an evaluation of the life cycle effects of minimum pensions on retirement behavior in this paper we explore the effects of the minimum pension program on welfare and retirement in spain this is done with a stylized life cycle model which provides a convenient analytical characterization of optimal behavior we use data from the spanish social security to estimate the behavioral parameters of the model and then simulate the changes induced by the minimum pension in aggregate retirement patterns the impact is substantial there is a threefold increase in retirement at 60 the age of first entitlement with respect to the economy without minimum pensions and total early retirement before or at 60 is almost 50 larger copyright 2007 john wiley sons ltd

sustainable spending in a lower return world investors whether corporate pensions public pensions foundations endowments or individuals need to focus on sustainable spending which is key to effective strategic planning to assess sustainable spending planners must start with the three building blocks of return for most assets income growth and revaluation changes in the yield offered by that investment analysis based on these components of historical equity and bond returns shows that the long term investor cannot expect to receive in the future the commonly assumed 8 9 percent returns with stock yields below 2 percent and bond yields of 5 percent even a 5 percent spending rate may not be sustainable without future contributions from the investor

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

satisfying the rural residential demand in liberia with decentralized renewable energy schemes abstract with the lowest access to electricity in the world the country of liberia west africa has efforts underway for electrification through a fossil based centralized scheme around its capital city and possible connections to the larger western africa power pool network these plans leave a large part of the rural population with no access to electricity this work analyzes the potential of decentralized generation to provide electricity to the rural liberian population the suppressed demand of the rural population is calculated at 235 gwh yr there is sufficient renewable energy potential to supply this demand the capital costs and electricity prices of decentralized generation with different fuels are calculated and compared to the ability and willingness to pay of rural liberians small diesel units have the lowest capital cost but photovoltaic small hydropower and small biomass projects provide lower electricity prices biomass and small hydro electricity are affordable for liberians at 0 08 kwh and 0 11 kwh respectively diesel and photovoltaic with levelized cost of electricity of 0 62 kwh and 0 33 kwh respectively exceed liberians willingness to pay centralized and decentralized electricity developments are not mutually exclusive both may be used within a comprehensive electrification plan decentralized generation with emphasis on rural areas can complement the existing plans to achieve the government of liberia s goal of universal access to electricity providing social equity and economic progress in order to become a reality rural decentralized electrification will need policy support and focused funding

making investment choices as simple as possible but not simpler target date funds tdfs for retirement also known as life cycle funds are being offered as a simple solution to the investment task of participants in self directed retirement plans a tdf is a fund of funds diversified across stocks bonds and cash with the feature that the proportion invested in stocks is automatically reduced as time passes empirical evidence suggests that a simple tdf strategy would be an improvement over the choices currently made by many uninformed plan participants this article explores a way to achieve even greater improvement for people who are very risk averse and have high exposure to market risk through their labor

diffusion of rural innovations some analytical issues and the case of wood burning stoves abstract the literature on the diffusion of rural innovations in third world countries reveals a spectrum of approaches to the diffusion process it is argued here that the effectiveness of a particular approach in the diffusion of particular innovations would depend on the technical the economic and the social characteristics of the innovations a typology of innovations in terms of these characteristics has been drawn up this provides the analytical framework within which the instance of wood burning stoves is concerned a priori the characteristics of this innovation are seen to be such as to necessitate the close involvement of the users in the design process itself they point to the likely inappropriateness of the usual top down approach to diffusion available evidence relating to actual experience with promoting wood burning stoves is seen to bear this out

current status of renewable energy in nepal opportunities and challenges abstract energy is indispensible in modern society and is one of the most important components of socio economic development nepal is one of the least developed countries with more than 80 of its population residing in rural communities per capita energy usage often viewed as a key index of the development in the country is far less than the global average per capita energy usage the energy sector is dominated by the traditional energy sources such as fuel woods crop residues and animal dung mainly for domestic usage contributing to about 86 of the national energy consumption currently 40 of the population has access to electricity and the rural electrification accounts for only 29 the majority of rural populations are meeting their energy needs by burning biomass in traditional stoves which has several environmental and public health issues nearly all fossil derived fuels consumed in the country are imported in a refined form and the perpetual increase in petroleum imports has adversely impacted the existing fragile economy of the country despite a huge potential in harnessing various renewable energy resources such as hydropower solar power wind energy and biofuels bioenergy these resources have not been sustainably captured due to geographical technical political and economical reasons this paper presents a brief account of nepal s renewable energy resources and the current status of various renewable energy technologies rets such as micro hydro solar power wind energy biofuel bioenergy improved cook stoves and improved water mill it also highlights the opportunities and barriers for the development of rets finally this paper presents some recommendations for the promotion development and implementation of rets in the country

