the electricity generation adequacy problem assessing dynamic effects of capacity remuneration mechanisms abstract following liberalization reforms the ability of power markets to provide satisfactory incentives for capacity investments has become a major concern in particular current energy markets can exhibit a phenomenon of investment cycles which generate phases of under and over capacity and hence additional costs and risks for generation adequacy to cope with these issues new mechanisms called capacity remuneration mechanisms crm have been or will be implemented this paper assesses the dynamic effects of two crms the capacity market and the strategic reserve mechanism and studies to what extent they can reduce the investment cycles generation costs and shortage costs of both mechanisms are also compared to conclude on their effectivity and economic efficiency a simulation model based on system dynamics is developed to study the functioning of both crms and the related investment decisions the results highlight the benefits of deploying crms to solve the adequacy issue shortages are strongly reduced compared to an energy only market besides the capacity market appears to be more beneficial since it experiences fewer shortages and generation costs are lower these comparisons can be used by policy makers in particular in europe where these two crms are mainly debated to determine which crm to adopt

long run equilibrium modeling of emissions allowance allocation systems in electric power markets carbon dioxide allowance trading systems for electricity generators are in place in the european union and in several u s states an important question in the design of such systems is how allowances are to be initially allocated by auction by giving away fixed amounts grandfathering or by allocating based on present or recent output investment or other decisions the latter system can bias investment operations and product pricing decisions and increase costs relative to the other systems a nonlinear complementarity model is proposed for investigating the long run equilibria that would result under alternative systems for power markets characterized by time varying demand and multiple technology types existence of equilibria is shown under mild conditions solutions for simple systems show that allocating allowances to new capacity based on fuel use or generator type can yield large distortions in capacity investment invert the operating order of power plants and inflate consumer costs the distortions can be smaller for tighter co2 restrictions and are somewhat mitigated if there is also a market for electricity capacity or minimum run restrictions on coal plants distortions are also less if allowances are allocated to plants in proportion to sales rather than capacity

a dynamic analysis of a demand curve based capacity market proposal the pjm reliability pricing model because of high generation adequacy standards in the power industry some peaking capacity operates for a limited time during the year and may not receive sufficient energy revenues to meet its fixed costs this is particularly true when energy prices are capped in order to mitigate market power the northeastern u s independent system operators isos have responded to this issue by establishing capacity obligations for loads and markets for installed capacity thus providing a capacity revenue stream to generators the installed capacity icap markets in the northeastern u s markets are a response to this need for additional incentives to construct generation the federal energy regulatory commission ferc has accepted the pjm interconnection s pjm proposal to replace the present fixed icap requirement that is placed upon load serving entities lses with a demand curve based system in which the iso would be responsible for acquiring residual capacity on behalf of lses the demand curve approach pays more when reserve margins are smaller and provides a reduced incentive for investment when installed reserves are above the target another goal is to make revenues more predictable for generators making investment less costly and ultimately lowering prices for consumers a dynamic representative agent model is presented for projecting effects upon reserve margins generator profitability and consumer costs and is applied to alternative demand curves proposed for the pjm market the consumer costs resulting from a sloped demand curve are robustly lower compared to the present fixed requirement under a wide range of assumptions concerning behavior of generation owners including risk attitudes bidding behavior and willingness to build capacity as a function of forecast profit the cost savings arise from lower capital costs to generators due to reduced risk and risk premiums also average installed capacity is less for the same level of reliability because of reduced fluctuations in installed reserves

regulatory design for res e support mechanisms learning curves market structure and burden sharing drawing from relevant experiences in power systems around the world this paper offers a review of existing policy support mechanisms for res e with a detailed analysis of their regulatory implications while recent studies provide an account of current res e support systems in this paper we focus on some of the impacts these mechanisms have on the overall energy market structure and its performance given the rising importance of res e in systems everywhere these impacts should no longer be overlooked

