energy security in asean a quantitative approach for sustainable energy policy abstract we investigate energy security of the association of southeast asian nations asean under the 4 a s framework the asean economic community aec agreement launched in 2015 renewed a regional focus on energy security and sustainability we employ an analytic framework to quantitatively assess progress in different categories including availability acceptability affordability and applicability key metrics include the documentation of co 2 emissions energy access measures and energy supply reserves from 2005 2010 we identify relevant energy indicators using high quality historical data from the iea and world bank we find that asean made little progress toward establishing energy security in the previous five year planning period 2005 2010 as it regressed in most categories except applicability therefore we suggest that increased development of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies would move asean in a positive direction toward achieving energy security and sustainable energy policy goals

individual taxpayer response to tax cuts 1982 1984 with implications for the revenue maximizing tax rate abstract this paper measures the response of taxpayers to the u s personal rate reductions from 1982 to 1984 a baseline income distribution is created to describe what level and distribution could be expected in the absence of tax changes comparison of this baseline with actual tax return data shows that at least one sixth and probably one quarter of the revenue ascribable to the rate reductions was recouped by changes in taxpayer behavior the data also show that federal income tax revenue would have been maximized at a tax rate of about 35 percent and total income tax revenue maximized at a total tax rate of about 40 percent

sense and no n sense of energy security indicators energy security ranks high on the policy agenda of many countries to improve on energy security governments undertake regulatory measures for promoting renewable energy increasing energy efficiency or curbing carbon dioxide emissions the impacts of such measures on energy security are typically monitored by means of so called energy security indicators in this paper we show that the common use of wide spread energy security indicators falls short of providing a meaningful metric regulatory measures to improve on energy security trigger ambiguous effects across energy security indicators we conclude that a major pitfall of energy security indicators is the lack of a rigorous microeconomic foundation

conceptualization of energy security in resource poor economies the role of the nature of economy abstract this paper studies how energy security is conceptualized in four resource poor advanced island economies singapore south korea japan and taiwan it is found that the energy security conceptualization of the four economies in effect returns to the very original and conventional one stable and reliable energy supply however these economies are different in the level of stability and reliability demanded why are they similar in energy security conceptualization whereas different in the level of stability and reliability demanded adopting documentation analysis comparative study and the varieties of capitalism theory we find that the nature of economy constitutes the decisive factor that shapes energy security conceptualization the coordinated market economies cmes are more concerned about energy supply disruption than the liberalized market economies lmes the paper demonstrates that despite numerous energy security concepts in the literature resource poor economies still adopt the original and conventional one in practice the findings suggest that security of supply is the top measure for resource poor economies to improve their energy security and creating a joint petroleum and lng market would be desirable for the four economies in this study

wages and human capital in the u s financial industry 1909 2006 we study the allocation and compensation of human capital in the u s finance industry over the past century across time space and subsectors we find that financial deregulation is associated with skill intensity job complexity and high wages for finance employees all three measures are high before 1935 and after 1980 but not in the interim period workers in the finance industry earn the same education adjusted wages as other workers until 1990 and significantly more afterward by 2006 the premium is 40 on average and 200 for top earners and ceos earnings risk and firm size effects account for some of the premium but the majority does not appear to be sustainable

energy and food security linkages through price volatility abstract this study examines the linkages between energy price and food prices over the period 2000 2016 by using a panel var model in the case of eight asian economies our results confirm that energy price oil price has a significant impact on food prices according to the results of impulse response functions agricultural food prices respond positively to any shock from oil prices our results show that there is a linkage between energy and food security through price volatility since inflation in oil price is harmful for food security it would be necessary to diversify the energy consumption in this sector from too much reliance on fossil fuels to an optimal combination of renewable and nonrenewable energy resources that will be in favor of not only the energy security by also the food security in addition the paper found that the impact of biofuel prices on food prices is statistically significant but explains less than 2 of the food price variance however by increasing the demand for biofuel there should be more concern about the global increase in agricultural commodities prices and endangering food security especially in vulnerable economies

