analysis and modeling of active occupancy of the residential sector in spain an indicator of residential electricity consumption the growing energy consumption in the residential sector represents about 30 of global demand this calls for demand side management solutions propelling change in behaviors of end consumers with the aim to reduce overall consumption as well as shift it to periods in which demand is lower and where the cost of generating energy is lower demand side management solutions require detailed knowledge about the patterns of energy consumption the profile of electricity demand in the residential sector is highly correlated with the time of active occupancy of the dwellings therefore in this study the occupancy patterns in spanish properties was determined using the 2009 2010 time use survey tus conducted by the national statistical institute of spain the survey identifies three peaks in active occupancy which coincide with morning noon and evening this information has been used to input into a stochastic model which generates active occupancy profiles of dwellings with the aim to simulate domestic electricity consumption tus data were also used to identify which appliance related activities could be considered for demand side management solutions during the three peaks of occupancy

measuring climatic impacts on energy consumption a review of the empirical literature abstract this paper reviews the literature on the relationship between climate and the energy sector in particular we primarily discuss empirical papers published in peer reviewed economics journals focusing on how climate affects energy expenditures and consumption climate will affect energy consumption by changing how consumers respond to short run weather shocks the intensive margin as well as how people will adapt in the long run the extensive margin along the intensive margin further research that uses household and firm level panel data of energy consumption may help identify how energy consumers around the world respond to weather shocks research on technology adoption e g air conditioners will further our understanding of the extensive margin adjustments and their costs we also note that most of the literature focuses on the residential sector similar studies are urgently needed for the industrial and commercial sectors

a public choice model of trade union behaviour and membership it is commonly assumed in the microeconomic literature concerned with trade union behaviour that the union maximises an aggregate utility function defined over homogeneous individuals and that the level of membership is fixed the purpose of this paper is to relax these two assumptions it is suggested below that trade unions may usefully be treated as political organisations comprising heterogeneous individuals and that the effects of union wage policies on the level of membership should be explicitly incorporated into the model consider first the assumption that the union is a homogeneous organisation this is often a convenient simplification but observation of the behaviour and government of trade unions suggests it is hardly realistic trade unions in the united kingdom are large groups based on a complex organisational structure comprising an executive a shop steward system and a body of rank and file members once the union is considered as a complex organisation the question arises as to how members preferences are transmitted through the hierarchical levels each of which may have conflicting aims there are two polar theoretical approaches to this question in the industrial relations literature clegg i980 at one extreme unions are seen as oligarchies unresponsive to members wishes full time officials it is argued secure a monopoly of power to stay in office with the assistance of low membership participation and apathy at the other extreme unions are regarded as organisations which are quasi democratic due to the presence of informal parties or factions the growth of workplace organisation and the existence of voting and postal or workplace balloting these two polar approaches to trade unions as large organisations may be linked up to parallel economic analyses of organisations if it is believed that trade unions are oligarchies then it may be enlightening to apply to unions economic models of bureaucracy or models of the firm comprising both shareholders and management alternatively if it is believed that trade unions are democratic organisations then public choice behavioural models may be enlightening the public choice model is chosen in this paper in preference to modern theories of the firm or of bureaucracies because it is believed that the public choice model represents a closer first approximation to trade union behaviour in the united kingdom although of course some particular unions may better fit the oligarchic model the second major concern of this paper is to relax the assumption of a fixed level of union membership the use of a fixed membership assumption in the

dusenberry s ratcheting of consumption optimal dynamic consumption and investment given intolerance for any decline in standard of living duesenberry s ratcheting consumption demand is derived as a feature of the optimal dynamic consumption and investment policy given extreme habit formation that prevents consumption from falling over time preferences are in effect non time separable extended real valued von neumann morgenstern preferences consumption increases each time wealth reaches a new maximum risky investment is proportional to the excess of wealth over the perpetuity value of current consumption extensions constrain the net rate of decrease in consumption with a constant other than zero add more consumption goods and constrain on the maximal holding of the risky asset as a proportion of wealth these strategies may be useful for the management of university endowments participatory investment accounts and risky arbitrage funds

falling behind the joneses relative consumption and the growth savings paradox abstract concern for individual consumption relative to per capita consumption can induce a fear of falling behind which increases precautionary savings this fear intensifies as societal income growth increases allowing for a positive effect of growth on savings rates

residential peak electricity demand response highlights of some behavioural issues electricity demand response refers to consumer actions that change the utility load profile in a way that reduces costs or improves grid security the focus of demand response has mainly been on the commercial and big industrial sectors because of the large demand reduction that they can offer to the utility grid operators utilities are showing increasing interest in residential demand response rdr rdr can be treated as an energy resource which can be assessed and commercially developed however there are still some issues that remain to be addressed for rdr to be successful these include price unresponsiveness of some residential consumers equity issues and high cost of the metering infrastructure the aim of this paper is to investigate and present some of the challenges in achieving effective voluntary demand reduction based on a review of residential demand response literature as well as the general residential energy use behaviour literature the authors propose the use of a hybrid engineering approach using social psychology and economic behaviour models to overcome these challenges and realize the benefits of supply security and cost management

residential energy demand in oecd countries and the role of irreversible efficiency improvements abstract after undergoing substantial changes during a period of high energy prices household energy demand did not rebound in times of declining energy prices as might have been expected hence other factors such as irreversible improvements in technical efficiency must be understood in order to describe both past and future household energy demand in this paper we consider irreversible efficiency improvements as a major reason for the moderate growth in energy demand after the plummeting of the oil price in 1985 we test different econometric models to take into account efficiency indicators the major conclusions of our investigation are i price elasticities are different for rising and falling prices for the latter they are close to zero implying a low rebound effect in the residential sector ii technical efficiency is an important parameter for describing and forecasting energy demand and iii income elasticities turn out to be higher once we incorporate indicators of technological efficiency in the process of estimating energy demand

