a review of the recent empirical literature on displaced workers this article reviews the empirical literature on job displacement job displacement is widespread and strongly countercyclical tending to peak during economic downturns but concentrated in indus

landlords versus tenants information asymmetry and mismatched preferences for home energy efficiency abstract new zealand homes are poorly insulated by international standards there are government subsidies available for people to improve the energy efficiency of their homes but uptake has been relatively low among owners of rental properties this paper presents the results of a choice experiment used to investigate the preferences of home owners and tenants for insulation and heating upgrades the responses indicate that landlords may underestimate how cold their rental properties are in winter considering the level of discomfort reported by tenants median willingness to pay wtp for improved insulation by landlords is only 50 70 of owner occupier values landlords are willing to pay more for a heating appliance than any other retrofit option in contrast tenants have a low wtp for the heating appliance and would prefer under floor insulation tenants express a willingness to pay higher rent in exchange for improved energy efficiency at a rate that would appear to make such upgrades economic for the landlord information asymmetry and lack of appropriate market signals may be a large part of the reason why many landlords are not willing to pay market prices for energy efficiency upgrades

the microfinance promise in the past decade microfinance programs have demonstrated that it is possible to lend to low income households while maintaining high repayment rates even without requiring collateral the programs promise a revolution in approaches to alleviating poverty and spreading financial services and millions of poor households are served globally a growing body of economic theory demonstrates how new contractual forms offer a key to microfinance success particularly the use of group lending contracts with joint liability for the most part however high repayment rates have not translated into profits and studies of impacts on poverty yield a mixed picture in describing emerging tensions the paper highlights the diversity of innovative mechanisms beyond group lending contracts the measurement of financial sustainability the estimation of economic and social impacts the costs and benefits of subsidization and the potential to reduce poverty through savings programs rather than just credit the promise of microfinance has pushed far ahead of the evidence and an agenda is put forward for addressing critical empirical gaps and sharpening the terms of policy discussion

economic analysis of upgrading aging residential buildings in china based on dynamic energy consumption and energy price in a market economy abstract this article employed a standard lcc to conduct economic analysis of upgrading the aging residential buildings in china according to the current situation an interest rate of 6 an inflation rate of 3 an increase rate of annual energy savings of 2 and an increase rate of electricity price of 2 were assumed in the method the results indicated that only relying on gradually increasing electricity price and governments subsidies was not enough after detailed analysis of the energy saving measures and the distribution of all benefits from building energy retrofit it was found that actually only 1 3 of original cost was spent only for energy savings the second 1 3 for both energy savings and good facade appearance and occupants should share the last 1 3 because even if without energy retrofit they would have to pay the part too the corresponding results proved that the first 1 3 of investment cost could be drawn back within the residue life cycle and so the investment could be accepted in a sheer market economy in the end a model about distribution of investment cost of and benefits was proposed to adapt the market economy to overcome the financial problems in china

does microcredit increase household welfare in the absence of microinsurance summary this study answers the question does a combination of microcredit and microinsurance improve the wellbeing of low income households we examine this challenge through heckman sample selection instrumental variable and treatment effect models the findings indicate that households using microcredit in combination with microinsurance derive significant gains in terms of welfare improvement microcredit may be good but its benefit to the poor is enhanced and sustained if the poverty trapping risks are covered with microinsurance to this extent combining microcredit with microinsurance will empower the poor to make a sustainable exit from poverty

a derivation of the marginal abatement cost curve abstract the relationship between a firm s technology and its marginal abatement cost mac curve is explored even under the simplest specifications the mac curve will be kinked at some point except under a special assumption which in reality could easily be violated the nondifferentiability implies that the choice of instrument under uncertainty may depend on the targeted level of emissions reduction also stability conditions for dynamic tax mechanisms may be violated in the neighborhood of the kink point a policy implication is that in some cases output restrictions are as efficient as emissions restrictions in contrast to previous results

heat savings and heat generation technologies modelling of residential investment behaviour with local health costs abstract the trade off between investing in energy savings and investing in individual heating technologies with high investment and low variable costs in single family houses is modelled for a number of building and consumer categories in denmark for each group the private economic cost of providing heating comfort is minimised the private solution may deviate from the socio economical optimal solution and we suggest changes to policy to incentivise the individuals to make choices more in line with the socio economic optimal mix of energy savings and technologies the households can combine their primary heating source with secondary heating e g a woodstove this choice results in increased indoor air pollution with fine particles causing health effects we integrate health cost due to use of woodstoves into household optimisation of heating expenditures the results show that due to a combination of low costs of primary fuel and low environmental performance of woodstoves today included health costs lead to decreased use of secondary heating overall the interdependence of heat generation technology and heat saving choice is significant the total optimal level of heat savings for private consumers decrease by 66 when all have the option to shift to the technology with lowest variable costs

power sector reform and co2 abatement costs in korea abstract the current korean administration is driving change in the power sector by gradually phasing out nuclear power plants expanding the use of renewable energy and imposing restrictions on the operation of coal power plants considering these changes the marginal abatement cost mac curve would provide crucial information to determine an appropriate greenhouse gas reduction target especially for 2030 this study derives the mac curves for the korean power sector in 2030 using a bottom up optimization model with three scenarios based on different carbon pricing schedules in addition the carbon price required to achieve the co2 emission targets in the korean power sector in 2030 are estimated the results show that a carbon price of 135 157 us tco2 would be required to achieve the 2030 emission target for the power sector by comparing the mac curves of three different scenarios we can reiterate the fact that early action regarding climate change mitigation is more effective and efficient than delayed action

the impact of group lending in northeast thailand abstract much of the literature on group lending focuses on its high repayment rates rather than its goal of promoting borrower welfare most studies that attempt to measure the impact of group lending neglect the issues of self selection and endogenous program placement thus leading to biased estimates of impact one reason for this neglect is the lack of data that would allow for identification of impact this paper surmounts these problems by using data from a quasi experiment conducted in northeast thailand in 1995 1996 program participants were identified in six control villages 1 year prior to receiving loans surveys were then conducted of these control members treatment members in eight older program villages and nonmembers in both types of village this survey design allows for straightforward estimation of impact the results indicate that program loans are having little impact although naive estimates of impact that fail to account for self selection and endogenous program placement significantly overestimate impact

advance notice and postdisplacement joblessness this article investigates whether prenotification decreases postdis placement joblessness reduced form estimates indicate that lengthy written notice is associated with small increases in the probability of avoiding nonemployment but with no decline in average durations significant reductions are found however for household heads women nonwhites and in local labor markets with high unemploy ment rates a new method is developed to control for the endogeneity of voluntarily provided advance notice this procedure suggests that previous research substantially overstates the degree to which preno tification reduces nonemployment and indicates that the actual de crease is between 2 and 5 working days

