the renewables portfolio standard in texas an early assessment texas has rapidly emerged as one of the leading wind power markets in the united states this development can be largely traced to a well designed and carefully implemented renewables portfolio standard rps the rps is a new policy mechanism that has received increasing attention as an attractive approach to support renewable power generation though replacing existing renewable energy policies with an as of yet untested approach in the rps is risky early experience from texas suggests that an rps can effectively spur renewables development and encourage competition among renewable energy producers initial rps targets in texas were well exceeded by the end of 2001 with 915 mw of wind installed in that year alone rps compliance costs appear negligible with new wind projects reportedly contracted for well under 3 us cent k wh in part as a result of a 1 7 us cent kwh production tax credit an outstanding wind resource and an rps that is sizable enough to drive project economies of scale obliged retail suppliers have been willing to enter into long term contracts with renewable generators reducing important risks for both the developer and the retail supplier finally the country s first comprehensive renewable energy certificate program has been put into place to monitor and track rps compliance c 2002 published by elsevier science ltd less

some aspects of the taxation of capital gains abstract the analysis of the effects of capital gains taxation requires a careful modelling both of the details of the tax code and the imperfections in the capital market under the standard assumptions concerning perfect capital markets and under the standard idealizations of the tax code there are several strategies by which rational investors can avoid note only all taxes on their capital income but also all taxes on their wage income these strategies leave individuals consumption and bequests in each state of nature and at each date unchanged from what they would have been in the absence of taxes although certain detailed provisions of the tax code may limit the extent to which rational investors can avail themselves of these tax avoidance activities there are ways in a perfect capital market by which the effects of these restrictions can be ameliorated accordingly any analysis of the effects of capital taxation must focus on imperfect capital markets if individuals face limitations on the amounts which they can borrow and or if there are limitations on short sales then under some circumstances there is a locked in effect individuals do not sell securities which they would have sold in the absence of taxation but under other circumstances individuals are induced to sell securities that they otherwise would have held in order to take advantage of the asymmetric treatment of short term losses and long term gains a policy of realizing gains as soon as they become eligible for long term treatment dominates the policy of postponing the realization of capital gains provided the gains are not too large a simple general equilibrium model is constructed within which it is shown that the taxation of capital gains may increase the volatility of asset prices and lead individuals not to trade when they otherwise would while the analysis casts doubt on the significance of the welfare losses resulting from these exchange inefficiencies there are circumstances in which the tax leads to production inefficiencies e g terminating projects at other than the socially optimal date finally we argue that the focus of some recent policy debates on the short run revenue impact of a decrease in the tax rate on capital gains is misplaced even when the short run revenue impact is positive consumption may increase thus exacerbating inflationary pressures and private savings may decrease thus leading to a lower level of investment in the private sector moreover there is some presumption that the long run revenue impact is negative our analysis has some important implications for empirical research in particular it suggests that the impact of the tax is not adequately summarized by a single number such as the effective tax rate representing the average ratio of tax payments to capital gains moreover the impact of the tax cannot be assessed by looking only at reported capital gains and losses

simultaneous attainment of energy goals by means of green certificates and emission permits abstract we discuss the analytical effects of introducing emission permits and green certificates and the corresponding quotas as regulatory mechanisms to respectively reduce emissions from electricity production and ensure a certain deployment of renewable energy the different case studies in this paper show that both instruments can be used in order to reach an emission goal or a goal of renewable energy however the combination of these instruments and the way they are used is shown to be important for the price faced by consumers it is shown that the effect on the consumer price is not an unambiguous increase with the introduction of a green quota there is a choice between quotas leading to a lower consumer price and quotas leading to a higher consumer price as a result of this it is shown that it is always optimal to reach a renewable energy deployment goal by the use of green certificates however to reach an emission goal it is sometimes most favourable with respect to consumer prices to use green certificates and sometimes to use emission permits

demand curves for stocks do slope down new evidence from an index weights adjustment weights in the toronto stock exchange 300 index are determined by the market values of the included stocks public floats in november 1996 the exchange implemented a previously announced revision of its definition of the public float this revision which increased the floats and the index weights of 31 stocks conveyed no information and had no effect on the legal duties of shareholders affected stocks experienced statistically significant excess returns of 2 3 percent during the event week and no price reversal occurred as trading volume returned to normal levels these findings support downward sloping demand curves for stocks an obvious event with which to examine the slope of demand curves for stocks is one that changes supply in the absence of new information a shift in supply should not affect stock prices if demand curves for stocks are flat scholes 1972 using a sample of secondary equity distributions asks whether stocks are unique works of art or merely abstract claims to residual cash flows with many close substitutes as is assumed in much of finance theory scholes finds that the negative price impact of secondary offerings depends on the seller s identity implying the revelation of unfavorable informationand rules out a pure supply effect mikkelson and partch 1985 also using a sample of registered and unregistered secondary offerings find weak evidence of downward sloping demand curves but are unable to cleanly distinguish this explanation from the alternative explanation based on unfavorable information a different class of events additions to widely followed stock market indexes ostensibly provides a setting where information effects should not be present shleifer 1986 documents a permanent price increase for stocks

public policy supports and export performance of bioenergy technologies a dynamic panel approach abstract this study investigates the effects of public policy supports on the export performance of bioenergy technologies it uses panel data from 18 countries from the 1992 to 2008 period panel unit root and cointegration tests are applied taking into account the results of structural break tests for each time series and testing for the presence in the panel of cross sectional dependence time series data on public supports and exports are integrated and cointegrated the results of dynamic ordinary least squares indicate that in the long term public r d expenditures have a positive effect on the exports the contribution of bioenergy to the total energy supply has a negative effect on the exports and gdp has a positive effect on the exports the contribution of bioenergy to total energy supply responds to deviations in the previous period from the long term equilibrium additionally blundell bond system generalized methods of moments estimations are made to determine dynamic causality in a panel vector error correction mechanism setting evidence of a positive strong and short term relationship from exports to r d expenditures and of a positive short term causality from exports to the contribution of bioenergy to total energy supply is found a positive strong bidirectional relationship between gdp and exports is also uncovered there is a positive strong bidirectional and short term relationship between gdp and the contribution of bioenergy to total energy supply finally some policy implications based on the results of this study are offered

do nonlinearity firm specific coefficients and losses represent distinct factors in the relation between stock returns and accounting earnings abstract recent studies have provided theory and evidence that the contemporaneous relation between stock returns and accounting earnings is nonlinear different for profits and losses and different across firms since each factor can result from differences in earnings persistence existing theory is ambiguous as to whether these factors are distinct or overlapping thus we conduct a simultaneous examination our primary tests show that each factor explains a significant portion of the variance of returns after controlling for the other two factors with firm specific estimation providing the largest incremental explanatory power alternative tests produce similar conclusions empirically the three factors are distinct

back to the future rethinking auctions for renewable electricity support abstract the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of two main types of instruments feed in tariffs and quotas with tradable green certificates have usually been compared in the literature on renewable electricity promotion due to negative past experiences with a third instrument auctions this instrument has been broadly dismissed in academics and until recently also in policy practice however and based on an in depth review of experiences with auction schemes for renewable electricity around the world this paper argues that some of the problems with auctions in the past can be mitigated with the appropriate design elements and that indeed auctions can play an important role in the future implementation of renewable electricity support instruments around the world the paper provides a proposal for the coherent integration of several design elements

