economies of scale in energy use in adult only households the residential sector is responsible for 18 of australia s primary energy use thus improved knowledge about household energy use is vital to future energy management this study examines economies of scale in energy use and expenditure among adult only households and across three adult only household types significant economies of scale are found in all cases small households suffer a double penalty of greater per capita energy use and higher charge per unit of energy with older households the most affected the trend towards smaller average household size means that economies of scale are continually being lost offsetting gains in energy efficiency achieved through other means

the energy ladder theoretical myth or empirical truth results from a meta analysis abstract modern fuels are an important enabler of social and economic development still over 2 billion people rely on traditional biomass for their daily energy needs to overcome the negative effects of traditional energy on human health and the environment and to enhance the livelihood conditions of the poor a transition towards cleaner and more efficient forms of energy is needed understanding household fuel choice and fuel switching behaviour is of vital importance in search for policies to support such a transition process this paper adds to the existing energy transition literature in two ways first we provide a novel conceptual framework to analyze the decision environment underlying energy and fuel choices second we apply this framework in a meta analysis of existing choice models investigating energy switching and stacking behaviour in urban and rural areas in developing countries the meta analysis shows that socio economic household characteristics appear to receive most attention so far in identifying groups of fuel users while relatively little information is available on the impact of the external decision context on household energy choices

a study in development by dispossession the paper analyses corporate led jobless growth propelled by development induced displacement caused by land acquisition by the state it shows as its inevitable outcome an expanding informal sector which encroaches upon land related natural resources allocated to the corporate sector this reduces the latter s labour productivity and competitiveness along with negative impact on environment and social cohesion using the example of india as a multiparty democracy the paper points to the emergence of a dangerous developmental politics of mutualism between political parties and corporations over land acquisition which subverts the very democratic process through which political power is wielded

does energy poverty really exist in china from the perspective of residential electricity consumption abstract china is undergoing a market oriented reform in energy and the residential sector will be involved in the near future the analysis of energy poverty is crucial in breaking the illusion of the dilemma between enhancing energy efficiency and controlling poverty based on chinese residential energy consumption survey we firstly estimated the energy poverty in china by the 10 indicator and lihc indicators and then proposed a minimum end use method to classify the energy poor households into lifeline and consumption energy poverty results show that energy poverty exists in china at the proportion of 18 9 and 46 of the energy poor houses are in short of modern energy consumption and are sensitive to tariffs with a level of electricity consumption lower than the basic demand the energy poverty rate is highest in central china while the lifeline energy poor are relatively concentrated in the western region in terms of public policy we suggest focusing on heterogeneity by considering different groups of households when implementing energy efficiency measures and targeting more on the consumption energy poor in poverty alleviation we also suggest paying particular attention to targeting households with low income by supporting practices such as coupons for energy consumption and appliance purchasing

demand side management potentials for mitigating energy poverty in south africa abstract south africa is severally posited to be africa s most industrialized nation with an economy heavily reliant on energy with depleted electricity reserve margin which led to massive load shedding and rationing of electricity in 2008 eskom has stepped up the construction of additional power plants to cover for growing supply deficits emerging trends however favour demand side management dsm initiatives as alternatives to building additional supply capacity due to environmental and economic constraints this research evaluates the electricity per capita for 2007 2011 and 2016 on provincial basis assuming 100 and 36 8 residential sector consumption of generated electricity to show declining electricity per capita values a scenario simulation for 100 50 and 30 household participation of cloth washers and cloth dryers optimal dispatch is then modelled to show the enormous dsm potentials in terms of electricity cost reduction and supply flexibility a modified genetic algorithm mga is used in the dispatch of participating loads on the medupi power plant which has been modelled to operate with carbon capture and sequestration ccs technology dsm potentials of 6938 34 mw 3469 18 mw and 2081 51 mw are computed for 100 50 and 30 household participation for cloth washers and cloth dryers

evaluating energy security in the asia pacific towards a more comprehensive approach the energy security conundrum how to equitably provide available affordable reliable efficient and environmentally benign energy services is a technology and policy challenge perhaps unlike any other the recent article on an energy security in the asia pacific by vlado vivoda is an excellent starting point for how to best capture the unique energy security challenges facing the region this article builds on vivoda s work but also points out some shortcomings with his analysis

