united states natural gas markets contracts and risks what lessons for the european union and asia pacific natural gas markets the article examines the natural gas markets of the united states the european union and the asia pacific region and their regulation and contractual structures the article s main focus is on the united states natural gas markets the european union and asia pacific markets are compared to this more developed market by comparing the physical and ideological characteristics of and differences between the three main international gas markets the article exposes the limits of regulatory and contractual transplants in this area of law and policy each of these markets is unique which limits the opportunities for modelling certain market institutions on the basis of the more developed markets in the united states this applies for both the eu and the asia pacific region

indonesian agricultural development in comparative perspective abstract in both the late colonial and the early post independence periods most observers of the indonesian economy were pessimistic about the prospects for agricultural and especially foodcrop growth but over the last 15 years food production growth in indonesia has been among the fastest in the world this paper examines the reasons for the accelerated growth and reviews some of the literature on its distributive consequences comparisons are made with other episodes of accelerated agricultural growth in recent asian history especially that of meiji japan it is shown that there are remarkable similarities between agricultural development indicators in indonesia in the 1960s and 1970s and those in meiji japan the challenge for indonesian policy makers in the future will be to build on the agricultural successes of the past two decades in order to create a more diversified economy and ensure sustained economic development

russia s natural gas policy toward northeast asia rationales objectives and institutions the article examines the institutional dimensions of russia s gas policy toward northeast asia nea1 during the liberal economic reforms of the 1990s development of natural gas deposits in the russian far east was made possible under the scheme of production sharing agreements psa however new psas were banned in russia even before the advent of state capitalism in the early 2000s this was to a large extent the result of strong anti psa lobbying led by the domestic energy business elite consequently russia s gas policy in the east began evolving from being project specific toward being region specific contemporary russian gas policy toward nea relies upon domestic national and regional and external institutions in 2009 following the completion of a liquefied natural gas lng plant in sakhalin russia entered nea gas markets transformations in the international gas markets facilitated the establishment of a two pattern gas export policy in russia in 2013 under this policy russia s eu oriented pipeline gas export remains monopolised by gazprom while asia oriented lng export is partially liberalised russia has not been experiencing institutional discrepancy in nea gas markets however as the markets evolve toward greater coordination a rational option for russia is to genuinely liberalise its gas policy

the energy and co2 emissions impact of renewable energy development in china the authors are grateful for the support provided by the national key technology r d program from ministry of science and technology of grant no 2012bac20b07 we acknowledge the support of the national key technology r d program and the institute for energy environment and economy at tsinghua university which is supporting tianyu qi s doctoral research as a visiting scholar at the massachusetts institute of technology we acknowledge the support of eni icf and shell initial founding sponsors of the china energy and climate project this consortium of sponsors has provided support for researchers in the mit joint program to engage in a five year program of research focused on china none of the sponsoring organizations played a role in the study design collection analysis or interpretation of the data used for this study nor did they influence our decisions to submit the article for publication and all errors are our own

grid connected renewable energy in china policies and institutions under gradualism developmentalism and socialism abstract this communication displays some of our on going research on the incompleteness of china s advances toward best practice in policy making and institution building for renewables in particular this paper 1 summarizes how chinese policies and institutions for the deployment of renewable electricity are only partially compliant with what is internationally recognized as best practice and 2 contextualizes chinese policies and institutions for renewables in the broader picture of china s political economy much as a political economy perspective has aided the understanding of why chinese economic reforms were partial and unique the said contextualization might help explain why china s policies and institutions for renewables diverge from best practice further given that china proved successful in promoting its economic growth with partial and unique reforms the partiality and uniqueness of its renewables policies and institutions need not impede the rapid development of renewable electricity this on going research has so far combined a review of specialized literature and the business press with semi structured interviews held with relevant actors in policy business and research related to renewable energies

rural financial markets in low income countries recent controversies and lessons abstract recently some researchers have criticized traditional agricultural credit policies in low income countries this article identifies the major points of controversy between traditional views and these new views and also summarizes the primary lessons learned from these controversies savings mobilization more flexible interest rate policies less loan targeting and greater emphasis on improving the quality of financial services in rural areas are new views that are emphasized

