interactions between renewable energy policy and renewable energy industrial policy a critical analysis of china s policy approach to renewable energies this paper analyzes china s policy approach to renewable energies and assesses how effectively china has met the ideal of appropriate interactions between renewable energy policy and renewable energy industrial policy first we briefly discuss the interactions between these two policies then we outline china s key renewable energy and renewable industrial policies and find that china s government has well recognized the need for this policy interaction after that we study the achievements and problems in china s wind and solar pv sector during 2005 2012 and argue that china s policy approach to renewable energies has placed priority first on developing a renewable energy manufacturing industry and only second on renewable energy itself and it has not effectively met the ideal of appropriate interactions between renewable energy policy and renewable energy industrial policy lastly we make an in depth analysis of the three ideas underlying this policy approach that is the green development idea the low carbon leadership idea and indigenous innovation idea we conclude that chinas policy approach to renewable energies needs to enhance the interactions between renewable energy policy and renewable energy industrial policy the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of china s policy strategy toward renewable energies

household energy and climate mitigation policies investigating energy practices in the housing sector abstract one central aim of climate change mitigation in the european union is to reduce energy consumption in the housing sector in order to ensure effectiveness of policies targeting household energy conservation it is important to investigate existing energy practices of different social groups this article describes and explains energy practices in three leading states in environmental politics technological innovation and support for renewable energy production denmark austria and the united kingdom based on a longitudinal analysis of housing utility costs from the european community statistics on income and living conditions we show that income plays a central role in households energy practices while high income households have higher overall energy consumption low income groups spend a larger share of their income on utility costs the variation of energy consumption across income groups is related to household characteristics characteristics of the dwellings and cross national differences in the housing sector

product market imperfections and loan commitments i show in a model of competitive banks that the characteristics of loan contracts are affected by product market imperfections in the borrower s industry a bank loan commitment increases the value of a borrower firm operating in an imperfectly competitive industry and thus dominates a simple loan even in the absence of risk sharing considerations and informational asymmetries between the borrower and the bank while it is individually rational for a firm to obtain a loan commitment all the firms in that industry taken together are made worse off by the existence of loan commitments a loan commitment is a contract guaranteeing future availability of credit to a borrower at a prespecified fixed or stochastic interest rate although bank loan commitments are an important financial instrument and there exists an extensive literature analyzing them the rationale for their existence is still a matter of research this paper provides an explanation for the existence of bank loan commitments to borrowers from industries in which there is imperfect competition in the product market it is shown that in such industries the option to acquire financing at predetermined rates enhances the borrower s strategic power and thus creates value for the individual borrower consider an industry with imperfect competition where firms face the problem of noncooperatively exploiting a product market opportunity the optimal product market strategy of a firm depends on the output of its rivals a firm with access to resources at a lower marginal cost than its competitors has a strategic advantage that it can exploit to gain a larger market share and profits it is shown here that a firm that does not have such a strategic advantage can create it by purchasing for a fixed initial fee an option to acquire a factor of production such as financing at favorable terms specifically by initially negotiating a bank loan commitment the firm can finance an expansion of output to meet a strategic contingency at more favorable terms than would be possible if the expansion had to be financed in the spot market the ability to exercise the commitment enables the firm to threaten its rivals strategically and moves the industry to an equilibrium more favorable to that firm thus creating value for the borrower it is shown below that it is optimal for all firms to acquire bank loan commitments altering the industry equilibrium in the process

bank forward lending in alternative funding environments this paper examines the effects of loan commitments on bank lending behavior in both deposit funding and liability management environments assuming that the bank lends exclusively under commitments and that the number of commitments exercised is uncertain the bank must choose its supply of commitments given this choice the bank becomes a passive lender to commitment holders our focus on forward credit markets sheds new light on the private bankers assertion that they do not directly determine their level of lending but merely accommodate the credit needs of their customers similarly the central banker s claimed inability to control monetary aggregates in the short run becomes understandable in a new context it is shown that the advent of liability management will reduce the volume of loan commitments and the expected size of the bank and of the banking system it is also shown that increased uncertainty regarding borrower takedown behavior diminishes the volume of commitments expected bank and banking system size

