factor demand technical change and inter fuel substitution in africa abstract the translog production function has been widely used in applied production analysis due to its flexibility and superiority over other functional forms this study develops a translog production function for a group of african countries the random effects model is estimated using generalized least squares estimator the main findings are first output in africa is driven by a more intensive use of petroleum and electricity and to a lesser extent capital labor and coal relative to technological progress second african production technology exhibits increasing returns to scale suggesting a path towards market entry barriers third technical change is scale biased and factor augmenting albeit very slow fourth all energy inputs are substitutes indicating africa s potential to proportionally switch towards cleaner fuels without adversely affecting economic growth finally and perhaps more generally the study reinforces the assertion that imposing restrictions like homotheticity homogeneity or separability on the production technology is unrealistic and should rather be a testable hypothesis within any applied analysis in view of the documented findings relevant implications for africa are discussed

when is stabilization expansionary evidence from high inflation countries which stabilize from high inflation here defined as an annual rate above 40 usually have output expansions in the first and subsequent years of stabilization these expansions occur in both exchange rate based and money based stabilizations the paper reaches these conclusions after examining a sample of all 28 episodes in the international data that meet a pre defined criterion for stabilization from high inflation the results do not change with alternative growth and stabilization definitions the paper documents similar expansionary stabilizations in historical data and in the recent experience of the former communist economies expansionary stabilizations may be an indirect confirmation of recent theories of political economy that predict that stabilization will not occur until the gains are very large william easterly

the impacts of tourism energy consumption and political instability on economic growth in the mena countries using panel data of 24 countries in the middle east and north african mena region from 2001 to 2009 the purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of tourism energy consumption and political instability on economic growth within the neoclassical growth framework to address the objective of this study we utilise both the static panel data approach as well as the dynamic generalised method of moments gmm estimator to examine the impact of candidate variables our results show that energy consumption and tourism significantly contribute to the economic growth of countries in the mena region hence our study lends some support to the existence of the tourism led growth and energy led growth hypotheses in the region in line with our expectation our estimation results also reveal that political instability impedes the process of economic growth and development in the mena region therefore macroeconomic policies to promote expansion in tourism and energy consumption will directly stimulate economic growth additionally efforts to help the region overcome its history of political instability would attract more international tourist arrivals and further invigorate economic growth

determinants of electricity consumption function in pakistan old wine in a new bottle abstract the objective of the study is to re investigate the multivariate electricity consumption function for pakistan particularly economic growth foreign direct investment and population growth over a 36 year time period i e between 1975 and 2010 the study employed the bounds testing procedure for cointegration which examines the short run and long run estimates dynamic short run causality test is applied to determine the causality direction between electricity consumption and its determinants by using wald f statistics the results reveal that determinants of electricity consumption function are cointegrated and influx of foreign direct investment income and population growth is positively related to electricity consumption in pakistan however the intensity of these determinants is different on electricity consumption if there is 1 increase in income foreign direct investment and population growth electricity consumption increases by 0 973 0 056 and 1 605 respectively this infers that income foreign direct investment and population growth induce an increase in electricity consumption in pakistan dynamic short run causality test indicates that there has been unidirectional causality which is running from population growth to electricity consumption in pakistan

is renewable energy a model for powering eastern african countries transition to industrialization and urbanization abstract this study profiles a conversation on the appropriateness of renewable energy as a model for powering development in east african countries estimated output elasticities of nonrenewable energy 0 29 0 48 are by far larger than those of renewable energy 0 12 0 08 and as such highlights the relative importance of the former also the biased component of technical change shows higher technological progress for nonrenewable energy furthermore substitution elasticities are positive 0 77 0 92 suggesting huge potential for a transition towards renewable energy however inherent limitations in renewables documented in wesseh and lin 52 53 undermine the usefulness of east african countries reliance on renewable energy

energy consumption gdp nexus heterogeneous panel causality analysis abstract existing studies examining the granger causality relationship between energy consumption and gdp use a panel of countries but implicitly assume that the panels are homogeneous this paper extends the granger causality relationship between energy consumption and gdp by taking into account panel heterogeneity for this purpose we use a large panel of 79 countries for the period 1980 2007 specifically we examine four different causal relationships homogeneous non causality homogeneous causality heterogeneous non causality and heterogeneous causality the results show that roughly seven tenths of the countries exhibit bi directional granger causality two tenths exhibit no granger causality and one tenths exhibit uni directional granger causality

electricity consumption and economic growth in algeria a multivariate causality analysis in the presence of structural change this article addresses the issue of electricity consumption petroleum price and economic growth in algeria the primary objective is to investigate and analyze the causal relationship between electricity consumption ec brent oil price bop and economic growth gdp for algeria over the period of 1971 2010 to examine short run long run and joint causality relationships we used a multivariate cointegration approach based on the recent advances in time series econometrics e g zivot andrews test gregory hansen cointegration test vector error correction models vecm the empirical results show that there is evidence of short run and a strong long run bi directional causal relationship between ec and real gdp in algeria findings indicate also the absence of causal relationship between bop and ec our empirical findings support the idea that there a link between electricity consumption and economic growth and disproves the neo classical assumption referred to as the neutrality hypothesis

causality analysis of diesel consumption and economic growth in cameroon abstract this study examines the causal relationship between diesel consumption and economic growth in cameroon by using a three step modern time series technique tests for unit roots cointegration and granger causality based on error correction model are employed on annual data covering the period 1975 2008 empirical results of the study confirm the presence of a long run equilibrium relationship between diesel consumption and economic growth the error correction model shows that an estimated 1 increase in economic growth causes a rise in diesel consumption of 1 30 in the long run the overall results show that there exists bidirectional causality in the long run relationship and no causality in the short run relationship between diesel consumption and economic growth at the 5 level of significance thus the energy policies in cameroon should place priority on the discovery of new oil field and building capacity additions of the refinery to increase production of petroleum products as this would propel the economic growth of the country