invisible energy policies a new agenda for energy demand reduction this article makes the case for a new and ambitious research and governance agenda for energy demand reduction it argues that existing demand side approaches focused on promoting technological efficiency and informed individual consumption are unlikely to be adequate to achieving future carbon emissions reduction goals it points out that very little attention has so far been paid to the impacts of non energy policies on energy demand and it submits that a much fuller integration of energy demand questions into policy is required it advances a general framework supported by illustrative examples for understanding the impacts of non energy policies on energy demand it reflects on why these connections have been so little explored and addressed within energy research and policy and it argues that for all their current invisibility there is nonetheless scope for increasing the visibility of and in effect mainstreaming energy demand reduction objectives within other policy areas researchers and policymakers we contend need to develop better understandings of how energy demand might be made governable and how non energy policies might be revised alone and in combination to help steer long term changes in energy demand

strategic hiring to deter entry by unions abstract this paper presents a model of firms engaging in defensive investments designed to increase the elasticity of their demand for labor before hiring workers this allows them to lower the wage at which unionization of their workers is prevented product differentiation is given as an example of a strategy by which workers are deterred from forming unions

l investissement francais dans les colonies 1876 1940 une autre analyse de l enquete de gouvernement de vichy 1943 this paper presents an econometric model of trade union membership in the united kingdom the empirical model utilizes cyclical variables in the explanation of membership changes and separates the short and long run dynamics explicitly it proves to be a superior specification to previous business cycle models estimated for the united kingdom and predicts satisfatorily the recent decline in membership the inclusion of a dummy variable reflecting the political complexion of the government is the only secular variable which significantly improves equation performance but the composition of changes in employment plays no part in explaining the recent decline in membership copyright 1988 by the london school of economics and political science

race ethnicity and credit card marketing there is a vast literature on discrepancies in consumer credit related to race and ethnicity i explore a pattern that was first identified in aggregate data by han keys and li 2011 in their study of credit access blacks were approximately 27 less likely to receive offers from credit card lenders during the sample period even after controlling for variables such as credit history household income and local economic conditions hispanics were 17 less likely to receive an offer after including controls the discrepancy is robust to lender specific regressions and the inclusion of a large number of explanatory variables my findings imply that marketing is an important area for analysis of discrimination in consumer credit due to the likely need for confidential information in further analysis investigation by an appropriate regulatory agency such as the consumer financial protection bureau would be useful

a portfolio view of consumer credit abstract to compute risk adjusted returns and gauge the volatility of their portfolios lenders need to know the covariances of their loans returns with aggregate returns we use unique credit bureau data to measure individuals covariance risk i e the covariance of their default risk with aggregate consumer default rates and more generally to analyze the distribution of credit including the effects of credit scores we find significant heterogeneity in covariance risk across consumers also the amount of credit they obtain significantly increases with their credit scores and decreases with their covariance risk especially revolving credit though the effect of covariance risk is smaller

on intergenerational immobility evidence that adult credit health reflects the childhood environment we examine the persistence of inequality through credit health linking administrative records from several sources we document that childhood circumstances are strongly predictive of financial fragility in adulthood with credit scores among those from disadvantaged backgrounds nearly 100 points lower and 20 percentage points more likely to qualify as subprime we find evidence this relationship reflects differences in human capital and debt management still neither appears to fully explain the relationship our results reveal another dimension along which childhood circumstances persist into adulthood and could mean the many settings that evaluate individuals based on their credit health help reinforce inequities jel d12 e24 i32

the demand for residential industrial and total electricity 1973 1998 this paper estimates residential industrial and total electricity demand by a partial adjustment approach and by a simultaneous equation approach simultaneous equation models are more appropriate since they provide negative price elasticity estimates for the residential industrial and total electricity samples flow adjustment models yield positive price elasticity estimates in some cases suggesting they fail to identify proper supply considerations that may be influencing prices the simultaneous equation approach suggests that residential customers are more price sensitive than industrial customers weather seems to have the greatest impact on the residential sector and cold weather appears to affect demand more than hot weather

residential energy use and conservation economics and demographics energy consumption in the residential sector offers an important opportunity for conserving resources however much of the current debate regarding energy efficiency in the housing market focuses on the physical and technical determinants of energy consumption neglecting the role of the economic behavior of resident households in this paper we analyze the extent to which the use of gas and electricity is determined by the technical specifications of the dwelling as compared to the demographic characteristics of the residents our analysis is based on a sample of more than 300 000 dutch homes and their occupants the results indicate that residential gas consumption is determined principally by structural dwelling characteristics such as the vintage building type and characteristics of the dwelling while electricity consumption varies more directly with household composition in particular income and family composition combining these results with projections on future economic and demographic trends we find that even absent price increases for residential energy the aging of the population and their increasing wealth will roughly offset improvements in the energy efficiency of the building stock resulting from policy interventions and natural revitalization

residential energy expenditures and the relevance of changes in household circumstances this paper analyses the impact that dwelling characteristics and characteristics and behaviours of household members have on per capita energy expenditures it also analyses whether changes in household socio economic circumstances translate in changes in energy expenditures socio economic characteristics have a moderate impact while dwelling characteristics and especially household size have much larger impacts the largest changes in energy expenditures are due to changes in household size the recent socio demographic trends will make it harder to design policies to effectively reduce the carbon footprint of a country while policies influencing cohabitation and family size may have positive indirect effects

