trading partner choice and bargaining culture in negotiations abstract in negotiated transactions the act of choosing trading partners and who chooses creates a bargaining culture that influences trading behavior results are presented from experimental markets in which paired buyers and sellers negotiate the repeated sale of units relative to a market environment in which traders are randomly matched choosing a trading partner increases the number of units exchanged and lowers negotiated prices collective seller earnings suffer who does the choosing that is whether buyers select sellers or sellers select buyers further impacts prices and therefore relative earnings those choosing tend to be disadvantaged

energy policy aid and the development of renewable energy resources in small island developing states abstract small island developing states sids have established ambitious renewable energy targets the promotion of renewable energy has been motivated by several factors a desire to lessen dependence on fossil fuels to attract development assistance in the energy sector and to strengthen the position of sids in climate change negotiations here we explore the interplay between the role of aid and energy policy in the development of renewable energy resources in sids we find that the importance of development assistance has implications for the sustainability of renewable energy development given that funding is not always accompanied by necessary energy policy reforms we also identify energy efficiency and access to modern energy services as having received insufficient attention in the establishment and structure of renewable energy targets in sids and argue that this is problematic due to the strong economic case for such investments

collective bargaining in the public sector the effect of legal structure on dispute costs and wages this paper examines the impact of collective bargaining legislation on dispute costs and wages using a panel of canadian public sector contracts the authors results suggest that policymakers designing collective bargaining legislation face a trade off between reducing dispute costs and increasing wages dispute costs are lower under compulsory arbitration than under the right to strike or when no collective bargaining legislation exists hence a switch to compulsory arbitration could potentially make both the union and the employer better off by reducing dispute costs however the authors find that wages are higher under compulsory arbitration than under other legal structures copyright 1991 by american economic association

the value of cooperatives in rural electrification the electricity sectors of many developing countries underwent substantial reforms during the 1980s and 1990s driven by global agendas of privatization and liberalization however rural electrification offered little by way of market incentives for profit seeking private companies and was often neglected as a consequence delivery models for rural electrification need to change this paper will review the experiences of various rural electrification delivery models that have been established in developing countries including concessionary models dealership approaches and the strengthening of small and medium sized energy businesses it will use examples from the usa bangladesh and nepal together with a detailed case study of a nepali rural electric cooperative to explore the role that local cooperatives can play in extending electricity access it is shown that although there is no magic bullet solution to deliver rural electrification if offered appropriate financial and institutional support socially orientated cooperative businesses can be a willing efficient and effective means of extending and managing rural electricity services it is expected that this paper will be of particular value to policy makers donors project planners and implementers currently working in the field of rural electrification

an analysis of the selection of arbitrators this paper analyzes alternative mechanisms for the selection of arbitrators the authors review key institutional features of the threemost prevalent mechanisms for selecting arbitrators rank veto alternate strike and rotating panel they present a more formal analysis in which these mechanisms are treated as economic games andanalyze the alternative mechanisms in terms of the incentives they provide for strategic behavior and the efficiency of any equilibrium strategies that exist some implications of varying selected parametersof each mechanism are derived and the general role of arbitrator selection mechanisms in the process of bargaining under the threat ofarbitration are considered copyright 1986 by american economic association

an experimental investigation of the patterns of international trade this study is the first attempt to create and study a laboratory economy with some of the prominent features of an international economic system the concept of multiple countries in which each country has its own technology preferences and resource endowments is introduced and operationalized the questions posed in the study are related to the law of comparative advantage factor price equalization terms of trade efficiency in production and exchange as guided by multiple and interacting markets and the effects of tariffs on international transactions the study builds on previous work in the experimental study of general equilibrium phenomena

segmentation of the indian photovoltaic market this paper provides an analytical framework studying the actors networks and institutions and examines the evolution of the indian solar photovoltaic pv market different market segments along the lines of demand and supply of pv equipment i e on the basis of geography end use application subsidy policy and other financing mechanisms are detailed the objective of this effort is to identify segments that require special attention from policy makers donors and the ministry of non conventional energy sources the paper also discusses the evolution of the commercial pv market in certain parts of the country and trends in the maturity of the market

political scale and electoral turnout evidence from the less industrialized world this article attempts to bring the politics of scale back into the study of comparative politics explicitly focusing on the question of electoral turnout in the less industrialized world it explo

does fact finding promote settlement theory and a test nonbinding recommendations such as provided by fact finders are shown to significantly increase voluntary settlements in bargaining theoretically it is unclear whether recommendations will increase settlement rates a recommendation may reduce outcome uncertainty thereby chilling bargaining and increasing dispute rates on the other hand a recommendation may give the parties a focal point around which an agreement is made which of these effects dominates is a question that we consider using theory and data from controlled bargaining experiments the data show the dominance of a focal point effect for suggestions highlighting their potential role in improving dispute settlement procedures