geo economic approach to energy security measurement principal component analysis abstract currently there is no single accepted methodology for measuring energy security while the prevailing scientific attitude is that energy security should be defined and quantified in a way to be able to follow rapid developments on the global economic and geopolitical scene considering the fact that the national economies represent an integral part of a dynamic international economy where external shocks global financial and economic crisis political conflicts war etc have the impact on energy prices and energy security in general the paper proposes a new geo economic concept of energy security the new approach differs from the existing ones as regards the fact that in addition to basic indicators it takes into account sovereign credit rating as a measure of economic financial and political stability as one of the decisive factors which determines global energy trade and the ability of national economies to be stable and secure when it comes to energy determination and testing of geo economic index of energy security was conducted by using the principal component analysis in the european union and in the selected countries of the world over a period of ten years 2004 2013 the measured values of a newly proposed geo economic index of energy security demonstrate significant deviations from the data obtained by using usual indicators of energy security observed individually gdp per capita has the greatest impact on the change in final value of geo economic index of energy security while the impact of sovereign credit rating is slightly less the study has shown that the least impact on energy security is exerted by energy dependence which is traditionally used as a proxy indicator of energy security and production of energy from renewable sources which is defined by the eu policy as one of the methods for the improvement of energy security due to the results obtained it is necessary to conduct further analysis of sovereign credit rating and to review the type and significance of the impact of energy dependence indicator as a measure of energy security in general

tariff jumping antidumping duties abstract this paper examines the tariff jumping response of all firm and product combinations subject to us antidumping investigations from 1980 to 1990 using a newly constructed database previous studies have focused only on japanese fdi responses to antidumping protection and found large tariff jumping responses in contrast this paper finds quite modest tariff jumping responses and the evidence suggests that tariff jumping is only a realistic option for multinational firms from industrialized countries this may partially explain developing countries concerns about addressing ad protection in the wto despite high tariff jumping responses there is no evidence of a japanese specific propensity to tariff jump holding other economic factors constant

taxes tariffs and transfer pricing in multinational corporate decision making three interrelated aspects of u s multinational corporation activity are analyzed here the ability to shift profits from high tax countries to low tax countries the impact of host country taxes and tariffs on the distribution of real capital and the influence of these policies on international trade patterns of the united states and host countries the cross sectional empirical analysis indicates that the observed pattern of reported profits in high and low tax countries is consistent with income shifting behavior and that real investment responds to host country effective tax rates and tariffs the united states appears both to import more from and export more to low tax countries where mnc investment is greater but this bilateral focus must be amplified to consider multilateral effects if trade benefits are to be projected copyright 1991 by mit press

determinants of the low sme loan approval rate in croatia the paper proposes a new methodological framework for investigating consistency in loan assessment decisions and determinants of loan approval based on structural equation modelling and covariance structure analysis we focus on a governmental sme loan programme in croatia and investigate possible reasons for low loan approval rate that occurred in spite of interest rates subsidisation and sufficient supply of the loan funds the novelty of the methodological approach taken is that it enables simultaneous investigation of the determinants of the loan approval and testing for consistency in the loan assessment decisions which need not be assumed we test several hypotheses about consistency in the loan approval decisions and lending preferences in croatia the empirical findings reject overall consistency of criteria but indicate a preference toward smaller loans among all sme loan requests banks preferred smaller firms that requested smaller loans the results suggest that individual banks differ in their criteria and in their loan size preferences and that there is no positive correlation between the bank s size and its loan size preference

equilibrium loan pricing under the bank client relationship abstract we determine the loan interest rate policy of a lender who is better informed about a client than other potential lenders the informational advantage possessed by the informed lender derives from the durability of information acquired as a result of an extant relationship given heterogeneous potential loan rate offers to the client by competitive lenders and client search costs the incumbent lender s policy of loan interest rate offers is examined we show that the optimal loan rate will exceed the incumbent lender s cost of funds and will exceed the average offer of competing lenders the potential lenders will offer loan rates that are exceeded by their cost of funds implying immediate losses in order to attract the client and to thereby earn expected profits in the future finally we show that the expected remaining duration of a lender client relationship is decreasing in the existing length of the relationship thus clients that have been with a particular lender longer will be more likely to leave and establish a relationship with another lender

understanding china s renewable energy technology exports abstract china became a major player in renewable energy re technology during the 2000s chinese solar pv cell and module makers quickly dominated global sales in that industry while the country s wind turbine producers became poised for significant exports after capturing their rapidly growing home market in countries like the us chinese re technology strength has been met with claims of excessive governmental support of exports this study examines to what extent chinese firms solar pv and wind technology successes have been enabled by policy supports and whether those policies appear to have been driven by broader goals versus re export promotion per se the evidence suggests that governmental policy toward both wind and solar originated in a push for export competitive chinese companies but the specifics differed substantially due to the particular requirements of building technological capabilities in each export readiness necessitated substantial support for domestic installation of wind but not solar pv power the findings also suggest that as the decade of the 2000s progressed environmental goals played an increasing role alongside export promotion in motivating and shaping chinese re technology policies