energy consumption financial development and economic growth in india new evidence from a nonlinear and asymmetric analysis this paper investigates the asymmetric relationship between energy consumption and economic growth by incorporating financial development capital and labour into a production function covering the indian economy from 1960q1 2015q4 the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing approach is applied to examine the asymmetric cointegration between the variables an asymmetric causality test is also employed to examine the causal association between the considered variables the results indicate cointegration between the variables in the presence of asymmetries the asymmetric causality results show that only negative shocks in energy consumption have impacts on economic growth in the same vein only negative shocks in financial development have impacts on economic growth by contrast symmetrically capital formation causes economic growth finally over the study period a neutral effect exists between the labour force and economic growth in india the implications of these results for growth policies in india are also discussed

evaluating the relative strength of product specific factors in fuel switching and stove choice decisions in ethiopia a discrete choice model of household preferences for clean cooking alternatives switching from conventional stoves to modern clean safe and efficient stoves will improve health and social welfare for the 2 7 billion people worldwide that lack reliable access to modern energy services in this paper we critically review some key theoretical dimensions of household consumer behaviour in switching from traditional biomass cooking stoves to modern efficient stoves and fuels we then describe the results of empirical research investigating the determinants of stove choice focusing on the relative strength of product specific factors across three wealth groups a stated preference survey and discrete choice model were developed to understand household decision making associated with cooking stove choice in addis ababa ethiopia the study found that with the exception of price and usage cost factors for the high wealth group the product specific factors that were investigated significantly affect stove and fuel choices the relative strength of factors was assessed in terms of marginal willingness to pay and provides some evidence that consumer preference for higher quality fuels and stoves tends to increase with increasing wealth

empowering change the effects of energy provision on individual aspirations in slum communities this paper discusses the role of energy provision in influencing the social aspirations of people living in slums we examine factors that influence the shift in aspirations in five slum settlements using data from 500 interviews conducted in serviced and non serviced slums from the state of gujarat in india the non serviced slums did not have access to basic services namely water sanitation energy roads solid waste and rainwater management we find empirical evidence which suggests that when basic infrastructure provisions are met slum dwellers shift their focus from lower order aspirations to the higher order aspirations like health education housing and land ownership we argue that energy provision enhances productivity and enables slum dwellers to shift their aspirations upwards furthermore we test the effect of work days lost due to illness on the relationship between higher order aspirations and aspirations for energy provision when provision of energy is low higher work day loss dampens higher order aspirations for policy makers this study highlights the critical link between the infrastructure services preferred by slum dwellers and their social aspirations for growth

from linear fuel switching to multiple cooking strategies a critique and alternative to the energy ladder model abstract promoting sustainable development requires evaluating the technical and policy options that will facilitate the adoption and use of energy efficient and less polluting cooking stoves and practices the transition from traditional to modern fuels and devices has been explained by the energy ladder model that suggests that with increasing affluence a progression is expected from traditional biomass fuels to more advanced and less polluting fuels in this paper we evaluate the energy ladder model utilizing data from a four year 1992 96 case study of a village in mexico and from a large scale survey from four states of mexico we show that an alternate multiple fuel model of stove and fuel management based on the observed pattern of household accumulation of energy options rather than the simple progression depicted in the traditional energy ladder scenario more accurately depicts cooking fuel use patterns in rural households the multiple fuel model integrates four factors demonstrated to be essential in household decision making under conditions of resource scarcity or uncertainty a economics of fuel and stove type and access conditions to fuels b technical characteristics of cookstoves and cooking practices c cultural preferences and d health impacts this model also allows better estimates of the expected fuelwood demand and indoor air pollution in rural households

urban household energy use in tanzania prices substitutes and poverty abstract this paper presents the findings of the tanzanian urban household energy survey undertaken as part of the tanzania urban energy project household energy use varies by income group according to local fuel availability considerable differences between the marginal costs of supplying fuels and market prices paid by consumers have led to major misallocations of resources when the results of this survey are compared to the results of the 1987 household energy survey a significant shift by households toward kerosene and electricity away from fuelwood charcoal and lpg is shown to have taken place these shifts toward modern fuels are consistent with the claims of the households in the 1990 survey and can largely be explained by fuel prices finally an assessment of the lifeline tariff and the kerosene cross subsidy demonstrate that the latter is a more effective method of ensuring the basic energy needs of the urban and rural poor

on measuring energy poverty in indian households summary the relationship between energy and poverty is obvious and goes both ways recognizing this this paper provides a short overview of different approaches to measuring energy poverty it then presents a novel two dimensional measure of energy poverty and energy distribution that combines the elements of access to different energy types and quantity of energy consumed an assessment of the extent of energy poverty and changes in energy distribution pattern are analyzed by applying this measure to indian household survey data for 1983 2000 the analysis shows a significant reduction in the level of energy poverty and a rapidly developing subcontinent the new measure is a good complement to conventional monetary measures and is general enough to be applied to other developing countries