challenges and opportunities in el salvador s financial sector abstract the formal financial sector has expanded rapidly in postwar el salvador encouraged by premature financial liberalization and a remittance windfall exceeding commercial banks capacities to lend prudently the counterpart of this spurious financial deepening is a shallow financial market for smaller firms which reflects both difficult real conditions for small urban and agricultural enterprises and the unfortunate effects of the credit channeling model characterizing development banks and most nongovernment organization projects this model discourages the growth of small scale institutions that can fund themselves from local resources and limits the ability of small producers to accumulate financial savings

microfinance and poverty evidence using panel data from bangladesh micro finance supports mainly informal activities that often have low market demand it may be thus hypothesized that the aggregate poverty impact of micro finance in an economy with low economic growth is modest or nonexistent the observed borrower level poverty impact is then a result of income redistribution or short run income generation the author addresses these questions using household level panel data from bangladesh the findings confirm that micro finance benefits the poorest and has sustained impact in reducing poverty among program participants it also has positive spillover impact reducing poverty at the village level but the effect is more pronounced in reducing extreme rather than moderate poverty

impact assessment methodologies for microfinance theory experience and better practice abstract microfinance programs and institutions are increasingly important in development strategies but knowledge about their impacts is partial and contested this paper reviews the methodological options for the impact assessment ia of microfinance following a discussion of the varying objectives of ia it examines the choice of conceptual frameworks and presents three paradigms of impact assessment the scientific method the humanities tradition and participatory learning and action pla key issues and lessons in the practice of microfinance ias are then explored and it is argued that the central issue in ia design is how to combine different methodological approaches so that a fit is achieved between ia objectives program context and the constraints of ia costs human resources and timing the conclusion argues for a greater focus on internal impact monitoring by microfinance institutions

what are the key drivers of mac curves a partial equilibrium modelling approach for the uk marginal abatement cost mac curves are widely used for the assessment of costs related to co2 emissions reduction in environmental economics as well as domestic and international climate policy several meta analyses and model comparisons have previously been performed that aim to identify the causes for the wide range of mac curves most of these concentrate on general equilibrium models with a focus on aspects such as specific model type and technology learning while other important aspects remain almost unconsidered including the availability of abatement technologies and level of discount rates this paper addresses the influence of several key parameters on mac curves for the united kingdom and the year 2030 a technology rich energy system model uk markal is used to derive the mac curves the results of this study show that mac curves are robust even to extreme fossil fuel price changes while uncertainty around the choice of the discount rate the availability of key abatement technologies and the demand level were singled out as the most important influencing factors by using a different model type and studying a wider range of influencing factors this paper contributes to the debate on the sensitivity of mac curves

formal microlending and adverse or nonexistent selection a case study of shrimp farmers in bangladesh microcredit schemes have become a popular means of improving smallholders access to credit and making long term investment possible however it remains to be explored whether the current microcre

rotating savings and credit associations the choice between random and bidding allocation of funds abstract the performance and efficiency of random and bidding rotating savings and credit associations roscas are compared within a game theoretic model information about individuals return from investing the rosca pool is assumed to be asymmetric and imperfect and rosca members are allowed to use funds raised outside the rosca to supplement the funds raised in the rosca the conclusion is that although both types of roscas can improve individual welfare the bidding rosca is preferred to the random rosca except when credit from other sources is costly and types of rosca members are not widely dispersed

economic analysis of energy saving renovation measures for urban existing residential buildings in china based on thermal simulation and site investigation abstract energy saving renovations of existing residential buildings have proven to be very helpful in alleviating the pressure of energy shortages and co 2 emission but an economic analysis of the measures by using a life cycle cost lcc method is very important and necessary to determine whether to implement them or not based on thermal simulation and site investigation the paper uses one urban existing residential building in hangzhou city of china as the subject building and analyzes the economic benefits from the energy saving renovation measures through the lcc method the findings clearly show that the investigation of the factual electricity consumption of the subject building is very important to predict accurately the energy saving effects and financial benefits of the measures for the building because of the great discrepancy between in fact and in thermal simulation of the heating and cool loads and the too cheap electricity price may hamper the development of energy saving implementations in residential sector in china

mainstreaming microfinance social performance management or mission drift summary what scope is there for the pursuit of explicit development goals in the context of increasing integration of specialized microfinance and commercial banking sectors this question and the idea of mission drift is first analyzed using a model that distinguishes between institutions financial and social performance possibilities preferences and assessment systems the model is used to review findings from action research with an international sample of poverty oriented microfinance institutions that suggest some simple steps for improved social performance management it is then used to illustrate the relationship between social and financial performance more widely across the retail financial services sector and to offer pointers for more policy analysis at this level

job displacement relative wage changes and duration of unemployment using special cps data on displaced workers this article investigates the wage consequences of job displacement in a framework that emphasizes the effects of past job duration s and unemployment duration s on postdisplacement wages our model also attempts to take account of the simultaneity between unemployment duration and the postdisplacement wage it is found that duration strongly reduces subsequent earnings and that considerable overstatement of the loss in firm specific training investments is implied by conventional routes to measuring wage losses

environmental innovation and the cost of pollution abatement revisited it is widely assumed in the literature that environmental innovation reduces the marginal cost of pollution abatement in this paper we show that this is not necessarily the case and we provide some unexpected outcomes

modeling energy technology choices which investment analysis tools are appropriate abstract a variety of tools from modern investment theory appear to hold promise for unraveling observed energy technology investment behavior that often appears anomalous when analyzed using traditional investment analysis methods this paper reviews the assumptions and important insights of the investment theories most commonly suggested as candidates for explaining the apparent energy technology investment paradox the applicability of each theory is considered in the light of important aspects of energy technology investment problems such as sunk costs uncertainty and imperfect information the theories addressed include the capital asset pricing model the arbitrage pricing theory and the theory of irreversible investment enhanced net present value methods are also considered the relevance of the capital asset pricing model and the arbitrage pricing theory given the special characteristics of energy technology investment decisions appears limited to the value of the theories conceptual insights in contrast the theory of irreversible investment and enhanced net present value are found to provide more useful modeling and analysis methods each capable of providing important insights into the energy technology investment paradox

decomposition analysis of the variations in residential electricity consumption in brazil for the 1980 2007 period measuring the activity intensity and structure effects abstract introduced at the end of the 1970s to study the impacts of structural changes on electricity consumption by industry index decomposition analysis techniques have been extended to various other areas to help in the formulation of energy policies notably in developed countries however few authors have applied these techniques to study the evolution of energy consumption in developing countries in brazil the few available studies have focused only on the industrial sector in this article we apply the decomposition technique called the logarithmic mean divisia index lmdi to electricity consumption of the brazilian residential sector to explain its evolution in terms of the activity structure and intensity affects over the period from 1980 to 2007 the technique is sufficiently robust and flexible to perform this analysis by disaggregating residential consumers by consumption classes and regions of the country among the main results is measurement of the impact of government programs for income transfer and universal service on variations in residential consumption typical of developing countries