durable goods monopolists durable goods monopolists face special problems because the sale of their products creates a secondhand market not controlled by the monopolist to the extent the monopolist is able to rent his product rather than sell it or to make binding promises about his future production such problems are ameliorated given the inability to do the above the monopolist is led to producing goods less durable than those produced by either competitive firms or monopolist returns a reverse averch johnson result that monopolist sellers may invest less in fixed costs including plant modernization and research and development than would the renters is shown it is also shown that even though sellers have less monopoly power than renters and nondurable goods monopolists it is possible that the seller will cause a greater deadweight loss than the other types of monopolies

the effects of learning by doing on product innovation by a durable good monopolist abstract we analyze a durable good monopolist s decision to adopt a new and more efficient technology that is readily available at very low or zero adoption cost after an initial period of learning by doing the new technology makes the good more attractive to consumers anticipating a better product consumers delay their current purchases which lowers today s profits but increases future profits since the monopolist can charge a higher price for the high quality good we show that the effect on overall profit depends on variables such as the degree of innovation for certain parameter values the monopolist adopts the innovation even when it is not first best to do so we also provide conditions under which the monopolist finds it optimal to continue using the inferior production technology even if the innovation is freely available the latter result provides a possible rationale for a firm to hold on to a sleeping patent when its use is socially desirable

coase versus pacman who eats whom in the durable goods monopoly in standard durable goods monopoly models both the set of buyers and the set of prices are assumed to be continua if the set of buyers is finite the perfectly discriminating monopoly outcome is a unique subgame perfect equilibrium when the seller is sufficiently patient introducing instead a smallest unit of account yields the coasian outcome as a generically unique subgame perfect equilibrium for patient enough buyers a folk theorem is obtained if both sets are finite these results reflect a strategic disadvantage of having to make moves with a large impact on other players payoffs the analysis is extended to durable goods oligopoly

the role of investment for energy conservation future japanese economic growth abstract this article describes a variant of the cobb douglas production function the rasche tatom model which explicitly includes an energy factor the model is applied to the japanese economy to investigate the role of investment for energy conservation first the impact of rising energy prices on potential gnp and productivity is shown second it is suggested that the japanese economy will achieve a high growth rate 5 0 5 5 in the coming five years through substitution of capital for energy ie investment for energy conservation an international comparison of the models is also discussed

causal independence between energy consumption and economic growth in liberia evidence from a non parametric bootstrapped causality test abstract this contribution investigates causal interdependence between energy consumption and economic growth in liberia and proposes application of a bootstrap methodology to better reflect causality employment is incorporated as additional variable the study demonstrates evidence of distinct bidirectional granger causality between energy consumption and economic growth additionally the results show that employment in liberia granger causes economic growth and apply irrespective of the short run or long run evidence from a monte carlo experiment reveals that the asymptotic granger causality test suffers size distortion problem for liberian data suggesting that the bootstrap technique employed in this study is more appropriate given the empirical results implications are that energy expansion policies like energy subsidy or low energy tariff for instance would be necessary to cope with demand exerted as a result of economic growth in liberia furthermore liberia might have the performance of its employment generation on the economy partly determined by adequate energy therefore it seems fully justified that a quick shift towards energy production based on clean energy sources may significantly slow down economic growth in liberia hence the government s target to implement a long term strategy to make liberia a carbon neutral country and eventually less carbon dependent by 2050 is understandable

energy consumption and economic growth evidence from 11 sub sahara african countries abstract the paper examines the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth for eleven countries in sub saharan africa using the autoregressive distributed lag ardl bounds test the study finds that energy consumption is cointegrated with economic growth in cameroon cote d ivoire gambia ghana senegal sudan and zimbabwe moreover this test suggests that energy consumption has a significant positive long run impact on economic growth in ghana kenya senegal and sudan granger causality test based on vector error correction model vecm shows bi directional relationship between energy consumption and economic growth for gambia ghana and senegal however granger causality test shows that economic growth granger causes energy consumption in sudan and zimbabwe the neutrality hypothesis is confirmed in respect of cameroon and cote d ivoire the same result of no causality was found for nigeria kenya and togo the result shows that each country should formulate appropriate energy conservation policies taking into cognizance of her peculiar condition

energy consumption fuel substitution technical change and economic growth implications for co2 mitigation in egypt abstract energy consumption propels economic growth but the level of co2 emissions associated with a fossil dominated energy structure raises concerns for the fight against climate change to draw consensus this study develops a translog causality based model in order to study causation between electricity natural gas petroleum and economic growth in egypt in addition the models results are used to estimate the substitution possibilities between various energy pairs and to subsequently test the co2 mitigation benefits arising from fuel substitution results support a bidirectional relationship between all energy types and economic growth in egypt and suggest also that these energy types are substitutes although technical progress is estimated to be a bit slow varying between 4 5 and 7 5 there appears to be substantial co2 emissions mitigation benefits from fuel substitution amounting to reductions in the range of 1 5 and 2 2 million metric tons under a 5 investment scenario and 2 5 and 4 5 million metric tons under a 10 investment scenario these results have broader implications for energy conservation policies and industrial merger policies in developing countries moreover by studying technical change insights are provided on future co2 mitigation potential driven by energy efficiency

electricity planning and implementation in sub saharan africa a systematic review abstract universal electricity access is an important development objective and the focus of a number of key global un initiatives while robust electricity planning is widely believed to be a prerequisite for effective electrification to date no comprehensive overview of electricity planning research has been undertaken on sub saharan africa the world region with the lowest access rates this paper reviews quantitative and qualitative electricity planning and related implementation research considering each of the 49 sub saharan african countries the four regional power pools and the sub continent as a whole applying a broad understanding of electricity planning and a practical limit of 20 reviewed articles per country and region 306 relevant peer reviewed journal articles are included in this review a general classification scheme is introduced that classifies the planning literature along the addressed value chain depth number of different analysed criteria and number of evaluated decision alternatives the literature is found to be strongly clustered in a few countries with less than 5 identified relevant articles in 36 of the 49 countries the total amount of articles per year is clearly increasing over time addressing technology choice operation distribution and implementation analyses although including different high level criteria in analysing electricity systems is common the literature is only starting to use formalised multi criteria decision making mcdm tools the review indicates that 63 of relevant articles favour renewable energy technologies for their given problems frequently mentioned success factors for electrification in sub saharan africa include adequate policy design sufficient finance and favourable political conditions while considerable regional and methodological literature gaps are apparent the literature in this review identifies a rich and fruitful ground for future research to fill these gaps

