structural interpretation of vector autoregressions with incomplete identification revisiting the role of oil supply and demand shocks traditional approaches to structural vector autoregressions vars can be viewed as special cases of bayesian inference arising from very strong prior beliefs these methods can be generalized with a less restrictive formulation that incorporates uncertainty about the identifying assumptions themselves we use this approach to revisit the importance of shocks to oil supply and demand supply disruptions turn out to be a bigger factor in historical oil price movements and inventory accumulation a smaller factor than implied by earlier estimates supply shocks lead to a reduction in global economic activity after a significant lag whereas shocks to oil demand do not

advertising and pricing policies in the equine breeding industry or sex and the single stallion a unique aspect of the equine breeding industry is the way in which the current year s demand for stud services depends on the previous year s production levels in a monopolistically competitive market product differentiation and product promotion and advertisement are important aspects of industry conduct a stallion s reputation and therefore demand for his services depend on the stallion owner s ability to differentiate the product the price a stallion owner charges depends on the quality of the stud himself and also on the quality of his offspring the producer s output foals become advertisements for the stallion when they are raced shown etc they also can become substitutes for the stallion since they are an alternative source of the stallion s genes stallion owners are in the special position that they need to prove their stallion s ability to sire quality offspring while bearing in mind they are producing possible substitutes outstanding offspring will generate demand for the parent s

heterogeneity in the adoption of photovoltaic systems in flanders abstract we study the determinants of pv adoption in the region of flanders belgium where pv adoption reached high levels during 2006 2012 because of active government intervention based on a unique dataset at a very detailed spatial level we estimate a poisson model to explain the heterogeneity in adoption rates we obtain the following findings first local policies have a robust and significant impact on pv adoption second there is a strong unconditional income effect implying a matthew effect in the subsidization of pvs our third finding is however that this income effect is largely driven by the fact that wealthier households are more likely to adopt because they tend to be higher users are more frequent house owners or own houses that are better suited for pv in several extensions we consider the determinants of the average size of installed pvs and the differential impact of certain variables over time

simulation of price controls for different grade of gasoline the case of indonesia abstract a gasoline subsidy is one of the most prevalent strategies for distributing welfare to the people in oil producing countries however well intentioned the policy will distort the gasoline market with the resulting inefficiencies furthermore the gasoline subsidy takes a great amount of government s budget arguably these funds could be spent elsewhere with a greater impact on economic growth these governments are aware of the cost of such a policy yet face difficulties in removing the policy because of strong resistance from the public this paper looks at the unique case of indonesia that only provides a subsidy for regular gasoline and in turn proposes an alternative policy that introduces a subsidy for premium gasoline at a lower rate to reduce the overall gasoline subsidy cost there has yet to be any research that simulates price controls for gasoline with different grades the aggregate demand for gasoline in indonesia is replicated using a translog cost calibration approach simulations based on the calibrated demand are then performed and the results confirm the existence of potential savings that are largely determined by the cross price elasticities between regular and premium gasoline the benchmark scenario based on a recent study of substitutability between gasoline by grades results in an 11 5 reduction in subsidy cost of around 950 million usd with a subsidy rate of rp 2254 liter furthermore the optimal rate of subsidy for premium gasoline results in a reduction of inefficiency as consumers welfare increase by 6 8 trillion rupiahs or 560 million usd

climate policy with tied hands optimal resource taxation under implementation lags in the presence of implementation lags announced pigouvian taxation leads to fossil fuel prices that are too low from society s perspective this results in excessive emissions and reduced incentives for green innovation such effects are compounded by the presence of pre existing subsidies to fossil fuel use we show that the intertemporal resource tax path may need to be modified to optimally take into account the perverse incentives from policy lags and pre existing policies we find that it might be optimal to subsidize rather than tax resource extraction at the instant of implementation

the economic cost of global fuel subsidies by 2015 global oil consumption will reach 90 million barrels per day in part this high level of consumption reflects the fact that many countries provide subsidies for gasoline and diesel this paper examines global fuel subsidies using the latest available data from the world bank finding that road sector subsidies for gasoline and diesel totaled 110 billion in 2012 pricing fuels below cost is inefficient because it leads to overconsumption under baseline assumptions about supply and demand elasticities the total annual deadweight loss worldwide is 44 billion incorporating external costs increases the economic costs substantially

