renewable energy in pacific small island developing states the role of international aid and the enabling environment from donor s perspectives abstract dependency on fossil fuels is an issue for numerous countries and in particular it is an acutely challenging problem for pacific small island developing states for the utilization of renewable energy in pacific small island developing states donor agencies and international organizations play major roles in funding this study introduces the nature of the past renewable energy projects in pacific small island developing states and in the process clarifies the contribution of international aid to renewable energy deployment thereafter the paper identifies the most important factors related to enhancing an enabling environment for the introduction of renewable energy in pacific small island developing states and the relative importance of these factors with a special focus on donors perspectives the paper clarifies that approximately 1 5 billion usd 2011 was received by pacific small island developing states over the 44 years from 1970 to 2014 as funding for renewable energy projects that included funding for hardware and the amount of aid allocated for renewable energy in the region greatly varies between countries the paper also identifies the important factors that can enhance an enabling environment for the introduction of renewable energy and the relative importance of these factors some of the highlighted implications that can be made from the findings of the research are 1 high renewable energy targets need to be supported by well structured action plans 2 there is a need for an effective regulatory body responsible for renewable energy and 3 the financial aspects of utilities are of higher importance than technological aspects of utilities

energy policy aid and the development of renewable energy resources in small island developing states abstract small island developing states sids have established ambitious renewable energy targets the promotion of renewable energy has been motivated by several factors a desire to lessen dependence on fossil fuels to attract development assistance in the energy sector and to strengthen the position of sids in climate change negotiations here we explore the interplay between the role of aid and energy policy in the development of renewable energy resources in sids we find that the importance of development assistance has implications for the sustainability of renewable energy development given that funding is not always accompanied by necessary energy policy reforms we also identify energy efficiency and access to modern energy services as having received insufficient attention in the establishment and structure of renewable energy targets in sids and argue that this is problematic due to the strong economic case for such investments

investor sentiment and the financial crisis a sentiment based portfolio theory perspective the article proposes a portfolio model subjected to a constraint that captures the investor s goal with maximum estimation of expected return that is affected by investor sentiment and we give a solution of the portfolio model by exploring the geometric features furthermore we discuss the relationship between investor sentiment and the financial crisis by analysing the optimal allocation the results show that when investor sentiment is low enough the investor should reject the investment this condition leads the depression financial market to prevail then the financial crisis erupts when investor sentiment is modest the financial crisis is difficult to erupt unless the decline of investor sentiment is quick and deep but there is a special status that the financial crisis is caused by other factors rather than by investor sentiment and only improving investor sentiment cannot move away from the financial crisis

the floor leverage rule for retirement the floor leverage rule is a spending and investment strategy designed for retirees who can tolerate investment risk but insist on sustainable spending the rule calls for purchasing a spending guarantee with 85 of wealth and investing the remaining 15 in equities with 3 leverage surprisingly this leverage is a tool for managing risk the authors compare the rule with some popular strategies illustrate it for a variety of retiree preferences and evaluate its historical performance

implementing the uruguay round agreements problems for developing countries unilateral removal of trade restrictions is good economics but it is often bad domestic politics gatt negotiations for 50 years provided a mechanism to overcome this political incorrectness the uruguay round carried multilateral negotiations into many new areas with more complex economics areas of regulation that establish the basic business environment in the domestic economy e g technical sanitary and phytosanitary standards intellectual property law doing these things is costly and you can get it wrong the economic correctness is not so simple as the economic correctness of removing trade restrictions making economic sense in these areas requires cost benefit analysis experimentation projects tailored to specific problems some developing countries would benefit from reforms in the new areas but the uruguay round requirements do not identify the problems that exist in developing countries and they consequently demand establishment of institutions and regulations that will impose higher costs than benefits on the countries that implement them implementation issues are development issues not trade issues the procedures of the world bank are suited to taking on such matters those of the wto are not