improving the energy efficiency of buildings the impact of environmental policy on technological innovation abstract this paper investigates the impact of alternative environmental policy instruments on technological innovations aiming to improve energy efficiency in buildings the empirical analysis focuses on three main types of policy instruments namely regulatory energy standards in buildings codes energy taxes as captured by energy prices and specific governmental energy r d expenditures technological innovation is measured using patent counts for specific technologies related to energy efficiency in buildings e g insulation high efficiency boilers energy saving lightings the estimates for seven european countries over the 1989 2004 period imply that a strengthening of 10 of the minimum insulation standards for walls would increase the likelihood to file additional patents by about 3 in contrast energy prices have no significant effect on the likelihood to patent governmental energy r d support has a small positive significant effect on patenting activities

determinants of residential space heating expenditures in germany abstract we first examine the determinants of household expenditures on space heating and hot water supply in germany a number of socio economic characteristics of households are included along with building characteristics our analysis covers information on more than 12 000 households in germany for the years 1998 and 2003 the analysis continues by investigating whether different kinds of households are affected differently by increases in energy prices households in owner occupied properties are less affected compared to those in rented accommodation this could be because owners are more likely to have installed energy efficient heating and hot water supply systems and landlords have less of an incentive to improve the conditions of their rented accommodations an energy policy targeting especially the latter group might benefit not only households in rented accommodation but might also increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well

contractual wages and the wage cushion under different bargaining settings how does a typically european bargaining system with collective bargaining and national minimum wage coexist with low unemployment and high wage flexibility a unique data set on workers firms and collective bargaining contracts in portugal is used to analyze the determinants of both the contractual wage and the wage cushion difference between contractual and actual wages the results indicate that the wage cushion stretches the returns to worker and firm attributes whereas it shrinks the returns to union power therefore firm specific arrangements partly offset collective bargaining granting firms certain freedom when setting wages contractual wages reflect trade unions egalitarian policy

who gets credit after bankruptcy and why an information channel abstract conventional wisdom holds that individuals find it difficult to obtain new credit post bankruptcy using credit bureau data we test this hypothesis and show that more than 90 of bankrupt individuals receive credit shortly after filing individuals with good credit history prior to filing have reduced credit availability after bankruptcy while those with ex ante low credit quality receive more credit we show that credit supplied to low quality individuals is severely curtailed during the financial crisis we also find that the default probability on new debt increases after bankruptcy especially among individuals with high ex ante credit score these findings are consistent with an information channel in which bankruptcy reveals new information about a borrower s credit quality

response of residential electricity demand to price the effect of measurement error abstract in this paper we present an empirical analysis of the residential demand for electricity using annual aggregate data at the state level for 48 us states from 1995 to 2007 earlier literature has examined residential energy consumption at the state level using annual or monthly data focusing on the variation in price elasticities of demand across states or regions but has failed to recognize or address two major issues the first is that when fitting dynamic panel models the lagged consumption term in the right hand side of the demand equation is endogenous this has resulted in potentially inconsistent estimates of the long run price elasticity of demand the second is that energy price is likely mismeasured to address these issues we estimate a dynamic partial adjustment model using the kiviet corrected least square dummy variables lsdv 1995 and the blundell bond 1998 estimators we find that the long term elasticities produced by the blundell bond system gmm methods are largest and that from the bias corrected lsdv are greater than that from the conventional lsdv from an energy policy point of view the results obtained using the blundell bond estimator where we instrument for price imply that a carbon tax or other price based policy may be effective in discouraging residential electricity consumption and hence curbing greenhouse gas emissions in an electricity system mainly based on coal and gas power plants

on union preferences and labour market models insiders and outsiders this paper constructs a model of trade union behavior in which there is a distinction between insiders and outsiders this is used to examine one of the most troublesome issues in macroeconomic theory namely the extent to which a rise in aggregate demand might generate wage increases rather than growth in employment a generalization of the most widely used union utility function is presented the analysis reveals the conditions under which insiders will agree to let outsiders into employment derives two step wage preferences and proves a new result on wage rigidity copyright 1987 by royal economic society

mortgage lending in boston interpreting hmda data the home mortgage disclosure act was enacted to monitor minority and low income access to the mortgage market the data collected for this purpose show that minorities are more than twice as likely to be denied a mortgage as whites yet variables correlated with both race and creditworthiness were omitted from these data making any conclusion about race s role in mortgage lending impossible the federal reserve bank of boston collected additional variables important to the mortgage lending decision and found that race continued to play an important though significantly diminished role in the decision to grant a mortgage copyright 1996 by american economic association

elasticities of electricity demand in urban indian households abstract in the past several electricity demand studies have been published for india based on aggregate macro data at the country or sub national state level since the underlying theory of consumer demand is based on the behaviour of individual agents the use of micro data which reflects individual and household behaviour more closely can shed greater light on the nature of consumer responses in this paper seasonal price and income elasticities of electricity demand in the residential sector of all urban areas of india are estimated for the first time using disaggregate level survey data for about 30 000 households three electricity demand functions have been econometrically estimated using monthly data for the winter monsoon and summer season in order to understand the extent to which factors like income prices household size and other household specific characteristics influence variations observed in individual households electricity demand the results show electricity demand is income and price inelastic in all three seasons and that household demographic and geographical variables are significant in determining electricity demand

