intertemporal pricing and price discrimination a semiparametric hedonic analysis of the personal computer market we apply a smooth coefficient semiparametric model to a unique high frequency data set to examine the intertemporal pricing of personal computers furthermore we test whether firms charge differential component prices for their top performance personal computers and whether premium firms charge both a premium for all their computers and a premium for their top performance ones we find nonlinear effects in the pricing of personal computer components we also find that firms in general do not charge differential prices for the components of their top performance computers in addition high quality firms charge higher premia only for their most advanced products copyright 2006 john wiley sons ltd

the importance of comprehensiveness in renewable electricity and energy efficiency policy based on extensive research interviews and supplemented with a review of the academic literature this article assesses the best way to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency it begins by briefly laying out why government intervention is needed and then details the four most favored policy mechanisms identified by participants eliminating subsidies for conventional and mature electricity technologies pricing electricity accurately passing a national feed in tariff and implementing a nationwide systems benefit fund to raise public awareness protect lower income households and administer demand side management programs drawing mostly from case studies in the united states the article also discusses why these policy mechanisms must be implemented comprehensively not individually if the barriers to renewables and energy efficiency are to be overcome

statistical efficiency of double bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation the statistical efficiency of conventional dichotomous choice contingent valuation surveys can be improved by asking each respondent a second dichotomous choice question which depends on the response to the first question if the first response is yes the second bid is some amount greater than the first bid while if the first response is no the second bid is some amount smaller this double bounded approach is shown to be asymptotically more efficient than the conventional singlebounded approach using data from a survey of californians regarding their willingness to pay for wetlands in the san joaquin valley we show that in a finite sample the gain in efficiency can be very substantial

assessment of public acceptance and willingness to pay for renewable energy sources in crete abstract the aim of this study is to analyse and to evaluate the citizens public acceptance and willingness to pay wtp for renewable energy sources res in crete for this purpose a contingent valuation study was conducted using a double bound dichotomous choice format to elicit people s wtp and factors affecting it residents of 1440 households all over crete were interviewed face to face major conclusions can be used as a basis for sustainable energy planning for policies and the formulation of awareness campaigns and for res investment programs and projects in order to prepare implementation conditions and enhance public acceptance of renewable energy investments and programmes mean wtp per household was found to be 16 33 to be paid quarterly as an additional charge on the electricity bill larger willingness to pay was reported by those with high family income and residence size those having a higher level of energy information and awareness concerning climatic change those who have invested in some energy saving measures and those who suffer from more electricity shortages than others

valuing the attributes of renewable energy investments increasing the proportion of power derived from renewable energy sources is becoming an increasingly important part of many countries s strategies to achieve reductions in greenhouse gas emissions however renewable energy investments can often have external costs and benefits which need to be taken into account if socially optimal investments are to be made this paper attempts to estimate the magnitude of these external costs and benefits for the case of renewable technologies in scotland a country which has set particularly ambitious targets for expanding renewable energy the external effects we consider are those on landscape quality wildlife and air quality we also consider the welfare implications of different investment strategies for employment and electricity prices the methodology used to do this is the choice experiment technique renewable technologies considered include hydro on shore and off shore wind power and biomass welfare changes for different combinations of impacts associated with different investment strategies are estimated we also test for differences in preferences towards these impacts between urban and rural communities and between high and low income households

a comparative study of modelling the demand for food in the united states and the netherlands this paper provides time series and cross sectional budget survey analyses of the demand for food in the united states and the netherlands according to the tasks set by jan magnus and mary morgan mm various econometric methods including weighted least squares wls cointegration error correction the almost ideal demand system aids and time varying parameter tvp techniques are used and the estimated demand elasticities compared across country and over time 1997 john wiley sons ltd

residential natural gas price affordability analysis a case study of beijing abstract in recent years the demand for natural gas has shown strong growth in china however the relative lack of domestic natural gas resources and dependence on gas imports have resulted in rising natural gas prices in order to ensure market order the natural gas pricing mechanism must be closely linked to customer affordability the objective of this paper is to analyse natural gas prices economic and psychological affordability for beijing s residents by the income expenditure elasticity model and the equivalent heating value method and further to evaluate the comprehensive affordability of the natural gas price by the small taking and interval number methods finally it provides some suggestions for the formulation of beijing s residential natural gas prices

exploring additional determinants of energy saving behaviour the influence of individuals participation in cultural activities abstract consumer behaviour towards energy saving has attracted growing attention in several national policy measures and has been discussed in a large number of interdisciplinary studies in this paper we argue that cultural capital specifically individuals participation in cultural activities is significantly related to pro environmental behaviour and is therefore a relevant additional driver of electricity saving behaviours we apply a heckman two step selection strategy approach to microdata gathered from the latest sample of the annual aspects of daily life survey for the year 2014 conducted by the italian national institute of statistics our results besides confirming the role of the socio demographic determinants already investigated in the extant literature also provide evidence that individuals who participate in some cultural activities show a higher probability of adopting electricity saving behaviours at home furthermore the sign of such a relationship is differentiated depending on the characteristics of the cultural activity some policy implications are derived from the analysis

difficulty is critical the importance of social factors in modeling diffusion of green products and practices abstract despite the very positive as measured by market surveys attitude towards eco innovations and sustainability in general the actual market penetration of green products and practices generally falls behind the expectations in this paper we argue that considering difficulty of engagement as used in the campbell paradigm is of critical importance when modeling diffusion of eco innovations such a notion of difficulty possesses three desired properties i parsimony it is represented by a single value ii interpretability it can be regarded as an estimator of the otherwise complex notion of behavioral cost and iii applicability it can be easily measured through market surveys in an extensive simulation and analytical study involving empirically measured difficulty and an agent based model spanned on different social network structures we show that innovation adoption may exhibit abrupt changes in market penetration as a result of even small changes in difficulty the latter may be of particular interest to policy makers who have to make strategic decisions when introducing socially but not necessarily individually desired products and practices like dynamic or green electricity tariffs