financial services for microenterprises principles and institutions abstract this article argues for the use of a financial systems approach in the provision of financial services to the poor the experience of the last decade has produced a successful technology for credit delivery that utilizes sound financial principles as its basis that is understanding the needs of the client increasing efficiency by cutting administrative costs and using various techniques to motivate repayment savings receives equal emphasis as a financial service and several principles for its provision are discussed the institutional dimensions behind this approach focus on the need to achieve self sufficiency which the article frames as a four stage process finally the article outlines various factors related to creating financial institutions that reach the poor and the policy implications that these suggest

evaluating the economic impact of a special credit programme kik kmkp in indonesia this article discusses a study of the economic impact of indonesia s kik kmkp programme of special credits for small scale enterprises our major focus is on how to measure economic impact it discusses the concept of impact the survey design the statistical framework and the practical problems of implementation and briefly summarises the findings we believe that our methodology generated reasonably reliable data and fundamentally sound estimates of the credit programme s direct impact on employment output and income

occupational transition and country of origin effects in the early stage occupational assimilation of immigrants some evidence from australia we examine the occupational attainment of recent immigrants at 2 years post migration in order to study their early stage assimilation into the labour market in australia human capital endowments and country of origin effects are examined for six occupational groups we also study transitions across occupations from source to host country the empirical approach utilizes the ordered generalized extreme value ogev model which embodies differing utility functions across occupational outcomes as well as accounting for any ordering in these outcomes the results suggest that the transferability of knowledge and skills is affected by cultural and social backgrounds and that non western immigrants are disproportionately channelled into inferior jobs post migration the investigation of the country of origin effect on the skilled migrants occupational transition process is especially apt in the context of skill shortages in many host countries

russian energy in the eu market bolstered institutionsand their effects the article examines institutional changes in eu russian energy relations since 2000 the article explores the ability of transformed institutions to limit the politicisation of energy and to reconcile the eu competitive market approach with russian state capitalism more specifically the article focuses on changes in intergovernmental transgovernmental and transnational interactions the article demonstrates that the gradual strengthening of transgovernmental and transnational institutions has inhibited the politicisation of energy relations and facilitated regulative cooperation between the eu and russia however the potential of shared institutions is constrained by internal institutions on both sides in russia these obstacles are insufficient top down delegation of responsibilities in the government and its great power aspirations in the eu key barriers include inter institutional rivalries the eu s propensity to impose its legislation on external partners and the integration of energy policy with foreign policy the article presents several policy implications first it is futile to institutionally impose the regulative paradigm of one partner on the other rather mutual dialogue is needed thus institutions should be structured appropriately second current depoliticisation will require the involvement of not only the eu and russia but also transit countries such as ukraine third transgovernmental and transnational cooperation should be nurtured because this is a useful channel for both information exchange and a regulative convergence of policy implementing mechanisms finally this incremental regulative convergence is the only option available today for the eu and russia this is also a way to further depoliticise energy relations

the design of successful rural financial intermediaries evidence from indonesia abstract the success outreach and sustainability of eight rural financial intermediation systems in indonesia in profitably reaching large numbers of small individual clients is explained in terms of organizational design networks of semiautonomous units use local information and contract enforcement mechanisms to lower transaction costs reflecting basic concerns with institutional and financial viability elements of mechanism design have included compatible incentives such as performance based compensations profit sharing collection fees efficiency wages equivalent to quasi equity and system monitoring managerial discretion over transactions conducted at market terms policies to protect portfolio value and no dependency creating subsidies are important interventions have been appropriate for the problem at hand

institutions in european and asian energy markets a methodological overview abstract this article introduces a methodological framework to study institutions in european and asian energy markets with a comparative case study on the eu and east asia a distinction is made between informal and three types of formal institutions and their transaction cost reducing order creating and ecological climatic functions the operation of energy markets is explained through the structure of institutions their types and functions it is found that order creating institutions guarantee enough stability mutual trust and solidarity among eu member states to support the competitive markets institution and supranational formal institutions as the underpinnings of trade in the internal energy market which nevertheless retains some corporatist features in the east asian markets the nature of order creating institutions sovereignty energy diplomacy and great power management prevents the emergence of supranational formal institutions and a shared idea of trade the prevailing structure has a large number of sub regional organisations with overlapping tasks and few powers in both markets the functions of institutions signify more than their number transaction cost reducing institutions are dependent on order creating institutions while both of these functions are better realised on the regional level than ecological climatic functions ultimately informal institutions are most influential

