leapfrog to the future energy scenarios and strategies for suriname to 2050 abstract this paper formulates energy strategies for suriname a conceptual model identifying relationships in the energy sector is conceived one of the striking characteristics is that various relationships inhibit significant uncertainty our contemporary age is characterized by more complex becoming relations decreasing predictability and increasing chaos simple extrapolation of past events is therefore futile since deviations from anticipated outcomes have significant impacts the scenario planning methodology has been used to deal with this uncertainty the most uncertain high impact driving forces that shape the future of the energy sector in suriname have been identified and are used to create energy scenarios to 2050 next robust strategies have been formulated which primarily focus on institutionalization renewable resources cost reflecting tariffs decentralization of energy supply and energy efficiency and savings leading indicators have been identified that identify towards which scenario the present develops and hence which set of strategies need to be applied

diffusion of renewable energy technologies in developing countries a case study of biogas engines in india abstract this paper presents a case study of promoting biogas engines in india using an analytic framework involving i characteristics of the technology ii characteristics of the users iii macro environment iv role of government and other organizations and v structure of the market the case study shows that although the technology was economic from the viewpoint of society it was not adopted by the farmers on a large scale due to the unfavorable macro environment created by the government and because of an inappropriate pricing policy by the manufacturer

energy price shocks input price changes and developmental implications a translog model applied to puerto rico the energy shocks of the 1970s that altered the relative price relationships between factor inputs and induced structural changes are analysed with the use of a translogarithmic cost function that incorporates the inputs capital labour and energy the developmental implications of these structural changes on a small open and energy capital importing region are emphasized taking the case of puerto rico as an example in terms of the partial elasticities of substitution the capital labour relationship moved from highly substitutable in the pre 1973 period to weakly complementary thereafter the energy labour association was transformed from high to low substitutability and that of energy capital from highly complementary to substitute

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

economies of scope and the cash crop food crop debate in senegal abstract the government of senegal plans to achieve national food self sufficiency by inducing farmers to switch away from cash crops toward food crop production this paper examines selected economic consequences of the planned substitution using empirical data recently collected in southeastern senegal cost function estimates suggest that farmers are currently producing too much food crop and too little cash crop output given existing technology and observed relative prices moreover economies of scope in producing both food crops and cash crops on the same farm result in a 22 cost saving relative to growing both types of crops on separate specialized farms

a new tailored scheme for the support of renewable energies in developing countries abstract historically the promotion of renewable energy technologies in isolated areas has involved international donors or governments subsidising the initial capital investment this paper proposes an alternative support mechanism for remote villages based on the generation of renewable electricity this communication presents an evaluation of the renewable energy premium tariff rpt scheme a locally adapted variation of the feed in tariff tailored for decentralised grids of developing countries the rpt scheme stimulates the deployment of renewable energy technologies by paying for renewable electricity generated a good quality performance is secured since the support is given based on the electricity produced by renewables not for the initial capital investment the mechanism has been designed to provide a cost effective scheme for the introduction of renewable energy technologies to remote villages to provide sustainable and affordable electricity to local users to make renewable energy projects attractive to policy makers and concurrently decrease financial risk to attract private sector investment

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

modern energy access to all in rural india an integrated implementation strategy abstract expanding energy access to the rural population of india presents a critical challenge for its government the presence of 364 million people without access to electricity and 726 million who rely on biomass for cooking indicate both the failure of past policies and programs and the need for a radical redesign of the current system we propose an integrated implementation framework with recommendations for adopting business principles with innovative institutional regulatory financing and delivery mechanisms the framework entails establishment of rural energy access authorities and energy access funds both at the national and regional levels to be empowered with enabling regulatory policies capital resources and the support of multi stakeholder partnership these institutions are expected to design lead manage and monitor the rural energy interventions at the other end trained entrepreneurs would be expected to establish bioenergy based micro enterprises that will produce and distribute energy carriers to rural households at an affordable cost the escos will function as intermediaries between these enterprises and the international carbon market both in aggregating carbon credits and in trading them under cdm if implemented such a program could address the challenges of rural energy empowerment by creating access to modern energy carriers and climate change mitigation