do social protection transfers reduce poverty and vulnerability to poverty in pakistan household level evidence from punjab empirical studies in different developing countries have investigated the impact of social protection sp on ex post poverty however few studies analysed the impact of sp on ex ante vulnerability to poverty vtp this paper contributes to the literature by evaluating the impact of sp on vulnerability to poverty vtp and poverty rates among households in the punjab province of pakistan a hierarchical modelling approach is used to analyse the multiple indicator cluster survey mics 2011 data of about 90 000 households matching methods and simultaneous endogenous switching regression are used to control for potential selection bias and estimate average treatment effects our results show that sp has a positive impact in reducing household poverty and vtp but this impact is mainly driven by a short term flood relief cash transfer programme pension of government employees and households regular purchase from utility store network

optimal generation mix with short term demand response and wind penetration demand response defined as the ability of load to respond to short term variations in electricity prices plays an increasingly important role in balancing short term supply and demand especially during peak periods and in dealing with fluctuations in renewable energy supplies however demand response has not been included in standard models for defining the optimal generation technology mix three different methodologies are proposed to integrate short term responsiveness into a generation technology mix optimization model considering operational constraints elasticities are included to adjust the demand profile in response to price changes including cross price elasticities that account for load shifts among hours as energy efficiency programs also influence the load profile interactions of efficiency investments and demand response are also modeled comparison of model results for a single year optimization with and without demand response shows peak reduction and valley filling effects impacting the optimal amounts and mix of generation capacity increasing demand elasticity also increases the installed amount of wind capacity suggesting that demand response yields environmental benefits by facilitating integration of renewable energy

generation capacity adequacy in interdependent electricity markets this paper deals with the practical problems related to long term security of supply in regional electricity markets with transmission constraints differences between regulatory policies and market designs in terms of generation adequacy policies may distort the normal functioning of the neighboring markets as well as the reliability of supply we test the effect of heterogeneous regulatory design between two interdependent markets energy only market price capped market without capacity mechanisms and price capped markets with forward capacity contracts obligation we rely on a long term market simulation model in system dynamics that characterizes expansion decision in a competitive regime the results show that differences in market designs affect both price and reliability of supply in the two markets we examine both the short and long terms effect and how free riding may occur where capacity adequacy policies are adopted in one market but not the other the main finding is that the lack of harmonization between local markets in policies to ensure capacity adequacy may lead to undesirable side effects

green electricity market development lessons from europe and the us this study compares the development and implementation of green electricity policies in germany the netherlands sweden and the united states a set of countries applying a range of policy instruments to encourage electricity from renewable energy sources a general tendency is identified that policies shift emphasis from r d stimulation towards dissemination and market application of renewable energy technologies we argue that in light of the long term nature of policy goals on energy security mitigation of climate change and environmental protection the applied range of policy instruments may be lacking in providing incentives for the long term development of new technologies clarifying policy objectives would allow careful selection of policy instruments including support for r d improved capacity building for policy implementation is also important

implementing the eu renewable target through green certificate markets abstract the european parliament has agreed on a target of a 20 share of renewables in the eu s total energy consumption by 2020 to achieve the target the european council has adopted mandatory differentiated national targets for each of the member states in this paper we consider the use of green certificates to reach the renewable targets and we analyze the potential for cost reductions by allowing for trade in green certificates across member states we show that differentiated national targets cannot ensure a cost effective implementation of the overall target for the eu s renewable energy consumption trade in green certificates can ensure a cost effective distribution of renewable energy production but the national targets prevent a cost effective distribution of energy consumption nevertheless our numerical model indicates that eu wide trade in green certificates may cut the eu s total cost of fulfilling the renewable target by as much as 70 compared with a situation with no trade however the design of green certificate markets may have a large impact on the distribution of costs across countries

renewable generation and electricity prices taking stock and new evidence for germany and austria abstract economic theory predicts that the increase of renewable electricity production should reduce the price of electricity in the short run which is also known as the merit order effect although the merit order effect is only one of several consequences of renewable production on the electricity system it is crucial to determine its size for the economic evaluation of renewable energies in this paper we present a comprehensive overview of relevant past research results on the price effect of renewables additionally we conduct a new empirical analysis of the price effect of renewable production for the austrian german region a market that clearly qualifies for a merit order effect analysis given its characteristics based on the review and our own analysis we show that the merit order effect varies depending on the region and the assessment method chosen we also find that the size of this effect is less dispersed throughout different markets than previously suggested by the literature