buyer behaviour in a regional thoroughbred yearling market this paper reports the results of an hedonic pricing analysis of a regional thoroughbred auction market adding to a literature which has been built mainly on data from elite auction markets the main contribution of the paper is the finding that the role of the dam in affecting yearling price elusive in the existing literature is shown to depend primarily on information about progeny performance rather than dam performance additional results confirm existing knowledge about the roles of the sire yearling sex and yearling age and support suspicions that race horses are consumer rather than investment goods

electricity subsidy reform in indonesia demand side effects on electricity use abstract indonesia s budget has for years been burdened by large subsidies for electricity consumption a series of recent reforms has delivered a substantial reduction in these subsidies in this paper we estimate demand side effects of these reforms on electricity use our analysis utilizes a three dimensional dataset covering six consumer groups 16 regions and 1992 2015 we control for various fixed effects and use an instrumental variable approach our estimates suggest that subsidy reductions since 2013 had induced savings in annual electricity use of around 7 relative to the no reform counterfactual as of 2015 the phase out of remaining subsidies has the potential to generate further improvements in the efficiency of electricity use while freeing up resources for other priorities such as infrastructure spending

shipping the good horses out this paper formalizes the alchian allen 1964 theorem within a vertically differentiated goods general equilibrium model in contrast to the existing literature equilibrium prices depends on the transportation cost it shows that the eect of a xed transportation cost regardless of quality tilts the importing region s demand towards the consumption of higher quality goods the model extends the alchian allen theorem by showing that the strength of this eect depends on the importing region s endowment specically if the importing region is endowed with the imported goods of similar quality mix the eect is even stronger we also show that the importing region s market size and preferences matter to the strength of the eect using auction data of australian thoroughbred yearlings we conrm that better horses are shipped out further furthermore consistent with the model s prediction the strength of the alchian allen eect depends on the endowment of the importing regions

exotic betting opportunities pricing policies and the demand for parimutuel horse race wagering parimutuel horse race wagering has been declining steadily for the past several decades this has resulted in lower revenues to state governments recetracks adn horseman to retard or reverse this trend attempts have been made to implement a number of pricing and marketing strategies among these has been the introduction of a variety of exotic wagering opportunities over the years the number and type of exotic wagers offered has been increased furthermore the prices of both straight and exotic wagers have been increased and in addition the price of exotic wagers has generally been set at a higher rate than that for straight wagers the paper examines the effectiveness of these policies

what determines the price of a racing horse this article uses the data of 10 auctions from the two largest australian auction houses to study how a racing horse is priced we ask whether bloodline is indeed a determining factor we find that the track record of its parents and siblings are important factors in determining the price of a yearling moreover more mature horses and those purchased by foreign buyers are generally more expensive we also show that racing horses sold in the flagship auctions are associated with a significant premium

breeding to sell a hedonic price analysis of leading thoroughbred sire stud fees this article utilizes panel data on leading thoroughbred sires from 1999 until 2008 and estimates the determinants of their stud fees or the price paid for the rights to one breeding season and the marginal value of those characteristics using a fixed effects fe estimation procedure we find strong evidence of breeding to sell stud fees for established sires are determined primarily by the sales prices of their progeny other determinants include a sire s ability to produce sons who go on to become sires themselves current year progeny racing performance and cumulative racing performance of a sire s progeny

transportation costs and product demand wagering on parimutuel horse racing parimutuel horse race wagering is in many respects like any other economic good but it differs in one important way from a vast majority of them given the present market arrangement this good cannot be transported to the consumer instead the consumer must travel to the production site where the good is consumed as it is produced thus transportation costs must play a crucial role in the demand decision for horse race wagering the consumers incur not only out of pocket expenses for travelling but also the cost of the time required to travel to and to consume the product moreover consumers incur differential costs in obtaining the same product because of their locational differences wagering demands are theorized to be the consequence of the choice of utility maximizing consumers which incorporates this special characteristic of the product models for parimutuel horse race wagering are then estimated both for thoroughbred and for harness horse racing in the state of new jersey it is found that bot