estimating willingness to pay for renewable energy in south korea using the contingent valuation method the importance of renewable energy as a response to climate change is universally acknowledged however its successful implementation requires public approval and cooperation this study aims to identify the level of renewable energy acceptance in korea by estimating korean consumers additional willingness to pay wtp using the contingent valuation cv method which is the most widely used to analyze consumer preferences the estimation results indicate that korean consumers are willing to pay an additional usd 3 21 per month for electricity generated with renewable energy however wtp in korea is low relative to other advanced nations indicating that these values could be influenced through policies aimed at improving knowledge and acceptance of renewable energy sources among korean consumers

social demand for electricity from forest biomass in spain does payment periodicity affect the willingness to pay in this article we analyze social preferences for a partial substitution programme of electricity generated by conventional energy sources for energy generated from a local renewable energy source such as forest biomass this analysis sets arguments in favour of accelerating the introduction of this renewable technology in the spanish electricity system simultaneously two methodological goals concerning the contingent valuation method are discussed in the first one we analyze if there are statistical differences in the willingness to pay wtp when a single or a double bounded format is employed to ask the valuation question results show that wtp estimates from single and double bounded significantly differ in the second one we analyze the effect of the periodicity of the payment vehicle on the estimates of welfare change the timeframe specification of the payment vehicle has been scarcely studied and this fact constitutes the main contribution of this paper to the specialized literature results show that periodicity influences upon the probability to favour the proposed change the periodicity does not affect to the mean wtp obtained in the single bounded format but there are statistical differences in the double bounded format these results might be explained by the presence of yea saying and payment scale bias

consumer demand for green power and energy efficiency abstract this article examines reported willingness to pay for electric utility investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency resources using the results of deliberative polls conducted by electric utilities in texas 1 age education and salary tend to affect reported willingness to pay for utility investments in these resources intensive exposure to information about energy resource issues led to an increase in the number of respondents interested in paying a modest premium to support investments in both renewable energy resources and energy efficiency however average reported premiums actually declined following the polls as very high outlier responses moved to more reasonable values following the polls these results support the contention that informed dialogue about energy alternatives will result in broader interest in providing a modest level of support for these resources

analyzing public preferences and increasing acceptability for the renewable portfolio standard in korea abstract in order to respond to the challenge of climate change similar to other countries korea has announced various policies to vitalize the development and uptake of renewable energy the renewable portfolio standard rps is the most striking example of a policy in this area this study employs a conjoint survey and bayesian mixed logit model to analyze consumer preferences for specific attributes of the rps policy it analyzes households marginal willingness to pay mwtp for the rps with specific attributes and simulates the degree of household acceptability of the policy through a scenario analysis comparison between costs and benefits of implementing the policy is also attempted by analyzing the households mwtp with the actual transition expense of rps implementation incurred by electricity supply companies the simulation results provide implications for improving rps policy implementation households consider the creation of new jobs as the most important policy attribute followed by increase in electricity prices damage to forests reduction in co 2 emissions and length of power outages moreover the korean household is willing to accept an increase of up to 1 39 in its electricity prices relative to 2012 and the median mwtp of each household for rps implementation is krw 734 99 month usd 0 67 month

social costs from proximity to hydraulic fracturing in new york state the study reports data from an economic choice experiment to determine the likely welfare impacts of hydraulic fracturing in this case using natural gas extracted by hydraulic fracturing for household electricity data were collected from an internet survey of 515 residents of new york state the welfare analysis indicated that on average households incur a welfare loss from in state hydraulic fracturing as the source of their electricity the evidence suggests that households in shale counties bear more costs from hf electricity than households out of shale counties the average welfare loss is substantive estimated at 40 46 of average household electric bills in shale counties and 16 20 of bills in counties without shale the evidence also suggests that relative proximity to hf well sites also increases cost borne by households

policy implications of the purchasing intentions towards energy efficient appliances among china s urban residents do subsidies work incentive policies are always used to sway purchase retail stocking and production decisions toward energy efficient products by many countries or regions so the effectiveness of such subsidies has been of much concern to scholars this research focused on whether or not subsidy policies have guided people s intentions and behaviours we investigated 436 urban residents from 22 provinces in china covering the seven major geographic regions and made an empirical analysis of the factors influencing chinese urban residents purchasing intentions towards energy efficient appliances based on the structural equation model on theoretical aspect we developed the theory of planned behaviour our results show that the variable policy is insignificant which indicates that policy environment and media propaganda in china do not have significant effect on chinese residents willingness to pay for energy efficient appliances while the residents environmental awareness past purchasing experiences social relationships age and level of education all exert a significant influence on chinese residents purchasing intentions finally based on the above research results the corresponding policy suggestions which mainly focus on the time of subsidy the object of subsidy and the method of subsidy are offered for policy makers

willingness to pay for renewable energy primary and discretionary choice of british households for micro generation technologies this paper documents the policy context of renewable energy production in the european union the research adopts a choice experiment approach to investigate households wtp for these renewable energy technologies in the uk the micro generation technologies comprise solar photovoltaic micro wind solar thermal heat pumps and biomass boilers and pellet stoves the study compares the results from conditional and mixed logit models which estimate the distribution of utility coefficients and then derives wtp values as a ratio of the attribute coefficient to the price coefficient with a model in which the wtp distribution is estimated directly from utility in the money space the results suggest that whilst renewable energy adoption is significantly valued by households this value is not sufficiently large for the vast majority of households to cover the higher capital costs of micro generation energy technologies

determinants and policy implications for household electricity saving behaviour evidence from beijing china this research sets out to explore the possibilities for further saving in household electricity consumption through a study of the residents willingness and behavioural characteristics in electricity saving as applied within a chinese context based on an extensive literature review the authors argue that economic benefits policy and social norms and past experience may have a positive correlation with household electricity saving behaviour while the discomfort caused by electricity saving activities may exert a negative effect on it through a sample of 816 randomly selected residents in beijing the propositions are examined using logit regression analysis the conclusions support the ideas concerning both the positive influence of economic benefits policy and social norms and past experience as they affect broader electricity saving behaviour and the negative influence of the discomfort caused by electricity saving activities finally some inferences are drawn and suggestions are offered for policy makers and further studies