programs for the poorest learning from the igvgd program in bangladesh abstract this article examines a program that seeks to reach bangladesh s hardcore poor by combining elements of livelihood protection food aid with livelihood promotion skills training and microfinance bangladesh rural advancement committee s income generation for vulnerable group development program has deepened the outreach of its poverty reduction activity and achieved impressive results detailed local level fieldwork revealed however that program practice differed markedly from program plans this is found to have important implications for both future program design and the understanding of who does not benefit from such innovative programs we conclude that while such programs mixing livelihood protection and promotion should be a major focus for anti poverty strategies there will remain a role for more traditional social welfare schemes

the danish green certificate system some simple analytical results we formulate a simple static equilibrium model for the electricity market taking account of both green certificates and co2 emission permits the objective is to investigate the relationship between these markets under the existence of upper and lower price bounds on the green certificates both in the short and in the long run we perform various comparative static changes of the parameters of the model and study how these affect the endogenous variables of the model as well as producers and consumers surplus we also investigate the effects of imports and exports of electricity several comparative static results are derived and in particular it is shown that harsher co2 emission constraints and increased import wholesale price both may lead to reduced capacity of green electricity

carbon trading in the policy mix the kyoto protocol is stimulating the development of emissions trading schemes at the national and international levels these are being introduced alongside existing policy instruments such as carbon taxes and negotiated agreements leading to complex problems of policy interaction but the topic of policy interaction remains under researched this paper aims to improve understanding of such interactions by examining the conditions under which a cap and trade scheme for carbon dioxide emissions may usefully coexist with carbon energy taxes support mechanisms for renewable electricity and policies to promote energy efficiency the paper argues that each of these instrument combinations may be acceptable provided they contribute to either improving the static or dynamic efficiency of the trading scheme or delivering other valued policy objectives but since the coexisting instruments may raise overall abatement costs while contributing nothing further to emission reductions the objectives and trade offs within the policy mix must be explicit

an admm based method for computing risk averse equilibrium in capacity markets uncertainty in electricity markets introduces risk for investors high fixed cost and increased dependency on infrequent and uncertain price spikes characterize investments the risk averse behavior of investors might lead to poor decision making and undermines generation adequacy electricity market models rarely treat the interaction of market design and risk aversion the representation of capacity mechanisms in modeling approaches focusing on risk aversion is limited our contribution addresses two problems first we propose a stochastic market equilibrium model investors are represented as risk averse agents the conditional value at risk is used as risk measure second we propose an algorithm based on the alternating direction method of multipliers to compute a risk averse equilibrium we benchmark our approach with a state of the art solver relying on a mixed complementarity problem reformulation we show that for larger case studies our proposed approach is preferable the algorithm converges in all cases while conventional solvers fail to compute a risk averse equilibrium the methodology is transferable to other risk averse equilibrium models with reference to capacity markets we conclude that they are more beneficial in a risk averse market capacity markets result in lower total cost while avoiding expected energy not served this statement still holds with increased price caps in energy only markets

smart srec a stochastic model of the new jersey solar renewable energy certificate market markets for solar renewable energy certificates srecs are gaining in promi nence in many states stimulating growth of the u s solar industry however srec market prices have been extremely volatile causing high risk to participants and potentially less investment in solar power generation such concerns necessitate the development of realis tic flexible and tractable models of srec prices that capture the behavior of participants given the rules that govern the market we propose an original stochastic model called smart srec to fill this role building on established ideas from the carbon pricing liter ature and including a feedback mechanism for generation response to prices we calibrate the model to the new jersey market and backtest it analyzing parameter sensitivity and demonstrating its ability to reproduce historical dynamics finally we run simulations to investigate the role and impact of regulatory parameters thus providing insight into the crucial role played by market design

in search of sustainable paths for the eurozone in the troubled post 2008 world the diversity in the eurozone has costs and advantages respectively for countries whether they are confronted with an overvalued or undervalued euro rough estimations of these costs and benefits help to assess the adjustments that could lead to a sustainable eurozone a purely financial type of federalism set up under the pressure of financial markets risks falling short of the objective a budgetary federalism if it is based on long term investment programmes with an enlarged political support is more likely to meet the objective a scheme of multispeed europe could constitute a fallback solution if the political support for a budgetary federalism is not attained