towards a sustainable electrification in ghana a review of renewable energy deployment policies abstract ghana has been facing perennial power rationing over the years due to fuel supply challenges the country s energy system is likely to suffer additional strain from rising energy demand fueled by population growth rapid urbanization and economic development fortunately there are enormous renewable energy resources which can provide sustainable electrification as backbone to socioeconomic development while curbing global warming ghana s energy strategy targets 100 access to electricity and 10 share of sustainable power in national generation mix by 2020 despite the existence of numerous policies and a renewable energy act current contribution of non conventional renewable energy to electricity generation is less than 1 the right mix of policies to address the unique domestic conditions and achieve its specific development goals remains insufficient this study reviews the regulatory framework financing incentives and other provisions of ghana s renewable energy act it critically examines the policy s strengths weaknesses opportunities and treats based on comparative analysis and lessons drawn from failed and successful implementation of similar policies around the world the study also assesses the impact of policy on project development it was found that the performance of ghana s renewable energy policy on grid connected electricity has been poor compared to its target the fundamental reasons for this unsatisfactory performance may be attributed to partial implementation of policies lack of market driven support schemes lack of pricing policy framework weak grid network limited access to funds and inconsistencies in renewable energy development strategies this study proposes the following countermeasures i ghana should comprehensively harmonize renewable energy regulatory and fiscal policies with domestic electricity pricing regime ii market driven support schemes should be prioritized for cost effectiveness and minimum governmental influence these reforms can help eliminate some of the major barriers to sustainable electrification in ghana while the lessons provide a learning curve for other african countries

does anticipated information impose a cost on risk averse investors a test of the hirshleifer effect this paper theoretically and empirically investigates how the risk of future adverse price changes created by the anticipated arrival of information influences risk averse investors trading decisions in institutionally imperfect capital markets specifically i examine how the selling activity of individual investors immediately following an earnings announcement is influenced by the tradeoff between risk sharing benefits of immediate trade and explicit transaction costs imposed on such trades consistent with my theoretically derived predictions i find that investors current trading decisions are less sensitive to the incremental transaction costs created by short term capital gains taxes on trading profits as both the duration and intensity of the risk of future adverse price changes increase this evidence is consistent with an incremental cost to investors that results from the revelation of precise information which is commonly referred to as the hirshleifer effect

gains from an integrated market for tradable renewable energy credits abstract decoupling the environmental attributes of renewable energy re generation from the physical unit of energy is an innovative mechanism for marketing green or renewable power the introduction of tradable renewable energy credits trecs allows the green power attributes of energy to be sold or traded separately from the physical unit of energy since the green power certificate system removes potential locational and physical bottlenecks both suppliers and consumers gain flexibility in the marketplace the trec is also an efficient tool to meet renewable portfolio standard rps required by different states in the us this paper discusses the rps requirements for different states and examines the implications of an integrated trec market it offers a competitive setting to the consumers to pay for renewable energy and a cost effective tool to support renewable energy generation grace and wiser 2002 this paper also highlights some practical difficulties that should be addressed in order to establish an efficient integrated trec market

a regulatory adjustment process for the determination of the optimal percentage requirement in an electricity market with tradable green certificates abstract a system of tradable green certificates tgcs is a market based subsidy scheme designed to promote electricity generation from renewable energy sources such as wind power under a tgc system the principal policy instrument is the percentage requirement which stipulates the percentage of total electricity production green plus black that must be obtained from renewable sources in this paper we propose a regulatory adjustment process that a regulator can employ to determine the socially optimal percentage requirement explicitly accounting for environmental damages resulting from black electricity generation

bioenergy policy and market development in finland and sweden abstract the use of biomass in finland and sweden has steadily increased over the past 25 years up to approximately 20 of the primary energy supply in 2001 in both countries most biomass originates from forests forest biomass is now an integral part of modern energy systems although primarily in industry and in the heating sector for example biomass accounts for 7 9 and 53 of the fuel mix in district heating in finland and sweden respectively the general energy policy of both countries has supported biomass for energy over the entire period although specific policies have changed with time research development and demonstration has been continuously supported and some subsidy schemes have been applied in particular for district heating systems dhs and combined heat and power heavy taxation of competing fossil fuels seems to have been the most effective policy instrument although this has been directed mainly at the heat and transportation fuel markets electricity taxes are imposed on consumption industry is largely exempt and do not discriminate significantly between the sources of electricity starting in 2003 sweden will have a quota based system a renewable portfolio standard which is expected to increase biomass based electricity production both countries possess vast and not fully exploited biomass resources in the form of forests and have a history of rational and large scale forestry strong actors exist both with regard to forest ownership and the industrial processing of forest products the user side in particular represented by dhs can also be characterised by strong and professional management over time structures have developed that facilitate an increased use of biomass for energy for example the forest industry infrastructure and extensive district heating actors within these structures have had the ability to react to policies resulting in a stable growth in biomass use

feed in or certificates competition or complementarity combining a static efficiency and a dynamic innovation perspective on the greening of the energy industry abstract european policy on the greening of the energy industry has been characterised by a debate between proponents of two apparent polar opposites feed in tariffs and certificate markets different european countries have chosen both mechanisms and as a consequence the european union has maintained a fairly pluralist position abstaining from stricter harmonisation taking a dynamic innovation perspective on european energy industry we argue that feed in tariffs and certificate markets should not be seen as competing alternatives but rather as complementary regulatory instruments targeting subsequent steps in the product cycle on the way from early technology conceptualisation and development towards competitive positioning in mature energy markets we see both policy instruments as necessary to achieve the extensive transformation towards sustainable development that is judged as important tools in the context of the global climate challenge

exploring the options for carbon dioxide mitigation in turkish electric power industry system dynamics approach electric power industry has a huge carbon mitigation potential fundamentally because there are large carbon free renewable resource options in turkey with growing demand in electricity consumption and incentives offered for natural gas fired electricity generation co2 emissions sourced from electric power industry had tripled over the last two decades current governmental strategy focuses on energy security and resource diversity in a growing economy and does not articulate sufficient mitigation targets and appropriate regulations in this research an original dynamic simulation model is built validated and analyzed to explore the options for carbon mitigation in turkish electric power industry model structure represents the investment dispatch and pricing heuristics as well as the natural resource base of electricity generation in turkey it operates on annual basis over 30 years to simulate installed capacities and generations of power plants with alternative resources and their resulting co2 emissions the analysis presented in this paper reveals that there are mitigation options below 50 of business as usual growth with common policy options such as feed in tariffs investment subsidies and carbon taxes the model can serve as an experimental platform for further analysis of problems related to carbon mitigation in turkish electricity sector

simulating price patterns for tradable green certificates to promote electricity generation from wind abstract this article uses computer simulation to anticipate the price dynamics in a market for tradable green certificates tgcs these markets have been used in europe to promote generation of electricity from renewable resources like wind similar markets have been proposed in the united states of america usa where the certificates are called renewable energy credits recs the certificates are issued to the generating companies for each megawatt hour of renewable electricity generation the companies may sell the certificates in a market and the revenues from certificate sales provide an extra incentive to invest in new generating capacity proponents argue that this market based incentive can be designed to support government mandates for a growing fraction of electricity generation from renewable sources in the usa these mandates are set by the states and are known as renewable portfolio standards rps we simulate the price dynamics of a market designed to support an aggressive mandate for wind generation in the northwestern usa the simulations show that the certificate price climbs rapidly to the cap in the early years after the market opens investors then react to these high prices with construction of new wind capacity after a few years wind generation meets and then exceeds the requirement we show that this pattern appears again and again when the simulations are repeated with wide variations in the estimates of behavioral parameters we use the model to study the impact of different trading strategies by the wind companies and by the distribution companies we also study the simulated market response if the usa adopts the carbon allowance market envisioned in the climate stewardship act the article concludes with recommendations for policy makers involved in tgc market design

predisclosure information firm capitalization and security price behavior around earnings announcements several studies on the relationship between earnings reports and security price behavior provide evidence suggesting that a significant portion of the information revealed through earnings reports is reflected in security prices prior to the report month e g ball and brown 1968 and brown and kennelly 1972 this has been attributed at least partly to the existence of other more timely sources of information which allow market agents to forecast earnings prior to their release the evidence above reflects an average finding across all firms one question of interest is whether there are significant systematic crosssectional differences in the security price reactions to earnings announcements of firms which are associated with specific firm characteristics that lead to differential amounts of predisclosure information this study focuses on firm size capitalization as one such characteristic a firm