initiating a sustained diffusion of wind power the role of public private partnerships in spain the literature on policy approaches for the market support of renewable electricity is dominated by narrow conceptualizations of policy referring mostly to direct instruments for economic feasibility such approaches often led to unsatisfactory explanations of diffusion results this is the case of wind power diffusion in spain the success of which is typically credited to the feed in tariff instrument this paper offers an alternative explanatory account for wind power diffusion in spain it is argued that diffusion can be explained by a less obvious policy of stimulating investments by means of public private partnerships ppps the three legal frameworks for economic feasibility applicable up to 2004 harbored high economic risks although projects could have high profitability because of generous investment subsidies up to mid 1990s most investments were based on ppps to address the risk perceptions of early investors fully private partnerships now dominate investments though ppps have not disappeared next to winning investors confidence the ppp policy led to an investment culture whereby partnership investments dominate by 2000 95 7 of the installed wind capacity was owned by partnerships and only 4 3 by individual companies partnerships invest in larger projects have ambitious investment plans and these lead to a high diffusion tempo

chinese energy investments in europe an analysis of policy drivers and approaches abstract enhancing the understanding of china eu energy relations the article examines chinese energy investments in europe from 2008 to 2015 and analyzes the energy interests and policy approaches underpinning them analysis of this data shows that within the eu 30 chinese investments largely focused on the oil and gas sector especially through the acquisition of company shares chinese energy investments in europe reflect a clear political and commercial strategy that addresses the prc s need to balance supply chain security of fossil fuels environmentally friendlier energy production and use as well as to enhance the market position and energy industrial capabilities of chinese state owned or state supervised energy companies based on a comprehensive set of domestic incentives for international investment the chinese penetration of the european energy sector is embedded within two levels of political cooperation the first level revolves around bilateral investment agreements between china and 27 eu member states on the second level china and the eu have established a variety of formats that guide their energy cooperation the conclusion of the proposed bilateral investment agreement between the prc and the eu would create a uniform investment environment across the continent and facilitate mutual economic benefits for both parties

residential energy efficiency and distributed generation natural partners or competition abstract residential energy efficiency and distributed generation seem to be natural partners in our journey towards a more sustainable energy future a growing range of energy efficient consumer technologies and extraordinary declines in photovoltaics system prices has seen household electricity demand fall whilst a growing proportion of the remaining load is provided by household self generation australia is a particularly interesting example of these developments with around 15 of households now possessing a pv system while per capita household demand has also fallen markedly however existing retail electricity tariffs and regulatory arrangements can create mixed incentives for households contemplating both pv and energy efficiency options and for their network service providers this is certainly the case in australia with net metering arrangements that value self consumption of pv far more than pv exports to the grid there are also complex benefits for the electricity network created by these household energy resources that can be significant in this paper we use real household load and pv data from sydney households to model the potential implications of existing electricity tariff arrangements on the financial attractiveness of pv and energy efficiency we model these options separately and in combination for both households implementing these options and their network service providers our results highlight how inappropriate tariffs may well adversely impact on the value that the combination of energy efficiency and pv offers not only to households but also to their network service providers and suggest ways that such impacts might be ameliorated by acknowledging the benefits that these resources can offer to the electricity network

trade restraints and japanese direct investment flows abstract this paper analyses the factors determining the scale and location of japanese foreign direct investment fdi over the 1980s we use a pooled cross section time series annual data set covering investment in the individual ec countries and the united states our results suggest that controlling for market size and relative labour costs investment was significantly influenced by trade protection measures and in particular by the level of anti dumping actions initiated in the last decade an additional effect from the cost of finance in japan is found suggesting that the tightening of monetary policy in japan in 1989 90 contributed significantly to the observed slowdown in fdi in the early 1990s

the management of interest rate risk during the crisis evidence from italian banks abstract we use a unique dataset to analyze how italian banking groups managed their exposure to interest rate risk during the recent financial crisis first of all we document that on average the interest rate risk exposure measured by duration gap approach has been limited and well below the alert level enforced by regulators second our econometric results indicate a relation of substitutability between banks on balance sheet interest rate risk and their use of interest rate derivatives suggesting that banks used these two instruments to curb their overall interest rate risk exposure in case of an increase in interest rates furthermore we also find robust evidence of a negative correlation between banks interest rate risk and liquidity risk

development route of the wind power industry in china abstract wind power is one of the world s major renewable energy sources and its utilization provides an important contribution in helping solve the energy problems of many countries after nearly 40 years of development china s wind power industry now not only manufactures its own massive six mw turbines but also has the largest capacity in the world with a national output of 50 million mw h in 2010 and set to rise by eight times of that amount by 2020 this paper investigates this development route by analyzing relevant academic literature statistics laws and regulations policies and research and industry reports the main drivers of the development in the industry are identified as technologies turbines wind farm construction pricing mechanism and government support systems each of which is also divided into different stages with distinctive features a systematic review of these aspects provides academics and practitioners with a better understanding of the history of the wind power industry in china and reasons for its rapid development with a view to enhancing progress in wind power development both in china and the world generally