measuring fuel poverty in france which households are the most fuel vulnerable fuel poverty is a growing concern in france following the hike in energy prices that started in 2004 the problem of energy affordability for low income households entered the political debate with the grenelle de l environnement in 2007 according to the standard uk definition 10 ratio 3 8 million households were subject to fuel poverty in france in 2006 we question the way fuel poverty is currently measured and compare the impact of alternative measurement approaches on the extent and composition of fuel poverty in france then we identify and characterize vulnerable households that are not ordinarily poor but can be pushed into poverty because of their fuel bills a logit a clog log and a mixed effect logit model are used to analyze which factors influence the probability of vulnerable households to fall into poverty the study indicates that the proportion of fuel poor people and their characteristics differ significantly depending on the fuel poverty measure chosen the econometric results show that the probability of falling into poverty is higher for those who are retired living alone rent their home use an individual boiler for heating cook with butane or propane and have poor roof insulation current french fuel poverty reduction policies appear to be inappropriate given our conclusions

energy poverty in china an index based comprehensive evaluation abstract energy poverty has got increasing attention during the latest three decades measuring energy poverty is the premise of policy making to alleviate energy poverty there is no unified energy poverty measurement that has been widely accepted this paper reviews the commonly used energy poverty measurements through classifying them into three categories energy service availability energy service quality and satisfaction of energy demand for human s survival and development this paper also analyzes the suitability of the commonly used energy poverty measurement for china from the prospective of data availability and index applicability furthermore we construct a new energy poverty comprehensive evaluation index in this study and the index is illustrated to evaluate regional energy poverty in china the evaluation results indicate that china s energy poverty showed an alleviating trend from 2000 to 2011 and during this period china s energy service availability improved slightly energy consumption cleanliness showed no significant change energy management completeness decreased with fluctuations and household energy affordability and energy efficiency improved continually in addition china s regions show different characteristics of energy poverty for example middle reaches of yangtze river region showed the worst energy availability and eastern coastal region showed the worst energy management completeness several policy implications for energy poverty alleviation are also proposed in this study including for instance increasing investment on energy infrastructure and spreading energy management organization in rural area decreasing relative cost on household commercial energy consumption and encourage the utilization of modern clean and efficient household energy consumption equipment

measuring energy poverty in japan 2004 2013 abstract this paper first examines energy or fuel poverty in japan from 2004 to 2013 especially around the time of the 2011 great east japan earthquake geje to analyze the issue the paper employs various poverty and vulnerability measures with the assistance of our unique dataset the results indicate the aggravation of energy poverty among lower income and vulnerable households during the past decade resulting from both the escalation of energy prices and lowering of income the analysis also employs a new decomposition technique and identifies the explanatory factors associated with the increase in energy poverty these results suggest there were major changes in the forces driving the increase in energy poverty before and after the geje after 2011 income alleviates energy poverty in japan with energy prices becoming the main driving factor

profiting from negawatts reducing absolute consumption and emissions through a performance based energy economy abstract current energy and ghg emissions policies either focus directly on emissions or promote renewable production and the implementation of specific efficiency measures meanwhile the fundamental structure of the energy market based on profits through energy throughput remains largely unchallenged this policy oversight prevents the transition to an energy economy in which profits are based on energy services delivered at the lowest energy cost a performance based energy economy pbee the pbee applies the combined concepts of the performance economy and energy services to the energy sector energy service companies escos are discussed as an example of pbee practices the implications for energy suppliers and consumers as well as the conditions for pbee diffusion and consequences for technological change are also explored the expected environmental social and economic benefits are described however absolute consumption and emissions reductions may prove elusive due to the rebound effect in order to forestall rebound led increases complementary policy measures likely to lead to absolute reductions are required

nairobi households and their energy use an economic analysis of consumption patterns abstract this paper describes and analyses the results of an urban household energy survey conducted in nairobi kenya during 1981 aggregate data on fuel and energy demand are examined in light of the problems facing urban areas in developing countries such as the increases in petroleum prices in the 1970s and the depletion of non commercial energy resources such as wood the paper provides a disaggregation of urban household fuel demand by income group using regression analysis the results confirm that there is a high income elasticity for electricity approximately 1 6 while charcoal exhibits a negative income elasticity of 0 23 gas energy consumption is primarily explained by price movements