microenterprise credit programs deja vu abstract microenterprises in low income countries are the target of an increasing number of credit programs these efforts resemble earlier problematic attempts to assist operators of small farms with credit similarities discussed include target group definition assumptions policies and project justifications authors go on to list a dozen lessons from the experience with small farmer credit that might apply to microenterprise credit efforts authors then conclude that debt is not an effective tool for helping most poor people to enchance their economic conditions be they operators of small farms or microenterprises

thinking big politics progress and security in the management of asian and european energy megaprojects this article examines four energy megaprojects two in europe and two in asia for each region a large natural gas pipeline project and an international project involving solar power from the desert is studied the natural gas projects are the nabucco project in europe and the trans asean gas pipeline network in asia the solar power from the desert projects are desertec in europe and gobitec in asia the article probes explanations of megaproject failure along social technical economic political and psychological dimensions we find that these projects though they are very different in nature and pertain to different regions all suffer from a similar set of problems too many stakeholders and stakeholder fragmentation cost overruns and the risk of accidents and attacks massive externalization of costs to third party stakeholders concentration of wealth and corruption and inflated expectations and biased projections we conclude by reflecting on lessons for not only the involved institutions and investors but energy analysts and the public at large

overview of the northeast asia energy situation abstract rapid economic growth in northeast asia has vastly increased regional needs for energy services in several countries of the region this ongoing growth has been accompanied by significant environmental problems the countries of the region already constitute the largest import market for liquefied natural gas lng the region has accounted for a progressively larger share of world primary energy use its share has risen from under 19 in 1999 to over 25 in 2007 though the region as a whole possesses resources that could contribute substantially toward its future energy needs many major energy resources are far from population centers as such major infrastructure investments will be required to bring these resources to market this article provides a description of the current situation of energy demand and supply in northeast asia summarizes recent trends in energy supply and demand and of the drivers that underlie energy use in the region also presented are projections of energy use and of key impacts of energy use such as greenhouse gas emissions in the region other impacts of continued growth in energy supply and demand in northeast asia are reviewed qualitatively

rural financial markets in developing countries their use and abuse until recently the use of agricultural credit as a developmental tool seemed clear and straightforward most concerned people believed that increases in the volume of cheap credit were necessary to boost agricultural production and that the rural poor could be brought into the mainstream of development through supervised credit programs it seemed that certain ideal types of rural credit institutions offered the promise of meeting farmers credit needs and that experience in the industrialized countries with cooperatives and specialized agricultural finance institutions could be effectively transplanted to low income countries this collection of readings highlights facets of rural financial markets that have often been neglected in discussions of agricultural credit in developing countries it moves beyond a narrow concern with the simple provision of credit to a broad consideration of the performance of rural financial markets and of ways to improve the quality and range of financial services for low income farmers it reflects new thinking on the design administration evaluation and policy framework of rural finance and credit programs in developing countries

the assimilation of australian immigrants does occupation matter this paper utilises the occupational attainment approach to investigate immigrant labour market assimilation complementing other assimilation approaches such as employability earnings skills mat

the influence of south korean energy policy on opec oil exports abstract south korea is the fifth top oil importer worldwide with 64 of its oil coming from opec member countries over the last 30 years south korea accounted for a rapid increase in energy use this in turn led south korea to be totally dependent on oil imports due to this increase south korea has been experiencing drastic changes in its energy system which could potentially impact its dependence on opec oil import external and internal factors have forced south korea to change its energy strategy and targets these targets would be achieved by reducing its energy intensity and utilizing electricity and renewable energies in order to reduce its dependence on oil consumption low carbon green growth is one policy along with many other energy policies developed by south korea for reducing greenhouse gases thus this policy is receiving a remarkable attention today these national policies along with other international ones are needed to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and promote other green initiatives this study puts emphasis on these policies as well as uses them to predict the future energy profile of south korea and how these policies will impact on oil imports from opec member countries

institutional change in european natural gas markets and implications for energy security lessons from the german case this article focuses on institutional change in the german gas market driven by eu internal market and climate policies it argues that institutional change has functional externalities for energy security the german gas market provides a useful case study as germany is the biggest continental gas market a major hub and transport country which has largely privatised unbundled and separated its natural gas undertakings transition is ongoing tending towards an internal market inter national natural gas economics is in flux institutional evolution has repercussions for corporate and market structures the operating of the system and the realization of transactions changes in the institutional framework crucially affect energy security which is often associated with institutional stability on the basis of this case study it is argued herein that the security of natural gas supplies should be reexamined in the context of the developments described above since overall the institutional changes in natural gas security lag behind the eu s internal natural gas market development