understanding the motivations behind the myanmar china energy pipeline multiple streams and energy politics in china abstract why exactly did china decide to construct the myanmar china energy pipeline while important for china s long term energy strategy very few studies have yet analyzed the project from the standpoint of china s domestic policy process this paper fills the gap by illuminating the broader historical context and presenting how this pipeline fits into energy politics in china the policy making process is fleshed out by using the multiple streams framework msf analysis of this case using msf shows that first local governments and scholars played a key role in facilitating the project especially in raising the proposal to the government agenda second a policy window remains an important element in china s energy policy decisions in light of the china myanmar pipeline idea was not taken seriously in the 1990s when it was first proposed third although this cross border energy project is part of a national strategy of energy security domestic political considerations such as promoting investment in china s underdeveloped southwest were also at work these conclusions are useful for understanding not only the motivations behind such transboundary pipeline projects but also china s energy decisions at large

energy security electricity population and economic growth the case of a developing south asian resource rich economy economic growth and increasing population is driving the demand for energy in developing economies globally including south asia energy security concerns have heightened in these economies consequently raising questions in their ability to meet the key sustainable development goals this paper specifically examines the inter relationships between energy security captured through the channel of electricity availability based on electricity consumption and economic output in a multivariate framework incorporating the effects of capital formation and population for nepal a developing economy in south asia time series econometrics based on the ardl bounds test approach to cointegration and the toda yamamoto granger causality tests are used to examine and test for long run equilibrium relationships and causality between 1975 and 2014 we find that there is no long run relationship between electricity consumption and economic output for nepal distinguishing it at the regional level for south asia however a 1 increase in population increases electricity consumption by 4 16 in the long run we propose that large scale development of available renewable energy such as hydropower and improvements in energy efficiency will not only strengthen energy security in the long run but also will help tackling climate change in south asian developing economies like nepal

sustainable energy security for india an assessment of the energy supply sub system this paper undertakes part of the assessment of the sustainable energy security ses for india ses goes beyond energy supply and is a function of the aggregate energy system of a country including the energy demand and conversion and distribution sub system the supply sub system which consists of eight primary energy sources viz coal oil natural gas biomass hydro solar wind and nuclear has been evaluated for four dimensions of ses viz availability affordability efficiency and environmental acceptability using 16 selected metrics the dimensional indices are calculated for domestic and imported energy sources separately for the years 2002 2007 and 2012 results reveal that the ses index for oil has increased by 10 but it has decreased by 6 for gas from 2002 to 2012 while changes for other energy sources are marginal the overall supply sub system ses index is approximately 0 75 against an ideal value of 1 0 which reveal the shortfall from the desired value a sensitivity analysis reveals that the ses index is relatively robust to variation in weights the assessment provides a comprehensive way to track the performance of the energy supply sub system and can be used to design policy interventions for improving the overall ses index for india

capital is back wealth income ratios in rich countries 1700 2010 how do aggregate wealth to income ratios evolve in the long run and why we address this question using 1970 2010 national balance sheets recently compiled in the top eight developed economies for the united states united kingdom germany and france we are able to extend our analysis as far back as 1700 we find in every country a gradual rise of wealth income ratios in recent decades from about 200 300 in 1970 to 400 600 in 2010 in effect today s ratios appear to be returning to the high values observed in europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 600 700 this can be explained by a long run asset price recovery itself driven by changes in capital policies since the world wars and by the slowdown of productivity and population growth in line with the s g harrod domar solow formula that is for a given net saving

optimal embodied energy abatement strategy for beijing economy based on a three scale input output analysis abstract energy strategies in china s 11th and 12thzfive year plan failed to reduce the total energy consumption and misled the implementation of energy saving measures as they were focused towards the direct energy input as well as formulated based on incomplete energy consumption information therefore an optimal energy abatement strategy built on comprehensive information on overall embodied energy consumption is in urgent need adopting the three scale input output analysis this study uses beijing as a case to depict a specific urban economy s overall energy consumption impacted by local direct energy use domestic and foreign trade the results show that energy embodied in domestic trade dominated beijing s energy consumption while local direct energy is accounting for less than 1 3 of beijing s total embodied energy consumption the quantity of energy embodied in imports far exceeds that embodied in exports making the city a net embodied energy importer and indicating that policies considering direct energy use only will cause energy leakage problem these findings suggest that the current measures such as displacing energy intensive sectors to other regions lead to local reduction but overall rise moreover analysis for five abatement scenarios average intensity share absolute share discriminatory absolute and discriminatory intensity was carried out to figure out the optimal abatement strategy for beijing due to less loss of potential output it is found that intensity share scenario is the optimal one among all the scenarios concerned analysis in this study suggests that each region should break limits of self centered perceptions and multi scale governance for more appropriate responsibility assignment is recommended for overall energy abatement

