project evaluation by potential tax reform abstract shadow prices are derived for small open economies with several production sectors experiencing constant returns to scale small projects affect the balance of trade domestic prices of non traded goods and factors and sector scales only domestic prices affect welfare and only if there is not domestic price equalization generally a project s net benefits depend upon the potential tax and tariff reform made possible or necessary through the balance of trade effect border prices are right for traded goods but domestic good shadow pricing requires knowing the direction of at least one reversible available tax reform and presuming optimality with respect to available reforms

shadow prices for non traded goods in a tax distorted economy formulae and values abstract two different approaches to the shadow pricing of non traded goods in tax distorted economies have led to differing shadow price formulae these include measures of marginal foreign exchange cost expressions incorporating producer prices and tax revenues and the harberger weighted average formula this paper uses a general equilibrium model with fixed taxes to demonstrate the equivalence of these formulae it is argued that distinguishing between the formulae and their values answers many of the criticisms that have been advanced as to the usefulness of shadow prices

oil vulnerability index of oil importing countries abstract this paper assesses the relative oil vulnerability of 26 net oil importing countries for the year 2004 on the basis of various indicators the ratio of value of oil imports to gross domestic product gdp oil consumption per unit of gdp gdp per capita and oil share in total energy supply ratio of domestic reserves to oil consumption exposure to geopolitical oil market concentration risks as measured by net oil import dependence diversification of supply sources political risk in oil supplying countries and market liquidity the approach using the principal component technique has been adopted to combine these individual indicators into a composite index of oil vulnerability such an index captures the relative sensitivity of various economies towards developments of the international oil market with a higher index indicating higher vulnerability the results show that there are considerable differences in the values of individual indicators of oil vulnerability and overall oil vulnerability index among the countries both inter and intraregional

installed base and compatibility innovation product preannouncements and predation a good is often more valuable to any user the more others use compatible goods the authors show that this effect may inhibit innovation if an installed base exists and transition to a new standard must be gradual early adopters bear a disproportionate share of transient incompatibility costs this can produce excess inertia the installed base however is stranded if the new standard is adopted this may create excess momentum these dynamic effects have strategic implications temporary price cutting can permanently prevent entry and product preannouncements can be critical in innovation these strategic actions have ambiguous welfare effects

behavioral economics for environmental policy abstract the predictions of widely prescribed global and country level environmental policies at present are based mainly on mainstream economic models which treat individual actors to be unboundedly rational in their decision making in recent years however behavioral and experimental economists have found that the individual actors in many circumstances act within a bounded rationality framework suggesting that predictions based on the unbounded rationality models would be less valid while some of mainstream economists have already started adopting the bounded rationality based models in their academic discourse many environmental economists seem to be reluctant to use these alternative models of rationality in their research and policy prescriptions this paper highlights the implications of using bounded rationality models in environmental research in general and policymaking in particular

normal markets market imperfections and energy efficiency abstract the conventional distinction between economic and engineering approaches to energy analysis obscures key methodological issues concerning the measurement of the costs and benefits of policies to promote the adoption of energy efficient technologies the engineering approach is in fact based upon firm economic foundations the principle of lifecycle cost minimization that arises directly from the theory of rational investment thus evidence that so called market barriers impede the adoption of cost effective energy efficient technologies implies the existence of market failures as defined in the context of microeconomic theory problems of imperfect information and bounded rationality on the part of consumers for example may lead real world outcomes to deviate from the dictates of efficient resource allocation a widely held contrary view that the engineering view lacks economic justification is based on the fallacy that markets are normally efficient

cost benefit criteria and the compensation principle in evaluating small projects the use of the compensation principle in cost benefit analysis as a means of separating the efficiency and distributional effects of a project is theoretically suspect for a number of reasons one difficulty is the lack of a necessary and sufficient criterion for determining that a compensation test is passed in an economy where consumers and producers prices are not the same for this paper we establish such a criterion for projects that are small in the differential sense the criterion requires the calculation of a set of shadow prices which is a weighted average of the consumers and producers price vectors

energy policymaking in denmark implications for global energy security and sustainability denmark is arguably the most energy secure and sustainable country in the organization of economic cooperation and development oecd the country has reduced its dependence on foreign sources of energy to zero and become self sufficient in its own energy production and use offering important lessons for other nations around the world this study explores the core of denmark s successful approach a commitment to energy efficiency prolonged taxes on energy fuels electricity and carbon dioxide and incentives for combined heat and power chp and wind turbines through these commitments the study shows how denmark transitioned from being almost 100 percent dependent on imported fuels such as oil and coal for their power plants in 1970 to becoming a net exporter of fuels and electricity today the country leads the world in terms of exportation of wind energy technology with a hold on roughly one third of the world market for wind turbines it was able to phase out the use of virtually all oil fired power plants in less than five years and implemented a progressive moratorium on future coal fired power plants in the 1990s their most recent strategy seeks to achieve 30 percent of total energy supply from renewable energy by 2025