the hotspots reference routes and research trends of marginal abatement costs a systematic review abstract as one of the most effective means of evaluating environmental policies marginal abatement costs macs have been adopted in a growing body of research this study characterizes the mac related literature from 1993 to 2018 on web of science based on a systematic review bibliometric analysis and mind mapping the results classify the research hotspots into influential factors methods and empirical applications the three most frequently mentioned influential factors are technical change discount rates and energy prices compared with top down models bottom up models including engineering model and expert based method are the most widely used improvements in the former focus on strengthening market behavior effect while those in the latter aim to overcome the weaknesses of negative costs and lack of interaction across measures mac applications focus on environmental policies with two new research areas recently emerging co benefits and sectoral abatement costs furthermore a reference route is proposed by summarizing the applicability of methods and matching relationships among influential factors methods and empirical problems finally potential research directions are summarized based on the identified research hotspots and a similar co word analysis in marginal cost field such as considering the effects of both multiple influential factors and the interaction among factors on maccs

co2 emissions from household consumption in india between 1993 94 and 2006 07 a decomposition analysis abstract co 2 emission from anthropogenic activities is one of the major causes of global warming india being an agriculture dependent country global warming would mean monsoon instability and consequent food scarcity natural disasters and economic concerns however with proper policy interventions co 2 emissions can be controlled input output analysis has been used to estimate direct and indirect co 2 emissions by households for 1993 94 1998 99 2003 04 and 2006 07 complete decomposition analysis of the changes in co 2 emissions between 1993 94 and 2006 07 has been done to identify the causes into pollution energy intensity structure activity and population effects according to broad household consumption categories results indicate that activity structure and population effects are the main causes of increase in co 2 emission from household fuel consumption to identify the causes at the sectoral level a second decomposition has been done for changes between 2003 04 and 2006 07 to identify the causes in the next stage finally alternative energy policy options have been examined for each consumption category to reduce emissions combined strategies of technology upgradation fuel switching and market management in order to reduce co 2 emissions for sectors like batteries other non electrical machinery construction and electronic equipments including television for which all the effects are positive need to be adopted

addressing food security in africa via multiple livelihood strategies of women farmers abstract because food insecurity is primarily a problem of low household incomes and poverty and not just inadequate food production projects and programs for food insecure african farmers which aim at increasing production of subsistence crops may be ineffective instead government should look for ways to improve returns to farmers resources in a broader context which may include expanded opportunities for non farm microenterprises and agricultural labor this has been the conventional wisdom since the writings of amartya sen still unclear however are the implications of his thinking for the roles of african women farmers who are traditionally the food crop producers in africa and are often food insecure immediate expansion of income earning activities such as cash cropping and non farm microenterprises may not be possible for women in male headed households in many african societies where cash income is seen as part of the male domain in addition women farmers may need a long adjustment period to diversify their income sources fully because most african countries are at the early stages of structural transformation different developmental interventions both in policy and in technology are therefore needed to address food security and economic transformations in africa in the short and long term

grassroots based rural development strategies ecuador in comparative perspective abstract international donors are providing increasing amounts of assistance to grassroots based economic initiatives in latin america and elsewhere the question is can such initiatives prosper and generate widespread improvements in living standards in the context of the prevailing neoliberal economic policy agenda the paper responds to this question from comparative latin american and east asian perspectives by analyzing how economic diversification and improved living standards were achieved in two rural parishes in highland ecuador we find that in both cases access to landownership and other assets was a critical factor in permitting small scale producers to participate in market exchange in a manner that allowed them to improve their living standards hence to the extent that neoliberal policies freeze into place the highly inequitable overall structure of asset and income distribution in ecuador and elsewhere such policies inhibit the widespread replication of the two successful cases

the economic impact of energy saving retrofits of residential and public buildings in croatia abstract the purpose of this paper is to estimunate the impact of energy saving investment in residential and public buildings in croatia for the period 2015 2020 the aim is to assess the overall socio economic impact of energy saving renovation measures defined in croatian strategic documents in terms of the direct indirect and induced growth of gross value added employment and government revenues an estimate of the avoided costs of air pollution is also included the overall economic impact assessment is based on an input output methodology from the point of view of individual investors the benefits in terms of reduced future expenses related to energy products are usually below energy efficient renovation investment costs making an investment financially viable only if government support is provided if the benefits for society as a whole are included energy efficient renovation could be assessed as viable even in the short run energy saving retrofits of residential and public buildings positively contribute to economic growth employment and protection of the environment because of economic growth the tax revenues induced by these investments could compensate for government expenditures and the overall impact on the public deficit is expected to be neutral even in the short run

does technological innovation really reduce marginal abatement costs some theory algebraic evidence and policy implications the existing literature models innovation in pollution control as a reduction in marginal abatement costs we show that this assumption is inappropriate for production process innovations such as fuel switching algebraically we examine the effects of different innovation types on marginal abatement cost curves showing that some desirable innovations increase marginal abatement costs empirically we estimate marginal abatement costs for sulfur dioxide by measuring the output distance function for electric power in korea regression results confirm that production process innovations did raise marginal abatement costs in this case one policy implication economic instruments do not always provide stronger innovation incentives than command and control policies

quantifying co2 abatement costs in the power sector co2 cap and trade mechanisms and co2 emission taxes are becoming increasingly widespread to assess the impact of a co2 price marginal abatement cost curves maccs are a commonly used tool by policy makers providing a direct graphical link between a co2 price and the expected abatement however such maccs can suffer from issues related to robustness and granularity this paper focuses on the relation between a co2 emission cost and co2 emission reductions in the power sector the authors present a new methodology that improves the understanding of the relation between a co2 cost and co2 abatement the methodology is based on the insight that co2 emissions in the power sector are driven by the composition of the conventional power portfolio the residual load and the generation costs of the conventional units the methodology addresses both the robustness issue and the granularity issue related to maccs the methodology is based on a bottom up approach starting from engineering knowledge of the power sector it offers policy makers a new tool to assess co2 abatement options the methodology is applied to the central western european power system and illustrates possible interaction effects between e g fuel switching and renewables deployment

explaining the energy efficiency gap expected utility theory versus cumulative prospect theory abstract energy efficiency is one of the key factors in mitigating the impact of climate change and preserving non renewable resources although environmental and economic justifications for energy efficiency investments are compelling there is a gap between the observable and some notion of optimized energy consumption the so called energy efficiency gap behavioral biases in individual decision making have been resonated by environmental research to explain this gap to analyze the influence of behavioral biases on decisions upon energy efficiency investments quantitatively we compare expected utility theory with cumulative prospect theory on basis of a real world example we illustrate how the extent of the gap is influenced by behavioral biases such as loss aversion probability weighting and framing our findings indicate that cumulative prospect theory offers possible explanations for many barriers discussed in literature for example the size of the gap rises with increased risk and investment costs because behavioral biases are systematic and pervasive our insights constitute a valuable quantitative basis for environmental policy measures such as customer focused and quantitatively backed public awareness campaigns financial incentives or energy savings insurances in this vein this paper may contribute to an accelerated adaption of energy efficiency measures by the broader public