opening up and transition success and problems financing and reforms of the electric power sector in latin america and the caribbean abstract financing problems triggered the wave of electric power sector reforms in latin america and the caribbean the reforms in turn have changed the functioning of financing in the power sector financial institutions have continually adapted their instruments existing sources of capital have stepped up investing in the sector and new financial sources have emerged this paper reviews the evolution of financing and its interplay with legal and structural reforms and property rights changes in the electric power sector of latin america and the caribbean it classifies sector development in the region by reform strategies and their consequences for financing finally it conducts an assessment using criteria such as sector financing sector efficiency general economic efficiency economic development objectives and the environment it finds that the different reform and financing strategies have distinctive impacts on the sustainable development of the sector through their impacts on the choice of generating technology and fuel on the contribution of cogeneration and renewable energy sources on participation of national capital and national human capital formation and on rational use of energy

portfolio selection with mental accounts and delegation das et al 2010 develop an elegant framework where an investor selects portfolios within mental accounts but ends up holding an aggregate portfolio on the mean variance frontier this investor directly allocates the wealth in each account among available assets in practice however investors often delegate the task of allocating wealth among assets to portfolio managers who seek to beat certain benchmarks accordingly we extend their framework to the case where the investor allocates the wealth in each account among portfolio managers our contribution is threefold first we provide an analytical characterization of the existence and composition of the optimal portfolios within accounts and the aggregate portfolio second we present conditions under which such portfolios are not on the mean variance frontier and conditions under which they are third we show that the aforementioned analytical characterization is also applicable within the framework of das et al and thus improves upon their numerical approach

portfolio optimization with mental accounts we integrate appealing features of markowitz s mean variance portfolio theory mvt 4 and shefrin and statman s behavioral portfolio theory bpt into a new mental accounting 5 ma framework features of the ma framework include an ma structure of portfolios 6 a definition of risk as the probability of failing to reach the threshold level in each mental 7 account and attitudes toward risk that vary by account we demonstrate a mathematical 8 equivalence between mvt ma and risk management using value at risk var the ag9

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

renewable energy support mechanisms in the gulf cooperation council states analyzing the feasibility of feed in tariffs and auction mechanisms renewable energy will be a crucial ingredient in the transition to a more sustainable future the renewable energy sector requires a variety of financial support mechanisms in order to further consolidate and expand currently the most prominent renewable energy support mechanisms are feed in tariffs and renewable energy auctions although these mechanisms have been used and analyzed extensively in western countries and more recently economies in transition they have rarely been examined in the arab gulf region yet particularly the gulf cooperation council gcc states have undertaken important steps towards renewable energy adoption which could be greatly facilitated with the use of financial support mechanisms this paper analyzes the feasibility of feed in tariffs and renewable energy auctions adoption in gcc based on an extensive meta analysis of the literature on these two mechanisms in both developed and developing countries the paper identifies a set of conditions necessary for success and evaluates the presence of favorable these conditions in the gcc context our findings reveal that while conditions that would ensure political feasibility are largely absent for both types of mechanisms auctions could be a more successful strategy at the moment

bank regulation and international financial stability a case against the 2006 basel framework for controlling tail risk in trading books abstract in attempting to promote international financial stability the basel committee on banking supervision 2006 provided a framework that sought to control the amount of tail risk that large banks around the world would take in their trading books relative to their corresponding minimum capital requirements however many of these banks suffered significant trading losses during the recent financial crisis our paper examines whether the basel framework allowed banks to take substantive tail risk in their trading books without a capital requirement penalty we find that it allowed banks to do so and that its minimum capital requirements can be notably procyclical hence focusing on the way the basel framework sought to control the amount of tail risk in trading books relative to their corresponding minimum capital requirements our paper supports the view that it was not properly designed to promote financial stability we also discuss alternative regulatory frameworks that would potentially be more effective than the basel framework in preventing banks from taking substantive tail risk in their trading books without a capital requirement penalty