chinese investments in europe s energy sector risks and opportunities abstract this paper analyses recent trends in chinese investment in the european energy sector these investments have increased in size targeted a wider number of countries and entered multiple energy sectors in particular fossil renewable energies and energy infrastructure we highlight the significant opportunities for as well as the political and economic risks of chinese investments in the european energy sector on the one hand the benefits can be substantial as china s new role as a global investor offers substantial economic benefits and political partnership further benefits might potentially emerge from backward linkages of chinese investments to improve access to china s restricted markets yet our findings also point to growing concerns among policymakers and business managers in europe ranging from worries about unfair competition and economic risks to concerns about national security we conclude with policy recommendations for the european union and its member states

international expansion of emerging market enterprises a springboard perspective in this article we present a springboard perspective to describe the internationalization of emerging market multinational corporations em mnes em mnes use international expansion as a springboard to acquire strategic resources and reduce their institutional and market constraints at home in so doing they overcome their latecomer disadvantage in the global stage via a series of aggressive risk taking measures by aggressively acquiring or buying critical assets from mature mnes to compensate for their competitive weaknesses we discuss unique traits that characterize the international expansion of em mnes and the unique motivations that steer them toward internationalization we further delineate peculiar strategies and activities undertaken by these firms in pursuit of international expansion as well as internal and external forces that might compel or facilitate their propulsion into the global scene we finally explain the risks and remedies associated with this international springboarding strategy and highlight major issues meriting further investigation

chinese investment in the eu renewable energy sector motives synergies and policy implications abstract this paper addresses three questions how have trade and investment in wind and solar sectors evolved between the eu and china in recent years is there a link between rising trade conflicts and trade and investment trends and what wider motivations and synergies can be identified in chinese investments in the eu s re sector to address these questions we analyze trade and investment data as well as qualitative data including information from media and company reports large increases in trade and investment were followed by rapid falls since 2012 13 trade tensions have not led to increases in investment rather the inverse we find that chinese investment in these two sectors is very concentrated in germany the key motivation for investment is market seeking although r d is also important especially for wind most investments are greenfield a preference that has persisted over time our qualitative analysis of several key acquisitions indicates that technology integration and the consolidation of capacities across the supply chain were key motivations in most of the cases studied we conclude with some policy orientations

wind turbine manufacturing in china a review abstract domestic wind turbine manufacturing sector in china has experienced development stages starting from scratch to mass production during the 11th fyp period 2006 2010 the main goal of wind power policy in china is to promote the commercialization of wind power by large scale deployment of wind farms this goal has been realized to a great extent and now the cost of wind power generation is nearly comparable to coal fired power generation in china the industry policy which devotes to mass production of domestic wind turbines is also largely successful the purpose of the paper is to provide an overview on wind turbine manufacturing sector in china the policy evolution in different stages achievements and challenges pertinent to the sector are addressed in the paper key findings are that the misleading industry policy which provides strong incentive to blind entrance and competition for scale and price and restrains innovation as well is the key obstacle for the sustainable development of the sector deficient technology standard and qualification system and the misplaced franchise bidding system also indulge vicious competition and oversupply creating a level playground for all turbine supplies providing strong incentive to innovative manufacturers establishing thorough and practicable standard and qualification system and fine tuning the directive of the franchise bidding system towards technology and service are the primary policy implications proposed by our study

foreign direct investments fdis in turkish power sector a discussion on investments opportunities and risks abstract power sector is important for managing the transition towards sustainable and cleaner energy systems and foreign investments can contribute to overcome the problems encountered in the process despite the vast literature on foreign direct investments fdi in other sectors studies on the power sector have been limited to either developed economies or major developing economies such as china or india therefore this study aims to discuss turkish case by using panel data analysis for 2002 2012 period results have shown that the major drivers of fdi inflows in turkish power sector were privatization and low real effective exchange rate during the period in addition turkey has the potential and opportunities to attract more investments with the recent reforms and increasing incentives for renewable energy technologies however business environment and the quality of institutions may create obstacles for realizing its potential moreover fiscal incentives and macroeconomic stability are important to sustain investments and economic and institutional reforms notably the eu integration process are important for fdi inflows