estimation of residential electricity demand in hong kong under electricity charge subsidies abstract over the past decade the hong kong hk government provided electricity charges subsidies for residential accounts to alleviate the burden of inflation and later the burden of economic downturn in this study we estimate an econometric model of residential electricity demand and test the existence of a stable long run relationship for the period 1980 2016 while accounting for the relief measures set out by the hk government since 2008 empirical results suggest that there exists a long run relationship among residential electricity consumption electricity price income per capita and weather variables temperature or cooling degree days in the absence of electricity charge subsidies the demand is found to be both price and income inelastic on the other hand hk s residential electricity consumers are unresponsive to price and income changes when electricity subsidies are in place following its new carbon reduction plan hk is gradually phasing out coal for electricity generation to replace it mainly with natural gas our results suggest that new residential electricity charge subsidies can lessen the effectiveness of6 climate policies aimed at reducing electricity consumption through increases in the electricity price

analysing households responsiveness towards socio economic determinants of residential electricity consumption in singapore abstract the research of household electricity use is still relatively new for singapore where apart from some government surveys and sparingly available papers not much has been done to understand the underlying socio economic determinants that affect residents energy demand here we seek to quantify price and income elasticities as well as provide reasonable justification for price asymmetry in singapore using a panel approach across dwelling types and geographical areas we find that households do not react much to prices and that price elasticities may decrease as income rises there is also some evidence of price asymmetry with surprising results putting responsiveness towards price decreases larger than price increases this points towards similar behavioural patterns with the rebound effect for household energy efficiency if found present in future studies our findings suggest that there will only be positive responses towards dynamic pricing and higher churn rates if more transparent information is provided on related cost savings when households are exposed to retail choice in the electricity market after full retail competition is introduced in 2018 in addition a large role will have to come from cultivating the young to engage in sustainable practices to achieve energy efficiency targets

residential electricity demand in spain new empirical evidence using aggregate data this paper presents an empirical analysis on residential demand for electricity this analysis has been performed using aggregate panel data at the province level for 47 spanish provinces for the period from 2000 to 2008 for this purpose we estimated a log log demand equation for electricity consumption using a dynamic partial adjustment approach this dynamic demand function has been estimated using a two step system gmm estimator proposed by blundell and bond 1998 the purpose of this empirical analysis is to highlight some of the characteristics of spanish residential electricity demand particular attention has been paid to the influence of price income and weather conditions on electricity demand the estimated short and long run own price elasticities are negative as expected but lower than 1 furthermore weather variables have a significant impact on electricity demand

short and long run elasticities in us residential electricity demand a co integration approach abstract co integration techniques show promise in the analysis of short and long run effects of economic variables on energy use we use these techniques to develop an error correction model of annual us residential electricity demand we construct equipment stock indices and estimate the model for 1949 1993 our analysis suggests a structural shift in consumption during the 1960s we discuss reasons for this shift report the short and long run elasticities provide forecasts for 1994 1995 and compare the model s forecasts with other published forecasts

entrepreneurial finance credit cards and race this paper examines the impact of financial deregulation on entrepreneurship we assess the impact of credit card deregulation on transitions into self employment using state level removal of credit card interest rate ceilings following the us supreme court s 1978 marquette decision as a quasi natural experiment we find that credit card deregulation increases the probability of entrepreneurial entry with a particularly strong effect for black entrepreneurs we demonstrate that these effects are magnified in states with a history of racial discrimination and link the results to discriminationbased barriers to entry 2012 elsevier b v all rights reserved

will affirmative action policies eliminate negative stereotypes a key question concerning affirmative action is whether the labor market gains it brings to minorities can continue without it becoming a permanent fixture in the labor market the authors argue that this depends on how the policy affects employers beliefs about the productivity of minority workers they study the joint determination of employer beliefs and worker productivity in a model of statistical discrimination in job assignments the authors prove that even when identifiable groups are equally endowed ex ante affirmative action can bring about a situation in which employers correctly perceive the groups to be unequally productive ex post copyright 1993 by american economic association

optimal monetary policy in economies with dual labor markets abstract we present a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium dsge new keynesian model with indivisible labor and a dual labor market a walrasian one where wages are fully flexible and a unionized one characterized by real wage rigidity we show that the negative effect of a productivity shock on inflation and the positive effect of a cost push shock are crucially determined by the proportion of firms that belong to the unionized sector the larger this number the larger are these effects consequently the larger the union coverage the larger should be the optimal response of the nominal interest rate to exogenous productivity and cost push shocks the optimal inflation and output gap volatility increases as the number of the unionized firms in the economy increases

combining bottom up and top down abstract we motivate the formulation of market equilibrium as a mixed complementarity problem which explicitly represents weak inequalities and complementarity between decision variables and equilibrium conditions the complementarity format permits an energy economy model to combine technological detail of a bottom up energy system with a second best characterization of the over all economy our primary objective is pedagogic we first lay out the complementarity features of economic equilibrium and demonstrate how we can integrate bottom up activity analysis into a top down representation of the broader economy we then provide a stylized numerical example of an integrated model within both static and dynamic settings finally we present illustrative applications to three themes figuring prominently on the energy policy agenda of many industrialized countries nuclear phase out green quotas and environmental tax reforms

what happens when information leaves a market evidence from postbankruptcy consumers federal law mandates the removal of personal bankruptcies from credit reports after 10 years the removal s effect is market efficiency in reverse the short term effect is a spurious boost in apparent creditworthiness especially for the more creditworthy bankrupts delivering a substantial increase in both credit scores and the number and aggregate limit of bank cards the longer term effect is lower scores and higher delinquency than initial full information scores predict these findings relate to both the debate over the bankruptcy code and the wisdom of influencing market clearing by removing information