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

potential cooperation in renewable energy between china and the united states of america abstract china and the united states of america us are developing renewable energy concurrently in this paper we seek the opportunities for potential cooperation between these two countries based on the analysis of annual economic data a mathematical model has been established to characterize correlations among gdp carbon dioxide emissions energy prices and the renewable energy cooperation index based on statistical analyses such cooperation can promote economic development reduce carbon dioxide emissions improve the environment and realize green growth if us monetary and technology resources and chinese markets are combined benefits can be mutually gained

price competition in markets for dichotomous substitutes abstract the paper deals with price rivalry between two sellers of a differentiated good each firm occupies one of the two possible locations in the characteristics space considered this resembles real situations like the choice between dichotomous substitutes or examples coming from spatial economics the consumers population is partitioned in two groups according to preferences and the population density is constituted by two atoms transportation costs vary across consumers nevertheless the resulting firms demand functions share the continuity property at a non cooperative equilibrium the prices of the two goods differ and some consumers who rank highest the more popular brand find it convenient to purchase the less expensive alternative higher one firm concentration ratios are found to be consistent with lower equilibrium prices this last feature is verified comparing the non cooperative outcomes stemming from different original population densities

evaluating energy security in the asia pacific region a novel methodological approach this paper establishes an energy security assessment instrument based on a new and expanded conceptualisation of energy security the instrument is a systematic interrogative tool for evaluating energy security of individual states or regions it consists of eleven broad energy security dimensions associated with the current global energy system these energy security dimensions take into account numerous quantitative and qualitative attributes of each country s energy security and policy and include both traditional energy security concerns and many new factors such as environmental socio cultural and technological another dimension largely absent from previous analyses is the existence of and the issues addressed in energy security policy in each country this instrument serves as an assessment system with which to evaluate energy security in the asia pacific region the existing studies on energy security in the asia pacific region suffer from serious limitations no study to date examines regional energy security policies by adopting a more comprehensive energy security definition as a starting point most studies also focus on a single country or issue even if they examine energy security in major regional economies they lack critical comparative analysis the instrument is valuable as it may be utilised to draw a comprehensive map of regional energy security situation which can also include comparative analysis of energy security characteristics across the asia pacific region ultimately it may be utilised to set up a framework for improved regional energy cooperation with the aim of providing regional leaders with a blueprint for improving regional energy security and policy

on the long run evolution of inheritance france 1820 2050 this paper attempts to document and account for the long run evolution of inheritance we find that in a country like france the annual flow of inheritance was about 20 25 of national income between 1820 and 1910 down to less than 5 in 1950 and back up to about 15 by 2010 a simple theoretical model of wealth accumulation growth and inheritance can fully account for the observed u shaped pattern and levels using this model we find that under plausible assumptions the annual bequest flow might reach about 20 25 of national income by 2050 this corresponds to a capitalized bequest share in total wealth accumulation well above 100 our findings illustrate the fact that when the growth rate g is small and when the rate of return to private wealth r is permanently and substantially larger than the growth rate say r 4 5 vs g 1 2 which was the case in the 19th century and early 20th century and is likely to happen again in the 21st century then past wealth and inheritance are bound to play a key role for aggregate wealth accumulation and the structure of lifetime inequality contrarily to a widely spread view modern economic growth did not kill inheritance

product line rivalry and firm asymmetry we extend the brander and eaton 1984 model of product line rivalry to study the effects of asymmetry between firms on the equilibrium outcome our analysis shows that market interlacing can emerge as the equilibrium outcome even in situations where market segmentation would have been the only possible outcome had the firms been symmetric we identify two strategic factors that lead to such an outcome