probabilistic decision model of wind power investment and influence of green power market this paper presents results from a model of a representative wind power investor s decision making process using a monte carlo simulation of a project financial analysis data in the form of probability distribution functions pdfs for key input variables were collected from interviews with investors and other professionals active in the u s wind power industry using a formal expert elicitation protocol this study presents the first quantitative estimates of the effect of the u s voluntary renewable energy certificate rec market on renewable energy generation the results indicate that the investment decisions of wind power project developers in the united states are unlikely to have been altered by the voluntary rec market the problem with the current voluntary rec market is that it does not offer developers a reliable risk adjusted revenue stream consequently the claims by u s green power retailers and promoters that voluntary market recs result in additional wind power projects lack credibility even dramatic increases in voluntary market rec prices in the absence of long term contracts were found to have only a small effect on investor behavior

bank forward lending a note increase in the bank s borrowing cost similarly leads to reduced commitment sales and expected bank lending a stochastic increase in customer takedowns is found to have an ambiguous effect on the bank s commitment decision the force of these results is limited because all bank lending is assumed to be done via loan commitments although most bank lending particularly to businesses is indeed done via commitments see hanweck 4 the possibility of spot market lending can be expected to influence the bank s commitment decision for example if the bank initially chooses its commitment volume and the customer subsequently determines the fraction of commitments to exercise the bank commonly retains the option of purchasing and or selling additional loans in the spot market after the customer s takedown is realized moreover the bank s opportunity to transact in the spot market after realizing the customer s takedown can be expected to influence its initial choice of commitments the purpose of this note is to examine whether the dgk results continue to hold in a setting where banks have spot market lending opportunities the model used here incorporates two significant modifications whereas both deposits d and the takedown fraction 0 were random variables in dgk we now have only one random variable the spot interest rate s realized after the bank chooses its commitment volume the takedown fraction is consequently expressed as a deterministic function of the spot interest rate second a more general bank borrowing cost function mc l s depending on the bank s level of lending l and the spot interest rate obviates the need for a deposits variable with our slightly altered formulation we examine three cases

liability and asset uncertainty for banks abstract models of bank behavior are developed which incorporate both deposit and loan demand uncertainty extensions of the traditional and simple deposit uncertainty model involve the inclusion of required reserves fixed penalty costs for reserve deficiencies limits on normal borrowing and uncertain spot loan demand and use of lines of credit results include normal borrowing limits as a new theoretical constraint on bank size and the existence of small fixed costs as a reason for the real world lack of deficient reserves policy conclusions include the effects of current reserve accounting and the effects of various interest rate changes

multinationals multi plant economies and the gains from trade a general equilibrium model of a multinational enterprise based on economies of multi plant operation is developed these economies are modelled as arising from the existence of a joint input whose productivity in each production facility is independent of the number of facilities maintained by a firm the multinational thus offers the world increased technical efficiency by eliminating the duplication of the joint input that would occur with independent national firms since this technical efficiency may come at the expense of increased market power the full determinants of home country host country and world welfare are considered

optimal borrowing and bank lending policies an interactive approach abstract in recent years the literature on bank lending has greatly expanded to cover such issues as the role of different lending systems alternative funding environments and interest rate polities in this paper we consider these issues from an interactive borrower bank perspective the borrower makes his borrowing decisions as a function of interest rates given his credit requirements which are assumed to vary over time and the available lending systems the bank determines its funding lending and investment polities which are dynamic determined over time and assuming optimal behavior on behalf of its borrowers determines interest rates on loans credit balances and other deposits the analysis of the bank s model provides interesting insights into lending and funding policies and shows that fixed term lending arrangements may generate additional costs to the financial system while the overdraft system does not and therefore is more efficient in this environment

interest rate uncertainty and the financial intermediary s choice of exposure the financial intermediary s choice of operating as a broker with minimal risk exposure or as an asset transformer with interest rate risk is modeled as a funds inventory decision made prior to the resolution of uncertainty regarding the borrowing or lending interest rates it is shown that an increase in the interest rate uncertainty leads the intermediary to reduce its exposure thereby offering decreased asset transformation and more brokerage services however a stochastic increase in the interest rates leads to greater asset transformation and less brokerage services the high and volatile nominal interest rates associated with contemporary inflation have prompted a pronounced change in commercial bank balance sheets low cost deposits have been replaced by alternative funding vehicles bearing high and increasingly variable interest rates see budzeika 3 4 kane 9 and silber 13 in an apparent adaptive response to the loss of deposits banks have eschewed fixed rate loans in favor of variable rate lending thereby more closely matching the durations of their assets and liabilities see flannery 6 and boltz and campbell 2 this change in bank lending practices has been popularly interpreted as an effort to immunize cash flows in the face of increased interest rate uncertainty see haley 8 and wojnilower 15 however apart from niehans and hewson 11 the adaptive recomposition of bank balance sheets has not been formally addressed in this paper we provide a model of balance sheet duration mismatching and then show that an increase in interest rate volatility is likely to lead an intermediary to choose a balance sheet that is more closely matched 1 balance sheet mismatching can be understood in terms of the two basic functions of financial intermediaries as explained by niehans 10 brokerage and asset transformation if a financial intermediary precisely matches the properties of its assets and liabilities and thereby maintains a perfectly hedged position it functions exclusively as a broker joining borrowers and lenders without assuming any risk the broker s function is then simply to reduce the search costs associated with joining complementary transactors the brokerage function is deshmukh is professor of managerial economics and decision sciences greenbaum is harold l stuart professor of banking and finance and kanatas is assistant professor of finance all at northwestern university s j l kellogg graduate school of management we gratefully acknowledge the helpful suggestions of michael brennan and an anonymous referee this project was supported by the banking research center and the kellogg center for advanced study in managerial economics and decision sciences