markowitz with regret abstract providing a framework to integrate regret as an additional decision criterion in markowitz s model of portfolio selection we propose two different views on regret an investor might feel regret with respect to the ex post best alternative either in terms of return or in terms of preference value under both views regret can be captured by adjusting the vector of expected returns or alternatively by adjusting the return covariance matrix retaining the tractability of the markowitz model the regret model however has very different implications for how asset characteristics affect optimal portfolios while the impact of the skewness of an asset is strengthened the impact of the variance shrinks moreover we show for a variety of real portfolios that the effects of regret on optimal portfolio weights and the ex ante return distribution are large

renewable energy sector development in the caribbean current trends and lessons from history island regions and isolated communities represent an understudied area of not only clean energy development but also of innovation caribbean states have for some time shown interest in developing a regional sustainable energy policy and in implementing measures which could help to protect its member states from volatile oil markets while promoting reliance on local resources here we examine four case studies of renewable energy advancements being made by public utility companies and independent energy companies in the caribbean we attempt to locate renewable energy advances in a broader historical framework of energy sector development indicating a few policy lessons we find that different degrees of regulatory and legislative sophistication have evolved in different islands islands should have specialized policy focus contrasting the ad hoc nature of current regional energy policy discussion we also conduct a cost benefit analysis which shows that these early innovative alternative energy projects show themselves to be both profitable and significant sources of emissions reduction and job creation this lends support to the potential benefits of regional energy policy

power sector reform in small island developing states what role for renewable energy technologies abstract due to various pressures and desires more and more developing countries embark on power sector reform programmes yet there are a wide range of reform options and at present insufficient evidence is available as to which path will deliver best the desired objectives presently most small island developing states sids are dependent on high cost fossil fuel imports for power generation in spite of evidence that harnessing abundant domestic renewable sources of energy can deliver environmental social and economic benefits however depending on the type of power sector reform the transition towards renewable energy technologies rets can be either undermined or facilitated the specific focus on sids is justified because they have inherent characteristics that limit the degree to which the power sector can be transformed in comparison to larger continental developing countries with specific reference to sids this manuscript reviews the drivers and desires for power sector reform as well as presenting the available reform options and their implications on the up take of rets in addition to elaborating aspects of market governance other barriers to the consideration of rets such as financial bias in investment human capacity and environmental policy are discussed in view of this discussion which is based on evidence from recent reform programmes and theoretical academic literature recommendations are formulated that discourage full privatisation of the power sector as well as proposing less dogmatic lending conditions by international assistance bodies

power sector reform in developing countries mismatched agendas power sector reform is rapidly spreading across all corners of the developing world at an alarmingly rapid pace while the rationales for reform seem to have gained acceptance among the stakeholders the reform model and process are contested this paper examines the impacts of reform using the promised outcomes as a basis for analysis the ability of reform to meet the developmental challenges facing the reformers is explored it concludes that reform has had some achievements if conventional performance indicators are used but also questions the validity of some of these indicators reform has however not fulfilled many of its goals and the prevailing recipes are likely to leave developing countries socially and economically worse off than in the pre reform period progressive government intervention is needed to shift reform process towards a more responsible development path

financing investments in renewable energy the impacts of policy design abstract the costs of electric power projects utilizing renewable energy technologies rets are highly sensitive to financing terms consequently as the electricity industry is restructured and new renewables policies are created it is important for policymakers to consider the impacts of renewables policy design on ret financing this paper reviews the power plant financing process for renewable energy projects estimates the impact of financing terms on levelized energy costs and provides insights to policymakers on the important nexus between renewables policy design and financing we review five case studies of renewable energy policies and find that one of the key reasons that ret policies are not more effective is that project development and financing processes are frequently ignored or misunderstood when designing and implementing renewable energy policies the case studies specifically show that policies that do not provide long term stability or that have negative secondary impacts on investment decisions will increase financing costs sometimes dramatically reducing the effectiveness of the program within u s electricity restructuring proceedings new renewable energy policies are being created and restructuring itself is changing the way rets are financed as these new policies are created and implemented it is essential that policymakers acknowledge the financing difficulties faced by renewables developers and pay special attention to the impacts of renewables policy design on financing as shown in this paper a renewables policy that is carefully designed can reduce renewable energy costs dramatically by providing revenue certainty that will in turn reduce financing risk premiums

