rational mean variance decisions for subsistence farmers this paper explores the issue of approximating expected utility in applying portfolio theory it has been demonstrated that expected utility is very closely approximated by an appropriate quadratic function recent studies have again questioned the empirical validity of mean variance analysis these efforts disregard the importance of the differences among various approximations and historically have focused on domestic financial securities we re examine the problem in the context of determining risk efficient portfolios of production activities for subsistence farmers the risks faced by these farmers are large and probably actuarially nonneutral thus recommendations based on an inappropriate quadratic approximation could result in substantial losses in welfare

normality solvency and portfolio choice this paper examines whether investors with power utility functions choose mean vari ance mv efficient portfolios when returns are approximately normally distributed and there is borrowing or lending at a riskless interest rate the results show that the unlevered portfolios of power utility investors plot very closely to the mv efficient frontier how ever there are marked differences in the mix of risky assets regardless of whether the portfolios are highly concentrated or widely diversified such differences allow power investors to remain solvent even when they lever their optimal portfolios to a greater ex tent than less risk averse mv investors who risk bankruptcy it is concluded that the investment policies of power utility and mv investors with similar risk aversion measures are not as similar as is commonly believed this is particularly true for high power inves tors unless explicit solvency constraints are imposed on the mv problem and for low power investors when quadratic utility approximations are made to the power utility func tions these differences in the investment policies of power utility and mv investors lead us to question the widely accepted assertion that the assumptions of homogeneous beliefs normality a riskless asset and risk averse investors imply the simple mv capm where all investors including power utility investors hold combinations ofthe market portfolio and the riskless asset

oil prices and the global economy a general equilibrium analysis a global computable general equilibrium model is used to analyze the economic impacts of rising oil prices with endogenously determined availability of biofuels to mitigate those impacts the negative effects on the global economy are comparable to those found in other studies but the impacts are unevenly distributed across countries regions or sectors the agricultural sectors of high income countries which are relatively energy intensive will suffer more from a rising oil prices than that in lower income countries whereas the reverse is true for the impacts across manufacturing sectors the impacts are especially strong for oil importers with relatively energy intensive manufacturing and trade such as india and china while the availability of biofuels does mitigate some of the negative impacts of rising oil prices the benefit is small because capacity of biofuels to economically substitute for fossil fuels on a large scale remains limited

theoretical and empirical foundations of hipc debt sustainability targets this article traces the origins of hipc heavily indebted poor country debt sustainability targets these targets are interpreted as switching values below which countries are expected to avoid debt service problems but as such they do not take into account that countries encounter debt problems for a variety of reasons and at different levels of debt it is likely that the true switching value of the debt to export ratio of many hipcs lie below the present target regarding the fiscal window of the hipc initiative the lack of analytical basis for a 250 per cent target for the debt torevenue ratio is noted and the problems raised by the joint openness revenue condition are discussed the article concludes that the sustainability targets as presently applied are not well supported in analytical terms

oil price shocks and real gdp growth empirical evidence for some oecd countries this study assesses empirically the effects of oil price shocks on the real economic activity of the main industrialized countries multivariate var analysis is carried out using both linear and non linear models the latter category includes three approaches employed in the literature namely the asymmetric scaled and net specifications evidence of a non linear impact of oil prices on real gdp is found in particular oil price increases are found to have an impact on gdp growth of a larger magnitude than that of oil price declines with the latter being statistically insignificant in most cases among oil importing countries oil price increases are found to have a negative impact on economic activity in all cases but japan moreover the effect of oil shocks on gdp growth differs between the two oil exporting countries in the sample with the uk being negatively affected by an oil price increase and norway benefiting from it

on the dynamic effects of oil price shocks a study using industry level data abstract this paper analyzes the effects of oil price shocks on demand and supply in various industries the impulse responses of identified var models indicate that for industries that have a large cost share of oil such as petroleum refinery and industrial chemicals oil price shocks mainly reduce supply in contrast for many other industries with the automobile industry being a particularly important example oil price shocks mainly reduce demand the paper suggests that oil price shocks influence economic activities beyond that explained by direct input cost effects possibly by delaying purchasing decisions of durable goods

