reforming residential electricity tariff in china block tariffs pricing approach the chinese households that make up approximately a quarter of world households are facing a residential power tariff reform in which a rising block tariff structure will be implemented and this tariff mechanism is widely used around the world the basic principle of the structure is to assign a higher price for higher income consumers with low price elasticity of power demand to capture the non linear effects of price and income on elasticities we set up a translog demand model the empirical findings indicate that the higher income consumers are less sensitive than those with lower income to price changes we further put forward three proposals of chinese residential electricity tariffs compared to a flat tariff the reasonable block tariff structure generates more efficient allocation of cross subsidies better incentives for raising the efficiency of electricity usage and reducing emissions from power generation which also supports the living standards of low income households

state capacity and american technology evidence from the nineteenth century abstract robert gordon s the rise and fall of american economic growth compellingly shows how technical innovation stimulated by the country s institutions has radically improved the living stand

anticipated policy and endogenous growth in a small open monetary economy abstract this paper analyzes the effects of a preannounced change in the growth rate of credit in a small open economy the model based on an endogenous growth model introduces the adjustment costs for investment and the role of money in the production function and highlights the dynamic behavior of an open economy we show that an increase in the rate of anticipated credit growth lowers the steady growth rate of capital real money balances and real output we also find that the rate of depreciation of the domestic currency will rise steadily toward its stationary level the anticipated domestic credit growth hence exhibits monetary nonsuperneutrality in both the rate and the level of output in the intermediate and the long run

fiscal policy in a simple two country dynamic model abstract this paper analyzes the national and international effects of labor and capital income taxes in a two country infinite horizon perfect foresight neoclassical model with endogenous labor supply and capital accumulation two polar regimes of capital income taxation are considered the source based and the residence based the qualitative effects of labor income taxes are shown to be independent of the taxation regime whereas the effects of capital income taxes are not

the reform of electricity power sector in the pr of china deregulation was launched as a concept in the united states more than a decade ago the european union commission has also formally announced that electric deregulation must be completed by the end of 2005 deregulation or reform has already been a popular topic on the electricity power sector this paper will discuss the restructuring and regulatory reforms in the pr china s power sector it begins with a discussion of the characteristics of electricity reform or deregulation in other countries including the us the united kingdom and so on it will be followed by the industry structure and regulatory framework that characterized china s power industry during the latter part of the 20th century and the history of china s reform to restructure the power industry to competitive suppliers of generating services in recent years it discusses the role of the state power corporation in the reform and gives a detailed description of the latest electricity reform in the year 2002 the paper concludes with some thoughts regarding future challenges and trends on the reform for china s power sector

business cycles with distorting taxes and disaggregated capital markets abstract this paper studies a neoclassical growth model to examine the linkages between distorting corporate and personal taxes and cyclical movements of aggregates such as investments in equipment and structures suppose tax variables vary stochastically and annually we solve quarterly individual and aggregate decision rules by recursive methods and quantify the dynamic impacts on aggregates from unit changes in tax structures and individual and joint tax specifications the findings suggest that corporate income tax is the major factor leading to substantial tax effects on business cycles moreover the impact of investment tax credit for equipment on disaggregated investments is equally significant

a review of residential tiered electricity pricing in china abstract at present the unformed market oriented pricing mechanism has become a great challenge faced by china s electricity pricing and the unreasonable electricity pricing caused by cross subsidization has become increasingly serious with the economic development and energy shortage tiered electricity price tep which was developed and used since 1970s was introduced into china as a new electricity pricing method for residential electricity consumption the tep can also improve the tariffs the behaviors and the efficiency of residential electricity consumption in this study we use the fundamental theory of the electricity economics to analyze the pricing methods and the forms of china s power market with the reform of electric power industry we also point out the characteristics of residential tiered electricity pricing in china which is also compared with other countries such as the united states and japan the main factors influencing the residential tiered electricity pricing design are discussed in this paper from the perspectives of users the electric power enterprise and government regulation then we point out the main problems of china s existing tiered electricity pricing including inadequate level of public awareness and acceptance unreasonable tiered and electricity price standard insufficient reflection in regional differences less combination with other electricity pricing forms and low level of smart meter application

fiscal adjustments and their effects during the transition to the emu the transition phase to emu hasbeen accompanied by considerable monetaryand fiscal consolidation efforts in the eu this paper analyses this consolidationprocess and its effects on economicactivity in the eu it is tested to what extent fiscal retrenchment efforts havedepressed or stimulated private spending inthe case of the latter non keynesian effectsdominate the traditional keynesianexpenditure effects of government spending taxation and transfer payments

tax adjusted q model with intangible assets theory and evidence from temporary investment tax incentives we propose a tax adjusted q model with physical and intangible assets and estimate the effect of bonus depreciation in the united states in the early 2000s we find that investment responds moderately to tax incentives but allowing for heterogeneity reveals that intangible intensive firms respond more than physical intensive firms and that this difference is accentuated among large firms accounting for intangible assets increases the estimated total investment response from 3 7 to 14 3 of aggregate investment in 2000 among the largest 500 firms our results suggest that understanding the behavior of large and intangible intensive firms matters for investment policy