estimation of elasticities for domestic energy demand in mozambique abstract in mozambique households consume a mix of energy sources to satisfy their needs for lighting and cooking and for wealthier households other domestic necessities such as refrigeration the domestic energy mix depends on the prices of the sources and on the capability of the household to invest in the energy consuming appliances required to satisfy those needs based on data from a household survey carried out in mozambique during 2002 3 iaf this paper calculates the price and the income elasticities of demand for domestic energy using an econometric method developed by deaton the calculations are made for all households at the national level differentiating for urban and rural households and for the northern households of mozambique in the econometric formulation proxies for the ownership of energy appliances per household are used allowing a simple evaluation of the effects of asset ownership on the demand for energy own and cross price elasticities for five individual domestic sources are obtained low grade sources such as firewood and charcoal are less elastic elasticities of 0 41 and 0 28 respectively than candles kerosene and electricity respectively 0 88 0 79 and 0 60 income elasticities are respectively 0 45 0 32 0 93 0 84 and 0 69 placing firewood and charcoal as the less responsive to income variations and candles and kerosene as the most responsive we also comment on the factors influencing domestic energy transition

regional level household energy consumption determinants the european perspective abstract starting from the assumption that household energy use is manifold and intertwined shaped by many factors which overlap not only at the individual level but also at a higher level of scales the paper developed a more integrated approach to its determinants to assess them and also to find out whether there is a difference between regional level factors that determine it universally and those that are context dependent the static and dynamic panel analyses were employed in 64 european regions over the period from 2005 to 2013 our findings suggest that there are common energy consumption determinants and those ones that are dependent on the regions level of development while the sign of the impact of the former is the same across regions the impact of the latter may differ depending on the character of the energy policy measures applied findings also suggest that energy policy authorities have opportunities to develop and encourage energy efficiency and sustainable use of energy of the household sector by creating regional specific demand side energy efficiency programs and measures as well as user practices in relation to technology

labor market segmentation and the determination of wages in the public private formal and informal sectors in san jose costa rica a striking feature of many cities in less developed countries ldcs is the coexistence of large well organized high technology firms with the small street vendors who own little but a wooden box to sit on this apparent dualism in the urban economy has been a concern of students of economic development for many years several international agencies notably the international labour organisation ilo and the world bank have focused attention on this phenomenon the ilo popularized the terms formal sector and informal sector to describe this dichotomy to many economists one consequence of this dualism is labor market segmentation labor market segmentation plays a crucial role in explanations provided for some important issues such as rural urban migration urban poverty unemployment underemployment and growth 2 in this article i examine the hypothesis that labor market segmentation exists in san jos6 costa rica between the public and private formal sectors and between the privateformal and informal sectors defined in the appendix i define labor market segmentation as a situation where because of institutional barriers to occupational mobility between sectors a worker in the lower sector has less than full access to a job in the upper sector held by an observationally identical worker 3 if there were no barriers workers in the low wage sector would enter the high wage sector and force the wages in that sector down until wages across sectors were equalized that is labor market segmentation implies differences in wages for observationally identical workers relying on this inference most of the empirical literature on labor market segmen

bayesian conjoint choice designs for measuring willingness to pay in this paper we propose a new criterion for selecting efficient conjoint choice designs when the interest is in quantifying willingness to pay wtp the new criterion which we call the wtp optimality criterion is based on the c optimality criterion which is often used in the optimal experimental design literature we use a simulation study to evaluate the designs generated using the wtp optimality criterion and discuss the design of a real life conjoint experiment from the literature the results show that the new criterion leads to designs that yield more precise estimates of the wtp than bayesian d optimal conjoint choice designs which are increasingly being seen as the state of the art designs for conjoint choice studies and to a substantial reduction in the occurrence of unrealistically high wtp estimates

is india s economic growth leaving the poor behind there has been much debate about how much india s poor have shared in the economic growth unleashed by economic reforms in the 1990s the authors argue that india has probably maintained its 1980s rate of poverty reduction in the 1990s however there is considerable diversity in performance across states this holds some important clues for understanding why economic growth has not done more for india s poor india s economic growth in the 1990s has not been occurring in the states where it would have the most impact on poverty nationally if not for the sectoral and geographic imbalance of growth the national rate of growth would have generated a rate of poverty reduction that was double india s historical trend rate states with relatively low levels of initial rural development and human capital development were not well suited to reduce poverty in response to economic growth the study s results are consistent with the view that achieving higher aggregate economic growth is only one element of an effective strategy for poverty reduction in india the sectoral and geographic composition of growth is also important as is the need to redress existing inequalities in human resource development and between rural and urban areas

