energy efficiency and the cost of ghg abatement a comparison of bottom up and hybrid models for the us a highly influential report by the mckinsey consulting firm suggests that a large potential for profitable energy efficiency exists in the us and that substantial greenhouse gas emissions reductions can therefore be achieved at a low cost this result is consistent with other studies conducted using a bottom up methodology that dates back to the work of lovins beginning in the 1970s research over the past two decades however has identified shortcomings with the conventional bottom up approach and this has led to the development of new analytical frameworks that are referred to as hybrid energy economy models using the cims hybrid model we conducted simulations for comparison with the mckinsey results these exercises suggest a more modest potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at a given marginal cost as well as a smaller contribution from energy efficiency relative to other abatement opportunities such as fuel switching and carbon capture and storage hybrid models incorporate parameters reflecting risk and quality into their estimates of technology costs and our analysis suggests that these play a significant role in explaining differences in the results

implications of energy subsidy reform in india abstract this paper analyses welfare impact of energy subsidy reform in india based on the data from 1970 71 to 2014 15 to this end auto regressive distributed lag ardl model and error correction model ecm have been estimated to quantify the short run and long run price and the income elasticity of various energy products the results show that the price elasticity of demand for all fossil fuels is low but the respective income elasticity is higher therefore an increase in the general price level caused by the subsidy reform will lead to the erosion of real income and will have related welfare implications in india the results also reveal that energy expenditure will obviously increase and hence energy consumption will decline depending upon the extent of the withdrawal of subsidy therefore policy makers in india while undertaking further reforms must ensure that the subsidy reaches to those who truly deserve so that the socioeconomic casualty of reforms can be minimized along with achieving fiscal goals

estimating aggregate automotive income elasticities from the population income share elasticity the conventional approach to estimating the income responsiveness of a product s sales involves collecting data on sales as a function of income and product prices and then estimating a demand model in many cases it is very difficult to either collect the required data or reliably estimate the demand model this article develops an alternative approach toward estimating these income responsiveness parameters using only the average income of the product s buyers and the population income distribution we illustrate our technique with automotive data and obtain fairly intuitive results

cultural values and international differences in business ethics we analyze ethical policies of firms in industrialized countries and try to find out whether culture is a factor that plays a significant role in explaining country differences we look into the firm s human rights policy its governance of bribery and corruption and the comprehensiveness implementation and communication of its codes of ethics we use a dataset on ethical policies of almost 2 700 firms in 24 countries we find that there are significant differences among ethical policies of firms headquartered in different countries when we associate these ethical policies with hofstede s cultural indicators we find that individualism and uncertainty avoidance are positively associated with a firm s ethical policies whereas masculinity and power distance are negatively related to these policies

barriers against globalizing corporate ethics an analysis of legal disputes on implementing u s codes of ethics in germany global firms need to decide on the correspondence between their corporate ethics and the globalization of their activities when firms go global they face ethical complexities as they operate in different legal and cultural environments that may impact the admissibility and appropriateness of their approach to institutionalize and implement corporate ethics global firms may have good reasons to establish global codes of ethics that are to be obeyed by all employees worldwide however developing and implementing such codes can be rather difficult due to various and partly competing conditions in the countries of operation in this article two legal disputes are analyzed to illustrate some of the difficulties that may emerge when firms globalize their codes of ethics i argue that these conflicts can be mitigated when firms carefully design their codes and the processes of code implementation

legitimizing research technology and innovation policies for transformative change combining insights from innovation systems and multi level perspective in a comprehensive failures framework abstract the recent policy debates about orientating research technology and innovation policy towards societal challenges rather than economic growth objectives only call for new lines of argumentation to systematically legitimize policy interventions while the multi level perspective on long term transitions has attracted quite some interest over the past years as a framework for dealing with long term processes of transformative change but the innovation systems approach is still the dominant perspective for devising innovation policy innovation systems approaches stress the importance of improving innovation capabilities of firms and the institutional settings to support them but they are less suited for dealing with the strategic challenges of transforming systems of innovation production and consumption and thus with long term challenges such as climate change or resource depletion it is therefore suggested to consider insights from transition studies more prominently in a policy framework that is based on the innovation systems approach and the associated notion of failures we propose a comprehensive framework that allows legitimizing and devising policies for transformative change that draws on a combination of market failures structural system failures and transformational system failures

