corruption and the shadow economy one way or two way street this paper attempts to bring some resolution to the relation between corruption and the shadow economy while previous research focuses on the static relationship between the two we account for dynamics using a panel vector autoregression model and consider influences from the official economy and institutional quality using cross national panel data for 108 countries over the period 1984 2006 results show a bidirectional relationship with initial complementarity and substitution over time thus the nature of the two way street is shown to change over time and our consideration of dynamics reveals the complementarity substitution switch

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

scarce or abundant the economics of natural resource availability most natural resources that are used in production are non renewable when they become depleted they are lost for future use does it follow that the limited availability of natural resources will at some time in the future constrain economic growth as many environmentalists believe while classical economists have shared the belief in limits to growth the distinctive feature of modern neoclassical economics is its optimism about the availability of natural resources this survey suggests that resource optimism can be summarised in four propositions first a rise in the price of a resource leads to a substitution of this resource with another more abundant resource and to a substitution of products that are intensive in this resource second a rise in the price of a resource leads to increased recycling of the resource and to the exploration and extraction of lower quality ores third man made capital can substitute for natural resources fourth technical progress increases the efficiency of resource use and makes extraction of lower quality ores economical in a critical analysis of these four propositions it is shown that while the conjecture that natural resources will never constrain future economic growth is logically conceivable we do not and indeed cannot know whether it will be possible in practice to overcome any resource constraint jel classification q20 q30 q40

when do firms generate evidence on in house electricity supply in africa this paper attempts to identify the underlying causes and costs of own generation of electric power in africa rigorous empirical analysis of 8483 currently operating firms in 25 african countries shows that the prevalence of own generation would remain high at around 20 even if power supplies were perfectly reliable suggesting that other factors such as firms size emergency back up and export regulations play a critical role in the decision to own a generator the costs of own generation are about three times as high as the price of purchasing subsidized electricity from the public grid however because these generators only operate a small fraction of the time they do not greatly affect the overall average cost of power to industry the benefits of generator ownership are also substantial firms with their own generators report a value of lost load of less than us 50 per hour compared with more than us 150 per hour for those without nevertheless when costs and benefits are considered side by side the balance is not found to be significantly positive

dodging the grabbing hand the determinants of unofficial activity in 69 countries across 69 countries higher tax rates are associated with less unofficial activity as a percent of gdp but corruption is associated with more unofficial activity entrepreneurs go underground not to avoid official taxes but to reduce the burden of bureaucracy and corruption dodging the grabbing hand in this way reduces tax revenues as a percent of both official and total gdp as a result corrupt governments become small governments and only relatively uncorrupt governments can sustain high tax rates 2000 elsevier science s a all rights reserved

inequality and informality abstract this paper presents theory and evidence on the determinants of the size of the informal sector we propose a simple theoretical model in which it is positively related to income inequality more so under weak institutions and is negatively related to the economy s wealth these predictions are then empirically validated using different proxies of the size of the informal sector income inequality and institutional quality the results are shown to be robust with respect to a variety of econometric specifications we also find that government interventions through regulations lose much of its robustness in the presence of the above factors

the informal sector in developed and less developed countries a literature survey the main goal of this study is two fold 1 to provide ageneral overview of the contributions to the literature on theinformal sector with a special focus on the public choiceapproach and 2 to compare these contributions across twoinstitutionally different types of countries developed andless developed developing and transition countries thepaper focuses on the criteria used to define the informalsector the relationship between the formal and informaleconomy tax evasion and public choice analysis it isstressed throughout this paper that the distinction betweenthe two types of countries is of key importance

wages competition and the surplus of labour a classical contribution to explaining profit this paper proposes a reconstruction of one of torrens little known pieces of work on the making and the distribution of income among the social classes the framework assumes a single good economy with fixed production coefficients it differs from the contemporary ricardian theory i e sraffa s in three ways i the real wage is depicted as the economic outcome of competition in the labour market ii the allocation of the net product between wages and profits is determined with no obligation to fix exogenous variables of distribution and iii the model suggests an innovative concept of surplus labour to define profit apart from the labour theory of value finally torrens approach lays the foundations of an original conception of profit explained by a specific transaction of capitalism economy