the persistence of energy poverty a dynamic probit analysis abstract this paper contributes to the growing literature on energy poverty in developing countries we use a dynamic probit estimator on three rounds of panel data from urban ethiopia to estimate a model of the probability of being energy poor and to investigate the persistence of energy poverty we also study the impact of energy price inflation which ethiopia experienced during 2007 2009 on energy use and energy poverty we find strong evidence of state dependence in energy poverty a household that is energy poor in one round is up to 16 more likely to be energy poor in the subsequent round dynamic probit regression results also suggest that an increase in the price of kerosene the most important fuel for the urban poor drives households into energy poverty a fractional response estimator for panel data which estimates the impact of energy prices on the proportion of energy obtained from clean sources also supports the finding on the adverse impact of energy price inflation households responded to the significant rise in the price of kerosene by consuming a large amount of charcoal which has been documented to have serious environmental climate and health consequences our results have significant implications for policies formulated to reduce energy poverty conserve biomass resources and promote energy transition in developing countries

analysis of the energy access improvement and its socio economic impacts in rural areas of developing countries abstract access to modern energy is one of the most basic requirements for development in rural areas of developing countries there are a large number of people who do not have access to lpg and depend on traditional biomass such as wood crop and dung for cooking in addition energy has numerous and complex links with poverty reduction therefore it is important to estimate the impacts of energy access improvement on socio economic situation in the rural areas of developing countries quantitatively this study focuses on socio economic impacts of cooking demand through changes in stoves adopted by the rural households we have developed an energy economic model of rural areas in india to analyze the links between energy income and health hazard applying both opportunity cost for using fuelwood and exposure to resipirable suspended particulate matter rspm as a result of the analysis there is a positive relation between the opportunity cost and the average rspm exposure of women in the rural areas following to increase in the opportunity cost that is income the cost of an improved wood stove becomes relatively lower first than that of a traditional wood stove and then a gas stove attains price competitiveness it is achieved that the average rspm exposure is below the who and japanese criteria for suspended particulate matter spm 190 and 100 g m3 at the opportunity cost of us 9 and 15 gj respectively

assessing the extent and intensity of energy poverty using multidimensional energy poverty index empirical evidence from households in india abstract in this paper we have made a comprehensive assessment of the extent and various socio economic implications of energy poverty in india amartya sens s capability approach to development underpins the analysis of household level data taken from the india human development survey ii ihds ii 2011 12 using the multidimensional energy poverty index mepi the overall results show that energy poverty is widespread in india and the existence of energy poverty also coincides with the other forms of deprivations such as income poverty and social backwardness for example dalits lower caste and adivasis tribal are found to be extremely energy poor compared to the other social groups in india the results also reveal that it is the responsibility of women to manage the domestic chores such as collection of firewood and making of dung cake in traditional indian households inefficient use of such biomass fuels is found to cause health hazards

v goods and the role of the urban informal sector in development this paper analyzes the role of the urban informal sector in a developing country in relation to the performance of agriculture and other rural activities on the one hand and that of urban formal sector activities on the other it decomposes the sectors into traditional and modernizing components traceable to production and consumption linkages with the rest of the economy as well as the character of government interventions over time the paper contrasts success cases a la taiwan in which the overall size of the urban informal sector remains modest the modernizing sub sector grows in relative importance and the end of overall labor surplus is reached rather early with non success cases a la the philippines in which rapid rural urban migration enhances the overall size of the urban informal sector the traditional sub sector grows relatively and the end of the labor surplus condition is substantially delayed authors

household energy choice and consumption intensity empirical evidence from bhutan abstract this paper uses data from three bhutan living standard surveys blss 2003 blss 2007 and blss 2012 to examine the trends and patterns of household energy consumption and identify and analyze the factors that influence household energy choices consumption intensity and the per capita household expenditure on energy sources in bhutan during the last decade significant numbers of bhutanese households have switched to cleaner energy sources empirical results show that a household s choice of cleaner energy sources is driven by income level and household wealth the age gender and education of the household heads access to electricity and location education and income have a differential role on the choice of clean or dirty fuel wealthier and more educated households use and rely more on clean sources of energy like electricity and liquid petroleum gas while poorer households use and rely on dirty fuel such as fuelwood and kerosene the study shows that female headed households are more likely to choose cleaner fuels and above all the availability of a clean and cost effective source of energy within proximity to the household is an important factor in the adoption of clean energy several models using a variety of alternative independent variables such as proxies for education and wealth were estimated and confirmed the robustness of the results