reformulating taxes for an energy transition abstract an energy transition toward clean energy sources would reduce environmental impacts one proposal to trigger this energy transition uses economic instruments particularly environmental taxes this research studies the potential impact of taxes on electricity on the environment and the economy using a dynamic computable general equilibrium model for spain with energy and environmental extensions we assess their current impact on gdp growth energy use and a set of different pollutant emissions then we propose a reform that would foster an energy transition toward clean energies and assess their economic and environmental impact we find that only taxing the production of electricity by coal oil and natural gas can be better for the environment and economy than taxing all forms of electricity production in a revenue neutral context moreover the production of electricity by biomass though considered renewable is an important source of pollutant emissions and in these terms should have less importance in an energy transition

energy justice and the contested petroleum politics of stranded assets policy insights from the yasuni itt initiative in ecuador abstract ecuador s progressive yasuni itt initiative operational 2007 to 2013 would have left almost one billion barrels of crude oil locked in perpetuity beneath one of the most intact and diverse nature reserves on the planet the project attempted to strand these oil assets in order to protect biodiversity respect the territory of indigenous peoples combat climate change and encourage more sustainable economic development the yasuni itt proposal would have had the international community pay ecuador 3 6 billion roughly half the value of the oil found there in exchange for not developing the ishpingo tambococha tiputini itt oilfields funds would have been placed into social and environmental development programs and the promotion of domestic renewable energy instead the project collected only 13 million and succumbed to a series of challenges including limited financing intense political pressure a national commitment to oil and carbon leakage this article summarizes the history benefits and insurmountable obstacles facing the yasuni itt initiative and presents six broader lessons and implications for climate and energy analysts practitioners and policymakers it questions the political viability of and serves as a stark warning against those promoting and advocating policies centered on carbon budgets stranded assets negative emissions and carbon revenue streams

a large amount of idle capacity under rapid expansion policy analysis on the dilemma of wind power utilization in china abstract wind power installation in china has increased rapidly since 2004 however wind power usage remains relatively low resulting in a lot of idle capacity beginning in 2007 in this paper we determine the main framework of china s current wind power policies and illustrate how these policies led to the rapid installation expansion accompanied by large idle capacity building on this we explore how to alleviate the high installation low wind power usage conflict in china we establish optimal models to i analyze wind power and power grid company behavior ii demonstrate the impact of china s current policies on power and grid companies and iii clarify the causes and mechanisms resulting in high growth and low wind power capacity usage our analysis shows that the incentive incompatibility of current policies which enticed power companies to pursue installation expansion regardless of quality while inhibiting grid companies from improving connectivity transmission and scheduling technology is the primary cause for such large scale idle capacity the results of our study suggest that the fundamental way to scale up wind power utilization is to enhance policy incentive compatibility which mainly includes i distributing revenues and diversifying risk fairly between power and grid companies and ii motivating power companies to address demand fluctuation actively

willingness to pay for publicly financed health care how should we use the numbers this paper addresses the question of how willingness to pay wtp values in health care evaluation can be used by policy makers the way in which wtp values are used depends on from whom values are elicited and whether the good concerned is privately financed or publicly financed through taxation thus four possible uses of wtp values are identified the focus is on the two uses which arise in the publiclyfinanced situation conventional use of wtp values where the decision as to whether or not to provide a service depends upon whether or not wtp values are greater than total cost applies only in the privately financed and not publiclyfinanced situations the situations with publicly financed goods are more complex the use of wtp values for publicly financed goods is justified and illustrated

the efficiency paradox bureaucratic and organizational barriers to profitable energy saving investments abstract the paradox of why profitable energy saving investments are not undertaken continues to provoke debate the underlying phenomenon might be called the efficiency paradox because it represents a case in which business firms which are often presumed or taken axiomatically to be economically efficient make decisions that do not maximize profits new data from one of the us environmental protection agency s voluntary pollution prevention programs enables this paradox to be explored statistically the data show that both the level and variation in returns to lighting upgrade investments cannot be explained by standard economic models substantial gains in energy efficiency can be achieved without sacrificing profitability both economic and organizational factors account for some of the variation in observed returns to these investments but the results suggest a need for improved and more comprehensive theories of the investment behavior of firms and other organizations