unintended consequences energy r d in a deregulated energy market abstract many advanced industrialized nations are substantially reducing their national public and private investments in energy research and development r d driven in part by changes occurring as a result of the deregulation of these nations energy sectors in particular funding for strategic energy r d aimed at developing future energy supply options eg fusion fission clean fossil energy renewable energy has been decreased substantially in both the public and private sectors in many of these nations these trends are now starting to be seen in the united states as it moves towards the deregulation of the nation s utilities the magnitude of the reductions in support for energy r d in the public and private sectors and the shift towards decidedly shorter term r d has profound implications for nations approaching deregulation though utility customers may be short term winners from the deregulation of utilities by paying less for energy a national failure to invest in energy r d is very likely to have long term negative impacts on national energy sectors the economies and environmental wellbeing

income inequality in the united states 1913 1998 this paper presents new homogeneous series on top shares of income and wages from 1913 to 1998 in the united states using individual tax returns data top income and wages shares display a u shaped pattern over the century our series suggest that the large shocks that capital owners experienced during the great depression and world war ii have had a permanent effect on top capital incomes we argue that steep progressive income and estate taxation may have prevented large fortunes from fully recovering from these shocks top wage shares were flat before world war ii dropped precipitously during the war and did not start to recover before the late 1960s but are now higher than before world war ii as a result the working rich have replaced the rentiers at the top of the income distribution

what determines china s crude oil importing trade patterns empirical evidences from 55 countries between 1992 and 2015 abstract this study develops a conceptual framework that synthesizes the supply demand price and openness of crude oil trade along with a list of traditional economic political and geographical factors to investigate the determinants of crude oil imports in emerging markets we test the framework using china s crude oil imports from 55 countries for the period from 1992 to 2015 using both static and dynamic panel data models we find that china s crude oil import is associated with exporting country s supply demand and price as well as its bilateral trade relationships these factors were found to affect china s import of crude oil from the middle east however only bilateral trade relationships affect its imports of crude oil from the asia pacific furthermore we do not find substantial evidence in this research to indicate that china s direct investment increases crude oil imports from those countries this article is part of a virtual special issue entitled comparing sustainable energy policies in northeast asia toward the harmonized public private partnership

a theory of optimal inheritance taxation this paper derives optimal inheritance tax formulas that a capture the key equityeciency trade o b are expressed in terms of estimable sucient statistics c are robust to the underlying structure of preferences we consider dynamic stochastic models with general and heterogeneous bequest tastes and labor productivities we limit ourselves to simple but realistic linear or two bracket tax structures to obtain tractable formulas we show that long run optimal inheritance tax rates can always be expressed in terms of distributional parameters aggregate behavioral elasticities and social preferences for redistribution importantly those results carry over with tractable modications to a the case with social discounting instead of steady state welfare maximization b the case with partly accidental bequests c the standard barro becker dynastic model in all cases the optimal inheritance tax rate increases with the concentration of bequest received and decreases with the elasticity of aggregate bequests to the net of tax rate the optimal tax rate is positive and quantitatively large if concentration is high the elasticity is low and society cares mostly about those receiving little inheritance in contrast the optimal tax rate is negative when society cares mostly about inheritors we propose a calibration using micro data for france and the united states we nd that for realistic parameters

the return of patrimonial capitalism a review of thomas piketty s capital in the twenty first century capital in the twenty first century by thomas piketty provides a unified theory of the functioning of the capitalist economy by linking theories of economic growth and functional and personal income distributions it argues based on the long run historical data series that the forces of economic divergence including rising income inequality tend to dominate in capitalism it regards the twentieth century as an exception to this rule and proposes policies that would make capitalism sustainable in the twenty first century jel d31 d33 e25 n10 n30 p16

energy security and sustainability in northeast asia abstract energy security has typically to those involved in making energy policy meant mostly securing access to oil and other fossil fuels with increasingly global diverse energy markets however and increasingly transnational problems resulting from energy transformation and use old energy security rationales are less salient and other issues including climate change and other environmental economic and international considerations are becoming increasingly important as a consequence a more comprehensive operating definition of energy security is needed along with a workable framework for analysis of which future energy paths or scenarios are likely to yield greater energy security in a broader more comprehensive sense work done as a part of the nautilus institute s pacific asia regional energy security pares project developed a broader definition of energy security and described an analytical framework designed to help to compare the energy security characteristics both positive and negative of different quantitative energy paths as developed using software tools such as the leap long range energy alternatives planning system

