innovation in the energy sector lessons learnt from r d expenditures and patents in selected iea countries abstract long time series of the iea and international patent offices offer a huge potential for scientific investigations of the energy innovation process thus this paper deals with a broad literature review on innovation drivers and barriers and an analysis of the knowledge induced by public research and development expenditures r d and patents in the energy sector the cumulative knowledge stock induced by public r d expenditures in 14 investigated iea countries is 102 3 bn eur in 2013 nuclear energy has the largest share of 43 9 bn eur followed by energy efficiency accounting for 14 9 bn eur fossil fuels with 13 5 bn eur and renewable energy with 12 1 bn eur a regression analysis indicates a linear relation between the gdp and the cumulative knowledge with each billion eur of gdp leading to an additional knowledge of 3 1 mil eur however linearity is not given for single energy technologies further the results show that appropriate public r d funding for research and development associated with a subsequent promotion of the market diffusion of a niche technology may lead to a breakthrough of the respective technology

assessing the regional economic impacts of renewable energy sources a literature review abstract the transition of the global energy system is one of the main trends that offers opportunities as well as challenges for the economy most literature evaluates the impact of that transition at a national level that view is broadened towards a regional scale due to the lower energy density of many renewable energy sources renewable energy generation will be more decentralised leading to potentially significant changes in the regional economy when transitioning to a renewable energy system in this paper the current literature and methods of assessing regional economic impacts of a transition to renewable energy generation is reviewed the findings suggest an overall need to clearly define the topics such as technologies that are assessed and the evaluated time period a guideline for a regional impact assessment is provided focusing on the suitability of applied impact assessment methods employment ratios supply chain analyses input output models and computable general equilibrium models

wind power development in sweden global policies and local obstacles abstract recently the swedish government adopted a national planning goal of a yearly wind power generation of 10 twh by 2015 implying a substantial increase from the current 0 6 twh level in this paper we provide an economic assessment of the potential for future wind power investments in sweden in close conjunction with an analysis of the legal attitudinal and policy related uncertainties that face a wind mill investor it is shown that the economics of swedish wind power is negatively affected by a the lack of policy stability b public criticism at the local level and in particular c the legal provisions governing the assessment of the environmental impacts of wind mills and the planning procedures for mill location while national and global energy policies as well as the general public point out wind power as particularly environmentally friendly most of the objections to its expansion at the local level tend to have environmental origins the interests of those who object to wind mill installations gain strong legal protection and the municipal territorial planning monopoly in sweden implies that it is hard to make national energy policy goals heard at the local implementation stage compared to its competitors wind power is the technology that tends to have the most to loose from the risk and uncertainties created by this investment environment the paper identifies and discusses a number of ways in which the national policy interests could be strengthened at the local level we discuss the role of citizen participation as well as solutions within the realms of the legal system moreover since the diffusion of wind power encounters the most strident legal and attitudinal obstacles where it interferes with competing land uses a move offshore appears to be an efficient strategy from the perspective of a wind mill investor a stronger political commitment to wind power expansion in legal provisions as well as in the form of long run stability in policy instrument implementation will probably be necessary to attain the 2015 policy goal

the effects of incentive compensation contracts on the risk and return performance of commodity trading advisors this paper shows that commodity trading advisors ctas investment performance may be partially explained by their incentive compensation contracts contracts include base incentive and asset parameters the relationships between contract parameters and performance are theoretically indeterminate but are examined here empirically results indicate that incentive parameters are positively related to return means and standard deviations the dollar amounts of assets ctas manage are negatively related to return means and standard deviations supporting elton et al s 1987 1989 finding that cta performance falls after public offerings of commodity funds intuitively since dollar fees are a function of assets at the higher asset and fee levels achieved through commodity fund offerings ctas may safeguard assets and fees by pursuing less risky investment strategies

testing for the presence of some features of increasing returns to adoption factors in energy system dynamics an analysis via the learning curve approach the purpose of this paper is to explain the sources of energy system lock in it presents a comparative analysis of the respective contributions of some features of increasing returns to adoption factors i e learning by doing learning by searching and returns to scale effects in explaining the technological change dynamics in the energy system the paper is technically based on a critical analysis of the learning curve approach econometric estimation of learning and scale effects inherent to seven energy technologies were performed by the use of several learning curve specifications these specifications permit to deal with some crucial issues related to the learning curve estimation which are associated with the problem of omitted variable bias the endogeneity effects and the choice of learning indicators results show that dynamic economies from learning effects coupled with static economies from scale effects are responsible for the lock in phenomena of the energy system they also show that the magnitude of such effects is correlated with the technology life cycle maturity in particular results point out that 1 the emerging technologies exhibit low learning rates associated with diseconomies of scale which are argued to be symptomatic of the outset of the deployment of new technologies characterized by diffusion barriers and high level of uncertainty 2 the evolving technologies present rather high learning rates meaning that they respond quickly to capacity expansion and r d activities development 3 conventional mature technologies display low learning rates but increasing returns to scale implying that they are characterized by a limited additional diffusion prospects