bayesian modeling and computations in final offer arbitration this article develops a bayesian model for the analysis of bidding behavior in final offer arbitration posterior calculations are obtained using a markov chain algorithm an example is considered using salary data from major league baseball

does resorting to online dispute resolution promote agreements experimental evidence abstract this paper presents an experiment performed to test the properties of an innovative bargaining mechanism called automated negotiation used to resolve disputes arising from internet based transactions the main result shows that the settlement rule tends to chill bargaining as it creates incentives for individuals to misrepresent their true valuations which implies that automated negotiation is not able to promote agreements however this perverse effect depends strongly on the conflict situation when the threat that a disagreement occurs is more credible the strategic effect is reduced since defendants are more interested in maximizing the efficiency of a settlement than their own expected profit the implications of these results are then used to discuss the potential role of public regulation and reputation mechanisms in cyberspace

who uses interest arbitration the case of british columbia s teachers 1947 1981 several researchers have attempted to identify the circumstances under which parties subject to compulsory interest arbitration will actually push a contract dispute to arbitration in this paper a simple model that incorporates elements of the leading hypotheses is tested using a unique data set spanning 35 years of compulsory conventional arbitration experience among teachers in british columbia the strongest empirical finding is that bargaining units that used arbitration in the previous round of negotiations were at least ten percent more likely than other units to use it in the current round on the other hand variables intended to capture attitudes toward risk changes in the degree of uncertainty associated with arbitral outcomes differing beliefs about likely arbitral outcomes and principal agent problems were found to have little impact on the estimated probability of using arbitration

on market integration and the development of institutions the case of international commercial arbitration abstract this paper suggests that the institutional basis necessary to support efficient international trade is provided not only by treaties among national governments but also by international coalitions of private agents international commercial arbitration is an important example of these private coalitions the paper reviews the provisions and the practice of international arbitration and presents a general equilibrium model of the relationship between the expansion of international trade and the adoption of arbitration the model shows that arbitration alters the size and composition of markets while at the same time responding to exogenous changes in trade

final offer arbitration with uncertainty averse parties abstract final offer arbitration foa is a widely used binding dispute resolution mechanism where an impartial arbitrator is constrained to choose one of the two final offers proposed by two disputing parties we build an equilibrium model of foa with players averse to arbitral uncertainty to study three important issues the role of foa in incentivizing negotiated settlements the convergence of final offers and the normative effect of diversity of arbitrator opinion we show that increase in arbitral uncertainty increases the likelihood of negotiated agreements and make the final offers converge to each other risk aversion is not necessary for convergence of offers precision and mean of arbitral uncertainty matter differently and can be controlled separately moreover as also argued by the industry practitioners carefully selected level of diversity of opinion in the arbitrator roster increases the welfare of negotiating parties

renewable energy investment by the world bank world bank group lending for renewable energy accelerated in the 1990s and resulted in 17 approved projects with 700 million in bank loans and 230 million in grants by the global environment facility the bank s 1999 energy sector strategy fuel for thought charted new directions for renewable energy investment the present paper considers the implementation challenges of fuel for thought strategies and the opportunities for carrying them out the paper distinguishes between agendas in the energy and rural development sectors and reviews limitations to implementing these agendas lessons from projects are just emerging but suggest ve areas of support for renewable energy by the bank in the future renewable energy nancing electric power policy frameworks rural energy enterprises regulated rural energy concessions and domestic technology manufacturing interviews with the private sector suggest additional forms of support assist with business plans nance pre feasibility studies reduce commercial risks support joint ventures build market volume and stability and pilot and test innovative business models the e ectiveness of the bank in following through on its ambitious agenda fundamentally rests on the willingness and commitment of developing countries to pursue these strategies and the degree to which renewable energy applications are seen to serve countries development priorities 2001 elsevier science ltd all rights reserved

valuing options in water markets a laboratory investigation risk and reliability dominate water supply discussions in the arid western united states due to increasing demand and finite weather dependent supply water markets have evolved in this region so agencies could meet this growing demand in a few instances water agencies turned to contractual mechanisms such as options to manage supply as demand continues to grow option markets and other novel approaches to allocating water may become increasingly popular we utilize experimental economics to analyze the effect of annual options on water markets in the absence of sufficient real world data for conventional econometric analysis we find gains from trade are higher when options can be traded additionally gains are more evenly distributed particularly with a dominant buyer and many sellers findings suggest option markets may be a viable choice as policymakers prepare for future droughts