solar pv where the sun doesn t shine estimating the economic impacts of support schemes for residential pv with detailed net demand profiling abstract countries with low irradiation and solar pv adoption rates are increasingly considering policy support for solar pv although consumer electricity demand and solar generation profiles are often mismatched this paper presents a methodology for policymakers in such conditions to examine more precisely the financial performance of residential solar pv from the consumer perspective as part of an ex ante policy assessment we model a range of prospective policy scenarios and compare policy mechanisms that compensate homeowners for generation those that reduce their upfront costs and those that assist with financing using ireland as a case study the results confirm the intuitive notion that more generous financial remuneration schemes provide quicker payback however we observe that in low irradiance regions there is little difference between upfront grants and feed in tariffs to accelerate payback timeframes we also show the importance of retail tariff structure in consumer payback for solar pv systems with one part tariffs generating shorter paybacks than two part tariff structures although the latter is more likely to secure revenue for electricity infrastructure investment drawing from this analysis the paper proposes some options for the design of policy supports and tariff structures to deliver a sustainable residential renewable electricity system in low irradiance regions

fuel subsidies versus market power is there a countervailing second best optimum fuel subsidies distort end use prices below cost resulting in overconsumption and huge environmental cost on the other hand the mark up over cost due to the exercise of market power results in the social loss of consumer surplus we open a new line of inquiry into the potential for a market based solution from these two countervailing forces can the two offsetting distortions conceivably achieve a second best optimum relying on dynamic panel techniques and gasoline market data for 68 developing countries we uncover an excessive second best subsidy offset to market power mark up on the order of 4 5 our results indicate that the potential for policy failure strongly exceeds the potential for market failure in our model and gasoline prices across our sample may not be aligned with vigorous anti climate change policy

the relative impact of macroeconomic and yearling specific variables in determining thoroughbred yearling price the present study is the first to examine the relative importance of macroeconomic and yearling specific variables on the price of thoroughbred yearlings regression results indicated that it is the yearling specific variables that are more influential in explaining yearling price yet both types of variables are important the main explanatory variables are the stud fee of the yearlingan s sire and the annual gross total dollar purchases of thoroughbred yearlings by foreign investors

towards a contemporary approach for understanding consumer behaviour in the context of domestic energy use domestic sector energy use is increasing in the uk and currently accounts for 30 of total use policies of liberalised energy markets have allowed greater consumer choice but have not sought to reduce carbon emissions overall sales of energy efficiency products are rising but uk housing stock standards are poor and do not facilitate improved efficiency and further the sales of such products are influenced by their price thus the higher capital costs of products such as boilers and solar systems make them initially unattractive to consumers previous market based research into the adoption of energy efficiency products has often focused on single factors for example demographics this has limited the ability of policy makers to make informed decisions that address a broader range of factors such as individuals cognitive abilities values and attitudes as well as external factors such as social networks marketing and products and services this paper provides a wider critique of the theoretical base related to consumer behaviour product attributes and socio environmental theories that relate to energy use the aim of the paper is to draw together theories relevant to energy use in order to aid policy making in the broader context and to develop the discussion around integrated theories of consumer behaviour

does britain or the united states have the right gasoline tax this paper develops an analytical framework to assess the second best optimal level of gasoline taxation taking into account unpriced pollution congestion and accident externalities as well as interactions with the broader fiscal system we provide calculations of the optimal taxes for the us and the uk under a variety of parameter scenarios under our central parameter values the second best optimal gasoline tax is 1 01 gal for the us and 1 34 gal for the uk current tax rates are much lower than this in the us and higher in the uk the calculations are moderately sensitive to alternative parameter assumptions the congestion externality is the largest component in both nations revenue raising needs also play a significant role as do accident externalities and local air pollution potential welfare gains from reducing the current uk tax rate are estimated at nearly one fourth the production cost of all gasoline used in the uk even larger gains could be achieved by switching to a tax on vehicle miles with equal revenue yield for the us the welfare gains from optimizing the gasoline tax are smaller but those from switching to an optimal tax on vehicle miles are very large

reducing petroleum consumption from transportation diesel fuels alone account for 60 percent of oil consumption the economic argument for seeking to reduce this level of consumption of petroleum based liquid ment for seeking to reduce this level of consumption of petroleum based liquid fuel begins with the externalities associated with high levels of u s consumption of fuel begins with the externalities associated with high levels of u s consumption of petroleum based fuels petroleum based fuels

breeding incentive programmes and demand for california thoroughbred racing is there a quality quantity tradeoff both quantity of horses and quality stimulate demand for horse race gambling this paper addresses the potential for a quantity quality tradeoff due to breeding incentives for california thoroughbreds econometric analysis is used to assess the demand for quality and quantity of horses and results suggest the likely net benefit of breeding incentives on the industry at large

