governmental intervention approaches to promote renewable energies special emphasis on japanese feed in tariff abstract almost all countries have issued laws and regulations to promote renewable energy re however the applications and motivations of such laws as well as achievements have been different currently the japanese government has announced its targets to expand the electricity feed in tariff scheme for solar power along with other energy sources within two years to meet the goal set by the japanese prime minister who in the 15th united nations climate change conference cop15 held in september 2009 proclaimed to cut 25 of greenhouse gas ghg emissions from the 1990 levels by 2020 in this paper the current japanese energy policies and measures for promoting re in comparison to popular methods followed worldwide are explored furthermore a least cost feed in tariff lcfit simulation model for japanese case was developed to calculate the optimal mix of technologies to reach certain targets the lcfit also calculates the tariff that should be proposed for each technology and the total cost for the program with and without a carbon tax and estimates the premium added to the bill of the customer every month

renewable to total electricity consumption ratio estimating the permanent or transitory fluctuations based on flexible fourier stationarity and unit root tests abstract this paper examines the stationarity properties of the renewable to total electricity consumption ratio for this purpose we use becker et al s 2006 flexible fourier stationarity test as a benchmark and the recent advanced fourier adf unit root test for 90 countries over the period 1980 2011 the results of the first test document the stationarity of the renewable to total electricity consumption ratio for 65 countries from different geographic areas namely africa america asia pacific and europe however when validated the fourier adf test shows that the null hypothesis of unit root is rejected in all the cases except for the united kingdom the fact that the stationarity in the share of renewable to total electricity consumption is documented by the new proposed more powerful tests does not necessarily mean that the renewable energy policies are ineffective as the previous literature states a wide range of elements might influence the stationarity or non stationarity of this ratio however our findings are important from the modeling perspective as the empirical studies on renewable energy can produce reliable results and use appropriate techniques for modeling and forecasting only if the stationarity or non stationarity is correctly documented

monetary and fiscal policies in an open economy the central theme of this paper is that international linkages between national economies influence in fundamentally important ways the effectiveness and proper conduct of national macroeconomic policies specifically our purpose is to summarize the implications for the conduct of macroeconomic policies in open economies of both the traditional approach to open economy macroeconomics as developed largely by james meade robert mundell and j marcus fleming and of more recent developments our discussion is organized around three key linkages between national economies through commodity trade through capital mobility and through exchange of national monies these linkages have important implications concerning the effects of macroeconomic policies in open economies that differ from the effects of such policies in closed economies recent developments in the theory of macroeconomic policy have established conditions for the effectiveness of policies in influencing output and employment which emphasize the distinction between anticipated and unanticipated policy actions the importance of incomplete information and the consequences of contracts that fix nominal wages and prices over finite intervals in this paper we shall not analyze how these conditions are modified in an open economy however since our concern is with macro economic policy a principal objective of which is to influence output and employment we shall assume that requisite conditions for such influence are satisfied this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

endogenous lifetime and economic growth abstract endogenous mortality is introduced in a two period overlapping generations model probability of surviving from the first period to the next depends upon health capital that is augmented through public investment high mortality societies do not grow fast since shorter lifespans discourage savings development traps are possible productivity differences across nations result in persistent differences in capital output ratios and relatively larger gaps in income and mortality high mortality also reduces returns on education where risks are undiversifiable when human capital drives economic growth countries differing in health capital do not converge to similar living standards threshold effects may also result

considerations on providing the energy needs using exclusively renewable sources energiewende in germany abstract the share of renewables in the primary energy demand of germany has increased from 1 3 in 1990 to 11 7 in 2013 the plans are to increase it further by the year 2050 to 50 or even 100 by carrying out the national energiewende energy change switch programme in this paper we analyze the current energy scenario and recall goals of the energiewende programme we also identify infrastructural and technological bottlenecks which are likely to affect the programme execution by doing so the enormous scale of this national venture becomes apparent and it is clear that its execution will last for several generations and perhaps even for a century or two additionally we introduce an idea of exclusively green energy communities egecs as an energiewende mile stone due to the dimensions of the tasks the energy change switch programme will last for several generations and perhaps even for a century or two realization of this overwhelming national venture has to proceed through milestones and demonstration projects we propose demo projects called green energy communities gecs to examine with what efforts and under what constraints such communities can operate using exclusively renewable forms of energy