uncertainties in future energy demand in uk residential heating fossil fuels are the main source of space heating in the uk and therefore climate mitigation implies a systemic change in space heating systems the challenge is difficult because of an inefficient building stock and high penetration of natural gas we present new quantified scenarios for residential energy use in the uk to 2050 with minimal policy intervention the uk will remain locked into a gas based heating system which would conflict with the policy goal of decarbonisation however there is a range of scenarios in which this is avoided a system heavily reliant on heat pumps powered by low carbon electricity is uk policy makers currently preferred alternative we conclude that some shift in this direction is likely to be required but complete reliance on this solution raises a number of problems greater use of energy efficiency and biomass can also play a significant role these options have different risks but a more diversified strategy would be more prudent we conclude that the future of uk residential space heating is very uncertain but meeting low carbon heating goals is better conceptualised as reducing reliance on gas rather than necessarily mass electrification our analysis has implications for any country with high use of fossil fuels in space heating and ambitious decarbonisation goals

tentative governing of fuel cell innovation in a dynamic network of expectations abstract expectations and visions are known to be forceful elements in the governance of emerging innovations however visions and expectations are prone to change thus creating challenges for strategy and policy processes actors have to deal with the dynamics of expectations either ex post when expectations have changed or ex ante for instance by taking possible future changes into account in the design of policy measures this article follows the dynamics of fuel cell expectations in the german policy discourse 1994 2011 firstly we study how fuel cell expectations were discursively related to a wider network of expectations regarding developments in the context of fuel cells secondly we examine whether and how policy measures referred to these expectations and how policy dealt with the dynamic evolution of expectations we show that fuel cell expectations alone were not sufficient to trigger substantial policy support only once they linked up with visions and expectations about the future energy system and further context developments were supportive policy measures initiated furthermore although we observed dedicated and successful efforts to stabilize policy support for fuel cells pre empting possible changes in expectations governance still had to adapt to changes in the network of expectations in particular the rise in expectations for battery electric vehicles

understanding carbon lock in abstract this paper narrative argues that industrial economies have been locked into fossil fuel based energy systems through a process of technological and institutional co evolution driven by path dependent increasing returns to scale it is asserted that this condition termed carbon lock in creates persistent market and policy failures that can inhibit the diffusion of carbon saving technologies despite their apparent environmental and economic advantages the notion of a techno institutional complex is introduced to capture the idea that lock in occurs through combined interactions among technological systems and governing institutions while carbon lock in provides a conceptual basis for understanding macro level barriers to the diffusion of carbon saving technologies it also generates questions for standard economic modeling approaches that abstract away technological and institutional evolution in their elaboration the question of escaping carbon lock in is left for a future paper

energy sustainability stakeholder conflicts and the future of hydrogen in denmark denmark spends the most on hydrogen research in gross domestic product terms than any other country in the world which has led to an immense amount of activity related to hydrogen fuel cells within the past decade however not all stakeholders in the danish hydrogen network share the same vision for the technology this study therefore uses critical stakeholder analysis to first identify the most influential actors involved in hydrogen research before it documents a set of stakeholder conflicts the study has a threefold conclusion that urges analysts to rethink how they view stakeholder contention within the danish hydrogen research network first the study concludes that hydrogen and fuel cell technologies are still open for interpretation and the application is thus a conflict area between stakeholders second stakeholder conflict can contribute to technical development according to an evolutionary economics perspective third consensus regarding energy system transitions is by nature temporary and at times can be counterproductive to the advancement of hydrogen technologies

mathematical programming for the efficient allocation of health care resources previous discussions of methods for the efficient allocation of health care resources subject to a budget constraint have relied on unnecessarily restrictive assumptions this paper makes use of established optimization techniques to demonstrate that a general mathematical programming framework can accommodate much more complex information regarding returns to scale partial and complete indivisibility and program interdependence methods are also presented for incorporating ethical constraints into the resource allocation process including explicit identification of the cost of equity

contestation contingency and justice in the nordic low carbon energy transition the five nordic countries have aggressive climate and energy policies in place and have already emerged to be leaders in renewable energy and energy efficiency denmark is renowned for its pioneering use of wind energy finland and sweden bioenergy norway hydroelectricity and iceland geothermal energy all countries aim to be virtually fossil free by 2050 this study explores the nordic energy transition through the lens of three interconnected research questions how are they doing it what challenges exist and what broader lessons result for energy policy the study firstly investigates the pathways necessary for these five countries to achieve their low carbon goals it argues that a concerted effort must be made to 1 promote decentralized and renewable forms of electricity supply 2 shift to more sustainable forms of transport 3 further improve the energy efficiency of residential and commercial buildings and 4 adopt carbon capture and storage technologies for industry however the section that follows emphasizes some of the empirical barriers the nordic transition must confront namely political contestation technological contingency and social justice and recognition concerns the study concludes with implications for what such historical progress and future transition pathways mean for both energy researchers and energy planners