when households go solar determinants of uptake of a photovoltaic scheme and policy insights abstract the need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels has resulted in escalating interest in renewable energy generation yet few countries have seriously tested household potential to produce energy from pv panels propelled by mandatory eu targets for renewable energy and constrained with limited territory the government of malta launched a subsidy scheme with a view to encouraging pv installation by households the scheme reached the desired adoption levels within a very short period of time the study takes an entire country dimension to assess the determinants of household investment in pv panels a unique dataset is specifically constructed for this study we find that the prevalence of younger households higher incomes dwelling ownership and unshared roof space results in higher rates of uptake neither higher educational levels nor the participation in other environmental schemes recycling contribute any explanatory power to uptake of pv panels pro government sentiment captured by voting outcomes significantly and positively influences the take up of the grant and installation of pv panels we conclude by identifying some pointers for policy makers interested in harvesting the potential of households

price elasticity of gasoline smuggling a semi structural estimation approach abstract we estimate the price elasticity of the demand for gasoline smuggling in iran for this purpose we employ a detailed panel of monthly gasoline consumption data from 160 distribution hubs during the period 2005 2014 we apply two different approaches which are diff in diff and panel data estimations the results suggest that the foreign to home gasoline price ratios have a significant impact on the time varying elasticity of demand this finding supports the hypothesis that an increase in domestic gasoline prices will significantly reduce the demand for smuggling in addition as the distance of a region from its closest higher price neighboring country diminishes the price elasticity of demand for gasoline smuggling for that region declines as well finally we find that when the ratio of foreign to domestic prices is higher the gasoline demand sensitivities to price in neighboring countries go up our work offers new insights regarding the welfare impact of removing fuel subsidies and modifying fuel pricing policies

the unequal benefits of fuel subsidies a review of evidence for developing countries summary this paper reviews evidence on the impact of fuel subsidy reform on household welfare in developing countries on average the burden of subsidy reform is substantial and is approximately neutrally distributed across income groups a 0 25 decrease in the per liter subsidy results in a 5 decrease in income for all groups more than half of this impact arises from the indirect impact on prices of other goods and services consumed by households fuel subsidies are a costly approach to protecting the poor due to substantial benefit leakage to higher income groups in absolute terms the top income quintile captures six times more in subsidies than the bottom

challenges and policies in indonesia s energy sector fossil fuels are central to indonesia s energy policy and its main source of export revenues however insufficient investment the lack of transport infrastructure and an unwieldy regulatory environment are inhibiting the sector from reaching its full potential looking ahead growing environmental concerns combined with sharp falls in coal prices and the on going shale gas revolution call into question the sustainability of an energy strategy based almost exclusively on fossil fuels this viewpoint challenges indonesia s current energy policy and proposes ways to increase its energy efficiency and use of renewables in particular its gas sector should be further developed to plug the gap until sufficient renewable energy especially geothermal comes on line government control over the oil industry via state owned pertamina should be gradually reduced clarifying streamlining and publicising simple regulations in energy especially regarding land rights and on shore processing and removing foreign ownership restrictions will help bring much needed investment the pressure on the environment of natural resource exploitation should also be addressed by properly defining property rights and regulations regarding forest land and implementing a positive implicit carbon price

consumer responses towards home energy financial incentives a survey based study abstract residential energy efficient and renewable energy eere products play an important role in energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction various financial incentive programs have been developed to promote the adoption of these products however their effectiveness in attracting consumers is not very well understood in this study we investigated impacts of financial incentives on homeowner s decision making towards six eere products two forms of incentives tax credits and interest free loans were examined through a household mailing survey in florida the united states results showed that although half of the respondents were interested in eere products the high investment cost was a major concern that hindered their purchase activities homeowners were attracted to financial incentives and valued tax credits much higher than interest free loans the current federal home energy tax credit levels were found to attract only 2 12 percent of homeowners to buy eere products the willingness of participation was especially low for the costly products such as solar panels the participation rate was also very low for lower income i e annual household income below 50 000 families living in older residences this study contributes to the understanding of economic and social aspects of consumer decision making on energy efficiency and alternative energy