nigeria s energy poverty insights and implications for smart policies and framework towards a smart nigeria electricity network a thorough and exhaustive review of relevant literature and associated works is carried out to critically examine energy poverty in nigeria with respect to ownership and income using the desktop approach and empirical formulas the persistent failure of public infrastructure like healthcare education and security to the poor electricity generation transmission and distribution capacity in the country is examined alongside current government s contribution to buoying our generation capacity and electricity access through policies and investment the findings of the review reveal the urgent need for the smart roll out of distributed generation units in order to stimulate and encourage the ongoing diversification of the economy and also the need for a sustainable road map that incorporates the successes of countries faced with similar challenges this review paper also proposes the need for palliatives in form of subsidized solar home systems shss through a sustainable and economically viable means for off grid homes to assuage the effects of non availability of grid electricity

energy poverty alleviation and climate change mitigation is there a trade off energy poverty alleviation has become an important political issue in the most recent years several initiatives and policies have been proposed to deal with poor access to modern sources of energy in many developing countries given the large number of people lacking basic energy services an important question is whether providing universal access to modern energy could significantly increase energy demand and associated co2 emissions this paper provides one of the few formal assessments of this problem by means of a simple but robust model of current and future energy consumption the model allows mapping energy consumption globally for different classes of energy use quantifying current and future imbalances in the distribution of energy consumption our results indicate that an encompassing energy poverty eradication policy to be met by 2030 would increase global final energy consumption by about 7 roughly 20 ej the same quantity of energy could be saved by reducing by 15 energy consumption of individuals with standards above current european levels the additional energy infrastructure needed to eradicate energy poverty would produce 44 183 gtco2 over the 21st century and contribute at most 0 13 c of additional warming

socio economic development and electricity access in developing economies a long run model averaging approach abstract access to electricity continues to be a popular subject in empirical studies however the choice of key factors related to electricity access in the literature to date has been ad hoc due to the lack of a theoretical framework this paper adopts a bayesian model averaging bma approach to selects important factors related to electricity access from 26 socioeconomic indicators using a sample of 48 developing countries and reveal their long term relationship with electricity access the bma approach allows us to identify the optimal empirical model when a theoretical foundation is not available moreover it allows us to address the relative importance of variables using posterior inclusion probabilities and thus has clear policy relevance our results show that access to finance education economic development infrastructure and industrialisation are positively related to electricity access in the long run although the long run relationship does not indicate causality it shows that to maintain this relationship policy adjustments against any deviations from the relationship are needed our study suggests that electrification needs not only economic educational and infrastructural development but also private sector participation governments commitment and political will and integration with poverty reduction and other development schemes

determinants of household energy consumption in india improving access to affordable modern energy is critical to improving living standards in the developing world rural households in india in particular are almost entirely reliant on traditional biomass for their basic cooking energy needs this has adverse effects on their health and productivity and also causes environmental degradation this study presents a new generic modelling approach with a focus on cooking fuel choices and explores response strategies for energy poverty eradication in india the modelling approach analyzes the determinants of fuel consumption choices for heterogeneous household groups incorporating the effect of income distributions and traditionally more intangible factors such as preferences and private discount rates the methodology is used to develop alternate future scenarios that explore how different policy mechanisms such as fuel subsidies and micro financing can enhance the diffusion of modern more efficient energy sources in india

a ladder within a ladder understanding the factors influencing a household s domestic use of electricity in four african countries abstract according to the energy ladder hypothesis electricity is at the top of the energy ladder of household energy use that depends primarily on wealth status income and education levels of the users however it is often observed that households with higher income wealth and education levels do not use electricity for all domestic activities such as lighting heating and cooking creating a ladder within a ladder using a comprehensive data set from the living standard measurement study from four african countries ethiopia malawi tanzania and uganda covering 17 000 households this paper investigates the factors determining a household s adoption of electricity for lighting only and for lighting and cooking the results of a multinomial logit model and an ordered probit model show that demographic characteristics a household s wealth and human capital access to markets and remoteness greatly accelerate a household s use of electricity for light and cooking which provides evidence of a ladder within a ladder