why do firms hide bribes and unofficial activity after communism abstract our survey of private manufacturing firms finds the size of hidden unofficial activity to be much larger in russia and ukraine than in poland slovakia and romania a comparison of cross country averages shows that managers in russia and ukraine face higher effective tax rates worse bureaucratic corruption greater incidence of mafia protection and have less faith in the court system our firm level regressions for the three eastern european countries find that bureaucratic corruption is significantly associated with hiding output

ricardo torrens and sraffa a summing up this paper discusses the existence of a corn ratio theory of profits in robert torrens s works the ricardian origin of which is avowed by torrens himself this constitutes significant evidence in favor of piero sraffa s reading of ricardo s early theory of profits samuel hollander s 1995 rebuttal of this evidence is also discussed and found to be based on a seriously flawed reading of the relevant texts c 1996 academic press limited copyright 1996 by oxford university press

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

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

is globalization reducing poverty and inequality abstract over the past 20 years or so india china and the rest of east asia experienced fast economic growth and falls in the poverty rate latin america stagnated the former soviet union central and eastern europe and sub saharan africa regressed but what are the net trends the neoliberal argument says that world poverty and income inequality fell over the past two decades for the first time in more than a century and a half thanks to the rising density of economic integration across national borders the evidence therefore confirms that globalization in the context of the world economic regime in place since the end of bretton woods generates more mutual benefit than conflicting interests this paper questions the empirical basis of the neoliberal argument

poverty and the shadow economy the role of governmental institutions this paper examines the impact of poverty on the size of the shadow economy using cross country panel data for over 100 countries for the period 1991 2015 the results show that poverty has a positive and significant effect on the size of the shadow economy furthermore we argue that the quality and size of governmental institutions matter in moderating the impact of poverty on the shadow economy considering the interactions between poverty and government quality and size we find that poverty has the largest effect on the size of the shadow economy when government quality is the lowest and the size of the government is the largest these results withstand a battery of robustness checks

oil scarcity what have the past three decades revealed oil shortages have been predicted over the past 30 years in fact oil is more plentiful now in an economic sense than in 1973 the reason for such misconceptions lies mainly in reliance on analytical techniques that do not comprehend oil as an economic commodity

further evidence for sraffa s interpretation of ricardo samuel hollander 1973 1975 1979 has attracted much attention by disputing piero sraffa s famous corn model interpretation of ricardo s 1815 essay on profits john eatwell 1975 and more recently pierangelo garegnani 1982 in this journal have come to sraffa s defence at issue is sraffa s suggestion contained in the introduction to the first volume of his edition of ricardo s works that the rational foundation of ricardo s dictum that the profits of the farmer regulate the profits of all other trades is the assumption that the inputs and outputs of agricultural production are roughly homogenous and that the rate of profit in agriculture may therefore be conceived as a ratio of physical quantities independent of valuation sraffa 1951 p xxxi eatwell and garegnani base their defences of this proposition upon exegeses of the relevant text and correspondence in this short paper i will show that further evidence in support of sraffa s view may be found in a now little known article written by robert torrens which appeared in the edinburgh review of october 1819 1 that article which was ostensibly a review of four pamphlets of robert owen and which bore the running title mr owen s plans for relieving the national distress details a corn model theory of profits in much more explicit terms than does ricardo s essay on profits ricardo moreover was not only familiar with the article but wrote approvingly of it in several letters to j r mcculloch on 28 february 1820 he wrote

shadow economy and unemployment rate in u s a is there a structural relationship an empirical analysis this article aims to estimate the size of the us shadow economy se using a structural equation approach and to evaluate if a structural relationship exists between the se and the unemployment rate ur in the united states the size of the se is estimated to be decreasing over the last two decades we corroborate the existence of a structural relationship between the se and the ur by using a simple theoretical model furthermore we extend the okun s law to estimate the structural relationship between growth rate of official gdp se and ur our results indicate a significant positive relationship between the se and the ur

