the indirect role of households in shaping us residential energy demand patterns abstract about a quarter of us energy demand is for domestic use yet an understanding of the processes determinants and consequences of household energy demand remains elusive conventional energy policy has overwhelmingly focused on improving energy efficiency of the buildings this research applies a non linear methodology and an interdisciplinary approach to household energy demand using data from the us residential sector 2009 residential energy consumption survey this research performs covariance structure analysis to isolate direct and indirect effects of household and housing characteristics on total annual domestic energy use outcomes uncover some of households indirect effects on energy demand which in this research mainly happen through household effects on building characteristics highlighting the indirect role of household choices in shaping residential energy demand patterns to maximize its efficiency in reducing energy demand and ghg emissions this paper suggests that in addition to investing in energy efficient technologies energy policy should incorporate indirect effects of household choices on the configuration of their future homes

financial mechanism and enforceability of international environmental agreements we examine how international coordination among countries generates a trend towards establishing an international institution for the provision of global public goods in the present model the forces creating international agreement are a politician s motive for re election and a financial mechanism for compliance if a politician expects another politician in a neighboring country to signal his good performance to his citizen by participating in the agreement and is aware that his ex post deviation will be deterred by the financial mechanism he too decides to participate in the agreement which then corrects externality problems

political instability corruption and policy formation the case of environmental policy abstract this paper develops a theory of environmental policy formation taking into consideration the degree of corruptibility and political turbulence the predictions that emerge are that the interaction between the two variables is important political instability has a negative effect on the stringency of environmental regulations if the level of corruption is low but a positive effect when the degree of corruption is high corruption reduces the stringency of environmental regulations but the effect disappears as political instability increases the empirical findings are fully consistent with the predictions of the model

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

the kyoto protocol a review and perspectives international concern about climate change has led to the kyoto protocol negotiated in 1997 which contains legally binding emission targets for industrialized countries to be achieved during the commitment period 2008 2012 while proponents of the protocol celebrate it as a breakthrough in international climate policy opponents criticize that its approach namely setting targets and timetables for emission reductions is seriously flawed this paper provides a critical assessment of the protocols potential performance and discusses amendments to foster its effectiveness and efficiency it concludes that even without any effective emission reductions in the initial commitment period the ratification of kyoto is important for the further policy process of climate protection the kyoto protocol has established a flexible broad based international mechanism that provides a valuable starting point for shaping efficient climate policies in the future

a tale of two collectives sulphur versus nitrogen oxides emission reduction in europe a theoretical model of emission reductions is specified that accounts for voluntary and non voluntary behaviour regarding the adherence to the helsinki and sofia protocols which mandated emission reductions for sulphur s and nitrogen oxides nox respectively from this model we derive an econometric specification for the demand for emission reductions that adjusts for the spatial dispersion of the pollutant when tested for 25 european nations the model performs well for sulphur cutbacks less satisfying results are obtained for nox because the model s assumption of a unitary actor at the national level is less descriptive collective action considerations indicate that sulphur emissions are easier to control than those of nox

energy comes home the growth in private energy consumption is an increasing problem in western countries from an environmental point of view this consumption has to be reduced on the basis of two norwegian case studies this article discusses private energy consumption and possibilities for reduction with a special focus on the home it argues against a rational economic view of the consumer and emphasizes the significance of a more subtle understanding of private energy use the article approaches the challenges of reducing private energy consumption by analysing the domestication of the home and discusses everyday life activities as well as the phenomenon of rebuilding and redecorating by using the concept of domestication the article challenges the linear understanding of technological as well as behavioural change private energy consumption is part of a complex network and it is necessary to understand this network in order to achieve a more permanent reduction

untangling the complexity of the direct and indirect determinants of the residential energy consumption in france quantitative analysis using a structural equation modeling approach abstract about a quarter of french energy demand is for residential use this study mobilises a multidisciplinary approach and a non linear modeling strategy to examine the total direct and indirect effects of households and housing units in designing french energy consumption based on micro level data from the new french 2012 phebus survey this research implements a structural equation model to tease out the effects of both dwelling characteristics household attributes climate and behaviours on the domestic energy use findings confirm that the direct effect of household related attributes on domestic energy demand is notably lower than the corresponding effect from the dwelling attributes nevertheless considering for the indirect effect of household factors on energy use across housing choices the total impact of household related attributes on the french domestic energy consumption is just slightly lower than that of dwelling characteristics therefore to highlight the spectrum of residential energy use this research calls to incorporate both direct and indirect effects of household attributes and choices this study suggests several key insights on how to incorporate housing policy into residential energy policy and reduce energy related greenhouse gas emissions