economic potential of energy efficient retrofitting in the swiss residential building sector the effects of policy instruments and energy price expectations the aim of this paper is to analyse the profitability of energy efficient retrofit investments in the swiss residential building sector from the house owner s perspective different energy price expectations policy instruments such as subsidies income tax deduction and a carbon tax as well as potential future cost degression of energy efficiency measures were taken into account the discounted cash flow method was used for the investment analysis of different retrofit packages applied to a model building scheduled for renovation i e a single family house constructed between 1948 and 1975 the results show that present swiss policy instruments push investments for energy efficient retrofitting to profitability cost degression has a minor significance for investment profitability however the most relevant factor for the investment analysis is the expected energy price expecting a future fuel oil price at the level of 2005 efficiency investments are close to profitability even without policy support if higher energy prices were expected energy efficient retrofitting would be an attractive investment opportunity

comparing structural decomposition analysis and index to analyze and understand historical changes in economic environmental employment or other socio economic indicators it is useful to assess the driving forces or determinants that underlie these changes two techniques for decomposing indicator changes at the sector level are structural decomposition analysis sda and index decomposition analysis ida for example sda and ida have been used to analyze changes in indicators such as energy use co2 emissions labor demand and value added the changes in these variables are decomposed into determinants such as technological demand and structural effects sda uses information from input output tables while ida uses aggregate data at the sector level the two methods have developed quite independently which has resulted in each method being characterized by specific unique techniques and approaches this paper has three aims first the similarities and differences between the two approaches are summarized second the possibility of transferring specific techniques and indices is explored finally a numerical example is used to illustrate differences between the two approaches

technical change and the marginal cost of abatement abstract we address one aspect of the treatment of technical change in the environmental economics literature how technical change impacts the marginal cost of abatement we review a selection of papers that employ a variety of representations of technical change and show that these representations have quite different and sometimes surprising effects on the marginal costs of pollution reductions we argue that these varied representations in fact correspond to a variety of different technology options we then present results indicating that this representation matters the impacts of technical change on the marginal cost of abatement can crucially impact policy analysis

microenterprise credit programs deja vu abstract microenterprises in low income countries are the target of an increasing number of credit programs these efforts resemble earlier problematic attempts to assist operators of small farms with credit similarities discussed include target group definition assumptions policies and project justifications authors go on to list a dozen lessons from the experience with small farmer credit that might apply to microenterprise credit efforts authors then conclude that debt is not an effective tool for helping most poor people to enchance their economic conditions be they operators of small farms or microenterprises

why did china s energy intensity increase during 1998 2006 decomposition and policy analysis abstract despite the fact that china s energy intensity has continuously decreased during the 1980s and mostly 1990s the decreasing trend has reversed since 1998 and the past few years have witnessed rapid increase in china s energy intensity we firstly conduct an index decomposition analysis to identify the key forces behind the increase it is found that 1 the high energy demand in industrial sectors is mainly attributed to expansion of production scale especially in energy intensive industries 2 energy saving mainly comes from efficiency improvement with energy intensive sectors making the largest contribution and 3 a heavier industrial structure also contributes to the increase this study also makes the first attempt to bridge the quantitative decomposition analysis with qualitative policy analyses and fill the gap between decomposition results and policy relevance in previous work we argue that 1 energy efficiency improvement in energy intensive sectors is mainly due to the industrial policies that have been implemented in the past few years 2 low energy prices have directly contributed to high industrial energy consumption and indirectly to the heavy industrial structure we provide policy suggestions in the end

climate policies for road transport revisited ii closing the policy gap with cap and trade current policies in the road transport sector fail to deliver consistent and efficient incentives for greenhouse gas abatement see companion article by creutzig et al in press market based instruments such as cap and trade systems close this policy gap and complement traditional policies that are required where specific market failures arise even in presence of strong existing non market policies cap and trade delivers additional abatement and efficiency by incentivizing demand side abatement options this paper analyzes generic design options and economic impacts of including the european road transport sector into the eu ets suitable points of regulation are up and midstream in the fuel chain to ensure effectiveness cover all emissions and avoid double counting efficiency incentivize all abatement options and low transaction costs based on year 2020 marginal abatement cost curves from different models and current eu climate policy objectives we show that in contrast to conventional wisdom road transport inclusion would not change the eu ets allowance price hence industrial carbon leakage induced by adding road transport to the eu ets may be less important than previously estimated

marginal costs and co benefits of energy efficiency investments the case of the swiss residential sector abstract key elements of present investment decision making regarding energy efficiency of new buildings and the refurbishment of existing buildings are the marginal costs of energy efficiency measures and incomplete knowledge of investors and architects about pricing co benefits and new technologies this paper reports on a recently completed empirical study for the swiss residential sector it empirically quantifies the marginal costs of energy efficiency investments i e additional insulation improved window systems ventilation and heating systems and architectural concepts for the private sector first results on the economic valuation of co benefits such as improved comfort of living improved indoor air quality better protection against external noise etc may amount to the same order of magnitude as the energy related benefits are given the cost benefit analysis includes newly developed technologies that show large variations in prices due to pioneer market pricing add on of learning costs and risk components of the installers based on new empirical data on the present cost situation and past techno economic progress the potential of future cost reduction was estimated applying the experience curve concept the paper shows for the first time co benefits and cost dynamics of energy efficiency investments of which decision makers in the real estate sector politics and administrations are scarcely aware

evaluation of the impact of environmental public policy measures on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the french residential sector a cut in energy consumption by 2050 to reach 50 kwhpe m2 year and reduce ghg emissions by 75 are important objectives of environmental policy in france the residential sector represents a significant potential source of energy savings in this paper our main objective is to construct a simulation model and to evaluate the impact of environmental public policy measures we model energy consumption and ghg emissions the decision to invest in energy saving renovations and the dynamics of the housing stock particular attention is paid to household investment decisions regarding home renovation to generate the dynamics and the structure of the housing stock through 2050 we introduce socioeconomic variables that alter the number of renovations and new constructions this study has three major outputs first we estimate the energy consumption and ghg emissions of the residential sector in france through 2050 second we study the impact of environmental public policy measures lastly we propose different means to reach the objectives the results show that while current policies are effective they are not sufficient to reach the objectives

bank branch presence and access to credit in low to moderate income neighborhoods banks specialize in lending to informationally opaque borrowers by collecting soft information about them some researchers claim that this process requires a physical presence in the market to lower information collection costs the author provides evidence in support of this argument in the mortgage market for low income borrowers mortgage originations increase and interest spreads decline when there is a bank branch located in a low to moderate income neighborhood

collateral free lending with risk contingent credit for agricultural development indemnifying loans against pulse crop price risk in india this article addresses the problem of collateral free lending in the context of agricultural development we investigate a viable alternative to traditional credit products through the development of risk contingent credit for operating loans and farm mortgages and apply the concept to agricultural loans for pulse crops in india risk contingent credit mitigates business and financial risk by reducing debt obligations depending on the embedded commodity options whose payoffs are linked with commodity price fluctuations we analyze daily commodity spot prices for pulse crops in india and show how risk contingent structured financial instruments can be priced in practice