banning banking in eu emissions trading abstract admitting banking in emissions trading systems reduces overall compliance costs by allowing for inter temporal flexibility cost savings can be traded over time however unless individual eu member states ms decide differently the transfer of unused allowances from the period of 2005 2007 into the first commitment period under the kyoto protocol i e 2008 2012 will be prohibited in this paper we first explore the implications of such a ban on banking when initial emission targets are lenient this analysis is based on a simulation which was recently carried out in germany with companies and with a student control group the findings suggest that a eu wide ban on banking would lead to efficiency losses in addition to those losses which arise from the lack of inter temporal flexibility second we use simple game theoretic considerations to argue that under reasonable assumptions such a eu wide ban on banking will be the equilibrium outcome thus to avoid a possible prisoners dilemma ms should have co ordinated their banking decisions

generation capacity adequacy in interdependent electricity markets this paper deals with the practical problems related to long term security of supply in regional electricity markets with transmission constraints differences between regulatory policies and market designs in terms of generation adequacy policies may distort the normal functioning of the neighboring markets as well as the reliability of supply we test the effect of heterogeneous regulatory design between two interdependent markets energy only market price capped market without capacity mechanisms and price capped markets with forward capacity contracts obligation we rely on a long term market simulation model in system dynamics that characterizes expansion decision in a competitive regime the results show that differences in market designs affect both price and reliability of supply in the two markets we examine both the short and long terms effect and how free riding may occur where capacity adequacy policies are adopted in one market but not the other the main finding is that the lack of harmonization between local markets in policies to ensure capacity adequacy may lead to undesirable side effects

capital gains tax rates and the cost of capital for small business evidence from the ipo market abstract we examine the issue prices of small initial public offerings around the 1993 tax law change that reduced the capital gains tax on qualified small business stock we compare the actual issue price of new stock with a benchmark price that is not affected by the change in capital gains tax we find that after controlling for ipo underpricing the issue prices of qualifying small business stock after the tax rate change are significantly higher than the issue prices before the change a control sample of nonqualifying firms shows no significant difference in issue prices

the determinants of capital gains tax compliance evidence from the rjr nabisco leveraged buyout abstract inability to observe both actual and reported capital gains has impeded studies of capital gains tax compliance this study overcomes such limitations through access to both confidential tax returns and internal shareholder records tests are conducted at the individual taxpayer level for associations between compliance rates for capital gains taxes generated by rjr nabisco shareholders during its leveraged buyout and income marginal tax rates socioeconomic characteristics and measures of the taxpayer s perception of the noncompliance penalty we find noncompliance decreasing in taxable income including rjr nabisco capital gains first dollar marginal tax rates self employment income rental income and other interest paid

capital gains taxes and asset prices capitalization or lock in this paper demonstrates that the equilibrium impact of capital gains taxes reflects both the capitalization effect i e capital gains taxes decrease demand and the lock in effect i e capital gains taxes decrease supply depending on time periods and stock characteristics either effect may dominate using the taxpayer relief act of 1997 as our event we find evidence supporting a dominant capitalization effect in the week following news that sharply increased the probability of a reduction in the capital gains tax rate and a dominant lock in effect in the week after the rate reduction became effective this paper jointly tests two effects of capital gains taxation on equity trading a demand side capitalization effect and a supply side lock in effect while previous studies have tested these effects separately to the best of our knowledge this is the first study to evaluate them jointly and empirically document the relative dominance of each effect surrounding a change in a tax rate employing an equilibrium approach we show that these effects net tax impact on asset prices is ambiguous evaluating returns and trading volume around the 1997 reduction in the capital gains tax rate we find evidence that the capitalization and the lock in effects jointly affect trading in particular the capitalization effect dominates the lock in effect in the week following an increase in the probability of a reduction in the capital gains tax rate as buyers respond to information that future capital gains tax rates will be lower the lock in effect however dominates the capitalization effect after the rate reduction actually becomes effective taxation is one of the most prevalent market frictions in financial markets affecting investors decisions and distorting the valuation of assets capital gains taxes in particular play an important role in determining an investor s trading strategies and can ultimately affect asset prices because investors

price controls and the behavior of auction markets an experimental examination price ceilings and price floors are common in all market systems the ancient greeks and hellenistic era egyptians are known to have utilized price controls see h michele p 272 and j p levy p 41 and numerous public policy questions today involve them apparently for as long as price controls have existed their effects have been debated for example diocletion s favorable view of his price ceilings was disputed by the religious philosopher lactantius who charged that the policy led to scarcity and low grade articles p 145

understanding cross national trends in high tech renewable power equipment exports to the united states we track us imports of advanced technology wind and solar power generation equipment from a panel of countries during 1989 2010 and examine the determining factors including country size sector specific us fdi outflow and domestic wind and solar power generation differentiating between the core high tech and the balance of system equipment we find us imports of both categories have grown at significantly higher rate from the relatively poorer countries and particularly china and india larger countries are found to be exporting significantly more and us fdi is found to play a significant positive role in the exports of high tech equipment for the poor countries for the core wind and solar high tech equipment we find domestic renewable power generation of the exporting countries also played a significant positive role

capital gains taxation and stock market activity evidence from ipos prior to the tax reform act of 1986 tra 86 long term capital gains were taxed at a lower rate than short term gains presenting investors with an opportunity to increase their after tax return by delaying the sale of appreciated assets until after they qualified for long term status and selling depreciated assets prior to long term qualification using a sample of initial public offerings i find that stocks that appreciated prior to long term qualification exhibit increased volume and decreased returns just after their qualification date while stocks that depreciated prior to long term qualification exhibit these effects just prior to their qualification date it is generally acknowledged that capital gains taxes influence investor behavior slemrod 1982 dyl 1979 chaplinsky and seyhun 1990 and others agree that individuals rationally respond to specific provisions of the tax code in attempting to reduce the tax liability of investment income recently this view has entered the public policy debate concerning the effective date of a proposed capital gains tax cut for example the wall street journal reported that congress has considered making proposed capital gains tax cuts retroactive to avoid possible market disruptions that might come from investors delaying transactions in anticipation of a future effective date wsj february 19 1997 despite the consensus view that capital gains taxes influence investment behavior specific distortions in behavior are difficult to document empirically one reason for the lack of evidence regarding the distortionary effect of capital gains taxes is that it is extremely difficult for researchers to determine the initial cost and the date of purchase of an asset without that information it is impossible for the investigator to know when an investor is trading a longterm or short term asset and whether he is realizing a gain or a loss one class of assets for which it is possible to obtain this information is initial public offerings of common stock ipos by definition ipos are not available for purchase prior to their offer date on the offer date shares are

drivers promoting renewable energy a dynamic panel approach we study the commitment to renewable energy sources focusing on a set of 24 european countries and applying panel dynamic estimators europe is a leading player in the fight against climate change and the estimators we use reveal themselves to be appropriate in handling the persistency effect on renewables the level of renewable energy use in the previous period has a positive and highly significant effect on the current level of use traditional energy sources restrain the impetus towards renewables social awareness of sustainability climate change mitigation and co2 reduction targets are not enough to motivate the switch from traditional to renewables energy sources income and prices of fossil based fuels were not significant for the development of renewables in the period from 1990 to 2006 suggesting that it was not the market that encouraged renewables