the menu setting problem and subsidized prices drug formulary illustration the menu setting problem msp determines the goods and services an institution offers and the prices charged it appears widely in health care from choosing the services an insurance arrangement offers to selecting the health plans an employer proffers the challenge arises because purchases are subsidized and consumers or their physician agents may make cost ineffective choices the intuitively comprehensible msp model readily solved by computer using actual data helps structure thinking and support decision making about such problems the analysis uses drug formularies lists of approved drugs in a plan or institution to illustrate the framework

a framework to evaluate security of supply in the electricity sector security of electricity supply soes has become a major concern for regulators and policymakers over the last decade however most work focusses either more generally on energy security or on a single fuel we develop a comprehensive but flexible framework to assess the soes for a single jurisdiction taking into the account the specificities of electricity this framework has two aims i provide a snapshot of the situation to understand current weaknesses and determine what actions are required ii capture the evolution over time to evaluate progress and identify potential problems before they materialise the framework based on an extensive literature review consists of twelve dimensions that are critical for soes we develop metrics that capture the state and evolution of each dimension this framework is intended to be a management information tool for all stakeholders aimed at organising data and structuring its analysis to enable monitoring the evolution of the soes while also functioning as an early warning system by flagging potential future problems

the measurement of the benefits of public inputs with distortionary taxation this paper derives formulae that show the marginal benefits of public inputs in second best economies with tax distortions the values of the change in the aggregate net output vector and in some cases the change of profit income evaluated at appropriate shadow prices show their marginal benefits these shadow prices depend on which taxation scheme you can perturb when the amount of a public input is increased the author considers the three cases where he can change 1 all indirect tax rates and all corporate income tax rates 2 all lump sum transfers and 3 some part of indirect tax rates

barriers to energy end use efficiency abstract recent findings indicate that some alternative energy promote equity efficiency and self reliance and are both economical and sustainable the asian development bank therefore initiated a case study to formulate energy strategies which could contribute to the solution of both local and global energy problems the study focuses on technical and economic details of energy end uses in india the conclusions some of which are surprising are supported by data from several studies the study recommends a shift to least cost electricity planning improving the available database for and information availability about energy rationalizing energy pricing and related fiscal policies and achieving energy efficiency by judicious investment in and support of energy forms which will be both sustainable and affordable in the long run

looking into the danish energy system lesson to be learned by other communities abstract industrialization development and social transformation has brought together issues of over exploitation of limited energy resource base e g fossil fuel accelerated threats of energy insecurity and liberation of greenhouse gas emissions across the continents the global challenge for the 21st century and way ahead is to find other means of satisfying energy needs diversifying the energy supply up scaling the make up of renewable energy to a greater extent optimization of energy consumption and supply system denmark has been continuously moving towards optimization of energy production usage and its overall management during and even after the first global oil crisis the country has been delivering its priority in the development of renewable energy and standing the country an energy self sufficient from last three decades country s overall consumption of energy has decreased than that of the decades of 1980 and 1990s with wider range of energy mix and saving options the danish government has strategized to make the country fossil fuel free by 2050 where special attention and interventions is required to boost up its development of renewable energy in the country the past efforts of the danish government in the energy development has helped not only making the country energy self sufficient but also lowering the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere danish energy policy and strategies have been found more conducive and reflective of the joint eu priorities on the matter of dealing with climate change and energy security all the past progress and its allied policies seem to be quite supportive in fulfilling its strategies for greener future this review paper will discuss on the past efforts of danish government in energy management and highlights on some political initiatives which have been realised to support the country moving towards clean and green energy future

what governs the transition to a sustainable hydrogen economy articulating the relationship between technologies and political institutions abstract there is a lack of integrated knowledge on the transition to a sustainable energy system the paper focuses on the relationship between technologies and institutions in the field of hydrogen from the perspective of political theory the paper unfolds four paradigms of governance governance by policy networking governance by government governance by corporate business and governance by challenge and looks into the major line of argument in support of these paradigms and into their possible bias with respect to hydrogen options each of these paradigms reveals an institutional bias in that it articulates specific opportunities for collaboration and competition in order to stimulate the transition to a sustainable hydrogen economy the paper makes the observation that there is a compelling need to reframe fashionable discourse such as the necessary shift from government to governance or from government to market instead specific questions with respect to the impact of guiding policy frameworks on innovation will highlight that neither neutral nor optimal frameworks for policy making exist where competing hydrogen options are at stake the identification of paradigms of governance maybe considered a methodological device for participator policy analysis

