harvesting and collection storage transport and pre treatment techniques as well as 2 into overall supply system design although biomass supply chains for energy use are manifold in terms of size design and functioning most relevant issues regarding supply chain management and logistics of bio energy production are identified the findings are discussed against the backdrop of bio energy as sustainable renewable energy option

centralisation and decentralisation in strategic municipal energy planning in denmark denmark s future energy system is to be entirely based on renewable energy sources municipalities will play an important role as local energy planning authorities in terms of adopting and refining this vision in different local contexts based on a review of 11 municipal energy plans this paper examines to what extent municipal energy planning matches national 100 renewable energy strategies the results indicate a willingness among danish municipalities to actively carry out energy planning and the plans reveal a large diversity of new activities at the same time however there is a strong need for better coordination of municipal energy planning activities at the central level it is suggested that the role of municipalities as energy planning authorities needs to be outlined more clearly in e g strategic energy planning which integrates savings efficiency and renewable energy in all energy sectors this requires the state to provide municipalities with the necessary planning instruments and establish a corresponding planning framework consequently there is a need for a simultaneous centralisation and decentralisation during the implementation of the 100 renewable energy vision the paper outlines a basic division of tasks between the central and the local level within such a strategic energy planning system

the static and dynamic environmental efficiency of renewable energy a malmquist index analysis of oecd countries abstract in recent years renewable energy and environmental efficiency have been interesting issues for both academics and industry actors when discussing sustainable development against this background the present study examines the environmental efficiency of renewable energy from the static and the dynamic perspective in 31 oecd countries a study conducted to understand the impact of renewable energy across countries as a non parametric methodology data envelopment analysis is used to measure environmental efficiency through multiple inputs and outputs labor capital and renewable energy supply are the three inputs while gdp is the desirable output and carbon emissions are the undesirable output to measure the dynamic environmental efficiency of renewable energy the malmquist productivity index is applied to estimate the average efficiency change from 2004 to 2011 the results demonstrate geographical differences in environmental efficiency across the oecd countries in oecd america have the highest average environmental efficiency and those in oecd europe have the largest standard deviation we also find that dynamic efficiency is influenced by the global financial crisis triggered in the united states further we show that oecd countries implement both catch up and frontier shift strategies to improve environmental efficiency

impacts of a united states biofuel policy on new zealand s agricultural sector abstract the rise in oil prices has spurred interest in biofuels policies in the united states like the renewable fuel standard rfs have led to an expansion of ethanol production while the new zealand government has mandated a minimum level of biofuel sales the research used a partial equilibrium model of international trade to quantify the price and farmgate income effects of the us rfs policy the goal was to examine the competition between food and biofuel production and to quantify the impact of the policy on the agricultural sector in new zealand the rfs policy has a significant impact on corn prices but a small effect on livestock prices and production there thus appears to be little conflict between food and fuel uses for corn at the level of the rfs mandate new zealand s pasture based livestock sector benefits from the use of corn for ethanol production it receives better prices for its products but does not face the same input cost increases as competitors the results suggest that new zealand faces an interesting decision it could support investment in biofuels research or benefit from the biofuels boom through the indirect impacts on demand and prices for meat and milk

how costly is mitigation of non co2 greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture a meta analysis this text reviews the assessments of marginal abatement costs of methane and nitrous oxide emissions from agriculture we use agricultural emissions and the corresponding prices collected from 21 studies that have assessed abatement potentials and costs using various modeling approaches and assumptions we first highlight the implications of the modeling approach for marginal abatement costs harmonized abatement rates for three emission prices 10 20 and 50 2005 tco2eq are regressed on variables that reflect various modeling assumptions and study characteristics in a second step the emission price is introduced as an explanatory variable when controlling for a few key characteristics of the studies the models explain an important share of the observed variability in abatement rates the type of modeling approach is found to have a significant effect in particular we find that equilibrium models lead to higher abatement rates for a given price the flexibility in nitrogen use and its effect on crop yields also plays a significant role in lowering marginal abatement costs the results of the second step indicate that the price elasticity of the abatement rate is about 0 6 this estimate is found to be robust to several specifications and consistent with previous assessments covering other economic sectors

long memory interdependency and inefficiency in bitcoin markets abstract we model cross market bitcoin prices as long memory processes and study dynamic interdependence in a fractionally cointegrated var framework we find long memory in both the individual markets and the system of markets depicting non homogeneous informational inefficiency moreover bitcoin markets are found to be fractionally cointegrated where uncertainty negatively impacts this type of cointegration relationship

