efficiency and equity effects of reforming the british system of direct taxation a utility based simulation methodology the simulation model presented in this paper shows how an estimated utility index defined over net income and leisure can be used to replicate labor supply behavior individual by individual this methodology is used to evaluate the efficiency and equity effects of two specific revenue neutral reforms of the british system of direct taxation the first reform involves abolishing the married m an s tax allowance the second abolishes this allowance only when the wife exhausts her own tax allowance the second reform is the most efficient and it may also be preferable on distributional grounds copyright 1988 by the london school of economics and political science

sustainability assessment of energy systems integrating environmental economic and social aspects abstract sustainable development of energy systems requires consideration of all three sustainability dimensions environmental economic and social current work presents a new decision support framework for facilitating this taking a life cycle approach the framework integrates the three sustainability dimensions to enable assessments at both technology and systems levels the framework comprises scenario analysis life cycle assessment life cycle costing social sustainability assessment and multi criteria decision analysis which are used to assess and identify the most sustainable energy options the application of the framework is illustrated on the example of future electricity supply in mexico eleven scenarios up to 2050 have been developed considering different technologies electricity mixes and climate change targets the results show that based on the 17 sustainability criteria used in this work the business as usual scenario mostly based on fossil fuels is unsustainable regardless of the preferences for different sustainability criteria this is mainly due to the high costs and environmental impacts associated with fossil fuels overall the most sustainable scenarios are those with higher penetration of renewables wind solar hydro geothermal and biomass and nuclear power these electricity pathways would enable meeting the national greenhouse gas emission targets by 2050 in a more sustainable way than envisaged by the current policy however some trade offs among the sustainability criteria are needed particularly with respect to the social impacts these trade offs can be explored easily within the decision support framework to reveal how different stakeholder preferences affect the outcomes of sustainability assessment thus contributing to more informed decision and policy making

on measures of excess burden and their application abstract new measures of the additional excess burden of a tax reform are proposed and are shown to be useful in three key policy applications these new measures induce a unique measure of marginal excess burden meb among its interesting properties meb is uniformly zero for a proportional tax on inelastically supplied labor problems in applying the standard measures of total excess burden are demonstrated it is concluded that the induced measure of the marginal cost of funds mcf should be regarded as the most useful concept in applied tax analysis

the effect of taxes on labor supply in the underground economy this paper uses micro data from a randomized survey carried out in the metropolitan area of quebec city canada to analyze the decision to evade taxes and work in the underground economy the results indicate that taxes distort labor market activities away from the regular sector to the underground sector but the distortion is small for the average worker the distortion is large however for particular groups of the population such as welfare claimants copyright 1994 by american economic association

the marginal cost of public funds and tax reform in africa abstract in this paper we propose estimates of the marginal cost of public funds mcf in 38 african countries we develop a simple general equilibrium model that can handle taxes on five major tax classes and can be calibrated with little more than national accounts data a key feature of our model is the explicit recognition of the informal economy our base case estimate of the average mcf from marginal increases in all five tax instruments is 1 2 focusing on the lowest cost tax instruments in each country commonly the vat but not always the average mcf is 1 1 finally extending the tax base to include sections of the informal economy by removing some tax exemptions offers the potential for a low mcf source of public funds and a lowering of mcfs on other tax instruments

measurement errors in agricultural data and their implications on marginal returns to modern agricultural inputs the low uptake of modern agricultural technologies in sub saharan african countries has encouraged researchers to revisit the returns to or profitability of these agricultural inputs a related strand of literature is exploring the allocative efficiency of these factors of production in african agriculture however all these studies rely on self reported agricultural data which are prone to nonclassical measurement errors the errors in these data are correlated with the true values of variables of interest in this article we investigate the implication of measurement errors in self reported agricultural input and production data on marginal returns to these modern agricultural inputs we consider a generic two sided measurement error problem where both production and inputs can be measured with error and these errors can be correlated we employ both self reported and objective measures of production and plot size to compute output elasticities under these alternative measurement scenarios we find that using self reported production and plot size overestimates output elasticities and hence marginal returns to modern agricultural inputs including chemical fertilizer and improved seed these results are noteworthy in terms of informing conventional technology diffusion strategies as well as in view of revisiting existing presumptions about the profitability of modern agricultural inputs

an integrated life cycle sustainability assessment of electricity generation in turkey this paper presents for the first time an integrated life cycle sustainability assessment of the electricity sector in turkey considering environmental economic and social aspects twenty life cycle sustainability indicators 11 environmental three economic and six social are used to evaluate the current electricity options geothermal power is the best option for six environmental impacts but it has the highest capital costs small reservoir and run of river power has the lowest global warming potential while large reservoir is best for the depletion of elements and fossil resources and acidification it also has the lowest levelised costs worker injuries and fatalities but provides the lowest life cycle employment opportunities gas power has the lowest capital costs but it provides the lowest direct employment and has the highest levelised costs and ozone layer depletion given these trade offs a multi criteria decision analysis has been carried out to identify the most sustainable options assuming different stakeholder preferences for all the preferences considered hydropower is the most sustainable option for turkey followed by geothermal and wind electricity this work demonstrates the importance for energy policy of an integrated life cycle sustainability assessment and how tensions between different aspects can be reconciled to identify win win solutions

oil vulnerability index of oil importing countries abstract this paper assesses the relative oil vulnerability of 26 net oil importing countries for the year 2004 on the basis of various indicators the ratio of value of oil imports to gross domestic product gdp oil consumption per unit of gdp gdp per capita and oil share in total energy supply ratio of domestic reserves to oil consumption exposure to geopolitical oil market concentration risks as measured by net oil import dependence diversification of supply sources political risk in oil supplying countries and market liquidity the approach using the principal component technique has been adopted to combine these individual indicators into a composite index of oil vulnerability such an index captures the relative sensitivity of various economies towards developments of the international oil market with a higher index indicating higher vulnerability the results show that there are considerable differences in the values of individual indicators of oil vulnerability and overall oil vulnerability index among the countries both inter and intraregional