modeling household energy expenditure in the united states abstract energy consumption is one of the main source of air pollution greenhouse gas emission and global warming reducing household energy consumption is a key goal of policymakers we develop statistical models using socio economics and demographics building characteristics location temperature and energy prices to estimate household energy expenditure in the u s we use household energy expenditure for more than 560 000 households in the u s from 2010 to 2012 we first employ multivariate regression models to investigate and identify the impacts of the explanatory variables on household energy expenditure next we use principal component analysis pca to convert correlated co linear explanatory variables into orthogonal components and estimate household energy expenditure by principal component regression we find newer attached buildings to be effective in decreasing household energy expenditure particularly among educated people in metropolitan areas with sufficient data availability our model could be used by state regional or even city level policymakers and planners to optimize their infrastructural investments

discrete choice with social interactions this paper provides an analysis of aggregate behavioural outcomes when individual utility exhibits social interaction effects we study generalized logistic models of individual choice which incorporate terms reflecting the desire of individuals to conform to the behaviour of others in an environment of noncooperative decisionmaking laws of large numbers are generated in such environments multiplicity of equilibria in these models which are equivalent to the existence of multiple self consistent means for average choice behaviour will exist when the social interactions exceed a particular threshold local stability of these multiple equilibria is also studied the properties of the noncooperative economy are contrasted with the properties of an economy in which a social planner determines the set of individual choices finally a likelihood function based on the theoretical model is given and conditions for the econometric identifiability of the model are established

determinants of residential space heating expenditures in great britain in great britain several policy measures have been implemented in order to increase energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions in the domestic sector this could for example be achieved by improving space heating efficiency and thus decreasing heating expenditure however in order to efficiently design and implement such policy measures a better understanding of the determinants affecting heating expenditure is needed in this paper we examine the following determinants socio economic factors building characteristics heating technologies and weather conditions in contrast to most other studies we use panel data to investigate household demand for heating in great britain our data sample is the result of an annual set of interviews with more than 5000 households starting in 1991 and ending in 2005 the sample represents a total of 64 000 observations over the fifteen year period our aim is to derive price and income elasticities both for britain as a whole and for different types of household our results suggest that differences exist between owner occupied and renter households these households react differently to changes in income and prices our results also imply that a number of socio economic criteria have a significant influence on heating expenditure independently of the fuel used for heating understanding the impacts of different factors on heating expenditure and impact differences between types of household is helpful in designing target oriented policy measures

a model of redlining abstract we develop a model of mortgage redlining which captures the dynamic information gathering which is implied by the use of appraisals in mortgage granting in our model the precision of appraisals depends on the quantity of previous home sales in turn the precision of appraisals influences current home sales since when appraisals are inaccurate lenders require larger down payments there is thus a dynamic information externality in which past purchases influence current purchases as a consequence differential mortgage lending behavior will be sub optimal and the appearance of redlining may be justifiably subject to corrective action

what constitutes evidence of discrimination in lending we analyze a simple model of bank lending in order to ascertain what can be inferred from relative denial and default rates about lending discrimination we show that if minority applicants are of lower average creditworthiness than majority applicants then contrary to a popular argument a uniform nondiscriminatory credit policy cannot simultaneously produce i higher denial rates for minority applicants and ii equal default rates for minority and majority applicants moreover we show that equality of denial or default rates always implies discrimination in particular equal denial default rates imply discrimination against majority minority applicants is there discrimination in the bank lending market this question has recently attracted attention in the popular press and from federal regulators this interest was spurred by a 1992 boston federal reserve bank study which concludes that minorities are discriminated against in the home mortgage market 1 the study finds that minority applicants in the boston area are sixty percent more likely to be denied a mortgage loan than whites even after controlling for such factors as debt burdens loan to value ratios income and credit histories not surprisingly this conclusion has been controversial critics of the boston fed study have argued that the methodology used by the fed is flawed a representative example is macey 1994 who

racial discrimination and redlining in cities we propose a model where employers have two types of prejudices racial and spatial discriminations because of the rst one black workers have less chance than white workers to nd a job because of the second one workers living closer to the city center have less chances than suburban workers to nd a job in this context we show that depending on the importance of access costs to employment centers two urban equilibria may emerge in equilibrium 1 the access cost for blacks is quite large black and white workers are totally separated while in equilibrium 2 the access cost for blacks is relatively small workers are separated by their employment status the unemployed versus the employed we then study the labor market equilibrium and its interactions with the land market we show in particular that both race and space matter to explain high unemployment rates among blacks

rates for vehicle loans race and loan source a household s vehicle purchases are among its largest expenditure outlays moreover unlike housing purchases which a typical household may make once or twice over a lifetime a house hold may well buy several cars over the same interval the magnitude and relative frequency of vehicle purchases suggest that differential treatment by race in the vehicle market may have important implications for differences in wealth and financial well being by race yet whereas a robust literature in economics has studied virtu

electricity consumption in g7 countries a panel cointegration analysis of residential demand elasticities this article applies recently developed panel unit root and panel cointegration techniques to estimate the long run and short run income and price elasticities for residential demand for electricity in g7 countries the panel results indicate that in the long run residential demand for electricity is price elastic and income inelastic the study concludes that from an environmental perspective there is potential to use pricing policies in the g7 countries to curtail residential electricity demand and thus curb carbon emissions in the long run