tariff jumping fdi and domestic firms profits studies of the welfare implications of trade policy often do not take account of the potential for tariff jumping fdi to mitigate positive gains to domestic producers we use event study methodology to examine the market effects for u s domestic firms that petitioned for antidumping ad relief as well as the effect of announcements of fdi by their foreign rivals in the u s market on these u s petitioning firms on average affirmative u s ad decisions are associated with 3 abnormal gains to a petitioning firm when there is no tariff jumping fdi but no abnormal gains if there is tariff jumping fdi the evidence for this mitigating effect is strongest when announcements of the intended tariff jumping fdi have already occurred before an ad decision takes place which happened in fair number of cases we also find evidence that the announcements of plant expansions and to some extent new plants have significantly larger negative effects on u s domestic firms profits than other types of fdi including acquisitions and joint ventures

the economics of loan commitment contracts credit pricing and utilization abstract our purpose is to examine the circumstances under which enduring customer relationships such as revolving credit agreements will become predominant we compare loan commitment contracts under which borrowers may take down funds at fixed marginal mark up to spot lending under which funds are priced in consideration of customers leverage under the first arrangement insurance against default risk is priced as a fixed front end fee under the second arrangement it is priced under a rising leverage specific markup schedule we show that when default risk is independent of take down the loan commitment contract will always dominate spot loans when default risk increases with credit use spot loans may become dominant

contesting a place in the sun on ideologies in foreign markets and liabilities of origin this paper explores the role of ideology in attempts to influence public policy and in business representation in the eu china solar panel anti dumping dispute it exposes the dynamics of international activity by emerging economy multinationals in this case from china and their interactions in a developed country context the eu theoretically the study also sheds light on the recent notion of liability of origin in addition to the traditional concept of liability of foreignness explored in international business research in relation to firms market and political strategies and their institutional embeddedness in home and host countries through a qualitative analysis of primary and secondary materials and interview data with key protagonists we provide a detailed evolution of the case the key actors involved and their positions arguments and strategies this illustrates the complexities involved in the interaction between markets and ideologies in the midst of debates regarding different forms of subsidy regimes for renewable energy free trade versus protectionist tendencies by governments and the economic and sustainability objectives of firms and societies the case shows how relative newcomers to the eu market responded to overcome a direct threat to their business and became with support from their home government active participants in the public debate through interactions with local commercial partners and non governmental organisations firms adopted relatively sophisticated strategies to reduce their liabilities vis a vis host country institutions and local stakeholders including collective action to increase their legitimacy and reputation and counter ideologically based attacks we also discuss implications and limitations

on the positive role of financial intermediation in allocation of venture capital in a market with imperfect information this paper develops a theory of financial intermediation that highlights the contribution of intermediaries as informed agents in a market with imperfect information we consider a venture capital market where the entrepreneurs select the qualities of projects and their perquisite consumptions about which the investors are imperfectly informed it is shown that when all investors have positive search costs the entrepreneurs are induced to offer the unacceptable inferior projects lemons only and the investors will not enter the venture capital market but put their funds in other low return investments an undesirable allocation of resources beginning with an initial undesirable situation the financial intermediaries may evolve as informed agents that induce a pareto preferred allocation leading the investors to a higher welfare state we focus our analysis on the existence of intermediation equilibra when the market for intermediation services is competitive the distribution of returns on projects the fees charged by intermediaries and the fraction of institutional holdings are all endogenous in equilibrium it is shown that i there cannot be a competitive intermediation equilibrium with very high institutional holdings and ii in other cases multiple equilibra may exist but the one with the highest institutional holdings dominates the others in a pareto sense