production functions for climate policy modeling an empirical analysis abstract quantitative models for climate policy modeling differ in the production structure used and in the sizes of the elasticities of substitution the empirical foundation for both is generally lacking this paper estimates the parameters of 2 level ces production functions with capital labour and energy as inputs and is the first to systematically compare all nesting structures using industry level data from 12 oecd countries we find that the nesting structure where capital and labour are combined first fits the data best but for most countries and industries we cannot reject that all three inputs can be put into one single nest these two nesting structures are used by most climate models however while several climate policy models use a cobb douglas function for part of the production function we reject elasticities equal to one in favour of considerably smaller values finally we find evidence for factor specific technological change with lower elasticities and with factor specific technological change some climate policy models may find a bigger effect of endogenous technological change on mitigating the costs of climate policy

renewable energy oil prices and economic activity a granger causality in quantiles analysis this paper analyzes the causal relationship between renewable energy consumption oil prices and economic activity in the united states from july 1989 to july 2016 considering all quantiles of the distribution although the concept of granger causality is defined for the conditional distribution the majority of papers have tested granger causality using conditional mean regression models in which the causal relations are linear we apply a granger causality in quantiles analysis that evaluates causal relations in each quantile of the distribution under this approach we can discriminate between causality affecting the median and the tails of the conditional distribution we find evidence of bi directional causality between changes in renewable energy consumption and economic growth at the lowest tail of the distribution besides changes in renewable energy consumption lead economic growth at the highest tail of the distribution our results also support the unidirectional causality from fluctuations in oil prices to economic growth at the extreme quantiles of the distribution finally we find evidence of lower tail dependence from changes in oil prices to changes in renewable energy consumption our findings call for government policies aimed at developing renewable energy markets to increase energy efficiency in the u s

oil and the macroeconomy since world war ii all but one of the u s recessions since world war ii have been preceded typically with a lag of around three fourths of a year by a dramatic increase in the price of crude petroleum this does not mean that oil shocks caused these recessions evidence is presented however that even over the period 1948 72 this correlation is statistically significant and nonspurious supporting the proposition that oil shocks were a contributing factor in at least some of the u s recessions prior to 1972 by extension energy price increases may account for much of post opec macroeconomic performance

a comparison of the effects of exogenous oil supply shocks on output and inflation in the g7 countries a comparison of the effects of exogenous shocks to global crude oil production on seven major industrialized economies suggests a fair degree of similarity in the real growth responses an exogenous oil supply disruption typically causes a temporary reduction in real gdp growth that is concentrated in the second year after the shock inflation responses are more varied the median cpi inflation response peaks after three to four quarters exogenous oil supply disruptions need not generate sustained inflation or stagflation typical responses include a fall in the real wage higher short term interest rates and a depreciating currency with respect to the dollar despite many qualitative similarities there is strong statistical evidence that the responses to exogenous oil supply disruptions differ across g7 countries for suitable subsets of countries homogeneity cannot be ruled out a counterfactual historical exercise suggests that the evolution of cpi inflation in the g7 countries would have been similar overall to the actual path even in the absence of exogenous shocks to oil production consistent with a monetary explanation of the inflation of the 1970s there is no evidence that the 1973 1974 and 2002 2003 oil supply shocks had a substantial impact on real growth in any g7 country whereas the 1978 1979 1980 and 1990 1991 shocks contributed to lower growth in at least some g7 countries jel e31 e32 q43

dynamics of electricity consumption oil price and economic growth global perspective this study uses the data from 157 countries from 1960 to 2014 to analyze the relationship between economic growth electricity consumption oil prices capital and labor the economic growth of developing countries with industrial infrastructure has a more significant association with electricity consumption than oil prices we use oil prices and electricity consumption jointly to study highly predictive observations for economic growth the data are categorized by income oecd and regional levels the panel cointegration long run parameter estimation and pool mean group tests are used to analyze the cointegration and short run and long run relationships between the variables the empirical results indicate the presence of cointegration between the variables the presence of feedback effects between electricity consumption and economic growth oil prices and economic growth is valid these findings confirm that in spite of the oil prices developing countries rely heavily on electricity consumption for economic growth in the short run growth and feedback effects suggest that more vigorous electricity policies should be implemented to attain sustainable economic growth for the long term

debt relief schemes and welfare abstract this paper shows that concerted debt reduction may be welfare improving even when the investment disincentive effect of a debt overhang is not large enough to place the debtor country on the wrong side of the debt laffer curve whether the appropriate relief scheme involves debt reduction or new money however depends on whether investment disincentives or liquidity constraints dominate it is shown that except under very special circumstances mixed policy packages involving both debt and liquidity relief may not yield the desired results jel f34