natural gas consumption and economic growth nexus panel data analysis for gcc countries abstract this study investigates the relationship between natural gas energy consumption and economic growth by including trade openness total labor force and gross fixed capital formation as a major determinants of gdp growth within the multivariate framework model in gulf cooperation council gcc countries a panel gdp model is constructed taking the period of 1980 2012 the result revealed that natural gas energy consumption is cointegrated with gdp growth in the investigated countries in addition based on the panel dynamic ordinary least square dols and the fully modified ordinary least square fmols this study concluded that the natural gas energy consumption affects the gcc s countries gdp growth positively in the long run furthermore the results from the granger causality test revealed bidirectional causality between natural gas energy consumption and gdp growth which confirms the feedback hypothesis from the outcome of this research a number of policy implications were provided for the gcc countries

improvement of energy demand forecasts using swarm intelligence the case of turkey with projections to 2025 the energy supply and demand should be closely monitored and revised the forecasts to take account of the progress of liberalization energy efficiency improvements structural changes in industry and other major factors medium and long term forecasting of energy demand which is based on realistic indicators is a prerequisite to become an industrialized country and to have high living standards energy planning is not possible without a reasonable knowledge of past and present energy consumption and likely future demands energy demand management activities should bring the demand and supply closer to a perceived optimum turkey s energy demand has grown rapidly almost every year and is expected to continue growing however the energy demand forecasts prepared by the turkey ministry of energy and natural resources overestimate the demand recently many studies are performed by researchers to forecast the energy demand of turkey particle swarm optimization pso technique has never been used for such a study in this study a model is proposed using pso based energy demand forecasting psoedf to forecast the energy demand of turkey more efficiently although there are other indicators as well gross domestic product gdp population import and export are used as basic energy indicators of energy demand in order to show the accuracy of the algorithm a comparison is made with the ant colony optimization aco energy demand estimation model which is developed for the same problem

energy consumption political regime and economic growth in sub saharan africa abstract in this paper we examine the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth and how democracy moderates this relationship using panel data of 16 sub saharan african ssa countries for the period 1971 2013 employing a panel vector autoregressive model pvar in a generalized method of moments gmm framework the findings support the feedback hypothesis for energy consumption and growth second the interaction variable energy consumption and democracy is positively and significantly related to economic growth supporting the view that democracy moderates the energy consumption and growth nexus further the results provide strong evidence of a uni directional relationship from trade openness to energy consumption additionally impulse responses and variance decompositions also confirm positive feedback relationships between energy consumption and economic growth energy prices and economic growth

hysteresis in a simple model of currency substitution abstract a cash in advance model in which the cost of buying goods with a foreign currency is decreasing in the economy s accumulated experience in transacting in the foreign currency is shown to display hysteresis in money velocity that is a temporary increase in expected inflation can cause a permanent increase in velocity in addition the model implies that the domestic currency does not have to dominate the foreign currency in rate of return to induce agents to stop using the foreign currency finally inflation rates that trigger currency substitution need not be associated with steady states in which the domestic currency disappears from circulation

exchange rate based inflation stabilization the initial real effects of credible plans abstract this paper studies the initial effects of exchange rate based stabilization programs within a dynamic general equilibrium model of a small open economy in which inflation acts as a tax on intermediate transactions and capital accumulation is subject to convex adjustment costs and gestation lags the model replicates the typical pattern of slow inflation convergence sustained real exchange rate appreciation trade balance deterioration and expansion in domestic spending followed by a deflationary slowdown without resorting to sticky prices imperfect credibility or adaptive expectations calibrated versions of the model are compared with the initial effects of the argentine convertibility plan of april 1991

reforms in sub saharan africa s power industries most sub saharan countries wish to carry out reforms in the organisation of their power companies up to now only three countries have operated major changes in their statutory system a few others are well engaged in the process but many still find themselves at a stage of definition and preparation of reforms delays observed in relation to agendas fixed initially can mainly be explained by hesitation of the decision makers over the schemes to be maintained as much because the solutions proposed do not provide totally satisfactory answers to the questions they are confronted with because of the desire to explore other possibilities better adapted to the african reality the recent advent of independent power production and of interconnection development projects in these countries the impact of which needs to be fully assessed can have an initial effect of slowing down the pace of reforms but the possibilities these developments offer for diversification of power supply sources endow them with particular interest for the definition of new sectorial models

monopoly distortions in durability and multi dimensional quality i show that swan s 1970 independence result requires a multiplicative interaction between durability and all other quality attributes because there is no compelling argument for a multiplicativity in quality monopolists tend to distort durability even with constant marginal costs distortions in durability and other quality aspects are aligned exactly when the marginal cost of quality do not increase too much with durability

energy consumption and economic growth revisited in african countries abstract the aim of this paper is to provide new empirical evidence on the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth for 21 african countries over the period from 1970 to 2006 using recently developed panel cointegration and causality tests the countries are divided into two groups net energy importers and net energy exporters it is found that there exists a long run equilibrium relationship between energy consumption real gdp prices labor and capital for each group of countries as well as for the whole set of countries this result is robust to possible cross country dependence and still holds when allowing for multiple endogenous structural breaks which can differ among countries furthermore we find that decreasing energy consumption decreases growth and vice versa and that increasing energy consumption increases growth and vice versa and that this applies for both energy exporters and importers finally there is a marked difference in the cointegration relationship when country groups are considered