china s ongoing energy efficiency drive origins progress and prospects abstract in 2004 china s government launched a vigorous programme to reverse the trend of rising national energy intensity and to reduce intensity by 20 over the period 2006 2010 the aim of this paper is to examine this programme in the context of nearly 30 years of measures to enhance energy efficiency in china and thus to evaluate the likelihood that today s policies will yield improvements over a longer period the country achieved a sustained decline of energy intensity in the period 1980 2001 but this trend was reversed in 2002 this reversal arose from a shift in the structure of the economy to more energy intensive industries and from a decline in the rate of technical innovation the measures taken since 2003 have been directed principally at energy intensive industries but have also addressed other sectors of the economy though the energy intensity target for the year 2010 may be achieved greater efforts will be needed to address a number of constraints which include the reluctance to use economic and financial instruments the dependency of energy policy on industrial and social policies the nature of political decision making and of public administration a shortage of skills and social attitudes to energy

energy security in china a quantitative analysis and policy implications abstract this study aims to examine how china s energy security has changed over 30 years of reform and the opening period it constructs a 4 as quantitative evaluation framework the availability of energy resources the applicability of technology the acceptability by society and the affordability of energy resources the quantitative results show that china s energy security was at its best during the sixth fyp period 1981 1985 but then deteriorated until it hit higher levels between 1995 and 2005 however it was still lower than the level reached during the sixth fyp period during the eleventh fyp period 2006 2010 the energy security situation deteriorated again differences in policy priority over the study period appear to affect the country s energy security status this study suggests that china needs to develop renewable energy resources on a large scale and pay more attention to emissions control to reverse the downward trend in energy security

the top 1 percent in international and historical perspective world top incomes database at http topincomes parisschoolofeconomics eu and has represented a challenge to the economics profession stories based on the and has represented a challenge to the economics profession stories based on the supply and demand for skills are not enough to explain the extreme top tail of supply and demand for skills are not enough to explain the extreme top tail of the earnings distribution nor is it enough to look only at earned incomes different the earnings distribution nor is it enough to look only at earned incomes different approaches are necessary to explain what has happened in the united states over approaches are necessary to explain what has happened in the united states over the past century and also to explain the differing experience in other high income the past century and also to explain the differing experience in other high income countries over recent decades we begin with the international comparison in the countries over recent decades we begin with the international comparison in the fi rst section and then turn to the causes and implications of the evolution of top fi rst section and then turn to the causes and implications of the evolution of top income shares income shares

evaluating energy security of resource poor economies a modified principle component analysis approach abstract this study proposes to aggregately measure energy security performance with the principal component analysis in its application of the methodology to four resource poor yet economically advanced island economies in east asia singapore south korea japan and taiwan this study establishes a novel framework to conceptualize energy security the framework incorporates three dimensions vulnerability efficiency and sustainability three indicators being allocated to each dimension the study finds that all the three dimensions are critical for the resource poor economies but have different weights in each of them an urgent task for these four economies is to implement energy efficiency and conservation measures liberalization of electricity sector can be a helpful tool to reduce energy consumption and increase efficiency all of them have been committed to promoting renewable energy development which shall be further expanded in these economies

top incomes in the long run of history a recent literature has constructed top income shares time series over the long run for more than twenty countries using income tax statistics top incomes represent a small share of the population but a very significant share of total income and total taxes paid hence aggregate economic growth per capita and gini inequality indexes are sensitive to excluding or including top incomes we discuss the estimation methods and issues that arise when constructing top income share series including income definition and comparability over time and across countries tax avoidance and tax evasion we provide a summary of the key empirical findings most countries experience a dramatic drop in top income shares in the first part of the twentieth century in general due to shocks to top capital incomes during the wars and depression shocks top income shares do not recover in the immediate postwar decades however over the last thirty years top income shares have increased substantially in english speaking countries and in india and china but not in continental european countries or japan this increase is due in part to an unprecedented surge in top wage incomes as a result wage income comprises a larger fraction of top incomes than in the past finally we discuss the theoretical and empirical models that have been proposed to account for the facts and the main questions that remain open