supplementing an emissions tax by a feed in tariff for renewable electricity to address learning spillovers abstract in the presence of learning spillovers related to renewable energy technologies an optimal strategy to mitigate climate change should complement an emissions tax by a subsidy for renewables this article addresses the question how such subsidy should be designed it is shown that the widely used approach of a revenue neutral fixed feed in tariff can yield an optimal outcome under restrictive conditions only it has to be adapted continuously as the electricity price changes moreover funding the tariff by a surcharge on the electricity price has important implications for the design of the emission tax the optimal tax rate has to be below the pigovian level differentiated across fossil fuels and adapted over time as the patterns of technological development change these requirements may pose a formidable challenge for practical decision making however it is important to point out that the eventual choices made with respect to the design and funding of a feed in tariff have to be based on a careful and more comprehensive policy assessment including inter alia economic effects beyond the electricity sector and existing institutional constraints

climate change financial stability and monetary policy using a stock flow fund ecological macroeconomic model we analyse i the effects of climate change on financial stability and ii the financial and global warming implications of a green qe programme emphasis is placed on the impact of climate change damages on the price of financial assets and the financial position of firms and banks the model is estimated and calibrated using global data and simulations are conducted for the period 2015 2115 four key results arise first by destroying the capital of firms and reducing their profitability climate change is likely to gradually deteriorate the liquidity of firms leading to a higher rate of default that could harm both the financial and the non financial corporate sector second climate change damages can lead to a portfolio reallocation that can cause a gradual decline in the price of corporate bonds third financial instability might adversely affect credit expansion and the investment in green capital with adverse feedback effects on climate change fourth the implementation of a green qe programme can reduce climate induced financial instability and restrict global warming the effectiveness of this programme depends positively on the responsiveness of green investment to changes in bond yields

mutual fund incubation and the role of the securities and exchange commission a mutual fund family incubates a fund when it creates a privately subsidized fund not available to the general investing public it destroys unsuccessful incubator funds the few successful funds will report higher incubation returns than the market return in advertisements intended to attract money from individual investors this practice is currently allowed by the sec the evidence is that incubation returns are not a good predictor of subsequent fund performance and likely serve to mislead unsuspecting investors

green innovation value chain analysis of pv solar power abstract governments around the world have employed a variety of generous subsidies to help promote and develop clean energy technologies in the hope that they will widely replace dirtier carbon based power sources unfortunately these subsidies have not prevented numerous green technology bankruptcies including the infamous 2011 closure of the california based solar panel producer solyndra and these failures have cost taxpayers and private investors billions in lost capital the green innovation value chain givc provides a possible framework for determining the diffusion prospects of green technologies through environmental and financial comparisons to conventional alternatives across the separate chain links comprised of manufacturers distributors customers government and the environment the givc framework is used here to analyze the photovoltaic solar power chain where financial deficits are found in each link that will need to be reduced or eliminated through technology advancements subsidies or changes in market conditions in order to provide the conditions necessary for the technology to achieve mass market acceptance and positive financial returns

effects of technological learning and uranium price on nuclear cost preliminary insights from a multiple factors learning curve and uranium market modeling this paper studies the effects of returns to scale technological learning i e learning by doing and learning by searching and uranium price on the prospects of nuclear cost decrease we use an extended learning curve specification named multiple factors learning curve mflc in a first stage we estimate a single mflc in a second stage we estimate the mflc under the framework of simultaneous system of equations which takes into account the uranium supply and demand this permits not only to enhance the reliability of the estimation by incorporating the uranium price formation mechanisms in the mflc via the price variable but also to give preliminary insights about uranium supply and demand behaviors and the associated effects on the nuclear expansion results point out that the nuclear cost has important prospects for decrease via capacity expansion i e learning by doing effects in contrast they show that the learning by searching as well as the scale effects have a limited effect on the cost decrease prospects conversely results also show that uranium price exerts a positive and significant effect on nuclear cost implying that when the uranium price increases the nuclear power generation cost decreases since uranium is characterized by important physical availability and since it represents only a minor part in the total nuclear cost we consider that in a context of increasing demand for nuclear energy the latter result can be explained by the fact that the positive learning effects on the cost of nuclear act in a way to dissipate the negative ones that an increase in uranium price may exert further results give evidence of important inertia in the supply and demand sides as well as evidence of slow correlation between the uranium market and oil market which may limit the inter fuels substituability effects that is nuclear capacity expansion and associated learning by doing benefits