food safety issues trade and wto rules a developing country perspective the sps agreement and the related wto dispute settlement mechanism are an important first step in strengthening the global trade architecture bringing in greater transparency and orderly conditions to world food trade however implementation of the new trade rules has turned out to be a more complex task than the traditional market access issues handled by the wto several factors including inadequate financial and technical resources have constrained devel oping countries from becoming effective participants in the implementation process and there is widespread suspicion that sps regulations are being used as hidden protectionist devices by developed countries however despite all the problems some developing countries have been quite successful in penetrating developed country food markets they have done so by accepting the consumer preferences and standards in quality sensitive high income markets and implementing domestic supply side measures while making full use of available international assistance initiatives developing countries should view the task of complying with sps standards not just as a barrier but also as an opportunity to upgrade quality standards and market sophistication in the food export sector

active portfolio management with benchmarking adding a value at risk constraint abstract we examine the impact of adding a value at risk var constraint to the problem of an active manager who seeks to outperform a benchmark while minimizing tracking error variance tev by using the model of roll 1992 a mean variance analysis of tracking error journal of portfolio management 18 13 22 we obtain three main results first portfolios on the constrained mean tev boundary still exhibit three fund separation but the weights of the three funds when the constraint binds differ from those in roll s model second the constraint mitigates the problem that when an active manager seeks to outperform a benchmark using the mean tev model he or she selects an inefficient portfolio finally when short sales are disallowed the extent to which the constraint reduces the optimal portfolio s efficiency loss can still be notable but is smaller than when short sales are allowed

fuelling the pacific aid for renewable energy across pacific island countries abstract pacific island countries have strong economic political and environmental incentives to switch from imported fossil fuels to indigenous renewable energy technologies and are well positioned to achieve such a switch given their ample renewable energy potential as well as their ambitious renewable energy goals for the pacific island countries to reach these goals however they depend on donor funding this paper therefore analyses energy related aid to the south pacific from 1990 through 2012 and specifically evaluates its development in three areas energy technology grid vs off grid solutions and project components using data from the organisation of economic cooperation and development i find a recent shift in donor thinking donors have over the past years put greater emphasis on renewable energy especially hydro and increasingly solar power donors have also invested more in off grid solutions often solar powered finally donors have begun to focus more on software that is capacity building training and policy making if pacific island countries together with the donors continue on this path they are well positioned to reach their ambitious renewable energy goals and to serve as an example for other countries both developing and developed islands and non islands

small island developing states and their economic vulnerabilities abstract many small island developing states sids face special disadvantages associated with small size insularity remoteness and proneness to natural disasters these factors render the economies of these states very vulnerable to forces outside their control a condition which sometimes threatens their very economic viability the gdp or gnp per capita of these states often conceals this reality in this paper the major vulnerabilities faced by sids are discussed and when possible quantified in the form of an index an attempt is also made to construct a composite index of vulnerability

behavioral portfolio theory we develop a positive behavioral portfolio theory bpt and explore its implications for portfolio construction and security design the optimal portfolios of bpt investors resemble combinations of bonds and lottery tickets consistent with friedman and savage s 1948 observation we compare the bpt efficient frontier with the mean variance efficient frontier and show that in general the two frontiers do not coincide optimal bpt portfolios are also different from optimal capm portfolios in particular the capm twofund separation does not hold in bpt we present bpt in a single mental account version bpt sa and a multiple mental account version bpt ma bpt sa investors integrate their portfolios into a single mental account while bpt ma investors segregate their port folios into several mental accounts bpt ma portfolios resemble layered pyramids where layers are associated with aspirations we explore a two layer portfolio where the low aspiration layer is designed to avoid poverty while the high aspiration layer is designed for a shot at riches