subsidies for residential solar photovoltaic energy systems in western australia distributional procedural and outcome justice governments seek to increase renewable energy capacity by providing subsidies to householders opting to install residential solar energy photovoltaic systems the funds used to pay for these subsidies are sourced from tax revenue or electricity tariffs paid by all community members including those on a low income this sees a redistribution of funds from all community members to installers of residential solar energy systems this research compared community attitudes towards distributional justice or the fairness of this redistribution of funds with outcome justice associated with the environmental benefits of renewable energy a randomised survey distributed in four metropolitan and two regional communities in western australian resulted in 295 responses a response rate of 22 33 of community members prioritised distributional justice 30 prioritised outcome justice and 37 indicated that they were unsure about their preference however support for renewable energy was found with 80 of respondents supportive of renewable energy subsidies and 68 supportive of renewable energy taxation including in electricity tariffs qualitative comments indicate that in spite of the preoccupation with distributional justice in the residential solar energy literature community members are concerned with procedural justice issues in this case procedural justice can be interpreted as government commitment to existing policy the expanded scope of renewable energy policy and enhanced regulations

consumer attitudes towards domestic solar power systems the success of the uk policy to reduce carbon emissions is partly dependent on the ability to persuade householders to become more energy efficient and to encourage installation of domestic solar systems solar power is an innovation in the uk but the current policy of stimulating the market with grants is not resulting in widespread adoption this case study using householders in central england investigates householder attitudes towards characteristics of solar systems and identifies some of the barriers to adoption the study utilises diffusion of innovations theory to identify attitudes towards system attributes and isolates the characteristics that are preventing a pragmatic early majority from adopting the technology a group of early adopters and a group of assumed early majority adopters of solar power were surveyed and the results show that overall although the early majority demonstrate a positive perception of the environmental characteristics of solar power its financial economic and aesthetic characteristics are limiting adoption differences exist between the two groups showing support for the concept of a chasm between adopter categories after moore crossing the chasm marketing and selling high tech products to mainstream customers second ed harper perennial new york however if consumers cannot identify the relative advantage of solar power over their current sources of power which is supplied readily and cheaply through a mains system it is unlikely that adoption will follow recommendations concerning the marketing and development of solar products are identified

a paler shade of green environmental policy under induced technical change conventional wisdom argues that environmental policy is less costly if it induces the development of cleaner technologies in contrast to this argument we show that once the second best nature of actual economies is taken into account the cost of environmental policy may well be larger with induced technical change itc than without thus itc may lower both the emissions reductions and the welfare gains associated with environmental policy in an endogenous policy framework itc may reduce the desired stringency of the policy

the long run macroeconomic impacts of fuel subsidies abstract many developing and emerging market countries have subsidies on fuel products using a small open economy model with a non traded sector i show how these subsidies impact the steady state levels of macroeconomic aggregates such as consumption labor supply and aggregate welfare these subsidies can lead to crowding out of non oil consumption inefficient inter sectoral allocations of labor and other distortions in macroeconomic variables across steady states aggregate welfare is reduced by these subsidies this result holds for a country with no oil production and for a net exporter of oil the distortions in relative prices introduced by the subsidy create most of the welfare losses how the subsidy is financed is of secondary importance aggregate welfare is significantly higher if the subsidies are replaced by lump sum transfers of equal value

ready to run price determinants of thoroughbreds from 2 year olds in training sales abstractthis article utilizes data from the complete set of u s thoroughbred 2 year old in training sales held in 2013 and estimates the determinants of prices for 1806 two year old thoroughbreds the results reveal that the time in which these prospective racehorses run a standardized distance is the most statistically significant determinant of market price other individual horse characteristics pedigree quality variables and sale quality are also found to be price determinants an additional result of interest is the significant premium buyers are willing to pay for horses by sires of unknown quality

decentralization and fuel subsidies abstract this paper explores the role of decentralization in explaining variation in fuel subsidies across countries using panel data over the period 1998 2008 and for 108 countries it emerges that the effect of decentralization taken to be an increase in the number of government levels broadly decreases both diesel and gasoline subsidies with this effect being more pronounced when the level of political accountability is low for developing countries for which political accountability is low decentralization decreases gasoline and diesel subsidies by at least 6 98 and 12 99 respectively for developed countries for which political accountability is high decentralization does not have any impact on both gasoline and diesel what this evidence points to is that in developing economies where voters are poorly informed and accountability is low decentralization appears to be associated with lower fuel subsidies