bertrand edgeworth competition demand uncertainty and asymmetric outcomes abstract we analyze investment and pricing incentives in a symmetric bertrand edgeworth framework with uncertain demand firms choose production capacities before observing demand prices are chosen after demand is observed if the extent of demand variation exceeds a threshold level then a symmetric equilibrium in pure strategies for capacities does not exist a smaller firm has no incentive ex ante to expand its capacity because capacity expansion would reduce its expected revenue in the event that demand is lower than expected output prices are predicted to have positive variance when demand is low and zero variance when demand is high journal of economic literature classification numbers d43 l13

decarbonizing europe s power sector by 2050 analyzing the economic implications of alternative decarbonization pathways abstract the european union aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 95 in 2050 compared to 1990 levels the transition towards a low carbon economy implies the almost complete decarbonization of europe s power sector which could be achieved along various pathways in this paper we evaluate the economic implications of alternative energy policies for europe s power sector by applying a linear dynamic electricity system optimization model in over 36 scenarios we find that the costs of decarbonizing europe s power sector by 2050 vary between 139 and 633 bn 2010 which corresponds to an increase of between 11 and 44 compared to the total system costs when no co2 reduction targets are implemented in line with economic theory the decarbonization of europe s power sector is achieved at minimal costs under a stand alone co2 reduction target which ensures competition between all low carbon technologies if however renewable energies are exempted from competition via supplementary renewable energy res e targets or if investments in new nuclear and ccs power plants are politically restricted the costs of decarbonization significantly rise moreover we find that the excess costs of supplementary res e targets depend on the acceptance of alternative low carbon technologies for example given a complete nuclear phase out in europe by 2050 and politically implemented restrictions on the application of ccs to conventional power plants supplementary res e targets are redundant while in such a scenario the overall costs of decarbonization are comparatively high the excess costs of supplementary res e targets are close to zero

some implications of investment cost reduction policies in energy markets employing green certificate systems around the world green certificate systems are widely employed as support mechanisms for the promotion of renewable energy production due to large initial capital costs for renewable energy projects investment cost reduction policies are often employed by policy makers as complementary support measures in this note we study some implications of the use of investment cost reduction policies in an energy market operated under a green certificate system we demonstrate that paradoxically use of or intensification of investment cost reduction policies results in increased emissions from fossil fuel black producers welfare effects depend on the distribution of costs and benefits to the relevant interest groups however if the policy objective requires maintaining a constant level of emissions investment cost mitigation must be accompanied by a simultaneous upward adjustment in the renewables target

prospects for the eurozone for wim duisenberg the euro s perceived independence from the nation state was a path breaking achievement to be proud of and to cherish little more than a decade later and three years into the deepest economic crisis europe has known since the great depression duisenberg s elation rings strangely anachronistic since what the nationless euro seems to have achieved above all is to undermine whatever mutual confidence at the heart of our community there may have been at the start this special issue takes stock of the euro crisis so far it is concerned with the in depth analysis of its main causes policy proposals for a recovery from the crisis and reform strategies for the reconstruction of a more viable and egalitarian eurozone in the future this introduction provides an overview of both core features of the euro crisis and related debates as well as individual contributions to this special issue section 1 examines the origins of the euro crisis section 2 reviews key policy developments in the evolution of the crisis from its onset in may 2010 to the adoption of outright monetary transactions omts by the european central bank ecb in september 2012 and section 3 provides an overview of the contributions to the special issue

optimal regulation of renewable energy a comparison of feed in tariffs and tradable green certificates in the spanish electricity system abstract incentives for renewable energy based on feed in tariffs have succeeded in achieving high levels of renewable installed capacity however these incentives have not been responsive to market conditions or price signals imposing in some cases a great financial burden on consumers when renewable energy sources reached significant levels a way out of this problem could be a market mechanism where incentives respond to the level of investment on renewables we explore this issue comparing a regulatory system based on tradable green certificates able to react to market changes to a feed in tariffs incentive scheme we model the strategic interaction between participants in the electricity pool and the tradable green certificates market and focus on the optimal regulation for the retailer segment which generates the desired demand for green certificates as a decreasing function of the certificate price we then calibrate our theoretical model with data from the spanish electricity system for the period 2008 2013 simulations show that a green certificate scheme could both achieve the 2020 targets for renewable electricity and reduce regulatory costs however the role of regulators is still important since setting the right target for renewable electricity affects the cost burden of the system