building energy efficiency a research branch made of paradoxes abstract the literature dealing with building energy efficiency has long since debated about the possible occurrence of the so called jevons paradox in a nutshell benefiting from energy savings due to transition to high performance buildings may the same savings cause a kind of rebound effect by acting as an incentive to increase consumptions on closer inspection this is not the only paradox affecting the research branch that focuses on the energy used by the buildings and the building industry a second paradox is that investments in energy efficient solutions may contribute to energy price control which in turn lends itself to make the same investments not profitable a third paradox lies in the need to adopt energy intensive materials in order to achieve substantial energy savings in operation hence sometimes we just substitute a certain amount of operating energy with a more or less commensurate amount of embodied energy here we argue that the joint consideration of the paradoxes mentioned above should not be neglected since it brings with itself several implications needing to be disentangled whether we aim to get further enhancements in this disciplinary field

an assessment of household electricity load curves and corresponding co2 marginal abatement cost curves for gujarat state india gujarat a large industrialized state in india consumed 67 twh of electricity in 2009 10 besides experiencing a 4 5 demand supply short fall residential sector accounted for 15 of the total electricity consumption we conducted load research survey across 21 cities and towns of the state to estimate residential electricity load curves share of appliances by type and usage patterns for all types of household appliances at utility geographic appliance income and end use levels the results indicate that a large scope exists for penetration of energy efficient devices in residential sector marginal abatement cost mac curves for electricity and co2 were generated to analyze relative attractiveness of energy efficient appliance options results indicate that up to 7 9 twh of electricity can be saved per year with 6 7 mt co2 emissions mitigation at negative or very low co2 prices of us 10 t co2 despite such options existing their penetration is not realized due to myriad barriers such as financial institutional or awareness and therefore cannot be taken as baseline options for co2 emission mitigation regimes

marginal abatement costs of co2 emission reductions geographical flexibility and concrete ceilings an assessment using the poles model abstract the kyoto protocol envisage the setting up of flexibility mechanisms allowing annex b countries to fulfil their commitments to reducing greenhouse gases with respect for the principle of economic efficiency the current negotiations relate in particular to the possibility of setting up a system of tradable emissions permits for annex b countries and also of introducing ceilings to trade this paper analyses the stakes and economic potential of adopting this instrument both for those countries that made commitments in kyoto and for developing countries it is based on a formal approach that allows for a consistent framework of analysis the emission permit market is in fact simulated on the basis of a reference scenario and of marginal abatement cost curves and estimated by the poles model after analysing these marginal abatement cost curves and comparing them with those produced by other models we explore two different configurations for a competitive market a market limited to the annex b countries and a world market the results produced by the model show that widening the market to include developing countries is more effective than the annex b market solution it reduces the cost of implementing kyoto for oecd countries and at the same time allows the countries of the south to benefit from selling the permits this research also shows that introducing restrictions on exchanges for annex b countries could have a counter productive redistribution effect with the ethical argument that underlies that particular measure

marginal abatement costs of greenhouse gas emissions a meta analysis in this paper we carry out a meta analysis of recent studies into the costs of greenhouse gas mitigation policies that aim at the long term stabilisation of these gases in the atmosphere we find the cost estimates of the studies to be sensitive to the stringency of the stabilisation target the assumed emissions baseline the way in which the time profile of emissions is determined in the model the choice of control variable co2 only versus multigas the number of regions and energy sources in the model and to a lesser degree the scientific forum in which the study was developed we find that marginal abatement costs of the stringent long term targets that are currently considered by the european commission are still very uncertain but might exceed the costs that have been suggested by recent policy assessments

modelling energy savings in the danish building sector combined with internalisation of health related externalities in a heat and power system optimisation model abstract a substantial untapped energy saving potential rests in the building sector and is expected to play an important role in achieving reduction of environmental impacts of energy in order to utilise this potential effective policy measures need to be adopted to remove the existing barriers and create incentives for that purpose the cost effective energy saving options together with an optimal level of savings and expected environmental benefits have to be identified the paper reports on a study that analyses these questions by including heat saving measures in buildings into an energy system optimisation model of the danish heat and power sector the achieved optimal level of heat savings reaches 11 of projected heat demand in 2025 under the model assumptions moreover the analysis reveals the importance of considering energy conservation options in a system wide perspective furthermore the results suggest that changes in the energy generation sector are the prime driver behind the reduction of environmental externalities of energy heat savings in buildings play only a small role under model assumptions

factors shaping aggregate energy intensity trend for industry energy intensity versus product mix understanding the mechanisms of change of energy consumption in industry has attracted much attention since the 1973 world oil crisis a popular line of research has been to decompose changes in the aggregate energy intensity of industry to give the relative impacts arising from energy intensity change and product mix change using a decomposition technique many empirical studies covering a large number of countries have been reported the main objective of this paper is to put together the empirical results reported in these studies in a coherent framework and identify possible systematic features of particular interest are the basic trends in this line of research the relative importance of energy intensity change and product mix change possible variations over time and between country groups in the energy impacts of these changes and inconsistencies in findings among studies an overview of the decomposition technique including its strengths weaknesses and role in industrial energy consumption studies is also presented

residential energy consumption in urban china a decomposition analysis abstract residential energy consumption rec is the second largest energy use category 10 in china and urban residents account for 63 of the rec understanding the underlying drivers of variations of urban rec thus helps to identify challenges and opportunities and provide advices for future policy measures this paper applies the lmdi method to a decomposition of china s urban rec during the period of 1998 2007 at disaggregated product activity level using data collected from a wide range of sources our results have shown an extensive structure change towards a more energy intensive household consumption structure as well as an intensive structure change towards high quality and cleaner energy such as electricity oil and natural gas which reflects a changing lifestyle and consumption mode in pursuit of a higher level of comfort convenience and environmental protection we have also found that china s price reforms in the energy sector have contributed to a reduction of rec while scale factors including increased urban population and income levels have played a key role in the rapid growth of rec we suggest that further deregulation in energy prices and regulatory as well as voluntary energy efficiency and conservation policies in the residential sector should be promoted

the problem of transaction costs in group based microlending an institutional perspective abstract to be financially viable group based microlending needs to economize on transaction costs for both lenders and borrowers group lending programs vary in their transaction cost characteristics depending on their specific credit delivery arrangements and social contexts this article illustrates these arguments by examining the challenges faced by various group lending programs worldwide it also examines how social capital or the lack of it affects the transaction costs and operations of three typical group lending arrangements group loan with joint liability individual loan with joint liability and individual loan with individual liability