an economic perspective on experience curves and dynamic economies in renewable energy technologies this paper analyzes dynamic economies in renewable energy technologies the paper has two contributions the first is to test the robustness of experience in solar photovoltaic solar thermal and wind energy to the addition of an explicit time trend which has been done in experience studies for other industries but not for renewable energy technologies estimation is carried out on the assumption that cumulative capacity industry production average firm production and electricity generation affect experience and thus the fall in price the second contribution is to test the impact of r d on price reduction in general cumulative experience is found to be highly statistically significant when estimated alone and highly statistically insignificant when time is added to the model the effect of r d is small and statistically significant in solar photovoltaic technology and statistically insignificant in solar thermal and wind technologies

technological learning and renewable energy costs implications for us renewable energy policy abstract this paper analyzes the relationship between current renewable energy technology costs and cumulative production research development and demonstration expenditures and other institutional influences combining the theoretical framework of learning by doing and developments in learning by searching with the fields of organizational learning and institutional economics offers a complete methodological framework to examine the underlying capital cost trajectory when developing electricity cost estimates used in energy policy planning models sensitivities of the learning rates for global wind and solar photovoltaic technologies to changes in the model parameters are tested the implications of the results indicate that institutional policy instruments play an important role for these technologies to achieve cost reductions and further market adoption

new public offerings information and investor rationality the case of publicly offered commodity funds publicly traded commodity funds have been poor investment vehicles yet new funds are a fast growing part of the investment scene in this article the authors show that the information provided to investors is significantly biased upward and that true performance cannot be determined by the information most investors see thus investment in commodity funds given the information set is rational while the authors limit the study to commodity funds the same should hold for other limited partnerships such as real estate oil and gas copyright 1989 by the university of chicago

balancing demand pull and supply push measures to support renewable electricity in europe abstract increasing the share of renewable energy is deemed essential to reduce the carbon intensity of the current electricity mix the promotion of renewable energy technologies should thus be as effective and efficient as possible therefore support schemes should explicitly consider the balance between demand pull e g production subsidies and supply push efforts public rdd the cumulative pull push ratio for biogas is about 700 in the 5 year lag case and about 1200 in the other cases 10 yr lag or more although the debate on optimal rd d efforts is not conclusive and very sector specific it is relevant to compare our findings to average pull push ratios of about 20 in the engineering sector overall we can safely conclude that european governments should critically evaluate current renewables subsidy schemes and increase public rd d investments to support next waves of renewable energy technologies

sustainability assessment of electricity generation technologies using weighted multi criteria decision analysis abstract solving the issue of environmental degradation due to the expansion of the world s energy demand requires a balanced approach the aim of this paper is to comprehensively rank a large number of electricity generation technologies based on their compatibility with the sustainable development of the industry the study is based on a set of 10 sustainability indicators which provide a life cycle analysis of the plants the technologies are ranked using a weighted sum multi attribute utility method the indicator weights were established through a survey of 62 academics from the fields of energy and environmental science our results show that large hydroelectric projects are the most sustainable technology type followed by small hydro onshore wind and solar photovoltaic we argue that political leaders should have a more structured and strategic approach in implementing sustainable energy policies and this type of research can provide arguments to support such decisions

tightening environmental standards the benefit cost or the no cost paradigm ms ff ichael porter and claas van der linde have written a paper that is interesting and to us at least somewhat astonishing it is a defense of environmental regulation indeed an invitation to more stringent regulation that makes essentially no reference to the social benefits of such regulation this approach contrasts starkly with the methods that economists and other policy analysts have traditionally used when assessing environmental or other regulatory programs the traditional approach consists of comparing the beneficial effects of regulation with the costs that must be borne to secure these benefits for environmental regulation the social benefits include the reductions in morbidity or premature mortality that can accompany cleaner air the enhanced recreational opportunities that can result from water quality improvements the increased land values that might attend the cleanup of a hazardous waste site the enhanced vitality of aquatic ecosystems that might follow reductions in agricultural pesticide use or any of the other potentially significant benefits associated with tighter standards from this benefit cost approach emerges the standard tradeoff discussed in virtually every economics textbook porter and van der linde deny the validity of this approach to the analysis of environmental regulation claiming it to be an artifact of what they see as a static mindset in their view economists have failed to appreciate the capacity of