public support for reducing us reliance on fossil fuels investigating household willingness to pay for energy research and development abstract in order to reduce future dependence on foreign oil and emissions of co2 how much would us households be willing to pay annually to support increased energy research and development r d activities designed to replace fossil fuels does it matter whether the r d includes nuclear energy options we explore these questions using data from a unique set of national telephone and internet surveys using a national advisory referendum format the contingent valuation method is applied to estimate annual household willingness to pay wtp for us household support of a national energy research and development fund erdf for investments in energy sources not reliant on fossil fuels while accounting for the level of un certainty in voting responses the wtp modeling includes a comparison of both classic maximum likelihood estimation mle and bayesian analysis evidence indicates that mle and bayesian analysis achieve similar statistical inference while the bayesian analysis provides a narrower confidence interval around estimated wtp

analyzing korean consumers latent preferences for electricity generation sources with a hierarchical bayesian logit model in a discrete choice experiment generally consumers use electricity without considering the source the electricity was generated from since different energy sources exert varying effects on society it is necessary to analyze consumers latent preference for electricity generation sources the present study estimates korean consumers marginal utility and an appropriate generation mix is derived using the hierarchical bayesian logit model in a discrete choice experiment the results show that consumers consider the danger posed by the source of electricity as the most important factor among the effects of electricity generation sources additionally korean consumers wish to reduce the contribution of nuclear power from the existing 32 11 and increase that of renewable energy from the existing 4 32

renewables portfolio individual preferences and social values towards res technologies abstract the massive deployment of renewable energy sources represents a high priority for greece in order to comply with the directive 2009 28 ec on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources by 2020 in this perspective aegean islands especially lesvos are endowed with a considerable potential of a portfolio of renewables a fact that the entrepreneurial interest has already been targeted however regulatory attempts for a massive penetration of renewables do not take seriously into account preferences and risk perceptions of local communities where the proposed projects are to be installed the aim of this study is to investigate individual preferences and social values towards specific technologies of renewables in lesvos island we apply an open ended contingent valuation survey in order to analyze factors shaping public attitudes towards a portfolio of renewable technologies and estimate the economic welfare willingness to pay of the preferred technologies we argue that such information is relevant for energy policy design and the establishment of effective measures for the promotion of renewable energy sources

nonparametric estimation of the effects of advertising the case of lydia pinkham this article reexamines some of the issues raised subsequent to the classical research by palda 1964 we use a nonparametric estimation method that allows us to incorporate both seasonal and smoothness constraints to estimate the parameters of a demand function using monthly data on lydia pinkham s vegetable compound the analysis indicates that the parameters of the estimated demand equation are not constant throughout the long period of the data which covers the whole life cycle of the product

seasonality in dynamic regression models this paper examines the implications of treating seasonality as an unobserved component which changes slowly over time this approach simplifies the specification of dynamic relationships by separating non seasonal from seasonal factors we illustrate this approach using the consumption model of davidson et al 1978 and estimate a stable error correction model between consumption income and prices over the period 1958 92 more generally we argue that autoregressive models are unlikely to successfully model slowly changing seasonality and may confound seasonal effects with the dynamic responses of prime interest our approach can be used in a wide range of cases and we show that there is little loss in efficiency even if seasonality is deterministic

consumers willingness to pay for green electricity a meta analysis of the literature at present electricity generated from power plants using renewable sources costs more than electricity generated from power plants using conventional fuels consumers bear these expenses directly or indirectly through higher prices for renewable energy or taxes the number of studies published over the last few years focusing on people s preferences for renewables has increased steadily making it more and more difficult to identify key explanatory factors that determine people s willingness to pay wtp for renewables we present results of a meta regression on valuation of consumer preferences for a larger share of renewable energy in their electricity mix our meta regression results reveal a number of important factors that explain the differences in wtp values for renewable energy different valuation methods show widely different values with choice experiments producing the highest estimates our results further indicate that consumers wtp for green electricity differs by source with hydropower being the least valued variables that are often omitted from primary valuation studies are important in explaining differences in values these variables describe individual and household characteristics as well as information on the type of power plant that will be replaced by renewables further the marginal effect of a survey conducted in the us is pronounced we also assess the potential for using the results for out of sample value transfer and find a median error of 21 c 2015 elsevier b v all rights reserved

public acceptance of biofuels abstract the public acceptance of biofuels in greece is examined in this work the analysis of 571 face to face interviews shows that 90 7 of the respondents believe that climatic changes are related to fossil fuel consumption while only 23 8 know the difference between biodiesel and bioethanol 76 1 believe that energy saving should precede the use of an alternative source of energy only 27 3 believe that priority must be given to biofuels over other renewable energy sources only 49 9 think that the use of biofuels can be an effective solution against climatic changes and 53 9 believe that the use of biofuels can be an effective solution for the energy problem finally 80 9 of the car owners are willing to use biofuels 44 8 are willing to pay the supplementary amount of 0 06 l of the fuel market price while the average amount reported as willing to pay was 0 079 l on top of the fuel market price furthermore eight models correlating the eight main responses with several socioeconomic variables are developed and analyzed those findings heave important policy implications related to the use and promotion of biofuels

compound real options valuation of renewable energy projects the case of a wind farm in serbia abstract renewable energy sources have become a very important issue due to environmental and sustainability concerns in addition most renewable energy electricity generation res e projects are characterized by considerable uncertainty and sequential decision making these projects net present value npv is very often close to zero which renders them a good candidate for the application of real options valuation methodology of investment project appraisal this paper examines the real options valuation of a potential onshore wind farm project in serbia the binomial tree model spans a 15 year period consisting of a 2 year investment period and a 13 year operating period the first 12 years of which are protected by feed in tariffs according to local renewable energy regulations the authors examine a multi phased compound nested path dependent real option consisting of mutually exclusive options a sequential option to invest as well as expand repower contract and abandon options volatility which is calculated by means of a monte carlo simulation according to the logarithmic present value returns approach shows predominant sensitivity to the capacity factor simulated with the rescaled weibull s probability distribution the final binomial tree results show that the proposed sequence of options increases project value by transforming higher risk and lower return in the initial discounted cash flow model to lower risk and higher return in the ro model this paper contributes to the existing literature in at least two ways it presents in depth analysis of the real option application to the res e project and provides decision makers with sophisticated tool for improving strategic thinking capital budgeting and decision making processes