electricity consumption and economic growth a time series experience for 17 african countries abstract while the availability of electricity by itself is not a panacea for the economic and social problems facing africa the supply of electricity is nevertheless believed to be a necessary requirement for africa s economic and social development this paper tests the long run and causal relationship between electricity consumption per capita and real gross domestic product gdp per capita for 17 african countries for the period 1971 2001 using a newly developed cointegration test proposed by pesaran et al 2001 and using a modified version of the granger causality test due to toda and yamamoto 1995 the advantage of using these two approaches is that they both avoid the pre testing bias associated with conventional unit root and cointegration tests the empirical evidence shows that there was a long run relationship between electricity consumption per capita and real gdp per capita for only 9 countries and granger causality for only 12 countries for 6 countries there was a positive uni directional causality running from real gdp per capita to electricity consumption per capita an opposite causality for 3 countries and bi directional causality for the remaining 3 countries the result should however be interpreted with care as electricity consumption accounts for less than 4 of total energy consumption in africa and only grid supplied electricity is taken into account

electricity consumption and economic growth in burkina faso a cointegration analysis abstract this study empirically establishes the direction of causality between electricity consumption and economic growth in burkina faso for the period 1968 2003 the bounds test yields evidence of cointegration between electricity consumption gdp and capital formation when electricity consumption and gdp are used as dependent variable causality results indicate that there is no significant causal relationship between electricity consumption and investment estimates however detect in the long run a bidirectional causal relationship between electricity use and real gdp there is also evidence of a positive feedback causal relationship between gdp and capital formation burkina faso is therefore an energy dependent country it is also a country in which electricity consumption is growing with the level of income all of this shows that electricity is a significant factor in socio economic development in burkina faso as such energy policy must be implemented to ensure that electricity generates fewer potential negative impacts

the electricity consumption versus economic growth of the polish economy abstract the aim of this contribution is an investigation of causal interdependences between electricity consumption and gdp in poland our research was conducted for total electricity consumption as well as for the industrial consumption of electricity in order to reflect the causality between gdp and electricity consumption properly we performed our investigations in a three dimensional framework with employment chosen as an additional variable we used reliable quarterly data from the period q1 2000 q4 2009 in order to check the stability of the causalities the investigations were performed on two samples a full sample and a pre crisis i e q1 2000 q3 2008 subsample we applied both traditional methods and some recently developed econometric tools we found feedback between total electricity consumption and gdp as well as between total electricity consumption and employment we also found unidirectional causality running from industrial electricity consumption to employment and no direct causal links between industrial electricity consumption and gdp in addition all these findings were in general not seriously affected by the financial and economic crises of 2008 a significant exception is the causal effect of industrial electricity consumption on employment which was more pronounced after the crisis of 2008

currency substitution inflation and welfare abstract currency substitution affects the mapping between social welfare and inflation by altering the underlying money demand function and influencing interest rates in order to explore the essence of this effect i build a model with working capital under which foreign currency is substituted with the less liquid components of domestic money the framework closely mimics the actual pattern of currency substitution across varying rates of inflation and enables the study of an additional channel that works through the impact of currency substitution on interest rates it is found that there is a threshold inflation rate which turns out to be 44 under baseline calibration below which currency substitution decreases welfare and vice versa a practical implication is that at inflation rates lower greater than the threshold the potential welfare gains from disinflation to a near zero inflation rate are higher lower if there is currency substitution than otherwise

reform of china s electric power industry challenges facing the government abstract china s electrical power industry requires substantial reform if the country s economic growth is to be sustained the 1997 electricity law the creation of a state power company and the abolition of the ministry of electric power are important first steps on the path of reform but it seems that a clear plan is lacking objectives of the reform should include increasing the capacity to deliver power constraining the costs of the power industry increasing end user efficiency and minimising environmental damage efforts should be directed at restructuring the industry in such a way that fair competition may be introduced at least in power generation and at establishing a viable regulatory agency both tasks have the potential to be thwarted by a range of vested interests at different levels of government and industry

monopoly with incomplete information recent theoretical research on principal agent relationships has emphasized incentive problems that arise when the parties involved are constrained by either asymmetric information or their inability to monitor each other s actions here we concentrate on the former constraint and consider the case of a single principal the monopolist the main contribution is to show that under a separability assumption strong conclusions can be drawn about the nature of optimal incentive schemes although the primary focus is on optimal quantity discounts in a monopolized market the results also shed light on related topics such as optimal income taxation and commodity bundling

an economic theory of planned obsolescence planned obsolescence is the production of goods with uneconomically short useful lives so that customers will have to make repeat purchases however rational customers will pay for only the present value of the future services of a product therefore profit maximization seemingly implies producing any given flow of services as cheaply as possible with production involving efficient useful lives this paper shows why this analysis is incomplete and therefore incorrect monopolists are shown to desire uneconomically short useful lives for their goods oligopolists have the monopolist s incentive for short lives as well as a second incentive that may either increase or decrease their chosen durability however oligopolists can generally gain by colluding to reduce durability and increase rentals relative to sales some evidence is presented that appears to be generally consistent with the predictions of the theory

optimal pricing and quality choice of a monopolist under knightian uncertainty abstract this paper analyzes a simple vertical product differentiation model with demand uncertainty and derives a risk neutral monopolist s optimal market entry timing her optimal pricing and optimal quality choice by incorporating knightian uncertainty irreversibility and flexibility in quality enhancing investment into a continuous time stochastic model it is shown that an increase in knightian uncertainty induces decreases in the optimal price the optimal quality and the value of undertaking the quality enhancing investment by the monopolist the social optimal entry timing pricing and quality are also analyzed