energy market integration and regional institutions in east asia abstract this article assesses the case made for energy market integration in east asia by comparing the role of institutions in south east asia and north east asia the types and functions of institutions and their overall structure are examined in light of global energy market trends in south east asia the shift attempted by asean towards more competitive markets is hampered by the remaining statist variants of the trade institution and bilateral energy diplomacy which as regards transaction cost functions are sub optimal as for institutions with order creating functions the unresolved status of sovereignty within asean hampers regulatory harmonisation the great power management institution has since asean s establishment reduced conflicts without providing decisive leadership conducive to integration north east asia s dependence on global energy markets overshadows the regional integration potential of the diverse liberalisation efforts and interconnection projects bilateral energy diplomacies new trilateral institutions combined with track two institutions and remaining great power competition co exist in both regions the institutional structure allows for step wise technical infrastructure integration the environmental stewardship institution co exists with statist energy security and development objectives while it supports cooperation on green energy the overall structure of informal institutions constrains deeper energy market integration in several ways

an analysis of sample attrition in panel data the michigan panel study of income dynamics by 1989 the michigan panel study on income dynamics psid had experienced approximately 50 percent sample loss from cumulative attrition from its initial 1968 membership we study the effect of this attrition on the unconditional distributions of several socioeconomic variables and on the estimates of several sets of regression coefficients we provide a statistical framework for conducting tests for attrition bias that draws a sharp distinction between selection on unobservables and on observables and that shows that weighted least squares can generate consistent parameter estimates when selection is based on observables even when they are endogenous our empirical analysis shows that attrition is highly selective and is concentrated among lower socioeconomic status individuals we also show that attrition is concentrated among those with more unstable earnings marriage and migration histories nevertheless we find that these variables explain very little of the attrition in the sample and that the selection that occurs is moderated by regression to the mean effects from selection on transitory components that fade over time consequently despite the large amount of attrition we find no strong evidence that attrition has seriously distorted the representativeness of the psid through 1989 and considerable evidence that its cross sectional representativeness has remained roughly intact

natural gas in asia trade markets and regional institutions natural gas trade in asia has been dominated by long established market structures under which liquefied natural gas lng has remained indexed based on the price of crude oil high transaction costs in the region in recent years imply that the regional market is sub optimally organized since 2010 the continued prevalence of oil indexation has had the most adverse effect on japan the world s largest lng importer in response japan implemented several strategies to challenge traditional lng pricing mechanisms in the region and ultimately reduce transaction costs japan s efforts include an increase in the share of spot and short term purchases sourcing new supplies from the united states under alternative pricing arrangements and driving regional buyer cooperation this paper evaluates the potential effect of japan s lng strategy on regional pricing in the broader institutional context arguing that lng pricing in the region will only partially shift away from oil indexation by the end of the decade while recent cooperation among regional lng importers indicates that there may be scope for change in the regional institutional setting the degree of cooperation is insufficient to have a profound effect on regional pricing

innovation in rural finance indonesia s badan kredit kecamatan program abstract donor agencies and governments are committing increasing resources to microenterprise credit programs much as they earlier funded rural credit yet few programs embody the lessons from this earlier experience central java s badan kredit kecamatan program shows considerable promise in providing the access convenience and flexibility desired by poor borrowers while assuring the financial viability of the credit institution by minimizing administrative costs and imposing interest rates sufficient to cover costs and prevent capital erosion recent progress has also been made in mobilizing voluntary savings strong political support from the government has been crucial to the program s success

rural credit markets and institutions in developing countries lessons for policy analysis from practice and modern theory this article presents evidence of the failure of government intervention in rural credit markets of ldcs in the past three decades it then shows how lessons for policy analysis can be drawn from modern theory particularly those theories focussing on credit rationing in competitive markets and interlinking of credit contracts with labor and land contracts the article outlines the policy implications of these theories and finds them insufficient to account for the empirical evidence it contends that a more systematic and rigorous analysis of institutions and institutional environments is essential for understanding and implementing effective policy reforms of rural credit markets it presents suggestions for undertaking such an analysis

a critique of traditional agricultural credit projects and policies abstract authors critique the results assumptions and policies commonly associated with agricultural credit projects in low income countries a summary of new views on these projects is present these views emphasize voluntary savings mobilization and positive real rates of interest several explanations are given for why few of these new views have been adopted by policymakers