electricity consumption oil price and economic growth global perspective abstract the study uses the panel data of 210 countries over the period 1960 2014 to analyze the empirical relationship between economic growth electricity consumption oil price gross fixed capital formation and population while the current literature on the topic focus largely on relationship between oil consumption and economic growth while only a few presented the research studying relationship between electricity and economic growth we used oil price and electricity consumption jointly to study the highly predictive observer for economic growth furthermore the data is categorized into income oecd regional level renewable energy consumption level and oil export import countries pedroni panel cointegration fully modified ols and panel vector error correction test apply to analyze the cointegration short run and the long run relationship between the variables the results of full panel confirm a bidirectional relationship between electricity consumption and gdp oil price and gdp fixed capital formation population and gdp moreover the results confirm that countries using non renewable sources for electricity generating such as through coal and oil the electricity consumption of these countries exhibit a negative relationship with the economic growth furthermore the finding varies across income oecd and regional renewable energy consumption level

why are the 2000s so different from the 1970s a structural interpretation of changes in the macroeconomic effects of oil prices in the 1970s large increases in the price of oil were associated with sharp decreases in output and large increases in inflation in the 2000s even larger increases in the price of oil were associated with much milder movements in output and inflation using a structural var approach blanchard and gali in j gali and m gertler eds 2009 international dimensions of monetary policy university of chicago press pp 373 428 argued that this reflected a change in the causal relation from the price of oil to output and inflation they then argued that this change could be due to a combination of three factors a smaller share of oil in production and consumption lower real wage rigidity and better monetary policy their argument based on simulations of a simple new keynesian model was informal our purpose in this paper is to take the next step and to estimate the explanatory power and contribution of each of these factors to do so we use a minimum distance estimator that minimizes over the set of structural parameters and for each of two samples pre and post 1984 the distance between the empirical svar based impulse response functions and those implied by a new keynesian model our empirical results point to an important role for all three factors

oil and the macroeconomy since the 1970s economists have long been intrigued by empirical evidence that suggests that oil price shocks may be closely related to macroeconomic performance this interest dates back to the 1970s the 1970s were a period of growing dependence on imported oil unprecedented disruptions in the global oil market and poor macroeconomic performance in the united states thus it was natural to suspect a causal relationship from oil prices to u s macroeconomic aggregates since then a large body of work has accumulated that purports to establish this link on theoretical grounds and to provide empirical evidence in its support we do not attempt a comprehensive survey of this literature but rather provide an idiosyncratic synthesis of what we view as the key issues in this debate and the insights gained over the last 30 years the timing seems right for such an account although the experience of the 1970s continues to play an important role in discussions of the link between oil and the macroeconomy there have been a number of new oil price shocks since the 1970s notably the 1986 collapse of oil prices and the 2000 boom in oil prices as well as the oil price increases associated with the 1990 1991 gulf war and the 2003 iraq war given this richer case history we are arguably in a better position than two decades ago to distinguish the idiosyncratic features of each oil crisis from the systematic effects increases in oil prices have been held responsible for recessions periods of excessive inflation reduced productivity and lower economic growth in this paper we review the arguments supporting such views first we highlight some of the conceptual difficulties in assigning a central role to oil price shocks in explaining

land allocation under uncertainty for alternative specifications of return distributions using the expected utility moment generating function approach a land allocation rule is derived which is both independent of the nature of the underlying distribution of each element in the choice set and accounts for all moments of that distribution this decision rule is applied to the choice between cotton and corn in the mississippi delta to demonstrate that consideration of just the first two moments of the distribution can often be unjustified and damaging empirically theoretically and in terms of the utility of the decision maker

the impact of biofuels on commodity food prices assessment of findings for years agriculture has provided most of the fuel for vehicular transportation concerns about availability of fuels balance of trade and climate change led to the introduction of biofuel programs in the united states brazil europeanunion eu andothercountries the impacts of these programs and the relationship between the food and fuel markets have become major topics of economic research this paper summarizes the main findings of alternative lines of research on the relationship between the food and fuel markets and identifies gaps and quandaries that warrant further research this is not meant to be a complete survey and it emphasizes several of our studies within the broader literature the paper distinguishes between two bodies of literature one on the relationship between food and fuel prices and another on the impact of the introduction of biofuel on commodity food prices while biofuel prices do not seem to affect food commodity prices we explain why the introduction of biofuel does moreover biofuelshavenotbeenthemostdominant contributor to the recent food price inflation and different biofuels have different impacts