publics knowledge attitudes and behavioral toward the use of solar energy in yemen power sector abstract this paper presents the information of the public s views on the solar energy use in yemen it examines the public knowledge of attitudes and behavioral intentions that include the variables willingness to pay willingness to change and willingness to invest and then compare them a personal interview with 348 urban household and 258 rural household was performed the descriptive statistics chi square for independence odds ratios mann whitney and kruskal wallis tests were the statistical tools employed in the analysis the results showed that the citizens in both areas have a moderate level of knowledge about renewable energy resources the benefits and drawbacks of solar energy use in the power sector and the solar power technologies despite that they have highly positive attitudes towards the use of renewable energy particularly solar energy and its technologies they also accept to engage in the renewable energy activities which aim to improve the quality of the electrical service provided in the country the findings also indicate 66 55 7 and 78 4 of urban citizens are willing to pay to change and to invest compared to 70 55 4 and 75 6 of rural citizens the place of residence factor affected significantly the citizens knowledge level about renewable energy wind biomass and geothermal energy renewable energy resources the drawbacks of solar energy use in the power sector and the solar power technologies it also affected significantly the citizens attitudes towards the use of solar power technologies at home the implications for the policymakers are that elevating the knowledge and awareness of the citizens by formal and informal education and enacting effective supportive policies assists in encouraging the citizens to use renewable energies in their daily lives would lead to achieve the country s renewable energy targets for 2025

mandatory versus voluntary payment for green electricity summary renewable energy sources have a critical role to play in contributing to the diversity sustainability and security of energy supplies the main objective of the paper is to gain an understanding of the support mechanism of renewable energy sources most preferred by households in the united kingdom this paper analyses households preferences and willingness to pay under a mandatory scheme where all households contribute compared to a voluntary scheme where only those who wish to pay to support renewables do so such as the green tariffs offered by electricity suppliers in the uk two self designed contingent valuation method cvm surveys are used to explore whether the type of payment option has an impact on households willingness to pay wtp for increasing share of renewable energy in electricity generation the paper also investigates whether the type of payment mode affects respondents self reported certainty of paying their stated valuations the results indicate that the likelihood of paying a positive amount for supporting renewable energy is higher under a mandatory scheme compared to a voluntary payment option in the uk respondents have a higher level of certainty in paying their stated wtp under a mandatory payment scheme

a new paradigm for valuing non market goods using referendum data maximum likelihood estimation by censored logistic regression abstract this paper challenges the w m hanemann amer j agr econom 66 332 341 1984 and c sellar j p chavas and j r stoll j environ econom management 13 382 390 1986 utilizations of logit models to estimate the value of non market resources from referendum survey data these data are more informative than conventional choice data the random utility interpretation of logit models is therefore too restrictive bypassing the utility function entirely it will be shown that parameters and standard errors for utility theoretic inverse hicksian demand functions can be extracted directly and much more simply estimated demand functions need not be limited to those corresponding to the linear in parameters utility difference specifications which can be handled by packaged logit programs

wind farm externalities and public preferences for community consultation in ireland a discrete choice experiments approach abstract in ireland the deployment of onshore wind turbines has become progressively more difficult in some areas because of the potential negative externalities associated with their operation using a discrete choice experiment dce we employ a willingness to accept framework to estimate the external effects of wind turbines on local residents with the inclusion of community consultation and to quantify the compensation required to permit wind farms to be built in ireland our findings reveal that the majority of respondents are willing to make monetary tradeoffs to allow for wind power initiatives and we find that respondents require less compensation if provision is made for a community representative and setback distance is increased

willingness to pay lip service applying a neuroscience based method to wtp for green electricity abstract consumers willingness to pay wtp represents a central question for providers of renewable energy most studies on the subject have used contingent valuation and choice experiments however all empirical designs employed to date suffer from serious biases such as strategic behavior we introduce a novel neuroscience based approach to renewable energy related wtp research neuropricing which eliminates some of these biases we tested consumers wtp for two different green electricity products and found wtp for these products to be about 15 above that for a non green electricity tariff our results suggest that neuropricing is indeed able to eliminate strategic behavior moreover this approach allows for wtp studies with much smaller sample sizes than traditional methods require the neuroscience methodology can be used by researchers and marketers alike not only for testing the effects of product attributes on wtp but also for evaluating wtp effects of specific messages in marketing communications thus it may lead to a better understanding of consumer behavior and hence facilitate more successful marketing of renewable energy

citizen versus consumer challenges in the uk green power market abstract this paper investigates the potential advantages and disadvantages of green power products as opposed to the traditional fossil fuel levy which was the uk s chosen tax regime as a means of developing renewable energy in the uk willingness to pay for electricity generated from renewables is investigated results indicate that willingness to pay varies with social status and income however results demonstrate that there is a significant minority in full support of some sort of fiscal initiative electricity generated from renewables is a concept supported by the majority however given the stated willingness to pay it is unlikely that any new renewable capacity will result from green tariff schemes in the near term it is concluded that the green citizen must continue to co exist with the green power purchaser if the uk is to make any significant improvement in the contribution of renewable energy to electricity demand the authors would like to acknowledge the support of irene lorenzoni and jane powell of the centre for social and economic research on the global environment university of east anglia leicester energy efficiency advice centre and leicester energy agency

advertising quality and sales this paper investigates claims that firm specific effects in advertising sales models can be attributed to a positive correlation between advertising and product quality using a standard koyck transformation on an unbalanced panel dataset of uk firms the implied long lasting effects of advertising disappear when firm specific effects are taken into account this conclusion is robust to various econometric approaches however when the firm specific effects are retrieved they are found to correlate strongly with mean advertising there is no discernible link between the firm specific effects and whether a firm perceives quality to be an important form of competition in its market the results give no support to the idea that advertising affects sales through associated product quality they are consistent with the persistence of advertising within firms over time