energy savings in nigeria is there a way of escape from energy inefficiency abstract this study estimates the transition probabilities for different energy use states in nigeria using the markov switching regression technique according to the results both energy efficient and energy inefficient states are less persistent but comparatively the energy inefficient state is more persistent thus in nigeria it is much difficult to escape from the energy inefficient state than the energy efficient state several reasons may explain this phenomenon and they include inefficient regulatory system poor institutional structure high corruption proliferation of second hand goods undeveloped markets high incidence of poverty and inefficient pricing in the energy sector pricing policies should be combined with institutional improvement and infrastructural development if nigeria wants to achieve a sustainable energy efficient state in the long term

picking winners modelling the costs of technology specific climate policy in the u s passenger vehicle sector abstract researchers debate the cost effectiveness of technology specific versus technology neutral climate policies but few quantify the differences using the case of low carbon vehicle technologies in the us passenger vehicle sector ethanol plug in electric and hydrogen we develop a technology adoption simulation model that represents increasing returns to adoption in both financial costs and consumer preferences representing uncertainty through monte carlo analysis we compare the policy costs tonne co2 out to 2050 of i a technology neutral carbon tax ii a somewhat neutral vehicle standard requiring low carbon vehicle sales but allowing competition among technologies and iii technology specific vehicle standards requiring sales of just one technology on average across simulations the carbon tax is twice as cost effective as the best vehicle standard in part because the tax more substantially affects vehicle use rates among the vehicle standards a technology specific standard that selects the right winner plug in electric vehicles is more cost effective than the neutral standard as it more quickly stimulates technology improvement however there is risk in a technology specific approach mistakenly forcing a loser technology hydrogen results in policy costs that are 2 to 5 times higher than other policies results can help policymakers trade off the costs and risks of different climate policy options

codes of ethics partly as a result of much recent evidence of business and government crime a large proportion of major corporations have adopted codes of ethics government service is also making more use of them the electrical manufacturing anti trust conspiracy and 1973 1976 investigation of foreign and domestic bribery were immediate prods there are also government codes of which the aspa code is most widely distributed corporate codes discuss relations to employees interemployee relationships whistle blowing effect on environment commercial bribery insider information other conflicts of interest anti trust accounting consumer relations and political activities a discussion of use of codes shows partly favorable results a number of corporation decisions have not yet become a subject of code provisions codes will be more useful if the reasons behind each order are stated and team work is encouraged

quantifying the impacts of energy price reform on living expenses in saudi arabia abstract as part of vision 2030 saudi arabia has initiated a broad based energy reform programme aimed at gradually reducing its dependence on oil this paper assesses the impacts of energy price reforms on living expenses of various household groups in saudi arabia for this purpose the input output table combined with household expenditure data are used to model the impacts results show that the distributional impacts of energy price reforms are regressive with low income households experiencing a higher increase in living expenses compared to high income households the impacts are primarily instigated by rising prices of energy intensive products after decomposing the impacts into direct and indirect effects it was found that indirect effect is not only responsible for a considerable rise in household expenditure on energy intensive products but it is also distributionally regressive it is therefore vital for policymakers to review and fine tune the social protection system to protect poor households against reforms

fossil fuel subsidy reforms and their impacts on firms abstract while the potential adverse effects of fossil fuel subsidy reform are well documented for households the literature has largely ignored the effect of subsidy reform on firms competitiveness this paper discusses how firms are affected by and respond to energy price increases caused by subsidy reforms it highlights that cost increases both direct and indirect do not necessarily reflect competitiveness losses since firms have various ways to mitigate and pass on price shocks this paper presents and discusses direct and indirect transmission channels for price shocks and firms response measures absorbing cost shocks into profits inter fuel substitution increasing energy and material efficiency and passing on price increases it argues that further micro econometric studies using enterprise surveys are essential for quantifying the role of these mechanisms and for designing policy measures that ensure that competitiveness losses due to subsidy reforms are minimised