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

energy consumption and economic growth evidence from cameroon abstract the aim of this paper is to study the nature of the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in cameroon through a three step approach i study the stationarity of the chronic ii test of causality between variables and iii estimate the appropriate model the study concludes in a non stationarity of the series using the data in first difference the granger causality test yields a strong evidence for unidirectional causality running from oil to gdp cointegration tests also show that these two series are co integrated and the error correction model ecm reveals that every percentage increase in oil products consumption increases economic growth by around 1 1 this result confirms the intuition that an economic policy aimed at improving energy supply will necessarily have a positive impact on economic growth on the other side a lack of energy is a major bottleneck for further economic development in cameroon

rural household energy consumption the effects of access to electricity evidence from south africa this paper examines household energy consumption patterns in rural areas in the light of energy transition theories in particular the study aims to identify the effects of access to electricity on fuel choice the analysis uses data from an extensive household survey conducted in south africa and examines the prevalence of different fuels energy expenditure the end uses of fuels and multiple fuel use patterns it is concluded that evidence exists for the presence of an energy transition in rural households largely driven by income access to electricity affects the nature of this transition and there is weak evidence to suggest that it accelerates the process

energy poor or fuel poor what are the differences abstract energy poverty and fuel poverty are descriptors of problems of households energy consumption they are both distinct problems and have been addressed by many researchers organizations and governments cross use of the terms of energy poverty and fuel poverty in published papers is common as an accurate descriptor is the presupposition of research and policy development especially for those who just started to pay attention to this issue this paper compares the definitions research priorities status quo and problems of these two concepts and summarizes the relationship between them the paper suggests that only when the research targets are households who are living in a cold climate and have difficulty in getting access to electricity or modern cooking facilities and in supplying indoor heating with appropriate cost the concepts of energy poverty and fuel poverty have the chance to be broadened and mutually integrated

towards a new approach in measuring energy poverty household level analysis of urban india abstract measurement of energy poverty has been a missing priority in energy research there is hardly any consensus regarding whether to consider energy as a resource or capacity output or outcome and quantity or service in this paper we revisit major approaches in literature to assess energy poverty economic engineering and access based including others we critique the economic and engineering approaches for the arbitrariness of cut offs and the misplaced emphasis on less meaningful energy quantity finding the access based approach most suitable we propose a method of assessing energy poverty based on deprivation in modern cooking and lighting fuels we divide the energy poor into three groups transitional moderate and extreme energy poor we apply the method to india s urban areas of different states and union territories using the national sample survey data the results reveal energy poverty to be primarily dictated by deprivation in cooking and a greater incidence of energy poverty in larger states in contrast to conventional measures we compute the depth and severity of energy poverty only for energy poor as opposed to for the entire population these complementary measures depict energy poverty of energy poor more accurately and therefore will direct the attention of pro poor energy policies and programmes appropriately

non universal nature of energy poverty energy services assessment of needs and consumption evidences from rural himachal pradesh abstract consumer behavior in rural ecosystems represents considerable variations vis a vis consumption of energy in different forms consumer preference towards any given energy service is a function of geographical situatedness local customs traditions and tastes including local weather conditions rural flavour of energy poverty has a distinctive micro character which can be understood in terms of socio cultural behaviourism of an energy consumer this geo spatial flavour further appears to be a function of socio economic functionalities of communities which could be socio culturally similar or different energy poverty is saddled with conceptual concentricity empirical evidence shows that the phenomena and the concept both are vulnerable in terms of operationalization by means of a single universal definition it exhibits contrarian hues in terms of availability access distribution affordability and acceptability of an energy service this study presents an alternative approach to understanding of both the phenomena and the associated conceptual construct the present paper is an explicit representation of the everyday grain of energy needs and consumption patterns in six rural socio cultural systems this study based upon fieldwork in the six villages viz bhadroya thapkour and gaghwal kangra district and kakira bidingi and talhara chamba district throws up interesting findings which challenge the contemporary discourse on energy poverty

distribution of energy consumption and the 2000 w capita target this viewpoint discusses the intra and international distribution of energy consumption and their implications for intergenerational equity for global development to be sustainable the inequality of energy consumption must have an upper limit a graphic depiction of energy consumption distributions intra and international shows that today s inequalities are large and it is argued that we may have already reached or perhaps even surpassed the sustainability limit of energy consumption inequality