post walrasian and post marxian economics it is widely believed that the failure of the socialist experiment should have had a devastating effect on radical economics yet radical economics is not only alive and well but flourishing years before the official demise of marxist socialism they had broadened their critique of standard economics well beyond the received marxist literature indeed their arguments offered striking parallels with the mainstream critiques of walrasian economics provided by the newly developing strand of thought i shall refer to as information economics in walrasian economics information is free moreover there are no costs associated either with making or enforcing contracts but with imperfect and costly information and incomplete risk markets the field of information economics has established that 1 in general markets are not constrained pareto efficient 2 markets may not clear 3 markets may not exist or when they exist may be thin 4 rents are pervasive and indeed reputation rents are necessary to ensure that high quality products get produced that workers do not shirk and so on 5 even when there are many participants in a market competition may be highly imperfect and 6 the distribution of income matters for economic efficiency

using contingent valuation to explore willingness to pay for renewable energy a comparison of collective and voluntary payment vehicles abstract this study uses a split sample dichotomous choice contingent valuation survey of 1574 u s residents to explore willingness to pay wtp for renewable energy under collective and voluntary payment vehicles and under government and private provision of the good we also evaluate the impact of participation expectations on stated wtp we find some evidence that when confronted with a collective payment mechanism respondents state a somewhat higher wtp than when voluntary payment mechanisms are used similarly private provision of the good elicits a somewhat higher wtp than does government provision we also find that contingent valuation responses are strongly correlated with expectations for the wtp of others our results shed light on strategic response behavior and the incentive compatibility of different cv designs and offer practical insight into u s household preferences for how to support renewable energy

the impact of managerial networking intensity and market based strategies on firm growth during institutional upheaval a study of small and medium sized enterprises in a transition economy varying institutional environments provide the foundation for a great deal of international business research yet relatively little empirical work has examined the determinants of small and medium sized enterprise sme growth during institutional upheaval although the importance of sme development for economic transition and growth is widely acknowledged our paper addresses this gap in the literature by examining how the competitive strategies of smes evolve during institutional transitions and assessing the implications for firm growth using data collected from 135 smes in 1993 and 200 smes in 2001 we find that managerial networking intensity i e developing and maintaining relationships that may be used for business purposes declines markedly over time whereas the importance of market based strategies increases managerial networking intensity is strongly associated with firm growth early in the institutional transition process but not later market based strategies are not associated with firm growth in either time period drawing on convergent insights from multiple theoretical perspectives we argue that changes in strategy are concurrently driven by socially constructed norms that legitimize new ways of competing and delegitimize old ones and by knowledge acquisition and learning which provide managers with a more diverse set of tools with which to exercise their strategic choices

can renewable energy be financed with higher electricity prices evidence from a spanish region abstract in this paper we estimate the willingness to pay for mix of renewable sources of electric power by means of a discrete choice experiment survey conducted in spain in 2010 two main categories of power supply attributes are explored source of renewable power wind solar and biomass and the origin of such power the findings suggest that most consumers are not willing to pay a premium for increases in the shares of renewable in their electricity mix for two of the three renewable sources considered wind and biomass an increase of the renewable mix would require a discount instead we record positive willing to pay for increases in the share of both solar power and locally generated power however preferences for types of renewable solar and wind are found to be heterogeneous by classifying respondents in two groups according to the implied importance of the share of renewable sources in their power mix we identify a market segment consisting of 20 of respondents that could promote renewable energy in the absence of subsidies this is because such a segment shows willingness to pay higher than the current feed in tariffs

cointegration analysis of the advertising sales relationship the examination of stochastic properties of the annual advertising and sales data from the lydia pinkham company reveals that the series are cointegrated and therefore possess a long run equilibrium condition according to the estimates of the error correction model of the series in the short run advertising is found to be more responsive than sales in adjustments to eliminate departures from the long run equilibrium condition the author s analysis in general implies that the observed business firms decision rules fixing advertising spending as a percentage of sales revenue may hold as a long run equilibrium condition copyright 1991 by blackwell publishing ltd

semiparametric analysis to estimate the deal effect curve abstract the marketing literature suggests several phenomena that may contribute to the nature of the relationship between sales and price discounts these phenomena can produce complex nonlinearities and interactions in the deal effect curve that are best captured with a flexible approach because a fully nonparametric regression model suffers from the curse of dimensionality the authors propose a semiparametric regression model store level sales over time are modeled as a nonparametric function of own and cross item price discounts and a parametric function of other predictors the authors compare the predictive validity of the semiparametric model with that of two parametric benchmark models and obtain superior performance the results for three product categories indicate threshold and saturation effects for both ownand cross item temporary price cuts the authors also find that the nature of the own item curve depends on other items price discounts comparisons with restricted model specification

identifying electricity saving potential in rural china empirical evidence from a household survey in recent years there has been a fast growing body of literature examining energy saving potential in relation to electricity however empirical studies focusing on non western nations are limited to fill this gap this study intends to examine the electricity saving potential of rural households in china using a unique data set from the china residential electricity consumption survey crecs in collaboration with the china general social survey cgss conducted nationwide at the household level in rural china we use a stochastic frontier model which allows us to decompose residential electricity consumption into the minimum necessary amount of consumption based on physical characteristics e g house size house age number of televisions or refrigerators and estimate the consumption slack i e the amount of electricity consumption that could be saved which depends on various factors we find that rural households in china are generally efficient in electricity saving and the saving potential is affected by fast information feedback and social demographic characteristics instead of by the averaged electricity price or energy efficiency labelling signals in addition we find no evidence of regional heterogeneity on electricity saving potential for rural households policy implications are derived