fossil fuel dependence and vulnerability of electricity generation case of selected european countries abstract this paper analyses the diversity of fuel mix for electricity generation in selected european countries and investigates how the fuel bill has changed as a share of gdp between 1995 and 2005 the drivers of fuel dependence related vulnerability are determined using laspeyres index decomposition a what if analysis is carried out to analyse the changes in the vulnerability index due to changes in the drivers and a scenario analysis is finally used to investigate the future vulnerability in the medium term the paper finds that the british and the dutch electricity systems are less diversified compared to three other countries analysed the gas dependence of the dutch and italian systems made them vulnerable but the vulnerability increased in all countries in recent years gas price and the level of dependence on gas for power generation mainly influenced the gas vulnerability the united kingdom saw a substantial decline in its coal vulnerability due to a fall in coal price and coal dependence in electricity generation the scenario analysis indicates that uk is likely to face greater gas vulnerability in the future due to increased gas dependence in electricity generation and higher import dependence

is energy security a driver for economic growth evidence from a global sample abstract this study examines whether energy security contributes to economic growth for a global sample of 74 countries covering the period from 2002 to 2013 the benchmark model is built based on an extended version of the cobb douglas production function ten measures of energy security are employed to capture five aspects of energy security including availability accessibility acceptability affordability and develop ability besides the whole sample we also conduct the panel data analysis on subsamples of countries based on different income levels using panel corrected standard errors pcse and feasible generalized least squares fgls techniques that correct for heterogeneity and autocorrelation and produce robust standard errors the empirical results appear to be relatively robust to these two estimation techniques overall we find that energy security enhances economic growth for both the whole sample and subsamples of countries meanwhile energy insecurity measured by energy intensity and carbon intensity variables has a negative impact on economic growth the results vary across subsamples for several cases the findings imply that at the global level energy for economic development energy security and climate change mitigation should be pursued as integrated themes since there are linkages among these three agendas

top income measurement and undistributed profits abstract we develop a method that allows transforming retained business profits in a particular year into business accrued capital gains of the same year these capital gains thus estimated can be simply added to other sources of personal income of top earners to obtain a consistent measure of their total income

the impact of energy price uncertainty on macroeconomic variables abstract this paper evaluates the macroeconomic implications of energy price volatility through the lens of a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium dsge model in an open economy the model develops a small open economy in which households consume energy products and firms use energy as productivity inputs where the country is so small that it needs to import energy the price of which is determined abroad whereas positive energy price shocks cause an economic slowdown due to higher costs for consumers and firms energy price volatility shocks generate an increase in gdp in the short run and a reversal in the long run these findings are empirically supported by estimates from a panel var model applied to 10 asian economies where energy price volatility has a positive impact on gdp in the short run moreover the paper finds that increasing demand or supply uncertainty also affect energy prices with amplified fluctuations relative to a model that abstracts from energy market volatility leads households to cut consumption for precautionary savings motives which in turn increases investment both energy price and uncertainty fluctuation lead to high macroeconomic volatility in the business cycle policy makers should encourage investment in energy security and renewable energy such that households and firms would become less responding to fluctuations in the non renewable energy market

the mirrlees review and the state of public economics the mirrlees review of taxation in the united kingdom is a landmark in the analysis of u k fiscal policy and of wide interest to public finance economists around the world this review concentrates on what we can learn from the review about the current state of public economics and directions for future research jel e62 h20 h50