model projections for household energy use in india energy use in developing countries is heterogeneous across households present day global energy models are mostly too aggregate to account for this heterogeneity here a bottom up model for residential energy use that starts from key dynamic concepts on energy use in developing countries is presented and applied to india energy use and fuel choice is determined for five end use functions cooking water heating space heating lighting and appliances and for five different income quintiles in rural and urban areas the paper specifically explores the consequences of different assumptions for income distribution and rural electrification on residential sector energy use and co2 emissions finding that results are clearly sensitive to variations in these parameters as a result of population and economic growth total indian residential energy use is expected to increase by around 65 75 in 2050 compared to 2005 but residential carbon emissions may increase by up to 9 10 times the 2005 level while a more equal income distribution and rural electrification enhance the transition to commercial fuels and reduce poverty there is a trade off in terms of higher co2 emissions via increased electricity use

value for money in energy efficiency retrofits in ireland grant provider and grant recipients abstractthe sustainable energy authority of ireland seai administers the better energy homes scheme to provide a financial incentive for home owners to engage in energy efficiency retrofits this study analyses data from the scheme and building energy rating data for participants to the scheme to examine the value for money achieved by households in addition this research identifies which retrofit combinations provide greatest value for money in terms of energy efficiency gains for the grant provider we utilize an error in variables approach to model the variation in benefits accruing to households of varying characteristics we find that household and grant provider surplus can be maximized in the short term by retrofitting less energy efficient and larger homes timber or steel frame homes and houses rather and apartments the types of retrofits leading to the greatest surplus for both household and grant provider include cavity wall insulation paired with either a boiler with heating controls or

the relationship between credit and productivity in chinese agriculture a microeconomic model of disequilibrium credit is an important element in agricultural production systems it allows producers to satisfy the cash needs induced by the production cycle which characterizes agriculture preparation planting cultivation and harvesting of the crops are typically done over a period of several months in which very little cash revenue is earned while expenditures on materials purchased inputs and consumption must be made in cash cash income is received a short time after the harvest in the absence of credit markets farmers would have to maintain cash reserves so as to facilitate production and consumption in the next cycle the availability of credit allows both greater consumption and greater purchased input use and thus increases welfare of the farmers

impact of large scale energy efficiency programs on utility finances and consumer tariffs in india abstract the objective of this paper is to analyze the effect on utility finances and consumer tariffs of implementing utility funded demand side energy efficiency ee programs in india we use the state of delhi as a case study we estimate that by 2015 the electric utilities in delhi can potentially save nearly 14 of total sales we examine the impacts on utility finances and consumer tariffs by developing scenarios that account for variations in the following factors a incentive mechanisms for mitigating the financial risk of utilities b whether utilities fund the ee programs only partially c whether utilities sell the conserved electricity into spot markets and d the level of power shortages utilities are facing we find that average consumer tariff would increase by 2 2 although consumers participating in ee programs benefit from reduction in their electricity consumption while utility incentive mechanisms can mitigate utilities risk of losing long run returns they cannot address the risk of consistently negative cash flow in case of power shortages the cash flow risk is amplified reaching up to 57 of utilities annual returns and is very sensitive to marginal tariffs of consumers facing power shortages we conclude by proposing solutions to mitigate utility risks

achieving affordable housing through energy efficiency strategy abstract cooperation between public and private sector has achieved a remarkable widespread in the italian context over the last two decades nevertheless the increasing difficulty in accessing the capital market and the rising cost of funding sources both noticeable over the past few years led to a slowdown of public private partnership ppp initiatives meanwhile the community is expressing new needs to be satisfied such as the conversion of brownfields the recovery of housing stock dating back to former times as well as the refurbishment of public offices or schools emerging priorities include the supply of affordable dwellings for low to medium income households this essay aims to examine a case study in which ppp and buildings energy efficiency have been successfully combined in order to jointly contribute to the achievement of a social housing settlement thanks to energy efficiency measures concerning building envelope insulation heating system and other installations the agreed rent results far higher than social rent of protected tenancies and furthermore above the range of fair rents characterising other regulated tenancies but mildly lower than market rents all this allows to achieve an equity yield rate satisfying from the perspective of a venture philanthropy investment

choosing a monetary value of greenhouse gases in assessment tools a comprehensive review there is a societal need for using monetary estimates of social impacts of co2 and other greenhouse gases in different assessment tools such as cost benefit analysis and life cycle assessment a number of estimates are available in the literature since these differ by several orders of magnitude there is ambiguity and confusion about which to use this review aims to give some guidance on this issue the variation in carbon value estimates depends on several uncertain aspects which will remain uncertain including climate sensitivity assumptions about future emissions and decision makers ethical standpoints hence there is no single correct monetary value for co2 it will depend on the ethical standpoint of the user due to this estimates of social costs of co2 emissions cannot be used for calculating an optimal emission level although they can inform such assessments it is suggested that marginal abatement cost values are used for emissions capped by binding targets in short term assessments and that social cost of carbon values should be used for all other emissions benchmark principles for choosing a monetary carbon value are suggested along with associated estimates depending on the choices made with regard to ethical standpoints and assumptions about future emissions and climate sensitivity estimates can be significantly higher than the ones typically used in assessment tools today the estimates need continuous updating and there is need for better understanding and communication around the limitations and uncertainties involved

advance notice and unemployment new evidence from the 1988 displaced worker survey this paper examines how advance notice of layoff affects the incidence and duration of unemployment following displacement the authors use the displaced worker survey for 1988 which unlike earlier surveys in the series contains information on written notice the results are mixed longer written notice may more than double the proportion of white collar workers who move directly to new employment but written notice has no such positive effects for blue collar workers regardless of its length informal unwritten notice benefits male workers either by improving their chances of avoiding unemployment white collar men or by reducing the average spell of unemployment blue collar men

marginal abatement cost curves for policy recommendation a method for energy system analysis abstract the transport sector is seen as one of the key factors for driving future energy consumption and greenhouse gas ghg emissions in order to rank possible measures marginal abatement cost curves have become a tool to graphically represent the relationship between abatement costs and emission reduction this paper demonstrates how to derive marginal abatement cost curves for well to wheel ghg emissions of the transport sector considering the full energy provision chain and the interlinkages and interdependencies within the energy system presented marginal abatement cost curves visualize substitution effects between measures for different marginal mitigation costs the analysis makes use of an application of the energy system model generator times for south africa times geeco for the example of gauteng province this study exemplary shows that the transport sector is not the first sector to address for cost efficient reduction of ghg emissions however the analysis also demonstrates that several options are available to mitigate transport related ghg emissions at comparable low marginal abatement costs this methodology can be transferred to other economic sectors as well as to other regions in the world to derive cost efficient ghg reduction strategies

credit and risk in rural developing economies abstract this paper examines the theory of credit as a means of raising the productivity and living standards of producer households who face significant uncertainty a dynamic model with uncertainty is developed in which households choose how much to invest in a yield enhancing technology how much to consume and how much to save i find that while credit has important short and medium run benefits for productivity consumption and lifetime utility these benefits are not sustained in the long run indeed under reasonable parameter settings mean consumption will fall in contrast the paper shows that risk mitigation has sustained benefits for productivity lifetime utility and equality