demand pull technology push and government led incentives for non incremental technical change abstract rising expectations about future demand for new technologies increase the incentives for investments in innovation by enlarging payoffs to successful innovations how well does this notion of demand pull apply to non incremental technological change when demand is largely attributable to actions by governments in this case inventors of the most important inventions did not respond positively to strong demand pull policies filing of highly cited patents declined precipitously just as demand for wind power created a multi billion dollar market three explanations for this apparent inconsistency with the demand pull hypothesis played a role 1 the rapid convergence on a single dominant design limited the market opportunity for non incremental technical improvements 2 even though the policies implemented were stringent enough to stimulate demand uncertainty in their longevity dampened the incentives for inventions that were likely to take several years to pay off and 3 alternative explanations such as declining r d funding and weakening presidential engagement on energy appear to have been important

growth and multiple forms of human capital in an augmented solow model a panel data investigation abstract the empirical analyses reported in this paper test the argument that human capital is a complex input that consists of more than knowledge capital the results indicate that omitting health capital from augmented solow growth models produces misspecification biases and that health capital has a significant impact upon economic growth rates

renewable energy support mechanisms in the gulf cooperation council states analyzing the feasibility of feed in tariffs and auction mechanisms renewable energy will be a crucial ingredient in the transition to a more sustainable future the renewable energy sector requires a variety of financial support mechanisms in order to further consolidate and expand currently the most prominent renewable energy support mechanisms are feed in tariffs and renewable energy auctions although these mechanisms have been used and analyzed extensively in western countries and more recently economies in transition they have rarely been examined in the arab gulf region yet particularly the gulf cooperation council gcc states have undertaken important steps towards renewable energy adoption which could be greatly facilitated with the use of financial support mechanisms this paper analyzes the feasibility of feed in tariffs and renewable energy auctions adoption in gcc based on an extensive meta analysis of the literature on these two mechanisms in both developed and developing countries the paper identifies a set of conditions necessary for success and evaluates the presence of favorable these conditions in the gcc context our findings reveal that while conditions that would ensure political feasibility are largely absent for both types of mechanisms auctions could be a more successful strategy at the moment

an indirect effect of education on growth abstract several recent studies have found that increases in educational attainment are not related to economic growth the results of this paper suggest education may not directly enhance economic growth but does so indirectly through productivity improvement

does agriculture contribute to economic growth some empirical evidence this paper augments the solow swan model of economic growth to include the share of the labour force working outside the agricultural sector as a labour augmenting variable in the aggregate production function the cross country empirical results suggest that transferring labour from the agricultural sector to other sectors of the economy is associated with economic growth this result is robust to using instrumental variables to control for the potential endogeneity of the relative size of the agricultural labour force

do standards of living converge abstract this paper examines whether consumption per capita a measure of the standard of living converges across economies in addition to the standard convergence test which is known to be consistent only under implausible assumptions we use a recently developed valid specification in general our estimates provide evidence against divergence of standards of living across countries on the other hand convergence of standards of living can be rejected for all but a sample of rich countries

are the penn world tables data on government consumption and investment being misused abstract this paper argues that it is inappropriate to measure g y and i y using penn world tables data the empirical results of barro and lee carnegie rochester conference series on public policy 40 1994 1 46 are sensitive to whether g y and i y are measured in local or international prices

modelling export prices and quantities in a small open economy volvement by u s manufacturing industry oxfjord economic papers 32 mar 1980 102 122 lindenberg eric b and stephen a ross tobin s q ratio and industrial organization journal of business 54 jan 1981 1 32 marvel howard p foreign trade and domestic competition economic inquiry 18 jan 1980 103 122 thomadakis stavros b a value based test of profitability and market structure this review 59 may 1977 179 185

iq and economic growth further augmentation of mankiw romer weil model abstract solow s growth model is further augmented to include iq in addition to proxies for education and health the estimates indicate that iq variable greatly erodes the size and significance of education and health parameters and dominates even a measure of institutional quality

japan s post fukushima challenge implications from the german experience on renewable energy policy the japanese electricity sector is facing serious challenges in the aftermath of the fukushima nuclear disaster the government has responded to the crisis with a new feed in tariff to promote increased utilization of renewable energy and proposed to reduce the dependence on nuclear power in this viewpoint we liken the transition implied by recently updated goals for the diffusion of renewables in japan to the transition in germany in the last decade we argue that some of the lessons learned in germany might prove valuable for the steps japan considers taking in particular we focus on the new japanese feed in tariff for solar photovoltaics in view of the recent developments in germany we emphasize the importance of the scheme s political legitimacy which needs to be maintained through adequate design of both policy instrument and political process we conclude with policy implications and a targeted research agenda