the costs of mitigating carbon emissions a review of methods and findings from european studies abstract conventional wisdom has it that top down studies of mitigation costs are too pessimistic while bottom up studies are too optimistic in examining mitigation cost studies for western europe this paper finds this interpretation to be flawed the paper expands the analytical framework for interpreting mitigation cost studies evaluates the treatment of no regrets options and other input assumptions in the various studies and includes findings from recent integrated top down bottom up modeling assessments not covered in the ipcc report based on these new elements it is found that mitigation costs tend to be overestimated not only in top down studies but also in bottom up studies given this pervasive bias toward pessimism the body of existing mitigation cost assessments for western europe can be read as follows over the next three to four decades a combination of tax shifts market transformation instruments and policies to reform subsidies and internalize non climatic externalities could cut carbon emissions in western europe by 40 50 relative to the base year at no loss or at a gain in gdp averaged over the medium term and including a phase in period an economically optimal rate of implementing western europe s no regrets potentials is found to be in the neighborhood of 2 per year relative to base year levels

disordering fantasies of coal and technology carbon capture and storage in australia abstract one of the main ways that continued use of coal is justified and compensated for is through fantasies of technology this paper explores the politics of carbon capture and storage ccs technologies in australia these technologies involve capturing co2 emissions usually to store them safely underground in a process called geo sequestration in australia the idea of clean coal has been heavily promoted and is a major part of co2 emissions reduction plans despite the technological difficulties the lack of large scale working prototypes the lack of coal company investment in such research and the current difficulties in detecting leaks this paper investigates the ways that the politics of clean coal have functioned as psycho social defence mechanisms to prolong coal usage assuage political discomfort and anxiety and increase the systemic disturbance produced by coal power

not irrational but habitual the importance of behavioural lock in in energy consumption abstract a substantial body of literature has shown that our behaviour is often guided by habits the existence of habits not fully conscious forms of behaviour is important as it contradicts rational choice theory their presence thus calls for the setting of new instruments as they make it unlikely that consumers be capable of exercising control over their energy consumption in reaction to given incentives this is further increased in the evolutionary perspective where the current carbon based socio technical system constrains and shapes consumers choices through structural forces habits being potentially counterintentional they may explain the efficiency paradox in energy as well as the continued increase of energy consumption despite the rising environmental awareness among the population policies aiming at reducing energy consumption should thus specifically address the performance context of habits for instance targeting new residents has proven to be more effective given that their preceding habits have been disturbed the results of our empirical analysis confirm this idea by showing how a change of context makes people more receptive to a proposed measure our analysis of the role played by habits also suggests that individuals do not consider the need to change existing habits as an obstacle even though this is contradicted implicitly in the answers they provided to open questions this unconsciousness is one of the most delicate features of habits and it should thus be accounted for when designing measures given the other characteristics of habits the joint use of feedbacks and commitment strategies appears promising

cost effectiveness utility analyses do current decision rules lead us to where we want to be despite the growing literature on economic evaluation of health care programmes little attention has been paid to the theoretical foundations of cost effectiveness and cost utility analyses and the validity of the decision rules adopted as methods of achieving the stated goals we show that although applications of the techniques can be used to pursue some managerial objectives in the context of highly constrained environments such applications are inconsistent with both welfare economic objectives and the interpretations of the findings of these applications alternative strategies are identified as potential and practical methods for pursuing welfare economic objectives

barriers within firms to energy efficient investments abstract many investments in energy efficiency fail to be made despite their apparent profitability internal hurdle rates are often set at levels higher than the cost of capital to the firm reasons for these practices include bounded rationality principal agent problems and moral hazard the policy implication is that government can simultaneously improve overall energy efficiency and increase private sector productivity by providing informational and organizational services that go beyond the traditional regulatory framework

an application of total factor energy efficiency under the metafrontier framework abstract as the computation of total factor energy efficiency tfee is not workable under the metafrontier framework since the metafrontier cannot fully envelope each group frontier this research provides a new computation mode to solve this problem following a discussion on the methodology we conduct empirical analysis on 28 member countries in the european union eu and then divide them into baltic sea region bsr countries and non baltic sea region nbsr countries for metafrontier analysis thus contributing to the literature by presenting an available mode for tfee analysis under the metafrontier framework the suggested mode herein operates so successfully that all computation scores exhibit a reasonable scope in addition the bsr s average energy efficiency performs better than nbsr s but the latter is still a technology exporter compared to the former this paper summarizes the conditions for sustainable energy development i set more serious energy efficiency targets ii reduce primary and final energy consumptions lower energy dependence on energy imports and increase the share of renewable energy sources to fossil fuel energy sources iii achieve a liberalized energy market and iv set reasonable energy prices by levying an energy tax in order to realize effective energy consumption