review of china s wind power firms internationalization status quo determinants prospects and policy implications abstract in recent years an increasing number of chinese wind power firms have been going international in search of global market for development channels by employing qualitative research and case study methods this paper examines the export scale and markets of china s wind turbines the market entry modes and location choices of china s outward foreign direct investment fdi in the wind power sector identifies the determinants and prospects of chinese wind firms internationalization as well as provides policy implications it is found that chinese wind power firms has chosen to internationalize very differently from the uppsala model in that the exports and fdi of chinese wind power firms both took place around 2008 and the exports and fdi of chinese wind power firms are closely linked the determinants of chinese wind firms internationalization are the competitive advantages of leading chinese wind firms and the intensified domestic market competition followed by chinese government support for internationalization and the attractive overseas market the prospects of chinese wind firms internationalization are bright but challenging drawn on this analysis conclusions and three policy implications are provided at the end of the paper this paper contributes to the study of china s wind power sector from a new perspective

political and institutional analysis of the successes and failures of china s wind power policy this paper identifies and explains how political and institutional factors have determined the relative successes and failures of china s wind power policy over the period 2005 2011 it finds that china has made significant progress in pursuing its wind power policy in terms of cumulative installed capacity wind turbine manufacturing industry development and wind turbine cost and argues that these achievements can be attributed to the political motives and institutional arrangements of the chinese government as well as to institutional changes on the other hand the paper finds that there are two prominent policy failures namely the low proportion of grid connected capacity and the rising trend of wind turbine incidents these have undermined the efficiency and effectiveness of china s wind power program the paper holds that the institutional sources for the first policy failure lies in the preference for setting wind power development targets in terms of installed capacity rather than generation and in coordination problems while the second policy failure lies in the lack of state technical codes for wind power integration and the unfair competition from the large state owned power companies the paper contributes to the academic literature on the political and institutional roles in china s wind power policy

the solar photovoltaic feed in tariff scheme in new south wales australia solar photovoltaic pv electricity systems are part of australia s energy supply matrix in the case of new south wales nsw the state government has had to deal with a complex policy problem in order to play its role in the federal small scale renewable energy scheme the nsw government initiated the 7 year solar bonus scheme in 2010 however in attempting to maximise community investment in small scale solar pv systems it relied on faulty financial modelling that applied a generous feed in tariff fit and underestimated the level of investor participation and installed capacity consequently the scheme has resulted in very high public costs that will require policy changes that bring investors and energy retailers into conflict and unpopular electricity retail price adjustments this paper uses a structured case and stakeholder analysis to critically analyse the fit policy while also highlighting important lessons for policymakers engaging in fit design

liability management of financial intermediaries in a dynamic and uncertain perspective this paper examines the effect of rate uncertainty first for the loan rate alone next for both asset and liability rates on the liability funding decisions of a risk neutral intermediary in this model a la pindyck rates evolve according to stochastic processes convex adjustment costs arise from the dichotomy of existing core deposits and new savings balances and the intermediary s cash flow is embedded into capital market theory then we show that the stationary equilibrium obtains at the intersection of the locus of no change in deposit holdings with the isocline of zero change in savings balances loan rate uncertainty alone shifts the savings isocline outward when marginal adjustment costs are rising at an increasing rate but when asset and liability rates are uncertain their impact on the mean intermediation spread core deposit holdings and adjustment costs depends on whether they are correlated or not

market interest rates and commercial bank profitability an empirical investigation the widespread notion that commercial banks borrow short and lend long implies that sharp market interest rate increases may induce a significant number of banking failures this paper develops a method for estimating average asset and liability maturities for a sample of large money center banks regression models are tested to determine if market rate fluctuations have a significant impact on bank profitability the conclusion is negative large banks have effectively hedged themselves against market rate risk by assembling asset and liability portfolios with similar average maturities the impact of market interest rates on commercial bank revenues costs and profitability has increasingly concerned economists and policymakers as financial market conditions have become more volatile in recent years the widespread notion that depository intermediaries borrow short and lend long implies that rapid market rate increases may induce an unacceptable number of financial firm failures monetary policy discussions have reflected this concern for many years the federal reserve board considered stable market rates a goal or at least an intermediate target of monetary policy the extent to which money market conditions are permitted to fluctuate in the short run is also affected by the unique role of the federal reserve system as the nation s lender of last resort liquidity pressures ultimately devolve on the money market and the federal reserve has a responsibility for maintaining orderly conditions in that market

lending policies of financial intermediaries facing credit and funding risk this paper compares the optimal lending decisions of financial intermediaries that differ in their risk exposure all intermediaries are assumed to face a loan demand described by a random applicant arrival process with each applicant offering a unique risk adjusted rate of return loan demand is therefore uncertain in both quantity and quality the intermediaries differ in terms of their risk exposure because of disparate funding practices intermediaries functioning as brokers minimize their exposure by borrowing funds only as demand is realized whereas those behaving as asset transformers borrow in advance of realizing loan demand thereby maintaining a loanable funds inventory and sustaining the related exposure the optimal sequential lending policy is shown to involve setting a credit standard that becomes stricter with the length of the intermediary s planning horizon and the volume of loans outstanding most importantly it is shown that brokers adopt stricter credit standards than asset transformers and therby reduce their volume of lending