how price inelastic is demand for gasoline in fuel subsidizing economies abstract in recent years governments that have historically subsidized domestic fuel consumption face an ever growing challenge in maintaining fuel subsidies and have embarked on subsidy reform this paper estimates the price and income elasticity of demand for gasoline in countries where fuel prices are government subsidized we make use of biennial panel road sector data for 32 countries over the 1998 2010 period and find demand for gasoline to be price inelastic both in the short run and long run we estimate the short run price and income elasticities at 0 05 and 0 16 and the long run price and income elasticities at 0 25 and 0 81 respectively it is our contention that concerned governments should play an active role in identifying and committing to a road map to progressively abandoning fuel subsidies they should also not be discouraged by relatively small consumption corrections in the short run a reduction in subsidies can eventually release considerable amount of resources for more crucial and potentially growth enhancing public services such as education and health

exploring the consumer decision process in the adoption of solar energy systems this study examines residential solar energy systems within an adoption and diffusion of innovations framework the findings indicate considerable differences between adopters and nonadopters on many measures multivariate nominal scale analysis is used to develop classification models based on both attribute perceptions of solar energy systems and demographic characteristics

rational inattention and energy efficiency abstractthis paper argues that it will often be rational for consumers to pay limited attention to energy efficiency when choosing among energy consuming durable goods like automobiles or home appliances the reason is that the proper valuation of energy efficiency requires time and effort but differences in efficiency across products will rarely be pivotal to choice when consumers have strong preferences regarding other product attributes the paper first explains why proper valuation of efficiency is difficult even in the presence of government energy labels it next develops a model that shows how to value additional information about energy efficiency in a discrete choice context it then uses data on automobiles to show that consumers experience only small welfare losses when forced to choose a car without detailed information about fuel costs finally the paper discusses the implications of rational inattention for both economic research and public policy

the impact of phasing out fossil fuel subsidies on the low carbon transition abstract there is growing consensus on the fact that fossil fuel subsidies provided by governments in high income countries represent a misalignment on emissions reduction with the global climate agenda in addition a discussion emerged on the negative socio economic and environmental externalities associated with fossil fuel subsidies nevertheless pathways for phasing out fossil fuel subsidies in high income countries and their implications on the low carbon transition have not yet been assessed with the aim to narrow this knowledge gap we extend the eirin stock flow consistent behavioral model to study the implications on sustainable development of the gradual phasing out of fossil fuels subsidies whose revenues could be used by the government to subsidize energy investments in green capital e g solar panels either via fiscal policies or green bonds we assess the effects on green growth employment credit and bonds market as well as the distributive effects across heterogeneous households and sectors a smooth phasing out of fossil fuels subsidies contributes to improve macroeconomic performance to decrease inequality and helps the government to find fiscal space to support stable renewable energy policies renewable energy subsidies contribute to foster the low carbon transition but could imply distributive effects depending on the way in which they are implemented

a meta analysis of the price elasticity of gasoline demand a sur approach abstract automobile gasoline demand can be expressed as a multiplicative function of fuel efficiency mileage per car and car ownership this implies a linear relationship between the price elasticity of total fuel demand and the price elasticities of fuel efficiency mileage per car and car ownership in this meta analytical study we aim to investigate and explain the variation in empirical estimates of the price elasticity of gasoline demand a methodological novelty is that we use the linear relationship between the elasticities to develop a meta analytical estimation approach based on a seemingly unrelated regression sur model with cross equation restrictions this approach enables us to combine observations of different elasticities and thus increase our sample size furthermore it allows for a more detailed interpretation of our meta regression results the empirical results of the study demonstrate that the sur approach leads to more precise results i e lower standard errors than a standard meta analytical approach we find that with mean short run and long run price elasticities of 0 34 and 0 84 respectively the demand for gasoline is not very price sensitive both in the short and the long run the impact of a change in the gasoline price on demand is mainly driven by responses in fuel efficiency and mileage per car and to a slightly lesser degree by changes in car ownership furthermore we find that study characteristics relating to the geographic area studied the year of the study the type of data used the time horizon and the functional specification of the demand equation have a significant impact on the estimated value of the price elasticity of gasoline demand