an overview of afghanistan s trends toward renewable and sustainable energies relentless environmental concerns steep hike in fossil fuel price and increasing demand of non renewable fossil fuels consumption have dramatically increased global search for alternative energies the world requests ever growing energy supplies to sustain economic development and improvement renewable and sustainable energy ever more becoming accepted and established a decisive place in energy system of the word due to ecologicallyresponsiveinsight and a decrease in equipment expenses consistent with its endowment of energy resources each country tried to figure out its own energy portfolio and employing technologies which are economically viable and socially equitable and have minimal adverse impacts this article attempts to review all possible renewable energy sources as a substitute of the current energy profile coal natural gas and petroleum in afghanistan the study found afghanistan power sector as one of the least development sector which its inadequate status is preventing the development of the country as well eventhough the energy is not the only panacea but cost effective energies in abundant quantity and quality on sustainable foundation will help to reach to demand socio economic development the results indicate that afghanistan due to its natural and geographical situations enjoys important prospective for renewable energy bases such as solar wind geothermal and micro hydro power renewable energies could offer the ultimate solution for afghanistan in general and rural areas in actual but switch to altered forms of energy is grounded in multifaceted interations the study indicates number of issues such as great upfront charges absence of providers insufficient funding appliances and feebleindorsed and methodologicalcapability overwhelm and affected the use of renewable energies and technologies in afghanistan however with sufficient investment and practical stages by government andnongovernment agencies and the public encourage these unbound sources could play a vital role not only in afghanistan s energy supply but also in poverty reduction social and political stability and improving living standard

the socio technical barriers to solar home systems shs in papua new guinea choosing pigs prostitutes and poker chips over panels this study explores the socio technical barriers to solar home systems shs in papua new guinea the authors collected primary data through semi structured research interviews conducted over the course of february 2010 april 2010 respondents included government officials financiers planners commercial distributors and companies teachers and rural villagers in addition to members of civil society academics consultants and trainers these interviews were supplemented with site visits to port moresby goroka and madang and field research in the villages of akameku asaroka lufa kundiawa okifa simbu and talidig the study draws from these interviews and visits to discuss four types of barriers technical barriers relate to substandard equipment and logistical problems economic barriers include high rates of poverty misconceptions about the role of currency and lack of financing political barriers include poor institutional capacity and a government commitment to fossil fueled grid electrification social barriers encompass unrealistic expectations about what shs can provide along with jealousy theft vandalism and unfamiliarity with solar technology

interlocking transactions obstacles precursors or instruments of agrarian capitalism abstract rural labor arrangements often change rapidly and in ways that prevailing theories cannot explain explicit understanding of the exercise of power in rural society sheds considerable light on how and why rural labor arrangements change in the course of economic development this paper shows how different labor tying arrangements embody exclusionary mechanisms that can serve as instruments of both labor management and social control macro political and economic conditions shape the ways in which these mechanisms operate and are in turn influenced by them viewing labor arrangements in this way helps resolve problems confronted by the prevailing theories and allows for a broader understanding of dynamic processes

negotiation under possible third party resolution abstractthe effect of a possible third party resolution on negotiation behavior is studied in an economic bargaining experiment the bargaining phase is preceded by a production phase that allows for different fairness principles to guide the division of the total production value the experimental results show that a possible third party resolution lowers the dispute costs by reducing the number of rounds of alternating offers in the presence of a third party negotiators make first offers that are more strongly related to their production which reduces the number of bargaining rounds the production phase has an effect on the distributional property of the agreements in negotiations in which third party resolution is an option the negotiation outcome shifts toward a more unequal outcome more in line with each person s contribution

drivers barriers and strategies for implementation of renewable energy technologies in rural areas in bangladesh an innovation system analysis abstract bangladesh has good potential for harnessing renewable energy sources such as solar biomass wind and mini hydropower the country has been experiencing a gradual shift towards exploring renewable energy resources as a driving force for rural development a few public sector and non government organizations have started to develop renewable energy technology ret projects in rural areas the lessons learnt from different demonstrations of ret projects reveal that with careful forward planning renewable energy can provide far reaching economic environmental and social benefits to people living in remote rural areas in bangladesh this paper identifies some of the barriers that need to be overcome for the successful development of renewable energy technology sector and betterment of rural livelihoods it does so through a critical review of policy and institutional settings as well as present status and lessons learnt from pilot demonstration of a number of ret projects undertaken by different organizations the study highlights policy implications of the review with the aim of supporting decision makers in formulating renewable energy policies and future plans for bangladesh

settlement escrows an experimental study of a bilateral bargaining game abstract this paper reports the results of a bargaining experiment we follow the pre trial bargaining model of gertner and miller 1995 under uncertainty and examine the effect of a litigation institution called a settlement escrow and uncertainty on the timing and quality of settlement outcomes our findings indicate that settlement rates are significantly higher when a settlement escrow is added to the bargaining process where there is asymmetric information quality of outcomes measured as the percentage of the true damage that the outcome represents is positively and significantly influenced by the addition of a settlement escrow

dispute resolution or escalation the strategic gaming of feedback withdrawal options in online markets many online markets encourage traders to make good after an unsatisfactory transaction by offering the opportunity to withdraw negative reputational feedback in a dispute resolution phase motivated by field evidence and guided by theoretical considerations we use laboratory markets with two sided moral hazard to show that this option contrary to the intended purpose produces an escalation of dispute the mutual feedback withdrawal option creates an incentive to leave negative feedback independent of the opponent s behavior to improve one s bargaining position in the dispute resolution phase this leads to distorted reputation information and less trust and trustworthiness in the trading phase buyers who refuse to give feedback strategically even when it comes at a personal cost mitigate the detrimental impact it is also mitigated in markets with one sided moral hazard and a unilateral feedback withdrawal option the supplementary appendix is available at https doi org 10 1287 mnsc 2017 2802 t