representing induced technological change in models for climate policy analysis induced technological change itc whereby the relative price effects of reducing greenhouse gas emissions stimulate innovation that mitigates the cost of abatement is both tantalizing to decision makers and challenging to represent in the computational economic and engineering models used to analyze climate change policy this overview reconciles the divergent views of technology and technological change within different types of models elucidates the theoretical underpinnings of itc introduces the reader to the techniques of their practical implementation and evaluates the implications for models results

hang the low hanging fruit even lower evidence that energy efficiency matters for corporate financial performance abstract energy efficiency measures are often called low hanging fruit first they significantly lower the energy consumption and therefore contribute to combat global warming second they are considered short term and cost effective investments however there still exists a gap between existing profitable investments to increase energy efficiency and the corporate reality where organizations do not implement these measures the so called energy efficiency gap this analysis aims to prove that an increasing level of corporate energy efficiency is directly related to an improved corporate financial performance the study bases on a multiple regression analysis and considers the manufacturing industry worldwide findings indicate a significant positive link hence the study reveals that managers should pay more attention to the implementation of energy efficiency measures even though they incorporate investment costs the analysis further contributes to recent research as it takes into account the impacts on corporate financial performance from activities along the corporate value chain the regression model specifically includes the nine activities of the corporate value chain as variables to control for effects on corporate financial performance since gained results provide a higher predictive power the study calls future research to explicitly consider specific value chain activities when analyzing impacts on corporate financial performance

professionally managed publicly traded commodity funds investment in professionally managed publicly traded commodity funds has grown rapidly in recent years this is the first comprehensive study of the performance of these funds it is found that randomly selected funds offer neither an attractive alternative to bonds nor a profitable addition to a portfolio of stocks and bonds furthermore past performance of these funds offers very little information about future performance the findings may be explained by the large transactions costs incurred by these funds and their primary reliance on technical analysis copyright 1987 by the university of chicago

technical change dynamics evidence from the emerging renewable energy technologies abstract this paper explores the respective contributions of the effects of learning and returns to scale in the capital costs reduction pattern experienced by renewables causality analysis and econometric estimation of learning curves are performed on two emerging renewable energy technologies namely pv and wind learning effects appear as an essential driving force a result which concurs with the widely acknowledged importance of experience in technical progress inherent to economic growth the existence of non constant and flexible returns to scale are further highlighted their effect on diffusion dynamics is shown to be potentially considerable particularly at the outset of innovation deployment however returns to scale are suggested to be constant in the long term institutional commitment in supporting innovation therefore seems justified both on the basis of the occurrence of learning effects and diseconomies of scale these findings appear to be essential to the dynamics of innovation diffusion and market structure

assessing the economic value of renewable distributed generation in the northeastern american market abstract incentive programs and tax rebates are commonly offered to offset the high initial costs of small scale renewable energy systems res and foster their implementation however the economic costs of res grid integration must be fully known in order to determine whether such subsidies are justified the objective of this paper is to assess the economic value of res including their environmental benefits using hourly generation information in conjunction with hourly wholesale price data reaching the paper s objective will provide a better estimate of the bias that could result from neglecting 1 the time pattern of the hourly wholesale price 2 the impacts of carbon taxes on the hourly wholesale price and 3 the value of the marginal hourly ghg emissions selected res include two types of grid connected photovoltaic panels 3 kwp mono and poly crystalline and three types of micro wind turbines 1 10 and 30 kw modeled for different climatic conditions in the province of quebec canada the cost of electricity is based on the technical performance of these res using a life cycle costing methodology the economic value of res electricity is estimated using the hourly wholesale electricity price in northeastern american markets in 2006 2008 results show that distributed generation dg has no economic benefits using the selected res even with a us 100 tonne of co2 equivalent carbon tax this finding remains the same when the value of the avoided ghg emissions is fully internalized except for one scenario micro wind 30 kw our results are key to understanding the extent to which subsidies for distributed res can be economically sustainable when the latter are integrated into regional networks driven by centralized electricity production