household level innovation diffusion model of photo voltaic pv solar cells from stated preference data we focus on predicting the adoption time probabilities of photo voltaic solar panels by households using discrete choice experiments and an innovation diffusion model the primary objective of this research is cohesively mapping the theory of disruptive innovation into diffusion of innovations to aid policy makers by linking two critical uncertainties of new technology 1 whether households prefer the new attributes of the new technology and how these preferences vary by market segments and 2 when are they going to adopt if at all our study uses recent developments of discrete choice experiments and establishes a causal link between the attributes of the technology attitudinal constructs and socio demographics and adoption time probabilities using the bass diffusion model the data was collected from ontario a province of canada the innovation diffusion model allows us to compute the cumulative probability of adoption over time per household technology awareness and energy cost saving have a significant effect on the adoption probability reinforcing the need for effective education these findings also suggest that campaigns should explain more about investment criteria feed in tariffs and environmental attributes this study findings call for a need to use seeding strategies to accelerate exogenous word of mouth wom for this new technology

carbon abatement potential of solar home systems in india and their cost reduction due to carbon finance about 78 million rural households in india reportedly lack access to grid electricity about 67 million of them use kerosene for lighting government of india is promoting the use of solar home systems shs as one of the options for meeting lighting requirements in households in remote and less inhabited villages about 363 399 shs were reportedly disseminated across the country by december 2007 apart from meeting the basic lighting need of the households shs also help in abating the emissions of green house gases ghgs by directly displacing the use of kerosene in households that currently use it for lighting this study has attempted at estimating the co2 mitigation potential of shs in india by studying the potential for their diffusion and the appropriate baseline subsequently the scope for cost reduction to the user due to carbon finance if received is also studied it is found that carbon finance could reduce the effective burden of shs to the user by 19 if carbon prices were 10 tco22 and no transaction costs were involved in getting the carbon revenues these benefits are also estimated for scenarios where transaction costs are incurred by the project proponent in getting the carbon benefits

dissemination of solar photovoltaics a study on the government programme to promote solar lantern in india abstract the study examines the reasons for the limited dissemination of solar lanterns in india it uses diffusion of innovation framework to examine the dissemination process the impact of the characteristics of solar lantern on dissemination and also the communication within the community about the product are examined to understand the influence of the characteristics of solar lantern on dissemination and the information source used by adopters a survey of 188 users across 15 locations is carried out the study shows that the benefits promoted by the government programme for disseminating solar lantern are not the reasons for purchase in most cases the results suggest that the emphasis on subsidy by the support programme shifts the focus to the cost of the solar lantern than its benefits contrary to expectation there is no significant difference in the profile of early and late adopters the subsidy for solar lanterns and the targets set for government officials are the possible influence on the observed profile for adopter categories the early majority who can afford the solar lantern and take up the innovation on its merits are expected to disseminate the innovation the programme on the contrary not only fails to identify and promote to the early adopters but focus on the disadvantaged groups there are therefore no champions for the innovation and an absence of word of mouth communication the information source is restricted to government agencies while the potential user looks for evaluative information on the product from existing users the application of diffusion of innovation framework to understand the dissemination process of solar lantern suggests reworking the support programmes designed to promote solar lanterns the lessons can be extended to programmes designed for dissemination of other solar photovoltaic products

automobile externalities and policies this paper discusses the nature and magnitude of externalities associated with automobile use including local and global pollution oil dependence traffic congestion and traffic accidents it then discusses current federal policies affecting these externalities including fuel taxes fuel economy and emissions standards and alternative fuel policies summarizing insofar as possible the welfare effects of those policies finally we discuss emerging pricing policies including congestion tolls and insurance reform and summarize the appropriate combination of policies to address automobile externalities

shedding light on the last mile a study on the diffusion of pay as you go solar home systems in central east africa approximately 1 2 billion people lack basic access to electricity the united nations sustainable energy for all initiative exemplifies the urgent need to address this issue recent advancements in photovoltaic light emitting diode and battery technology have resulted in the rise of affordable and innovative household electricity technologies however penetration rates remain low due to complexity surrounding last mile distribution this paper applies the diffusion of innovations theory as a framework to investigate the last mile challenges encountered when launching a pay as you go solar home system in a region of central east africa the results indicate that pay as you go offers the potential to deliver a disruptive positive impact with regard to increasing access to clean affordable energy for the poor however both the technology and business model are more complex than current alternatives and therefore require a much more developed go to market strategy the cost of achieving widespread diffusion is therefore higher than similar products sold at retail yet this is balanced by potential for a much faster rate of adoption finally this paper demonstrates the applicability of the diffusion of innovations theory as a viable framework for analysing last mile challenges associated with solar home systems