forecasting global developments in the basic chemical industry for environmental policy analysis the chemical sector is the largest industrial energy user but detailed analysis of its energy use developments lags behind other energy intensive sectors a cost driven forecasting model for basic chemicals production is developed accounting for regional production costs demand growth and stock turnover the model determines the global production capacity placement implementation of energy efficient best practice technology bpt and global carbon dioxide co2 emissions for the period 2010 2030 subsequently the effects of energy and climate policies on these parameters are quantified about 60 of new basic chemical production capacity is projected to be placed in non oecd regions by 2030 due to low energy prices while global production increases by 80 between 2010 and 2030 the oecd s production capacity share decreases from 40 to 20 and global emissions increase by 50 energy pricing and climate policies are found to reduce 2030 co2 emissions by 5 15 relative to the baseline developments by increasing bpt implementation maximum bpt implementation results in a 25 reduction further emission reductions require measures beyond energy efficient technologies the model is useful to estimate general trends related to basic chemicals production but improved data from the chemical sector is required to expand the analysis to additional technologies and chemicals

climate change costs recent advancements in the economic assessment climate change is unique among the consequences of fossil fuel burning in its far reaching impact both spatially and temporally earlier studies estimate the aggregated monetized damage due to climate change at 1 5 to 2 0 of world gdp for 2 co2 the oecd would lose 1 0 to 1 5 of gdp the developing countries 2 0 to 9 0 according to these estimates these figures are not comprehensive and highly uncertain newer studies increasingly emphasize adaptation variability extreme events other non climate change stress factors and the need for integrated assessment of damages as a result differences in impacts between regions and sectors have increased the market impacts in developed countries tended to fall and non market impacts have become increasingly important marginal damages are more interesting from a policy point of view earlier estimates range from about us 5 to us 125 per tonne of carbon with most estimates at the lower end of this range these figures are based on polynomial functions in the level of climate change but the rate of change may be equally important as are the speed of adaptation restoration and value adjustment furthermore future vulnerability to climate change will be different from current vulnerability on the whole the market impacts fall relatively with economic growth while the non market impacts rise relatively with growth

the cost of doing business in africa evidence from enterprise survey data summary data from the world bank enterprise surveys show that indirect costs related to infrastructure and services account for a relatively high share of firms costs in poor african countries and pose a competitive burden on african firms we estimate firm level revenue and value added functions for six industries in 17 developing countries demonstrating that firm performance is sensitive to the cost of indirect inputs as indirect inputs are not usually included in estimations of value added we argue that existing estimates understate the relative performance of african manufacturing firms

corruption and the shadow economy an empirical analysis this paper analyzes the influence of the shadow economy on corruption and vice versa we hypothesize that corruption and the shadow economy are substitutes in high income countries while they are complements in low income countries the hypotheses are tested for a cross section of 98 countries our results show that there is no robust relationship between corruption and the size of the shadow economy when perceptions based indices of corruption are used employing an index of corruption based on a structural model however corruption and the shadow economy are complements in countries with low income but not in high income countries

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

shadow economies size causes and consequences using various methods the size of the shadow economy in 76 developing transition and oecd countries is estimated average size varies from 12 percent of gdp for oecd countries to 23 percent for transition countries and 39 percent for developing countries increasing taxation and social security contributions combined with rising state regulations are driving forces for the increase of the shadow economy especially in oecd countries according to some findings corruption has a positive impact on the size of the shadow economy and a growing shadow economy has a negative effect on official gdp growth

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

informal sector the credit market channel abstract we build a model of firms choice between formality and informality complying with costly registration procedures allows the firms to benefit from key public goods enforcement of property rights and contracts that make the participation in the formal credit market possible in a moral hazard framework with credit rationing their decision is shaped by the interaction between the cost of entry into formality and the relative efficiency of formal versus informal credit mechanisms and their related institutional arrangements the model is consistent with existing stylized facts on the determinants of informality