temperature and seasonality influences on spanish electricity load abstract deregulation of the spanish electricity market in 1998 and the possible listing of electricity or weather derivative contracts have encouraged the study of the relationship between electricity demand and weather in spain in this paper a transfer function intervention model is developed for forecasting daily electricity load from cooling and heating degree days the influence of weather and seasonality is proved and is significant even when the autoregressive effects and the dynamic specification of the temperature are taken into account the estimated general model shows a high predictive power the results and information presented in this paper could be of interest for current users and potential traders in the deregulated spanish electricity market

do liquidity constraints and interest rates matter for consumer behavior evidence from credit card data this paper utilizes a unique new dataset of credit card accounts to analyze how people respond to changes in credit supply the data consist of a panel of thousands of individual credit card accounts from several different card issuers with associated credit bureau data we estimate both marginal propensities to consume mpcs out of liquidity and interest rate elasticities we also evaluate the ability of different models of consumption to rationalize our results distinguishing the permanent income hypothesis pih liquidity constraints precautionary saving and behavioral models we find that increases in credit limits generate an immediate and significant rise in debt counter to the pih the average mpc out of liquidity ddebt dlimit ranges between 10 14 the mpc is much larger for people starting near their limits consistent with binding liquidity constraints however the mpc is significant even for people starting well below their limit we show this response is consistent with buffer stock models of precautionary saving nonetheless there are other results that conventional models cannot easily explain e g why so many people are borrowing on their credit cards and simultaneously holding low yielding assets unlike most other studies we also find strong effects from changes in account specific interest rates the long run elasticity of debt to the interest rate is approximately 1 3 less than half of this elasticity represents balance shifting across cards with most reflecting net changes in total borrowing the elasticity is larger for decreases in interest rates than for increases which can explain the widespread use of temporary promotional rates the elasticity is smaller for people starting near their credit limits again consistent with liquidity constraints

do lenders discriminate against minority and woman entrepreneurs abstract this paper draws on a conceptual analysis of discrimination to improve the methodology for estimating discrimination in small business credit markets and to provide some evidence about the possible causes of discrimination in these markets using a variety of statistical enhancements to existing studies we find statistically significant evidence of substantial discrimination in loan approval against black owned and hispanic owned businesses in 1998 we also find some hints that this discrimination takes the form of statistical discrimination driven by lenders stereotypes about the ability of black and hispanic owned businesses to succeed under some circumstances although we find no discrimination on average in interest rates on approved loans we also find that black owned businesses do face discrimination in interest rates when they borrow from finance companies and businesses such as mutual fund companies and leasing companies with a primary mission other than lending these findings suggest that federal financial regulatory agencies should re double their efforts to uncover and prosecute lenders who discriminate against black and hispanic owned businesses and that new tools may be needed to find discrimination by firms not well covered by the existing fair lending enforcement system

demand for space heating in apartment blocks measuring effects of policy measures aiming at reducing energy consumption abstract panel data covering the period 1984 1995 on energy consumption and technical characteristics of apartment blocks from denmark are analysed in order to measure effects of policy measures aimed at reducing the consumption of energy for space heating results indicate that building regulations have been important in reducing energy consumption in new buildings furthermore conditional price responses are estimated to be relatively small or non existent indicating small short run effects of fuel taxes on energy consumption in apartment blocks finally a consultancy scheme implemented with the purpose of improving knowledge about the potential for energy savings is found to have had moderate effects

redlining in boston do mortgage lenders discriminate against neighborhoods historically lenders have been accused of redlining minority neighborhoods as well as refusing to lend to minority applicants considerable bank regulation is designed to prevent both actions however the strong correlation between race and neighborhood makes it difficult to distinguish the impact of geographic discrimination from the effects of racial discrimination previous studies have failed to untangle these two influences in part because of severe omitted variable bias the data set in this paper allows the distinct effects of race and geography to be identified and it shows that the evidence for redlining is weak

residential energy demand in the united states analysis using static and dynamic approaches abstract the residential sector is the main consumer of energy in the united states and reducing energy consumption is an important goal for policymakers in each state to know how reducing residential energy demand could be achieved this study develops a set of static and dynamic models to investigate and identify the impact of socio economic and demographic characteristics building age energy prices and weather conditions on residential energy demand at the state level from 2005 to 2013 next this study proposes two alternative scenarios to reduce residential energy demand based on the most precise model for every 10 000 dollars of per capita income in each state 1 increasing residential electricity price by 1 cent per kw h and 2 decreasing average building age by 1 in the first scenario the findings indicate that annual residential electricity demand would decrease by 7 3 on average with the highest reductions in washington 11 9 north dakota 10 9 and idaho 9 7 in the second scenario residential gas demand would decrease by an average of 15 8 annually with the highest reduction in connecticut 33 2 followed by new york 33 0 and massachusetts 30 7 these proposed scenarios assist policymakers in optimizing decisions and investments to reduce residential energy consumption

renewable energy consumption and economic growth evidence from a panel of oecd countries abstract this study examines the relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth for a panel of twenty oecd countries over the period 1985 2005 within a multivariate framework given the relatively short span of the time series data a panel cointegration and error correction model is employed to infer the causal relationship the heterogeneous panel cointegration test reveals a long run equilibrium relationship between real gdp renewable energy consumption real gross fixed capital formation and the labor force with the respective coefficients positive and statistically significant the granger causality results indicate bidirectional causality between renewable energy consumption and economic growth in both the short and long run