reputation in an internet auction market i introduction without transmission of credible information asymmetries may lead to underproduction of goods or even market failure reputation mitigates inefficiencies associated with information asymmetries by providing an informative signal of quality 1 the difficulty in quantifying reputation means that few studies can analyze empirically the role of reputation in markets our analysis of a quantified market observed measure of reputation provides direct evidence of the effect of a seller s reputation on the terms of a onetime real world transaction thereby contributing empirical support to a fundamental economic principle this study empirically examines person to person transactions within the internet market known as ebay in this virtual market of unseen participants and products buyers and sellers face the risks of repudiation as the counter party may deny the agreement after the fact buyers assume risks associated with lack of seller integrity and asymmetric information about the particular product as the buyer is typically required to send payment before the seller ships the product in addition for many ebay transactions the cost of enforcing a contract is high relative to the transaction s value resulting in a practical absence of legal enforcement 2 by providing a history of trade execution information ebay benefits market participants by reducing information asymmetries while achieving substantial transaction cost economies market participants relate personal experiences which ebay uses to calculate a numerical reputation measure for each user market participants in turn can use this reputation measure to assess counter party risk and adjust bidding behavior accordingly in a sample of 460 auctions held between january 1998 and july 1998 we find a positive relation between prices and ebay s reputation measure higher reputation sellers experience higher auction prices ceteris paribus our findings suggest that repeat players are rewarded for building reputation consistent with the belief that the high reputation seller s value of future transactions outweighs the value of taking advantage of the buyer in the current transaction buyers are willing to pay more to a higher reputation seller this article contributes to the literature not only by providing quantitative support of long accepted reputation theories but also by illustrating the use of nontraditional markets as a natural laboratory for experiments this article is an example of how a newly formed electronic market can provide the elements necessary for analytical research we find that ebay transactions for this item exhibit characteristics similar to transactions in more conventional markets namely 1 prices are higher when there is less quantity supplied when fewer of the items are available the same day 2 prices are lower during periods of lower demand times less likely to have high traffic 3 sellers with higher shipping and handling costs receive lower prices and 4 sellers failing to provide information about shipping and handling fees i e larger information asymmetries receive fewer bids dramatic innovations in online market structure and increasing availability of online market data should enable researchers to examine directly other traditionally non quantifiable economic ideas this article is organized as follows section ii describes how reputation can be used to facilitate transactions in the presence of asymmetric information section iii describes the ebay market summarizes the listing and bidding processes and discusses the reputation mechanism for this market section iv presents the price and reputation descriptive statistics associated with a consistently auctioned item and reports the empirical findings of how this item s highest bid price varies with the level of the seller s reputation we conclude in section v with a discussion of ebay s continued attempts to add value to the market through recent structural changes

power to change analysis of household participation in a renewable energy and energy efficiency programme in central australia the australian government funded a national solar city program 2008 2013 to support communities to increase adoption of energy efficiency measures and renewable energy technology one community was alice springs a town with about 9000 households in the geographic centre of australia the programme offered a package of support free energy audits discounts for the purchase of renewable energy technology and energy efficiency measures and ongoing information households that adopted solar hot water and photovoltaic systems reduced their electricity usage immediately after adoption by 10 and 34 respectively and this was maintained in the long term a small rebound effect of 15 was observed in the photovoltaic adopters it was observed that on average households that adopted only energy efficiency measures did not have a significant reduction in their electricity usage over the long term however consistent with expectations this study did show that there was a significant correlation between the number of energy efficiency measures adopted and the greatest household reduction in electricity usage these contrary results indicate that there are additional factors involved the connection between the effective use of measures coincident behavioural change or increased energy awareness and greater energy reduction is discussed

distributional impacts of energy heat cross subsidization abstract energy and heat cross subsidies are common in developing and transitioning countries but the distributional and efficiency impacts of these policies and reform are largely unknown in post soviet countries such as belarus revenues from an industrial tariff on electricity are used to cross subsidize heating for households we analyze the distributional impacts of cross subsidy reform with both input output methods and a calibrated static computable general equilibrium cge model with heterogeneous households based on a household consumption survey on average gdp gains of roughly a quarter of a percent are computed across model runs which reduce taxes and subsidies from cross subsidization reducing household heating subsidy rates equally across income groups is found to be regressive poorer households are overly burdened due to higher heating expenditures while richer households enjoy gains from cheaper market prices for goods the gdp gains are even larger when the tax rates are structured to create a distributionally neutral reform