national environmental targets and international emission reduction instruments according to the agreed burden sharing within the european union the overall eu emission reduction target as agreed by in the kyoto protocol is converted into national greenhouse gas reduction targets for each of the member states in parallel with national emission reduction initiatives common eu policies for emission reductions are considered currently discussed is the introduction of a market for tradable permits for co2 emissions to achieve emission reductions within the power industry and other energy intensive industries in parallel with this markets for green certificates to deploy renewable energy technologies seem to be appearing in a number of countries among these denmark italy sweden belgium flanders england and australia although these national initiatives for a green certificate market are fairly different they could be a starting point for establishing a common eu certificate market but interactions between national targets for greenhouse gas emissions and these international instruments for emission reduction are not a trivial matter especially not seen in relation to the possible contributions of these instruments in achieving national ghg reduction targets the paper is split into three parts all taking a liberalised power market as starting point the first part discusses the consequences of a general deployment of renewable energy technologies using planning initiatives or national promotion schemes feed in tariffs in the second part an international green certificate market is introduced into the liberalised power market context substituting other national promotion schemes finally in the third part a combination of an international green certificate market tgc and an international emission trading scheme for co2 is analysed within the liberalised international power market set up the main conclusion is that neither the use of national renewable support schemes nor the introduction of a tgc market into a liberalised power market can be recommended if these initiatives efficiently are expected to contribute in achieving the national co2 reduction targets countries most ambitious in implementing renewable energy technologies will only partly be gaining the co2 reduction benefits themselves the ambitious countries will support the less ambitious ones in achieving their ghg reduction targets finally in a tgc market context the most ambitious countries to fulfil their tgc quotas will have to buy certificates from the less ambitious ones although this only contributes to fulfilling a national target for renewable development not in reaching their national co2 reduction targets however a combination of an international tradable permits market and a green certificate market is seen to be efficient in contributing in achieving the national co2 reduction targets if a close co ordination of the two instruments is undertaken at least at the national level when the green power production is increased the tradable permits quota should be decreased correspondingly otherwise the expected co2 reductions will not contribute by the full value in achieving the national targets for greenhouse gas reductions thus if it is a prerequisite that renewable power contributes to achieving national ghg reduction targets then the combination of these two markets might be the right solution

the information content of losses abstract this study hypothesizes that because shareholders have a liquidation option losses are not expected to perpetuate they are thus less informative than profits about the firm s future prospects the results are consistent with the hypothesis they also show that the documented increase in the earnings response coefficent as the cumulation period increases appears to be due exclusively to the effect of losses the liquidation option effect extends to profitable cases where earnings are low enough to make the option attractive alternating explanations for the low informativeness of losses such as mean reversal of earnings are not supported by the tests

from planning to strategy in the electricity industry abstract as more utility markets are deregulated and competition is introduced there is an increasing need to understand how the planning methods used under monopoly have to change to take the new deregulated environment into account although this might seem relatively trivial it has been a major problem for a large number of utilities which have continued using the same planning approaches that they used when they were monopolies in this paper we first describe the environment which under monopoly conditions gave rise to the use of mainly operational research methods for planning we then argue that deregulation has changed the fundamental assumptions making the planning methods used under monopoly less useful after deregulation finally we review a number of methods that utilities should consider using when they formulate strategy in deregulated markets

renewable energy consumption and income in emerging economies abstract increased economic growth and demand for energy in emerging economies is creating an opportunity for these countries to increase their usage of renewable energy this paper presents and estimates two empirical models of renewable energy consumption and income for a panel of emerging economies panel cointegration estimates show that increases in real per capita income have a positive and statistically significant impact on per capita renewable energy consumption in the long term a 1 increase in real income per capita increases the consumption of renewable energy per capita in emerging economies by approximately 3 5 long term renewable energy per capita consumption price elasticity estimates are approximately equal to 0 70

threshold effect of the economic growth rate on the renewable energy development from a change in energy price evidence from oecd countries this paper uses a panel threshold regression ptr model to investigate the influence that energy prices have on renewable energy development under different economic growth rate regimes the empirical data are obtained from each of the oecd member countries over the period from 1997 to 2006 we show that there is one threshold in the regression relationship which is 4 13 of a one period lag in the annual gross domestic product gdp growth rate the consumer price index cpi in so far as it relates to variations in energy is significantly positively correlated with the contribution of renewables to energy supply in the regime with higher economic growth but there is no relationship in the regime with lower economic growth therefore countries characterized by high economic growth are able to respond to high energy prices with increases in renewable energy use while countries characterized by low economic growth countries tend to be unresponsive to energy price changes when they come to their level of renewable energy

renewable electricity support systems are feed in systems taking the lead abstract support systems for renewable energy sourced electricity res e can be classified into price and quantity based systems their most representative instruments are feed in systems price based and quota systems e g green certificates or a renewable portfolio standard quantity based the origins of these support systems are quite different and are motivated by different political and economic needs likewise their geographical distribution and effectiveness also differ worldwide feed in systems are the most widespread res e support system in recent years some classical quota countries have partially or even totally changed to feed in systems feed in systems seem to encourage higher res e deployment technology diversity and investor security although the manufacturing capacity for certain res e technologies has been more developed in some feed in countries lately this has changed to some extent due to the incorporation of emerging countries in the res e industry traditionally quota systems appeared to be more compatible with liberalisation of the electricity market however since the introduction of the premium system this argument can be countered since feed in premiums can be considered compatible with the electricity market as quota systems regarding the price paid for res e in quota countries higher green certificate prices have not led to higher res e quantities moreover the relative support levels in quota countries are higher on average than in fit countries contradicting the common argument that quota systems are more cost effective additionally feed in systems especially if stepped tariffs are designed encourage higher res e geographical dispersion avoiding the concentration of res e facilities in just a few locations which can lead to nimby not in my back yard syndrome all these factors may explain the steady spread of feed in systems worldwide the purpose of this paper is to assess the performance of quota and feed in systems thereby contributing to the worldwide debate on the suitability of the different res e support systems

the market for tradable renewable energy credits abstract as states seek to foster the development of renewable energy resources some have introduced renewable portfolio standards rpss which require retailers of electricity to derive a specified amount of their energy supply from renewable energy resources rpss in texas arizona wisconsin and nevada allow for or require the use of tradable renewable energy credits the price of such credits is expected to reflect the cost premium for generating electricity from renewable resources relative to the market price of conventionally generated electricity using the market to trade renewable energy credits exposes buyers and sellers to risks of imperfect information poor performance and opportunism these risks can be managed through contractual arrangements and regulatory requirements pertaining to property rights in credits pricing term of the contract and assurance of performance

a review on promoting share of renewable energy by green trading mechanisms in power system abstract in order to promote the development of renewable energy power generation many countries have issued corresponding policies meanwhile some green trading mechanisms have been implemented in power industry and this paper has mainly presented a review on promoting share of renewable energy by green trading mechanisms in power system with a focus on promotion effects of three mechanisms feed in tariff renewable portfolio standard and emission trading scheme apart from a review summaries comparisons and an outlook for future study are also presented our review suggests that feed in tariff and renewable portfolio standard can effectively increase the share of renewable energy power and lead to renewable resource diversity in addition emission trading also provides stimulus for development of renewable energy besides mitigation of carbon emission

capitalization of capital gains taxes evidence from stock price reactions to the 1997 rate reduction abstract we empirically document that stock prices moved inversely with dividend yields during the may 1997 week when the white house and congress agreed on a budget accord that included a reduction in the capital gains tax rate the findings are consistent with equity prices capitalizing expected capital gains taxes two scenarios are possible first to the extent returns are expected to be taxed as capital gains a reduction in the expected capital gains tax rate enhances market value second to the extent individuals hold a stock a reduction in the expected personal capital gains tax rate increases market value

the effect of capital gains taxes on the initial pricing and underpricing of ipos we investigate the extent to which capitalization of expected capital gains taxes and the lock in effect induced by the capital gains tax rate differential simultaneously impact the pricing and underpricing of initial public offerings ipos using a large sample of ipos from 1987 to 2010 we estimate regressions of offer prices and first day underpricing on tax rates supporting tax capitalization ipo offer prices decrease in long term capital gains taxes supporting lock in ipo underpricing increases in the long term and short term tax rate differential these effects are consistent with capital gains taxes simultaneously reducing ipo proceeds and exacerbating ipo underpricing

did the 2003 tax act reduce the cost of equity capital abstract the jobs and growth tax relief reconciliation act of 2003 reduced shareholder level taxes on equity income if shareholder level taxation is a component of cost of equity capital then the cost of equity capital should decrease after the tax act we find that the cost of equity capital decreases by 1 02 and that the decline is smaller for firms largely held by institutional investors to whom the tax rate reduction does not apply these results suggest that the tax act lowered the cost of equity capital and add further evidence to the question of whether taxes impact valuation