energy security electricity population and economic growth the case of a developing south asian resource rich economy economic growth and increasing population is driving the demand for energy in developing economies globally including south asia energy security concerns have heightened in these economies consequently raising questions in their ability to meet the key sustainable development goals this paper specifically examines the inter relationships between energy security captured through the channel of electricity availability based on electricity consumption and economic output in a multivariate framework incorporating the effects of capital formation and population for nepal a developing economy in south asia time series econometrics based on the ardl bounds test approach to cointegration and the toda yamamoto granger causality tests are used to examine and test for long run equilibrium relationships and causality between 1975 and 2014 we find that there is no long run relationship between electricity consumption and economic output for nepal distinguishing it at the regional level for south asia however a 1 increase in population increases electricity consumption by 4 16 in the long run we propose that large scale development of available renewable energy such as hydropower and improvements in energy efficiency will not only strengthen energy security in the long run but also will help tackling climate change in south asian developing economies like nepal

on the enforcement of territorial use rights regulations a game theoretic approach territorial use rights commonly known as turfs in the literature consists in the allocation of fishing rights to individuals and or groups to fish in certain geographical locations a requisite for these communities to be granted fishing rights is the formulation of a management and exploitation plan mep while thus far the literature on turfs has been centred on the biological and technical aspects of it to our knowledge there is no work squarely dealing with the issue of enforcement of the mep that the community once granted the fishing use rights have to comply with we formally explore this issue from an economic perspective by formulating a static game of norm compliance in a regime of common property resource exploitation the key characteristic of this game is a monitoring and sanctioning mechanism where fishermen monitor and sanction one another we found that in the absence of any endogenous regulation from the part of the fishing community turfs can not avoid the economic overexploitation of the fishery we discuss the importance of economic incentives and disincentives in the formulation of endogenous regulations aimed at ensuring compliance of the mep our results on the

the commons and the optimal number of firms the problem of the commons is a frequently cited example of market failure in which exploiters pursuit of profits does not lead to the attainment of a social or pareto optimum in particular a free access equilibrium induces an unrestricted number of exploiters or firms to equate the variable input s average product instead of its marginal product to the input s real rental rate hence the rents of the variable input are driven to zero haveman 1973 1 when the number of firms in a commons is unrestricted the scarce factor e g the fishery the hunting ground is not imputed a rent a social optimum can be achieved if a single firm exploits a commons and sells its output in a perfectly competitive market weitzman 1974 the purpose of this note is to derive an expression for the optimal number of firms exploiting a commons when the resulting output is sold in an imperfectly competitive market 2 since demand inelasticity due to monopoly power leads to overconservation while an increase in the number of exploiting firms typically leads to underconservation a finite number of firms for a commons can be found corresponding to a social or pareto optimum in particular the optimum number of firms depends directly on the elasticity of the input productivity and inversely on the price elasticity of market demand

optimal consumption portfolio choices and retirement planning abstract we examine consumption and investment decisions in a life cycle model with habit formation stochastic opportunity set stochastic wages and labor supply flexibility retirement is taken into account by specifying an age at which labor earnings stop but consumption spending continues explicit solutions are obtained for optimal consumption labor supply and the financing portfolio we examine the structure and determinants of the optimal portfolio we also study the effects of the retirement date and of habits on optimal decisions finally we conduct a preliminary analysis to assess the effects of a liquidity constraint on optimal consumption leisure choices

reducing sequence risk using trend following and the cape ratio the risk of experiencing bad investment outcomes at the wrong time or sequence risk is a poorly understood but crucial aspect of the risk investors face particularly those in the decumulation phase of their savings journey typically over the period of retirement financed by a defined contribution pension scheme using us equity return data for 1872 2014 we show how this risk can be significantly reduced by applying trend following investment strategies we also show that knowing a valuation ratio such as the cyclically adjusted price to earnings cape ratio at the beginning of a decumulation period is useful for enhancing sustainable investment income