the effect of income taxation on labor supply in the united states the effect of income taxation on the labor supply of prime age married men and women in the united states is examined using econometric methods similar to those used in the influential work of jerry hausman male labor supply is found to be relatively invariant to the net wage and virtual income in all specifications estimated the estimated impact of taxation on the labor supply of married women depends critically on the method used to estimate the labor supply function estimated net wage and virtual income elasticities are considerably larger when data on nonparticipants are included than when the estimation is conducted conditional on hours being greater than zero

input subsidy programs in sub saharan africa a synthesis of recent evidence input subsidy programs have once again become a major plank of agricultural development strategies in africa ten african governments spend roughly us 1 billion annually on input subsidy programs isps amounting to 28 6 of their public expenditures on agriculture this article reviews the microlevel evidence on isps undertaken since the mid 2000s we examine the characteristics of subsidy beneficiaries crop response rates to fertilizer application and their influence on the performance of subsidy programs the impacts of subsidy programs on national fertilizer use and the development of commercial input distribution systems and finally the impact of isps on food price levels and poverty rates the weight of the evidence indicates that the costs of the programs generally outweigh their benefits findings from other developing areas with a higher proportion of crop area under irrigation and with lower fertilizer prices factors that should provide higher returns to fertilizer subsidies than in africa indicate that at least a partial reallocation of expenditures from fertilizer subsidies to r d and infrastructure would provide higher returns to agricultural growth and poverty reduction however because isps enable governments to demonstrate tangible support to constituents they are likely to remain on the african landscape for the foreseeable future hence the study identifies ways in which benefits can be enhanced through changes in implementation modalities and complementary investments within a holistic agricultural intensification strategy among the most important of these are efforts to reduce the crowding out of commercial fertilizer distribution systems and programs to improve soil fertility to enable farmers to use fertilizer more efficiently the challenges associated with achieving these gains are likely to be formidable

from theory to practice canadian economists contributions to public finance we survey canadian economists contributions to the field of public finance from the mid 1980s to 2016 we highlight the development and extension of the models and tools of public economics and the empirical studies that have deepened our understanding of the efficiency and distributional issues over a wide range of public finance issues we also highlight contributions to the development of policies through commissioned reports and the important role that canadian institutions the canadian tax foundation the think tanks and the federal and provincial departments of finance have played in shaping tax and fiscal policies de la theorie a la pratique contributions des economistes canadiens a la finance publique on examine les contributions des economistes canadiens au domaine de la finance publique du milieu des annees 1980 a 2016 on souligne le developpement et l extension des modeles et des outils d economie publique et les etudes empiriques qui ont aide a approfondir notre comprehension des enjeux d efficacite et de distribution dans un vaste eventail de questions de finance publique on souligne aussi les contributions des rapports commandites au developpement de politiques publiques ainsi que le role important d institutions canadiennes l association canadienne d etudes fiscales les groupes d experts ainsi que les ministeres des finances du gouvernement federal et des gouvernements provinciaux dans le design des politiques fiscales

assessing empirical approaches for analyzing taxes and labor supply recent surveys on the labor supply responses of men document a divergence in the estimates of substitution and income effects obtained using various estimation approaches generally studies accounting for nonlinear tax schedules in a static setting via a piecewise linear approach produce estimates that typically imply higher substitution and lower income responses than are suggested by empirical work applying other approaches this paper demonstrates that maximum likelihood estimation of a consumer choice problem with nonlinear budget sets implicitly relies on the satisfaction of inequality constraints that translate into behaviorally meaningful restrictions these constraints arise not as a consequence of economic theory but instead as a requirement to create a properly defined statistical model in the analysis of piecewise linear budget sets the implicit constraints required by maximum likelihood in estimation amount to imposition of slutsky conditions at all wage income combinations associated with kink points in the analysis of differentiable budget sets the tacit constraints invoked by maximum likelihood also involve inequality restrictions on slutsky terms the empirical work presented in this study supports the contention that these implicit constraints play a major role in explaining the discrepancies in estimates found in the literature on men s labor supply

conscientious vs ambivalent consumers do concerns about energy availability and climate change influence consumer behaviour abstract energy availability and climate change are interrelated concerns with economic components they need to be addressed by policy makers and they require changes in energy consumption this study examines whether concerns about energy availability and climate change influence consumer behaviour policy perceptions and beliefs about future energy consumption this question is investigated by analysing data from the eurobarometer 75 4 a comprehensive survey of citizens from all countries of the european union that was conducted in june 2011 n 26 840 the regression results show that people concerned about climate change were significantly more likely to take action to mitigate climate change and to be more favourably disposed towards energy policies and future changes in energy consumption than people who were not concerned about climate change on the other hand people who were concerned about energy availability undertook fewer actions and neither supported energy policies nor believed in future changes in energy consumption this surprising finding raises questions regarding the adequate communication of energy availability and policies to the public in the european union

money matters the role of yields and profits in agricultural technology adoption despite the growing attention to technology adoption in the economics literature knowledge gaps remain regarding why some valuable technologies are rapidly adopted while others are not this paper contributes to our understanding of agricultural technology adoption by showing that a focus on yield gains may in some contexts be misguided we study a technology in ethiopia that has no impact on yields but that has nonetheless been widely adopted using three waves of panel data we estimate a correlated random coefficient model and calculate the returns to improved chickpea in terms of yields costs and profits we find that farmers comparative advantage does not play a significant role in their adoption decisions and hypothesize that this is due to the overall high economic returns to adoption despite the limited yield impacts of the technology our results suggest economic measures of returns may be more relevant than increases in yields in explaining technology adoption decisions

the economics of new nuclear power plants in liberalized electricity markets abstract even after fukushima the nuclear debate is strong in many countries with the discussion of its economics being a significant part of it however most of the estimates are based on a levelized cost methodology which presents several shortcomings particularly when applied to liberalized electricity markets our paper provides results based on a different methodology by which we determine the break even investment cost for nuclear power plants to be competitive with other electricity generation technologies our results show that the cost competitiveness of nuclear power plants is questionable and that public support of some sort would be needed if new nuclear power plants are to be built in liberalized markets

the last mile s in modern input distribution pricing profitability and adoption increasing adoption of modern inputs remains one of the best hopes for greater agricultural production in developing countries based on unique data from northwestern ethiopia this study examines the last mile s from the input distribution center to the farmer in the chemical fertilizer and improved seed distribution system we find that increasing transaction and transportation costs over a 35 km distance along a route mainly accessible to only foot traffic lead to a 50 increase of the price of chemical fertilizer and to a 75 reduction in its use farmers who live about 10 km from the distribution center face per unit transaction and transportation costs as high as the costs needed to bring the fertilizer from the international port to the input distribution center about 1 000 km tackling the last mile s costs should thus be a priority to improve modern input adoption and use in these settings