power sector reform in small island developing states what role for renewable energy technologies abstract due to various pressures and desires more and more developing countries embark on power sector reform programmes yet there are a wide range of reform options and at present insufficient evidence is available as to which path will deliver best the desired objectives presently most small island developing states sids are dependent on high cost fossil fuel imports for power generation in spite of evidence that harnessing abundant domestic renewable sources of energy can deliver environmental social and economic benefits however depending on the type of power sector reform the transition towards renewable energy technologies rets can be either undermined or facilitated the specific focus on sids is justified because they have inherent characteristics that limit the degree to which the power sector can be transformed in comparison to larger continental developing countries with specific reference to sids this manuscript reviews the drivers and desires for power sector reform as well as presenting the available reform options and their implications on the up take of rets in addition to elaborating aspects of market governance other barriers to the consideration of rets such as financial bias in investment human capacity and environmental policy are discussed in view of this discussion which is based on evidence from recent reform programmes and theoretical academic literature recommendations are formulated that discourage full privatisation of the power sector as well as proposing less dogmatic lending conditions by international assistance bodies

financing renewable energy in africa key challenge of the sustainable development goals abstract given the challenge of offering a development perspective to a rapidly growing population it might be tempting for africa to pursue a strategy of fueling growth with the cheapest source of energy available and take care of the environment later such an approach however would disregard the social cost of fossil fuels which the population would have to bear using the sustainable development goals as a benchmark for inclusive and sustainable growth we identify the synergy effects provided by renewable energy already substantial efforts of financing the additional cost of re are under way an analysis of possible leverage points available instruments and involved actors shows that there remains a large additional potential

review on the costs and benefits of renewable energy power subsidy in china abstract nowadays renewable energy plays a vital role in the sustainable development of a society in china renewable energy power has developed rapidly since the implementation of renewable energy act through a series of specific incentive measures especially subsidy policies china s renewable energy power has made great achievements both in technology and application based on the state of the art of renewable energy power this paper comprehensively analyzed the costs and benefits of renewable energy power subsidy in china the analysis results show the cost of renewable energy power subsidy was 0 248 cny kwh between 2006 and april 2011 which was distributed among different renewable energy power types including wind power biomass power and solar pv power or categories including electricity price accessing grid projects and public independent renewable energy power system on the other hand the renewable energy power subsidy also brings benefits to different aspects of the society specifically the environmental benefit amounted to 17 88 billion cny and the benefits of guaranteeing energy security advancing technology innovation and promoting economic development were also noteworthy

assessing and managing regulatory risk in renewable energy contrasts between canada and the united states abstact a challenge for energy firms when considering new investments is to balance expected financial gains against potential risks however while investment opportunities in different jurisdictions are often straightforward to identify the policy or regulatory risks for investors are more difficult to accurately ascertain here i provide a novel conceptual framework for how firms can assess regulatory risk that focuses on the institutional processes governing policy making risks are lower and policies will subsequently be more stable in jurisdictions where regulatory agencies have greater autonomy from politicians and where policies are formulated through more rigid policy making processes the contrasting development patterns of renewable energy policies in ontario and texas offer support for the framework i further develop strategies for how firms can successfully manage regulatory risks in different types of environment