government spending and private consumption this paper investigates the macroeconomic effects of anticipations about future fiscal expenditures within a simple perfect foresight general equilibrium model this paper extends s djajic 1987 by investigating an anticipated permanent increase in government spending an anticipated permanent increase may temporarily stimulate capital accumulation the questions of whether anticipated or unanticipated changes in government spending have a larger effect on capital accumulation and output is related to the questions of whether government spending is initially above or below the optimal level

determinants and policy implications for household electricity saving behaviour evidence from beijing china this research sets out to explore the possibilities for further saving in household electricity consumption through a study of the residents willingness and behavioural characteristics in electricity saving as applied within a chinese context based on an extensive literature review the authors argue that economic benefits policy and social norms and past experience may have a positive correlation with household electricity saving behaviour while the discomfort caused by electricity saving activities may exert a negative effect on it through a sample of 816 randomly selected residents in beijing the propositions are examined using logit regression analysis the conclusions support the ideas concerning both the positive influence of economic benefits policy and social norms and past experience as they affect broader electricity saving behaviour and the negative influence of the discomfort caused by electricity saving activities finally some inferences are drawn and suggestions are offered for policy makers and further studies

estimates of energy subsidies in china and impact of energy subsidy reform abstract for a transitional economy such as china some energy subsidies are reasonable and sometimes even necessary for achieving social goals however with rising energy prices and environmental concerns we see conflicts emerging between energy subsidies energy demand supply fundamentals and climate change considerations energy subsidies have important implications for sustainable development through their effects on energy use efficiency and the choice of fuel source this paper applies the price gap approach to estimate china s energy subsidies results indicate that china s energy subsidies amounted to cny 356 73 billion in 2007 equivalent to 1 43 of gdp subsidies for oil products consumption are the largest followed by subsidies for the electricity and coal sectors furthermore a cge model is used to analyze the economic impacts of energy subsidy reforms our findings show that removing energy subsidies will result in a significant fall in energy demand and emissions but will have negative impacts on macroeconomic variables we conclude that offsetting policies could be adopted such that certain shares of these subsidies are reallocated to support other sustainable development measures which could lead to reducing energy intensity and favoring the environment

the voluntary price for the small consumer real time pricing in spain abstract in 2013 a period of reform was initiated of the regulatory framework of the spanish electricity sector a year later the methodology for the calculation of the voluntary price for the small consumer vpsc was approved a real time price tariff for small domestic consumers under this price setting system vpsc consumers are billed according to their hourly consumption and hourly prices along the day directive 27 2014 eu on energy saving was also transposed to spanish regulation in 2014 the impact on the spanish electricity market and domestic vpsc consumers of these two recent energy policy modifications are analyzed in this work a qualitative model based on the flexibility of the merit order curves is first introduced to formulate a number of hypotheses a set of scenarios are then examined to quantify the main effects on the market and on domestic consumers the results show that domestic energy saving and to a lesser extent load shifting scenarios can diminish the mean hourly price and the cost of the annual traded energy in the market nevertheless these reductions are mainly granted to large qualified consumers since domestic consumers mostly benefit from the reduction of their energy demand rather than from a reduction of the price

government spending and the optimal rates of consumption and capital accumulation this paper investigates the effects of a temporary change in government expendit ure on private consumption and investment the model employed is one of a closed economy populated by infinitely lived utility maximizing individuals the analysis focuses on the implications of alternative assumptions concerning the relationship between public and private c onsumption in the household s utility function a temporary increase in government expenditure is found to reduce investment if public and private goods are edgeworth complements or independent however if they are substitutes there exists the possibility of an increase in investment

output effects of government purchases the theoretical analysis focuses on the distinction between temporary and permanent movements in government purchases under plausible conditions the temporary case involves an output response that is positive less than one to one with the change in government purchases and larger than that generated by an equal sized but permanent shift in purchase the equilibrium real rate of return rise in the temporary case but changes little in the permanent one defense purchases are divided empirically into permanent and temporary components by considering the role of temporary wars no temporary shifts in nondefense purchases were isolated empirical results verify an expansionary output effect for temporary purchases that exceeds that of permanent purchases the results for some other expectational hypotheses are found to be generally supportive of the theory

government spending endogenous labor and capital accumulation following turnovsky and fisher 1995 journal of economic dynamics and control 19 747 786 we reexamine the dynamic responses of the capital stock to an unanticipated temporary increase in government consumption and infrastructure expenditures the key factors determining capital accumulation are endogenous labor the duration of policy expansion and the relationship between private decisions and the composition of public expenditure given that private decisions and public consumption are edgeworth independent if employment is variable investment increases with the duration of fiscal expansion following a temporary public infrastructure expansion there always exists the possibility of a decrease in investment before the fiscal reversion under fixed employment however a temporary public infrastructure expansion under variable employment leads to a likely increase in investment before the fiscal reversion