a policy approach to the environmental impacts of technological lock in abstract the broadening spectrum of environmental problems the uncertainty regarding their scale and duration and their possible irreversibility in the context of the growing social preference for environmental quality make it necessary to undertake an ex ante approach to the link between productive activity and environmental quality this link lies in technology and the right approach is to understand how the process of technological change can lead towards sustainability the added value of evolutionary economics in the context of environmental policy resides mainly in the fact that it warns that certain inferior environmental technologies may be locked in to the economic system the results of our model show that it would be advisable to undertake policies expressly aimed at the process of sustainable technological change applying an ex ante precautionary approach in a way that is complementary to the conventional equilibrium oriented environmental policies the nature of these policies and how they might be implemented are questions we will address from this novel approach to the concept of sustainable development in short the main objectives of this paper are to understand more fully the dynamics of the process of technological change its role in sustainable development and to assess the implications of this dynamic approach to techno environmental policy to achieve these goals we have developed an agent based model abm using distributed artificial intelligence dai concepts drawn from the general methodology of social simulation

who benefit most from fuel subsidies evidence from nigeria abstract the paper studies the benefit incidence of fuel subsidies in nigeria household sector combining annual subsidy estimates with the households expenditure data from the 2009 10 harmonized living standard survey we investigate how the benefits from fuel subsidies are accrued to each income groups in nigeria the results show that while the kerosene subsidy is more evenly distributed across income groups petrol subsidy is concentrated to high income groups in aggregate the top 20 households enjoy twice as much the benefit of fuel subsidies as the bottom 20 households we also examine the concentration and progressivity of fuel subsidies using gini coefficient measures and lorenz concentration curves and find both fuel subsidies are more regressive than the per capita expenditure

refined oil import subsidies removal in ghana a triple win abstract in this study claims and counterclaims that fossil fuel subsidies removal yields benefits in terms of budget deficits energy efficiency and mitigation are assessed in order to do this a global computable general equilibrium cge model has been estimated to evaluate the impact of subsidies removal on imported refined oil in ghana on prices carbon dioxide co 2 emissions households demand firm s production and real gdp the simulation experiment points to evidence that subsidy removal raises prices increases the rate of co 2 emissions reduces households demand reduces aggregate output and affects various sectors differently the increased rate of co 2 emissions due to the removal of subsidies is indicative of the existence of the so called green paradox these results underscore the fact that a removal of subsidies on fossil fuels may win in some regards but fail in others a general implication from the applied model therefore is one which supports the assertion that removal of subsidies on fossil fuels removal on energy should be implemented along with policies aimed at stimulating economic activities and reducing the level of co 2 emissions especially where there is evidence of the green paradox

fossil fuel subsidy removal and inadequate public power supply implications for businesses abstract we briefly consider the impact of fossil fuel subsidy removal policies in the context of inadequate power supply with a focus on the implications for businesses in doing so we utilize the case of the early 2012 fuel subsidy removal in nigeria the rationale for such subsidy removal policies is typically informed by analysis showing that they lead to an economically inefficient allocation of resources and market distortions while often failing to meet intended objectives however often the realities of infrastructural and institutional deficiencies are not appropriately factored into the decision making process businesses in many developing countries already impaired by the high cost of power supply deficiencies become even less competitive on an unsubsidized basis we find that justifications for removal often do not adequately reflect the specific environments of developing country economies resulting in poor recommendations or ineffective policy

a review of uncertainties in technology experience curves abstract the use of log linear experience curves or learning curves relating reductions in the unit cost of technologies to their cumulative production or installed capacity has become a common method of representing endogenous technical change in energy economic models used for policy analysis yet there are significant uncertainties in such formulations whose impact on key model results have been insufficiently examined or considered this paper reviews the major types of uncertainty in log linear experience curves and their effect on projected rates of cost reduction uncertainties are found not only in the learning rate parameter of a log linear model but also in the functional form that determines the shape of an experience curve evidence for alternative forms such as an s shaped curve is reviewed along with case studies that demonstrate the uncertainties associated with cost increases during early commercialization of a technology a phenomena that is widely recognized but rarely quantified or incorporated in learning models additional factors discussed include the effects of learning discontinuities institutional forgetting and the influence of social economic and political factors we then review other models of causality which aim to improve modelers ability to explain and predict the influence of other underlying processes that contribute to technology cost reductions in addition to learning ignoring other types of underlying mechanisms can create a false sense of precision and overestimate the true contribution of learning currently however uncertainties in such multi factor models remain large due to the difficulties of estimating key parameters such as private sector r d investments and extending models of a specific technology to a broader suite of technologies and cost projections pending the development and validation of more robust models of technological change we suggest ways to significantly improve the characterization and reporting of current learning model uncertainties and their impacts on the results of energy economic models to help reduce the potential for drawing inappropriate or erroneous policy conclusions