tariff reform in a small open multi household economy with domestic distortions and nontraded goods we examine tariff reforms in the context of a small open economy and simultaneously deal with three extensions of the current literature nonremovable domestic tax distortions nontraded goods and many households using the new concepts of a constant utility tax adjusted balance of trade function and a constant utility productivity improvement in tariffs necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of strict pareto improving tariff and transfer reforms are established we also consider directional tariff reforms such as movements towards the world price vector proportional reductions and reductions of extreme tariffs also discussed is the role of normality of household preferences most of the literature on piecemeal tariff reform in small open economies has been concerned with models in which there is a single household and in which domestic commodity taxes are absent an exception to this is lloyd 1974 who allows the existence of domestic commodity taxes but maintains the assumption of a single household nor does he consider nontraded commodities other than nontaxed fixed factors others such as foster and sonnenschein 1970 bertrand and vanek 1964 bruno 1972 hatta 1977b and fukushima 1979 deal with single household economies with no domestic distortions the purpose of this paper is to consider the question of tariff reform in a very general model of a small open economy the generality of the model allows us to simultaneously deal with three extensions of the current literature the first extension is to allow for nonremovable domestic tax distortions the second is to incorporate nontraded commodities into the model and the third is to explicitly consider a multi household economy by dealing simultaneously with these extensions to the model we are able to provide a general treatment of tariff reform in small open economies and to obtain new and more general results since domestic tax distortions are prevalent in the real world it is important that they be taken into account in any analysis of tariff reform specifically it is of considerable theoretical and policy interest to determine whether the piecemeal tariff policy prescriptions that have been derived in the literature for models

technology adoption in the presence of network externalities we analyze technology adoption in industries where network externalities are significant the pattern of adoption depends on whether technologies are sponsored a sponsor is an entity that has property rights to the technology and hence is willing to make investments to promote it key findings include the following 1 compatibility tends to be undersupplied by the market but excessive standardization can occur 2 in the absence of sponsors the technology superior today has a strategic advantage and is likely to dominate the market 3 when one of two rival technologies is sponsored that technology has a strategic advantage and may be adopted even if it is inferior 4 when two competing technologies both are sponsored the technology that will be superior tomorrow has a strategic advantage

differing cultures of energy security an international comparison of public perceptions this study reviews how energy users perceive the importance of energy security dimensions it asks how does the sense of energy security vary with culture its primary source of data is a summary of survey distributed in eight languages to almost 2500 respondents in brazil china denmark germany india kazakhstan japan papua new guinea saudi arabia singapore and the united states it utilizes an energy literacy test in denmark as a secondary data tool the survey results are used to test nine hypotheses about national economic political professional and epistemic cultures the study concludes by affirming the complexity of energy security as a cultural topic by emphasizing how answers among respondents tended to converge more than diverge and by calling for further research

applications of cost benefit analysis to health care departures from welfare economic theory in applying the principles of cost benefit analysis to real world problems of resource allocation particular care must be taken to ensure that the welfare economic theory which underlies the cost benefit technique is adhered to major problems arise where costs and benefits are used interchangeably to represent the good and bad attributes of a programme furthermore in the presence of mutually exclusive projects focussing attention upon the net benefits or cost benefit ratios of individual projects as opposed to the net benefits of the use of budgeted resources can lead to biased estimates of the shadow price of projects and consequently errors in analysts conclusions as a result economic appraisals of individual projects are not directly relevant for choosing between mutually exclusive projects of different sizes both types of problem are illustrated by reference to both simple examples and published economic appraisals of health care techniques integer programming is proposed and demonstrated as a method of selecting between mutually exclusive projects

why did better place fail range anxiety interpretive flexibility and electric vehicle promotion in denmark and israel with almost 1 billion in funding better place was poised to become one of the most innovative companies in the electric mobility market the system better place proposed had two novel prongs first to reduce the cost of batteries and second to reduce range anxiety public infrastructure concerns and long charging times yet despite this seemingly strong combination better place failed to make any progress in denmark and israel the first two markets it operated in and subsequently declared bankruptcy selling off its collective assets for less than 500 000 drawing from science and technology studies and the notion of interpretive flexibility this paper posits several reasons to explain the failure of better place including that denmark is not as green as it seems nor is the israeli market as attractive as believed and that better place s solution to charging time and range anxiety resolved a psychological not a functional barrier of the general public to adopt electric vehicles before investigating these two reasons the paper presents a short history of better place and explores the contours of its operations in denmark and israel it then discusses why better place failed across both countries before concluding with implications for energy planning policy and analysis

the economics of changing course implications of adaptability and inertia for optimal climate policy this paper reviews evidence that energy technologies and systems adapt over time to accommodate external pressures that technical innovation and systemic change in the energy sector is largely induced by need and restrained by potentially large transitional costs a simple integrated model of optimal greenhouse gas abatement over time is presented in which the abatement cost depends on both fixed and transitional elements it is shown that the optimal current response and long run prospects differ radically between the classical economic case in which the cost of a given cutback in emissions is fixed exogenously and the adaptive case in which the response is ultimately adaptive but heavily constrained by inertia ie low fixed but high transitional cost if energy systems are indeed to a large degree adaptive the results demonstrate that as compared with the classical non adaptive case long run stabilization of atmospheric co2 may be optimal even with moderate damages from climate change greater near term abatement efforts are justified and the cost of a given delay in response may be several times higher neglect of the issue of induced technical change and other adaptive responses may invalidate the policy implications drawn from most integrated assessment models developed to date