environmentalism democracy and pollution control this paper makes two empirical contributions to the literature based on predictions generated by a lobby group model first we investigate how environmental lobby groups affect the determination of environmental policy in rich and developing countries second we explore the interaction between democratic participation and political electoral competition the empirical findings suggest that environmental lobby groups tend to positively affect the stringency of environmental policy moreover political competition tends to raise policy stringency in particular where citizens participation in the democratic process is widespread

communications on energy growth and overcapacity in the uk electricity industry abstract in the face of a reduced growth rate in the demand for electricity the uk seems to be committing itself to an excessive increase in generating capacity this course of action combined with the endemic overcapacity problem in the uk electricity industry over the last decade is likely to intensify the already strong institutional pressures for keeping electricity demand high raphael papadopoulos considers the implications of the plans for expanded electricity supply

does trade liberalization lead to environmental burden shifting in the global economy abstract does trade liberalization lead to the outsourcing of pollution from industrialized countries to developing countries according to the pollution haven hypothesis international trade is a key channel through which richer countries can geographically dissociate consumption from production of goods we examine whether and how trade liberalization via preferential trade agreements ptas facilitates the shifting of consumption based environmental burdens from developed countries via imports to poorer countries via exports based on panel data analysis of 183 countries from 1987 to 2013 we find partial evidence for trade induced environmental burden shifting while we observe an increase in footprint exports from low income countries when these countries liberalize trade this is not matched by an increase in footprint imports of high income countries our results also show that environmental clauses in ptas and participation in international environmental agreements do not influence the relationship between trade liberalization and ecological footprint movements however domestic institutions have a significant effect on the trade induced distribution of environmental burdens these findings suggest that ptas as a policy tool for trade liberalization are per se unlikely to induce exploitation of low income countries natural capital by wealthier nations however they suggest that political incentives inherent to democratic institutions encourage environmental burden shifting

the voluntary provision of a pure public good the case of reduced cfc emissions and the montreal protocol abstract this paper applies the theory of the voluntary provision of a pure public good to the behavior of nations to curb chlorofluorocarbon cfc emissions during the late 1980s by devising an empirical test we determine that these cutbacks in emissions are consistent with nash behavior when taste parameters are controlled the relationship between emission cutbacks and national income is nearly linear as implied by the theory if the sample is purged of potential outliers then the linear relationship results a significant taste parameter is the extent of political and civil freedoms while a marginally significant parameter is geophysical position in terms of latitude