fossil fuel subsidies in the pacific island context analysis of the case of kiribati abstract kiribati is highly vulnerable to climate change induced sea level rise at the same time the country is also very dependent on fossil fuel imports kiribati uses price controls and tax exemptions to make fossil fuels more affordable for low income households this study reviews the subsidies on consumption of fossil fuels specifically gasoline diesel and household kerosene in kiribati and investigates their macroeconomic fiscal distributional and environmental impact the subsidies are quantified using price gap approach over a five year period the subsidies were on average aud 4 2 million when using 2011 2015 data with 2015 tax policies this is equivalent to 2 2 per cent of kiribati gdp over 2011 2014 the average fiscal impact would have been equivalent to 3 7 per cent of government revenues and 29 per cent of government health expenditure apart from being a fiscal burden the subsidies increase greenhouse gas emissions and make kiribati even more dependent on fossil fuel imports and more vulnerable to volatility in international fuel prices no evidence was found to support the argument for using the subsidies to support low income households in fact there are signs of considerable leakages to high income households which is consistent with findings from studies in other countries

reducing fuel subsidies and the implication on fiscal balance and poverty in indonesia a simulation analysis abstract there is an urgent need for phasing out fuel subsidies in indonesia due to a severe budget deficit and a worsening of income distribution fuel subsidies of which almost 72 are enjoyed by the 30 of the richest income groups have consumed on average 63 8 of the total subsidies between 1998 and 2013 this paper aims at evaluating the relationship between existing fuel subsidies and fiscal balance and at analysing the poverty impact of phasing out fuel subsidies applying a cge microsimulation this study found that removing 25 of fuel subsidies increases the incidence of poverty by 0 259 percentage points if this money were fully allocated to government spending the poverty incidence would decrease by 0 27 percentage points moreover the 100 removal of fuel subsidies and the reallocation of 50 of them to government spending transfers and other subsidies could decrease the incidence of poverty by 0 277 percentage points however these reallocation policies might not be effective in compensating for the adverse impacts of the 100 removal of fuel subsidies if economic agents try to seek profit through mark up pricing over the increase of production costs

reducing subsidies on household fuels in india how will it affect the poor kerosene and lpg are widely used in households in india for lighting and cooking these fuels have historically been subsidized as part of the restructuring of the energy sector the government is committed to limiting these subsidies this paper examines the impact of reducing energy subsidies on the welfare of the poor the paper uses data from nationally representative surveys of over 100 000 households the paper concludes that the case for reducing lpg subsidies is strong although the kerosene subsidy is an inefficient means of subsidizing fuel use by the poor reduction in it will need to be supported by other policies that would limit the adverse impacts

determinants of oil price subsidies in oil and gas exporting countries abstract this paper investigates the implicit subsidization of refined products in oil and gas exporting countries most of these countries as well as some other countries mostly developing countries but one could argue that us gasoline prices do not account for external costs distribute large subsidies subsidies that are offered for a long period are not only inefficient but also dangerous due to gradual increases in the energy demand low domestic prices have led to immense oil demand growth that cannot continue if these countries wish to continue exporting only very high price jumps can stop this development but politically these price jumps are very costly if not suicidal for many governments indeed we argue that the currently low oil prices not only harm oil and gas exporting countries but also provide a unique opportunity to eliminate this costly subsidy policy at manageable political costs this paper begins with theoretical normative and positive explanations of low domestic energy prices and then addresses how to phase out subsidies again from a normative and positive perspective finally we empirically address the obstacles that individual countries may face when attempting to eliminate subsidies by quantifying the factors political economic and social that influence the existing subsidies

market price and income elasticities of new vehicles demand recent evidence from aggregate models of automobile demand indicates that when not corrected for quality differences market price elasticity of demand is substantially biased downwards this note presents new information on market price and income elasticities derived from a disaggregate demand model that controls for cost household income vehicle attributes and perceived quality consumer search and manufacturer based on an extensive household survey of new vehicle purchasers in 1989 market price and income elasticities are estimated to be 0 87 and 1 70 respectively moreover excluding vehicle quality from a well specified model is found to have little effect upon the estimated market elasticities copyright 1996 by mit press