a combined sustainability index for electricity efficiency measures abstract one of the most substantial tools that serve decision makers in their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions includes energy efficiency measures that in most cases benefit from governmental assistance for achieving electricity consumption reduction goals this paper examines five energy efficiency measures defining a combined sustainability index a multi criteria analysis of five predefined indices was developed economic environmental technology social and political providing a combined index for each measure and a tool for identifying the preferred measure within a specific situation based on its total sustainability score in this research a case study was conducted and the preferred measure was found to be municipal street lighting systems based on its high political and social scores and its relatively high installation potential the second choice would be replacement of chillers in the industrial sector and the least favorable measure is the replacement of water pumps in the water sector the methodology described brings into account the technological specifications of the measure implemented and the specific national conditions under which it is implemented

policies to promote cereal intensification in ethiopia the search for appropriate public and private roles over the past decade policymakers have been searching for an appropriate blend of public and private sector roles to accelerate the intensification of food staple production smallholder commercialization and sustainable market development in sub saharan africa in ethiopia steps taken to liberalize markets in the 1990s and promote fertilizer and seed packages have yet to generate payoffs in terms of higher cereal yields lower food prices or reduced dependency on food aid this raises concern about the performance of the agricultural sector specifically in terms of the systems for providing improved seed fertilizer credit and extension services this paper examines the evolving roles of the public and private sectors in intensifying cereal production in ethiopia findings suggest that while ethiopia has an admirable record of supporting agriculture its state led policies has now outlived their usefulness these findings for ethiopia offer lessons that are potentially applicable to other sub saharan african countries facing similar challenges

sustainability assessment of electricity generation technologies using weighted multi criteria decision analysis abstract solving the issue of environmental degradation due to the expansion of the world s energy demand requires a balanced approach the aim of this paper is to comprehensively rank a large number of electricity generation technologies based on their compatibility with the sustainable development of the industry the study is based on a set of 10 sustainability indicators which provide a life cycle analysis of the plants the technologies are ranked using a weighted sum multi attribute utility method the indicator weights were established through a survey of 62 academics from the fields of energy and environmental science our results show that large hydroelectric projects are the most sustainable technology type followed by small hydro onshore wind and solar photovoltaic we argue that political leaders should have a more structured and strategic approach in implementing sustainable energy policies and this type of research can provide arguments to support such decisions

nuclear renaissance public perception and design criteria an exploratory review abstract there is currently an international drive to build new nuclear power plants bringing about what is being termed a nuclear renaissance however the public perception of nuclear energy has historically been and continues to be a key issue particularly in light of the fukushima nuclear incident this paper discusses the disparity between perceived and calculated risks based on the last four decades of research into risk perception the leading psychological and sociological theories psychometric paradigm and cultural theory respectively are critically reviewed the authors then argue that a new nuclear build policy that promotes a broader approach to design incorporating a wider range of stakeholder inputs including that of the lay public may provide a means for reducing the perceived risk of a nuclear plant further research towards such a new approach to design is proposed based on integrating expert and lay stakeholder inputs and taking into account broader socio cultural factors whilst maintaining the necessary emphasis on safety technological development economics and environmental sustainability

assessing the impact of framing on the comparative favourability of nuclear power as an electricity generating option in the uk in 2007 the uk government s public consultation on the future of nuclear power courted much criticism three studies were conducted to assess whether key arguments used by government within this consultation might have influenced public opinion about the technology participants first read a passage of text that made salient certain positive climate change mitigation increased energy security or negative nuclear waste aspects of the nuclear debate participants then completed a task that required them to create an electricity mix for the uk by varying the contributions made by each of five energy sources coal gas nuclear renewables and electric import study 1 seemed to indicate that pitching the debate in terms of climate change mitigation was effective in increasing endorsement of nuclear power the results of studies 2 and 3 however contested this conclusion suggesting that these arguments were having little direct impact upon participants preferences for nuclear power the results of these studies hold implications for uk energy policy and attitude assessment and can contribute to the understanding of how the arguments used by government in the 2007 consultation might have influenced public opinion

estimating the productivity impacts of technology adoption in the presence of misclassification this article examines the impact that misreporting adoption status has on the identification and estimation of causal effects on productivity in particular by comparing measurement error ridden self reported adoption data with measurement error free dna fingerprinted adoption data we investigate the extent to which such errors bias the causal effects of adoption on productivity taking dna fingerprinted adoption data as a benchmark we find 25 false negatives and 10 false positives in farmers responses our results show that misreporting of adoption status is not exogenous to household characteristics and produces a bias of about 22 percentage points in the productivity impact of adoption ignoring inherent behavioral adjustments of farmers based on perceived adoption status has a bias of 13 percentage points the results of this article underscore the crucial role that correct measurement of adoption plays in designing policy interventions that address constraints to technology adoption in agriculture

state conditional fertilizer yield response on western kenyan farms 15 16 17 we acknowledge with gratitude support from the rockefeller foundation the united states agency for 18 international development usaid leadership enhancement in agriculture program leap and the 19 coupled natural and human systems program of the biocomplexity initiative of the national science 20 foundation through grant bcs 0215890 the world agroforestry center icraf graciously hosted 21 the lead author for part of the research and provided soil test results we are also grateful to james

work costs and nonconvex preferences in the estimation of labor supply models abstract works costs have not been adequately handled in labor supply estimation likely due to their complexity we show that if work costs are not accounted for in the budget and time constraints in a structural labor supply model they will be subsumed into the data generating preferences even if underlying preferences over consumption and leisure are convex the presence of unobservable work costs can make these preferences appear nonconvex however we show that under plausible conditions policy relevant calculations such as estimates of the effect of tax changes on labor supply and deadweight loss measures are not affected by the fact that estimated preferences incorporate work costs