energy consumption and economic growth evidence from the economic community of west african states ecowas access to modern energy is believed to be a prerequisite for sustainable development poverty alleviation and the achievement of the millennium development goals however theoretical models and empirical results offer conflicting evidence on the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth that we remain largely unsure of the cause and effect nature of this relationship if indeed a relationship exists at all this paper tests in a panel context the long run relationship between energy access and economic growth for fifteen african countries from 1980 to 2008 by using recently developed panel cointegration techniques we adopt a three stage approach consisting of panel unit root panel cointegration and granger causality tests to study the dynamic causal relationships between energy consumption energy prices and growth as well as relationship between electricity consumption prices and growth results show that gdp and energy consumption as well as gdp and electricity move together in the long run by estimating these long run relationships and testing for causality using panel based error correction models we found unidirectional long run and short run causality the causality is running from gdp to energy consumption in the short run and from energy consumption to gdp in the long run there is also evidence of unidirectional causality running from electricity consumption to gdp in the long run this study thus provides empirical evidence of long run and causal relationships between energy consumption and economic growth for our sample of fifteen countries suggesting that lack or limited access to modern energy services could hamper economic growth and compromise the development prospects of these countries

power sector reform in developing countries mismatched agendas power sector reform is rapidly spreading across all corners of the developing world at an alarmingly rapid pace while the rationales for reform seem to have gained acceptance among the stakeholders the reform model and process are contested this paper examines the impacts of reform using the promised outcomes as a basis for analysis the ability of reform to meet the developmental challenges facing the reformers is explored it concludes that reform has had some achievements if conventional performance indicators are used but also questions the validity of some of these indicators reform has however not fulfilled many of its goals and the prevailing recipes are likely to leave developing countries socially and economically worse off than in the pre reform period progressive government intervention is needed to shift reform process towards a more responsible development path

product line decisions and the coase conjecture we show that the coase conjecture does not hold when a durable goods monopolist also sells nondurable goods that are demand related to the durable the presence of nondurable complements or substitutes reduces the rate at which the monopolist introduces the durable into the market the price of the durable does not converge to marginal cost we analyze the incentives of a monopolist to extend his product line to a durable or a nondurable most significantly the profit from adding a durable to the product line disappears as the time between offers becomes short we study the effects of entry into markets for nondurables and their implications for merger policy

seigniorage and the welfare cost of inflation abstract this paper empirically investigates the restrictions embodied in a sidrauski type model for the cross relations between consumption money holdings inflation and assets returns using quarterly data for the high inflation economy in israel 1970 1988 using a set of the estimated parameters it is shown that the model s implications for seigniorage are quite different than those from a cagan type model that is while the model is able to account for the observed stability of the seigniorage gnp ratio a cagan type model predicts a laffer curve for seigniorage the estimates also imply sizeable welfare costs of inflation

energy consumption and economic growth evidence from the commonwealth of independent states abstract this study examines the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth for eleven countries of the commonwealth of independent states over the period 1991 2005 within a multivariate panel data framework based on pedroni 1999 pedroni 2004 heterogeneous panel cointegration test and corresponding error correction model cointegration is present between real gdp energy consumption real gross fixed capital formation and labor force with the respective coefficients positive and statistically significant the results of the error correction model reveal the presence of unidirectional causality from energy consumption to economic growth in the short run while bidirectional causality between energy consumption and economic growth in the long run thus the results lend support for the feedback hypothesis associated with the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth

income level and the energy consumption gdp nexus evidence from sub saharan africa this study tests the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in sub saharan africa using a panel co integration approach country level time series data of energy consumption and economic growth are pooled and used to estimate the model sub saharan african countries in the sample are classified into low income and middle income countries the findings support the neutrality hypothesis in the short run except for middle income countries and a strong causation running in both directions is found in the long run the different results for low and middle income countries provide evidence of the importance of income level in the causal relationship this study helps to explain the interdependence of energy consumption and economic growth in sub saharan africa results are critical in formulating sustainable development policies that are geared to the efficient allocation of resources which are expected to increase access to energy services in the study region

output and substitution elasticities of energy and implications for renewable energy expansion in the ecowas region abstract this study estimates output and substitution elasticities of renewable energy and nonrenewable energy for the economic community of west african states ecowas and discusses implications for expanding the former the results show that nonrenewable energy promises greater benefits for ecowas economic transition with output elasticities averaging between 0 052 0 579 and 0 055 to 0 223 for nonrenewable energy and renewable energy respectively overall estimated technological progress is low 0 5 to 2 6 the bulk coming from input efficiency substitution elasticities 0 02 0 94 suggest potential for switching towards renewable energy notwithstanding scale economics and sitting problems inherent in renewable power generation challenge the opportunities for energy substitution a sustainable policy solution therefore appears to be one favoring scaled and efficient electricity generation from fossil energy in the short run with a gradual switch towards renewable power in the long run in general the applied model provides insights that energy efficiency enhances sustainable growth by propelling technological advancement especially when technical change is scale biased and factor augmenting the study also provides insights that impacts of exogenous shocks to inputs are temporary and hence do not jeopardize efforts aimed at scaling output through increased and efficient use of labor capital and energy especially nonrenewable energy

can african countries efficiently build their economies on renewable energy abstract the translog production model is estimated to provide insights on the effectiveness of renewable energy for africa the analysis shows that capital labor renewable energy and nonrenewable energy drive output in african countries with renewable energy being a higher driver of growth than the conventional fossil fuels over the sample period this finding is reflective of the fact that renewable sources like wind hydro and solar account for a greater share of power generation in most african countries output elasticities computed for both energy types reaffirm the results and suggest that eastern and central african countries are more renewable energy dependent than the other three regions in addition technological progress is driven mainly by the efficiency with which various factors and energy inputs are used while africa has great potential of facing out conventional fossil energy the discussion provided in this study suggests that such transition is limited in practice due to issues of scale economics and sitting problems