electricity markets for energy flexibility and availability impact of capacity mechanisms on the remuneration of generation technologies abstract increased shares of renewable energy sources res to fulfill ambitious european policy targets mothballing or decommissioning of existing units and absent investments lead to concerns about the system and market adequacy to restore market adequacy capacity mechanisms cms are widely discussed and implemented in various types they are intended to provide sufficient and clearly perceivable long term price signals for available capacity as integral part of the market cms interact with the other markets markets like day ahead markets are used to trade energy imbalance markets or reserve requirements are examples for markets for flexibility among others green certificates are in place to value emission neutral injection from res resulting altered prices and shifting remuneration have effects on all generation technologies cms may affect participating technologies by imposing a capacity demand a resulting change in the generation mix may also have an impact on non participating technologies two gaps can be identified in the discussion and modeling of cms in the literature first proposed game theoretic equilibrium models fall short in representing the distinctive features of different types of cms second most models incorporating cms found in the literature only focus on the interaction with the energy based market valid assessments of cm need to consider the interaction of remuneration for available capacity and flexibility and the indirect interaction with the remuneration for emission neutral res two formulations of a game theoretic market equilibrium model are proposed which represent specific cms with its distinctive features in particular a market wide centralized capacity market ccm and targeted strategic reserves srs moreover the equilibrium models explicitly combine the cms with markets for flexibility and indirect with remuneration for res we contribute to the discussion of cms by quantifying the interactions and shifting shares of remuneration based on the interaction between cms and remuneration for emission neutral injection the effect of cms on non participating res is described we conclude based on the case study results that targeted mechanisms like srs implemented with the single purpose of ensuring availability introduce large inefficiencies in the system by missing on the interaction between availability and flexibility in contrast a market wide ccm provides a beneficial outcome for all technologies at the same time it yields a sufficient high reserve margin at lowest cost it provides clear signals for the different values of energy output flexibility availability and emission neutral injection

generation capacity expansion in a risky environment a stochastic equilibrium analysis we cast models of the generation capacity expansion type formally developed for the monopoly regime into equilibrium models better adapted for a competitive environment we focus on some of the risks faced today by investors in generation capacity and thus pose the problem as a stochastic equilibrium model we illustrate the approach on the problem of the incentive to invest agents can be risk neutral or risk averse we model risk aversion through the cvar of plants profit the cvar induces risk adjusted probabilities according to which investors value their plants the model is formulated as a complementarity problem including the cvar valuation of investments an illustration is provided on a small problem that captures several features of today s electricity world a choice often restricted to coal and gas units a peaky load curve because of wind penetration uncertain fuel prices and an evolving carbon market we assess the potential of the approach by comparing energy only and capacity market organizations in this risky environment our results can be summarized as follows a deterministic analysis overlooks some changes of capacity structure induced by risk whether in the capacity market or energy only organizations the risk neutral analysis also misses a shift towards less capital intensive technologies that may result from risk aversion last risk aversion also increases the shortage of capacity compared to the risk neutral view in the energy only market when the price cap is low this may have a dramatic impact on the bill to the final consumer the approach relies on mathematical programming techniques and can be extended to full size problems the results are illustrative and may deserve more investigation

evaluating the long run impact of an innovative anti poverty programme evidence using household panel data using a four round panel data set from the first phase of the challenging the frontiers of poverty reduction targeting the ultra poor cfpr tup programme of brac we investigate whether a one off transfer of livestock assets improves well being of the very poor women in bangladesh programme impact is assessed on a wide range of monetary and nonmonetary measures of well being using difference in difference dd as well as matching methods we find significant positive long term impact on food security household savings assets and participation in microfinance participant women are less likely to be in distress occupation and more into self employment however the long term effect is much smaller for most outcomes when compared to short and medium run impacts we conclude by discussing the significance of the institutional and regional context for the observed time path of estimated programme effect