financing vs forgiving a debt overhang abstract this paper examines the tradeoffs facing creditors of a country whose debt is large enough that the country cannot attract voluntary new lending if the country is unable to meet its debt service requirements out of current income the creditors have two choices they can finance the country lending at an expected loss in the hope that the country will eventually be able to repay its debt after all or they can forgive reducing the debt level to one that the country can repay the post 1983 debt strategy of the imf and the us has relied on financing but many current calls for debt reform call for forgiveness instead the paper shows that the choice between financing and forgiveness represents a tradeoff financing gives the creditors an option value if the country turns out to do relatively well creditors will not have written down their claims unnecessarily however the burden of debt distorts the country s incentives since the benefits of good performance go largely to creditors rather than itself the paper also shows that the tradeoff itself can be improved if both financing and forgiveness are made contingent on states of nature that the country cannot affect such as oil prices world interest rates etc

the economic effects of energy price shocks large fluctuations in energy prices have been a distinguishing characteristic of the u s economy since the 1970s turmoil in the middle east rising energy prices in the u s and evidence of global warming recently have reignited interest in the link between energy prices and economic performance this paper addresses a number of the key issues in this debate what are energy price shocks and where do they come from how responsive is energy demand to changes in energy prices how do consumers expenditure patterns evolve in response to energy price shocks how do energy price shocks affect u s real output inflation and stock prices why do energy price increases seem to cause recessions but energy price decreases do not seem to cause expansions why has there been a surge in the price of oil in recent years why has this new energy price shock not caused a recession so far have the effects of energy price shocks waned since the 1980s and if so why as the paper demonstrates it is critical to account for the endogeneity of energy prices and to differentiate between the effects of demand and supply shocks in energy markets when answering these questions

economic impact of oil price shocks on the turkish economy in the coming decades a dynamic cge analysis as a small open economy turkey depends on both imported oil and natural gas importing almost two thirds of its primary energy demand this paper analyzes the economic effects of oil price shocks for turkey as a small open oil and gas importing country to analyze the potential long term effects of oil price shocks on macroeconomic variables of interest including gdp consumer price inflation indirect tax revenues trade balance and carbon emissions we developed turgem d a dynamic multisectoral general equilibrium model for the turkish economy using turgem d we analyzed the impact of oil price shocks under three distinct scenarios reference high and low oil prices the simulation results show that these oil prices have very significant effects on macro indicators and carbon emissions in the turkish economy

strategic models of sovereign debt renegotiations the sovereign debt literature has often implicitly assumed that all the power in the bargaining game between debtor and creditor lies with the latter this paper explores that assumption by analyzing three game theoretic models of debt renegotiations in two of the models both of which are built on the traditional one sector growth model all the subgame perfect equilibria have an extreme form in which the game s surplus is captured by the creditor the third game has many subgame perfect equilibria that do not have this feature however the roles of various assumptions in all three games are examined

the impacts of biofuel targets on land use change and food supply a global cge assessment this study analyzes the long term impacts of large scale expansion of biofuels on land use change food supply and prices and the overall economy in various countries or regions using a global computable general equilibrium model augmented by a land use module and detailed representation of biofuel sectors the study finds that an expansion of global biofuel production to meet currently articulated or even higher national targets in various countries for biofuel use would reduce gross domestic product at the global level however the gross domestic product impacts are mixed across countries or regions the expansion of biofuels would cause significant land re allocation with notable decreases in forest and pasture lands in a few countries the results also suggest that the expansion of biofuels would cause a reduction in food supply although the magnitude of the impact on food supply at the global level is not as large as perceived earlier it would be significant in developing countries like india and those in sub saharan africa agricultural commodities such as sugar corn and oil seeds which serve as the main biofuel feedstocks would experience significant increases in their prices in 2020 compared with the prices at baseline due to the expansion of biofuels to meet the existing targets

oil and the macroeconomy when prices go up and down an extension of hamilton s results in an important paper hamilton 1983 demonstrated a strong correlation between oil price changes and gross national product growth in u s data however his study pertained to a period in which all the large oil price movements were upward and thus it left unanswered the question whether the correlation persists in periods of price decline moreover the price variable he used was somewhat distorted by price controls in the 1970s this note investigates whether hamilton s results continue to hold when the sample is extended to include the recent oil market collapse and the oil price variable is corrected for the effects of price controls particular attention is given to the possibility of asymmetric responses to oil price increases and decreases as suggested in the structural employment literature loungani 1986 davis 1987 hamilton 1988 like hamilton i based my investigation on the gnp equation in sims s 1 980b six variable quarterly vector autoregressive model