the role of international and national agencies in trade related capacity building with increased recognition that trade can bring significant benefits to developing countries and the launch of a new trade round bilateral and multilateral agencies have begun to mobilise resources for trade related capacity building trcb the biggest challenge is to ensure that available resources are effectively utilised to deliver tangible benefits to developing countries this paper argues that the effective delivery of trcb relates specifically to two areas in country to help formulate appropriate trade positions as well as to place trade reform in the context of the country s overall development strategy that will promote a supply response and facilitate pro poor growth and secondly within the global rule making process to ensure that implementation of wto rules and efforts to negotiate and implement future disciplines makes sense from a development perspective and that trcb is considered in the context of other competing development needs the paper elaborates an issues based approach to bring the main providers to trcb and bilateral donors together to support recipient countries to include a trade agenda in their overall development strategy and to facilitate developing country participation and implementation of wto agreements that could be formulated within the global trade rules

portfolio selection with qualitative input abstract we formulate a mean variance portfolio selection problem that accommodates qualitative input about expected returns and provide an algorithm that solves the problem this model and algorithm can be used for example when a portfolio manager determines that one industry will benefit more from a regulatory change than another but is unable to quantify the degree of difference qualitative views are expressed in terms of linear inequalities among expected returns our formulation builds on the black litterman model for portfolio selection the algorithm makes use of an adaptation of the hit and run method for markov chain monte carlo simulation we also present computational results that illustrate advantages of our approach over alternative heuristic methods for incorporating qualitative input

foundations of portfolio theory prize lecture to the memory of alfred nobel december 7 1990 this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

options and structured products in behavioral portfolios abstract options and structured products have no roles in mean variance portfolios but they have roles in behavioral portfolios behavioral portfolios are composed of mental account sub portfolios each associated with a goal such as retirement income or bequest investors optimize each mental account by finding the assets and asset allocation that maximizes the expected return of each mental account sub portfolio subject to the condition that the probability of failing to reach a preset threshold aspiration level not exceed a preset probability put options are useful in downside protection mental accounts whose goal is avoiding poverty whereas call options are useful in upside potential mental accounts whose goal is a shot at riches we also explore the roles in behavioral portfolios of option collars capital guaranteed notes and barrier range notes

green electricity in the market place the policy challenge the paper explores the implications of the liberalization of electricity markets in europe and north america for policy means and mechanisms to enhance the market penetration of renewables applying a co evolutionary approach the argument highlights the need for policy intervention to help producers and consumers move out of technological trajectories favoring non renewable electricity on the production side energy generation is locked into the central power station system deriving from more than a hundred years of technological development along a specific system trajectory on the consumption side the locked in effect results from a similarly long experience with electricity provision by monopoly suppliers and the associated lack of consumer choice and responsibility for product differentiation as the analysis shows policy strategies targeting both the production and consumption sides of the electricity market are needed for effective intervention furthermore policy strategies should draw on a clear analysis of the inertia and dynamism underlying the production and consumption of electricity in the light of such evolutionary dynamics the analysis demonstrates the insufficiency of the policy approaches currently employed to foster the market share of renewables based electricity instead the authors suggest a reflexive policy approach to initiate and support a reorientation towards green electricity emphasizing the need for learning and communication between and among societal actors

cross selling investment products with a win win perspective in portfolio optimization we propose a novel approach to cross selling investment products that considers both the customers and the bank s interests our goal is to improve the risk return profile of the customer s portfolio and the bank s profitability concurrently essentially creating a win win situation while deepening the relationship with an acceptable product our cross selling approach takes the customer s status quo bias into account by starting from the existing customer portfolio rather than forming an efficient portfolio from scratch we estimate a customer s probability of accepting a product offer with a predictive model using readily available data then we model the investment product cross selling problem as a nonlinear mixed integer program that maximizes a customer s expected return from the proposed portfolio while ensuring that the bank s profitability improves by a certain factor we implemented our methodology at the private banking division of yapi kredi the fourth largest private bank in turkey emp