can government purchases explain the recent u s net export deficits abstract this paper investigates the role of u s government purchases in explaining recent u s net export behavior i develop a two country neoclassical model that emphasizes linkages from government purchases to consumption i compare the model s implications for the movements and co movements of net exports against their data counterparts a parameterization in which government purchases and private consumption are complements and in which expectations of future government purchases are revised downward can account for much of the time path and co movements of net exports i conclude that u s government purchases play some role in explaining recent u s net export behavior

perspectives on the rise and fall of american growth abstract this paper summarizes the book and assesses the reviews contained in the four contributed papers gregory clark provides convincing arguments that extend the book s forecast that future technological change will be slower nicholas crafts shows declining mortality and shorter work hours greatly increase welfare augmented tfp growth during 1929 50 benjamin friedman points out that optimism about future technological change casts doubt on future employment growth while technological pessimism implies employment optimism daron acemoglu and co authors emphasize the institutional environment that influences the timing and magnitude of innovation

the persistent institutional effect of liberal colonialism evidence from china s financial policies the effect of liberal colonialism on the allocation of capital persists to this day we exploit the colonial history of china during 1896 1911 with qualitative evidence to measure liberal coloniali

application of ramsey model in transition economy a russian case study this case study uses the ramsey model to analyze whether the current electricity prices charged by the natural monopoly novosibirskenergo in a major industrial region of the russian federation are socially optimal our estimates of demand elasticities for two major groups of consumers namely households and industrial users show that prices are not socially optimal a decrease in price for industrial users and an increase in price for households would bring the prices closer to socially optimal

decentralization and the composition of public expenditure in spain gonzalez alegre j decentralization and the composition of public expenditure in spain regional studies this paper examines the effects of fiscal decentralization on the economic distribution of public expenditures using panel data from the seventeen spanish regions 1984 2003 it is shown that fiscal decentralization is a crucial determinant of the share of the public budget devoted to capital the estimation run is based on a model in which the utility of the representative agent from the current public expenditure depends on the distance to the level of the administration that provides it that could be the cause why decentralized economies experience a higher share of current expenditure in the budget of the public administrations gonzalez alegre j la decentralisation et la structure des depenses publiques en espagne regional studies cet article cherche a examiner l impact de la fiscalite decentralisee sur la distribution economique des depenses publiques a partir des donnees provenant d une

the prospects for smart energy prices observations from 50 years of residential pricing for fixed line telecoms and electricity this study focuses on how energy and communications have evolved over the last 50 years and what we can learn from history in order to examine the prospects for smart energy pricing by 2050 we begin by discussing the nature of energy and telecoms products and why price discrimination should be expected we then review various business and pricing strategies that have evolved in the two industries we find that business models for both the telecoms and energy sectors have changed from the traditional services business model i e offering of calls and messages for telecoms and utility supply services for energy to more dynamic integrated and complex business models these new business models include the managed services provider model the bundled services model and the prosumer business model among others similarly several changes in pricing structure have evolved there has been a reduction in the number of distanced based and increasing time based price differentiation in fixed line telecoms and the abolition of residential floor area based differentiation in electricity pricing we conclude with a discussion on how the rollout of the next generation of electricity meters smart and advanced meters may further shape electricity pricing in the future

electricity consumption and economic growth in china abstract this paper applies the error correction model to examine the causal relationship between electricity consumption and real gdp for china during 1971 2000 our estimation results indicate that real gdp and electricity consumption for china are cointegrated and there is unidirectional granger causality running from electricity consumption to real gdp but not vice versa in order to overcome the constraints on electricity consumption the chinese government has to speed up the nation wide interconnection of power networks to upgrade urban and rural distribution grids and to accelerate rural electrification

electricity consumption and economic growth in china cointegration and co feature analysis abstract this paper applies the cointegration theory to examine the causal relationship between electricity consumption and real gdp gross demostic product for china during 1978 2004 our estimation results indicate that real gdp and electricity consumption for china are cointegrated and there is only unidirectional granger causality running from electricity consumption to real gdp but not the vice versa then hodrick prescott hp filter is applied to decompose the trend and fluctuation component of the gdp and electricity consumption series the estimation results indicate that there is cointegration between not only the trend components but also the cyclical components of the two series which implies that the granger causality is probably related with the business cycle the estimation results are of policy implication to the development of electric sector in china

designation and influence of household increasing block electricity tariffs in china abstract electricity is the guarantee of normal life and the electricity price is widely concerned as a developing country in the transition stage abundant policy implications are included in the electricity price in china thus whether to adjust the resident electricity price is a dilemma for the government however the current single tariff system cannot cope with the complex social and environmental problems a new price mechanism is indeed needed this paper tries to design an increasing block tariffs system with the consideration of residential income and electricity consumption the result indicates that the increasing block tariffs system with four tier structure is more reasonable for china although the increasing block tariffs will result in the increase of electricity price it is still acceptable and affordable the increasing block tariffs will greatly improve the equity and efficiency and promote the electricity saving and emissions reduction moreover the power companies will increase tariffs revenue which would use to the transmission networks investment in poor area in order to the offset the limitations of the increasing block tariffs the government should adopt some complementary measures