does the federal reserve care about the rest of the world many economists are accustomed to thinking about federal reserve policy any economists are accustomed to thinking about federal reserve policy in terms of the institution s dual mandate which refers to price stability in terms of the institution s dual mandate which refers to price stability and high employment and in which the exchange rate and other interand high employment and in which the exchange rate and other international variables matter only insofar as they infl uence infl ation and the output national variables matter only insofar as they infl uence infl ation and the output gap which is to say not very much gap which is to say not very much in fact this conventional view is heavily shaped by the distinctive and pecuin fact this conventional view is heavily shaped by the distinctive and peculiar circumstances of the last three decades when the infl uence of international liar circumstances of the last three decades when the infl uence of international considerations on fed policy has been limited in this paper i will discuss how the considerations on fed policy has been limited in this paper i will discuss how the federal reserve paid signifi cant attention to international considerations in its fi rst federal reserve paid signifi cant attention to international considerations in its fi rst two decades followed by relative inattention to such factors in the two plus decades two decades followed by relative inattention to such factors in the two plus decades that followed then back to renewed attention to international aspects of monetary that followed then back to renewed attention to international aspects of monetary policy in the 1960s before the recent period of benign neglect of the international policy in the 1960s before the recent period of benign neglect of the international dimension this longer perspective is a reminder that just because the fed has not dimension this longer perspective is a reminder that just because the fed has not attached priority to international aspects of monetary policy in the recent past we attached priority to international aspects of monetary policy in the recent past we have no guarantee that it will not do so in the future indeed i will argue in the have no guarantee that it will not do so in the future indeed i will argue in the conclusion that in the next few decades international aspects are likely to play a conclusion that in the next few decades international aspects are likely to play a larger role in federal reserve policy making larger role in federal reserve policy making 1

the reverse lbo decision and firm performance theory and evidence we investigate the transition from private to public ownership of companies that had previously been subject to leveraged buyouts lbos we show that the information asymmetry problem firms face when they go to public markets for equity as well as behavioral and debt overhang effects will produce a pattern in which superior performance before an offering should be expected with disappointing performance subsequently we find empirical evidence of this phenomenon by studying 62 reverse lbos that went public between 1983 and 1987 the market appears to anticipate this pattern in 1991 56 leveraged buyouts lbos returned to the public equity markets part of a broader phenomenon in which a large fraction of lbos go public again hence becoming reverse lbos kaplan 1991 reports that 45 percent of a sample of large lbos completed between 1979 and 1986 later returned to public ownership moreover reverse lbos tend to be larger than the average initial public offering ipo 1 in sum transitions from the lbo form to public ownership have become a widespread and economically significant phenomenon we find strong evidence that the return to public ownership of reverse lbos coincides with a peak in their operating performance their operating income as a percentage of total assets grew by about seven percentage points in the preoffering year comparison firms in the same industries show a slight decline in the same performance measure moreover in the preoffering year reverse lbos outperform continuing lbos in the year after the

technological learning in energy environment economy modelling a survey abstract this paper aims at providing an overview and a critical analysis of the technological learning concept and its incorporation in energy environment economy models a special emphasis is put on surveying and discussing through the so called learning curve both studies estimating learning rates in the energy field and studies incorporating endogenous technological learning in bottom up and top down models the survey of learning rate estimations gives special attention to interpreting and explaining the sources of variability of estimated rates which is shown to be mainly inherent in r d expenditures the problem of omitted variable bias the endogeneity relationship and the role of spillovers large scale models survey show that despite some methodological and computational complexity related to the non linearity and the non convexity associated with the learning curve incorporation results of the numerous modelling experiments give several new insights with regard to the analysis of the prospects of specific technological options and their cost decrease potential bottom up models and with regard to the analysis of strategic considerations especially inherent in the innovation and energy diffusion process in particular the energy sector s endogenous responses to environment policy instruments top down models

bending the learning curve abstract the aim of this paper is to improve the application of the learning curve a popular tool used for forecasting future costs of renewable technologies in integrated assessment models iams first we formally discuss under what assumptions the traditional ols estimates of the learning curve can deliver meaningful predictions in iams we argue that the most problematic of them are the absence of any effect of technology cost on its demand reverse causality and the ability of iams to predict all determinants of cumulative capacity next we show that these assumptions can be relaxed by modifying the traditional econometric method used to estimate the learning curve the new estimation approach presented in this paper is robust to the two problems identified but preserves the reduced form character of the learning curve finally we provide new estimates of learning curves for wind turbines and pv technologies which are tailored for use in iams our results suggest that the learning rate should be revised upward for solar pv our estimate of learning rate for wind technology is almost the same as the traditional ols estimates

an economic assessment of windfarm power generation in scotland including externalities abstract this paper uses cost benefit analysis to assess the economic feasibility of a large scale windfarm project taking into account positive and negative externalities of generation the issue of non use value i e a welfare change among those who will never visit the area and see the windfarm is addressed with reference to the study by bergmann et al 2006 valuing the attributes of renewable energy investments energy policy 34 1004 1014 which determined a social cost of 19 40 per household for the non use disamenity associated with a large scale windfarm in scotland this paper demonstrates the extent to which this estimate affects the economic feasibility of the project we find that for all but one of the 16 scenarios considered the project returns a positive net present value despite the inclusion of this non use value thus suggesting that in these cases the windfarm delivers a net welfare gain to society