labour supply tax evasion and the marginal cost of public funds an empirical investigation abstract in this paper we extend the concept of marginal cost of public funds itmcf to incorporate tax evasion in the labour market mcf values are also computed from various tax reforms applied to the province of quebec canada 1985 for this purpose a utility based labour supply model that allows for both regular and irregular work activities is used at the benchmark situation the mcf associated with an increase in marginal income tax rates ranges between 1 39 and 1 53 depending upon whether we consider rationing or not moreover the presence of the irregular sector accounts for between 0 02 and 0 05 of this mcf although small in magnitude the impact of the irregular sector increases rapidly with the level of marginal tax rates

exploring public perceptions of energy security risks in the uk along with climate change and affordability concerns about energy security are key drivers behind proposals for major energy system change in the uk and numerous other countries unlike climate change we know very little about how the public thinks and feels about this aspect of sustainability and energy policy beyond engaging critically with conceptual and theoretical discussions empirical data from two surveys cardiff postal survey n 520 online uk survey n 499 using a ten item energy security scale are presented and discussed here we show that aspects of energy security are certainly of concern to the uk public with particularly high concern around dependence on fossil fuels imports and relatively lower expressed concern for actual disruption of energy supply however public concerns around energy security are only emerging and likely to change depending on the context in which it is discussed e g in comparison to climate change in addition findings from public interviews are used to further contextualise the survey findings showing unfamiliarity among the uk public with regards to the term energy security we discuss implications and further work that would be useful for understanding public perceptions in more depth

the challenge of measuring biofuel sustainability a stakeholder driven approach applied to the french case measuring biofuel sustainability requires dealing with a wide variety of complex and conflicting values at stake consequently the biofuel capacity to contribute to one specific value cannot lead to any absolute conclusion about the overall sustainability of biofuel the scope of the sustainability concept may vary depending on individuals preferences the time scale and the geographical region based on the 5 pillars sustainability concept that includes social economic environmental legal and cultural considerations the present study proposes to assess several biofuel sustainability options for france by 2030 through a stakeholder driven approach rather than seeking to reach a consensus our approach allows us to capture the wide diversity of stakeholders perspectives and preferences french stakeholders perceive 22 different sustainability criteria for biofuels with a very low level of agreement between the different segments of professions feedstock producers biofuel producers refining industry fuel distributors car manufacturers end users government and ngos in order to operationalize the sustainability assessment a set of indicators has been identified with stakeholders that allows us to measure the capacity of biofuels to fulfill each of their criteria seventeen biofuel options were assessed with regards to economic social environmental cultural and legal considerations allowing the identification of the strengths and weaknesses of each biofuel

nuclear power climate change and energy security exploring british public attitudes public attitudes towards nuclear power in the uk have historically been deeply divided but as concern about climate change and energy security has exerted an increasing influence on british energy policy nuclear power has been reframed as a low carbon technology previous research has suggested that a significant proportion of people may reluctantly accept nuclear power as a means of addressing the greater threat of climate change drawing on the results of a national british survey n 1822 the current study found that attitudes towards nuclear remain divided with only a minority expressing unconditional acceptance in general people who expressed greater concern about climate change and energy security and possessed higher environmental values were less likely to favour nuclear power however when nuclear power was given an explicit reluctant acceptance framing allowing people to express their dislike for nuclear power alongside their conditional support concerns about climate change and energy security became positive predictors of support for nuclear power these findings suggest that concern about climate change and energy security will only increase acceptance of nuclear power under limited circumstances specifically once other preferred options have been exhausted

tax evasion and the marginal cost of public funds tax evasion and deadweight loss have similar implications for the rules of public finance the optimal mix of taxes can be derived from the minimization of the sum of aggregate deadweight loss and aggregate cost of tax evasion similarly the marginal cost of public funds includes allowances for marginal deadweight loss and marginal cost of tax evasion per dollar of public revenue acquired

the optimal size of a tax collection agency the condition that characterizes the optimal size of a tax collection agency is derived and then given a simple interpretation in terms of excess burden the paper clarifies an earlier finding of sandmo which suggests that the optimal degree of enforcement is higher than a simple cost benefit calculation would indicate the appropriate condition is that at the margin the resource cost of increasing enforcement should equal the saving of excess burden due to the decline in exposure to risk the increased revenue gained from stricter enforcement does not enter the expression because it merely represents a transfer among the economy s identical agents

indicators of energy security in industrialised countries energy security has become a popular catch phrase both in the scientific arena as well as in the political discussion yet in general the applied concepts of energy security are rather vague this paper sheds some light on concepts and indicators of energy security first we conceptually discuss the issue of energy supply security and explain why it is not to handle by one science alone and what economics may contribute in order to structure the topic after providing a brief survey of existing attempts to define or measure energy security we suggest an additional dimension along which indicators of energy security may be classified ex post and ex ante indicators finally we illustrate our concept on the basis of several simplified indicators while ex post indicators are mostly based on price developments ex ante indicators are to a greater extent aimed at illustrating potential problems our illustration suggests that it is worthwhile to take into account the market structure along with the political stability of exporting countries

in the name of energy security the struggle over the exportation of israeli natural gas the aim of this study is to place the notion of energy security under critical scrutiny by unpacking how different actors manipulate the term through the mobilization of existential language as a prism for creating securitization discourse through an examination of an israeli inter ministerial committee charged with developing national policy regarding newly discovered natural gas reserves off the coast of israel the study finds that the concept of energy security is open for manipulation and various interpretations while some actors stress environmental acceptability and independency as pillars of energy security others prioritized supply reliability and geopolitical benefits associated with gas exportation each definition of energy security was also found to be anchored in different ideologies goals policies and legitimizing factors the coupling of energy with securitization rhetoric was ultimately determined as working against cooperative efforts as committee conflicts intensified and suggested institutional measures became disproportional

family labor supply with taxes over the period 1960 1983 the proportion of federal tax revenue raised by taxation of labor supply has risen from 57 77 percent in this paper we specify and estimate a model of family labor supply which treats both federal and state taxation husbands and wives labor supply are treated jointly rather than in aseparate manner as in previous research a method to calculate the virtual wage for nonworking spouses is used within a utility maximizing framework to treat correctly the joint family labor supply decision joint family efforts are found to be important the efficiency cost deadweight loss of labor taxation is estimated to be 29 6 of tax revenue raised the effect of the new 10 deduction to ease the marriage tax for working spouses leads to a prediction of 3 8 increase in wives labor supply and a 9 decrease in husbands labor supply overall taxes paid are predicted to decrease by 3 4 this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