a review on the renewable energy development in algeria current perspective energy scenario and sustainability issues abstract the quality of life and safeness of the present and future generations are strongly intertwined with the availability of energy sources and the sustainability of the energy infrastructure energy consumption in developed countries grows at a rate of approximately 1 per year and that of developing countries 5 per year muneer et al 2005 1 present reserves of oil and natural gas can only cover consumption at this rate for the next 50 years in the case of oil and for the next 70 years in the case of natural gas therefore one of the fundamental priorities for a country such as algeria is to use several renewable energies re sources and environmentally friendly energy conversion technologies algeria is endowed with large reserves of energy sources mainly hydrocarbons and a considerable potential for the utilisation of re sources especially with respect to solar energy algeria has the potential to be one of the major contributors in solar energy and become a role model to other countries in the world re are now one of the major elements of algeria s energy policy and in view of boosting the national effort in terms of re beyond 2011 algeria has developed a national programme for the period 2011 2030 to promote concrete actions in the fields of energy efficiency and re in line with the approach adopted by the government on february 3 2011 besides it confirms algerian s ambition to become an international hub for industrial and energy production and exportation in the solar sector with this in mind along with the environmental responsibility issues public awareness gradually increased over the last seven years and alternative energy resources have become a new area of interest as a tangible target the ministry of energy and mines mem strategic plan aims to reach a 40 share of re mainly solar in electric energy production by 2030 the various future projects are all factors that will undoubtedly give algeria an important role in the implementation of re technology in north africa the capacity for providing sustainable supply of cost effective electricity from re sources for the needs of the population and the possibility of even exporting 10 000 mw to neighbouring and european market this paper provides a detailed analysis of the existing renewable energy sector and a forecast for demand growth additional capacity investment requirements and algeria s ambitious objectives of use of re and environment protection the paper also discusses the current energy scenario and explores the alternative energy like solar and wind to ensure energy security supply reliability greater efficiency in energy conversion transmission and utilisation particular attention is paid to algeria s global and sustainable solutions of the environmental challenges and the problems of conservation of fossil energy resources under the clean development mechanism cdm structure the report also provides a detailed analysis of the existing renewable energy sector and a forecast for demand growth additional capacity and investment requirements

dynamic inefficiencies in an employment based health insurance system theory and evidence we investigate the effects of the institutional settings of the us health care system on individuals life cycle medical expenditures health is a form of general human capital labor turnover and labor market frictions prevent an employer employee pair from capturing the entire surplus from investment in an employee s health thus the pair underinvests in health during working years thereby increasing medical expenditures during retirement we provide empirical evidence consistent with the comparative statics predictions of our model using the medical expenditure panel survey meps and the health and retirement study hrs our estimates suggest significant inefficiencies in health investment in the united states

social acceptance of renewable energy innovation an introduction to the concept this paper introduces the special issue on social acceptance of renewable energy innovation it is a collection of best papers presented at an international research conference held in tramelan switzerland in february 2006 while there are ambitious government targets to increase the share of renewable energy in many countries it is increasingly recognized that social acceptance may be a constraining factor in achieving this target this is particularly apparent in the case of wind energy which has become a subject of contested debates in several countries largely due to its visual impact on landscapes this paper introduces three dimensions of social acceptance namely socio political community and market acceptance factors influencing socio political and community acceptance are increasingly recognized as being important for understanding the apparent contradictions between general public support for renewable energy innovation and the difficult realization of specific projects the third dimension market acceptance has received less attention so far and provides opportunities for further research particularly from management scholars

design of an economically efficient feed in tariff structure for renewable energy development abstract evidence suggests albeit tentatively that feed in tariffs fits are more effective than alternative support schemes in promoting renewable energy technologies rets fits provide long term financial stability for investors in rets which at the prevailing market price of electricity are not currently cost efficient enough to compete with traditional fossil fuel technologies on the other hand if not properly designed fits can be economically inefficient as is widely regarded to have been the case under the public utility regulatory policies act of 1978 purpa under purpa too high a guaranteed price led to the creation of so called purpa machines poorly performing generating units that could survive financially only because of heavy subsidies that came at the expense of retail customers similarly because of their adverse impacts on retail electricity rates german fits have been subject to increasing political pressure from utilities and customers in this paper we propose an innovative two part fit consisting of both a capacity payment and a market based energy payment which can be used to meet the renewables policy goals of regulators our two part tariff design draws on the strengths of traditional fits relies on market mechanisms is easy to implement and avoids the problems caused by distorting wholesale energy markets through above market energy payments the approach is modeled on forward capacity market designs that have been recently implemented by several regional transmission organizations in the usa to address needs for new generating capacity to ensure system reliability

long term development perspectives of sub saharan africa under climate policies abstract ambitious climate policy increases the cost of energy and therefore has important interactions with the prospects of development in the countries of sub saharan africa these interactions include the potential for gain for the continent in the form of new trade opportunities and climate finance in this paper we quantify the costs and benefits of climate policy in sub saharan africa using an integrated assessment model we consider key characteristics of the continent including the favorable conditions for renewable energy a newly designed scenario analysis allows identifying the main drivers of the results we show that sub saharan africa could implement climate policy in line with the 2 c target at roughly net zero costs if the international community follows up on its commitment towards supporting developing countries as declared in the paris agreement sub saharan africa could become an important supplier of energy from biomass and could thus even benefit from more ambitious climate policy due to higher demand for this source of energy the absence of a painful trade off between short term development and long term climate stabilization could provide policy makers with a much richer policy option space than previously considered one such option is to link climate policy with poverty reduction through for example the provision of clean electricity