opportunity for profitable investments in cellulosic biofuels research efforts to allow large scale conversion of cellulose into biofuels are being undertaken in the us and eu these efforts are designed to increase logistic and conversion efficiencies enhancing the economic competitiveness of cellulosic biofuels however not enough attention has been paid to the future market conditions for cellulosic biofuels which will determine whether the necessary private investment will be available to allow a cellulosic biofuels industry to emerge we examine the future market for cellulosic biofuels differentiating between cellulosic ethanol and drop in cellulosic biofuels that can be transported with petroleum fuels and have equivalent energy values we show that emergence of a cellulosic ethanol industry is unlikely without costly government subsidies in part because of strong competition from conventional ethanol and limits on ethanol blending if production costs of drop in cellulosic biofuels fall enough to become competitive then their expansion will not necessarily cause feedstock prices to rise as long as local supplies of feedstocks that have no or low valued alternative uses exist then expansion will not cause prices to rise significantly if cellulosic feedstocks come from dedicated biomass crops then the supply curves will have a steeper slope because of competition for land

regional economic impacts of biomass based energy service use a comparison across crops and technologies for east styria austria abstract biomass action plans in many european countries seek to expand biomass heat and fuel supply mainly to be supplied by peripheral agricultural regions we develop a two plus ten region energy focused computable general equilibrium cge model that acknowledges land competition in analysing the sub state local regional economic implications of such a strategy embedded within a global context our model is based on a full cost analysis of selected biomass technologies covering a range of agricultural and forestry crops as well as thermal insulation the local regional macroeconomic effects differ significantly across technologies and are governed by factors such as net labour intensity in crop production the high land intensity of agricultural biomass products crowds out conventional agriculture and thus lowers employment and drives up land prices and the consumer price index the regional economic results show that net employment effects are positive for all forestry based biomass energy and also show for which agriculture based biomass systems this is true even when accounting for land competition when regional consumer price development governs regional wages or when the agricultural sector is in strong enough competition to the international market positive employment and welfare impacts vanish fully for agriculture based bio energy

market penetration of biodiesel abstract this research examines in detail the technology and economics of substituting biodiesel for diesel 2 this endeavor examines three areas first the benefits of biodiesel are examined and the technical problems of large scale implementation second the biodiesel production possibilities are examined for soybean oil corn oil tallow and yellow grease which are the largest sources of feedstocks for the united states examining in detail the production possibilities allows to identity the extent of technological change production costs byproducts and greenhouse gas ghg emissions finally a u s agricultural model fasomghg was used to predict market penetration of biodiesel given technological progress variety of technologies and feedstocks market interactions energy prices and carbon dioxide equivalent prices fasomghg has several interesting results first diesel fuel prices have an expansionary impact on the biodiesel industry the higher the diesel fuel prices the more biodiesel is produced however given the most favorable circumstances the maximum biodiesel market penetration is 9 in 2030 with a wholesale diesel price of 4 per gallon second the two dominant sources of biodiesel are from corn and soybeans sources like tallow and yellow grease are more limited because they are byproducts of other industries third ghg prices have an expansionary impact on the biodiesel prices because biodiesel is quite ghg efficient finally u s government subsidies on biofuels have an expansionary impact on biodiesel production and increase market penetration at least an additional 3

decentralised bioenergy systems a review of opportunities and threats decentralised bioenergy systems are receiving increasing attention due to the potential ability to support local development create local employment and contribute to climate change mitigation these issues along with other bioenergy sustainability issues are reviewed through eighteen international case studies with the objective of identifying opportunities and threats to decentralised bioenergy systems the case studies were selected based on feedstock type bioenergy type production capacity synergistic alliances ownership structure and physical locations this variation was used to provide a basis for evaluating opportunities and threats from different contexts commercial viability remains the primary concern for the sustainability of decentralised bioenergy systems there are however opportunities for compounding benefits through integrating small scale decentralised bioenergy systems with other production systems integrated production including closed loop models allow waste materials from one process to be used as inputs in other production processes and thereby increasing economic social and environmental outcomes synergistic opportunities along the bioenergy production chain which include feedstock production bioenergy marketing and distribution could also be exploited by communities and other investors to minimise decentralised production risk

does one size fit all a reexamination of the finance and growth relationship abstract recent research has found a strong positive effect of a country s financial development on economic growth we propose that this relationship may vary according to the level of financial development divided in three regions in the low region countries with very low levels of financial development additional improvements in financial markets have an uncertain effect on growth in the intermediate region financial development has a large positive effect on growth finally in the high region the effect is positive but smaller we examine a panel of 74 countries using generalized method of moments gmm dynamic panel techniques and find support for the different regions

finance and the sources of growth the authors evaluate whether the level of development in the banking sector exerts a causal impact on economic growth and its sources total factor productivity growth physical capital accumulation and private saving they use 1 a pure cross country instrumental variable estimator to extract the exogenous component of banking development and 2 a new panel technique that controls for country specific effects and endogeneity they find that banks do exert a large causal impact on total factor productivity growth which feeds through to overall gdp gross domestic product growth the long run links between banking development and both capital growth and private savings are more tenuous