energy requirements of sydney households supporting the lifestyles of the populations of modern cities requires vast quantities of natural resources and leads to environmental stresses such as air and water pollution research into the metabolism of cities therefore aims at understanding the physical flows into within and out of cities with a view to reducing the use of resources and the environmental impacts one important physical indicator is energy use most studies on cities only consider direct or end user energy consumption since the function of cities is to serve the lives of their residents indirect energy use in cities or energy embodied in the consumption of goods and services by its residents can be regarded as being as important as direct energy use however physical models of cities are extremely complex and have difficulty in dealing with boundary issues and hence the indirect resource requirements in this paper we use input output analysis and detailed household expenditure data to yield comprehensive energy use breakdowns for the 14 statistical subdivisions of sydney multivariate regression and structural path analysis spa are used to interpret the results clear correlations can be drawn between energy use and income household size age and degree of urbanity the structural path analysis is used to demonstrate how significant differences in lifestyles between inner and outer areas of sydney leads to different energy use characteristics this final consumption based approach to analysing the energy requirements for households has important implications for measures aimed at reducing energy use which tend to only consider direct energy use d 2004 elsevier b v all rights reserved

deterioration of the terms of trade and capital accumulation a reexamination of the laursen metzler effect abstract this paper analyzes the effect of both a permanent and a temporary deterioration in the terms of trade on a small open economy the model based on intertemporal optimization emphasizes the labor leisure choice and the role of capital accumulation the transitional dynamics is shown to depend upon the long run response of the capital stock to the terms of trade shock this consists of a negative substitution effect together with a positive income effect whether or not the laursen metzler effect holds depends upon whether the income effect dominates the substitution effect

factor reallocation in eastern germany after reunification fifteen years after reunification the economy of the former east germany is on the mend industrial production excluding construction has expanded by more than 60 percent since 1995 and by 28 percent since 2000 compared with only about 4 percent in west germany for the latter period real gdp has grown 3 5 percent per year since 1991 and 8 2 percent annually in the manufacturing industry alone more than half of the measured labor productivity gap and more than a third of the gdp per capita gap between east and west have been closed in considerably less time than predicted by robert j barro 1991 as table 1 shows convergence has been impressive on a wide array of indicators although it has slowed in recent years and remains most difficult in the labor market despite this positive news net migration continues from east to west about 70 000 or 0 5 percent of the population per annum since 2000 especially concentrated among 18to 25year olds at the same time new physical capital continues to flow into the east 80 to 90 billion euros or about 20 percent of gdp each year the reallocation of production factors is one of the most impressive aspects of german unification since 1991 more than 1 2 trillion euros of new investment in 1995 prices was spent in the east yet the workforce of east germany shrank by roughly 1 2 million or 15 percent over the same period employment rose in the west by 4 1 percent as figure 1 shows the intensity of factor movement was not constant but rather high at first and declining into the 1990s migration was greatest in the early 1990s falling until mid decade rising again until 2001 and declining since in addition a large fraction two thirds of the cumulated investment flow in eastern germany was dedicated to residential and business structures compared with about one third in business equipment the large runup in investment spending on structures is often blamed on distorted investment incentives with possible longer run consequences for the structure of output and factor demands hans werner sinn and gerlinde sinn 1992 this intensive movement of production factors in opposite directions is difficult to explain as a reaction to disturbances in technology preferences or demand to use horst siebert s 1992 terminology germany was hit by a massive integration shock i offer the following definition of economic integration the achievement of the efficient production pattern by two or more geographic regions made possible by their union measured at world market prices the german integration episode presents a unique opportunity to study this form of economic integration and the roles of the relative importance of adjustment costs in determin discussants hans werner sinn ces ifo and university of munich nicola fuchs schundeln harvard university claudia buch university of tubingen

constructing and estimating a realistic optimizing model of monetary policy abstract a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium dsge model with real and nominal both price and wage rigidities succeeds in capturing some key nominal features of u s business cycles additive technology shocks as well as multiplicative shocks are introduced and shown to be crucial monetary policy is specified as an interest rate targeting rule following developments in the structural vector autoregression var literature the interaction between real and nominal rigidities is essential to reproduce the liquidity effect of monetary policy the model is estimated by maximum likelihood on u s data and its fit is comparable to that of an unrestricted first order var besides producing reasonable impulse responses and second moments this model replicates a feature of u s business cycles never captured by previous research with dsge models that an increase in interest rates predicts a decrease in output two to six quarters in the future