the growth of social security electoral push or political pull the growth of social security electoral push or political pull i introduction during the post world war ii period the social security program was among the fastest growing programs in the federal budget surpassing defense spending as the largest category of expenditures in the mid seventies the program which disbursed only 132 million dollars in 1942 disbursed more than 156 billion dollars forty years late a thousand fold increase as a consequence of this growth and the program s recent financial problems a number of economists have turned their attention to the economics of social security recent examples include kahn 1988 boskin et al 1987 and veall 1986 yet only weaver 1982 and turner 1984 attempt to analyze the growth of the social security program weaver s legislative history of the program suggests that special interest groups had a major impact on social security programs turner argues that program benefit levels are affected by demographic changes which affect the cost of intergenerational redistribution in this paper we use the public choice approach to explain increases in benefit levels from 1946 1980 we develop and test three alternative public choice models of the politics of retirement benefit levels our analysis thus sheds light on an important question neglected by previous research have social security expenditures grown because special interest groups have effectively captured the congress or is congress simply responding to demands placed on it by the electorate the answer to this question is relevant to normative analysis of existing programs and to alternative proposals for reform in addition our study of the principal determinants of the growth of program benefit levels serves as an event study for assessing the merits of alternative theories of political decision making borcherding 1985 discusses two public choice explanations for the growth of public expenditures first public programs may expand as a result of the voting rules which underlie the political process when decisions are made by majority rule an increase in the median voter s demand for public services tends to increase public service levels because prospective candidates will revise their policy positions in order to be elected the wagner 1958 hypothesis for example maintains that increases in real income cause individuals to prefer both absolutely and relatively larger public expenditures borcherding notes that about 40 percent of the rate at which public sector spending has replaced private sector spending over the past eighty years can be explained with a median voter approach such an approach does better in what borcherding calls traditional areas of public expenditure where a median voter model can account for about 73 percent of the rate at which public expenditures excluding transfers have displaced private expenditures the median voter might favor public transfers to the elderly for two reasons first he may have an interdependent utility function in which the plight of the elderly poor arouses a charitable response while the redistribution from young to old does not simply target the old poor as a group the elderly do seem to be relatively less wealthy than the middle aged and the yound if one considers the average capitalized value of future income receipts from labor and capital second to the extent that the social security program offers a connection between reductions in current consumption and increases in future consumption it is a rather complex savings and insurance program the median voter s motivation for transferring monies to today s elderly may be a vehicle for ensuring future transfers to himself while this explanation is difficult to motivate at the individual level since a savings program for future retirement need not pay anything to today s elderly a continuing program of tax funded transfers is plausible method of establishing the moral constitution necessary to ensure that future transfers do in fact take place

concerned consumption global warming changing household domestication of energy this is the authors accepted and refereed manuscript to the article licensed under a creative commons attribution non commercial no derivatives license locked until 2018 11 01

bureaucrats legislators and the size of government some recent theories have blamed the growth of government on budget maximizing bureaucrats who are assumedly capable of imposing their most preferred budget output combination on legislatures subject to cost and demand constraints however theoretical examination of the range of bargaining outcomes that might occur between bureau and legislature shows that budget maximizing behavior does not necessarily lead to super optimal levels of production nor do the suggested reforms of competition and privatization necessarily improve the situation in this bargaining model the central determinants of governmental growth are not budget maximizing bureaucrats but the legislature s decisions regarding mode of oversight and form of internal organization

political institutions and pollution control this paper models the selection of environmental policies under authoritarian and democratic regimes and tests the hypothesis that political institutions systematically affect the enactment of environmental regulations the results support the contention that political institutional arrangements rather than resource endowments largely determine policies concerning environmental regulation copyright 1992 by mit press

public attitudes towards renewable energy technologies in norway the role of party preferences abstract transition to a sustainable society requires large scale conversion of the energy system to new renewable non fossil sources of energy this presupposes public support for new technologies which means the public must deal with challenges in terms of placement area requirements ecological degradation and price developments this paper discusses how citizens view renewable energy technologies it analyses responses to representative surveys of the norwegian population on the desirability of various energy technologies such as hydroelectric dams onshore and offshore wind energy bioenergy plants and for contrast gas plants with and without carbon capture and storage our main focus is on the influence of party political preference on views of renewable energy we find that the sometimes lukewarm enthusiasm for renewable energy technologies cannot be fully explained by existing theories and that political party preference has a larger impact on energy technology attitudes than previously believed

communications on energy household energy conservation abstract this study assesses the influence of attitudinal and socio economic factors on household energy conservation actions a household interview survey in regina saskatchewan found that respondents perceive an energy problem although no association with energy conservation actions was determined two attitudinal and five socio economic variables influence household energy conservation energy and monetary savings are available to households through energy conservation public awareness of household energy conservation through the media can reinforce existing energy conservation actions and encourage new actions

can environmental quality spread through institutions spatial relationships are known phenomena in ecological studies that refer to the relationships between certain variables observed in different localities different mechanisms have been suggested to explain this phenomenon such as the pollution displacement hypothesis foreign direct investment international trade and strategic response of countries to transboundary pollution flows this paper develops a new mechanism in the sense that environmental quality of countries spreads spatially to their neighbors through the spillover of the institutional quality of countries to test this hypothesis a panel data model is constructed that estimates the impact of the institutional quality of countries and their neighbors on their co2 emission intensity of energy use using data for 129 countries over the period 1980 2007 the findings prove the existence of this mechanism at the global and regional levels