between fragmented authoritarianism and policy coordination creating a chinese market for wind energy abstract the chinese grid connected wind energy sector has undergone a number of fundamental changes during its 20 years of existence the scope of this article is to track the reforms of the energy bureaucracy and its policy approach on the one hand and changes in wind energy installations on the other by comparing three historically distinct phases of wind energy in china it is shown how policy reforms have changed largely from a state of fragmented authoritarianism towards policy coordination in the initial phase 1986 1993 wind energy was expanding very slowly with disjointed policy making and in the incremental phase 1994 1999 the energy authorities were in dispute over the strategy and launched conflicting policy initiatives with poor results in wind energy output the latest coordinated phase 2000 2006 however developed a coherent renewable energy agenda and policy regime for the wind power sector it is found that this phase with coordinated market regulations and incentives has helped give birth to a take off in chinese wind energy installations and substantial cost reductions although the latter is threatening the profitability of wind farms the article contributes to the academic debate over the role of policy making in renewable energy development and argues that china should continue and improve the coordination of regulations and incentives

energy poverty an overview abstract in the coming decades the energy sector will have to face three major transformations concerned with climate change security of supply and energy poverty the first two have been extensively analysed but less attention has been paid to the third even though it has a great influence on the lives of millions of people this paper presents an overview on energy poverty different ways of measuring it and its implications according to the who indoor pollution causes an estimated 1 3 million deaths per annum in low income countries associated with the use of biomass in inadequate cookstoves although energy poverty cannot be delinked from the broader more complex problem of poverty in general access to energy infrastructures would avoid its most serious consequences and would help to encourage autonomous development according to the iea the cost of providing universal access to energy by 2030 would require annual investment of 35 billion i e much less than the amount provided annually in subsidies to fossil fuels finally the paper argues that energy and energy poverty need to be incorporated into the design of development strategies

renewable energy gathers steam in south africa abstract south africa s renewable energy independent power producers procurement programme the rei4p is an extensive initiative to install 17 8 gw of electricity generation capacity from renewables wind solar biomass biogas and hydropower over the period 2012 2030 although at the outset the rei4p seemed an expensive option designed only to deflect criticism of south africa s high carbon footprint and excessive dependence on coal based electricity generation the escalating costs of the latter the rapidly falling costs of photovoltaic and wind power and the increasingly competitive bidding process of the rei4p have changed this prospect at the conclusion of round three the weighted cost of energy has reached a 23 discount to the cost of new coal based generation and a 28 discount to global renewable energy prices the bidders commitments to local employment creation have similarly increased from 11 to 18 jobs mw the programme is now well placed to deliver on a broad range of objectives including regional development and black economic empowerment however maximum benefit from the rei4p will not be secured without some revision to aspects of the bidding and procurement process more specifically the local content provisions need to be tightened to drive higher levels of local manufacturing

the timing of monetary and price changes and the international transmission of inflation this paper presents a theoretical and empirical investigation into timing relationships between variables within and across industrialized countries the main empirical results of our analysis are 1 domestic monetary expansion appears to lead inflation in the sense that money granger causes prices without feedback contradicting an implication of the monetary approach to the balance of payments 2 hardly any significant timing relationship exists between domestic and foreign rates of inflation during the fixed exchange rate period providing no evidence for a generalized law of one price 3 some sterilization of official reserve inflows was successfully performed by the non reserve central banks except for canada 4 u s interest rates granger cause foreign rates providing evidence of some international transmission via asset markets

the short run dynamics of prices and the balance of payments the purpose of this study is to analyze theoretically and empirically the short run behavior of prices and the balance of payments in a small open economy with a fixed exchange rate following the presentation of the theoretical framework the experience of mexico during 1950 73 is analyzed the model is based on what is known as the monetary approach to the balance of payments this approach as is frequently presented deals with long run equilibrium situations when all relative prices are fixed this long run equilibrium view was applied to test empirically the theory for several countries 2 using the assumption that there are no serious barriers to the international movement of capital and that all goods are traded 3 these assumptions imply that goods and capital markets are perfectly arbitraged and therefore that price levels and interest rates in all the countries always move together