perspectives on implementing energy efficiency in existing swedish detached houses in this study we first analyse energy efficiency measures in existing electrically heated houses in sweden from a societal economic perspective measures to a house envelopes and to energy supply chains are evaluated through a system analysis approach and we include the external costs of climate change and the effect of different swedish climatic zones we find that in a typical house from the 1970s conversion from electric heating is highly motivated since the mitigation cost of conversion is lower than the estimated external costs of emitted co2 both conversions and house envelope measures are more motivated in the northern part of the country where there is a higher heat demand a successful implementation of changes requires them to be attractive for consumers to adopt we therefore secondly analyse the economic conditions for swedish house owners to implement societal economic cost efficient measures we include the economic influence of an investment subsidy for heating system conversion an income tax deduction for changing windows customer electricity tax real estate tax and of the cost of purchased energy from different energy suppliers apart from the economics several other factors affect a house owner s decision to change heating systems we therefore thirdly analyse house owners perceptions of different heating supply alternatives based on the results of two comprehensive questionnaires these different perspectives are combined in a discussion whether the studied policy instruments encourage house owners to implement changes in accordance with the energy efficiency goals of decision makers we find that the investment subsidy could be useful to break the lock in effect of resistance heaters which house owners seemed to experience the electricity tax makes heating systems in line with national goals more competitive and efficiency measures to the house envelope more profitable the reduction of the electricity tax in the northern part of the country has the opposite effect also the increase in real estate tax when implementing energy efficiency measures gives a contradictory message the price differences between energy suppliers has a larger impact on the house owners economic conditions than both subsidies and tax rate changes and possibly also affect the house owner s attitudes towards various systems

job changing after displacement a contribution to the advance notice debate considerable research effort has been devoted to modeling the effects of advance notice on postdisplacement outcomes within the framework set by the biennial displaced worker surveys yet the mechanisms through which advance notice achieves the benefits attributed to it have been little explored in the literature the standard argument that notice facilitates job finding by bringing forward search is of course consistent with the empirical conclusion from first generation studies that broadly defined notice reduced postdisplacement joblessness but had no discernible impact on postdisplacement wages but as an explanation it fails to address the empirical suggestion of time varying effects 1 8 while glossing over the sensitivity of the unemployment result to sample construction and model specification the picture has become more clouded with the publication of results from second generation studies using more recent data that are virtually the reverse of those first reported that is to say analyses of the 1988 and 1990 displaced worker surveys report that that extended intervals of notice appear at best to be associated with minor reductions in joblessness but to lead to substantive earnings improvement 5 7 10 11 12 there is then a pressing need to inquire into mechanisms the present paper is offered as a contribution to this line of investigation focusing as it does on job changing in the aftermath of the displacement event we investigate the correlates of job changing in the wake of displacement and the relationship between number of postdisplacement jobs and end of survey earnings advance notice being a determinant of both turnover and earnings to anticipate our results we find evidence to suggest that formally notified workers though they do not experience lower unemployment than their non notified counterparts or have better overall reemployment prospects do appear to make better job matches and thereby enjoy higher

innovation in pollution control comparisons of the various institutional arrangements for controlling pollutant emissions from individual sources effluent fees effluent control subsidies marketable permits and direct command and control regulation have usually focused on their static efficiency properties and institutional feasibility e g dales 1968 zerbe 1970 baumol and oates 1975 kneese and schultze 1975 marin 1978 mills and white 1978 spence and weitzman 1978 russell 1979 a relatively neglected area has been the study of how each arrangement influences innovation in pollution control a few studies e g kneese and schultze 1975 marin 1978 mills and white 1978 russell 1979 have casually claimed that the control methods that rely on economic incentives provide superior incentives for innovation but there have been few systematic studies of the question this paper provides a simple model of pollution control innovation by a profitmaximizing polluter who is subject to the various control methods the consequences of the methods will be explored in three major contexts first we assume that the polluter and the innovation is a small enough part of the overall pollution problem so that none of the important marginal conditions are changed by the innovation second we assume that the polluter and the innovation are important enough so that marginal conditions are changed by the innovations but that the governmental authority determining pollution control incentives or levels fails to make the appropriate adjustments third we again assume that the innovation causes marginal conditions to change but in this case the governmental authority makes the appropriate adjustments we use the term ratcheting to describe this last phenomenon in all cases we assume that the innovating polluter correctly predicts the reactions of the governmental authority and bases his innovation decisions on that prediction a profit maximizing entrepreneur would normally be expected to adopt any innovation that promised gains present discounted value to him in excess of initial

managing credit for the rural poor lessons from the grameen bank abstract this paper based on a detailed study of the grameen bank in bangladesh suggests that the credit policies of the bank do not constitute a sufficient explanation for the bank s success and that its acclaimed policy of replacing individual collateral with group guarantee is in fact not practiced the paper presents an alternate explanation for the success of the grameen bank in addition it explains how the grameen bank has been able to overcome typical problems of implementing development programs by sustaining good performance from its large work force and keeping to a minimum the tendency of a few target beneficiaries to corner program benefits and flout organizational norms for their personal benefit

the applicability of marginal abatement cost approach a comprehensive review abstract the marginal abatement cost mac methodology is widely used in climate change policies policy makers rely on mac to assess feasible strategies and related costs to achieve emission reduction goals this paper introduces a variety of mac methodologies aiming at solving diverse problems which utilizes various calculable logic thus producing different results and implications this study applies a mind mapping method to capture differentiation of mac methods and systematically classify mac methodologies the applicability path analysis was proposed based on principles such as stakeholder type decision making objectives cost concept strategy mode and information scope our goal is to assess the applicability of different methodologies to reduce misuse by policy makers and to serve as a guide for subsequent research which might prompt and lead to the derivation of more consequential results in future studies the results of this study suggest that the complex method is not always better than the simplified method because policy makers are required to select the appropriate method according to the type of information needed it may even be suggested that mac could be reliable by ranking relative value of options compared with baseline rather than focusing on the absolute value of individual measures

innovation in rural finance indonesia s badan kredit kecamatan program abstract donor agencies and governments are committing increasing resources to microenterprise credit programs much as they earlier funded rural credit yet few programs embody the lessons from this earlier experience central java s badan kredit kecamatan program shows considerable promise in providing the access convenience and flexibility desired by poor borrowers while assuring the financial viability of the credit institution by minimizing administrative costs and imposing interest rates sufficient to cover costs and prevent capital erosion recent progress has also been made in mobilizing voluntary savings strong political support from the government has been crucial to the program s success

fiscal and tax policy support for energy efficiency retrofit for existing residential buildings in china s northern heating region energy efficiency retrofit for existing residential buildings eererb in china s northern heating region is an important component of the national energy strategy the main content and related subject in eererb performance is the basis of understanding and developing targeted policies so this paper designed the content system of eererb and then provided a cost benefit analysis on related subjects assessed the government s function in eererb and come to the conclusion that the chinese government should increase fiscal fund investment and implement more fiscal and tax incentive policies moreover in view of china s current policy which lacks long term mechanism and flexibility this paper proposed specific policy recommendations including clarifying the government s corresponding responsibilities at all levels and increasing the intensity of the central government s transfer payments it further proposed targeted financial and tax policies for supporting and encouraging heating enterprises and owners as well as policies to cultivate energy saving service markets and to support the esco