the prospects of renewable energy technologies for rural electrification a review from nepal abstract utilization of renewable energy technologies remains one of the major energy policies throughout the world these technologies are proven to be successful for electrifying rural communities especially in developing countries realizing the benefits of renewable energy sources the government of nepal has initiated the production and distribution of renewable energy technologies in recent years mainly to electrify rural communities although these technologies are suitable for providing electricity in isolated and remote rural areas their implementation programs have not been successful as expected this review provides broad spectrum view about the energy situation in nepal and highlights the current policies and subsidies for the optimal utilization of renewable energy resources in isolated and poor rural communities in addition major promotional barriers for their implementation in nepal have been discussed

renewable energy investment by the world bank world bank group lending for renewable energy accelerated in the 1990s and resulted in 17 approved projects with 700 million in bank loans and 230 million in grants by the global environment facility the bank s 1999 energy sector strategy fuel for thought charted new directions for renewable energy investment the present paper considers the implementation challenges of fuel for thought strategies and the opportunities for carrying them out the paper distinguishes between agendas in the energy and rural development sectors and reviews limitations to implementing these agendas lessons from projects are just emerging but suggest ve areas of support for renewable energy by the bank in the future renewable energy nancing electric power policy frameworks rural energy enterprises regulated rural energy concessions and domestic technology manufacturing interviews with the private sector suggest additional forms of support assist with business plans nance pre feasibility studies reduce commercial risks support joint ventures build market volume and stability and pilot and test innovative business models the e ectiveness of the bank in following through on its ambitious agenda fundamentally rests on the willingness and commitment of developing countries to pursue these strategies and the degree to which renewable energy applications are seen to serve countries development priorities 2001 elsevier science ltd all rights reserved

calabashes for kilowatt hours rural energy and market failure this paper describes how management and information failures can retard transitions from the traditional use of biomass fuel by low income rural consumers and micro producers in general societies

low demand for housing incidence causes and uk national policy implications low and falling demand for housing has come to be recognised as a fairly widespread phenomenon in late 1990s britain whilst research has tended to focus on the negative consequences of this for so

drivers barriers and strategies for implementation of renewable energy technologies in rural areas in bangladesh an innovation system analysis abstract bangladesh has good potential for harnessing renewable energy sources such as solar biomass wind and mini hydropower the country has been experiencing a gradual shift towards exploring renewable energy resources as a driving force for rural development a few public sector and non government organizations have started to develop renewable energy technology ret projects in rural areas the lessons learnt from different demonstrations of ret projects reveal that with careful forward planning renewable energy can provide far reaching economic environmental and social benefits to people living in remote rural areas in bangladesh this paper identifies some of the barriers that need to be overcome for the successful development of renewable energy technology sector and betterment of rural livelihoods it does so through a critical review of policy and institutional settings as well as present status and lessons learnt from pilot demonstration of a number of ret projects undertaken by different organizations the study highlights policy implications of the review with the aim of supporting decision makers in formulating renewable energy policies and future plans for bangladesh

the economic lives of the poor in what turned out to be a rhetorical master move the 1990 world development report from the world bank defined the extremely poor people of the world as those who are currently living on no more than 1 per day per person measured at the 1985 purchasing power parity ppp exchange rate in 1993 the poverty line was updated to 1 08 per person per day at the 1993 ppp exchange rate which is the line we use in this paper poverty lines have always existed indeed 1 per day was chosen in part because of its proximity to the poverty lines used by many poor countries 1 however the 1 a day poverty line has come to dominate the conversations about poverty to a remarkable extent

substantive issues in the definition of localities evidence from sub group local labour market areas in the west midlands coombes m g green a e and owen d w 1988 substantive issues in the definition of localities evidence from sub group local labour market areas in the west midlands reg studies 22 303 318 local labour market areas llmas are now widely accepted as the most appropriate areal units for analyses of spatial patterns of employment and unemployment the most commonly used set of llmas in britain are the travel to work areas ttwas of the department of employment these areas are increasingly being used for locality studies that encompass not only labour and demand trends but also their social and political implications however ttwas are defined on the basis of aggregate commuting patterns which generalize substantial differences in the journey to work behaviour of different sections of the workforce this paper compares the ttwas as revised in 1984 with llmas defined using the same methodology for four sub groups of the labour force with differing skill levels in the west midlands the numb