design of an economically efficient feed in tariff structure for renewable energy development abstract evidence suggests albeit tentatively that feed in tariffs fits are more effective than alternative support schemes in promoting renewable energy technologies rets fits provide long term financial stability for investors in rets which at the prevailing market price of electricity are not currently cost efficient enough to compete with traditional fossil fuel technologies on the other hand if not properly designed fits can be economically inefficient as is widely regarded to have been the case under the public utility regulatory policies act of 1978 purpa under purpa too high a guaranteed price led to the creation of so called purpa machines poorly performing generating units that could survive financially only because of heavy subsidies that came at the expense of retail customers similarly because of their adverse impacts on retail electricity rates german fits have been subject to increasing political pressure from utilities and customers in this paper we propose an innovative two part fit consisting of both a capacity payment and a market based energy payment which can be used to meet the renewables policy goals of regulators our two part tariff design draws on the strengths of traditional fits relies on market mechanisms is easy to implement and avoids the problems caused by distorting wholesale energy markets through above market energy payments the approach is modeled on forward capacity market designs that have been recently implemented by several regional transmission organizations in the usa to address needs for new generating capacity to ensure system reliability

dynamic analysis of policy drivers for bioenergy commodity markets abstract biomass is increasingly being considered as a feedstock to provide a clean and renewable source of energy in the form of both liquid fuels and electric power in the united states the biofuels and biopower industries are regulated by different policies and have different drivers which impact the maximum price the industries are willing to pay for biomass this article describes a dynamic computer simulation model that analyzes future behavior of bioenergy feedstock markets given policy and technical options the model simulates the long term dynamics of these markets by treating advanced biomass feedstocks as a commodity and projecting the total demand of each industry as well as the market price over time the model is used for an analysis of the united states bioenergy feedstock market that projects supply demand and market price given three independent buyers domestic biopower domestic biofuels and foreign exports with base case assumptions the biofuels industry is able to dominate the market and meet the federal renewable fuel standard rfs targets for advanced biofuels further analyses suggest that united states bioenergy studies should include estimates of export demand in their projections and that ghg limiting policy would partially shield both industries from export dominance

the effect on stock price of inclusion in or exclusion from the s p 500 1987 the effect on stock price of inclusion in or exclusion from the s p 500 financial analysts journal vol 43 no 1 pp 58 65

new evidence on stock price effects associated with changes in the s p 500 index since october 1989 standard and poor s has when possible announced changes in the composition of the s p 500 index one week in advance because index funds hold s p 500 stocks to minimize tracking error index composition changes since this date provide an opportunity to examine the market reaction to an anticipated change in the demand for a stock using post october 1989 data the authors document significantly positive negative postannouncement abnormal returns that are only partially reversed following additions deletions these results indicate the existence of temporary price pressing and downward sloping long run demand curves for stocks and represent a violation of market efficiency copyright 1997 by university of chicago press

the impact of energy prices on the volatility of ethanol prices and the role of gasoline emissions abstract the contribution of renewable energy resources is vital for a country s economic growth by providing high efficiency in energy as well as an effective tool for the confrontation of climate change in particular concerning the eu an increase in the consumption of renewable energy resources as a proportion of the total energy consumption by its member states was set as an objective until 2020 ethanol has been widely used as a substitute to conventional energy like gasoline and oil the present paper surveys the role of alternative energy prices and gas emissions in the formation of the ethanol prices the results of the empirical survey confirmed the existence of a sole relationship among the variables employed according to the results obtained an increase in the volume of emissions or in gasoline prices results in an increase in ethanol prices while the opposite is confirmed in the case of crude oil he elasticity of ethanol prices to the increase of the emissions is another result worth mentioning indicative of the significant role of the emissions in the formation of ethanol prices

the political economy of international green certificate markets this paper analyzes the political economy of establishing bilateral trade in green certificate markets as one step towards harmonization of european green electricity support systems we outline some of the economic principles of an integrated bilateral green certificates market and then discuss a number of issues that are deemed to be critical for the effectiveness stability and legitimacy of such a market by drawing on some of the lessons of the fairly recent intentions to integrate a future green certificate market in norway with the existing swedish one we highlight exemplify and discuss some critical policy implementation and design issues these include for instance the system s connection to climate policy targets the role of other support schemes and the definition of what green electricity technologies should be included furthermore the establishment of an international market presumes that the benefits of renewable power e g its impacts on the environment diversification of the power mix self sufficiency etc are approached and valued from an international perspective rather than from a national one thus implying lesser emphasis on for instance employment and regional development impacts a bilateral green certificate system thus faces a number of important policy challenges but at the same time it could provide important institutional learning effects that can be useful for future attempts aiming at achieving greater policy integration in the european renewable energy sector

intertemporal tax discontinuities we define an intertemporal tax discontinuity itd as a circumstance in which different tax rates are applied to gains realized at one point in time versus some other point in time we study the effects of itds on market behaviors at the time of disclosures of firm performance assuming that all investors who trade firm equities are subject to tax the results of our paper suggest that relative to an economy in which itds are absent itds may dampen trading volume and amplify price changes at the time of disclosure

interactions between the power and green certificate markets abstract the current trend of liberalising the power markets is combined with ambitious deployment plans for power production based on renewable energy supplies a new policy scheme to ensure this extension has been developed in the form of a green certificate system with a politically determined target of deployment in such a system producers of renewably based electricity receive tradable certificates in proportion to the electricity they produce the producer can thereby sell these certificates and receive additional revenue apart from the power price this paper studies the price and consumption effects of such a system with a simple model we show that the effects are ambiguous this ambiguity is caused by the interaction between the two markets therefore the green certificate system is difficult to manage if the state has parallel energy targets such as a desired deployment of renewably based energy and a stabilisation or reduction of the energy consumption in addition this complicates the regulation through a deployment target of renewably based power production as the regulator has to be aware of the different effects which follow a specific target until now these effects have not been considered in the analyses of the green certificate system when introducing the system even though it might have considerable consequences for the success of the system

renewable energy certificate markets in india a review abstract in india the national action policy on climate change napcc 1 has set a target of 15 of electricity via renewable energy sources by 2020 to reach these ambitious targets in march 2011 the government of india launched the renewable energy certificates rec a market based mechanism to drive renewable energy development and spur further investments however a look into the actual performance of rec market trading during the first year of operation shows that though volume of trading steadily increased the number of accredited certificates issued was less than 2 5 of the technical rec demand potential indicating that the full potential of the rec markets was far from being realized we critically examine the design and implementation of the rec market in india as well as its effectiveness in meeting the desired objectives in the context of international best practices our analysis of rec market best practices reveals that though forward markets banking and price bounds are recommended for stable markets best of class methods for determining the optimal length of banking the level of floor and forbearance prices and the values of credit vintage multipliers are not fully established we then establish that the main issues with the indian rec markets appear to be demand uncertainty resulting from lack of long term targets absence of clarity on compliance and near absence of long term price signals to investors finally we present an analysis of other important features of the indian rec market in the context of well functioning rec markets such as credit multipliers set asides vintage multipliers and voluntary markets 2013 elsevier ltd

policies and market factors driving wind power development in the united states abstract in the united states there has been substantial recent growth in wind energy generating capacity with growth averaging 24 percent annually during the past five years about 1700 mw of wind energy capacity was installed in 2001 while another 410 mw became operational in 2002 during 2003 development activity has remained strong with an estimated 1600 mw of capacity installed with this growth an increasing number of states are experiencing investment in wind energy projects currently about half of all states host at least one wind power project this paper explores the key factors at play in the 12 states in which a substantial amount of wind energy capacity has been developed or planned some of the factors that are examined include policy drivers such as renewable portfolio standards rps federal and state financial incentives as well as market drivers such as consumer demand for green power natural gas price volatility and wholesale market rules