dynamic risksharing in the united states and europe abstract we use a panel var model to improve upon the existing methodologies to analyze interregional risksharing and consumption smoothing channels first we endogenize the output process within a more general multi equation framework capturing the dynamic feedback between output and various smoothing channels second in line with dynamic general equilibrium open economy models of risksharing we exploit impulse response functions to trace the role of each smoothing channel over time in the presence of different structural shocks temporary vs permanent and output vs smoothing channels in the application to the us and oecd countries we find different dynamic properties of different smoothing channels we compare our results with the predictions of standard risksharing and consumption theories and tackle some of the puzzles in the literature such as the international risksharing puzzle and the consumption output correlation puzzle we are also able to address such policy issues as whether fiscal stabilizers have been substitutes or complements for financial market diversification activities and whether further financial market integration is likely to provide countries with more shock absorption tools a key result is the strong substitutability between capital and credit smoothing in the us and between fiscal and credit smoothing in the oecd

impact of the regulatory framework for transmission investments on the cost of renewable energy in the eu abstract under the current regulatory frame in the eu transmission planning is done at the national level to maximize national welfare rather than european welfare in this paper we develop a competitive equilibrium model that calculates the impact of this imperfect regulatory framework on the cost of renewable energy we apply the model to a power system with two interconnected zones and find that the impact is case specific but significant we also find that the negative impact of national transmission planning on the cost of renewable energy is more significant in a state of the world in which member states trade renewable energy but that this negative effect is much smaller than the positive effect of renewable energy trade between member states we conclude that the imperfect regulatory framework for transmission investment is a significant cost for renewable energy in the eu but that it should not stop member states from trading renewable energy

risk aversion and co2 regulatory uncertainty in power generation investment policy and modeling implications abstract we consider a simulation of risk averse producers when making investment decisions in a competitive energy market who face uncertainty about future regulation of carbon dioxide emissions investments are made under regulatory uncertainty then the regulatory state is revealed and producers realize returns we consider anticipated taxes grandfathered permits and auctioned permits and show that some anticipated policies increase investment in the relatively dirty technology beliefs about the policy instrument that will be used to price carbon may be as important as certainty that carbon will be priced more generally a failure to consider risk aversion may bias policy analysis for the power sector

quantitatively exploring the future of renewable portfolio standard in the korean electricity sector via a bottom up energy model abstract the republic of korea started to apply a new renewable energy policy renewable portfolio standard rps in 2012 but the policy has failed to obtain positive evaluation and some problems have arisen during the first two years in this study we have tried to investigate the current design operational mechanism of the policy to examine the reasons for its problems and to quantitatively predict future outlook for the examination and prediction we use the bottom up model approach which has not been commonly used for the rps policy but is usually utilized for evaluating specific policy options in an energy system therefore the main purpose of this study is not only to introduce a new approach for the exploration of the rps policy a scenario based quantitative analysis based on a bottom up energy system model but also to apply the approach into the policy in korea we develop a multi regional bottom up energy model and explicitly implement the mechanism of the policy in the model such as the transfer of tradable attribute renewable energy certificates recs the results of the model predict a serious disharmony of the current design of the policy under the national basic plan the optimistic fulfillment rate of recs in the entire mechanism will be around 66 in 2022 so the most regulated generators will suffer from the large shortfalls of recs and the total penalty for all regulated generators will be expected up to 1350 billion krw in 2022 we also diagnose the reasons of the disharmony as well as address some suggestions for its continued application as the korean case study we believe that the approach in this study can be utilized when policy makers design or amend the mechanism of rps with recs to help the policy operate efficiently and to prevent potential undesirable consequences

failure vs displacement why an innovative anti poverty program showed no net impact in south india abstract we analyze a randomized trial of an innovative anti poverty program in south india part of a series of pilot programs that provide ultra poor households with inputs to create new sustainable livelihoods often tending livestock in contrast with results from other pilots we find no lasting net impact on income or asset accumulation in south india we explore concerns with program implementation data errors and the existence of compelling employment alternatives the baseline consumption data contain systematic errors and income and consumption contain large outliers steps to address the problems leave the central findings largely intact wages for unskilled labor rose sharply in the area while the study was implemented blunting the net impact of the intervention and highlighting one way that treatment effects depend on factors external to the intervention itself such as broader employment opportunities