bargaining and the role of expert agents an empirical study of final offer arbitration abstract expert agents such as lawyers play a prominent role in conflict resolution yet little is known about how they affect outcomes we construct a model that permits us to estimate the influence of agents and test whether the parties in a dispute face prisoner s dilemma incentives using eighteen years of final offer arbitration data from new jersey we find the parties do significantly better when they retain agents and that the parties learn about this benefit over time however we also find that the gain to using an agent is fully offset when the opposing party also hires an agent since agents are costly this noncooperative equilibrium is pareto inferior

arbitration and bargaining across the pacific this paper reports laboratory experiments comparing arbitration behavior between and across two countries with extensive trade relations the united states and japan besides comparing disputes in both locations we evaluate disputes between them while we find nominal differences between the countries we observe significant changes in both groups behavior when facing someone from the other country specifically americans seek larger profits when facing a japanese counterpart and japanese subjects settle more frequently with an american counterpart our results suggest that the literature on bargaining behavior across cultures paints an incomplete picture of international comparisons by failing to consider bargaining interactions

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

energy poverty in rural bangladesh energy poverty is a well established concept among energy and development specialists international development organizations frequently cite energy poverty alleviation as a necessary condition to reduce income poverty several approaches used to measure energy poverty over the past 20 years have defined the energy poverty line as the minimum quantity of physical energy needed to perform such basic tasks as cooking and lighting this paper uses a demand based approach to define the energy poverty line as the threshold point at which energy consumption begins to rise with increases in household income at or below this threshold point households consume a bare minimum level of energy and should be considered energy poor this approach was applied using cross sectional data from a comprehensive 2004 household survey representative of rural bangladesh the findings suggest that some 58 percent of rural households in bangladesh are energy poor versus 45 percent that are income poor the findings also suggest that policies to support rural electrification and greater use of improved biomass stoves might play a significant role in reducing energy poverty

what is challenging renewable energy entrepreneurs in developing countries this paper cumulates the findings from a review of the challenges faced by renewable energy entrepreneurs in developing countries to date research that could facilitate the success of renewable energy entrepreneurs in the world s developing regions has been fragmented across two main bodies of literature management specifically entrepreneurship and renewable energy by conducting a qualitative review of the extant literature i propose that the findings from both bodies of research may be distilled to six 6 key challenges inadequate access to institutional finance the price of renewable energy technologies rets the lack of skilled labour underdeveloped physical infrastructure and logistics power dominance of incumbents inadequate government or policy support through this research i not only advance a unified conceptualisation of the challenges faced by renewable energy entrepreneurs in developing countries but also highlight a number of the revealed opportunities for future research

financing led solar home systems in developing countries abstract about 1 4 billion people around the world still do not have access to the regular electricity it is estimated that roughly 85 of the people without electricity live in rural semi urban or remote rural areas of the sub saharan africa and south asia although grid expansion is a vital objective of several developing countries and could be a long term solution the remoteness isolation low electricity demand of many rural communities high investment cost of grid expansion make them very unlikely to be reached by the extension of the power grid consequently the off grid generation systems seem to be the most suited alternative to provide the electricity services to these isolated rural communities solar home systems shss with light emitting diode led lamps are considered to be cost effective and robust decentralized option for rural electrification two financing schemes fee for service and micro credit system ownership are primarily important for acquiring the shss by the rural population however high upfront cost of shss and absence of payment flexibility is deterring the penetration into larger market of lower income group rural population non availability of facile finance to rural population at the grass root level is the major barrier inhibiting the widespread adoption of solar powered lighting systems micro finance institutions mfis can be useful to address the gap between the high initial upfront cost of shs and low paying capacity of rural households by providing flexible and affordable credit the one stop shop model based on a single micro energy provider who provides the services of finances supply of standardized shss and after sale energy services is crucial the success of the shs program depends on the satisfactory technical performance an adequate financing infrastructure responsive after sales support and the extent to which it can fulfill the needs of the end users of having grid quality energy

smallholder wood production and population pressure in east africa evidence of an environmental kuznets curve the incentives for growing fuelwood on small farms are examined using survey data from kenya the analysis finds that tree planting is a competitive activity and that farmers are responsive to incentives to plant trees these incentives vary across households facing different factor availabilities and market opportunities the existence of a persistent fuelwood gap and the notion that population pressure will lead to declining tree cover are not supported by the analysis a simulation model indicates that as land continues to be subdivided tree cover may actually rise a result consistent with other evidence of an environmental kuznets curve