evaluation of electricity supply sustainability and security multi criteria decision analysis approach abstract electricity supply plays a significantly important role in national economy and society development accordingly the evaluation of electricity supply sustainability and security as an early warning method is beneficial for the decision makers policy makers to take various measures to enhance electricity supply sustainability and security this study aims at developing a multi criteria decision analysis framework for electricity supply sustainability and security evaluation and a total of nine metrics i e shannon weiner index electricity import dependence supply adequacy rural electrification rate electric power losses ratio residential consumption ratio electricity per gross domestic product electric power consumption per capita and fossil fuel dependence in four dimensions including availability and security of supply affordability and reliability energy and economic efficiency and environmental stewardship were employed for electricity supply sustainability and security evaluation fuzzy analytic hierarchy process which allows the users to use linguistic terms to express their opinions was used to determine the weights of the criteria which represent their relative importance in the evaluation of electricity supply sustainability and security grey rational analysis was used to prioritize the status of electricity supply sustainability and security of different countries in different years the electricity supply sustainability and security of the five major emerging national economies brazil russia india china and south africa was studied in chinese perspective by the proposed method

performance pay and wage inequality an increasing fraction of jobs in the u s labor market explicitly pay workers for their performance using bonus pay commissions or piece rate contracts using data from the panel study of income dynamics we show that compensation in performance pay jobs is more closely tied to both observed and unobserved productive characteristics of workers than compensation in non performance pay jobs we also find that the return to these productive characteristics increased faster over time in performance pay than in non performance pay jobs we show that this finding is consistent with the view that underlying changes in returns to skill due for instance to technological change induce more firms to offer performance pay contracts and result in more wage inequality among workers who are paid for performance thus performance pay provides a channel through which underlying changes in returns to skill get translated into higher wage inequality we conclude that this channel accounts for 21 of the growth in the variance of male wages between the late 1970s and the early 1990s and for most of the increase in wage inequality above the eightieth percentile over the same period

indicators for energy security the concept of energy security is widely used yet there is no consensus on its precise interpretation in this research we have provided an overview of available indicators for long term security of supply sos we distinguished four dimensions of energy security that relate to the availability accessibility affordability and acceptability of energy and classified indicators for energy security according to this taxonomy there is no one ideal indicator as the notion of energy security is highly context dependent rather applying multiple indicators leads to a broader understanding incorporating these indicators in model based scenario analysis showed accelerated depletion of currently known fossil resources due to increasing global demand coupled with increasing spatial discrepancy between consumption and production international trade in energy carriers is projected to have increased by 142 in 2050 compared to 2008 oil production is projected to become increasingly concentrated in a few countries up to 2030 after which production from other regions diversifies the market under stringent climate policies this diversification may not occur due to reduced demand for oil possible benefits of climate policy include increased fuel diversity and slower depletion of fossil resources

the perils of behavior based personalization behavior based personalization has gained popularity in recent years whereby businesses offer personalized products based on consumers purchase histories this paper highlights two perils of behavior based personalization in competitive markets first although purchase histories reveal consumer preferences competitive exploitation of such information damages differentiation similar to the classic finding that behavior based price discrimination intensifies price competition with endogenous product design there is yet a second peril it emerges when forward looking firms try to avoid the first peril by suppressing the information value of purchase histories ideally if a market leader serves all consumers on day 1 purchase histories contain no information about consumer preferences however knowing that their rivals are willing to accommodate a market leader firms are more likely to offer a mainstream design at day 1 which jeopardizes differentiation based on this understanding i investigate how the perils of behavior based personalization change under alternative market conditions such as firms better knowledge about their own customers consumer loyalty and inertia consumer self selection and the need for classic designs

shaping china s energy security the impact of domestic reforms this paper is a subsequent study of china s energy security situation which concludes that china s energy security has not improved over 30 years of economic reform the objective of the study is to explore qualitatively why the energy security situation has not improved to answer the why question the study opens up a new perspective by analyzing the relationship between energy security and energy policies from the macroeconomic reform perspective this study discusses major reforms that took place over 30 years it is found that china s macroeconomic reform has restricted the formation of china s energy policies and determined its energy security situation in essence china s energy policies are only a reaction to the macroeconomic measures in other words china s energy policies are not originally intended to improve energy security but passive reactions to china s macroeconomic reform this explains why china did not improve its energy security situation despite 30 years of reform