interactions of a tradable green certificate market with a tradable permits market abstract the reduction of greenhouse gas ghg emissions is an important goal in the energy and environmental policies of the european union eu and its member states according to a recent directive proposal from the eu commission the inclusion of renewable technologies is one of the important ways to achieve this emission reduction more policy instruments are on hand to pursue this objective frequently discussed currently is the establishing of a market for tradable permits for co2 emissions to achieve emission reductions in the power industry in parallel with this is the introduction of a green certificate market to promote the development of renewables if these two instruments are brought into play at the same time two separate markets with two individual targets will co exist in a number of countries with a focus on the green certificate market this paper discusses how these two markets may interact with each other in international trade three different cases are analysed 1 a green certificate market without any tradable permits scheme 2 a green certificate market in combination with a tradable permits scheme based on grandfathering and finally 3 a green certificate market in combination with a tradable permits bidding scheme emphasis is placed on analysing the pricing mechanisms in international trade at the green certificate and tradable permits market in relation to the value of the reductions in ghg emissions actually achieved the influence of the permits scheme on the spot market price of electricity is shown and the benefits of trading green certificates compared to a domestic implementation of renewable technologies are discussed the main conclusion is that only if a green certificate market is combined with a tradable permit scheme based on a bidding procedure will trade in certificates be equivalent to the domestic development of renewables using the bidding system no other country will have to pay for co2 reductions in the home country of the renewable development as would otherwise be the case if a tradable permit system based on grandfathering were introduced or even worse if no tradable permits were introduced at all finally it must be stated that even if the green certificate market were introduced alongside with a tradable permit bidding system there still would be no incentives for international certificate trade on account of the need for ghg reductions in the version of the green certificate market discussed in this paper no ghg credits are attached to certificates this means that the development of renewables will add to ghg reductions only in those countries where the plants are established no matter what kind of tradable permit scheme is adopted

on the effects of capacity payments in competitive electricity markets capacity adequacy price cap and reliability abstract this paper employs a two stage model to assess the consequences of an easy to use form of capacity payments in competitive electricity markets we show that capacity payments increase capacity and expected consumer surplus with little or no effect on expected social welfare expected consumer surplus plus expected profits minus the cost of using capacity payments minus expected outage costs in addition we demonstrate that capacity payments can substantially reduce or sometimes fully eliminate electricity outage costs due to price capping or unexpected failure of some generation capacity thus regulators should consider using this form of capacity payments since in addition to their favorable effect on consumers and on social welfare they mitigate the missing money problem and increase system reliability

cost effectiveness of renewable electricity policies we analyze policies to promote renewable sources of electricity a portfolio standard rps raises electricity prices and primarily reduces gas fired generation a knee of the cost curve exists between 15 and 20 goals for 2020 in our central case and higher natural gas prices lower the cost of greater reliance on renewables a renewable energy production tax credit lowers electricity price at the expense of taxpayers which limits its effectiveness in reducing carbon emissions and it is less cost effective at increasing renewables than a portfolio standard neither policy is as cost effective as a cap and trade policy for achieving carbon emission reductions

optimal interconnection and renewable targets for north west europe we present a mixed integer linear programming model for determining optimal interconnection for a given level of renewable generation using a cost minimisation approach optimal interconnection and capacity investment decisions are determined under various targets for renewable penetration the model is applied to a test system for eight regions in northern europe it is found that considerations on the supply side dominate demand side considerations when determining optimal interconnection investment interconnection is found to decrease generation capacity investment and total costs only when there is a target for renewable generation higher wind integration costs see a concentration of wind in high wind regions with interconnection to other regions

no longer trapped promoting entrepreneurship through cash transfers to ultra poor women in northern kenya we examine the short to medium run impacts of the rural entrepreneur access program a poverty graduation program that promotes entrepreneurship among ultra poor women in arid and semi arid northern kenya a context prone to poverty traps the program relies on cash transfers rather than asset transfers in addition to business skills training business mentoring and savings participation in each of the program s three rounds was randomly determined through a public lottery in the short to medium run we find that the program has a positive and significant impact on income savings and asset accumulation similar to more traditional poverty graduation programs that rely on asset transfers