options for mitigating the adverse effects of fossil fuel subsidies removal in ghana abstract conventional wisdom holds that without environmental benefits and revenue recycling fossil fuel subsidies removal would lead to welfare losses first this study tests the usefulness of general equilibrium theory for validating these claims and draws similar conclusion subsequently the model is readjusted to reflect simulation with two non traditional policy options this time the results suggest that removing subsidies on fossil fuels would create opportunities provided that such is done in tandem with complementary policies in particular we show that a mix of agricultural productivity improvement and a reduction in trade transaction costs at 15 in each case would provide benefits for fossil fuel subsidies removal in ghana these results underscore the need for structural reforms in ghanaian agricultural sector especially those aimed at promoting mechanized agriculture

suppliers compliance with mncs codes of conduct behind the scenes at chinese toy suppliers despite increased academic and practitioner interest in codes of conduct there has been little research into the actual compliance of suppliers in developing countries with the codes of conduct of multinational corporations mncs this paper addresses this lack by analysing chinese suppliers level of compliance with swedish toy retailers codes of conduct based on unannounced and unofficial interviews with employees of chinese suppliers the study shows that all of the nine studied suppliers breached some of the standards in the toy retailers codes with over two thirds of the suppliers not complying with the majority of the studied standards while there are different explanations of this lack of compliance the main explanation seems to be that chinese suppliers successfully deceive toy retailers monitoring organisations by decoupling the formal monitored part of their organisation from the actual operational part of their organisation the paper concludes with a discussion of how to increase compliance with mncs codes of conduct

incidence and impact the regional variation of poverty effects due to fossil fuel subsidy reform since fossil fuel subsidy reforms can induce significant distributional shifts and price shocks effective compensation and social protection programs are crucial based on the statistical simulation model by araar and verme 2012 this study estimates the regional variability of direct welfare effects of removing fuel subsidies in nigeria uncompensated subsidy removal is estimated to increase the national poverty rate by 3 4 on average however uniform cash compensation that appears effective at the national average is found to fail to mitigate price shocks in 16 of 37 states thus putting livelihoods and public support for reforms at risk states that are estimated to incur the largest welfare shocks coincide with hotspots of civil unrest following nigeria s 2012 subsidy reform attempt the study illustrates how regionally disaggregated compensation can be revenue neutral and maintain or reduce pre reform poverty rates in all states overall it highlights the importance of understanding differences in vulnerability and designing tailored social protection schemes which ensure public support for subsidy reforms

impacts of corporate code of conduct on labor standards a case study of reebok s athletic footwear supplier factory in china this study examines the social impacts of labor related corporate social responsibility csr policies or corporate codes of conduct on upholding labor standards through a case study of csr discourses and codes implementation of reebok a leading branded company enjoying a high profiled image for its human rights achievement in a large taiwanese invested athletic footwear factory located in south china i find although implementation of reebok labor related codes has resulted in a race to ethical and legal minimum labor standards when notoriously inhumane and seriously illegal labor rights abuses were curbed chinese workers were forced to work harder and faster but earned less payment and the employee elected trade union installed through codes implementation operated more like a company union rather than an autonomous workers organization representing worker interests in order to explain the paradoxical effects of reebok labor related codes on labor standards i argue the result is determined by both structural forces and agency related factors embedded in industrial national and local contexts to put it shortly i find the effectiveness of reebok labor related codes is constrained not only by unsolved tension between reebok s impetus for profit maximization and commitment to workers human rights but also by hard nosed competition realities at marketplace and chinese government s insufficient protection of labor rights despite drawing merely from a single case study these findings illuminate key determinants inhibiting the effectiveness of labor related csr policies or codes in upholding labor standards and hence two possible way outs of the deadlock 1 sharing cost for improving labor standards among key players in global supply chain and 2 combining regulatory power of voluntary codes and compulsory state legislations