energy economic growth and causality in developing countries a case study of tanzania and nigeria the debate about the precise role of energy in economic development remains contentious existing empirical studies have produced varying results some have argued the complementarity between energy and other factors of production and others have indicated that energy can be substituted for other factors of production commonly these studies have focused primarily on the developed countries one explanation being that supply constraints and price rigidities render any study on factor substitutions in developing countries meaningless however the functional relationship between energy consumption and income in developing countries is constantly investigated with the use of regression techniques while such techniques are useful in empirical analysis no mechanism exists for indicating causal directions between variables this limits the scope for policy analysis and prescription the need to identify causal direction between energy consumption and income growth in developing countries is overwhelming apart from providing further insights into the role of energy in economic development it provides policy analysts with a clearer understanding of the likely impact of energy supply constraints on economic growth this article examines the causal directions between energy consumption and economic growth proxied by gdp and gnp for nigeria and tanzania the results show a simultaneous causal relationship between energy and economic growth for both countries the implication being that unless energy supply constraints are eased economic growth and development will remain elusive to these countries given similar economic characteristics and profiling the same energy scenario for other developing countries our finding supports the view that energy plays a key role in economic development

nigeria s electric power sector reform what should form the key objectives nigeria s electric power sector requires substantial reform if the country s economic development and poverty alleviation program is to be realised this understanding is behind the reform programme recently initiated by the nigerian government with the goal of privatising the national electric power monopoly nepa currently the country faces serious energy crisis due to declining electricity generation from domestic power plants which are basically dilapidated obsolete unreliable and in an appalling state of disrepair reflecting the poor maintenance culture in the country and gross inefficiency of the public utility provider building on an analysis of the major shortcomings of the current electric power company this paper presents the central issues that should form the key objectives of the proposed reform this include corporatization of the electric power industry increasing access and power delivery capacity constraining the costs of the power industry and increasing efficiency and share of renewables in energy generation as well as minimising environmental damage we conclude with the observation that efforts at reform will not yield the desired result if the current end user inefficiency is not constrained as nigeria implements its national utility privatisation programme it is hoped that this review will benefit policy makers and emerging managers and providers of electricity service in the country

between ostrom and nordhaus the research landscape of sustainability economics abstract we survey the emerging research area of sustainability economics through a quantitative full text analysis of peer reviewed journal publications from 1987 to 2013 to identify relevant contributions we draw on existing definitions of sustainability economics for a keyword based identification strategy a combined focus on a the human nature relationship b the long term uncertain future c normative orientation towards sustainability and d economic analysis our analysis of a random subsample of 343 relevant papers reveals that i sustainability economics is a rapidly developing research area ii while theoretical contributions shaped the area in earlier years applied work now constitutes the largest share of contributions iii the research landscape can be clustered into eleven research clusters these range from participatory governance of social ecological systems associated with the work of elinor ostrom to questions of intertemporal allocation and distribution applied to climate economics associated with the work of william nordhaus iv the research area is broad in scope and heterogeneous and there is relatively little interaction between important clusters v relevant contributions are published in more than 100 journals ten journals publish half of all contributions led by ecological economics and 40 appear in non economics journals underscoring the importance of interdisciplinary dialogue

energy conservation policies growth and trade performance evidence of feedback hypothesis in pakistan this study investigates the relationship between energy consumption and trade openness in pakistan by using the annual time series data for the period of 1973 2011 our main results show i the presence of long run link between energy consumption and trade performance ii positive impact of gross domestic product exports and imports on energy consumption iii bidirectional causal relationship between exports and energy consumption and also be tween imports and energy demand and iv bidirectional causality between gross domestic product and energy consumption points to the presence of feedback hypothesis in pakistan we therefore note that energy conservation policies will reduce the trade performance which in turn leads to the decline in economic growth in pakistan the present study may guide policymakers in formulating a conclusive energy and trade policies for sustainable growth for long span of time

electricity consumption and economic growth bounds and causality analyses of opec members this paper investigates the relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth for opec members the bounds test yields evidence of a long run relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth for all opec members causality results suggest that economic growth is dependent on electricity consumption in five countries less dependent in three countries and independent in three countries because these countries do not necessarily share similar political and economic traits no single universal policy implication can be inferred from the results the disparities across these causality results therefore stress the importance of formulating causality explanations while taking into account the particularities of individual countries rather than blindly applying the conventional interpretations

targeting the real exchange rate theory and evidence abstract this paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of policies aimed at setting a more depreciated level of the real exchange rate an intertemporal optimizing model suggests that in the absence of changes in fiscal policy a more depreciated level of the real exchange rate can only be attained temporarily this can be achieved by means of higher inflation and or higher real interest rates depending on the degree of capital mobility evidence for brazil chile and colombia supports the model s prediction that undervalued real exchange rates are associated with higher inflation

the electricity consumption and economic growth nexus evidence from greece abstract this paper attempts to cast light into the relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth in greece in a multivariate framework for this purpose we used cointegration techniques and the vector error correction model in order to capture short run and long run dynamics over the sample period 1970 2011 the empirical results reveal that in the long run electricity demand appears to be price inelastic and income elastic while in the short run the relevant elasticities are below unity we also argue that the causal relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth in greece is bi directional our results strengthen the notion that greece is an energy dependent country and well directed energy conservation policies could even boost economic growth furthermore the implementation of renewable energy sources should provide significant benefits ensuring sufficient security of supply in the greek energy system this evidence can provide a new basis for discussion on the appropriate design and implementation of environmental and energy policies for greece and other medium sized economies with similar characteristics

comparing the welfare costs and initial dynamics of alternative inflation stabilization policies abstract this paper uses calibrated versions of a sticky price currency substitution model to compare the initial dynamics and welfare costs of three types of stabilization program exchange rate based erb money based mb and money based with initial reliquefication mbr erb and mbr programs are found to induce an initial expansion in real activity whereas mb programs are initially contractionary the welfare gains of eliminating high inflation are significant under permanent erb and mbr programs but small under permanent mb programs in addition temporary mb programs are shown to be much more disruptive than temporary erb or mbr programs these results provide an explanation for why mb programs are so rarely implemented and suggest that empirical studies that fail to distinguish mb from mbr programs are likely to be biased toward finding that stabilizations are always expansionary regardless of the nominal anchor