credit card redlining abstract this paper evaluates the presence of racial disparities in the issuance of consumer credit using a database of credit histories i link location based information on race with individual credit files after controlling for place specific factors such as housing vacancy rates and general population demographics i find qualitatively large differences in the amount of credit offered to similarly qualified applicants living in black versus white areas high data quality allows distinguishing between issuer provision supply and utilization of credit demand additional estimates using information on payday lending provide support for idea that issuers condition lending on location

a general equilibrium model of statistical discrimination we study a general equilibrium model with endogenous human capital formation in which ex ante identical groups may be treated asymmetrically in equilibrium the interaction between an informational externality and general equilibrium effects creates incentives for groups to specialize discrimination may arise even if the corresponding model with a single group has a unique equilibrium the dominant group gains from discrimination rationalizing why a majority may be reluctant to eliminate discrimination the model is also consistent with reverse discrimination as a remedy against discrimination since it may be necessary to decrease the welfare of the dominant group to achieve parity

democracy of credit ownership and the politics of credit access in late twentieth century america in recent years sociologists have noted the increasing centrality of credit for determining life chances in our society but they have not given adequate attention to the credit market as a key site where individuals assert claims over economic resources this article explores distinctive features of the credit transaction that differentiate claims making in the credit market from more familiar forms of claims making in the labor market rather than the quid pro quo exchange between formal equals that characterizes the wage relation the extension of credit creates an obligation that marks the debtor as inferior to the creditor the hierarchical and asymmetrical nature of the loan contract appears to erode the possibility for effective political demands in this arena however this article demonstrates that to the extent the status of ownership is institutionalized in the credit transaction borrowers may be able to overcome some of the disadvantages associated with occupying the weaker position in an

short and long run time of use price elasticities in swiss residential electricity demand abstract this paper presents an empirical analysis on the residential demand for electricity by time of day this analysis has been performed using aggregate data at the city level for 22 swiss cities for the period 2000 2006 for this purpose we estimated two log log demand equations for peak and off peak electricity consumption using static and dynamic partial adjustment approaches these demand functions were estimated using several econometric approaches for panel data for example lsdv and re for static models and lsdv and corrected lsdv estimators for dynamic models the attempt of this empirical analysis has been to highlight some of the characteristics of the swiss residential electricity demand the estimated short run own price elasticities are lower than 1 whereas in the long run these values are higher than 1 the estimated short run and long run cross price elasticities are positive this result shows that peak and off peak electricity are substitutes in this context time differentiated prices should provide an economic incentive to customers so that they can modify consumption patterns by reducing peak demand and shifting electricity consumption from peak to off peak periods

residential electricity demand in taiwan this paper examines the residential demand for electricity in taiwan as a function of household disposable income population growth the price of electricity and the degree of urbanization short and long term effects are separated through the use of an error correction model in the long run the income elasticity is unit elastic the own price effect is negative and inelastic in an error correction framework the short run income and price effects are small and less than the long run effects cooling degree day effects have a positive impact on short run consumption we have used a proxy variable urbanization to capture economic development characteristics and changes in electricity using capital stocks not explained by income the variable provides significant explanatory power to the model both in the short and long run we interpret it as controlling for economic development factors not captured by the pure income effect and we think it holds promise for explaining residential electricity consumption in other developing countries

can environmental sustainability be used to manage energy price risk energy security issues and climate change are two of the most pressing problems facing society and both of these problems are likely to increase energy price variability in the coming years this paper develops and estimates a model of a company s energy price exposure and presents evidence showing that increases in a company s environmental sustainability lowers its energy price exposure this result is robust across two different measures of energy prices these results should be useful to companies seeking new ways of addressing energy price risk as well as governments concerned about the impact that energy price risk can have on economic growth and prosperity

an empirical analysis of electricity consumption in cyprus abstract the paper presents the first empirical analysis of electricity consumption in cyprus using annual data from 1960 to 2004 we have examined electricity use in the residential and the services sectors which are the fastest growing electricity consumers in the island and its interaction with income prices and the weather the analysis was performed with the aid of time series analysis techniques such as unit root tests with and without a structural break in levels cointegration tests vector error correction models granger causality tests and impulse response functions results show long term elasticities of electricity use above unity for income and of the order of 0 3 to 0 4 for prices in the short term electricity consumption is rather inelastic mostly affected by weather fluctuations granger causality tests confirm exogeneity of electricity prices and bidirectional causality between residential electricity consumption and private income the commercial sector is less elastic and reverts faster to equilibrium than the residential sector despite the relatively small sample size results reported here are quite robust and can be used for forecasts and policy analyses

residential electricity consumption in portugal findings from top down and bottom up models an econometric study of the portuguese residential electricity consumption is presented with a focus on the influence of dwelling characteristics on consumption the relationship between the dwelling and household characteristics on per capita residential electricity consumption is estimated at two different scales involving two distinct databases the first includes data at the municipality level for 2001 the second is the most recent portuguese consumer expenditure survey that was collected in 2005 and 2006 the results of the analysis at both scales are consistent and indicate that household and dwelling characteristics have a significant influence on residential electricity consumption our results show that in portugal the direct effect of income on electricity consumption is low and becomes smaller when more relevant control variables are included in the analysis future demand of electricity in portugal will be significantly influenced by trends in socioeconomic factors as well as changes in the building stock these trends should be taken in consideration in the formulation of policy measures to reduce electricity consumption