how lasting is voter gratitude an analysis of the short and long term electoral returns to beneficial policy dominant theories of electoral behavior emphasize that voters myopically evaluate policy performance and that this shortsightednessmayobstructthewelfare improvingeffectofdemocraticaccountability however weknowlittleabouthow long governments receive electoral credit for beneficial policies we exploit the massive policy response to a major natural disaster the 2002 elbe flooding in germany to provide an upper bound for the short and long term electoral returns to targeted policy benefits we estimate that the flood response increased vote shares for the incumbent party by 7 percentage points in affected areas in the 2002 election twenty five percent of this short term reward carried over to the 2005 election before the gains vanished in the 2009 election we conclude that given favorable circumstances policy makers can generate voter gratitude that persists longer than scholarship has acknowledged so far and elaborate on the implications for theories of electoral behavior democratic accountability and public policy

a comparison of conventional final offer and combined arbitration for dispute resolution two widely used forms of arbitration are conventional arbitration in which the arbitrator makes an unconstrained settlement choice and final offer arbitration in which the arbitrator must choose between disputants final offers under an innovative as yet unused approach called combined arbitration if the arbitrator s notion of a fair settlement lies between the disputants final offers final offer arbitration rules are used otherwise conventional arbitration rules are used theoretically by combining the risks that the two standard forms of arbitration pose for disputants who do not voluntarily settle combined arbitration should generate convergent final offers the results of this controlled laboratory study show however that dispute rates are highest in combined arbitration and lowest in conventional arbitration these results challenge the theoretical predictions for combined arbitration as well as claims that final offer arbitration should reduce disputes compared to conventional arbitration the results are however consistent with a simple theory of disputant optimism

connective power solar electrification and social change in kenya summary market based rural electrification with solar energy is increasingly common in developing countries this article revolves around three main claims about solar electrification in kenya s unsubsidized market 1 the benefits of solar electrification are captured primarily by the rural middle class 2 solar electricity plays a modest role in supporting economically productive and education related activities but connective applications such as television radio and cellular telephone charging often receive a higher priority 3 solar electrification is more closely tied to increased television use the expansion of markets more rural urban communication and other processes that increase rural urban connectivity than to poverty alleviation sustainable development or the appropriate technology movement

are new institutional economics enough promoting photovoltaics in india s agricultural sector solar photovoltaic pv technology can bring emissions free electricity to rural areas without access to the grid currently policymakers are seeking ways to expand markets for off grid pv from solar home systems to productive uses in order to enhance income generation and contribute to social development this paper explores the role of the state in promoting such market growth as a start the state must improve institutions thus echoing popular recommendations based in new institutional economic theory nie that are currently touted by the world bank and other large development agencies yet nie s framework may be insufficient because it fails to offer viable solutions to overcoming political barriers that contribute to technological path dependency a case study in punjab india where an agricultural pv water pumping program showed promising signs of successful market penetration in its first 3 years of operation illustrates how the nie s shortcomings manifest themselves in practice the program was beginning to penetrate market entry for pv pumps via competition between pv providers however the government of india achieved this feat by providing subsidies to wealthy farmers a move that is frowned upon by the nie school based on findings from the case study states should look beyond nie s framework to expand and improve pv markets in productive uses by accounting for political constraints assessing how pv technology can improve development goals and cultivating locally appropriate service delivery models

the relationship between uncertainty the contract zone and efficiency in a bargaining experiment research on bargaining suggests that the efficiency of bargaining is related to the size of the surplus to be divided and to uncertainty about the opponent we conducted a bargaining experiment which manipulated both of these factors we find that the presence of uncertainty decreases bargaining efficiency while the effect of contract zone size depends on whether there is uncertainty or certainty

roles and potentials of renewable energy in less developed economies the case of nepal increasing the share of renewable energy in the national energy mix remains one of the major energy policy goals across many economies this paper assesses the roles and potentials of renewable energy sources in less developed economies while citing nepal as an example renewable energy has a significant role to play in the electrification of rural areas in developing economies and contribute towards sustainable development realizing full potentials of renewable however requires addressing both the associated demand side and supply side constraints innovative subsidies and tax incentives adequate entrepreneurial support strengthening institutional arrangement and promoting local community based organizations such as the cooperatives are the necessary factors in promoting the green technologies in countries like nepal international factors such as large scale investment and adequate technology transfer are equally crucial to create a rapid spread and increase affordability of decentralized renewable energy technologies in less developed economies

the political economy of fema disaster payments a central contribution of public choice theory to the analysis of government activity is in viewing the activities of government not as determined by some single altruistic dictator but rather as the result of a process involving individual political agents who react to the incentives they face federal disaster relief administered by the federal emergency management agency fema is one activity that is ripe for political influence due to the process of disaster declaration and relief after a disaster strikes a particular state the governor makes a request to the president for disaster assistance following a governor s request the president then decides whether to declare the state or region a disaster area only after a disaster has been declared by the president can disaster relief be given fema is in charge of determining the level of relief funding for the area but additional appropriations are determined by congress in cases requiring large amounts of funding beyond fema s allocated budget the act which governs the rules of federal disaster declaration and expenditures gives the president the authority to declare a disaster without the approval of congress