returns on investments in energy saving technologies under energy price uncertainty in dutch greenhouse horticulture conventional net presentvalue calculations evaluating the profitabilityof investments in energy saving technologies indutch horticultural outlays predict a muchhigher rate of adoption of these technologiesthan is actually observed this paper tries toexplain this gap by applying a real optionsframework hurdle rates for investments in twotypes of energy saving technology are estimatedusing simulated future revenue streams givenuncertainty regarding energy prices and energytax policies hurdle rates found in this wayare on average about 1 76 times the hurdlerates that result from net present valuecalculations furthermore this paper tests thepredictive value of the theory by estimating alogit model this model relates the incidenceof having invested in an energy savingtechnology to the difference between the returnon investment and the hurdle rate thepredictive power turns out to be encouraging as the statistical tests indicate that higherhurdle rates tend to reduce rates of technologyadoption

perceived barriers and policy solutions in clean energy infrastructure investment international political negotiations and national policy for climate change mitigation are increasingly focussed on the mobilisation and scale up of investments in clean energy infrastructure this paper aims to develop the understanding of how institutional investors in the private sector perceive barriers to scaling up investment into clean energy infrastructure and what policy solutions to those barriers they advocate this paper adds to existing scientific knowledge through a clear focus on private sector perceptions through the analysis of previous public statements from organisations and coalitions in the finance sector a number of investment barriers were identified these initial barriers fed into a delphi process the outputs of the delphi process were categorized into five sets of barriers and a number of policy solutions associated with investing into clean energy solutions we conclude that there is a need for better engagement with the institutional investment community to ensure further effort on policy development that underpins investments at scale is effective and efficient

a knowledge and physical capital model of international trade flows foreign direct investment and multinational enterprises abstract this paper addresses two important issues at the nexus of the literatures on international trade foreign direct investment fdi foreign affiliate sales fas and multinational enterprises mnes first the introduction of a third internationally mobile factor physical capital to the standard 2 2 2 knowledge capital model of mnes with skilled and unskilled labor allows us to resolve fairly readily the puzzle in the modern mne literature that foreign affiliate sales among two identical economies completely displace their international trade intra industry trade and intra industry fdi and fas can coexist for national and multinational firms with identical productivities in identical countries second the introduction also of a third country to the model suggests a formal n country theoretical rationale for estimating gravity equations of bilateral fdi flows and fas in a manner consistent with estimating gravity equations for bilateral trade flows

state level benefits of energy efficiency this paper describes benefits attributable to state level energy efficiency programs nationwide state level energy efficiency programs have targeted all sectors of the economy and have employed a wide range of methods to promote energy efficiency standard residential and industrial programs typically identify between 20 and 30 energy savings in homes and plants respectively over a 20 year period of time an average state that aggressively pursues even a limited array of energy efficiency programs can potentially reduce total state energy use by as much as 20 well designed energy efficiency programs can be expected to help overcome numerous barriers to the market penetration of energy efficient technologies and accelerate the market penetration of the technologies energy efficiency programs are cost effective typical benefit cost ratios exceed 3 1 and are much higher when non energy and macroeconomic benefits are included indeed energy efficiency and associated programs and investments can create significant numbers of new jobs and enhance state tax revenues several states have incorporated energy efficiency into their economic development programs it should also be noted that increasing amounts of venture capital are being invested in the energy sector in general and in specific technologies like solar power in particular

shifting policy priorities in eu china energy relations implications for chinese energy investments in europe shifting energy policy priorities both in china and the eu european union have transformed their bilateral relationship in order to assess the impact of domestic policy priorities on bilateral energy cooperation and climate policy this comparative study traces the evolution of eu and chinese approaches to energy policy and their relative emphasis on factors and frames such as availability efficiency affordability and environmental stewardship drawing on government documents and a data set of interviews with chinese policy makers experts and academics in 2015 2016 the article argues that while the eu started with a strong emphasis on environmental stewardship and moved towards a focus on affordability and availability china started with a strong emphasis on availability and has moved towards a greater emphasis on environmental stewardship this shift in frames on the chinese side and subsequent changes in subsidy structures and targets can partially explain the increase in investments in renewable energy technologies the article concludes that the chinese and eu perspectives have become more aligned over the past ten years coinciding with an increasing trend towards renewable energy in chinese energy investments in the eu for example in italy and the uk