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

retirement spending and biological age abstract we solve a lifecycle model in which the consumer s chronological age does not move in lockstep with calendar time instead biological age increases at a stochastic non linear rate in time like a broken clock that might occasionally move backwards in other words biological age could actually decline our paper is inspired by the growing body of medical literature that has identified biomarkers which indicate how people age at different rates this offers better estimates of expected remaining lifetime and future mortality rates it isn t farfetched to argue that in the not too distant future personal age will be more closely associated with biological vs calendar age thus after introducing our stochastic mortality model we derive optimal consumption rates in a classic yaari 1965 framework adjusted to our proper clock time in addition to the normative implications of having access to biological age our positive objective is to partially explain the cross sectional heterogeneity in retirement spending rates at any given chronological age in sum we argue that neither biological nor chronological age alone is a sufficient statistic for making economic decisions rather both ages are required to behave rationally

coping with asymmetries in the commons self governing irrigation systems can work many analysts presume that the appropriators of a common pool resource are trapped in a hobbesian state of nature and cannot themselves create rules to counteract the perverse incentives they face in managing the resource the logical consequence of this view is to recommend that an external authority the government take over the commons but considerable empirical evidence from field and experimental settings holds that appropriators frequently do constitute and enforce their own rules and that these rules work our research agenda is to develop a coherent understanding of the set of conditions that enhance or detract from self organizing capabilities when individuals differ substantially from one another for the sake of concreteness this paper focuses on the asymmetry present in most irrigation systems between those who are physically near the source of water the head enders and those who are physically distant from it the tail enders this paper first explores the interaction between head end and tail end farmers particularly their decisions about whether to devote resources to the upkeep of the irrigation system and how bargaining between the parties can benefit all sides finally we examine empirical evidence from a study of irrigation institutions in nepal and discuss the broader practical significance of our findings

life cycle individual thrift and the wealth of nations this paper provides a review of the theory of the determinants of individual and national thrift that has come to be known as the life cycle hypothesis lch of saving applications to some current policy issues are also discussed part i deals with the state of the art on the eve of the formulation of the lch some 30 years ago part ii sets forth the theoretical foundations of the model in its original formulation and later amendment calling attention to various implications distinctive to it and sometimes counter intuitive it also includes a review of a number of crucial empirical tests both at the individual and the aggregate level part iii reviews some applications of lch to current policy issues though only in sketchy fashion as space constraints prevent fuller discussion this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

an institutional framework for the development of sustainable and competitive power market in pakistan abstract pakistan is continuously striving for sustainable and competitive power market under the comprehensive power sector reform program pakistan shifted its power market from monopoly model to single buyer model by unbundling water and power development authority wapda and establishing national transmission and dispatch company ntdc current severe power situation in the country is triggering the government of pakistan gop to accelerate the implementation of intended reform program and to readily undertake next planned transformation i e from single buyer model to wholesale market model this research endeavors the future dynamics of power market after the structural spin off by pre assessment of upcoming wholesale power market market power of both public and private electricity generators has been computed using 8 largest firm concentration ratio herfindahl hirschman index hhi and residual supply index rsi the findings suggest that future power market will function with non existence of market power except in the periods of peak electricity demand and maximum hydro generation furthermore insufficient installed capacities and underutilization of public thermal units may enable some players to exercise market power for sustainable and competitive power market an empirically supported framework has been proposed based on the analysis the framework proposes utilization of huge available renewable energy potential for future which will protect the whole infrastructure from market power it recommends respective roles and responsibilities for the smooth transition among market models the framework will be supportive in terms of successful and smooth transition from single buyer model to wholesale market model and potential of wind solar biogas to be properly explored and utilized to reduce energy gap

the spatio temporal dynamics of ethanol gasoline price ratio in brazil abstract we use an innovative method to analyze the spatio temporal evolution of the ethanol gasoline price ratio to end consumers in brazil this model allows estimating the distribution of prices throughout the country using a continuous space model estimated by bayesian methods we use data from the national petroleum natural gas and biofuels agency s price survey system a weekly sample of 10 of fuel suppliers in brazil to estimate continuous projections of the price ratio for the entire country for the 2007 2014 period we use this model to build an indicator of ethanol advantage in the country and show how this advantage has declined since 2009

a sustainable spending rate without simulation financial commentators have called for more research on sustainable spending rates for individuals and endowments holding diversified portfolios we present a forward looking framework for analyzing spending rates and introduce a simple measure stochastic present value that parsimoniously meshes investment risk and return mortality estimates and spending rates without resorting to opaque monte carlo simulations applying it with reasonable estimates of future returns we find payout ratios should be lower than those many advisors recommend the proposed method helps analysts advise their clients how much they can consume from their savings whether they can retire early and how to allocate their assets