stock returns following large one day declines evidence on short term reversals and longer term performance we examine stock returns following large one day price declines and find that the bid ask bounce and the degree of market liquidity explain short term price reversals further we do not find evidence consistent with the overreaction hypothesis we observe that securities with large one day price declines perform poorly over an extended time horizon while the concept of market overreaction has been noted for many years its formal description and examination is a relatively recent area of study debondt and thaler 1985 define the overreaction hypothesis as the overresponse to new information this hypothesis suggests that extreme movements in stock prices are followed by movements in the opposite direction to correct the initial overreaction and that the greater the magnitude of initial price change the more extreme the offsetting reaction one manner in which the overreaction hypothesis has been studied is the analysis of stock returns following large one day stock price declines brown harlow and tinic 1988 and atkins and dyl 1990 find significant reversals for stocks that experience one day price declines focusing on extreme price movements bremer and sweeney 1991 examine returns following one day price declines of 10 percent or more for fortune 500 firms that are in the center for research in security prices crsp data files they find significant positive three day abnormal returns over the period 1962 to 1986 and note that this three day recovery is inconsistent with stock prices fully and quickly reflecting relevant information they also suggest that market illiquidity may partially explain their findings the purpose of this study is to explain security return behavior following large one day declines our primary objective is to explore the role of the bid ask bounce market liquidity and overreaction in explaining price reversals in the three day period immediately following large one day declines large one day price declines are likely to be associated with substantial selling pressure enhancing the probability that a closing transaction is at a

simulating the new british electricity market reform abstract the british government is implementing fully its novel electricity market reform gb emr its objective in line with european directives aims at replacing existing nuclear and coal plant with low carbon systems to deliver reliable and affordable power though the gb emr has proposed several policy instruments for meeting its objectives and the academic literature has discussed the main issues no known report includes a comprehensive and dynamic simulation exercise that assesses the extent of this profound and important initiative this paper presents a system dynamics model that supports analysis of long term effects of the various policy instruments that have been proposed in the gb emr focusing on environmental quality security of supply and economic sustainability using lessons learned from simulation the paper concludes that effectively achieving the gb emr objectives requires this comprehensive intervention or a similar one that includes the promotion of low carbon electricity generation through the simultaneous implementation of various direct and indirect incentives such as a carbon price floor a feed in tariff fit and a capacity mechanism

examining the bi directional long run relationship between renewable energy consumption and gdp growth abstract the bi directional long run relationship between renewable energy consumption and gdp growth has been investigated in high income upper middle income lower middle income and high income countries to achieve this goal the fully modified ols was utilized the results revealed that 79 of the countries have a positive bi directional long run relationship between renewable energy consumption and gdp growth this represents the feedback hypothesis on the other hand 19 of the countries showed no long run relationship between the variables this represents the neutrality hypothesis besides 2 of the countries showed a one way long run relationship from gdp growth to renewable energy consumption confirming the conservation hypothesis and from renewable energy consumption and gdp growth representing the growth hypothesis despite the mixed results across countries it has been proved that the more persistent and significant the bi directional long run relationship between the variables is the higher the income countries are

changes in the standard and poor s 500 list l harris and e gurel 1986 and a shleifer 1986 examined changes in the standard and poor s list both studies presented evidence inconsistent with efficient markets looking at newer data and at bond and option prices the authors find that case against market efficiency is not compelling copyright 1991 by university of chicago press

does offshoring of materials and business services affect employment evidence from a small open economy the fear of massive job losses has prompted a fast growing literature on offshoring and its impact on employment in advanced economies this paper examines the situation for belgium it improves the offshoring intensity measure by computing a volume measure of the share of imported intermediates in output and it is among the first to address both materials and business services offshoring to high wage and low wage countries estimations of static and dynamic industry level labour demand equations augmented by offshoring intensities do not reveal a significant impact of either materials or business services offshoring on total employment for belgium between 1995 and 2003

capital gains taxes and equity trading empirical evidence individual investors have an incentive to defer selling appreciated stock until it qualifies for tax favored long term capital gains treatment shackelford and verrecchia 2002 show that these incentives can affect equity trading around public disclosures this article provides some empirical support for their theory with evidence of price increases and equity constrictions around announcements of quarterly earnings and additions to the s p 500 index we find share returns rise and trading volume falls with the incremental taxes saved by deferring the sale of appreciated property the price increases however are temporary reversing in subsequent trading days the results are consistent with buyers believing the compensation to sell before long term qualification through higher prices is less costly than holding an inappropriately weighted portfolio this finding that personal capital gains taxes affect equity trading adds to a growing literature that challenges longstanding assumptions that firm value is independent of shareholders and their taxes

empirical tax research in accounting this paper traces the development of archival microeconomic based empirical income tax research in accounting over the last 15 years the paper details three major areas of research i the coordination of tax and non tax factors ii the effects of taxes on asset prices and iii the taxation of multijurisdictional international and interstate commerce methodological concerns of particular interest to this field also are discussed the paper concludes with a discussion of possible directions for future research r 2001 elsevier science b v all rights reserved jel classification m41 h25 k34 g32 f23

sustainability guided promotion of renewable electricity generation in recent years the threat of global climate change high fuel import dependence and rapidly rising electricity demand levels have intensified the quest for more sustainable energy systems this in turn has increased the need for policy makers to promote electricity generation from renewable energy sources guaranteed prices coupled with a buy back obligation for electricity fed into the grid is a popular renewables promotion instrument especially in europe more recently driven mainly by electricity market liberalisation efforts quota targets for the share of renewables in combination with tradable green certificates tgc have received considerable attention tgc offer a greater theoretical potential for economic efficiency gains due to price competition and the greater flexibility assigned to the obliged parties while guaranteed prices and tgc schemes support the operation of renewable energy technology systems bidding schemes for renewable energy generation capacity are used to raise economic efficiency on the plant construction side all of these policy instruments suffer from the shortcoming that they do not explicitly account for the often widely varying environmental social and economic impacts of the technologies concerned in this paper we propose a methodology for the design of renewable energy policy instruments that is based on integrated assessment in particular we argue that using participatory multicriteria evaluation as part of the design of renewable energy promotion policies would make it possible 1 to differentiate the level of promotion in a systematic and transparent manner according to their socio ecological economic impact and 2 to explicitly account for the preferences of stakeholders a further problem of existing tgc and bidding schemes is that diversity of supply could be severely diminished if few low cost technologies were allowed to dominate the renewable energy market to ensure a certain diversity of technologies our scheme suggests the use of different technology bands for technologies that are relatively homogeneous with respect to their maturity

the relation between price changes and trading volume a survey this paper reviews previous and current research on the relation between price changes and trading volume in financial markets and makes four contributions first two empiri cal relations are established volume is positively related to the magnitude of the price change and in equity markets to the price change per se second previous theoretical research on the price volume relation is summarized and critiqued and major insights are emphasized third a simple model ofthe price volume relation is proposed that is consis tent with several seemingly unrelated or contradictory observations and fourth several directions for future research are identified

dividend taxation in firm valuation new evidence in this paper we develop a residual income model showing how taxes on dividends affect the relative valuation of retained earnings versus contributed equity as well as the value of expected future earnings tests of predictions from our model for a sample of compustat firms from 197594 suggest that overall firm value and the relative valuation weights investors assign to retained earnings contributed equity and current earnings all critically depend on dividend taxes the findings also suggest that investors take a proprietary perspective in valuation and impute an unrecorded shareholder level tax liability on retained earnings the u s tax system subjects retained earnings to dividend taxes upon distribution to shareholders while contributed equity is returned to shareholders as a nontaxable return of capital from the shareholder s proprietary perspective therefore retained earnings should be valued on