life cycle sustainability assessment of electricity generation in pakistan policy regime for a sustainable energy mix abstract electricity crisis has become a key issue in pakistan mainly due to a tenacious and spreading gap between demand and supply moreover the current production is causing severe environmental and energy security issues due to reliance on thermal sources stakeholders are hindered to address these issues due to a significant knowledge gap causing discrepancies in power policies a comprehensive approach over the sustainability dimensions is missing due to non adoption of life cycle thinking this study adopts an integrated approach of life cycle sustainability assessment of the electricity sector in pakistan for proposing policy guidelines and implementation framework to optimize the future energy mixes in total 20 sustainability indicators have been assessed covering life cycle of seven electricity generation sources currently in use these sources have been ranked by equally weighting the sustainability dimensions and respective indicators hydropower is found as the most sustainable option having lowest environmental and economic impacts while due to worst economic and social impacts oil is found to be the least sustainable option for the country while establishing tradeoffs between different electricity generation sources this study presents an unbiased view and highlights the worth of life cycle approach in sustainability assessment for improving the energy policies

understanding the nuclear controversy an application of cultural theory abstract the need for a secure and sustainable energy future has become firmly entrenched on the global political agenda governments worldwide are seeking solutions that will ensure security of their energy supplies while reducing carbon emissions in the fight against climate change advocates of nuclear power have reframed the technology as the most reliable cost effective and immediate solution to both of these policy problems and predicted the emergence of a nuclear renaissance however there is little evidence to date that suggests a nuclear renaissance has actually taken place public opinion polling demonstrates that many remain unconvinced of the need for nuclear power this paper uses cultural theory as a heuristic to understand why the arguments for a nuclear renaissance have been largely unsuccessful it argues that the failure of nuclear advocates to engage with a wider cross section of world views has prevented the controversy surrounding nuclear power from being resolved and the nuclear renaissance from becoming a reality in doing so this paper builds upon a growing recognition of the contribution that social science research can make to understanding public acceptance of energy policy choices

public attitudes regarding large scale solar energy development in the u s abstract using data collected from both a national sample as well as an oversample in u s southwest we examine public attitudes toward the construction of utility scale solar facilities in the u s as well as development in one s own county our multivariate analyses assess demographic and socio psychological factors as well as context in terms of proximity of proposed project by considering the effect of predictors for respondents living in the southwest versus those from a national sample we find that the predictors and impact of the predictors related to support and opposition to solar development vary in terms of psychological and physical distance overall for respondents living in the u s southwest we find that environmentalism belief that developers receive too many incentives and trust in project developers to be significantly related to support and opposition to solar development in general when southwest respondents consider large scale solar development in their county the influence of these variables changes so that property value race and age only yield influence differential effects occur for respondents of our national sample we believe our findings to be relevant for those outside the u s due to the considerable growth pv solar has experienced in the last decade especially in china japan germany and the u s

what explains local policy elites preferences toward renewable energy energy efficiency policy abstract in this paper we attempt to identify individual level determinants that shape renewable energy and energy efficiency re ee policy adoption decisions utilizing the grid group cultural theory ct mixed with rational choice perspectives through an analysis of data collected from a statewide survey of 420 local policy elites in more than 50 arkansas cities in 2014 we found that cultural values particularly those of egalitarianism and individualism significantly influence re ee policy preferences with egalitarians demonstrating higher support for re ee policies and individualists demonstrating lower levels of support we further found that feasibility considerations particularly economic and land use feasibility perceptions significantly influence re ee policy preferences with higher levels of perceived feasibility being associated with higher levels of support for re ee policies however feasibility perceptions were not strong enough to overcome the effects of cultural values particularly for egalitarians and individualists in sum such feasibility considerations are present in policy elites related policy preference formation but are constrained by their cultural value predispositions we conclude by discussing various ramifications of our research findings

locus of control and technology adoption in developing country agriculture evidence from ethiopia abstract we investigate the implication of farmers locus of control on their technology adoption decisions our empirical analysis is based on two longitudinal surveys and hypothetical choice exercises conducted on ethiopian farmers we find that locus of control significantly predicts farmers technology adoption decisions including use of chemical fertilizers improved seeds and irrigation we show that individuals with an internal locus of control have higher propensity of adopting agricultural technologies we observe these empirical regularities in both datasets and for both revealed measures of farmers technology adoption decisions as well as farmers hypothetical demand for agricultural technology the results hold even in a more conservative fixed effects estimation approach assuming locus of control as time variant and dynamic behavioral trait these findings provide behavioral and psychological explanations for the low rates of adoption of profitable agricultural technologies in sub saharan africa our results highlight that improving farmers non cognitive skills locus of control may facilitate technology adoption and agricultural transformation more generally the results suggest that anti poverty policies that only focus on relaxing short term external constraints including physical access to markets and technologies may not sufficiently alleviate agricultural underinvestment

labor supply and taxation in france this paper provides sequential labor supply estimates for french married men and women under specifications analogous to those used by hausman to account for the effects of taxation upon the budget constraint results suggest that even though labor force participation follows the expected pattern work hours are quite rigid most of the variation in the latter being attributed to measurement errors the second part of the paper concentrates on the simultaneous estimation of male and female labor supply conditional maximum likelihood techniques are shown to permit the separate estimation of work hours for both spouses with an appropriate set of instruments aimed at correcting for the biases arising from simultaneity selectivity and the nonlinearity of the budget constraint although consistent the resulting estimates apparently contradict the usual rationality restrictions on family labor supply behavior and seem to confirm the lack of flexibility in work hours

nuclear energy policy in the united states 1990 2010 a federal or state responsibility this paper examines from a policy perspective nuclear energy policy in the united states us from 1990 to 2010 and questions whether it is or has become a federal or state responsibility the present study as befits policy research engages with many disciplines for example in particular law and politics and hence the contributions move beyond that of nuclear energy policy literature and in particular to that on nuclear new build and other assessments of large infrastructure projects several examples at the federal level are identified that demonstrate that the nuclear industry has evolved to a stage where it requires a focus on the power of actions at a more localised state level in order to re ignite the industry the research concludes that there remains a misunderstanding of the issue of project management for complex construction projects and it is highly arguable whether many of its issues have been resolved further the research asserts that the economics of nuclear energy are not the most influential reason for no nuclear new build in the us