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

rural electrification and energy poverty empirical evidences from brazil the aim of this article is to evaluate the impact of rural electrification on the reduction of energy poverty in brazil through the analysis of 23 000 rural domiciles or rural properties between the years 2000 and 2004 the results indicate a fast change in the profile of energy consumption and a reduction of energy poverty this new approach works as a complement among other variables to analyze and quantify the real economic social and energy impacts in rural electrification programs generally applied in developing countries

real options analysis for renewable energy investment decisions in developing countries abstract renewable energy projects in developing countries should provide clean energy supply as well as support sustainable economic development to this end risks arising from uncertainties such as rapidly changing technologies and host government conditions should be carefully addressed however traditional methods for economic assessment are not adequate to support decision making regarding investments in renewable energy this paper proposes a real options analysis framework as a tool to assess renewable energy investment in developing countries a case study involving a hydropower project in indonesia was conducted to validate and verify the proposed framework this framework is expected to help host countries and investors assess renewable energy projects with high volatility and risk

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

optimal savings management for individuals with defined contribution pension plans abstract the paper provides some guidelines to individuals with defined contribution dc pension plans on how to manage pension savings both before and after retirement we argue that decisions regarding investment annuity payments and the size of death sum should not only depend on the individual s age or time left to retirement nor should they solely depend on the risk preferences but should also capture 1 economical characteristics such as current value on the pension savings account expected pension contributions mandatory and voluntary and expected income after retirement e g retirement state pension and 2 personal characteristics such as risk aversion lifetime expectancy preferable payout profile bequest motive and preferences on portfolio composition specifically the decisions are optimal under the expected crra utility function and are subject to the constraints characterizing the individual the problem is solved via a model that combines two optimization approaches stochastic optimal control and multi stage stochastic programming the first method is common in financial and actuarial literature but produces theoretical results however the latter which is characteristic for operations research has practical applications we present the operations research methods which have potential to stimulate new thinking and add to actuarial practice

learning to lend for off grid solar power policy lessons from world bank loans to india indonesia and sri lanka abstract the world bank has sought to advance the diffusion of solar photovoltaic pv technology for off grid applications in the developing world as these systems are fundamentally different to centralised power stations and conventional rural electrification the world bank has been learning how best to lend for such technology this study seeks to highlight the lessons learnt from the world bank s first loans for off grid pv to india indonesia and sri lanka it uses lifetime cost analysis to justify continued intervention in this sector and it draws on theories of innovation diffusion to guide analysis and ultimately policy recommendations because of the special role of entrepreneurial start up companies in the rural pv sector the paper also uses a company cash flow model to demonstrate the efficacy of various supply side policies finally the study concludes with a checklist of policy lessons and a consideration of the role of the international finance corporation in this sector

rural electrification policy and institutional linkages some of the problems that have besieged rural electrification in most developing countries include inadequate policies weak institutional frameworks and limited financing in the last two decades governments in developing countries have been making various efforts both at the policy level and in financing to facilitate increased levels of rural electrification however the introduction of market based reforms in the power sector in the last decade has affected the institutional and financing arrangements for rural electrification the reforms have also affected the rate of electrification and affordability of electricity there is need therefore to establish the extent to which the reforms have affected access and affordability of electricity in rural areas and to develop appropriate policy and the supporting institutional structures to align rural electrification with reformed power sectors it is cardinal to establish how privatised and commercialised power companies in a reformed power sector could contribute to rural electrification and the role of governments and government agents in facilitating expanded access to electricity in rural areas

decentralized management of common property resources experiments with a centuries old institution for centuries villages in the alps employed a special system for managing their common properties individual users could inspect other users at their own cost and impose a predetermined sanction a fine when a free rider was discovered the fine was paid to the user who found a violator experiments with the institutions demonstrate that this mechanism considerably improves efficiency of resource use the classical model of identical selfish agents does not capture the data as well as a model with heterogeneous and linear other regarding preferences altruism and especially potentially dysfunctional behavior such as spite and mistake play important positive roles