world bank gef solar home systems projects experiences and lessons learned 1993 2000 abstract twelve projects provide energy services to off grid rural households in developing countries by enhancing markets for solar home systems and by removing barriers to their dissemination project approaches are reviewed along with early implementation experience and lessons suggested by experience most projects incorporate the following features pilot private sector and ngo delivery models pilot consumer credit delivery mechanisms pay first cost subsidies and offer affordable system sizes support policy development and capacity develop codes and standards and establish certification testing and enforcement institutions and conduct consumer awareness and marketing programs most projects are just beginning implementation a few are almost completed lessons from early experience suggest that solar home system delivery firms face a myriad of difficulties operating in rural areas credit risk is a serious concern of both financiers and dealers and makes credit sales particularly challenging technical performance of systems is becoming well proven customers desire a range of component options and service levels and can benefit from even small systems projects must recognize the link between rural electric grid extension and solar home system demand and marketing campaigns can be extremely costly and time consuming in rural areas challenges are to demonstrate sustainable and replicable business models develop regulatory models for energy service concessions and integrate rural electrification policy with solar home system delivery

adding realism to the agglomeration bonus how endogenous land returns affect habitat fragmentation abstract the agglomeration bonus has been shown to be a potentially successful policy to reunite fragmented habitat and increase conservation enrollment in laboratory testbed experiments yet one key criticism has been that land prices have been assumed exogenous and fixed in these experiments in the field voluntary conservation enrollment by landowners will likely affect the value of the surrounding land this endogeneity of land values suggests a discrepancy between results from laboratory experiments and true landowner decisions under a given policy we address this concern by using an experimental design that accounts for the endogenous effect on surrounding land values from habitat conservation based on estimated returns from an actual landscape in eastern wyoming as a case study we show that without incorporating endogenous land values traditional laboratory experiments likely will underestimate the amount of habitat fragmentation resulting from basic conservation policies without agglomeration bonuses we also find that a low cost agglomeration bonus can work to reunite this fragmented habitat even under endogenous land value conditions our research indicates that through voluntary conservation decisions by private landowners a more cost effective bonus scheme can create contiguous habitat across privately held land even when incorporating realistic endogenous land values

an experimental comparison of dispute rates in alternative arbitration systems this paper reports the results of a systematic experimental comparison of the effect of alternative arbitration systems on dispute rates the key to our experimental design is the use of a common underlying distribution of arbitrator fair awards in the different arbitration systems this allows us to compare dispute rates across different arbitration procedures where we hold fixed the amount of objective underlying uncertainty about the arbitration awards there are three main findings first dispute rates are inversely related to the monetary costs of disputes dispute rates were much lower in cases where arbitration was not available so that the entire pie was lost in the event of a dispute this confirms the empirical importance of the so called chilling effect on bargaining that has been conjectured is produced by the adoption of arbitration systems second the dispute rate in a final offer arbitration system is at least as high as the dispute rate in a comparable conventional arbitration system contrary to the usual argument we find no evidence that final offer arbitration eliminates the chilling effect third dispute rates are inversely related to the uncertainty costs of disputes dispute rates were lower in conventional arbitration treatments where the variance of the arbitration award was higher and imposed greater costs on risk averse negotiators our results can also be interpreted as providing tentative evidence that the negotiators were risk averse on average finally we find general agreement between the dispute rates in our experiment and dispute rates found in the field in comparable settings

financing off grid sustainable energy access for the poor this paper examines the role of public instruments in promoting private finance to achieve off grid sustainable energy access renewable energy technologies are increasingly becoming the cheapest solutions for off grid energy access the dramatic uptake of mobile phones in developing countries shows how quickly decentralized services can develop on a commercial basis under the right conditions and raises the prospect that private finance could also drive decentralized energy access for the poor indeed there are already a number of instances of clean energy solutions such as solar portable lights household biogas units or solar home systems that have managed to scale up through leveraging private finance however the experience gained from first generation market development projects show that in almost all cases significant public resources have been necessary to increase the affordability of clean energy technologies provide access to financing for the poor and remove non economic barriers such public interventions may be funded by international public finance domestic budgets and carbon finance despite mounting fiscal constraints facing governments worldwide the emergence of new sources of climate finance and the political momentum in support of energy subsidy reforms as well as new programming modalities offer opportunities to leverage additional resources to achieve universal energy access by 2030