what did smith mean by the invisible hand the invisible hand is not a power that makes the good of one the good of all and it is not any of a number of other things it is said to be it is simply the inducement a merchant has to keep his capital at home thereby increasing the domestic capital stock and enhancing military power both of which are in the public interest and neither of which he intended smith s exposition discloses how his rhetorical sallies could disfigure his economics confuse his argument for free trade and make him play fast and loose with facts and the ideas of others

development challenges under the clean development mechanism cdm can renewable energy initiatives be put in place before peak oil abstract the sustainable development aspect of the clean development mechanism cdm under the kyoto protocol is examined with regard to its current impact on crucial developmental issues the paper discusses the immediate and urgent global concerns of developmental needs energy and climate change whilst highlighting their influence on the poor in the developing world the global responses to address the above concerns in terms of renewable energy technologies policies and strategies that can be instrumental in addressing the issues are discussed with main emphasis on the cdm under the kyoto protocol the critical issue of whether the cdm can address poverty alleviation and sustainable development in developing countries is discussed in the context of existing market principles transparency of the mechanism economics and the daunting bureaucratic procedures involved the paper concludes that the cdm if suitably modified can go some way to address sustainable development and alleviate poverty for poor rural areas and not increase emissions by a focus on renewable energy technologies this result can be achieved as the energy consumption of rural sectors is currently so small relative to developed economies that only small additional renewable energy generation capacities are needed to make a measurable difference

korean public s preference for supply security of oil and gas and the impact of protest bidders abstract the korean governmental support for supply security of oil and gas via overseas exploration and production e p projects are publicly criticized because of some poor projects lacking of economic feasibility even though it should be expanded from a long term perspective applying the contingent valuation this study investigates the korean public s preferences for governmental support for overseas oil and gas e p projects the result shows that the governmental support for overseas e p projects rather decreases public utility the primary reason behind this utility decrease is that some respondents protested to bid because of their resistance toward tax increase without guaranteeing the efficient government support this result implies that simple tax increases for expansion of the governmental support may bring about public s strong opposition in order to overcome this public opposition this study suggests that it is necessary to arouse public understanding of the necessity of overseas oil and gas e p projects

economic valuation of an offshore wind farm in greece the role of individual s base state influences and beliefs in the value formation process abstract the increased concern for the impacts of climate change on the environment along with the growing industry of renewable energy sources and especially wind power has made the valuation of environmental services and goods of great significance offshore wind energy is being exploited exponentially and its importance for renewable energy generation is increasing we apply a double bound dichotomous contingent valuation method analysis in order to both a estimating the willingness to pay wtp of greek residents for green electricity produced by offshore wind farm located between the islands of tinos and andros and b identifying factors behind respondents wtp including individual s behaviour toward environment and individual s views on climate change and renewable energy a total of 141 respondents participated in the questionnaire results show that the respondents are willing to pay on average 20 every two months through their electricity bill in return for carbon free electricity and water saving from the wind farm respondents environmental consciousness and their perception towards climate change and renewable energy have a positive effect on their wtp

a resource based theory of the firm knowledge versus opportunism this paper develops a resource based knowledge based theory of the firm its thesis is that the organizational mode through which individuals cooperate affects the knowledge they apply to business activity we focus on the polar cases of organization within a firm as compared to market contracting there will be a difference in the knowledge that is brought to bear and hence in joint productivity under the two options thus as compared to opportunism based transaction cost theory we advance a separate yet complementary answer to the question why do firms exist our aim is to develop an empirically relevant and complementary theory of why firms are formed a theory based on irreducible knowledge differences between individuals rather than the threat of purposeful cheating or withholding of information we assume limited cognitive abilities on the part of individuals bounded rationality and assume that opportunistic behavior will not occur the latter allows us to determine whether resource based

productivity analysis of u s manufacturing using a stochastic coefficients production function in this article we show that the production aggregation and estimation theories that lead to a stochastic coefficients production function are more general than those leading to a fixed coefficients production function estimates of productivity changes implied by these two types of cobb douglas production functions are compared for several u s manufacturing sectors for the period 1955 1982 all of the estimates of the stochastic coefficients cobb douglas function have the right algebraic sign for all industries considered whereas some of the estimates of its fixed coefficients counterpart have the wrong sign

does it matter when a power outage occurs a choice experiment study on the willingness to pay to avoid power outages using a choice experiment survey the marginal willingness to pay wtp among swedish households for reductions in power outages is estimated the results from the random parameter logit estimation indicate that the marginal wtp increases with the duration of the outages and is higher if the outages occur during weekends and during winter months moreover the random parameter logit model allows us to estimate a sample distribution of wtp and we find a significant unobserved heterogeneity in some of the outage attributes given that households have negative welfare effects from outages it is important that policy makers consider these negative impacts on household utility when regulating the swedish electricity market

policy cognition is more effective than step tariff in promoting electricity saving behaviour of residents abstract as a demand response plan the step tariff policy for electricity has been fully implemented for several years in china however it is not clear whether the step tariff policy for electricity is effective therefore we analysed and compared the effectiveness of step tariff policy from two aspects step tariff and policy cognition specifically combining macro scale statistical data and microscopic research data we constructed a regression discontinuity design and binary response model first we tested the correction effect of the step tariff to residential electricity consumption behaviour further combined with cognitive behavioural theory we analysed the role of policy cognition in the occurrence of electricity saving behaviour finally based on the cognitive evaluation theory the impact of residents heterogeneity on their cognitive differences was identified the specific conclusions are as follows 1 the step tariff based on the ramsay strategy cannot effectively correct electricity consumption behaviours as expected 2 compared with the step tariff construction of correct policy cognition has a more significant effect on changing the customary behaviour of electricity consumption 3 policy cognition of residents is heterogeneous and groups with weak policy cognition are accurately identified

what energy levels can the earth sustain abstract several official reports on future global primary energy production and use develop scenarios which suggest that the high energy growth rates of the 20th century will continue unabated until 2050 and even beyond in this paper we examine whether any combination of fossil nuclear and renewable energy sources can deliver such levels of primary energy around 1000 ej in 2050 we find that too much emphasis has been placed on whether or not reserves in the case of fossil and nuclear energy or technical potential in the case of renewable energy can support the levels of energy use forecast in contrast our analysis stresses the crucial importance of the interaction of technical potentials for annual production with environmental factors social political and economic concerns and limited time frames for implementation in heavily constraining the real energy options for the future together these constraints suggest that future energy consumption will be significantly lower than the present level