the impact of advance notice a comment on a study by nord and ting in their analysis of the effects of advance notification of plant closings nord and ting ilr review july 1991 claim that much can be expected of current legislation that mandates a 60 day prenotification standard because the outcomes of voluntary arrangements in an interval preceding implementation of the legislation point to substantial reductions in both joblessness and earnings losses for workers given over two months warning of their impending layoff they also suggest that many of the disparate results reported in the earlier plant closing literature reflect the inability to distinguish between formal and informal notice on the basis of the 1984 and 1986 displaced worker surveys

the impact of microfinance in sub saharan africa a systematic review of the evidence microfinance is seen as a key development tool and despite the current deepening crisis within the industry it continues to grow in sub saharan africa we systematically reviewed the evidence of the impacts of micro credit and micro savings on poor people in sub saharan africa we considered impacts on income savings expenditure and the accumulation of assets as well as non financial outcomes including health nutrition food security education child labor women s empowerment housing job creation and social cohesion the available evidence shows that microfinance does harm as well as good to the livelihoods of the poor

building sustainable hybrid organizations the case of commercial microfinance organizations we explore how new types of hybrid organizations organizations that combine institutional logics in unprecedented ways can develop and maintain their hybrid nature in the absence of a ready to w

informal credit markets and economic development in taiwan abstract taiwan is a case which shows how informal credit markets help to compensate for the limitations of the formal financial system especially in satisfying the needs of medium and small enterprises government regulations and policies affect the way participants in informal credit markets solve selection enforcement and incentive problems recent changes demonstrate the continued resilience and relevance of informal credit markets during a process of financial liberalization

microfinance in africa is it either the problem or the solution abstract this article is based on research undertaken on microenterprises in the informal sector in kenya malawi and ghana it seeks to provoke critical reflection on the uncritical enthusiasm that lies behind much proselytizing of microfinance for informal sector microenterprise it questions whether the extensive donor interest in microenterprise finance really addresses the problems of microentrepreneurs or whether it offers the illusion of a quick fix it suggests that the real problems are more profound and cannot be tackled solely by capital injections but require fundamental structural changes of the socioeconomic conditions that define informal sector activity and a fuller understanding of the psyche of informal sector entrepreneurs

the energy efficiency gap what does it mean abstract as renewed attention has been given by policy makers to energy conservation issues it has frequently been asserted that an energy efficiency gap exists between actual and optimal energy use the critical questions is how to define the optimal level of energy efficiency this paper seeks to disentangle some confusing strands of argument that are frequently brought to bear on this question by identifying the major conceptual issues that determine the set of feasible answers we identify five separate and distinct notions of optimality the economists economic potential the technologists economic potential hypothetical potential the narrow social optimum and the true social optimum each of these has associated with it a corresponding definition of the energy efficiency gap our analysis demonstrates that necessary preconditions for identifying the right measure of the energy efficiency gap include understanding and disentangling market failure and non market failure explanations for the gradual diffusion of energy efficient technologies

rethinking the effects of microcredit on household welfare in cambodia abstractthis article analyses the effects of microcredit on household welfare in terms of household expenditure per capita in cambodia with data from the cambodia socio economic survey carried out in 2014 the analysis describes the effects via formal and informal lending sectors accounting for endogenous selection bias arising from unobserved factors and for structural differences between borrowers and non borrowers in terms of expenditure functions the findings suggest that microcredit in both sectors reduces household expenditure

modelling decisions on energy efficient renovations a review the buildings sector accounts for more than 30 of global greenhouse gas emissions despite the well known economic viability of many energy efficient renovation measures which offer great potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and meeting climate protection targets there is a relatively low level of implementation we performed a citation network analysis in order to identify papers at the research front and intellectual base on energy efficient renovation in four areas technical options understanding decisions incentive instruments and models and simulation the literature was reviewed in order to understand what is needed to sufficiently increase the number of domestic energy efficient renovations and to identify potential research gaps our findings show that the literature on energy efficient renovation gained considerable momentum in the last decade but lacks a deep understanding of the uncertainties surrounding economic aspects and non economic factors driving renovation decisions of homeowners the analysis indicates that the socio economic energy saving potential and profitability of energy efficient renovation measures is lower than generally expected it is suggested that this can be accounted for by the failure to understand and consider the underpinning influences of energy consuming behaviour in calculations homeowners decisions to renovate are shaped by an alliance of economic and non economic goals therefore existing incentives typically targeting the economic viability of measures have brought little success a deeper understanding of the decisions of homeowners is needed and we suggest that a simulation model which maps the decision making processes of homeowners may result in refining existing instruments or developing new innovative mechanisms to tackle the situation

small firms and their helpers lessons on demand abstract small enterprise se programs are currently the rage because of their potential to create employment they are typically supply driven providing standardized training technical assistance credit but most cases of se based growth have involved demand driven support provided by large customers firms traders government agencies state enterprises this article argues that such inherently customized support constitutes a better way to deliver services to ses and is more likely to stimulate sustained se growth with respect to se favoring procurement by government in particular we show that this can be done without running up against the problems of similar attempts in the past and in a way that also reduces the costs of running government we draw for illustration from a successful case of se favoring procurement in the brazilian state of ceara

structural decomposition analysis of physical flows in the economy many environmental problems can be attributedto the extraction and emissions of physicalsubstances increasing our understanding of theeconomic and technological driving forcesbehind these physical flows can contribute tosolving the environmental problems related tothem the input output framework is a usefulsetting in which to integrate detailedinformation about economic structure andphysical flows in this article a specificmethod in input output analysis is reviewed namely structural decomposition analysis sda it is based on comparative static analysis which decomposes historical changes of a policyvariable into determinant effects sda has beenapplied for example to analyze the demand andtechnological driving forces of energy use co2 emissions and various other pollutantsand resources this article examines thetheoretical aspects of structuraldecomposition in particular those concerningphysical flows and environmental issues furthermore the article includes an extensivesurvey of empirical studies

energy efficiency in india assessing the policy regimes and their impacts in the recent years india has emerged as one of the fast growing economies of the world necessitating equally rapid increase in modern energy consumption with an imminent global climate change threat india will have difficulties in continuing with this rising energy use levels towards achieving high economic growth it will have to follow an energy efficient pathway in attaining this goal in this context an attempt is made to present india s achievements on the energy efficiency front by tracing the evolution of policies and their impacts the results indicate that india has made substantial progress in improving energy efficiency which is evident from the reductions achieved in energy intensities of gdp to the tune of 88 during 1980 2007 similar reductions have been observed both with respect to overall indian economy and the major sectors of the economy in terms of energy intensity of gdp india occupies a relatively high position of nine among the top 30 energy consuming countries of the world c 2009 elsevier ltd all rights reserved