not your average job measuring farm labor in tanzania a good understanding of the constraints on agricultural growth in africa relies on the accurate measurement of smallholder labor yet serious weaknesses in these statistics persist the extent of bias in smallholder labor data is examined by conducting a randomized survey experiment among farming households in rural tanzania agricultural labor estimates obtained through weekly surveys are compared with the results of reporting in a single end of season recall survey the findings show strong evidence of recall bias people in traditional recall style modules report working up to four times as many hours per person plot relative to those reporting labor on a weekly basis if hours are aggregated to the household level however this discrepancy disappears a factor driven by the underreporting by recall households of people and plots active in agricultural work the evidence suggests that these competing forms of recall bias are driven not only by failures in memory but also by the mental burdens of reporting on highly variable agricultural work patterns to provide a typical estimate all things equal studies suffering from this bias would understate agricultural labor productivity

estimation and welfare calculations in a generalized corner solution model with an application to recreation demand the kuhn tucker model of wales and woodland 1983 provides a utility theoretic framework for estimating preferences over commodities for which individuals choose not to consume one or more of the goods due to the complexity of the model however there have been few applications in the literature and little attention has been paid to the problems of welfare analysis within the kuhn tucker framework this paper provides an application of the model to the problem of recreation demand in addition we develop and apply a methodology for estimating compensating variation relying on monte carlo integration to derive expected welfare changes

optimal taxation with costly enforcement and evasion abstract this paper analyzes the relationship between optimal taxation and optimal tax enforcement a central question concerns the extent to which revenue should be raised through higher tax rates which distort behavior or greater enforcement which distorts behavior and also entails direct resource costs in the models examined some expenditure on enforcement may be optimal despite its resource cost its distortionary effect and the availability of other revenue sources having no enforcement costs rules for optimal tax rates and enforcement expenditures are derived which also indicate the marginal cost of government funds and optimal enforcement priorities for a tax collection agency

is increasing inorganic fertilizer use for maize production in ssa a profitable proposition evidence from nigeria inorganic fertilizer use across sub saharan africa is generally considered to be low yet the notion that fertilizer use is too low is predicated on the assumption that it is profitable to use rates higher than currently observed there is however limited empirical evidence to support this using a nationally representative panel dataset this paper empirically estimates the profitability of fertilizer use for maize production in nigeria we find that fertilizer use in nigeria is not as low as conventional wisdom suggests low marginal physical product and high transportation costs significantly reduce the profitability of fertilizer use apart from reduced transportation costs other constraints such as soil quality timely access to the product and availability of complementary inputs such as improved seeds irrigation and credit as well as good management practices are also necessary for sustained agricultural productivity improvements

the labor supply of married men a switching regressions model according to the family utility function approach the labor supply functions of married men should differ according to whether their wives also work in this paper i explicitly model the switching nature of labor supply while also accounting for the endogeneity of the labor force participation decision of the wife using an endogenous switching regressions model based on the quadratic family utility function the model is estimated from a cross section of 1 210 married couples from the panel study of income dynamics

modelling socio economic and energy data to generate business as usual scenarios for carbon emissions abstract the uk government is legally committed to achieving an 80 reduction in carbon dioxide emissions compared with 1990 by 2050 the use of scenarios is wide ranging to inform policy development and forming a business as usual scenario helps to understand possible effects of different policy interventions however the term business as usual is frequently misused we show how econo physical business as usual scenarios can be developed by examining the historical behaviour of coefficients which manifest the relationship between components of an economy we endogenise economic growth by mimicking national level policies that focus on a target level of unemployment our case study demonstrates the trendability of coefficients which for one example coefficient is replicated for australia colombia taiwan and the usa we manifest a gross domestic product growth of 2 falling to 1 which contrasts with an exogenous growth of 2 3 of a comparator business as usual scenario we suggest that it may be possible to achieve a greater reduction in the business as usual carbon dioxide emissions in the uk fifth carbon budget than currently projected

how high are rates of return to fertilizer evidence from field experiments in kenya the idea that peasant farmers are rational profit maximizers has been a staple of development economics since theodore schultz 1964 it has also been influential in shaping policy for example agricultural experts have stressed the importance of fertilizer use in raising agricultural yields pointing to impressive results on experimental farms and to huge differences in agricultural productivity across countries with different levels of fertilizer use robert evenson and douglas gollin 2003 historically many countries subsidized fertilizer in response but economists have been skeptical of claims that farmers are leaving money on the table noting that fertilizer may not have the same returns on real world farms as on experimental farms that returns to fertilizer may be low for many farmers even if they are high on average tavneet suri 2007 that fertilizer may require complementary inputs or may be risky many countries have withdrawn or scaled back fertilizer psychology and development theory and experimental evidence

mexican energy policy and sustainability indicators abstract the authors analyze the mexican energy policy taking as reference the methodological framework for sustainable energy development proposed by the economic commission for latin america and the caribbean this methodology takes eight related indicators to the social environmental and economic dimensions in order to calculate a general sustainability indicator for the energy sector in this methodology the weight of each dimension is different namely the social and environmental issues have less relevance than the economic issues the authors use this methodology because government institutions as the department of energy and the department of environment and natural resources have used some indicators from such a methodology to propose plans programs projects and bills authors know of the existence of other methodologies about sustainability nonetheless opting for the economic commission for latin america and the caribbean s methodology is convenient because this organization is a respectable authority for civil servants from the mexican institutions our objective is just to contrast the sustainability grade of the energy sector between 1990 and 2008 for mexico whose government started reforms in the 1990s it concludes that those reforms did not bring about a higher sustainability level for the energy sector