assessment of korean customers willingness to pay with rps abstract to increase the use of renewable energy the korean government will introduce the renewable portfolio standard rps in 2012 the rps places responsibility for extra renewable energy costs on the consumers and allows price competition among different renewable sources accordingly this study analyzes through the contingent valuation cv the willingness of korean households to pay more for electricity generated by wind photovoltaic pv and hydropower our empirical results show that although the willingness to pay or wtp was highest for wind power and lowest for hydropower the differences in wtp among the renewable sources were statistically insignificant this suggests that korean consumers prefer a renewable portfolio that minimizes power supply costs the average wtp for all three energy types was krw 1562 7 usd 1 350 per month per household which was approximately 3 7 of the average monthly electricity bill in 2010 this amount represents only 58 2 of what the korean government allocated in its budget to the new and renewable energy dissemination program in 2010 thus our results imply that the promotion of the new and renewable energy dissemination program may be difficult only with the wtp for electricity generated from renewable sources specifically the mean wtp will not support the set aside dissemination capacity for pv after 2014

renewable electricity as a differentiated good the case of the republic of korea this paper examines the willingness for korean consumers to pay a premium for renewable electricity under a differentiated good framework by applying the contingent valuation method korean consumers have been required to pay for their use of renewable electricity as of 2012 first we find that korean consumers recognise renewable electricity as a differentiated good from traditional electricity generated from fossil fuels or nuclear energy the mean willingness to pay to use renewable electricity is usd 1 26 per month second we confirm the existence of perfect substitution relationships among variant renewable technologies which suggests that korean consumers do not perceive them as differentiated goods one reason for this perception is that korean consumers are more inclined to favour economic feasibility over sustainability or the availability of the resource stock when choosing between renewable technology types in sum we can say that korean consumers recognise renewable electricity as a differentiated good but that they do not differentiate between variant renewable technologies thus the imposition of the cost of renewable electricity on consumers in the form of increased electricity charges would be acceptable to consumers as long as any price rise properly reflects their preferences

temporal aggregation the data interval bias and empirical estimation of bimonthly relations from annual data in an important study reviewing the literature on econometric studies of the relationship between advertising and sales clarke clarke darral g 1976 econometric measurement of the duration of advertising effects on sales j marketing res 13 november 345 357 concluded that the implied duration interval of the effects of advertising on sales were too long when the studies used annual data a theoretical explanation is provided here for the observation of parameter estimates which vary with the data interval employed in the analysis parameter estimates are developed on the basis of data aggregated at various levels of temporal aggregation and compared with theoretical values it is demonstrated that it is possible to recover bimonthly parameters when only annual data are available

willingness to pay for green power in an unreliable electricity sector part 1 the case of the lebanese residential sector abstract a willingness to pay wtp analysis for renewable based electricity is undertaken for the lebanese residential sector a survey of 600 samples was conducted based on a stratified random sampling method in which energy use and expenditures socioeconomic and demographic characteristics were collected four scenarios for wtp for green power were designed to best reflect the possibilities of integrating renewable energy re sources in lebanon s unreliable electricity sector 1 local system covering partial electricity needs 2 local system covering entire electricity needs 3 utility provided green power covering partial electricity needs and 4 utility provided green power covering entire electricity needs the results based on a tobit model highlight the importance of re options that displace completely the diesel generator sets i e options 2 and 4 other parameters such as ownership of the home age perception of trust in government institutions and awareness of re were also found significant in influencing wtp

the economic value of south korea s renewable energy policies rps rfs and rho a contingent valuation study abstract amid growing environmental awareness the diffusion of renewable energy has attracted greater attention from both the public and policymakers to respond to global environmental concerns the korean government implemented a renewable portfolio standard rps in the electric power sector in 2012 it plans to introduce a renewable fuel standard rfs and a renewable heat obligation rho in the transportation and heating sectors in 2015 and 2016 respectively as such this study applies the contingent valuation method to elicit the willingness of korean households to pay more for their energy bills in order to support enforcement of these three policies the analysis considers the economic values of each individual policy as well as the aggregate value at the national level respondents mean willingness to pay for rps rfs and rho are estimated as 3287 5 4432 9 and 3971 1 korean won per month respectively these are equivalent to 5 8 1 5 and 2 0 respectively of current average monthly electricity transportation and heating expenses although all three policies appear highly feasible a cautious approach is necessary given the large proportion of respondents with zero willingness to pay furthermore although the level of willingness to pay for renewable electricity in korea has increased in recent years it remains low when compared to other leading countries such as japan

theoretical incentive properties of contingent valuation questions do they matter in the field abstract green et al 1998 green d jacowitz k e kahneman d mcfadden d 1998 referendum contigent valuation anchoring and willingness to pay for public goods resource and energy economics 20 2 85 116 show theoretically that stated preference questions about public services can be framed in such ways that if the subjects accept the frame the payoff maximizing behavior will be to answer truthfully one key element of such a theoretically incentive compatible framing is that the hypothetical decision rule specified in the survey instrument is understood to be a majority rule rather than the efficiency rule typically used in cost benefit analysis we conducted field experiments in germany and switzerland to test if a referendum framing as suggested by green et al is effective in reducing strategic misrepresentation in a contingent valuation setting we did not find the expected effects of the framing treatments on stated willingness to pay or on individuals stated beliefs about the social choice context the results do not support hopes that a theoretically incentive compatible framing could be purposefully used to invoke the specific beliefs about the linkage between responses and policy implementation that would make stated preference questions incentive compatible