an evaluation of the installation of solar photovoltaic in residential houses in malaysia past present and future abstract this paper examines solar energy development in malaysia particularly in relation to the installation of solar photovoltaic pv in residential houses it analyzes the past activities related to solar energy in malaysia in terms of research and developments r ds the implementations used as well as the national policies for the past 20 years which have pushed the installation of pv in the country the feed in tariff fit scheme is discussed showing comparative cost benefit analysis between the pv installation in houses in the united kingdom uk and malaysia and with other investment schemes available in malaysia to investigate the awareness of renewable energy policies and incentives a preliminary survey of the public opinion in malaysia has been carried out and an evaluation of public willingness to invest in the fit scheme by installing the pv on their houses is presented the cost benefit analysis shows that the proposed fit programme is capable of generating good return on investment as compared to the one in the uk but the return is lower than other investment tools the survey suggests that most malaysians are unaware of the government s incentives and policies towards renewable energies and are not willing to invest in the fit scheme

renewable energy policy and electricity market reforms in china the article examines the potential effectiveness of the renewable energy policy in china and its regulatory law framework it frames the option of renewable energy technology within the background of the long lasting electricity problems that china has faced including serious supply shortages reliance on coal and severe environmental contamination its dual administrative and ownership system based on state and privately owned industry is discussed together with the market reform measures adopted in the sector current renewable energy policy is analysed and the scope of the 2005 renewable energy promotion law is investigated this is conducted within the context of the electricity sector reform that china adopted and its effects upon the prospects of encouraging as well as expanding the development of renewable energy this study draws upon primary information collected from interviews with stakeholders on the policy adequacy and identifies three main types of shortcomings that have interfered with a more successful expansion of renewable energy in china

the long term impact of health on economic growth in latin america abstract growth regressions adapted as granger type causality tests give strong evidence of 30 year causality from health to income in 18 latin american countries the health indicator is probability of survival by age and gender groups for 1950 90 a permanent increment of between 0 8 and 1 5 annual income is associated with typical adult and surprisingly old age health improvements the channels of causation from health to income are diverse and need to be identified in microeconomic studies that should however include a wide variety long term phenomena to account for the economic effects of health

human development in poor countries on the role of private incomes and public services development is often taken to mean rising incomes discussions of the goals of development now often emphasize the reduction of poverty rather than raising average incomes per se the role of social services particularly basic health and education has also received greater emphasis in the 1980s viewed mainly as instruments for raising the incomes of the poor but in all these approaches income growth of one sort or another is what development is all about a rather different view of the meaning of development has recently found expression in the 1990 human development report hrd produced by the united nations development programme a conceptual underpinning for this approach can be found in the work of amartya sen the essence of this view is that human development what people can actually do and be is the overriding purpose of economic development underdevelopment is viewed as the lack of certain basic capabilities rather than lack of income per se we do not aim here to advocate one of these approaches over the other but rather to explore their implications for development policy for instance what does the human development approach imply about the role of economic growth and in particular about reducing income poverty should development priorities shift toward the provision of public services in poor countries even if such a shift is at the expense of income growth

the international transmission of inflation to a small open economy under fixed exchange rates and highly interest sensitive capital flows an empirical analysis abstract this paper deals with the international transmission of inflation to a small open economy soe under fixed exchange rates and facing very interest sensitive capital flows it focuses particular attention on a channel of transmission which has been hitherto largely ignored namely portfolio capital flows arising from the monetary policy actions of the soe s reserve currency country rcc the bulk of the existing literature on this topic regards portfolio capital flows and money in general as having no causative role but simply passively mirroring transmission through commodity markets the model obtains strong support for ireland from 1972 to 1979 during which the ir was maintained in a strict one for one parity with the stg

health capital and cross country variation in income per capita in the mankiw romer weil model abstract this paper examines the effects of incorporating a proxy for health capital in mankiw romer and weil s empirical growth model results suggest a stronger and more robust relationship between income per capita and health capital than between income per capita and educational human capital

money debt and prices in the united kingdom this paper is concerned with testing the asset theory of the price level using quarterly uk data over the period 1968 1979 expressed in its most general form the asset theory states that the aggregate price level p is related to real variables such as the level of economic activity y financial wealth and the composition of wealth in terms of financial assets such as money m government bonds b etc this theory has a long tradition and has been revived and developed by blinder and solow 1973 among many others for the present we limit our attention to only two financial assets namely money and government bonds although in principle this set could be enlarged this preoccupation reflects the attention paid to money and bonds in the literature and the requirement that financial assets should be of the outside variety which precludes bank lending corporate liabilities etc hence our general specification of the price level is