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

an international assessment of energy security performance energy security has in recent years grown as a salient policy and political issue to better understand energy security and sustainability concerns this study s main objective is to present an energy security index which measures national performance on energy security over time based on three years of research involving interviews surveys and an international workshop this study conceptualizes energy security as consisting of the interconnected factors of availability affordability efficiency sustainability and governance it then matches these factors with 20 metrics comprising an energy security index measuring international performance across 18 countries from 1990 to 2010 it offers three case studies of japan top performer laos middle performer and myanmar w orst performer to provide context to the index s results it then presents four conclusions first a majority of countries analyzed have regressed in terms of their energy security second despite the near total deterioration of energy security a great disparity exists between countries with some clear leaders such as japan third tradeoffs exist within different components of energy security fourth creating energy security is as much a matter of domestic policy from within as it is from foreign policy without

recent evolutionary theorizing about economic change this famous passage from marshall s principles of economics it first appeared in the fifth edition which came out in 1907 nicely brings out two issues which are as germane to economics today as they were when marshall wrote the first is the heavy reliance by economists in their formal theorizing on the notion of equilibrium the other is the appeal that biological conceptions3x201d have for many economists particularly when their focus is on economic change

demand pull instruments and the development of wind power in europe a counterfactual analysis renewable energy technologies are called to play a crucial role in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions since most of these technologies did not yet reach grid parity public policies have been implemented in order to foster their deployment the approach that has been privileged in europe is the demand pull approach that aims at creating a demand for these new technologies and at stimulating their diffusion this paper examines the effect of demand pull policies on the diffusion of onshore wind power technology in six european countries denmark france germany italy portugal and spain in a first step a micro founded model of diffusion is calibrated in order to replicate the observed diffusion of wind power in these six countries in a second step a counterfactual analysis is conducted by investigating several scenarios by taking into account the complex self sustained dynamics of diffusion and the learning spillovers that operate in the wind power sector we can derive several insights about demand pull policies first the impact of a demand pull policy on the diffusion of wind power is determined by the stage at which it comes to support it the effect seems to be stronger at the beginning of the diffusion second international spillovers do operate in the wind power sector these international spillovers however are not strong enough to foster the diffusion of wind power in a country having no demand pull support we can derive from these two statements that a strategy consisting in not implementing any demand pull policy with the expectation that international spillovers will reduce the cost of wind power and foster the diffusion of the technology that then shall become competitive is not a good option for a country targeting a high share of wind power in its energy mix

measurement of health state utilities for economic appraisal health status measurement for use in economic appraisal of health care programmes is reviewed in this paper with particular emphasis on utility measurement a framework for economic appraisal is presented displaying the various components that must be measured and showing how the three forms of analysis cost effectiveness analysis cost benefit analysis and cost utility analysis relate to the framework and to each other one of the components in the framework is health status it can be measured using ad hoc numeric scales willingness to pay receive or health state utilities the determination of health state utilities is reviewed covering the following issues alternative sources of utilities health state descriptions multi attribute utility approach determination of appropriate subjects utility aggregation and accuracy three measurement techniques for health state utilities are described in detail rating scale standard gamble and time trade off the use of these methods is described for both chronic and temporary health states and for both health states considered better than death and those considered worse than death

forecasts scenarios visions backcasts and roadmaps to the hydrogen economy a review of the hydrogen futures literature scenarios roadmaps and similar foresight methods are used to cope with uncertainty in areas with long planning horizons such as energy policy and research into the future of hydrogen energy has been no exception such studies can play an important role in the development of shared visions of the future creating powerful expectations of the potential of emerging technologies and mobilising resources necessary for their realisation this paper reviews the hydrogen futures literature using a six fold typology to map the state of the art of scenario construction the paper then explores the expectations embodied in the literature through the answers it provides to questions about the future of hydrogen what are the drivers barriers and challenges facing the development of a hydrogen economy what are the key technological building blocks required in what kinds of futures does hydrogen become important what does a hydrogen economy look like how and when does it evolve and what does it achieve the literature describes a diverse range of possible futures from decentralised systems based upon the small scale renewables through to centralised systems reliant on nuclear energy or carbon sequestration there is a broad consensus that the hydrogen economy emerges only slowly if all under business as usual scenarios rapid transitions to hydrogen occur only under conditions of strong governmental support combined with or as a result of major discontinuities such as shifts in society s environmental values game changing technological breakthroughs or rapid increases in the oil price or speed and intensity of climate change