the unequal benefits of fuel subsidies a review of evidence for developing countries summary this paper reviews evidence on the impact of fuel subsidy reform on household welfare in developing countries on average the burden of subsidy reform is substantial and is approximately neutrally distributed across income groups a 0 25 decrease in the per liter subsidy results in a 5 decrease in income for all groups more than half of this impact arises from the indirect impact on prices of other goods and services consumed by households fuel subsidies are a costly approach to protecting the poor due to substantial benefit leakage to higher income groups in absolute terms the top income quintile captures six times more in subsidies than the bottom

impacts of removing fuel import subsidies in nigeria on poverty abstract the petroleum sector contributes substantially to the nigerian economy however the potential benefits are diminished due to the existence of significant subsidies on imports of petroleum products subsidies on imported petroleum products are considered to be an important instrument for keeping fuel prices and hence the cost of living low the costs of these subsidies however has risen dramatically in recent years due to increased volatility in world petroleum and petroleum product prices and increased illegal exportation of subsidized petroleum products into neighboring countries removing the subsidy on fuel is one of the most contentious socio economic policy issues in nigeria today in this paper an economy wide framework is used to identify the impact of removing the fuel subsidy on the nigerian economy and investigates how alternative policies might be used to meet socio economic objectives related to fuel subsidies the results show that while a reduction in the subsidy generally results in an increase in nigerian gdp it can have a detrimental impact on household income and in particular on poor households accompanying the subsidy reduction with income transfers aimed at poor households or domestic production of petroleum products can alleviate the negative impacts on household income

sustainable energy development in nigeria current status and policy options abstract sustainable energy development focuses on maintaining the provision of energy in a manner that can enhance the short medium and long term economic development of a country the provision of sustainable energy requires the development and implementation of technologies that can improve the energy situation of a given country such as renewable energy energy efficient technologies and the proper use of conventional energy resources to achieve this effective energy policy options must be instigated that can adjust to changing circumstances in nigeria the development of sustainable clean modern energy is an immense challenge as is the proper use of the country s conventional energy resources this is as due to the lack of effective support policies and poor participation by the government in clean energy development the energy situation in nigeria could be improved by the provision of adequate energy policy options designed to augment existing energy policies this study critically reviews the current status of energy resources in nigeria and the associated policies important policies unavailable under current government strategies are proposed and prioritised based on their likelihood of success in short medium and long term among the most important policies based on priorities are policies to address crude oil theft complete deregulation of the petroleum subsectors utilisation of associated gases creation of favourable business climate for private investors increase attraction for foreign direct investment in clean energy technology renewable portfolio standards development introduction of tendering schemes use of efficient fuel stoves development of demand side bidding and energy efficiency standard law we believe that these proposed policy options could improve the sustainable development of nigeria s energy resources

improving behavioral realism in hybrid energy economy models using discrete choice studies of personal transportation decisions hybrid energy economy models combine top down and bottom up approaches to explore behaviorally realistic responses to technology focused policies this research uses empirically derived discrete choice models to inform key behavioral parameters in cims a hybrid model the discrete choice models are estimated for vehicle and commuting decisions from a survey of 1150 canadians with the choice models integrated into cims we simulate carbon taxes gasoline vehicle disincentives and single occupancy vehicle disincentives to show how different policy levers can motivate technological change we also use the empirical basis for the choice models to portray uncertainty in technological change costs and emissions

distributional effects of reducing energy subsidies evidence from recent policy reform in argentina abstract we analyze the distributional effects of the reduction in energy subsidies in argentina since 2016 as the policy reform also includes the introduction of a scheme to protect less well off families social tariff we also review how well the targeting mechanism works we apply traditional benefit incidence analysis using household surveys and administrative data focusing on residential subsidies to piped natural gas and electricity in the buenos aires metropolitan area we find that the social tariff is relatively pro poor with significantly higher coverage among the poorest households there are some exclusion errors in the low income deciles and large inclusion errors in the medium and high income deciles the distributive incidence of subsidies does not appear to have changed substantially energy subsidies in argentina albeit lower in aggregate terms continue to be although progressive pro rich this is in large part due to the prevalence of the general flat subsidy rate mechanism over the social tariff mechanism regarding energy budget shares monthly spending on electricity has increased from 1 1 of total household income to 3 4 monthly spending on piped natural gas rose from 1 3 to 3 3 these shares are in line with many other countries in the region naturally there has been a convergence of tariffs towards service provision costs which becomes central in order to incentive sectoral investment and stimulate a good provision of services