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

the devil is in the shadow do institutions affect income and productivity or only official income and official productivity this paper assesses the relationship between institutions output and productivity when official output is corrected for the size of the shadow economy our results confirm the usual positive impact of institutional quality on official output and total factor productivity and its negative impact on the size of the underground economy however once output is corrected for the shadow economy the relationship between institutions and output becomes weaker the impact of institutions on total corrected factor productivity becomes insignificant differences in corrected output must then be attributed to differences in factor endowments these results survive several tests for robustness

impacts of energy subsidy reform on the malaysian economy and transportation sector malaysia is paying a high level of subsidies on the consumption of energy about 5 of its gdp therefore reforming the energy subsidies as planned by the government will have a significant impact on household welfare and energy intensive sectors such as the transport sector this study employs a computable general equilibrium cge model to highlight the transmission channels through which the removal of energy subsidies affects the domestic economy the findings show that the shock increases real gdp and real investment while decreasing malaysian total exports and imports the removal of energy subsidies also decreases the aggregate energy demand and consequently decreases the level of carbon emissions in the malaysian economy in addition households experience significant falls in their consumption and welfare the transport sector is significantly influenced through an increase in production costs due to an increase in the prices of intermediate inputs the total output and total exports of the whole transport sector decrease while its imports increase in addition the use of all kinds of transport by households decreases significantly the malaysian energy subsidy reform leads to an initial decrease in co2 emissions and demand for electricity gas and petroleum products in the entire transport sector

interpreting ricardo a rejoinder to peach this note answers terry peach s 1998 response to our criticisms of his interpretation of ricardo we show that the available evidence supports sraffa s interpretation the arguments put forward by peach far from undermining that interpretation or furthering an understanding of ricardo s project do little more than catalogue the already well known difficulties that ricardo encountered as he grappled toward a clearer account of the laws that regulate distribution and prices copyright 2002 oxford university press

why do governments subsidize gasoline consumption an empirical analysis of global gasoline prices 2002 2009 abstract governments spend hundreds of billions of dollars annually to subsidize the consumption of fossil fuels without understanding the environmental and economic problems this practice creates to shed light on these problems we examine the case of gasoline subsidies using data on gasoline prices in 137 countries for the years 2002 2009 it is useful to study gasoline pricing because gasoline is the most important transportation fuel and there are data for many countries for the time period of investigation we find that major oil producers subsidize gasoline consumption by artificially reducing prices countries with weak institutional capacity also seem to subsidize gasoline but the effects are weaker these results suggest that policy interventions to improve institutional capacity could help developing countries in particular reduce their fossil fuel subsidies

ricardo torrens and sraffa the untenability of de vivo s summing up giancarlo de vivo 1996 repeats his argument of 1985 that the second edition of torrens s essay on the external com trade 1820 provides significant corroboration of sraffa s reading of ricardo s early theory of profits 1996 p 387 there runs his assertion torrens presents a corn model and goes out of his way to acknowledge his indebtedness to ricardo s original and profound inquiry into the laws by which the rate of profit is determined 1820 p xix he takes issue with my contention that this case has not been convincingly made hollander 1995 a rereading of the evidence stimu lated by de vivo s remarks leaves me wholly unconvinced in fact his restatement confirms the untenability of his position i shall explain why as in 1985 p 95 de vivo again concedes torrens s weakness in allowing for materials in manufacturing capital in whatever proportion the quantity of produce obtained from the soil exceeds the quantity employed in raising it in that proportion the value of manufactured goods will exceed the values of the food and material expended in preparing them torrens 1820 p 362 1826 p 75 1 it would have helped had de vivo recognised the implications of this weakness for his theme that torrens s position confirms the validity of sraffa s interpretation of ricardo instead of reiterating that this problem of materials only arises in the manufacturing sector and does not affect the corn ratio determination of profits 1996 p 389 de vivo s italics for the problem remains that the sraffa interpretation requires homogeneity of capital in all sectors if there is to be a uniform rate of profit in all trades it is the exchangeable values of the products of other trades relatively to their own capitals i e relatively to corn that must be adjusted so as to yield the same rate of profit as has been established in the growing of corn sraffa 1951 p xxxi this is all i intended when i wrote that de vivo s recognition of a weakness in torrens amounts in effect to admitting that we do not have a sraffa model 1995 p 486 de vivo s case might be strengthened if one assumed the corn material price ratio to be constant there is perhaps a hint of this in torrens himself when the cultivation of inferior soils increases the productive cost and consequently the