statehood experience legal traditions and climate change policies this study investigates how the implementation of modern climate change policies is related to former colonies length of state history and their legal heritage we argue that countries with longer statehood experience around the time of colonization were better equipped to implement the legal philosophies transplanted by their colonial powers therefore the implications of receiving british common law versus french civil law should be particularly important in countries with a greater accumulated history of statehood using a cross section of up to 78 former colonies our results provide support for this hypothesis in particular our estimates demonstrate that common law countries have weaker modern climate change policies than civil law countries and the difference is inflated by a longer statehood experience measured by the length of state history from 1 to 1800 ad legal origin has no effect in areas which by the time of colonization had no statehood experience finally we report similar results for the pattern of labor market regulations jel k15 k31 k32 o44 q54 q58

the missing link in budget models of nonprofit institutions two practical dutch applications the dutch government health insurance associations and research boards allocate budgets to nonprofit institutions hospitals universities based on general indicators inhabitants admissions or students with these budgets the top management of each institution the principal allocates the funds using general indicators to distribute the money further down to the base at the base of the nonprofit institutions the professionals the agents perform a spectrum of specific tasks tension around the budgetting process exists between top management and professionals this paper resolves the tension along the research lines of burton and obel 1995 by measuring in money terms the specific tasks of the professionals of universities and hospitals at the base and by reconsidering the theoretical background of the internal budget system the study also develops the missing link in an integral external and internal budget system by integrating the managerial and professional decisions or the input output decisions in one approach

environmental regulations transfers and trade theory and evidence abstract this paper develops a theory of compensation of producers for the costs associated with environmental regulations we show that the existence of transfers can give counter intuitive effects of environmental policy on both output and trade flows in particular the compensation obtained by producers neutralizes the effect of environmental policy on output and consequently on trade flows this may help explain why previous empirical research has found weak evidence that environmental regulations affect trade patterns the theory is tested using agricultural sector data the evidence supports the hypothesis that environmental regulations and transfers are positively correlated

estimating strategic models of international treaty formation this article develops an empirical framework for analysing the timing of international treaties a treaty is modelled as a dynamic game among governments that decide on participation in every period the net benefit of treaty membership increases over time spillovers among members and non members accelerate or delay treaty formation by transforming participation into a strategic complement or substitute respectively the predictions of the model inform the estimation of the structural parameters based on a cross section of treaty ratification dates with this approach i estimate the sign and magnitude of strategic interaction in the ratification of the montreal protocol in the formation of europe s preferential trade agreements and in the growth of germany s network of bilateral investment treaties through a series of counterfactual experiments i explore different mechanisms that give rise to strategic interaction in the formation of these treaties

why cooperate public goods economic power and the montreal protocol this paper develops a correlated probit model to describe dichotomous choices that may contain a public goods component or some other forms of interdependency the key contribution of the paper is to formulate tests for interdependent behavior among agents in particular we examine the decisions by nations whether or not to ratify the montreal protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer specifically we reject free riding as a motive for not ratifying the protocol and we find little evidence that individual nations were influenced by the behavior of their largest trading partners hence the data suggest that with respect to the montreal protocol most nations acted without regard for the actions of other nations

the participation decision versus the level of participation in an environmental treaty a spatial probit analysis abstract this paper represents treaty participation as a two stage game for which nations first decide whether or not to participate and then they choose their level of participation the resulting subgame perfect equilibrium is used to derive a reduced form equation for estimating and separating the influences of the variables at the two decision stages this spatial probit equation forms the basis for a full information maximum likelihood estimator that accounts for the simultaneity bias associated with public good spillins at both stages when the procedure is applied to the helsinki protocol we find that the strategic influence of a variable may drastically differ depending upon which stage is scrutinized