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

reinterpreting arbitration s narcotic effect an experimental study of learning in repeated bargaining field evidence suggests that arbitration increases negotiation dispute rates we study repeated bargaining in a laboratory to understand the reasons why our results represent a reinterpretation of an explanation known as the narcotic effect the standard interpretation assumes that the probability of dispute without arbitration is constant across negotiations but field evidence suggests that experienced bargainers have fewer disputes to properly assess arbitration s impact we compare bargainer learning with and without arbitration under otherwise comparable laboratory conditions and develop a model to measure learning we find strong evidence that learning occurs in both cases but is slower with arbitration journal of economic literature classification numbers c78 c92 d77 j52 q 1998 academic press

access to electricity in small island developing states of the pacific issues and challenges abstract energy poverty is widespread in small island developing states sids of the pacific it is estimated that 70 percent of pacific islander households do not have access to electricity which is equivalent to access rates in sub saharan africa and slightly below the average for low income countries pacific sids face unique challenges in expanding access to electricity given that their populations are spread across tens of thousands of islands governments and development partners in pacific sids continue to prioritise development of electricity grids as is evident in ongoing subsidisation of grid based power consumption and the establishment of ambitious grid based renewable energy targets this paper argues that traditional approaches to rural electrification which prioritise grid extension are not suited to the pacific islands region increased funding should be directed by both governments and development partners towards rural electrification especially in off grid areas where isolated systems are more appropriate institutional reform is also important regulatory reform is needed for power utilities to extend electricity grids into rural areas institutional arrangements that facilitate the sustainable operation and maintenance of off grid systems also need to be established past donor and government funded off grid rural electrification projects have rarely been sustainable alternative approaches involving payment of output based subsidies to energy service companies are worth exploring although will only succeed where sound regulatory arrangements are in place

bargaining with random implementation an experimental study abstract we use a laboratory experiment to study bargaining with random implementation we modify the standard nash demand game so that incompatible demands do not necessarily lead to the disagreement outcome rather with exogenous probability q one bargainer receives his her demand with the other getting the remainder we use an asymmetric bargaining set favouring one bargainer and disagreement payoffs of zero and we vary q over several values our results mostly support game theory s directional predictions as with conventional arbitration we observe a strong chilling effect on bargaining for q near one extreme demands and low agreement rates increasing q reinforces the game s built in asymmetry giving the favoured player an increasingly large share of payoffs but also raising efficiency these effects are non uniform over sizable ranges increases in q have minimal effect but for some q small additional increases lead to sharp changes in results

exogenous shocks and democratic accountability evidence from the caribbean this study attempts to contribute to the growing debate over democratic accountability by focusing on the electoral impact of natural disasters and economic crises in the caribbean although largely ignored by political science the polities in the region share a long history of democratic governance as well as extreme vulnerability to adverse weather conditions and global economic fluctuations the caribbean thus offers unusually fertile opportunities for research on the capacity of voters to make rational electoral decisions two key questions are addressed first to what extent do citizens of the caribbean punish incumbents for exogenous economic and climatic shocks second what factors if any help to insulate democratic leaders from blame for conditions largely outside their control contrary to recent research on natural disasters and economic downturns in other contexts the analysis provides no evidence that voting in the caribbean has been characterized by systematic attribution errors or elec

district complexity as an advantage in congressional elections scholars of congressional elections have argued that an increase in constituent diversity increases the level of electoral competition following models of boundedly rational candidates we argue that there is strong reason to believe that the opposite is true as the complexity of the electoral landscape increases challengers will have a more difficult time locating an optimal platform when facing an experienced incumbent using data from the 2000 national annenberg election study we construct a novel measure of district complexity for u s house districts and test whether the entry of quality challengers and the incumbent s share of the two party vote are affected by the complexity of the electoral landscape we find strong support for the hypothesis that complexity benefits incumbents for both indicators of electoral competition which stands in contrast to most of the existing literature on diversity and incumbent performance

clarity of responsibility beyond the pocketbook how political institutions condition eu issue voting one of the most influential findings of the voting behavior literature of the past two decades was the realization that the clarity of the domestic institutional context influences the relationship between economic perceptions and incumbent vote this article extends this clarity of responsibility argument beyond economics to another policy field european integration to what extent do national political institutions mediate the extent to which voters reward or punish government for their policies relating to the european union eu or european integration that is eu issue voting using data from the 2004 european election study the authors provide evidence that clarity of responsibility affects the strength of eu issue voting specifically eu issue voting is accentuated when the domestic institutional environment provides clear lines of responsibility this finding suggests that the europeanization of national electoral politics depends in part on the domestic institutional context within each me

an investigation into the determinants of u s strike activity this paper outlines the steps involved in constructing a new panel dataset of u s contract negotiations and strike activity this data set has a much broader coverage of firms and unions than micro data sets analyzed to date key findings include the discovery that the variability and not the level of firm profitability affects the probability of a strike personal characteristics of the union workforce also emerge as key determinants of strike activity finally strikes are found to be more likely when the local labor market is tight but less likely when the industry labor market is tight copyright 1986 by american economic association