symbolic convergence and the hydrogen economy this article documents that the hydrogen economy continues to attract significant attention among politicians the media and some academics we believe that an explanation lies in the way that the hydrogen economy fulfills psychological and cultural needs related to a future world where energy is abundant cheap and pollution free a fantasy that manifests itself with the idea that society can continue to operate without limits imposed by population growth and the destruction of the environment the article begins by explaining its research methodology consisting of two literature reviews research interviews of energy experts and the application of symbolic convergence theory a general communications theory about the construction of rhetorical fantasies we then identify a host of socio technical challenges to explain why the creation of a hydrogen economy would present immense and possibly intractable obstacles an argument supplemented by our research interviews next we employ symbolic convergence theory to identify five prevalent fantasy themes and rhetorical visions independence patriotism progress democratization and inevitability in academic and public discussions in favor of the hydrogen economy we conclude by offering implications for scholarship relating to energy policy more broadly

adoption of solar and wind energy the roles of carbon pricing and aggregate policy support abstract this paper analyzes the roles of policies and preferences in national adoption of solar and wind energy technologies we use cross sectional and panel regressions for both the european union and a broader international sample we find that countries that price carbon emissions have gone on to adopt more solar and wind energy the aggregate level of policy support measured in euros per megawatt hour appears to have been important for solar energy adoption we also find that solar energy adoption has been larger in countries with higher proportions of people concerned about climate change in addition we assess the effects of other key explanators including financial system size and income levels

hydrogen technological innovation systems in practice comparing danish and american approaches to fuel cell development this paper investigates danish and american hydrogen fuel research from a modified technological innovation system tis perspective we ask which approach to hydrogen research is more effective and what do the differences between the two cases tell us about the research process and theories of innovation to answer these questions we begin by justifying our selection of hydrogen systems and denmark and the united states as our case studies we proceed to introduce a modified theoretical framework of tis and focus on seven core elements of hydrogen research knowledge development and diffusion entrepreneurial experimentation political and social influence market formation legitimation resource mobilization and positive externalities we conclude by offering insights from our comparison as they relate to hydrogen research strategy and policy effectiveness at achieving national goals and the need for further research and better conceptual models about innovation

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

diffusion paths for micro cogeneration using hydrogen in the netherlands we estimate the diffusion of micro cogeneration systems micogen using hydrogen produced from natural gas in the netherlands for the 2000 2050 period on the basis of economical factors the diffusion is important for the transition to a hydrogen economy based on renewables with natural gas paving the way for hydrogen from renewables for three scenarios full diffusion takes place in the period 2020 2050 the most important factors behind the diffusion are 1 growing energy demand resulting in lower hydrogen costs and higher energy costs in the reference case and 2 lower costs of micogen stemming from learning economies the model is advanced by considering all costs components for heterogeneous users which have been calculated for the entire diffusion period it is the first threshold diffusion model that is being applied to the diffusion of technological clusters involving new or adapted infrastructures 2007 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

a hydrogen economy and its impact on the world as we know it an assortment of governmental technological environmental and economic factors has combined to spur renewed interest in alternatives to petroleum and especially in hydrogen while there is no clear consensus on the viability of the technology governments and corporations alike have vigorous hydrogen research programs the result is that hydrogen may stand on the verge of becoming a true successor to oil a transition from oil to hydrogen would alter familiar global economic and political structures in profound ways the ramifications will influence developed and developing nations oil importers and exporters alike new alliances among governments corporations and other groups may challenge existing notions of governance although a hydrogen based economy may be decades away the vision for it requires near and mid term thinking to manage the transition smoothly further hydrogen is only a metaphor any change from the current oil economy will entail dramatic changes to the global status quo that must be planned for now

a review article the case against the use of the sum of compensating variations in cost benefit analysis this paper presents a case against the use of the sum of compensating varia tions as a cost benefit test we argue that 1 the ethical judginents implied by the test are not defensible 2 positive sums of compensating variations occur without potential pareto improvements resulting in social preference reversals without simultaneous scitovsky re versals 3 when lump sum transfers are feasible a positive sum of compensating variations is necessary but not sufficient for a potential pareto improvement 4 in order to eliminate preference reversals and intransitivities all households must have almost identical quasi homothetic preferences a condition that is not satisfied in real economies