renewable energy electricity development in ghana observations concerns substitution possibilities and implications for the economy abstract can ghana build its economy on renewable energy is it possible to substitute nonrenewable for renewable energy what is the impact of renewable energy on the economy of ghana these questions are relevant and worth considering as far as the renewable energy development agenda in ghana is concern using the translog production function approach this study primarily investigates whether ghana can move away from nonrenewable electricity generation to renewable power generation in particular we provide estimates for the relationship between the two energy types and output the estimates are then used to calculate the output and substitution elasticities between renewable and nonrenewable energy our findings show that while the impact of nonrenewable energy on ghana s economy is negative that of renewable energy is insignificant with output elasticities for both energy types averaging 0 139 and 1 875 respectively even though substitution elasticity suggests the possibility of moving towards a renewable power generation system this study also highlights the limitations associated with such transition citing inherent problems such as scale cost and location based on the analysis done in the context of the findings this study recommends a policy that supports an optimal energy matrix with both renewable and nonrenewable sources

the economic impact of subsidy phase out in oil exporting developing countries a case study of algeria iran and nigeria abstract one of the crucial issues of energy markets in oil exporting developing countries is the high level of subsidies on petroleum products and the low efficiency in energy use the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of a subsidy phase out policy on the energy sector and oil revenues in three countries algeria iran and nigeria by using a standard econometric approach we find that the effects of different deregulation policies are substantial we also analyse the impact of a policy based on autonomous energy efficiency improvement finally a combination of both policies is elaborated and quantified our results show that a policy geared at more rational use of energy would permit these countries to save enough oil to meet future increases in demand while maintaining stable production capacity furthermore such an energy policy could result in additional oil revenues which would enhance their economic development

currency substitution under nonexpected utility some empirical evidence this paper derives and tests the restrictions implied by an optimizing model of currency substitution under nonexpected utility using quarterly data for israel from 1978 to 1988 we find that the elasticity of intertemporal substitution is less than one the elasticity of currency substitution is greater than one relative risk aversion is about seven and the elasticity of currency substitution is greater than the intratemporal elasticity of substitution between consumption and liquidity services in most cases the evidence supports the hypothesis of nonexpected utility as well as the inclusion of liquidity services in the representative agent s objective function the methodology of this paper can be applied to other interesting cases of currency substitution copyright 1993 by ohio state university press

renewable electricity consumption and economic development new findings from the baltic countries abstract this study employed homogeneous and heterogeneous panel methods to examine the relationship between renewable and non renewable electricity consumption and economic development in three transition economies in the baltic region namely estonia latvia and lithuania for the period of 1992 2011 the study put forward four hypotheses to examine the renewable electricity development nexus the findings indicated that there existed a unidirectional causality from the economic development to renewable electricity consumption thus the results obtained from the statistical analyses have provided empirical evidence in support of the conservation hypothesis that postulates that economic development causes the expansion of renewable electricity consumption but not vice versa

towards an explanation of the productivity slowdown an acceleration deceleration hypothesis after two and a half decades of prosperous post war development western industrialised countries recently experienced a slowdown of economic growth and productivity advance together with an increase in the rates of inflation and unemployment in trying to explain this malaise we are looking at a diagnosis that could help us to identify early indicators of a future turnaround or some policy variables which deserve to be included in a therapeutic programme although we shall focus on what can be measured complying with the standards of the guild we shall not refrain from considering complex relationships which can be grasped only intuitively even if they include phenomena which lie beyond the limits of official statistics 2 the outcome may be soft economics but we find some consolation in the dictum that it is better to be vaguely right than to be precisely wrong

a meta analysis investigation of the direction of the energy gdp causal relationship implications for the growth degrowth dialogue abstract the complex relation between energy use and the economic process has long attracted attention issues such as the scarcity of energy resources energy theory of value degrowth and a growth approaches are closely related to the relationship between energy and development the present study traces the implications of the energy gdp causality dialogue for the context of the growth degrowth debate where the energy development link plays a decisive role in that context the present research investigates the possible existence of a fundamental macro direction of causality between energy use and economic growth that is not influenced by study specific characteristics and events towards this objective we perform a meta analysis that takes into account 158 studies on causality between energy and gdp covering the period 1978 2011 this is the first time to our knowledge that meta analysis has been applied to investigate the direction of the energy and gdp causal relationship the meta analysis results neither support the existence of a fundamental macro direction nor the so called neutrality hypothesis e gdp in the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth

towards understanding the benefits and challenges of smart micro grid for electricity supply system in nigeria the poor state of electricity supply system in nigeria is threatening the welfare and security of life and properties of millions of individuals with adverse economic consequences for the country the inadequacy of the national grid especially the inability of the electricity generation capacity to match increasing demand in the country has led to increasing agitation for increased penetration of renewable energy sources ress into the electricity supply mix while great attention has been focused on the potential of ress for electricity generation in the country little or no attention has been given to the application of smart micro grid sm g technologies to the ageing nigeria grid infrastructures and electrification of the rural areas the aim of this paper is to bring into focus the benefits and challenges of enabling sm g in the electricity supply system in nigeria sm g will bring benefits to the electricity stakeholders in form of improvements in reliability efficiency economics environment security and safety the paper gives an overview and reviews the current state of the electricity supply system in the country it discusses the sm g concepts and associated technologies and highlights how they can help address the electricity problems in the country the challenges of applying these concepts in nigeria context are also discussed enabling sm g in the country will not only lead to improvement in the quality efficiency and reliability of the electricity grid but also promote the provision of electricity supply to the remote rural areas using ress

electricity use and economic development abstract a study of the relationship between electricity use and economic development in over one hundred countries constituting over 99 of the global economy has been undertaken correlations between electricity consumption capita and gdp capita have been analysed and compared with those between total primary energy supply capita and gdp capita a supporting analysis has correlated the proportion of energy used in the form electricity the e e ratio with gdp capita the general conclusions of this research are that wealthy countries have a stronger correlation between electricity use and wealth creation than do poor countries and that for the global economy as a whole there is a stronger correlation between electricity use and wealth creation than there is between total energy use and wealth the study also shows that in wealthy countries the increase in wealth over time correlates with an increase in the e e ratio the results imply that the energy ratio toe should be replaced by the electricity ratio kwh as a development indicator and more precisely by the e e ratio kwh toe