opec how to transition from black to green gold global discussions on the reduction of co2 emissions and the increasing interest in alternative energy sources and production technologies have started to concern oil exporting nations international discussions on projects such as desert tec might also have sparked their interest to explore a possible diversification of their energy resource production portfolio however extremely low in country retail prices of fossil fuels to date present a significant economic hurdle to such developments this paper uses a formal model setup accompanied by intuitive graphical illustrations as well as a numerical example to analyze fossil fuel abundant nations potential to transition to a supplier of renewable energy as well as possible pitfalls resulting from their status quo situation

the influence of direct democracy on the shadow economy we analyze both theoretically and empirically the influence of direct democratic institutions on the size and development of shadow economies our model suggests that as the extent of direct democracy increases implemented fiscal policies more nearly reflect the preferences of citizens and so reduce their incentives to operate in the informal sector this theory implies a negative relationship between the extent of direct democracy and the size of the country s shadow economy we also theorize that direct democracy has a greater effect in reducing the informal sector when the former is at low or intermediate values and when the electoral system is characterized by a larger district magnitude an empirical investigation of a sample of 57 democracies confirms our model s predictions

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

impact of energy subsidies on energy consumption and supply in zimbabwe do the urban poor really benefit abstract twenty percent of zimbabwe s urban poor households are still to be connected to the grid the majority of these households are poor there are several reasons why the zimbabwe urban poor are still not connected to the grid the most important one being the household incomes and the cost of different sources of energy in order to facilitate wider usage of electricity by the poor the policy makers have introduced a subsidy policy the objective of this paper is to ascertain the extent to which the poor urban households could afford the cost of electricity with or without subsidies this gives an indication on whether contrary to the current thinking subsidies are decisive for the affordability of electricity by the urban households the paper also examines the distribution of the subsidies amongst the different urban household income categories and other economic sectors furthermore the impact of such subsidies on the utility s finances is assessed

estimating petroleum products demand elasticities in nigeria a multivariate cointegration approach this paper formulates and estimates petroleum products demand functions in nigeria at both aggregative and product level for the period 1977 to 2006 using multivariate cointegration approach the estimated short and long run price and income elasticities confirm conventional wisdom that energy consumption responds positively to changes in gdp and negatively to changes in energy price however the price and income elasticities of demand varied according to product type kerosene and gasoline have relatively high short run income and price elasticities compared to diesel overall the results show petroleum products to be price and income inelastic

financial subsidies to the australian fossil fuel industry abstract a common claim during international greenhouse gas reduction negotiations has been that domestic emissions cuts will harm national economies this argument fails to consider the distorting effect of existing financial subsidies and associated incentives to fossil fuel production and consumption provided by governments in most developed countries these subsidies support a fossil fuel energy sector that is the major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions and conflict with attempts to expand the role of sustainable energy technologies reform of these types of subsidies has the potential to provide substantial gains in economic efficiency as well as reductions in carbon dioxide emissions a no regrets outcome for the economy and the environment this paper examines financial subsidies to fossil fuel production and consumption in australia and estimates the magnitude of the subsidies subsidies and associated incentives to fossil fuel production and consumption in australia are similar to those in the united states and the other countries that have pushed for increased flexibility during international negotiations