the long run history of income inequality in denmark we use historical publications and micro data from the tax returns to construct internationally comparable estimates of the development in income inequality in denmark over the last 140 years the study shows that income inequality and top income shares have declined during several distinct phases in between periods of stability furthermore the quality of the danish data allows us to analyse not only the development in top income shares but also broader inequality measures such as the gini coefficient these analyses show that top income shares are a good proxy for the overall level of inequality

how oil prices affect east and southeast asian economies evidence from financial markets and implications for energy security abstract oil prices have been volatile to investigate how oil price swings affect asian economies this paper examines how they affect industry and aggregate stock returns economic theory implies that there is a strong link between a sector s stock return and its economic activity evidence presented here indicates that sectors such as airlines food and industrial transportation are harmed by oil price increases and that sectors such as oil and gas production and exploration benefit the findings also reveal that many industries within each country are impacted by oil prices the paper concludes by offering several suggestions to help asian economies weather the effects of oil price changes and increase energy security

fostering a renewable energy technology industry an international comparison of wind industry policy support mechanisms this article examines the importance of national and sub national policies in supporting the development of successful global wind turbine manufacturing companies we explore the motivations behind establishing a local wind power industry and the paths that different countries have taken to develop indigenous large wind turbine manufacturing industries within their borders this is done through a cross country comparison of the policy support mechanisms that have been employed to directly and indirectly promote wind technology manufacturing in 12 countries we find that in many instances there is a clear relationship between a manufacturer s success in its home country market and its eventual success in the global wind power market whether new wind turbine manufacturing entrants are able to succeed will likely depend in part on the utilization of their turbines in their own domestic market which in turn will be influenced by the annual size and stability of that market consequently policies that support a sizable stable market for wind power in conjunction with policies that specifically provide incentives for wind power technology to be manufactured locally are most likely to result in the establishment of an internationally competitive wind industry

strengthening of energy security low carbon growth in asia role of regional energy cooperation through trade abstract prudent demand supply management of energy is pivotal for the energy security of the countries and transitions towards the sustainable low carbon energy system this study empirically investigates the existing demand supply gaps of energy in the south though east asian stea countries and analyzes how the gaps can be minimized most efficiently through intraregional energy trade stochastic frontier gravity model extended with the determinants of efficiency models used for both primary energy and renewable energy goods reg trade the result implies that for most of the countries intraregional export of primary energy as well as reg are positively influenced by gross domestic products gdp of the exporting and importing countries tariff and distance adversely affect the exports while the implication of cross exchange ratio seems minimal in both cases regional trade agreements rta are also found to have notable positive impact on intraregional trade results show that china and thailand are the most efficient in this intraregional primary energy export while bangladesh and myanmar remain the least efficient china and japan are the most efficient in reg exports while bangladesh remains the least efficient on average the whole region has the weighted export efficiency of 56 5 in intraregional primary energy trade and 63 1 in reg trade the determinants of efficiency model reveals that institutional quality better infrastructure goods market efficiency and technological readiness have reasonable impacts to enhance the countries intraregional energy trade efficiencies

migration and wage effects of taxing top earners evidence from the foreigners tax scheme in denmark this paper analyzes the eects of income taxation on the international migration and earnings of top earners using a danish preferential foreigner tax scheme and populationwide danish administrative data this scheme introduced in 1991 allows new immigrants with high earnings to be taxed at a preferential at rate for a duration of three years we obtain two main results first the scheme has doubled the number of highly paid foreigners in denmark relative to slightly less paid and therefore ineligible foreigners this translates into a very large elasticity of migration with respect to 1 minus the average tax rate on foreigners between 1 5 and 2 second we nd compelling evidence of a negative eect of the scheme induced reduction in the average tax rate on pre tax earnings of foreign migrants at the individual level this nding can be rationalized by a matching frictions

deconstructing income and income inequality measures a crosswalk from market income to comprehensive income recent research on levels and trends in the united states in income inequality vary substantially in how they measure income we show the sensitivity of alternative income measures in capturing income trends using a unified data set focusing solely on market income or including realized taxable capital gains based on irs tax return data in more comprehensive household income measures will dramatically increase inequality growth compared to capital gains measures more in keeping with haig simons principles using a measure of yearly accrued capital gains dramatically reduces observed growth in income inequality across the distribution but also equalizes income growth since 1989