carbon reduction scenarios for 2050 an explorative analysis of public preferences this paper presents an analysis of public preferences for a low carbon future uk and compares them with three future scenarios proposed by the uk government based on data from 10 983 self selected participants who engaged in the uk department of energy and climate change my2050 online simulation participants expressed a stronger preference for demand side options than for supply side ones they also chose fuel switching to electricity and technical energy efficiency measures above more behaviour focused options renewable energy options wind solar marine and hydro were preferred to other low carbon supply options nuclear power carbon capture and storage with offshore wind power more popular than onshore nuclear power was the least popular generation option acceptability of the government s three proposed scenarios was tested by comparing these scenarios with the research findings greatest support was suggested for the two scenarios emphasising business greenness home energy efficiency electrification of home heating and travel behaviour the lowest level of support was demonstrated for the scenario based on significant growth in nuclear power with minimal increases in energy efficiency despite issues regarding the representivity of the sampled respondents the work demonstrates the possibility of using outputs from the tool to assess publically preferred pathways

the welfare cost of the underground economy this paper estimates the welfare cost of taxes that create an incentive for resources to flow to the underground or untaxed sector in the united states using a general equilibrium model of the american economy the welfare cost is found to be large and growing in absolute and relative terms over time in 1980 the welfare cost may be as much as 220 billion or over 9 percent of output even conservative estimates place the loss at nearly 100 billion it also is found that small reductions in tax rates substantially reduce the welfare cost

nudging farmers to use fertilizer theory and experimental evidence from kenya we model farmers as facing small fixed costs of purchasing fertil izer and assume some are stochastically present biased and not fully sophisticated about this bias such farmers may procrastinate post poning fertilizer purchases until later periods when they may be too impatient to purchase fertilizer consistent with the model many farmers in western kenya fail to take advantage of apparently profit able fertilizer investments but they do invest in response to small time limited discounts on the cost of acquiring fertilizer free deliv ery just after harvest calibration suggests that this policy can yield higher welfare than either laissez faire policies or heavy subsidies

tax revenue and the marginal cost of public funds in sweden abstract we assess the welfare cost of raising a marginal unit of tax revenue in a balanced budget general equilibrium framework the calculated social cost of an increment of public funds is sensitive to both the specific type of tax increase and the type of public spending used on the margin best guess assumptions on labor supply elasticities yield marginal costs of public funds for different fiscal mixes of between 0 67 and 4 51 at prevailing tax rates in sweden alternative labor supply assumptions well within the range of current estimates substantially affect the results and can imply infinite marginal welfare costs marginal welfare costs are also sensitive to assumptions about both the income and substitution effects of labor supply

income tax evasion labour supply and the equity efficiency tradeoff abstract this paper is an attempt to incorporate tax evasion into the analysis of optimum income taxation a model of variable labour supply with tax evasion is used to derive supply functions for labour in regular and irregular markets given taxpayer behaviour the government chooses tax rates penalties and the probability of detection to maximize a utilitarian social welfare function the results consist in the derivation of a formula for the optimum marginal tax rate and a characterization of the factors determining the choice between the penalty rate and the probability of detection as instruments for the control of tax evasion

utility based estimation of labour supply functions in the regular and irregular sectors recent theoretical work on labor supply has shown that the tax and transfer system can induce some individuals to work in the irregular labor market models designed to represent such behavior are unable to sign unambiguously the impact of the marginal tax rate as well as many key exogenous parameters on the hours supplied in the irregular market except under strong restrictions on preferences in this paper the authors estimate a simultaneous labor supply model that allows testing some of the more common assumptions found in the literature using a unique data set on the underground economy of the metropolitan area of quebec city canada estimates of elasticities with respect to predetermined variables are presented moreover they test and empirically reject the assumptions of perfect substitution between regular and irregular work activities as well as additive separability of the utility function copyright 1992 by royal economic society

indicators for energy security the concept of energy security is widely used yet there is no consensus on its precise interpretation in this research we have provided an overview of available indicators for long term security of supply sos we distinguished four dimensions of energy security that relate to the availability accessibility affordability and acceptability of energy and classified indicators for energy security according to this taxonomy there is no one ideal indicator as the notion of energy security is highly context dependent rather applying multiple indicators leads to a broader understanding incorporating these indicators in model based scenario analysis showed accelerated depletion of currently known fossil resources due to increasing global demand coupled with increasing spatial discrepancy between consumption and production international trade in energy carriers is projected to have increased by 142 in 2050 compared to 2008 oil production is projected to become increasingly concentrated in a few countries up to 2030 after which production from other regions diversifies the market under stringent climate policies this diversification may not occur due to reduced demand for oil possible benefits of climate policy include increased fuel diversity and slower depletion of fossil resources

assessment of sustainability indicators for renewable energy technologies the non combustion based renewable electricity generation technologies were assessed against a range of sustainability indicators and using data obtained from the literature the indicators used to assess each technology were price of generated electricity greenhouse gas emissions during full life cycle of the technology availability of renewable sources efficiency of energy conversion land requirements water consumption and social impacts the cost of electricity greenhouse gas emissions and the efficiency of electricity generation were found to have a very wide range for each technology mainly due to variations in technological options as well as geographical dependence of each renewable energy source the social impacts were assessed qualitatively based on the major individual impacts discussed in literature renewable energy technologies were then ranked against each indicator assuming that indicators have equal importance for sustainable development it was found that wind power is the most sustainable followed by hydropower photovoltaic and then geothermal wind power was identified with the lowest relative greenhouse gas emissions the least water consumption demands and with the most favourable social impacts comparing to other technologies but requires larger land and has high relative capital costs

tax evasion is not a gamble a report on two experiments abstract a tax evasion experiment and an equivalent gambling experiment indicate that contrary to the standard model of evasion tax evasion and gambling are quite different although the standard model provides a good basis for analysis of evasion

are kenyan farmers under utilizing fertilizer implications for input intensification strategies and research abstract it is widely perceived that african farmers are under utilizing inorganic fertilizer however very little long term evidence from farmers fields accounting for variations in agro ecological conditions has been assembled to back this claim or determine the conditions under which it is true using five waves of nationwide household survey data from kenya covering 13 years we estimate the relative and absolute profitability of nitrogen application rates on maize fields and compare these profitability conditions to observed nitrogen use patterns over time in general we find that farmers are consistently and steadily increasing towards risk adjusted economically optimal rates of fertilizer application over time and that in the most agriculturally productive areas farmers application rates on maize sometimes exceed rates that maximize profitability fertilizer use rates may nevertheless be profitably raised in these areas but doing so will require the adoption of complementary inputs and management practices that raise maize response rates to fertilizer application this motivates a more holistic approach to input intensification strategies in the region