the reversal of large stock price decreases extremely large negative 10 day rates of return are followed on average by largerthan expected positive rates of return over following days this price adjustment lasts approximately 2 days and is observed in a sample of firms that is largely devoid of methodological problems that might explain the reversal phenomenon while perhaps not representing abnormal profit opportunities these reversals present a puzzle as to the length of the price adjustment period such a slow recovery is inconsistent with the notion that market prices quickly reflect relevant information recent research on stock returns has uncovered a substantial number of empirical findings that are broadly inconsistent with popular asset pricing models for example keim and stambaugh 1985 cross 1973 french 1980 gibbons and hess 1981 and rogalski 1984 find evidence of day ofthe week and weekend effects on stock returns while banz 1981 and reinganum 1983 find evidence of a size effect this paper presents evidence of another empirical puzzle consider the behavior of a firm s rate of return on days after it has experienced a large negative one day rate of return less than say 10 observed daily stock returns after such an extreme event are significantly larger than average on following days for a 10 fall the return above average is 1 773 for the day after and rises cumulatively to 2 215 by the second day this multiple day price adjustment is observed in a sample of firms that is largely devoid of methodological problems that might explain the reversal phenomenon the major interest of this phenomenon is the long recovery period of the stock price reversal such a slow recovery is inconsistent with the notion that market prices fully and quickly reflect relevant information

capacity adequacy in power markets facing energy transition a comparison of scarcity pricing and capacity mechanism this article analyses how a capacity mechanism can address security of supply objectives in a power market undergoing an energy transition that combines energy efficiency efforts to stabilise demand and a rapid increase in the proportion of renewables to analyse this situation power markets are simulated over the long term with a system dynamics model integrating new investment and closure decisions this last trait is relevant to studying investment in power generation in mature markets undergoing policy shocks the energy only market design with a price cap with and without a capacity mechanism is compared to scarcity pricing in two investment behaviour scenarios with and without risk aversion the results show that the three market designs lead to different levels of risk for peaking unit investment and results thus differ according to which risk aversion hypothesis is adopted assuming a risk neutral investor the results indicate that compared to an energy only market with a price cap at 3 000 mwh an energy only market with scarcity pricing and the market design with a capacity mechanism are two efficient options to reach similar levels of load loss but under the hypothesis of risk aversion the results highlight the advantage of the capacity mechanism over scarcity pricing

where ricardo and mill rebut and confirm arguments of mainstream economists supporting globalization most noneconomists are fearful when an emerging china or india helped by their still low real wage rates outsourcing and miracle export led developments cause layoffs from good american jobs this is a hot issue now and in the coming decade it will not go away prominent and competent mainstream economists enter into the debate to educate and correct warm hearted protestors who are against globalization here is a fair paraphrase of the argumentation that has been used recently by alan greenspan jagdish bhagwati gregory mankiw douglas irwin and economists john or jane doe spread widely throughout academia yes good jobs may be lost here in the short run but still total u s net national product must by the economic laws of comparative advantage be raised in the long run and in china too the gains of the winners from free trade properly measured work out to exceed the losses of the losers this is not by mysterious fuzzy magic but rather comes from a sharing of the trade induced rise in total global vectors of the goods and services that people in a democracy want never forget to tally the real gains of consumers alongside admitted possible losses of some producers in this working out of what schumpeter called creative capitalist destruction correct economic law recognizes that some american groups can be hurt by dynamic free trade but correct economic law vindicates the word creative destruction by its proof sic that the gains of the american winners are big enough to more than compensate the losers

when outcomes are the reflection of the analysis criteria a review of the tradable green certificate assessments abstract the tradable green certificates tgc framework is a prevalent policy support scheme enacted to stimulate investments in electricity from renewable energy sources res e in several countries including sweden and norway the tgc framework is currently under reevaluation in this process academic literature plays a crucial role in reflecting the outcomes of this policy framework the outcomes however are often limited by the analysis criteria which reflect what has been accounted for or disregarded when assessing the performance of the tgc framework the analysis criteria also stress what is considered as a successful outcome given the importance of such criteria this paper presents an extensive and systemic literature review of academic publications assessing the performance of the tgc framework the findings are to provide an overview of the publications analysis criteria and outline their outcomes we also provide descriptive statistics for the publications and examine the average citation record of the publications that use various analysis criteria in order to explore their relative impact on later studies these findings can help policymakers put the assessments into perspective when reevaluating a country s tgc system they also suggest several intriguing directions for future studies in this field

price and volume effects associated with changes in the s p 500 list new evidence for the existence of price pressures attempts to identify price pressures caused by large transactions may be inconclusive if the transactions convey new information to the market this problem is addressed in an examination of prices and volume surrounding changes in the composition of the s p 500 since these changes cause some investors to adjust their holdings of the affected securities and since it is unlikely that the changes convey information about the future prospects of these securities they provide an excellent opportunity to study price pressures the results are consistent with the price pressure hypothesis immediately after an addition is announced prices increase by more than 3 percent this increase is nearly fully reversed after 2 weeks the efficient market hypothesis emh predicts that security prices reflect all publicly available information therefore one corollary of the emh is that you can sell or buy large blocks of stock at close to the market price as long as you can convince other investors that you have no private information 1 this statement assumes that securities are near perfect substitutes for each other if so the excess demand for a single security will be very elastic and the sale or purchase of a large number of shares will have no impact on price in contrast to the emh scholes 8 kraus and stoll 5 hess and frost 4 and others propose two hypotheses which predict that a large stock sale purchase will cause the price to decrease increase even if no new information is associated with the transaction the imperfect substitutes hypothesis ish also known as the distribution effect hypothesis assumes that securities are not close substitutes for each other and hence that long term demand is less than perfectly elastic under this hypothesis equilibrium prices change when demand curves shift to eliminate excess demand price reversals are not expected because the new price reflects a new equilibrium distribution of security holders the price pressure hypothesis pph assumes that investors who accommodate demand shifts must be compensated for the transaction costs and portfolio risks that they bear when they agree to immediately buy or sell securities which they otherwise would not trade these passive suppliers of liquidity are attracted by immediate price drops rises associated with large sales purchases they are compensated for their liquidity service when prices rise drop to their fullinformation levels the pph like the emh assumes that long run demand is

the role of regulatory uncertainty in certificate markets a case study of the swedish norwegian market abstract price volatility in green certificate markets reflects uncertainty over future prices representing a major source of risk for renewable energy generators price risk is considered the principal deficiency of this market based policy since it causes investors to require higher returns moreover investors are exposed to regulatory risk namely the risk that a change in the regulation will materially impact the certificate price regulatory uncertainty is reflected in market volatility exacerbating certificate price risk using an econometric approach we investigate the role of regulatory changes on price volatility in the swedish certificate market the results of our analysis indicate that regulatory changes strongly affect certificate markets resulting in periods of higher volatility moreover we analyze whether certificate price volatility has changed after creating a joint swedish norwegian market results indicate that the ambivalence surrounding the creation of this bigger market led to a period of increased price volatility between 2010 and 2011 overall this article brings a better understanding of the role of regulatory uncertainty on certificate markets and gives evidence for its negative impact in terms of increased price volatility

environmental regulation and the export dynamics of energy technologies abstract the pollution haven hypothesis affirms that an open market regime will encourage the flow of low technology polluting industries toward developing countries because of potential comparative advantages related to low environmental standards in contrast the hypothesis suggested by porter and van der linde claims that innovating firms operate in a dynamic competitive situation which allows global diffusion of environmental friendly technologies environmental regulation may represent a relevant mechanism through which technological change is induced in this way countries that are subject to more stringent environmental regulations may become net exporters of environmental technologies this paper provides new evidence on the evolution of export flows of environmental technologies across different countries for the energy sector advanced economies particularly the european union have increasingly focused on the role of energy policies as tools for sustaining the development path the kyoto protocol commitments together with growing import dependence on energy products have brought attention to the analysis of innovation processes in this specific sector the analysis uses a gravity model in order to test the determinants and the transmission channels through which environmental technologies for renewable energies and energy efficiency are exported to advanced and developing countries our results are consistent with the porter and van der linde hypothesis where environmental regulation represents a significant source of comparative advantages what strongly emerges is that the stringency of environmental regulation supplemented by the strength of the national innovation system is a crucial driver of export performance in the field of energy technologies