wage or price based inflation alternative targets in optimal monetary policy rules abstract in this paper the optimality of a specific variant of monetary policy rules a la taylor is tested within a general equilibrium monetary model with both nominal and real rigidities the traditional taylor rule is amended by the inclusion of the growth rate of nominal wage or wage inflation nominal rigidities are inserted via quadratic adjustment costs for both prices and wages a la rotemberg 1982 sticky prices in the united states journal of political economy 90 1187 1211 and kim 2000 constructing and estimating a realistic optimizing model of monetary policy journal of monetary economics 45 329 359 cost of capital adjustment together with a positive steady state inflation rate allow the model to match the main empirical facts about us economy the model is solved by using a second order approximation around the non stochastic steady state as in kim et al 2008 calculating and using second order accurate solutions of discrete time dynamic equilibrium models journal of economic dynamics and control 32 11 3397 3414 the welfare metric is offered by the second order expansion of the utility function conditional to the non stochastic steady state the results show that wage inflation targeting is welfare improving when coupled with inflation targeting moreover optimal monetary rules include also a positive coefficient for output targeting as the need to smooth out quantity adjustments induced by real and nominal rigidities similar results occurs when both targets are in expected value one period ahead the model shows good in sample and out of sample properties

tax incidence in a model with perfect foresight of agents and rationing in markets abstract this paper examines the incidence of several taxes in a macroeconomic model producers and consumers optimize with perfect foresight price inertia leads to rationing in the market for goods and for labour in the long run the system tends towards walrasian equilibrium meanwhile there may be keynesian unemployment classical unemployment or repressed inflation with possible switches of regimes balanced budget policies are analysed by working through numerical examples

regulation and investment use newly assembled data on regulation in several sectors of many oecd countries to provide evidence that regulatory reform of product markets is associated with an increase in investment a component of reform that plays a very important role is entry liberalization but privatization also has a substantial effect on investment sensitivity analysis suggests that our results are robust jel e22 l5

factors influencing renewable electricity consumption in china abstract renewable energy is an important factor in achieving a low carbon economic development path in china this paper investigates the factors influencing renewable electricity consumption in china specifically the factors that influence the share of renewable electricity in total electricity consumption in china is investigated using data from 1980 to 2011 and employing the johansen cointegration technique and vector error correction model the result of the analysis shows that there is a long run relationship between renewable electricity consumption and gdp per capita trade openness foreign direct investment financial development and share of fossil fuel in energy consumption economic development and financial development promotes renewable electricity consumption while foreign direct investment trade openness and the lobby of conventional energy sources undermine the share of renewables in total electricity consumption in china while the effects of shocks to the other variables appear to die out over time the lobby effect is persistent and explosive the results also show that there is a uni directional short run causality from financial development to renewable electricity consumption and from renewable electricity consumption to trade openness the chinese government should pursue policies that not only increase the amount of renewable electricity but also increase the share of renewables in total electricity consumption

the dynamics of a small open economy in response to monetary fiscal and productivity shocks abstract this paper evaluates empirically the relative importance of monetary and fiscal versus technology shocks in an open economy characterized by perfect international capital mobility the variance covariance matrix of these shocks is estimated a stochastic model is used to perform numerical simulations the results show that persistent shocks to productivity can reproduce several empirical regularities including the puzzling high correlation between national saving and investment remarkably well and that monetary and fiscal shocks play a minor role

tiered gasoline pricing a personal carbon trading perspective abstract this paper proffers a tiered gasoline pricing method from a personal carbon trading perspective an optimization model of personal carbon trading is proposed and then an equilibrium carbon price is derived according to the market clearing condition based on the derived equilibrium carbon price this paper proposes a calculation method of tiered gasoline pricing then sensitivity analyses and consumers surplus analyses are conducted it can be shown that a rise in gasoline price or a more generous allowance allocation would incur a decrease in the equilibrium carbon price making the first tiered price higher but the second tiered price lower it is further verified that the proposed tiered pricing method is progressive because it would relieve the pressure of the low income groups who consume less gasoline while imposing a greater burden on the high income groups who consume more gasoline based on these results implications limitations and suggestions for future studies are provided

anticipated inflation in a monetary economy with endogenous growth this paper makes a new attempt to investigate the role of anticipatedmonetary growth in economic growth combining the barro 1990 rebelo 1991 type endogenous growth model with sidrauski s 1967 framework we show that the pre announcement of money supply behaviour may have significant effects on the rate of growth during the transition process the key factor indetermining adjustment patterns of the economy to anticipated monetary changes is the degree of relative risk aversion however changes in the rate of monetary growth do not affect the rate of long run growth regardless of the degree of relative risk aversion

price discrimination in australia s retail electricity markets an analysis of victoria southeast queensland when capital intensive monopoly industries are restructured and deregulated consumer prices commence a natural drift from regulated uniform average cost tariffs to competitive differential prices and this can raise problems for policymakers deep discounts are welcomed high standing offers are not but price discrimination is unremarkable in economics indeed in industries where fixed sunk costs represent a significant portion of total cost discriminatory pricing is usually welfare enhancing conversely theory predicts and empirical evidence confirms that regulatory efforts to cherry pick differential prices in asymmetric markets will damage consumer welfare in this article we analyse differential retail electricity offer prices in the australian states of victoria and queensland and contrast these with industry average total cost and the marginal cost of retail supply we find deregulated victoria displays high price dispersion with standing offer tariffs 10 above industry average total cost and marginal offers at break even prices i e 20 below average total cost in the semi regulated southeast queensland market where a regulated price cap exists there is lower dispersion but marginal offers include a 6 7 retail mark up efficient pricing requires the marginal unit produced to be priced at marginal cost and victoria meets this criteria but we identify an episode of inter consumer misallocation due to high standing offers we conclude policy initiatives designed to help firms shift vulnerable households from standing offer tariffs is desirable