testing the exogeneity specification underlying the monetary approach to the balance of payments d espite the acute interest in the monetary approach to the balance of payments mbop over the past several years both as an explanation of the worldwide inflationary epidemic of the late 1960s and early 70s johnson 1972b and as a simple and manageable theoretical basis for policy recommendations by groups like the imf rhomberg and heller 1977 no general consensus has been reached as to the validity of the monetary model one reason for this is that the task of interpreting the results of the plethora of empirical tests of the monetary approach has been complicated by the controversy over the accuracy of the exogeneity assumptions underlying the mbop that are implicit in those studies these include the exogeneity with respect to reserve flows of the determinants of the demand for nominal money balances the domestic price level interest rate and level of real income as well as the domestic credit component of a country s money supply exogeneity makes the task of interpretation difficult for if the mbop assumptions regarding exogeneity are incorrect then to borrow geweke s 1978 p 163 words and to add studies in the mbop literature to which they would apply the otherwise identifying restrictions imposed on structural equations may not be sufficient to identify those equations argy and kouri 1974 genberg 1976 estimation procedures will be inconsistent e g bean 1976 zecher 1976 and the model cannot adequately portray the dynamics of the system it seeks to describe this last problem transcends any issue of estimation although it is not unrelated for it implies that the theoretical specification of the mbop is incorrect to begin with thus invalidating the putative reduced forms of the mbop that have come to represent the approach and form the basis for the policy recommendations alluded to earlier historically exogeneity was simply assumed as something not amenable to testing recently however geweke 1978 has demonstrated that the specification of exogeneity is a hypothesis with testable implications the purpose of this paper is to test formally the exogeneity hypothesis underlying empirical tests of the mbop specifically and the theoretical specification of the model in general using geweke s methods it is found that the hypothesis that the variables mentioned above are in fact exogenous can be rejected for each and every country in the sample this finding casts some doubt on the theoretical validity of the mbop and even more doubt on the accuracy of much of the empirical evidence garnered in its support the plan of the paper is as follows in section ii a mbop model is briefly presented and its exogeneity restrictions are highlighted in section iii the formal test of exogeneity is discussed and then in section iv the results of the tests using data from australia france germany norway and sweden are presented section v contains some conclusions

aids and economic growth a human capital approach abstract using a model that combines growth and health capital equations this study analyses the impact of hiv aids on economic growth the econometric results indicate that the epidemic s effects have been substantial in africa the marginal impact on income per capita of a 1 increase in hiv prevalence rate is minus 0 59 even in countries with lower hiv prevalence rates the marginal impacts are non trivial hence while the human and social costs of the hiv aids epidemic are major causes for concern these results indicate that the macroeconomic affects of the hiv aids epidemic are important

urbanization human capital and cross country productivity differences abstract in this paper we empirically examine the effects of health education and urbanization on the total factor productivity tfp of a large number of countries we find that both urbanization and health indicators life expectancy infant mortality rate and the risk of malaria significantly affect tfp education has an insignificant effect on tfp coefficients of indicators of health and urbanization remain highly significant even after controlling for endogeneity

exchange controls and interest rate determination with traded and non traded assets the irish united kingdom experience abstract this paper is an empirical study of the effectiveness of exchange controls in recent irish experience vis a vis the united kingdom specifically we examine the effects of domestic money market conditions on an array of irish interest rates following the imposition of the controls and the relative importance of covered british interest rates during the process of financial disintegration induced by these controls using time varying parameter estimation we find that the central bank gained only partial and temporary control over interest rates through domestic monetary channels for most assets and liabilities interest parity conditions were restored within six months after a policy change

policy measures to promote the widespread utilization of renewable energy technologies for electricity generation in the maldives abstract this study adopts a stakeholder based approach to understand the size and nature of the market and financial barriers to the widespread utilization of renewable energy technologies rets in the maldives in light of these barriers and the interests of relevant stakeholders this study evaluates different policy options in terms of their suitability to develop a domestic market for rets in the maldives evaluating the different policy instruments it was found that pricing laws that regulate market access are more suitable than quota systems provided that the current subsidies for conventional energy are removed or shifted towards rets as for the other financial incentives rebates on investments and low interest loans should be provided to ret project developers to overcome the high initial project costs in addition to these measures the limited institutional capacity suggests that policy support should also focus on enabling the steady development of regional institutions rather than on supporting individual ret projects these institutions should enable islands in each atoll to take advantage of efficient management and access to financial capital this will allow the development of sustained renewable energy projects that in turn will result in increased renewable capacity and decreased costs