valuing climate protection through willingness to pay for biomass ethanol abstract this study uses a multi part split sample contingent valuation method cvm and fair share fs survey to better understand the public s valuation of mitigating global climate change through its willingness to pay for biomass or cellulosic ethanol in addition to a basic cvm question a related scenario was developed that asked half of the survey respondents to state their fair share cost to lessen a potential food shortage in the next decade also through the expanded use of cellulosic ethanol three alternative biomass feedstocks were assessed farming residues forestry residues and paper mill wastes and municipal solid wastes overall a slightly larger proportion of respondents were wtp extra for cellulosic ethanol in the basic cvm scenario than in the fs scenario though no significant differences were found in the wtp for the different feedstocks bid curve lognormal regression results for the two models were similar supporting the idea that asking a fs rather than a conventional wtp question may be justifiable in some circumstances such as in cases of a national emergency

carbon capture and storage on its way to large scale deployment social acceptance and willingness to pay in germany abstract carbon capture and storage ccs is an emerging technology to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel fired power plants in the wake of a rapidly changing german energy system ccs can play an important role by means of an online survey among 130 university students in dresden this paper investigates the level and influencing factors of social acceptance of ccs furthermore the individual willingness to pay for ccs and renewable power delivery is measured and compared through a choice model the survey results reveal that the attitude towards ccs is neutral moreover it is shown that acceptance of ccs is an important factor for the willingness to pay the level of willingness to pay for ccs technology is much lower than for renewable energy

social acceptance of renewable energy sources a review of contingent valuation applications abstract this paper presents a literature review addressing the public acceptance of renewable energy as a replacement for fossil fuels in electricity production this review was motivated by the global tendency for a substitution of conventional fuels by renewable energy sources res during the global financial crisis it studies research on the preferences and attitudes of local communities towards investments in renewable energy projects and their perception of the use of new energy technologies in their daily lives through various case studies worldwide an effort is made to identify the parameters that influence consumers energy behaviour together with their interest or lack thereof in the environmental impact of using fossil fuels to produce energy and their willingness to reduce it applications of contingent valuation are examined which are employed to analyse public attitudes towards the use of res for electricity production willingness to pay is observed to be correlated to socioeconomic characteristics including education interest in environmental issues and knowledge of res finally the profile of a typical green energy consumer and appropriate policy paths for the penetration of res into the energy market are outlined

geographic proximity to coal plants and u s public support for extending the production tax credit abstract the production tax credit ptc is an important policy instrument through which the federal government promotes renewable energy development in the united states however the efficacy of the ptc is hampered by repeated expirations and short term extensions and by the general uncertainty surrounding its future status we examine the factors driving variation in public support for the extension of the ptc using a nationally representative internet based survey americans living near a coal fired power plant are significantly more likely to support extending the ptc than are their peers who are more insulated from the externalities of burning coal the evidence for this dynamic was strongest and most statistically significant among subjects experimentally primed to think about the adverse health effects of burning coal raising awareness of the public health ramifications of generating electricity from fossil fuels holds the potential to increase support for renewable energy policies among those living in proximity to coal plants even in a highly politicized policy debate

expected willingness to pay for wind energy in atlantic canada abstract we investigate the demand side of wind energy in three provinces in atlantic canada including new brunswick nova scotia and prince edward island empirical questions addressed include i what are the determinants of the probability of paying a non zero premium for electricity generated using wind technology ii given participation what drives how much more households are willing to pay a month and what is the monthly premium or expected willingness to pay wtp and iii is there heterogeneity in the expected wtp the study design follows the contingent valuation framework and the survey questionnaire follows a payment scale format reducing the starting point bias and reduces the incidence of item non response the data is from a stratified random sample we employ two stage models cragg s hurdle and the two part econometric models in the analysis scope and 0 wtp effects are explicitly explored we find that the overall probability of participation is 0 73 university education income residential property ownership concerns about the presence of wind turbines in neighborhoods and externality affect the likelihood of participation households are willing to pay 14 more per month in energy bill for wind power there is evidence of scope sensitivity the results provide insights on what proportion of the population will participate and how much more they are willing to pay for wind energy

citizens views on electricity use savings and production from renewable energy sources a case study from a greek island abstract a country s economic growth is closely linked to the availability generation distribution and use of energy at the same time the increased rate of global energy consumption is a risk to development and to the efforts to safeguard people s living standards for the future the production of electricity from res substantially contributes to the energy security of states and to environmental protection greece has a valuable and exploitable potential in several res and can significantly increase their use however various significant institutional changes have taken place in greece over the last decades involving changes to the energy mix the penetration of res and attracting foreign investment the present research took place on the island of andros greece with the help of a questionnaire and face to face interviews it is noted that the respondents agree with the need to save energy and to expand the use of green energy they say they are slightly satisfied by the messages given through the mass media they have insufficient information regarding res systems that can be used in households and believe that a major subsidy from the state would lead to their purchase

a natural experiment of the effect of advertising on sales the sasol case the effect of advertising in a major product category petrol on the market share of a brand petrol produced by sasol of south africa was estimated using variants of a koyck distributed lag model our use of a single equation model was supported by granger causality tests showing that advertising caused sales but that sales did not simultaneously cause advertising the situation is a unique natural experiment in that non promotional variables in the marketing mix price location of sale and product characteristics are largely invariant between sasol s petrol and competing brands allowing isolation of the effect of advertising on market share dummy variables were used to allow for the varying effect of different advertising campaigns and thus allow for the quality of advertising copy the results supported the hypotheses that sales are determined by past as well as current advertising expenditures but that the cumulative effects of advertising lasts for months rather than years the major finding

rural versus urban preferences for renewable energy developments development of renewable energy resources such as wind farms and hydro electric schemes are being promoted as a new method of expanding and diversifying employment in rural areas however such energy projects are associated with a range of environmental impacts which might be detrimental to other economic activities such as those based on nature tourism the authors use a choice experiment to quantify peoples preferences over environmental and employment impacts that may result from the deployment of renewable energy projects in rural areas of scotland focussing in particular on any differences between the preferences of urban and rural dwellers and on heterogeneity within these groups rural and urban households are shown to have different welfare gains which are dependent on the type of renewable energy technology and on the scale of project under consideration