technological change in economic models of environmental policy a survey this paper provides an overview of the treatment of technological change in economic models of environmental policy numerous economic modeling studies have confirmed the sensitivity of mid and long run climate change mitigation cost and benefit projections to assumptions about technology costs in general technical progress is considered to be a noneconomic exogenous variable in global climate change modeling however there is overwhelming evidence that technological change is not an exogenous variable but to an important degree endogenous induced by needs and pressures hence some environmenteconomy models treat technological change as endogenous responding to socio economic variables three main elements in models of technological innovation are i corporate investment in research and development ii spillovers from r d and iii technology learning especially learning by doing the incorporation of induced technological change in different types of environmental economic models tends to reduce the costs of environmental policy accelerates abatement and may lead to positive spillover and negative leakage

the economic impact of subsidy phase out in oil exporting developing countries a case study of algeria iran and nigeria abstract one of the crucial issues of energy markets in oil exporting developing countries is the high level of subsidies on petroleum products and the low efficiency in energy use the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of a subsidy phase out policy on the energy sector and oil revenues in three countries algeria iran and nigeria by using a standard econometric approach we find that the effects of different deregulation policies are substantial we also analyse the impact of a policy based on autonomous energy efficiency improvement finally a combination of both policies is elaborated and quantified our results show that a policy geared at more rational use of energy would permit these countries to save enough oil to meet future increases in demand while maintaining stable production capacity furthermore such an energy policy could result in additional oil revenues which would enhance their economic development

household welfare implications of fossil fuel subsidy reforms in developing countries abstract with over 200 countries reaching an agreement with the stated aim of restricting global warming to well below 2 c above pre industrial levels the most comprehensive climate change agreement was recently signed though most of the hard work lies ahead it marks an important first step for the collective global community to address climate change fossil fuels continue to remain one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and for many developing countries high levels fossil fuels continues to enable an overconsumption of fossil fuels given the sensitivity of governments to subsidy reforms this study examines the household welfare implications of the removal of fossil fuel subsidies it finds that while welfare implications are unambiguously positive for government the results are mixed for private households although in an overwhelming majority of cases the results are positive however even in the cases where the welfare implications are negative for private households we find that it is possible for governments to carry out the reforms in such a way as to be welfare improving to households incomes by compensating them with some of the fiscal savings gained from the subsidy reform

the welfare effects of unprecedented electricity price hikes in zambia abstract this paper simulates the real household expenditure effects of large electricity price increases in zambia first we find that electricity subsidies are highly regressive the richest household quintile receives over 60 of the subsidies while the poorest quintile receives less than 1 second our partial equilibrium simulations of the welfare effects of a 75 electricity price increase show that the poorest households would experience a 3 times larger percentage loss in real expenditure compared to the wealthiest households naturally these adverse effects lead to an increase in poverty however we find that transferring the fiscal savings realised from the complete elimination of electricity subsidies to the poor reduces extreme poverty significantly this budget neutral strategy is particularly attractive for zambia and other sub saharan economies currently battling the twin challenges of widening budget deficits and high extreme poverty

the causes and consequences of wal mart s growth wal mart is the largest company in the world yet little is known about its economic impact this essay discusses what is known about wal mart s competitive advantage and its economic impact on local communities as well as the national and global economy and highlights the open questions to be addressed by future research

fossil fuel reform in developing states the case of trinidad and tobago a petroleum producing small island developing state abstract trinidad and tobago is an oil exporting small island developing state sids with a 0 12 contribution to global emissions and with important socio economic challenges it has producer electricity and transport fuel subsidies it is at an interesting juncture in subsidy reform the government faces the embeddedness of distributive justice norms that are contested by fiscal prudence and environmental stewardship norms the value of the paper is twofold first it develops a subsidy intractability framework to explain reform global narratives that highlights the power of agents the nature of contested economic justice and environmental norms and the availability of mechanisms for reform second this framework is used to explain reform narratives and trajectories in trinidad and tobago using data from public documents and from a unique elite survey of former and present heads of state politicians policy makers and stakeholders even in conditions of falling oil prices and national revenue and pressures to reduce emissions where redistributive justice arguments are heavily embedded in public discourses those aspects of the subsidy that have developmental or distributive justice goals are more intractable the results of the study have implications for carbon emission reduction strategies in developing states with fossil fuel reserves