the complex dynamics of smallholder technology adoption the case of sri in madagascar this article explores the dynamics of smallholder technology adoption with particular reference to a high yielding low external input rice production method in madagascar we present a simple model of technology adoption by farm households in an environment of incomplete financial and land markets we then use a probit model and symmetrically censored least squares estimation of a dynamic tobit model to analyze the decisions to adopt expand and disadopt the method we find that seasonal liquidity constraints discourage adoption by poorer farmers learning effects both from extension agents and from other farmers exert significant influence over adoption decisions

factors explaining the low and variable profitability of fertilizer application to maize in zambia it is widely recognized that an african green revolution will require greater use of inorganic fertilizers often made comparisons note that fertilizer use rates in africa are just 10 20 of those in asia europe and the americas most attempts to explain relatively low adoption of fertilizer assume yield responses to inorganic fertilization warrant higher application rates and hypothesize that observed use rates are limited by market based factors another explanation may be that application rates are low because african yields are less responsive to inorganic fertilizer than yields in other regions and less responsive than analysts perceive examining the case of zambia we evaluate whether yield response to fertilizers could explain adoption and application rates a model of yield response is constructed and a combination of estimators is employed to mitigate potential biases related to correlation between fertilizer use and unobserved heterogeneity as well as stochastic shocks results indicate higher fertilization rates would be marginally profitable or unprofitable in many cases given commercial fertilizer and maize prices phosphoric fertilizer is particularly unprofitable on acidic soils which are common in zambia and other areas of sub saharan africa we propose feasible recommendations for diversifying the current government strategy to enhance crop productivity

the precarious consensus on the importance of energy security contrasting views between swiss energy users and experts abstract consented visions of a secure energy system are a driving force for energy policies and projects but while there used to exist a fairly uniform understanding of energy security in recent years competing visions have emerged examples include autarchic regional energy systems and highly integrated international ones each of these follows its own energy security logic this paper explores linkages between individuals understanding of energy security and their preferences for different energy visions comparing energy users and experts it draws from two consecutive studies in switzerland the first is a series of 12 qualitative interviews among energy system experts who reveal a strong preference for an integrated energy system that is based on high quality infrastructure this stands in contrast to the countries predominant paradigm of independence which is not only present in the public discourse but also in national energy policies the second study is an online survey that finds differences between energy users n 194 and experts n 98 understanding of energy security experts tend to see energy security primarily as the absence of supply disruptions whereas energy users tend to take a long term perspective and to include additional aspects in their considerations such as environmental concerns thus the societal consensus on the importance of energy security is a precarious one conflicts about the meaning of energy security can strip the concept of its power to be a building block of societal energy visions decision makers in policy and the energy sector therefore need to be aware that a shared understanding of energy security cannot be taken for granted they should also recognize energy security as a strong argument for promoting renewables however it will not suffice to refer to a specific renewable project as beneficial for energy security conveying its benefits from an energy security perspective requires knowledge of key actors understandings of this complex concept

energy sustainability from analysis of sustainable development indicators a case study in taiwan abstract as taiwan has a dense population and only limited natural resources the government began actively establishing a taiwan s sustainable development indicators tsdi system in 2003 which was developed with reference to the pressure state response psr framework to evaluate the progress towards sustainability energy is a very important factor in leading to sustainable development at the national level however there are only two indicators concerning the energy sustainability in the tsdi system this paper summarizes the current status of energy supply energy consumption carbon dioxide co 2 emissions and renewable energy production since the year 2000 the updated information on the tsdi was also addressed and analyzed to imply the progress towards energy sustainability during 2000 2008 finally the weighted sum method was proposed to make an analysis of energy sustainability from taiwan s renewable energy production showing that this country has experienced a significant progress toward energy sustainability in recent years

understanding social acceptance of electricity generation sources abstract social acceptability is a determinant factor in the failure or success of the government s decisions about which electricity generation sources will satisfy the growing demand for energy the main goal of this study was to validate a causal trust acceptability model for electricity generation sources in the model social acceptance of an energy source is directly caused by perceived risk and benefit and also by social trust in regulatory agencies both directly and indirectly through perceived risk and benefit results from a web based survey of chilean university students demonstrated that data for energy sources that are controversial in chilean society fossil fuels hydro and nuclear power fit the hypothesized model whereas data for non conventional renewable energy sources solar wind geothermal and tidal did not perceived benefit had the greatest total effect on acceptability thus emerging as a key predictive factor of social acceptability of controversial electricity generation sources further implications for regulatory agencies are discussed

can modern input use be promoted without subsidies an analysis of fertilizer in ethiopia fertilizer use in ethiopia has nearly quintupled since official elimination of direct input subsidies in the early 1990s during this time policies changed from liberalization with both private and public sector participation to a government monopoly over imports along with exclusive marketing through farmers cooperatives this article presents estimates of detail costs and margins in the value chain econometrically derived profitability and yield responses as well as costs of the government s fertilizer promotion policies results suggest that a irrespective of the methods of calculation fertilizer use in major cereal is profitable b while there is no official subsidy program fertilizer promotion has involved large fiscal costs estimated at us 40 million per year since 2008 and c there has been a mismatch between government s policy targets and the effective fertilizer demand resulting in large carryover stock with estimated implicit costs of us 30 million per year during 2008 2011 areas of policy attention value chain improvements and ongoing efforts to improve for fertilizer use and profitability are discussed

citizens preferences on nuclear and renewable energy sources evidence from turkey abstract based on data from a face to face survey of 2422 residents from urban turkey this paper presents an analysis of citizens preferences in turkey on nuclear and renewable energy sources findings indicate that opposition to nuclear power was strong and only a small number of respondents endorsed it by listing it in their top two choices conversely almost two thirds of the sample endorsed investment in renewable energy sources such as wind and solar and only a small minority was opposed to it econometric analyses revealed that knowledge of the climate change problem was a common factor that explained endorsement of both nuclear and renewables yet high levels of concern for the environment and a negative perception regarding its future differentiated the endorsers of renewables from those of nuclear energy endorsers of nuclear energy were found to be males who were knowledgeable about climate change and engaged in environmental issues but less concerned about the environment and optimistic about its future nuclear opponents on the other hand were found to be concerned about the environment pessimistic about its future and not fully relying on technology