the appeal of the green deal empirical evidence for the influence of energy efficiency policy on renovating homeowners abstract the green deal is a major new energy policy designed to support the diffusion of energy efficiency measures in uk homes this paper provides one of the first empirical examinations of the green deal s success in influencing homeowners renovation decisions using a repeated measures design in which households were questioned before and after the green deal s launch in january 2013 we assess the policy s success in raising awareness of energy efficiency in particular we test the effectiveness of the green deal s positioning to overcome barriers to renovation among homeowners already interested in or considering energy efficiency measures using the innovation decision process rogers 2003 as a conceptual framing of the renovation decision process we examine whether new information on energy efficiency provided by the green deal strengthened intentions and its antecedents we find that 1 energy efficiency is of potential appeal to all renovators regardless of their attitudes about energy efficiency 2 energy efficiency opportunities need to be identified in the early stages of renovation when homeowners are thinking about ways to improve their home and 3 homeowners intentions towards energy efficiency are weakened by uncertainty about financial benefits helping to explain the relatively slow uptake of the green deal to date

economic targets and loss aversion in international environmental cooperation economic targets in environmental coopeartion in the standard emission problem each country s ruling party decides on an optimal level of emissions by analyzing the cost and benefit to the country however such policy decisions are often influenced by political parties incentives to be elected voters tend to give higher priority to economic issues than they do to environmental ones as a result political parties have additional incentives to reach a critical economic benefit level at a cost of higher emission level in order to satisfy voters expectations in economic issues therefore this study explores the implications of political parties being averse to insufficient economic performance relative to a critical economic target level on sustaining an international environmental agreement on emission levels in doing so we allow countries to have asymmetric concerns about economic targets as well as asymmetric technology levels we find that stronger concerns about economic targets deter the most cooperative emission levels countries could jointly sustain furthermore technological asymmetry could either deepen or offset this impact these results suggest that efforts on achieving substantial international environmental agreements should be supported at the citizen level to eliminate the adverse effects

on dimensions of ecological economics abstract a recent paper ecological economics 69 2010 pp 1604 1609 has addressed the issues of dimensional homogeneity of equations and non linear transformations of variables in economic and ecological economic models the authors argued that logarithmic transformation cannot be used when variables are dimensional presented several examples of purportedly incorrect use in applied economics and ecological economics publications and concluded that these applications make no sense in this paper we show that this view goes against well established theory and practice of many disciplines including physics statistics biology and economics and rests on an inadequate understanding of dimensional homogeneity and the nature of empirical modeling in applied sciences we believe that it is important to clarify that the use of dimensional variables in transcendental functions is in fact in accordance with the established scientific consensus so as to prevent further confusion from arising in ecological economics where addressing complex problems requires the synthesis of insights from many diverse disciplines to further our understanding of the environment economy interface we also provide novel applications of dimensional methods to ecological economics and useful methodological references from several strands of scientific literature not previously systematically consolidated that should be of interest to every applied researcher

campaign finances and political platforms the economics of political controversy one implication of the widely used median voter model is that candidates have little to gain by disagreement apart from some epsilon of controversy necessary to demonstrate which candidate is closer to the median voter position in the policy dimension in question votes are maximized by taking essentially identical position this is true at the nash median voter equilibrium and is true away from equilibrium as a consequence two candidate competition within one dimensional policy domain is expected to generate considerable agreement about appropriate policy we do in fact observe that in many elections candidate positions converge to very similar positions on matters of broad concern it is largely this convergence that gives the median voter model its considerable credence in spite of the fragility of the underlying theory on the other hand the convergence is rarely as complete as might have been expected and there are elections where candidates take substantively different positions this paper explores the extent to which the campaign contributions of politically active groups may draw candidates away from the median voter position as candidate seek funds to run effective election campaigns candidates gener

passive house at the crossroads the past and the present of a voluntary standard that managed to bridge the energy efficiency gap abstract improving energy efficiency in dwellings is generally seen as the low hanging fruit of climate change mitigation in particular decreased heat loss through better insulation is suggested as one of the most cost effective means to achieve the ambitious national and international goals of climate gas reduction however the literature shows that a profitable technological solution is not sufficient to reach the energy goals aspects such as a lack of information unobserved costs and heterogeneity among users can compromise the success of technical innovation still there are successful concepts that drive the technological development in the construction sector the passive house is an example for such innovations that manage to bridge the energy efficiency gap this paper addresses the passive house concept and standard as a success story of technological innovation with bruno latour s science in action 1987 as a starting point we describe the conditions under which the standard was created the role of the network built around the passive house institute and the consequences of exporting the standard we identify success factors that have supported the diffusion of the passive house standard and concept and discuss its possible development in the current situation which is characterized by its wide spread adoption