a question of compromise case study evidence on the location and mobility strategies of dual career households green a e 1997 a question of compromise case study evidence on the location and mobility strategies of dual career households reg studies 31 641 657 drawing on in depth interviews with 30 dual career households this paper presents a framework for the study of and selected evidence on the key factors influencing the location and mobility strategies of a privileged and growing group of the population the ways in which such factors are traded off one against another in decision making and how individual sacrifices may be made for household benefits are outlined accessible semi rural areas emerge as one of the most preferred residential environments for dual career households with many couples prepared to commute long distances to work nearly always by car in order to live in such areas a further advantage of a location accessible to a motorway junction is that commuting potential for both partners is maximized while the need for residential migration is minimized green a e 1997

a framework for housing market area delineation principles and application a review is presented of the requirements of a framework for the delineation of housing market areas hmas in the context of undertaking a housing market assessment this prompts adoption of a methodology that features an iterative application of information obtained from estate agents to identify hma cores and a functional regionalisation of 2001 census interward migration flows the approach is demonstrated using data for north west england the concluding section explores some implications of the hma framework for policy and future research

review of barriers to the dissemination of decentralized renewable energy systems abstract this paper reviews the available literature dealing with the barriers to the dissemination of decentralized renewable energy systems decentralized renewable energy systems may face a range of technical economic institutional socio cultural and environmental barrier to their dissemination in the paper barriers impeding the dissemination of decentralized renewable energy systems have been identified and assessed in addition appropriate remedial measures and corresponding responsibility centers as reported in the literature have also been discussed inappropriateness of technology unavailability of skilled manpower for maintenance unavailability of spare parts high cost lack of access to credit poor purchasing power and other spending priorities unfair energy pricing lack of information or awareness and lack of adequate training on operation and maintenance of decentralized renewable energy systems are found to be the most critical barriers long term conducive policies appropriate regulatory framework financial incentives capital subsidies and soft loans to users technology and skill development internalization of externalities in the cost of energy withdrawal of subsidies presently being given to fossil fuels development of specialized institutions cooperation with international agencies participation of local community and awareness generation have been recommended for increased dissemination of decentralized renewable energy systems

rural electrification in the developing world abstract rural electrification does not cause development electricity is a derived demand occurring only when an area has reached a certain economic level this has important consequences for the choice of areas for electrification rural electrification subsidies are generally excessive and tariffs need to be greatly increased renewable energy sources should be analysed on the same technical and economic basis as conventional supply systems particular care is required when considering photovoltaic systems for pre electrification community management may provide a means of electricity supply for some villages but the key questions are likely to be institutional and managerial rather than technical

infrastructure provision gender and poverty in indian slums we examine the relationship between infrastructure provision and poverty alleviation by analyzing 500 interviews conducted in serviced and non serviced slums in india using a mixed method approach of qualitative analysis and regression modeling we find that infrastructure was associated with a 66 increase in education among females service provision increased literacy by 62 enhanced income by 36 and reduced health costs by 26 evidence suggests that a gender sensitive consideration of infrastructure is necessary and that a one size fits all approach will not suffice we provide evidence that infrastructure investment is critical for well being of slum dwellers and women in particular

the diffusion of energy technology in the rural areas of developing countries a synthesis of recent experience abstract this paper provides a synthesis of the experience of attempts to diffuse energy conversion technologies in the rural areas of developing countries it draws on the experience reported in the literature as well as the five other articles included in this special section the first four articles report the results of research supported under the rural energy technology assessment and innovation network retain funded by the international development research centre of canada these cover biogas in china gasifiers in the philippines decentralized electricity supply in argentina and dual fuel biogas engines in india the final paper provides a review of the experience of the diffusion of a number of successful mature energy technologies this introductory paper charts the changing perspective of technology diffusion that has occurred in recent years the shift from the largely social psychological concerns to concerns about the nature of the technology itself the political economy of the users and producers and the more evolutionary views of the process of technical change the evidence is grouped under nine headings the role of the market and state diffusion strategies the performance of the technology users needs political economy financial returns the macro policy environment the system overhead costs and adaptation in the light of experience the paper concludes by drawing from this complex picture of rural technical change a set of basic principles which might guide policy makers and researchers in improving the prospects for the diffusion of rural energy technology