energy environment policy modeling of endogenous technological change with personal vehicles combining top down and bottom up methods abstract the transportation sector offers substantial potential for greenhouse gas ghg emission abatement but widely divergent cost estimates complicate policy making energy economy policy modelers apply top down and bottom up cost definitions and different assumptions about future technologies and the preferences of firms and households our hybrid energy economy policy model is technology rich like a bottom up model but has empirically estimated behavioral parameters for risk and technology preferences like a top down model unlike typical top down models however it simulates technological change endogenously with functions that relate the financial costs of technologies to cumulative production and adjust technology preferences as market shares change we apply it to the choice of personal vehicles to indicate first the effect on cost estimates of divergent cost definitions and second the possible response to policies that require a minimum market share for low emission vehicles

energy price variation and competitiveness firm level evidence from indonesia abstract this paper uses firm survey data from the manufacturing and mining sectors in indonesia and investigates the extent to which energy prices affect competitiveness proxied by profitability persistent regional price differences due to indonesia s insular geography enable this study to show that energy prices have a small but statistically significant adverse long run effect on competitiveness though different energy types matter in different sectors by estimating cross and own price elasticities and uzawa allen partial elasticities of inter fuel substitution this study also shows that firms have the ability to respond to higher energy prices by adjusting their energy mix i e substituting certain energy goods for others moreover this study shows that firms also respond to higher energy prices by increasing energy efficiency and by passing on costs to end users nevertheless these response measures are not sufficient to fully mitigate the adverse effect of energy prices on firms based on these results policy recommendations are offered which are of immediate relevance for the design of energy pricing reforms

the neighbor effect simulating dynamics in consumer preferences for new vehicle technologies abstract understanding consumer behaviour is essential in designing policies that efficiently increase the uptake of clean technologies over the long run expert opinion or qualitative market analyses have tended to be the sources of this information however greater scrutiny on governments increasingly demands the use of reliable and credible evidence to support policy decisions while discrete choice research and modeling techniques have been applied to estimate consumer preferences for technologies these methods often assume static preferences this study builds on the application of discrete choice research and modeling to capture dynamics in consumer preferences we estimate canadians preferences for new vehicle technologies under different market assumptions using responses from two national surveys focused on hybrid gas electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles the results support the relevance of a range of vehicle attributes beyond the purchase price in shaping consumer preferences towards clean vehicle technologies they also corroborate our hypothesis that the degree of market penetration of clean vehicle technologies is an influence on people s preferences the neighbor effect finally our results provide behavioural parameters for the energy economy model cims which we use here to show the importance of including consumer preference dynamics when setting policies to encourage the uptake of clean technologies

a tale of two market failures technology and environmental policy abstract market failures associated with environmental pollution interact with market failures associated with the innovation and diffusion of new technologies these combined market failures provide a strong rationale for a portfolio of public policies that foster emissions reduction as well as the development and adoption of environmentally beneficial technology both theory and empirical evidence suggest that the rate and direction of technological advance is influenced by market and regulatory incentives and can be cost effectively harnessed through the use of economic incentive based policy in the presence of weak or nonexistent environmental policies investments in the development and diffusion of new environmentally beneficial technologies are very likely to be less than would be socially desirable positive knowledge and adoption spillovers and information problems can further weaken innovation incentives while environmental technology policy is fraught with difficulties a long term view suggests a strategy of experimenting with policy approaches and systematically evaluating their success

the role of power and politics in the repricing of executive options we explore how ceo power affects the repricing of executive options the spread between an option s exercise or strike price and the market value of a stock impacts the likelihood of repricing

do corporate codes of ethics reflect national character evidence from europe and the united states this paper analyses the usage and contents of corporate codes of ethics the results from a sample of 600 large european companies are contrasted with findings reported for similar u s firms the comparison reveals that significantly fewer european than u s firms adopted codes of ethics in europe the large majority of codes have been introduced only very recently and there are indications that codes made their way into europe via subsidiaries of u s firms however there are striking differences in content between u s and european codes of ethics pointing to the existence of a distinctly european approach to codifying ethics