portfolio selection with mental accounts and background risk abstract das et al 2010 develop a model where an investor divides his or her wealth among mental accounts with motives such as retirement and bequest nevertheless the investor ends up selecting portfolios within mental accounts and an aggregate portfolio that lie on the mean variance frontier importantly they assume that the investor only faces portfolio risk in practice however many individuals also face background risk accordingly our paper expands upon theirs by considering the case where the investor faces background risk our contribution is threefold first we provide an analytical characterization of the existence and composition of the optimal portfolios within accounts and the aggregate portfolio second we show that these portfolios lie away from the mean variance frontier under fairly general conditions third we find that the composition and location of such portfolios can differ notably from those of portfolios on the mean variance frontier

portfolio selection through maslow s need hierarchy theory inspired by maslow s need hierarchy theory we construct a new portfolio selection framework using the bi level optimization technique in which the lower level need relates to safety low risk whi

an economic analysis for the design of ipp contracts for grid connected renewable energy projects abstract in this paper we undertake an integrated financial economic stakeholder analysis of a grid connected onshore wind project that is owned and operated by an independent power producer ipp in santiago island cape verde this ipp project has received considerable positive publicity and has won many awards cape verde has a very good wind resource but it suffers from high transportation costs for petroleum fuels due to its location hence it would appear to be an ideal site for an ipp investment in a wind farm this analysis is conducted from the perspectives of the electric utility the country s economy the government and the private sector investor the key question is whether the design of the power purchase agreement ppa can simultaneously yield a high enough cash flow for the project to be bankable while at the same time yielding a positive net financial and economic present value to the electric utility and the country respectively the analysis shows that a negotiated ppa results in a negative outcome for the economy of cape verde in almost all circumstances in contrast the owners of the ipp are guaranteed under all circumstances a very substantial return on their investment

mean variance portfolio selection with at risk constraints and discrete distributions we examine the impact of adding either a var or a cvar constraint to the mean variance model when security returns are assumed to have a discrete distribution with finitely many jump points three main results are obtained first portfolios on the var constrained boundary exhibit k 2 fund separation where k is the number of states for which the portfolios suffer losses equal to the var bound second portfolios on the cvar constrained boundary exhibit k 3 fund separation where k is the number of states for which the portfolios suffer losses equal to their vars third an example illustrates that while the var of the cvar constrained optimal portfolio is close to that of the var constrained optimal portfolio the cvar of the former is notably smaller than that of the latter this result suggests that a cvar constraint is more effective than a var constraint to curtail large losses in the mean variance model 2007 elsevier b v all rights reserved

international portfolio selection with exchange rate risk a behavioural portfolio theory perspective abstract this paper analyzes international portfolio selection with exchange rate risk based on behavioural portfolio theory bpt we characterize the conditions under which the bpt problem with a single foreign market has an optimal solution and show that the optimal portfolio contains the traditional mean variance efficient portfolio without consideration of exchange rate risk and an uncorrelated component constructed to hedge against exchange rate risk we illustrate that the optimal portfolio must be mean variance efficient with exchange rate risk while the same is not true from the perspective of local investors unless certain conditions are satisfied we further establish that international portfolio selection in the bpt with multiple foreign markets consists of two sequential decisions investors first select the optimal bpt portfolio in each market overlooking covariances among markets and then allocate funds across markets according to a specific rule to achieve mean variance efficiency or to minimize the loss in efficiency