energy requirements of consumption urban form climatic and socio economic factors rebounds and their policy implications household consumption requires energy to be used at all stages of the economic process thereby directly and indirectly leading to environmental impacts across the entire production chain the levels structure and determinants of energy requirements of household consumption therefore constitute an important avenue of research incorporating the full upstream requirements into the analysis helps to avoid simplistic conclusions which would actually only imply shifts between consumption categories without taking the economy wide effects into account this paper presents the investigation of the direct and indirect primary energy requirements of australian households contrasting urban suburban and rural consumption patterns as well as inter and intra regional levels of inequality in energy requirements furthermore the spatial and socio economic drivers of energy consumption for different categories of energy requirements are identified and quantified conclusions regarding the relationships between energy requirements household characteristics urban form and urbanization processes are drawn and the respective policy implications are explored

optimal fiscal policy and different degrees of access to international capital markets abstract empirically the cyclical pattern of fiscal policy differs between developed and developing countries with in particular much greater pro cyclicality and volatility of public investment in developing countries in this paper i provide a theoretical explanation for the observed differences by analyzing optimal fiscal policy under different degrees of access to world capital markets if the supply of foreign capital is elastic as in a developed country then it is optimal to adjust to an adverse external shock by borrowing from abroad to finance public expenditure and cutting taxes to smooth private consumption if the supply of foreign capital is inelastic however as in a developing country the optimal adjustment policy is to reduce public investment by much more than public consumption and to raise consumption taxes

government spending interest rates and capital accumulation in a two sector model this paper investigates dynamic impacts of a temporary fiscal expansion in a two sector growth model if the expansion falls on consumption investment commodities capital accumulation can be either promoted or reduced and the short term interest rate unambigu ously rises if the expansion falls on consumption commodities capital accumulation is crowded out and the short term interest rate declines during the period of the fiscal expan sion it is also shown that fiscal spending on the consumption commodity can move the short and long term interest rates in opposite directions jel classification e43 e62 041

long run marginal electricity generation costs in israel abstract this paper presents two methods for calculating long run marginal electricity generation costs based on the techniques used for long term expansion planning according to the first method long run marginal costs are calculated as incremental costs required to supply additional demands peak shoulder and off peak demands to each hourly demand group separately these costs include the present value of capital fuel and operation and maintenance o m costs throughout the planning period in the second method the long run marginal capacity cost element is calculated as an additional reduced cost resulting from bringing forward postponing generation capacity investments in order to supply incremented decremented demands in every hour throughout the planning period the annualized marginal capacity cost is allocated among the hours according to the distribution of the unsupplied energy and is added to the energy marginal cost to obtain the long run marginal cost both methods are implemented through models used for long term optimal generation system expansion planning in addition the second method uses a chronological simulation of generation system operation a detailed case study of the israeli electric generation system is also presented

ramsey prices in the italian electricity market abstract in this paper we derive optimal zonal prices in the italian day ahead electricity market using estimation of a complete system of hourly demand in 2010 2011 in italy the hourly equilibrium price for all buyers is computed as a uniform average of supply zonal prices resulting from market splitting due to line congestion we model ex ante individual bids expressed by heterogeneous consumers which are distinguished by geographical zones using empirical estimations we compute demand elasticity values and new zonal prices according to a ramsey optimal scheme this is a new approach in the wholesale electricity market literature as previous studies have discussed the relative merit of zonal prices considering only the issue of line congestion our results show that the optimal pricing scheme can improve welfare in the day ahead italian electricity market with respect to both the existing uniform price scheme and the proposal to charge the existing supply zonal prices to the demand side

fiscal policy in the new neoclassical synthesis we analytically derive the cyclical effects of fiscal policy shocks in a new neoclassical synthesis model price stickiness has the consequence that a rise in government demand affects labor demand while at the same time the usual wealth effect boosts labor supply the strength of the demand effect depends on the response of the real interest rate governed by the monetary policy regime when the central bank controls money growth fiscal expansions are deflationary and might even be contractionary whereas output wages and inflation can increase when the rise in the real interest rate is dampened by an interest rate rule however price stickiness alone is not sufficient to explain a rise in consumption as predicted by keynesian theory

an evaluation of eu regional policy do structural actions crowd out public spending motivated by the lack of success of previous studies trying to estimate the impact of the european cohesion policy this paper brings an unexplored issue to light transfers that are intended to finance public investment in key areas for growth might be crowded out by subsidized governments to alternative uses in fact using annual data from fifteen member countries 1993 2005 we conclude that public investment in the member countries makes up around 60 of the increase in eu funds the limited role of the european commission in the allocation of the funds could partially explain this result