do demand curves for stocks slope down since september 1976 stocks newly included into the standard and poor s 500 index have earned a significant positive abnormal return at the announcement of the inclusion this return does not disappear for at least ten days after the inclusion the returns are positively related to measures of buying by index funds consistent with the hypothesis that demand curves for stocks slope down the returns are not related to s p s bond ratings which is inconsistent with a plausible version of the hypothesis that inclusion is a certification of the quality of the stock

research on optimal benchmark price of tradable green certificate based on system dynamics a china perspective abstract renewable portfolio standard rps is a compulsory institutional change to achieve low carbon energy transformation in china its success depends on the scientific system quasi parameter design the most important system quasi parameter is the benchmark price of the tradable green certificate tgc setting the benchmark price of tgc scientifically and reasonably in line with china s national conditions is conducive to the effective implementation of rps in china based on the system dynamics sd to construct china s green certificate trading market model this paper analyzes the interaction between the tgc market and the electricity market under the rps and uses vensim simulation to simulate the optimal tgc benchmark price based on the maximization of social welfare the results show that the tgc market and the electricity market are mutually influential as the benchmark price of tgc increases the total power generation increases and the on grid price decreases consumer surplus producer surplus and social welfare all reach the maximum when the tgc benchmark price is 0 4yuan kwh so determines 0 4yuan kwh as the optimal benchmark price of tgc

an improved mechanism for capacity payment based on system dynamics modeling for investment planning in competitive electricity environment many countries have experienced restructuring in their electric utilities this restructuring has presented the power industries with new challenges the most important of which is long term investment planning under uncertain conditions this paper presents an improved mechanism for capacity payment the mechanism has been investigated based on system dynamic modeling in our proposed mechanism generators will recover a part of their investment through capacity payment while the payment for any plant remains constant during the operation period it depends on the investment needed to build it the main factors affecting long term planning have been considered in our model the approach can be used to investigate the effects of fixed as well as variable capacity payment in market investment we used the probability density function of load as a new concept to calculate average market price delays in unit constructions estimation of demand and market capacity growth during construction periods have been included in the proposed algorithm as parameters which affect the regulator s decision for changing capacity payment the model can be used by regulators to investigate strategies that may affect the fluctuations in the market

fostering a renewable energy technology industry an international comparison of wind industry policy support mechanisms this article examines the importance of national and sub national policies in supporting the development of successful global wind turbine manufacturing companies we explore the motivations behind establishing a local wind power industry and the paths that different countries have taken to develop indigenous large wind turbine manufacturing industries within their borders this is done through a cross country comparison of the policy support mechanisms that have been employed to directly and indirectly promote wind technology manufacturing in 12 countries we find that in many instances there is a clear relationship between a manufacturer s success in its home country market and its eventual success in the global wind power market whether new wind turbine manufacturing entrants are able to succeed will likely depend in part on the utilization of their turbines in their own domestic market which in turn will be influenced by the annual size and stability of that market consequently policies that support a sizable stable market for wind power in conjunction with policies that specifically provide incentives for wind power technology to be manufactured locally are most likely to result in the establishment of an internationally competitive wind industry

the development of the renewable energy power industry under feed in tariff and renewable portfolio standard a case study of china s wind power industry abstract among the regulatory policies feed in tariffs fit and renewable portfolio standards rps are the most popular to promote the development of renewable energy power industry this paper uses system dynamics sd to establish models of long term development of the renewable energy power industry under fit and rps schemes and provides a case study of china s wind power industry by using scenario analysis method the model on the one hand not only clearly shows the complex logical relationship between the factors but also reveals the process of coordination between the two policy tools in the development of the renewable energy power industry on the other hand it provides a reference for scholars to study similar problems in different countries thereby facilitating an understanding of the renewable energy power s long term sustainable development pattern under fit and rps schemes and helping to provide references for policy making institutions the results show that the integrate implementation of fit and rps can promote long term and rapid development of china s wind power industry given the constraints and actions of the mechanisms of rps quota proportion the tradable green certificates tgc valid period and fines in addition in the period of the construction of the tgc market rps quota growth rate and fine have a no significant effect on industrial development however with tgc market game becoming more and more fierce both of them have a significant positive impact on the long term development of the industry tgc valid period has little effect on industrial development in our study at the end of the paper policy implications are offered as references for the government

papers in experimental economics on nonbinding price controls in a competitive market interest in the effect of nonbinding price controls on double auction markets stems from two primary considerations the double auction institution converges to a competitive allocation more rapidly and with fewer participating agents than any other institution with which it has been compared see smith et al one way to improve our understanding of this important property is to determine what conditions if any can interfere with or retard this convergence process nonbinding price controls represent a condition that may affect this convergence process hence if such effects can be documented they will provide a body of data that any future proposed model of the double auction process should be able to explain a second reason for studying the effect of nonbinding controls on the double auction is practical the organized commodity exchanges often set limits on price fluctuations during any single day when prices at any point during a day rise above qr fall below the closing prices of the preceding day by more than the amount of the limit no further trading for that day is permitted walter labys p 162 consequently commodity trading frequently occurs at prices near the level of nonbinding price floors or ceilings mark issac and charles plott report the results of twelve exploratory experiments in which various price control constraints are imposed on double auction markets their two principal conclusions can be summarized as follows 1 the hypothesis is rejected that nonbinding price controls that is price ceilings above or price floors below the competitive equilibrium ce will serve as a focal point or signalling price on which sellers and buyers will key their contracts 2 inconclusive evidence is presented in support of the hypothesis that nonbinding controls near the ce will bias prices below ce when there is a price ceiling and above ce when there is a price floor support for this second hypothesis is not conclusive because some experimental markets show a tendency to converge from below and others from above depending upon the relative bargaining strength of buyers as against sellers thus sampling variation among subjects can yield a group in which buyers sellers are able to make contracts at an average price below above ce for several periods of trading consequently in an experiment in which there is a price ceiling floor five cents above below ce and in which contract prices are observed to occur below above ce one cannot determine conclusively whether the observed effect was due to the nonbinding price control or to the bargaining characteristics of the market participants we report below an experimental design developed for the purpose of separating these confounding factors and allowing the effect of nonbinding controls to be isolated the results of sixteen experiments strongly support the hypothesis that markets with a nonbinding price ceiling floor near ce will converge from below above relative to any otherwise identifiable tendency to converge from below above an analysis of the effect of a nonbinding price ceiling floor on the distributions of bids and offers reveals the cause of this bias ceilings limit the bargaining strategies of sellers especially but also that of buyers while floors have the opposite effect thus in the absence of price controls double auction trading is characterized by a process in which sellers typically make concessions from offer prices well above ce while buyers most often concede from bid prices well below ce a price ceiling truncates seller offer prices at the ceiling requir university of arizona and indiana university respectively research support by the national science foundation is gratefully acknowledged

dynamic analysis of various investment incentives and regional capacity assignment in iranian electricity market this paper develops a system dynamics model to analyze the impacts of different kinds of capacity payment as investment incentive mechanisms in iranian electricity market since it is aimed that the incurred capital and operating costs of generation technologies be recovered in iranian electricity pool the noncompetitive capacity payment mechanism has been introduced for this purpose in order to encourage new investments in electric power generation system in the current mechanism the capacity payments are designated to the generating units in the whole country electricity market an annual base value of capacity payment is proposed based on recovering the capital cost of a benchmark generation technology this value is altered according to the operational reserve in the day ahead electricity market this supporting policy is simulated and analyzed in the proposed dynamic framework in order to track the trend of new investments in the iranian electricity market the feasibility study of implementing the regional capacity assignment is the main focus of this paper different possible regulating policies such as floating rates for capacity payment and electricity price cap the multiple capacity payments to various technologies and the regional electricity market with territorial capacity allocation are examined in order to investigate the consequences and performances of different decisions and policies in the capacity investment of iranian electricity market