new directions for household energy efficiency evidence from the uk the market rarely delivers energy efficiency improvements spontaneously as there is no market push consumers are not providing a pull towards energy efficiency usually because they are ignorant of or indifferent to the range on the market or the energy implications of their purchases whilst consumers are concerned about climate change and generally understand the causal role of fossil fuels they believe either that they have done everything or that one person cannot make a difference without a positive design focus from manufacturers or a clear demand from consumers no part of the market will deliver energy efficiency naturally policy has to provide the drive within the uk the opportunities to introduce policies based on higher energy prices are constrained by the impact these have on low income households this means that product policy market transformation has to be the main delivery mechanism for domestic energy efficiency in the uk the policies adopted so far in the uk and eu have been successful with existing products but have not prevented the development of new profligate equipment this limited success demonstrates the need for european policy to be more forceful and for policy to involve engagement with manufacturers about the products they are planning to introduce to motivate consumers policy should focus on carbon and incorporate feedback without these developments and considerably more activity by the european commission and member states energy efficiency will not contribute its potential to the uk target of 60 reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050

aspects of governance and hbox co _2 co 2 emissions a non linear panel data analysis the reduction of hbox co 2 emissions has been at the centre of worldwide debates on environmental issues though its inclusion as one of the millennium development goals mdgs by the united nations has changed the focus of relative literature among many one of the world bank s recipes to achieve a higher position toward mdgs has been to undertake reforms for a better governance while the majority of researches focus has been on one single aspect and its relationship with the environment some studies have simultaneously considered two governance dimensions in this paper we focus on the role of several aspects of governance on hbox co 2 emissions this provides us with a chance to explore the possible impacts of all aspects of governance on a more direct measure of emissions that is different to previous researches which have focused on the indirect transmission and considered the maximum of two using the iv method within panel data analysis we show that only one single aspect of governance control of corruption has a negative significant effect on hbox co 2 emissions and its effect has a non linear relationship the non linearity exists in both parametric and nonparametric analysis after controlling for endogeneity

sunk capital and negotiated resolutions of environmental conflicts two nations seek a cooperative agreement to control bilateral flows of an industrial pollutant from previous noncooperative production choices the nations hold a certain amount of sunk capital if production requires relatively large investments in sunk capital the nations may find that they cannot negotiate production quotas that improve on their noncooperative choices when the nations find cooperation worthwhile negotiated levels of production will be higher than in the absence of sunk capital furthermore both nations are motivated to attempt to manipulate the terms of the agreement by making strategic investments in sunk capital prior to its completion

budgets as dynamic gatekeepers most large organizations allocate resources by means of fixed budgets each subunit is normally entitled to spend a defined amount over a fixed period usually one year fixed budgets create clear incentives for subunits to control costs yet such arrangements create major incentives for dynamic inefficiency for example by encouraging subunits to exhaust their budgets toward the end of the fiscal year this paper develops a dynamic optimization model to examine the incentives fostered by budget systems it invokes the metaphor of physicians involved in a health care delivery system to examine incentives created by decentralized gatekeeping as a mechanism to control medical costs the paper also discusses some methods to reduce the incentives for dynamic inefficiency that fixed budgets create

minimum participation rules in international environmental agreements empirical evidence from a survey among delegates in international climate negotiations recent contributions to the theoretical and experimental literature suggest that minimum participation rules mprs are able to reduce free riding incentives and may facilitate cooperation or at least coordination at the extensive margin of international environmental agreements based on a dataset from a world wide survey among delegates in international climate negotiations this paper assesses preferences for different mprs for a future climate treaty among key players the empirical findings provide evidence that small countries with low bargaining power rather opt for large minimum membership requirements while industrialized countries push forward the idea of a small carbon club of the largest emitters only in contrast delegates from countries in transition try to keep emission thresholds rather low which would allow a future agreement to come into force without their signature