ant colony optimization approach to estimate energy demand of turkey abstract this paper attempts to shed light on the determinants of energy demand in turkey energy demand model is first proposed using the ant colony optimization aco approach it is multi agent systems in which the behavior of each ant is inspired by the foraging behavior of real ants to solve optimization problem aco energy demand estimation acoede model is developed using population gross domestic product gdp import and export all equations proposed here are linear and quadratic quadratic acoede provided better fit solution due to fluctuations of the economic indicators the acoede model plans the energy demand of turkey until 2025 according to three scenarios the relative estimation errors of the acoede model are the lowest when they are compared with the ministry of energy and natural resources menr projection

durable goods monopoly with discrete demand we analyze a dynamic game between consumers and the sole seller of a durable good unlike previous analyses we assume that there exists a finite collection of buyers rather than a continuum none of the main conclusions of the literature on durable goods monopoly survives this change in assumption coase s conjecture that a durable goods monopolist cannot earn supracompetitive profits in the continuous time limit bulow s proposition that renting a durable is always more profitable than selling it and stokey s proposition that precommitting to a time path of prices is always optimal are all false when the set of buyers is finite thus the assumption of a continuum of consumers so innocuous and useful a simplification in other contexts has proved misleading in the context of durable goods monopoly

the effect of energy on output per worker in the balkan peninsula a country specific study of 12 nations in the energy community in this paper we explore the long run co integration relationship between output per worker capital per worker and energy per worker for 12 countries in the balkan peninsula albania austria bulgaria cyprus greece hungary italy macedonia romania slovakia slovenia and turkey which are part of the energy community in line with the current developments in energy economics 62 we add to the literature by reviewing the elasticity coefficients for the 12 countries using the augmented solow 63 framework and the ardl bounds procedure 57 the causality nexus is explored using the toda and yamamoto 1995 procedure the results show that output capital and energy in per worker terms are co integrated we note that all countries have positive and statistically significant long run energy elasticity coefficients except for macedonia we note that energy is statistically significant in the short run for all other countries the causality results support the conservation hypothesis for 7 countries albania bulgaria cyprus hungary italy romania and turkey the growth hypothesis for 2 countries austria and macedonia and the feedback hypothesis for 3 countries greece slovakia and slovenia respectively

electricity sector reform in cameroon is privatization the solution abstract the economic difficulties of cameroon and of its government owned companies led the international monetary fund imf and the world bank to set up a vast privatization program with the government s collaboration in the electricity sector the state had a complete control over the industry through the societe national d electricite sonel an integrated monopoly utility under the imf world bank program sonel has been sold to foreign interests this article presents cameroon s electricity sector the proposed reform and the importance of electricity in economic development an evaluation of the reform is presented from two different perspectives first we consider the reform from a theoretical and market design point of view second we challenge the reform from a more fundamental level by questioning the relevance of privatization at this stage of the electricity sector development this brings us to review the strategic place of electricity in economic growth how different countries have dealt with their electricity industry in early development stage and how the objective of multinational corporations could be in conflict with specific electricity sector goals from these two different perspectives we conclude that the imf and the world bank have set up a reform process that is against good public policy we conclude with some suggestions for improving the reform process

currency substitution new evidence from emerging economies abstract this paper provides new empirical evidence for currency substitution in different emerging market economies estimation results from a money in the utility function framework indicate that foreign currencies are strong substitutes for domestic currency in producing liquidity services

quality choice and the coase problem abstract this paper studies the quality choice made by a durable good monopolist to alleviate the coase problem the durable good monopolist not only over supplies the quality but decreases the price per unit of quality so that the high demand consumers do not postpone their purchase

a cross sectional analysis of energy output correlation abstract the nature of the correlation between energy consumption and output is examined based on cross sectional data for 100 countries the bias in the correlation due to the use of nominal income and to the convention adopted in measuring non commercial energy consumption is analysed it is found that when real income is used and non commercial energy consumption measured in commercial energy replacement value the cross sectional energy elasticity increases rapidly from about unity for the low income developing countries to between 1 6 and 1 8 for the high income developing countries and declines marginally thereafter in the industrial country income range the results show certain disparity on energy output ratio across countries with higher income countries consuming disproportionately more energy per unit of real output

energy diversity and development in economic systems an empirical analysis abstract as economic systems develop over time they tend to become more complex with more structure and greater throughputs assuming favorable conditions energy use increases as more economic sectors develop and more channels for flow are opened economic diversity as measured by the number of economic sectors using energy and the equatability of flows between them generally increases as diversity increases the efficiency of generating outputs with a given amount of energy also increases development capacity the product of system energy throughput and diversity of flows is a measure of the potential system output and is calculated for selected countries capacity changes over time are shown to relate to changes in economic output in selected countries two distinct development strategies become evident one which promotes energy use and one which emphasizes diversity and the sustainability of each is examined while most countries utilize a mix of the two developing countries generally rely more on increasing energy use to increase output while developed countries tend to become more diverse as a means of increasing outputs sustainability is enhanced by strategies which promote diversity and resource use efficiency in economic systems

productivity growth and energy consumption in the nigerian manufacturing sector a panel data analysis this paper examines the impact of efficiency in energy consumption on the growth in productivity in the nigerian manufacturing sector the study utilizes a panel data technique covering a period of substantial energy price reviews in nigeria the study shows that for most industries productivity growth has been energy using whereas in a few attempts have been made to switch productivity growth towards energy saving however it will take some time for the effect of current energy pricing policy to permeate the whole manufacturing sector due to the high cost required to invest in energy saving equipment especially in the face of a rapid decline in real income coupled with high product prices