comparing drivers barriers and opportunities of business models for renewable energies a review abstract this article systematically reviews the emerging field of research on business models for renewable energies differentiating between developing and industrialized countries the key findings on developing countries are as follows first there is a lack of quantitative data second opportunities are driven primarily by unfulfilled basic needs and micro finance whereas corruption and weak electricity grids are the main barriers and third business models should be replicable the key findings on industrialized countries are as follows first opportunities are driven primarily by climate change mitigation and energy efficiency improvements second stuck thought patterns and high costs of energy storage are important barriers and third cooperation is a key in future business models to handle increasing complexity this review reveals implications for researchers and policy makers promising avenues for future research are the analysis of intermodal business models and opportunities concerning energy self supply and renewable district heating policy makers are advised to design legal frameworks that account for the global nature of the renewable energy challenge and are simultaneously adapted to regional disparities

price controls non price quality competition and the nonexistence of competitive equilibrium we investigate how price ceilings and floors affect outcomes in continuous time double auction markets with discrete goods and multiple qualities when price controls exist the existence of competitive equilibria is no longer guaranteed hence we investigate the nature of non price competition and how markets might evolve in its presence we develop a quality competition model based on matching theory equilibria of the quality competition model always exist in such price constrained markets moreover they naturally correspond to competitive equilibria when competitive equilibria exist additionally we characterize the set of equilibria of the quality competition model in the presence of price restrictions in a series of experiments we find that market outcomes closely conform to the predictions of the model in particular price controls induce non price competition between agents both in theory and in the experimental environment market behaviors result in allocations close to the predictions of the model

sources of bias in retrospective decision making experimental evidence on voters limitations in controlling incumbents are citizens competent to assess the performance of incumbent politicians observational studies cast doubt on voter competence by documenting several biases in retrospective assessments of performance however these studies are open to alternative interpretations because of the complexity of the real world in this article we show that these biases in retrospective evaluations occur even in the simplified setting of experimental games in three experiments our participants 1 overweighted recent relative to overall incumbent performance when made aware of an election closer rather than more distant from that event 2 allowed an unrelated lottery that affected their welfare to influence their choices and 3 were influenced by rhetoric to give more weight to recent rather than overall incumbent performance these biases were apparent even though we informed and incentivized respondents to weight all performance equally our findings point to key limitations in voters ability to use a retrospective decision rule

voting in open economies the electoral consequences of globalization what are the electoral consequences of global market integration although recent discussions of politics and markets have much to say on globalization s implications for policy outcomes the impact of market integration on representative democracy has received scant attention this article addresses this omission we extend the globalization literature to develop two competing hypotheses regarding the influence of open economies on electoral accountability predictions are tested using a new data set covering elections from 75 countries over 27 years results support a government constraint hypothesis exposure to the world economy weakens connections between economic performance and support for political incumbents by redirecting concerns from the policy implications of globalization and toward its electoral consequences findings highlight the influence of voter perceptions and of vote seeking politicians in the politics of globalization

the jatropha biofuels sector in tanzania 2005 9 evolution towards sustainability abstract biofuel production has recently attracted much attention some anticipate substantial social and environmental benefits while at the same time expecting sound profitability for investors others are doubtful envisaging large trade offs between the pursuit of social environmental and economic objectives particularly in poor countries in the tropics the paper explores these issues in tanzania which has been an african forerunner in the cultivation of a bio oil shrub called jatropha curcas l we trace how isolated jatropha biofuel experiments developed since early 2005 towards a sectoral production and innovation system and we investigate to what extent that system has been capable of developing and maintaining sustainable practices and producing sustainable outcomes the application of evolutionary innovation theory allows us to view the developments in the sector as a result of evolutionary variation and selection on the one hand and revolutionary contestation between different coalitions of stakeholders on the other both these processes constitute significant engines of change while variation and selection are driven predominantly by localised technical and agronomic learning the conflict driven dynamics are highly globalised and occur primarily as a result of reflexive learning about problematic sustainability impacts the sector is found to have moved some way towards a full sectoral innovation and production system but it is impossible to predict whether a viable sector with a strong triple bottom line orientation will ultimate emerge since many issues surrounding the social environmental and financial sustainability still remain unresolved especially relating to local and global governance

learning in equilibrium models of arbitration this paper analyzes strategic communication in equilibrium models of conventional and final offer interest arbitration both models emphasize the role of learning by the arbitrator from the parties offers about the state of the employment relationship which is known to the parties but not to the arbitrator in both models the arbitrators equilibrium behavior is identical to the reduced form decision rule typically assumed in the empirical literature the paper thereby provides a structural interpretation for the existing empirical work the paper also represents progress towards a complete theory of arbitration because it satisfies three conditions that will be required of any such theory first the models predictions match the existing empirical evidence second the models describe equilibrium behavior and third the models are built on a common set of assumptions about preferences information and commitment the paper therefore not only provides an equilibrium foundation for the intuition that the arbitrator might learn from the parties offers but also uses the idea of learning to develop a unified analytical treatment of the two major forms of interest arbitration this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item