international oil price uncertainty and corporate investment evidence from china s emerging and transition economy we develop and estimate a dynamic model of investment to investigate the impact of international oil price uncertainty on corporate investment expenditures in china s emerging and transition economy we further examine whether state ownership affects the relationship between oil price uncertainty and corporate investment consistent with the model s prediction the main finding is that oil price uncertainty exerts a negative impact on corporate investment expenditures in addition compared with state owned listed companies the negative influence of oil price uncertainty on corporate investment is more significant for non state owned listed companies our further analysis using the market oriented reform of refined oil pricing in 2008 as a quasi natural event shows the variation between the low degree marketization period and the high degree one in terms of the relationship between international oil price uncertainty state ownership and corporate investment expenditures

the effects of taxes and dividend policy on capital accumulation and macroeconomic behavior abstract this paper analyzes the macrodynamic effects of changes in various tax rates in an intertemporal optimizing framework two aspects emphasized include the role of dividend policy and the behavior of the stock market both permanent and temporary tax changes are considered with the transitional adjustment paths being characterized in detail the contrast between the short run and long run effects is highlighted in particular an increase in any of the tax rates will cause short run employment to fall and with the capital stock fixed instantaneously the capital labor ratio immediately rises over time as the capital stock declines the capital labor ratio falls

does renewable energy generation decrease the volatility of electricity prices an analysis of denmark and germany although variable renewable energy vre technologies with zero marginal costs decrease electricity prices the literature is inconclusive about how the resulting shift in the supply curves impacts price volatility because the flexibility to respond to high peak and low off peak prices is crucial for demand response applications and may compensate for the losses of conventional generators caused by lower average prices there is a need to understand how the penetration of vre affects volatility in this paper we build distributed lag models with danish and german data to estimate the impact of vre generation on electricity price volatility we find that in denmark wind power decreases the daily volatility of prices by flattening the hourly price profile but in germany it increases the volatility because it has a stronger impact on off peak prices our analysis suggests that access to flexible generation capacity and wind power generation patterns contribute to these differing impacts meanwhile solar power decreases price volatility in germany by contrast the weekly volatility of prices increases in both areas due to the intermittency of vre thus policy measures for facilitating the integration of vre should be tailored to such region specific patterns

market driven energy pricing necessary to ensure china s power supply abstract china s rapid economic growth has strained its power supply as manifested for instance by the widespread 2008 power shortage the cause for this shortage is thought to be the current chinese energy pricing system which is mainly government rather than market controlled government regulated price caps for coal have seriously affected coal supply at the same time price caps for electricity supply have caused suspension of power plant operation as a result the average operating time of coal fired power plants declined 50 h annually across the nation in the first half of 2008 compared to the previous year despite clear power shortages here it will be suggested that energy pricing set by supply and demand may effectively discourage excessive growth in heavy industry substantially encourage energy conservation and efficiency and curb the rapid electricity demand in china it will be argued that a market oriented electricity pricing mechanism is required for china to secure its future power supply

state capacity and economic development causal mechanism or correlative filter abstract in this paper we explore why there are no examples of societies with low state capacity and high economic development we argue that such an outcome is unlikely because of the nature of investments in state capacity societies that become rich in the absence of a strong state invite predation by societies that develop such states thus societies invest in state capacity in part to plunder other societies wealth those investments are a form of rent seeking potentially preyed upon societies are forced to invest in state capacity in turn so as to deter potential attackers this entails that as soon as a rent seeker enters the game the likelihood of a low capacity high development society surviving falls this explains the historical lack of such societies we thus interpret state capacity not as a causal condition for widespread economic prosperity but a survivability condition for enjoying this prosperity

interest rate rules and transitional dynamics in an endogenously growing open economy abstract this paper sets up an endogenous growth model of an open economy in which the monetary authority implements a gradualist interest rate rule with targets for both inflation and economic growth we show that under a passive rule a monetary equilibrium exists and is unique moreover the equilibrium is locally determinate by contrast an active rule implies either two equilibria one high growth and one low growth or none in the case of two equilibria the high growth equilibrium is locally determinate while the low growth equilibrium is a source besides the stabilization and growth effects of alternative target policies are also explored in this study moreover in departing from the existing literature we turn to focus on the analysis of transition with a particular emphasis on the case of imperfect credibility

the baby boom and the stock market boom this paper addresses two issues the first is whether demographic change was plausibly responsible for the run up in stock prices over the last decade and whether an attempt by the baby boom cohort to cash out of its investments in the period 2010 2030 might lead to an asset meltdown the second issue is whether the rise in dependency that will accompany the retirement of the baby boom cohort calls for an increase in national saving we analyze these issues using a forward looking macro demographic model and show that they are related via the existence of installation costs for capital if such costs are sufficiently large then demographics do have the power to affect stock prices but saving for america s old age is less optimal however conventional estimates of capital installation costs are not large enough to explain large stock price movements in response to actual demographic change