the marginal rate of corruption in public programs evidence from india abstract optimal fiscal policy depends on the marginal benefits of public spending in developing countries corrupt officials often embezzle funds so optimal policy should reflect marginal corruption we analyze marginal corruption in the context of a statutory wage increase in india s employment guarantee scheme strikingly workers received none of the increase even though initially they were on average overpaid the data are inconsistent with theories of voice in which the threat of complaints limits corruption but consistent with theories of exit in which outside options in the private sector limit how much rent officials can extract

how does contract design affect the uptake of microcredit among the ultra poor experimental evidence from the river islands of northern bangladesh abstractthis study examines the demand of microcredit among ultra poor households in northern bangladesh we implemented a field experiment to identify what type of credit is best suited to their demand we found that the uptake rate by the ultra poor is the lowest for regular small cash credit followed by in kind credit we also found that the ultra poor are significantly more likely to join a microcredit programme than the moderately poor if a grace period with longer maturity is attached to a large amount of credit irrespective of whether the credit is provided in cash or in kind

money reform and the eurozone crisis panacea utopia or grassroots alternative the economic crisis that broke out in 2007 2008 and the ongoing crisis in the eurozone has given a new urgency to discussions about alternatives to capitalism and a new salience to proposals for monetary reform and for grassroots economic alternatives using marx and engel s concept of utopianism as an analytical tool to distinguish between what is the work of cranks and what of brave heretics the paper examines four monetary responses to the crisis 1 positive money s call for a state monopoly on money issuance 2 the reintroduction of national currencies in particular the drachma 3 proposals for state issued parallel currencies and 4 grassroots or subaltern money networks of various types the paper argues that the dominance of neoliberal ideology at a european union level means that proposals for monetary reform at the international and national level are unlikely to be taken seriously by elites and consequently seem utopian in marxian terms there seems to be little political will to engage with the complexities of and potential opportunities of a more diverse monetary architecture within the eurozone and a perceived need to discipline potentially irresponsible governments like greece s syriza although responsible actors in the north of the eurozone get more leeway the potential of grassroots alternatives is also too often overstated while alternative currency networks developed as part of the greek crisis are not particularly well developed alternative currency networks could work as sites of innovation normalising the idea that there are progressive alternatives to eurozone breakup

substitution and dropout bias in social experiments a study of an influential social experiment this paper considers the interpretation of evidence from social experiments when persons randomized out of a program being evaluated have good substitutes for it and when persons randomized into a program drop out to pursue better alternatives using data from an experimental evaluation of a classroom training program we document the empirical importance of control group substitution and treatment group dropping out evidence that one program is ineffective relative to close substitutes is not evidence that the type of service provided by all of the programs is ineffective although that is the way experimental evidence is often interpreted

renewable generation expansion under different support schemes a stochastic equilibrium approach abstract following the deregulation of electricity markets a current challenge of policy makers is to facilitate the transition to a sustainable power system at the highest welfare for society in this paper we investigate the efficiency of different support schemes such as a feed in tariff a feed in premium and tradable green certificates with respect to incentivizing the required investments in renewable generation we consider a number of generation expansion problems and formulate stochastic equilibrium models that account for uncertainty in demand and renewable supply the risk aversion of investors and the competitiveness of the market the problem of the policy maker is formulated as a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints mpec and as a non linear complementarity problem ncp for the feed in schemes and the certificate market respectively our models are solved for a small illustrative example and a larger case study based on the danish power system the results confirm that the main driver for the optimal choice of renewable support scheme is the aversion of power producers towards price and volume risk while the competitiveness of the market rarely affects such choice

the policy implications of the different interpretations of the cost effectiveness of renewable electricity support abstract the cost effectiveness of support for renewable electricity is a main criterion to assess the success of policy instruments together with effectiveness the costs of support are also a source of significant concern for governments all over the world however significant confusion exists in the literature on the cost effectiveness of public support for renewable electricity while some authors define the concept of cost effectiveness as that which complies with the equimarginality principle many others including documents from relevant organisations european commission international energy agency intergovernmental panel on climate change define it as the lowest costs of support generally equating it with the minimisation of consumer costs the aim of this paper is to clarify the differences between both approaches and their policy implications regarding the choice of instruments and design elements it is shown that they partly overlap and that their policy implications clearly differ leading to very different policy prescriptions while the former favours technology neutral instruments and design elements the minimisation of consumer costs approach favours instruments and design elements which adjust support levels to the costs of the technologies