spending retirement on planet vulcan the impact of longevity risk aversion on optimal withdrawal rates corrected july 2011 recommendations from the media and financial planners regarding retirement spending rates deviate considerably from utility maximization models this study argues that wealth managers should advocate dynamic spending in proportion to survival probabilities adjusted up for exogenous pension income and down for longevity risk aversion

roles of renewable energy technologies in improving the rural energy situation in nepal gaps and opportunities abstract nepal is one of the least developed countries with the lowest per capita energy consumption in the world traditional solid biomass plays a significant role in meeting the primary energy demand in the country which represents about 87 of the total primary energy mix till date only 50 of the population has access to electricity and disparity between the urban and rural areas in terms of access to energy is prevalent in order to improve the energy situation in rural areas the government of nepal initiated the promotion and development of renewable energy technologies rets through subsidies nepal has the potential to generate energy through renewable sources like mini microhydro schemes solar power biogas and wind it is estimated that more than 50 mw of electricity can be generated from the micro hydro schemes 2100 mw from solar and 3000 mw from wind moreover the country has the capacity to develop about 1 1 million domestic biogas plants rets may provide ample opportunity to improve the vulnerable rural energy system in nepal if the available renewable resources are optimally utilized

the diagnosis of an electricity crisis and alternative energy development in pakistan abstract the electricity sector in pakistan is currently facing the formidable challenges of an insufficient installed capacity a suboptimal infrastructure circular debt and revenue shortage all of these problems hamper socioeconomic activities this paper diagnoses the overall condition of the electricity sector as well as the potential and recent progress in the implementation of alternative energy projects in the context of the targets set in the national energy security plan nesp the assessment reveals the unsatisfactory overall progress of the implementation of the nesp in general and alternative energy in particular we assess that if the short term measures contained in the nesp have been adequately executed were enough to bridge the existing electricity supply demand gap and the country might not be facing an ongoing electricity crisis further we investigated the specific alternative energy policy issues that hinder this sector s development in pakistan we conclude that fuel diversification by means of the maximum utilisation of alternative energy resources would help in solving the crisis and would also furnish the long term energy needs of the country finally we recommend a comprehensive strategy for revamping the electricity sector and developing the alternative energy resources needed to tackle the ongoing electricity crisis in pakistan

the evolution of social norms in common property resource use the problem of extracting commonly owned renewable resources is examined within an evolutionary game theoretic framework it is shown that cooperative behavior guided by norms of restraint and punishment may be stable in a well defined sense against invasion by narrowly self interested behavior the resource stock dynamics are integrated with the evolutionary game dynamics effects of changes in prices technology and social cohesion on extraction behavior and the long run stock are analyzed when threshold values of the parameters are crossed social norms can break down leading generally to the lowering of the long run stock and possibly to its extinction copyright 1996 by american economic association

reforming small electricity systems under political instability the case of nepal this paper assesses the issues and options in reforming small electricity sector systems in general while citing nepal as a specific case political instability and increasing electricity demand are two major complicating factors in power sector reform of small systems such as that of nepal lessons from international experience suggest that measures such as cost reflecting pricing restructuring and independent regulation are important for the success of reforms in small systems the creation of an independent regulatory authority is more important than unbundling of the sector in the present context of nepal accounting separation of the main activities may be a pragmatic restructuring approach given the present political and market condition as the systems gradually grow larger vertical separation of the system and horizontal splitting of the generation segment and competition in organised wholesale market followed by privatisation remains an option in the long run

the existence uniqueness and optimality of the terminal wealth depletion time in life cycle models of saving under uncertain lifetime and borrowing constraint abstract in life cycle models of saving under uncertain lifetime and borrowing constraint the consumer s wealth must be depleted before the maximum lifetime this paper investigates the existence uniqueness and optimality of the terminal wealth depletion time it is proved that the optimal terminal wealth depletion time if such exists must be unique if the equation that determines the optimal terminal wealth depletion has multiple solutions then the location of the optimal solution will depend on the configuration of the solutions an optimality test is developed to verify whether a candidate solution for the terminal wealth depletion time is indeed optimal the paper introduces a method new to economics the dubovitskii milyutin adjoint equation to analyze the properties of the optimal control problem