how much have electricity shortages hampered china s gdp growth abstract based on an econometric analysis of the annual growth data for china s gdp and electricity generation from 1953 to 2010 we find that electricity generation growth granger causes gdp growth but not vice versa we also find that the gdp elasticity of electricity generation is about 0 6 implying that a 1 increase in china s electricity generation growth would increase gdp growth by 0 6 while deng s reform raised china s gdp growth rate by about 5 per year it did not alter the gdp elasticity of electricity generation hence an obvious strategy to promote china s economic growth would be accelerating electricity generation expansion rapidly adding thermal generation units however could have large scale adverse environmental impacts we therefore support china s 2011 five year plan which calls for expanding investments in renewable energy conservation and energy efficiency as well as improving china s integrated electricity planning and cost based pricing decisions

short run and long run in trade models a note abstract this paper aims to capture key features of the ricardo viner rv and heckscher ohlin ho theories in a single dynamic general equilibrium framework we use a simple 2 sector 2 factor model with adjustment costs associated with the movement of capital across sectors we analyze the economy s response to exogenous changes in factor endowments and output prices our model reproduces the predictions of the rv theory in the short run moment immediately after a parameter change and the predictions of the ho model in the long run steady state implied by a new set of parameters numerical examples of transition paths are also provided

the composition of government expenditure and its consequences for macroeconomic performance abstract this paper employs the intertemporal optimizing market clearing framework to compare the effects of government consumption expenditure and government infrastructure expenditure on macroeconomic adjustment and performance particular attention is focused on the time path of the capital stock and its adjustment to both permanent and temporary changes in government expenditure are considered we show how the effects of both forms of government expenditure on economic welfare can be broken down into 1 i a direct crowding out effect and 2 ii a second component which describes the intertemporal tradeoffs between the short run rate of capital accumulation and the resulting change in the capital stock

current account effects of a devaluation in an optimizing model with capital accumulation abstract this article explores the consequences of a devaluation in the context of a real optimizing model of a small open economy what provides for real effects of the devaluation is the existence of nominal wage stickiness during a contract period we show that if this contract period is relatively short the devaluation is bound to improve the current account on impact whereas this will deteriorate in the case of a long contract period and the more so the smaller are adjustment costs in investment in addition we study the consequences for the terms of trade and for the stocks of foreign assets and of capital

an intertemporal model of saving and investment this paper characterizes a market economy with infinitely long lived consumers and value maximizing firms which face costs of adjustment for capital the temporary equilibrium of this economy is similar to the short run equilibrium of standard macroeconomic models consumption is a function of wealth investment is related to the value of firms equilibrium between aggregate demand and aggregate supply is achieved by the endogenous adjustment of the sequence of current and future interest rates the dynamic behavior of output consumption and investment in this economy is the same as in an optimal growth model with adjustment costs the paper shows this equivalence and then uses it together with the equivalence of taxes to technological shocks to study the dynamic effects of fiscal policy

current account effects of a temporary change in government expenditure a perfect foresight model of intertemporal utility maximization is used to analyze the current account effects of a temporary increase in government spending the relationship between the marginal utility of private consumption and the supply of public goods in the economy is shown to play a crucial role in determining the qualitative nature of the optimal current account response the link between the timing of the policy change and the magnitude of the current account effect is also examined

china s electricity market oriented reform from an absolute to a relative monopoly abstract the market oriented reform in electricity industry has become a global trend since 1980s although china s electricity industry has been reformed since 1978 the substantial reform has not been conducted until 1985 before 1985 china s power industry had been absolutely monopolized by the central state owned companies the absolute monopoly has been broken since 1985 when the chinese government opened doors for non central state owned investment entities and foreign investors in power supplies in order to solve the chronic power shortage in 2002 the comprehensive electricity reform plan entitled scheme of the reform for power industry was enacted however implementation of this plan was delayed due to electricity supply shortages even worse a new kind of monopoly has been developed under the background the state advances the private sector retreats in late years in some sense the former absolute monopoly has transformed the current relative monopoly we contend that the relative monopoly has reversed the market oriented reform in china s electric industry if the relative monopoly remains unchanged it will be harmful to public welfare

government spending and capital accumulation with endogenous time preference this paper extends s djajic 1987 to allow for an endogenous rate of time preference and reexamines djajic s experiment how the optimal rates of private consumption and capital accumulation will respond to an unanticipated temporary expansion in government spending the key factors determining the adjustment patterns are the difference between the marginal utility of private consumption and that of public spending the timing of policy reversion and the relationship between private and public consumption in household utility if private and public consumption are edgeworth independent whether investment increases with the length of fiscal expansion depends on whether the marginal utility of private consumption exceeds that of public consumption

factor augmentation factor elimination and economic growth economic growth theory distinguishes between reproducible and nonreproducible factors of production in traditional growth models based on factor augmenting technical change perpetual economic growth requires that each essential nonreproducible factor such as labor be augmented by a reproducible factor such as human capital recent models of factor eliminating technical change deliver perpetual growth by eliminating the nonreproducible factors heretofore the literature has kept factor augmentation and factor elimination separate we analyze a model with both the model generalizes the traditional factor augmentation approach by relaxing the usual restriction that factor elimination is absent we obtain the striking result that factor augmenting technical change is a misspecification when factor eliminating technical change is present the result raises several questions about technical change and endogenous growth jel o41 o31 o33