are investors rational choices among index funds s p 500 index funds represent one of the simplest vehicles for examining rational behavior they hold virtually the same securities yet their returns differ by more than 2 percent per year although the relative returns of alternative s p 500 funds are easily predictable the relationship between cash flows and performance is weaker than rational behavior would lead us to expect we show that selecting funds based on low expenses or high past returns outperforms the portfolio of index funds selected by investors our results exemplify the fact that in a market where arbitrage is not possible dominated products can prosper

a social capital paradox entrepreneurial dynamism in a small world clean technology cluster abstract clean tech entrepreneurs have struggled to gain investor confidence because of some particular characteristics and circumstances of the industry this research combines network and sustainable development literature in the clean tech context to support the logic of a new investment approach that may stimulate sustainable investing in clean tech theory is proposed to suggest that there may be an advantageous social capital paradox where strong ties in a cluster lead to dynamism rather than decay the clean tech industry provides a context where strong ties offer network stability in a small world cluster such that it is a value creating organizational form offering greater dynamism two related propositions are developed to support the social capital paradox they lead to a theoretical conclusion that long term integrated partner solutions where partners are also resource constrained lead to successful alliances supporting a dynamic cluster that will grow over time a practical conclusion is that investing in a connected cluster of firms might be less risky compared to investing in a new firm or even a portfolio of well diversified assets de risking clean production investments may be achievable through a small world network cluster backed security

the impact of r d on innovation for wind energy in denmark germany and the united kingdom this paper examines the impact of public research and development r d support on cost reducing innovation for wind turbine farms in denmark germany and the united kingdom uk first we survey the literature in this field the literature indicates that in denmark r d policy has been more successful than in germany or the uk in promoting innovation of wind turbines furthermore such studies point out that subsidy induced capacity expansions were more effective in the uk and denmark in promoting cost reducing innovation than in germany the second part of the paper describes the quantitative analysis of the impact of r d and capacity expansion on innovation this is calculated using the two factor learning curve 2flc model in which investment cost reductions are explained by cumulative capacity and the r d based knowledge stock time series data were collected for the three countries and organized as a panel data set the parameters of the 2flc model were estimated focusing on the homogeneity and heterogeneity of the parameters across countries we arrived at robust estimations of a learning by doing rate of 5 4 and a learning by searching rate of 12 6 the analysis underlines the homogeneity of the learning parameters enhancing the validity of the 2flc formulation

innovative energy technologies and climate policy in germany due to the size and structure of its economy germany is one of the largest carbon emitters in the european union however germany is facing a major renewal and restructuring process in electricity generation within the next two decades up to 50 of current electricity generation capacity may retire because of end of plant lifetime and the nuclear phase out pact of 1998 substantial opportunities therefore exist for deployment of advanced electricity generating technologies in both a projected baseline and in alternative carbon policy scenarios we simulate the potential role of coal integrated gasification combined cycle igcc natural gas combined cycle ngcc carbon dioxide capture and storage ccs and wind power within a computable general equilibrium model of germany from the present through 2050 these advanced technologies and their role within a future german electricity system are the focus of this paper we model the response of greenhouse gas emissions in germany to various technology and carbon policy assumptions over the next few decades in our baseline scenario all of the advanced technologies except ccs provide substantial contributions to electricity generation we also calculate the carbon price where each fossil technology combined with ccs becomes competitive constant carbon price experiments are used to characterize the model response to a carbon policy this provides an estimate of the cost of meeting an emissions target and the share of emissions reductions available from the electricity generation sector

configuring value for competitive advantage on chains shops and networks building on thompson s 1967 typology of long linked intensive and mediating technologies this paper explores the idea that the value chain the value shop and the value network are three distinct generic value configuration models required to understand and analyze firm level value creation logic across a broad range of industries and firms while the long linked technology delivers value by transforming inputs into products the intensive technology delivers value by resolving unique customer problems and the mediating technology delivers value by enabling direct and indirect exchanges between customers with the identification of alternative value creation technologies value chain analysis is both sharpened and generalized into what we propose as a value configuration analysis approach to the diagnosis of competitive advantage with the long linked technology and the corresponding value chain configuration model as benchmark the paper reviews the distinctive logic and develops models of the value shop and the value network in terms of primary activity categories drivers of cost and value and strategic positioning options 1998 john wiley sons ltd

shifting mandates the federal reserve s first centennial the federal reserve s mandate has evolved considerably over the organization s hundred year history it was changed from an initial focus in 1913 on financial stability to fiscal financing in world war ii and its aftermath to a strong anti inflation focus from the late 1970s and then back to greater emphasis on financial stability since the great contraction yet as the fed s mandate has expanded in recent years its range of instruments has narrowed partly based on a misguided belief in the inherent stability of financial markets we argue for a return to multiple instruments including a more active role for reserve requirements