factor substitution approach to testing the time variations in production the case of taiwan s manufacturing this paper is devoted to studying the time variations in the series of elasticities of factor substitution which in a sense manifests changes in production technology and structure a lkm translog cost function model is used to estimate the allen uzawa elasticities of substitution for taiwan s manufacturing sector in 1965 91 the variations are analysed using a regression model which incorporates the linear spline setting and income variable empirical results indicate that obvious structural breaks in the elasticity series conform to major exogenous disturbances such as worldwide energy crises and developmental policy changes

establishing new markets for mature energy equipment in developing countries experience with windmills hydro powered mills and solar water heaters abstract this paper reviews some of the success stories in the diffusion of mature low technology energy equipment drawing on the experience of windmills in argentina hydro powered mills in nepal and solar water heaters in several countries the different stages of a diffusion framework are discussed these include demand management the different types of manufacturer and their access to design information and the distribution system of equipment from producers to consumers the paper concludes with a summary of government policy interventions and their implications

connective power solar electrification and social change in kenya summary market based rural electrification with solar energy is increasingly common in developing countries this article revolves around three main claims about solar electrification in kenya s unsubsidized market 1 the benefits of solar electrification are captured primarily by the rural middle class 2 solar electricity plays a modest role in supporting economically productive and education related activities but connective applications such as television radio and cellular telephone charging often receive a higher priority 3 solar electrification is more closely tied to increased television use the expansion of markets more rural urban communication and other processes that increase rural urban connectivity than to poverty alleviation sustainable development or the appropriate technology movement

overcoming the club dilemma of village scale bioenergy projects the case of india small scale decentralised electricity generation at village level based on locally available biomass is a promising solution for providing electricity access in remote rural areas as it can supply villages with an independent reliable high quality and environmentally friendly energy source however despite such systems technological feasibility they are often discontinued research so far has not studied the reasons for discontinuation this article analyses a case of biomass based gasification in india by studying the type of goods the village system provides and the distribution of benefits within the system in this case the infrastructural and social system provide electricity as a club good given fluctuating numbers of service users the club faced the decision to either expand the system to new members or to reduce the services provided the focus on the village community hampered the extension of the club a reduction in the quality and quantity of services however decreased the comfort provided by the system the system faced what here is called a club dilemma to avoid the club dilemma and for a sustained energy provision policy needs to find means to secure feedstock i e by the means of subsidies or collaboration with agricultural departments

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

labour opportunities provided by spanish high speed rail hsr commuting services in a period of financial crisis an approach based on regional wage disparities and housing rental prices labour migration derived from interregional high speed rail hsr commuting is a relatively new behaviour whose development has partly coincided with a worldwide period of recession little resear

meeting electrification s social objectives in south africa and implications for developing countries electrification programmes and projects are usually planned and evaluated on the basis of their economic financial and socio economic performance it is not usually recognised that electrification is often carried out for social objectives of poverty alleviation and political effect examination of electrification in south africa reveals clearly that initial electrification was to meet economic objectives later socio economic objectives were adopted and recently the objectives were social social electrification particularly rural electrification is not viable according to usual assessment methods which are frequently distorted to provide the justification for a project to proceed the technology of network electrification changed to meet the constraints challenging usual perceptions about the relative costs of urban and rural electrification and the potential for photovoltaic electrification adopting a specification for social electrification allows suitable tariffs for electrification to be identified indicates how capital investment decisions might be modified for social electrification and identifies implications for electricity industry restructuring a better understanding of electrification s social objectives has implications for projects and programmes in other developing countries

constant utility paths and irreversible global warming this paper shows that the hartwick rule for sustainable utility with depletable resources still applies to the case of the greenhouse effect from fossil fuel carbon emissions although a carbon tax is necessary for sustainable utility it is sufficient that the sum of net energy rents and carbon tax revenues is invested in reproducible capital examination of recent savings rates and energy cost shares suggests that this may be difficult to achieve with current global savings rates jel classification q32