importance of islands in renewable energy production and storage the situation of the french islands abstract the islands are often not or only partially connected to continental electrical networks and have to manage their energy supplies in reaching themselves the production demand balance while ensuring the quality of the delivered electricity the low consumption and the lack of interconnections induce higher energy costs than in other regions for increasing their security the islands prefer to use indigenous sources as renewable ones unfortunately the intermittence and stochastic character of these fatal energy sources make them more difficult to manage and it is aggravated in the case of small island networks the islands are good locations for using and testing new technologies of energy production and storage most islands have a good renewable energy re potential often underused the difficulties of electricity management in island grids are first shown particularly with the impact on the energy production cost then the problem of the integration of renewable energy sources res in island electrical grids is highlighted the energy situation of french islands is presented with a particular focus on the part of renewable sources a higher share of renewable energy in the energy mix can be reached only with the development of the energy production efficient prediction with the development of energy storage means and with an optimal management of the energy flux via the utilization of smart grids

access to electricity in small island developing states of the pacific issues and challenges abstract energy poverty is widespread in small island developing states sids of the pacific it is estimated that 70 percent of pacific islander households do not have access to electricity which is equivalent to access rates in sub saharan africa and slightly below the average for low income countries pacific sids face unique challenges in expanding access to electricity given that their populations are spread across tens of thousands of islands governments and development partners in pacific sids continue to prioritise development of electricity grids as is evident in ongoing subsidisation of grid based power consumption and the establishment of ambitious grid based renewable energy targets this paper argues that traditional approaches to rural electrification which prioritise grid extension are not suited to the pacific islands region increased funding should be directed by both governments and development partners towards rural electrification especially in off grid areas where isolated systems are more appropriate institutional reform is also important regulatory reform is needed for power utilities to extend electricity grids into rural areas institutional arrangements that facilitate the sustainable operation and maintenance of off grid systems also need to be established past donor and government funded off grid rural electrification projects have rarely been sustainable alternative approaches involving payment of output based subsidies to energy service companies are worth exploring although will only succeed where sound regulatory arrangements are in place

reform despite politics the political economy of power sector reform in fiji 1996 2013 abstract attempts to reform the electricity sector in developing countries have achieved mixed results despite the implementation of similar reforms in many developed countries and concerted effort by donors to transfer reform models in many cases political obstacles have prevented full and effective implementation of donor promoted reforms this paper examines the political economy of power sector reform in fiji from 1996 to 2013 reform has been pursued with political motives in a context of clientelism policy inconsistency and reversal is explained by the political instability of ethnic based politics in fiji modest success has been achieved in recent years despite these challenges with fiji now considered a model of power sector reform for other small islands developing states sids in the pacific the experience demonstrates that reform is possible within difficult political environments but it is challenging takes time and is not guaranteed the way in which political motives have driven and shaped reform efforts also highlights the need for studies of power sector reform to direct greater attention toward political drivers behind reform

assessing the determinants of sids pattern toward sustainability a statistical analysis abstract the aim of this paper is twofold first we assess the sids pattern towards energy sustainability second we try to understand the macro factors that drive policy makers in setting the optimal framework for investments in renewable energy sources the empirical analysis is performed on a large dataset of 136 countries and 41 variables observed in the time span 2000 2011 countries analyzed include a sample of 12 sids bahrain cuba dominican republic fiji islands guyana haiti jamaica maldives mauritius papua new guinea singapore trinidad and tobago distributed worldwide due to the large number of variables collected and their high degree of collinearity the first step of the analysis concerns the implementation of a principal component analysis in order to extract factors explaining the majority of variation of the original variables in the second step three different scenarios of modeling are designed to examine the key factors promoting res investments in a first scenario we employ a pooled regression model in the second a fixed effect model and in the third a random effect model is estimated the main results of empirical analysis could be unexpected at first sight they show in fact that sids are not on a energy sustainability path as in the case of other developing countries policy makers prefer to use resources to improve economic aspects of development leaving behind issues related to the environmental protection the use of res and sustainability in order to improve economic and environmental resilience of sids a synergy between local governments and international organizations to promote the investments in res is needed moreover an energy plan that clearly supports the generation of energy from res is recommended finally policy makers should strength their commitment in raising population s awareness toward a green energy generation such synergic interventions will allow sids to achieve a more sustainable development