the learning curve and pricing in the chemical processing industries data on 37 chemical products are used to test a number of hypotheses about the learning curve and industrial price behavior the results document a strong and consistent learning effect learning is found to be a function of cumulated industry output and cumulated investment rather than calendar time standard economies of scale appear significant but small in magnitude relative to the learning effect variations in the slope of the learning curve are linked to differences in r d expenditures and capital intensity market concentration is found to be a strong influence on price flexibility and the timing of learningrelated price changes

hydropower the politics of water and energy introduction and overview this special issue of energy policy is dedicated entirely to hydropower and this introductory article provides an overview of the contents it is divided into three main subject areas the present situation and history the main policy issues and the future of the hydropower industry the first area covers the evolving context the diversity and the potential of the hydropower industry and also reports on hydropower in china the country with the largest remaining potential the policy area covers the social and environmental effects the regulatory framework and public acceptance issues the discussion of the future describes the changes that are underway and still need to be made to ensure that hydropower will continue to serve the needs of society for electricity and several other important services hydropower projects can yield large benefits to society but they also entail costs and well informed decision making processes are necessary to ensure the best outcomes for a region or a country the authors who contributed to this special issue hope that their articles will provide some of the information needed for good decision making

technological change and the timing of mitigation measures we use a coupled carbon cycle and energy systems engineering model to analyze the future time path of carbon emissions under an illustrative co2 concentration stabilization limit of 550 ppm our findings confirm the emission pattern as found by wre global emissions rise initially pass through stabilization in order to decline in the second half of the 21st century we show that for a given co2 concentration target emission trajectories within an intertemporal optimization framework depend mainly on two factors the discount rate and the representation of technological change as either static or dynamic we obtain a similar near term emission time path as wre when using a model with static technology and a discount rate of 7 we obtain a trajectory with lower emissions in the near term when using a lower discount rate and or treating technology dynamics endogenously in the model we briefly outline a model that endogenizes technological change through learning curves we then compare differences in emission trajectories between alternative model formulations of technological change they are sufficiently small as to be of secondary importance when compared to treating co2 concentration stabilization as an inter temporal optimization problem or not whereas our results confirm the computational results of wre we arrive nonetheless at different policy conclusions if long term emission reduction is the goal we cannot follow business as usual even in the short term action needs to start now action does not necessarily mean aggressive short term emission reductions but rather enhanced r d and technology demonstration efforts that stimulate technological learning these are the necessary preconditions that long term reduction targets can be met with improved technology and at costs lower than today we close by pointing out two further critical issues uncertainty and the possible mismatch between the world of economic models and that of climate policy

new equity funds marketing and performance we discuss two strategies sponsors have used successfully to introduce new equity funds and promote the performance of the funds after their introduction the strategy of incubation allows funds that compile a favorable track record in private to be marketed to the public at a later opportune time the strategy of selective attention directs favorable allocations of special situations into new funds that are open to the public introduction strategies are most apparent among aggressive growth funds where first year performance has increasingly become superior incubator funds remain small while private but once opened they quickly increase in size and revert to median performance the first year success of selective attention funds also attracts large amounts of cash which undermines their subsequent performance

assessment of sustainability indicators for renewable energy technologies the non combustion based renewable electricity generation technologies were assessed against a range of sustainability indicators and using data obtained from the literature the indicators used to assess each technology were price of generated electricity greenhouse gas emissions during full life cycle of the technology availability of renewable sources efficiency of energy conversion land requirements water consumption and social impacts the cost of electricity greenhouse gas emissions and the efficiency of electricity generation were found to have a very wide range for each technology mainly due to variations in technological options as well as geographical dependence of each renewable energy source the social impacts were assessed qualitatively based on the major individual impacts discussed in literature renewable energy technologies were then ranked against each indicator assuming that indicators have equal importance for sustainable development it was found that wind power is the most sustainable followed by hydropower photovoltaic and then geothermal wind power was identified with the lowest relative greenhouse gas emissions the least water consumption demands and with the most favourable social impacts comparing to other technologies but requires larger land and has high relative capital costs