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

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

diffusion and innovation in the chinese biogas program abstract the history of biogas developments in china is described and a contrast drawn between the early phases particularly in 1958 and 1970 which emphasized the construction of large numbers of plants and the current phase in which high quality plants are built by professionals the paper reports the results of a microeconomic analysis of 58 biogas plants in tongliang and compares this with data produced by other researchers in 242 plants in hubei the analysis shows high rates of return on investments in biogas and short pay back periods of between one and four years the current developments in the biogas program are greatly affected by the major institutional reforms in china these reforms are described together with the major consequences in particular the number of plants built each year has fallen dramatically as a result of the reduction in subsidies the emphasis on quality rather than quantity and the growth of rural incomes with a consequent switching from biogas to coal as a fuel 1 i the diffusion of rural energy technology in china mimeo beijing itesa tsinghua university september 1986 41 pages 2 ii a survey report for rural energy and its technologies in tongliang county report of retain project mimeo beijing itesa tsinghua university october 1986 29 pages every care has been taken to reflect the style and content of the original papers and the resulting text was approved by the chinese authors

financing off grid sustainable energy access for the poor this paper examines the role of public instruments in promoting private finance to achieve off grid sustainable energy access renewable energy technologies are increasingly becoming the cheapest solutions for off grid energy access the dramatic uptake of mobile phones in developing countries shows how quickly decentralized services can develop on a commercial basis under the right conditions and raises the prospect that private finance could also drive decentralized energy access for the poor indeed there are already a number of instances of clean energy solutions such as solar portable lights household biogas units or solar home systems that have managed to scale up through leveraging private finance however the experience gained from first generation market development projects show that in almost all cases significant public resources have been necessary to increase the affordability of clean energy technologies provide access to financing for the poor and remove non economic barriers such public interventions may be funded by international public finance domestic budgets and carbon finance despite mounting fiscal constraints facing governments worldwide the emergence of new sources of climate finance and the political momentum in support of energy subsidy reforms as well as new programming modalities offer opportunities to leverage additional resources to achieve universal energy access by 2030

adjustment to job loss in britain s major cities bailey n and turok i 2000 adjustment to job loss in britain s major cities reg studies 34 631 653 this paper examines the labour market consequences of severe employment decline in britain s major cities between 1981 and 1991 using labour market accounts significant adjustment to employment change occurred through out migration and commuting but unemployment in cities also rose although much of it was recorded as inactivity on average women were less able to adjust through out migration or commuting than men while women in lower skilled jobs showed much less adjustment than those in professional or managerial occupations this suggests that the creation of employment opportunities for less skilled occupations brings far greater direct benefits to the resident population of major cities than the creation of professional or managerial employment bailey n et turok i 2000 ajuster ala suppression d emplois dans les grandes villes de grande bretagne reg studies 34 631 653 a partir des ch

the definition of housing market areas and strategic planning the purpose of this paper is to develop the concept of a housing market area thereby provide insights into our understanding of the sub regional structures of the housing system and hence propose a framework for strategic planning research in the housing market to tackle this task it is first necessary to consider the criteria for a local housing market area the paper begins by reviewing previous definitions by both academics and planners and their underlying assumptions based on the principle of spatial arbitrage a local housing market area is defined by reference to criteria linked to migration self containment parallels are drawn with the principles that have been applied to define a system of spatial labour markets using travel to work areas this spatial arbitrage definition is tested empirically by developing a system of housing market areas for west central scotland using data derived from the land registry finally the paper draws together the empirical findings to discuss the nature of s

energy substitution in u s manufacturing a regional approach one response of economists to energy market developments of the 1970s was to launch a series of studies in which the objective was to estimate energy substitution parameters characterizing important sectors of the u s economy relatively high substitution elasticities between energy and other inputs would permit firms to mitigate the effects of energy price increases by shifting to less energy intensive factor proportions the seminal work in this effort was carried out by berndt and wood 5 griffin and gregory 14 pindyck 28 halvorsen 16 and fuss 12 the research was substantially abetted by developments in production theory where the work of mcfadden 23 diewert 8 and christensen jorgenson and lau 6 yielded new and flexible production and cost function forms empirical work on energy substitution has continued 2 for the most part the data analyzed have been highly aggregative applying to say total u s manufacturing or perhaps to the various two digit sectors comprising that total to date little effort has been given to investigating energy substitution relationships at the regional level in the u s this is unfortunate since we know that the u s economy is actually composed of regions which are differently endowed with resources have developed at different rates and are comprised of different sectoral mixes the distinct possibility exists that regions differ in terms of the way in which energy inputs relate to other inputs in production furthermore even though the energy crisis may seem to be a national phenomenon national policy responses are worked out within a context of shifting and colliding regional conflicts stemming in large part from real or imagined perceptions of how energy market developments impact different regions it would seem especially important therefore to identify