the impact of poor health on total factor productivity a number of recent studies have illustrated the link between health and economic growth this paper argues that a key mechanism through which health affects growth is via total factor productivity tfp we first estimate tfp based on a production function and then estimate the determinants of tfp paying particular attention to three indicators of health that are particularly problematic in developing regions malnutrition malaria and water borne diseases we find the impact of poor health on tfp to be negative significant and robust across a wide variety of specifications

policies to stimulate growth should we invest in health or education empirical studies in the literature on economic growth have focused on the affect of education and yet knowles and owen 1995 1997 found health proxied by life expectancy to be highly statistically significant with education having a modest role this study extends their model and employs variables that are more conducive to policy formulation calorific intake and school enrolment ratios results suggest that reducing undernutrition would only make a modest contribution to economic growth while increasing enrolment ratios especially secondary has a positive and more significant effect policies to increase economic growth should favour investments in education over health

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

impacts of increasing renewable energy subsidies and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies in china abstract subsidies to fossil fuel consumption have made china s energy system fragile and unsustainable it is necessary for china to reform fossil fuel subsidies and reflect the resource cost and environmental cost in energy prices considering the life cycle external costs this paper estimates the scale of fossil fuel subsidy and the true cost of renewable energy in 2010 and evaluates impacts of increasing renewable energy subsidies and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies on macro economy and energy system in china based on scenario analysis simulation results show that the negative impacts on economic growth can be reduced from 4 460 to 0 432 if only 10 of fossil fuel subsidies were removed increasing subsidies for renewable energy has positive impacts on macroeconomic variables although the economic benefits per unit of subsidies for renewable energy are lower than those for fossil fuels by 0 06 0 19 cny the revenue gap can be narrowed by shifting more subsidies from fossil fuels to renewables increasing subsidies for renewable energy helps optimize china s energy system in three ways the first is making energy consumption structure cleaner the second is improving energy efficiency and the third is addressing the problem of imbalanced distribution and consumption of energy

an energy pricing scheme for the diffusion of decentralized renewable technology investment in developing countries the purpose of this paper is to investigate price support for market penetration of renewable energy in developing nations through a decentralized supply process we integrate the new decentralized energy support renewable premium tariff to analyze impacts of tariff incentives on the diffusion of renewable technology in senegal based on photovoltaic and wind technologies and an assessment of renewable energy resources in senegal an optimization technique is combined with a cash flow analysis to investigate investment decisions in renewable energy sector our findings indicate that this support mechanism could strengthen the sustainable deployment of renewable energy in remote areas of senegal although different payoffs emerged profits associated with a renewable premium tariff are the highest among the set of existing payoffs moreover in analyzing impacts of price incentives on social welfare we show that price tariffing schemes must be strategically scrutinized in order to minimize welfare loss associated with price incentives finally we argue that a sustainable promotion of incentive mechanisms supporting deployment of renewable technology in developing nations should be carried out under reliable institutional structures the additional advantage of the proposed methodology is its ability to integrate different stakeholders producers investors and consumers in the planning process

opportunities and challenges for renewable energy policy in china renewable energy is the inevitable choice for sustainable economic growth for the harmonious coexistence of human and environment as well as for the sustainable development government support is the key and initial power for developing renewable energy in this article an overall review has been conducted on renewable energy development policy including laws and regulations economic encouragement technical research and development industrialized support and government model projects etc in china on this basis a systematic analysis has been conducted on the disadvantages of renewable energy development policy on the point of long term effective system for renewable energy development a series of policy advice has been offered such as strengthening the policy coordination enhancing regional policy innovation echoing with clean development mechanism implementing process management constructing market investment and financing system it is expected that the above advices could be helpful to ever improvement of renewable energy development policy c 2007 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

basic needs government debt and economic growth this paper investigates the relationships between basic needs and economic growth where the interactions between output health nutrition and education are explicitly simultaneous we find a unidirectional relationship that improving basic welfare contributes strongly to labour productivity change but a clear reverse causation only from growth to nutrition there are substantial differences in the patterns of simultaneous interactions at different income and welfare levels there are strong self reinforcing effects of literacy and debt service on poverty making it difficult for poor countries to rectify their situation channelling resources towards improving health education and nutrition could bring dramatic economic returns