evaluating options for the future energy mix of japan after the fukushima nuclear crisis the fukushima nuclear accident in march 2011 has increased social and political reluctance to embrace nuclear power in japan and elsewhere the japanese government has thus been considering four possible future energy mixes including a nuclear free pathway and three others with 10 35 nuclear supply coupled with a larger proportion of renewable energy and fossil fuels to replace nuclear here we use multi criteria decision making analysis mcdma to assess the potential negative economic levelised cost of electricity and energy security environmental greenhouse gas emissions land transformation water consumption heated water discharge air pollution radioactive waste and solid waste and social safety issues impacts of the four proposed pathways to determine which scenario most holistically minimises adverse future outcomes the nuclear free pathway has the highest overall potential for adverse outcomes score 2 49 out of 3 and the 35 nuclear power supply option yielding the lowest negative impact score 0 74 without weightings despite some sensitivity to the choice of criterion weights our analyses demonstrate clearly that from an empirical perspective a nuclear free pathway for japan is the worst option to pursue we recommend that mcdma methodology we used for japan can be applied to other countries to evaluate future electricity generation scenarios

turning of the tides assessing the international implementation of tidal current turbines abstract the excessive combustion of fossil fuels for energy provision have altered natural planetary functions resulting in adverse biophysical and societal implications such implications have prompted many governments globally to advocate for the adoption of renewable energy systems in order to reduce ghg emissions while renewable energy technologies such as solar and biogases have been thoroughly researched and deployed tidal current turbines tcts that harness kinetic energy from the lateral movement of the tides are a comparatively emerging renewable energy technology and thus has received relatively less attention with respect to their potential to supplement the renewable energy transition this paper examines the physics behind tidal movements and cycles and the technological operation of tcts environmental impacts and economic barriers are analyzed best practices of msp from world leading nations are examined along with current deploy andmonitor consenting regimes of tct test facilities an optimal tct design is suggested based on a synthesis of information from proceeding sections finally an analysis of the implementation of tcts in canada china and norway is presented the results of which demonstrate that harnessing the accessible and sustainably extractable resource of each nation can result in an aggregate installed capacity of 9076 mw through the deployment of 7564 tcts at a cost of 5 740 964 430 thereby creating 14 467 jobs this would produce 29 829 711 mw h yr of electricity sold at approximately 22 cents kwh eliminating a total of 14 914 855 258 kg of co2e approximately 0 1 of the projected global electricity demand for 2016

how the brazilian government can use public policies to induce recycling and still save money abstract public policies can leverage the recycling of materials however there is no clear guidance on how to use such policies and still spare public funds to fill this gap a multiple case study was undertaken in brazil eleven companies that can produce new products using the waste generated by their customers were investigated the findings contribute by suggesting how governments can economically use taxes sanctions incentives and other public instruments to induce recycling tax exemptions are not required when the waste recycled reduces the manufacturer s costs or generates revenue for customers who produce it and or for the scrap dealers who collect it sanctions or penalties imposed on the manufacturer s customers can increase the recycling efforts of such manufacturers when the recycling is technically feasible but not economically attractive sanctions are ineffective when wastes have a good market value or are widespread over millions of generation points for such cases the public policies should focus on community awareness campaigns and attention on waste pickers incentives for the technological development can be provided to wastes that present a good market value but do not have an economical recycling technology available granting resources to universities and technological institutes will help spread the solution to sme companies by better understanding how to apply public instruments the governments will be able to save funds on tax exemptions better define sanctions focus its community awareness campaigns focus its waste pickers support and better allocate funds to support the development of new recycling technologies

unraveling the photovoltaic technology learning curve by incorporation of input price changes and scale effects in a large number of energy models the use of learning curves for estimating technological improvements has become popular this is based on the assumption that technological development can be monitored by following cost development as a function of market size however recent data show that in some stages of photovoltaic technology pv production the market price of pv modules stabilizes even though the cumulative capacity increases this implies that no technological improvement takes place in these periods the cost predicted by the learning curve in the pv study is lower than the market one we propose that this bias results from ignoring the effects of input prices and scale effects and that incorporating the input prices and scale effects into the learning curve theory is an important issue in making cost predictions more reliable in this paper a methodology is described to incorporate the scale and input prices effect as the additional variables into the one factor learning curve which leads to the definition of the multi factor learning curve this multi factor learning curve is not only derived from economic theories but also supported by an empirical study the results clearly show that input prices and scale effects are to be included and that although market prices are stabilizing learning is still taking place

liquidity provision interest rates and unemployment abstract the effective liquidity supply of the economy the weighted sum of all assets that serve as media of exchange matters for interest rates and unemployment we formalize this idea by adding an over the counter market with collateralized trades to the mortensen pissarides model an increase in public liquidity through a higher supply of real government bonds raises the real interest rate crowding out private liquidity and increasing unemployment if unemployment is inefficiently high keeping liquidity scarce can be socially optimal a liquidity crisis affecting the acceptability of private assets as collateral widens the rate of return difference between private and public liquidity also increasing unemployment