job proximity and the urban employment problem do suitable nearby jobs improve neighbourhood employment rates due to a scarcity of small area jobs data much of the spatial mismatch literature has not directly addressed the impact of nearby jobs on neighbourhood employment rates such analysis is particula

the economics of renewable energy expansion in rural sub saharan africa accelerating development in sub saharan africa will require massive expansion of access to electricity currently reaching only about one third of households this paper explores how essential economic development might be reconciled with the need to keep carbon emissions in check the authors develop a geographically explicit framework and use spatial modeling and cost estimates from recent engineering studies to determine where stand alone renewable energy generation is a cost effective alternative to centralized grid supply the results suggest that decentralized renewable energy will likely play an important role in expanding rural energy access but it will be the lowest cost option for a minority of households in africa even when likely cost reductions over the next 20 years are considered decentralized renewables are competitive mostly in remote and rural areas while grid connected supply dominates denser areas where the majority of households reside these findings underscore the need to de carbonize the fuel mix for centralized power generation as it expands in africa

an integrated framework for rural electrification adopting a user centric approach to business model development rural electrification re has gained prominence over the past two decades as an effective means for improving living conditions this growth has largely been driven by socio economic and political imperatives to improve rural livelihood and by technological innovation based on a content analysis of 232 scholarly articles the literature is categorized into four focal lenses technology institutional viability and user centric we find that the first two dominate the re debate the viability lens has been used less frequently whilst the user centric lens began to engage scholars as late as 2007 we provide an overview of the technological institutional and viability lenses and elaborate upon the user centric lens in greater detail for energy policy and practice we combine the four lenses to develop a business model framework that policy makers practitioners and investors could use to assess re projects or to design future rural electrification strategies

commuting migration housing and labour markets complex interactions commuting migration housing and labour markets are important for the overall economy and for the everyday life of many people commuting makes up a large part of all journeys world wide and many resourcedemanding transport investment projects are initiated to cope with this type of travelling in a range of countries increasing flows of national and international migration are central determinants of demographic developments in industrialised countries the working age population or those aspiring to be part of the economically active population constitute a large proportion of the total population consequently income earned through working represents a major component of total earnings in these economies cahuc and zylberberg 2004 in order to obtain an efficient labour market workers should locate and relocate to where the relevant jobs are to be found from an economic point of view commuting and migration are essential elements for obtaining a well functioning labour market fischer et al 1996 lux and sunega 2012 zabel 2012 finally housing is a basic good and for many people rents or loan repayments make up a relatively large proportion of their overall budget oecd 2011 moreover housing represents a dominating element of homeowners wealth or equity due to its central role during the financial and economic crisis starting around 2007 it has become clear that housing prices are important for the development of the overall economy in many countries for example muellbauer and murphy 2008 zabel 2012 housing and labour markets are linked in many ways when explaining these links it is useful to start with some of the distinguished features of housing markets as already mentioned houses frequently constitute a major part of households wealth moreover earned income from employment is a major

the spatial interaction of housing and labour markets commuting flow analysis of north west england the consideration of housing and labour market interaction is a relatively recent development in an academic and policy debate which has traditionally considered home and work in isolation this pa

tiered housing markets and their relationship to labour market areas this paper develops a tiered geography of local housing market areas hmas that provides a national framework for spatial planning it is derived from a theoretical understanding of the economic basis of hmas the analysis explores the relationships between the tiers of the hma geography and local labour market areas drawing on this understanding the empirical research generates sets of different potential geographies of hmas for england based on an algorithm that applies criteria linked to the degree of closure of migration and or commuting patterns a range of theoretically appropriate criteria then enable the different geographies to be assessed the choice of geography is guided by chow tests of statistical differences in standardised house prices in neighbouring hmas derived from hedonic regressions finally conclusions are drawn on the validity of the approach developed the empirical work is on england and datasets drawn from the census and land registry