revisiting the role of labor worker solidarity employer opposition and the development of old age pensions in the netherlands and the united kingdom the purpose of this article is to emphasize the importance of the organizational blueprint of labor unions for welfare state outcomes as a result of the tendency of scholars to view labor as a homogenous and disadvantaged class the existing literature has paid little attention to this many scholars have simply taken labor union support for welfare state development for granted and consequently have focused only on labor union strength this article argues rather that labor union support for welfare state development cannot be taken for granted it shows that labor unions support or oppose welfare state development depending on their organizational blueprint this new approach highlights the importance of the labor union movement s organizational structure as opposed to its organizational strength for welfare state outcomes the article also explores how the organizational structure of the labor union movement shapes the stance of employer interest groups toward welfare state development the empirical findings are based on a comparison of british and dutch postwar old age pension development

estimating residential demand for electricity in the united states 1965 2006 abstract this paper examines the residential demand for electricity in the us economy as a function of the per capita income the price of electricity the price of oil for heating purposes the weather conditions and the stock of occupied housing over the period 1965 2006 this paper has two novelties first the occupied stock of houses as a proxy for the stock of electrical appliances and second the identification of a possible equilibrium relationship among the variables is ascertained through the recently advanced ardl approach to cointegration our empirical findings give support to a stable long run relationship implying also short run and long run elasticities whose size and sign are comparable to other similar studies

trade union behaviour and inter regional variations in unemployment rates an important problem in the political economy of the uk is that the disparity of unemployment rates across its regions is much more marked than the corresponding dispersion of wage rates one possibility is that this is due to the attitude of trade unions to their members in different regions if unions wish to preserve parity between members in different regions then they will value wage equality between regions over and above wage levels this may then persuade them to overlook inter regional productivity differences in setting wages the price that low efficiency regions will then pay for this desire for wage equality is higher unemployment rates

veblen effects in a theory of conspicuous consumption the authors examine conditions under which veblen effects arise from the desire to achieve social status by signaling wealth through conspicuous consumption while veblen effects cannot ordinarily arise when preferences satisfy a single crossing property they may emerge when this property fails in that case budget brands are priced at marginal cost while luxury brands though not intrinsically superior are sold at higher prices to consumers seeking to advertise wealth luxury brands earn strictly positive profits under conditions that would with standard formulations of preferences yield marginal cost pricing the authors explore factors that induce veblen effects and they investigate policy implications copyright 1996 by american economic association

the social return on investment in the energy efficiency of buildings in germany the german government has developed a variety of policy instruments intended to reduce national co2 emissions these instruments include a programme administered by kfw bank which aims at improving the energy efficiency of buildings it provides attractive credit conditions or subsidies to finance refurbishment measures which improve the energy efficiency of buildings significantly the refurbishment programme leads to a reduction in energy use which benefits private investors by reducing their energy bills in order to estimate whether the programme benefits society as a whole additional effects must be taken into account such as the amount of employment generated and the impact on the public budget the aim of this paper is to evaluate the social benefits of the german co2 refurbishment programme for the years 2005 2007 an extended input output model is used to estimate the effect of the refurbishment works on public revenue via taxes and social security contributions the value of avoided co2 emissions is approximated using a range of marginal damage estimates from the literature from these social benefits the programme cost is deducted the net social benefit thus computed turns out to be positive this finding suggests that the refurbishment programme is a reasonable investment of public funds

emulation inequality and work hours was thorsten veblen right we investigate the manner in which a desire to emulate the rich influences individuals allocation of time between labour and leisure greater inequality inducing longer work hours as a result data on work hours in ten countries over the period 1963 98 show that greater inequality is indeed associated longer work hours these veblen effects are large and the estimates are robust using country fixed effects and other specifications because consumption inequality is a public bad a social welfare optimum cannot be implemented by a flat tax on consumption but may be accomplished by more complicated progressive consumption taxes at the close of the nineteenth century thorsten veblen proposed what he termed pecuniary emulation as the foundation of a theory of consumption spending he maintained is driven by relative status considerations that is by the desire to be a particular type of person as much as bythedesire to enjoytheconsumer goodsper se the joneses with whom one had to keep up were not the neighbours but the rich theirleveloflivingbecamethenever attainableobjectiveinaconsumptionarmsrace among the less well to do in the theory of the leisure class he wrote the motive is emulation the stimulus of an invidious comparison especially in any community in which class distinctions are quite vague all canons and reputability and decency and all standards of consumption are traced back by insensible gradations to the usages and thoughts of the highest social and pecuniary class the wealthy leisure class 1934 p 81 while valued by some economists as capturing common sense aspects of consumption as a form of status seeking veblen s view of social preferences was soon eclipsed by the simpler and more tractable neoclassical theory of the consumer relegated to the underworld of economics veblen s ideas have nonetheless resonated over the ensuing years in the writing of duesenberry 1949 leibenstein 1950 and galbraith 1958 at the middle of the past century and schor 1998

price and income elasticities of residential energy demand in germany we apply a quadratic expenditure system to estimate price and expenditure elasticities of residential energy demand electricity and heating in germany using official expenditure data from 1993 to 2008 we estimate an expenditure elasticity for electricity of 0 3988 and of 0 4055 for space heating the own price elasticity for electricity is 0 4310 and 0 5008 in the case of space heating disaggregation of households by expenditure and demographic composition reveals that the behavioural response to energy price changes is weaker stronger for low income top income households there are considerable economies of scale in residential energy use but scale effects are not well approximated by the new oedc equivalence scale real increases in energy prices show a regressive pattern of incidence implying that the welfare consequences of direct energy taxation are larger for low income households the application of zero elasticities in assessments of welfare consequences of energy taxation strongly underestimates potential welfare effects the increase in inequality is 22 smaller when compared to the application of rich and disaggregated behavioural response patterns as estimated in this paper