on interpreting ricardo a reply to sraffians this paper seeks to clarify and defend aspects of the interpretation advanced in interpreting ricardo terry peach 1993 in the light of published criticisms by writers of a sraffian persuasion the principal areas of discussion include the corn model interpretation the labor theory of value and the invariable measure of value and the ricardo sraffa relationship copyright 1998 by oxford university press

robert torrens and ricardo s corn ratio theory of profits the main point at issue in the dispute started more than ten years ago by s hollander on sraffa s interpretation of ricardo s early theory of profits undoubtedly concerns the logic underlying the notion which ricardo entertained at that stage namely that it is the profits of the farmer which regulate the profits of all other trades ricardo to trower 5 march 1814 in ricardo 1951 73 vi p 104 as is well known the rational foundation for such statements by ricardo was according to sraffa that in agriculture the same commodity namely corn forms both the capital and the product therefore in agriculture the rate of profit is determined as a ratio between two quantities of corn without any question of valuation if there is to be a uniform rate of profit in all trades it is the exchangeable values of the product of other trades relatively to corn that must be so adjusted as to yield the same rate of profit as has been established in the growing of corn sraffa 1951 p xxxi hollander writes that it does not seem likely that ricardo intended to ascribe a determining role to the agricultural sector on the logic ascribed to him by sraffa 1979 p 146 it is remarkable that hollander concedes even more than is necessary for sraffa s case when he writes of his ricardo s assumption in the essay that corn alone enters the wage basket ibid he seems however to reconcile this with his general position by suggesting that the essay on profits constitutes an essay in persuasion p 118 and its policy orientation would justify ricardo s emphasis upon corn in the wage basket to get the message across regarding the effects of corn import restriction no general theoretical significance ought to be attached to such strong cases hollander 1979 p 146 i shall not deal here with the difficulties that hollander s reconstruction of what ricardo intended encounters on grounds of both logic and evidence for this see eatwell 1975 garegnani 1982 the purpose of the present note is to show that the logic which sraffa ascribes to ricardo is clearly spelled out in the second edition of torrens external corn trade 1820 where we find both the determination of the agri cultural rate of profit in physical terms as a ratio between two quantities of corn and the determination of the value of manufactured goods relative to corn using the given agricultural rate of profit remarkably in this work torrens goes out of his way to acknowledge his great indebtedness to ricardo s original and profound inquiry into the

impacts of increasing renewable energy subsidies and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies in china abstract subsidies to fossil fuel consumption have made china s energy system fragile and unsustainable it is necessary for china to reform fossil fuel subsidies and reflect the resource cost and environmental cost in energy prices considering the life cycle external costs this paper estimates the scale of fossil fuel subsidy and the true cost of renewable energy in 2010 and evaluates impacts of increasing renewable energy subsidies and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies on macro economy and energy system in china based on scenario analysis simulation results show that the negative impacts on economic growth can be reduced from 4 460 to 0 432 if only 10 of fossil fuel subsidies were removed increasing subsidies for renewable energy has positive impacts on macroeconomic variables although the economic benefits per unit of subsidies for renewable energy are lower than those for fossil fuels by 0 06 0 19 cny the revenue gap can be narrowed by shifting more subsidies from fossil fuels to renewables increasing subsidies for renewable energy helps optimize china s energy system in three ways the first is making energy consumption structure cleaner the second is improving energy efficiency and the third is addressing the problem of imbalanced distribution and consumption of energy

productivity growth and energy consumption in the nigerian manufacturing sector a panel data analysis this paper examines the impact of efficiency in energy consumption on the growth in productivity in the nigerian manufacturing sector the study utilizes a panel data technique covering a period of substantial energy price reviews in nigeria the study shows that for most industries productivity growth has been energy using whereas in a few attempts have been made to switch productivity growth towards energy saving however it will take some time for the effect of current energy pricing policy to permeate the whole manufacturing sector due to the high cost required to invest in energy saving equipment especially in the face of a rapid decline in real income coupled with high product prices