the impact of the household decision environment on fuel choice behavior abstract consumer preferences for fuels and alternative cookstove technologies in kenya are examined focusing on household internal and external determinants driving choice behavior in a choice experiment the potential for a transition towards cleaner and more efficient fuels and technologies is assessed by zooming in on three fuel stove combinations we find substantial demand and positive willingness to pay for the fuel stove combinations in three locations representing different decision environments demand is significantly higher in the peri urban and the resource abundant rural location than in the resource scarce rural location the presence of better developed consumer markets for fuels in these locations functions as an important driver for cookstove adoption although charcoal and ethanol stoves are preferred over improved firewood stoves continued firewood usage is expected energy switching behavior cannot be substantiated instead energy stacking is more likely where charcoal and ethanol add to and extend a household s energy portfolio

evolution and human nature from an economic perspective on individual decision making human beings have three key characteristics preferences beliefs and rationality beliefs are the probabilities with which people think various outcomes will occur conditional on information that might be available preferences are the rankings over the set of gambles that are based on such beliefs over the outcomes rationality is the extent to which people succeed in choosing optimal actions in the light of their beliefs and preferences and the extent to which their beliefs are appropriately modified by their information economists typically impose only rather weak assumptions on preferences for example preferences are taken to be transitive and sometimes less explicitly exogenous and unchanging stronger assumptions are typically imposed on preferences in specific contexts however for example preferences over time might be represented by an additively separable function with constant rate of discount despite widespread recognition that this case is a special one further attitudes to risk are often represented by the expected utility theorem which rests on assumptions that are strong if also appealing the assumptions made on rationality in particular are usually very strong that is rationality in economic models usually entails the exact optimization of preferences and modification of beliefs in accordance with bayes theorem the economist s basic picture of preferences beliefs and rationality has been subject to challenges from a growing number of empirical anomalies the proposed explanations of these anomalies involve relaxing the assumptions that economists make on these preferences beliefs or rationality for example preferences

the challenge of energy poverty brazilian case study in recent years successive brazilian governments have actively pursued economic and social policies aimed at reducing poverty and promoting social equality and inclusion in the field of energy this has meant introducing and implementing programs aimed at expanding the supply of safe and reliable energy to the poorest sectors of brazilian society including those living in remote rural areas this paper draws attention on the findings of extensive field research to evaluate the impact of rural electrification on energy poverty in the context of government policies aimed at promoting energy equity the authors re examine the concept of an energy poverty line seeking to fine tune its application to brazilian social and economic realities and then apply an analytical framework lorenz curve gap poverty gap quadratic gini coefficient and sen index to evaluate the effectiveness of recent efforts in brazil to expand access to electricity one of the main conclusions of this study is that is that rural electrification leads to a significant reduction of the energy poverty level and a consequent improvement in energy equity

integrated assessment of sustainability trade offs and pathways for global bioenergy production framing a novel hybrid approach abstract current controversies and debates on bioenergy production in the areas of greenhouse gases emission reduction food and energy security social exclusion and welfare erosion and ecosystem deterioration attest to the challenges which the bioenergy sector has to overcome to achieve its global production potentials because it is yet an evolving sector the sustainability of bioenergy production in different regions is very elusive experiences show that bioenergy policies in one region can have impacts not only on its own but also on other regions social economic and ecological sustainability it is thus important to assess development pathways for bioenergy to exploit the potential benefits and forestall any unnecessary costs this paper frames a novel hybrid approach for assessing bioenergy potentials for regions with diverging economic social and ecological systems the approach is based on a conceptual framework that takes into account trade offs decisions on sustainability goals and production options in the assessment of bioenergy pathways it combines different empirical techniques for the systematic investigation of trade offs and pathways including fuzzy logic conjoint logit and path analyses to show the relevance and utility of these techniques for the integrated assessment of trade offs and pathways in bioenergy development we illustrated their application using results and data from previous related studies

conceptualizing urban household energy use climbing the energy services ladder this article begins by defining energy services and identifying how they differ according to sector urban and rural areas and direct and indirect uses it then investigates household energy services divided into three classes lower income middle income and upper income it finds that the primary energy technologies involved with low income households involve a greater number of fuels and carriers ranging from dung and fuelwood to liquefied petroleum gas and charcoal but a fewer number of services middle income households throughout the world tend to rely on electricity and natural gas followed by coal liquefied petroleum gas and kerosene these homes utilize energy to produce a much broader range services the upper class or rich have access to the same energy fuels carriers and technologies as middle income homes and families but consume more energy and more high luxury items the study highlights how focusing on energy services reorients the direction of energy policy interventions that energy services are neither uniform nor innate and by noting exciting areas of potential research

nairobi s informal sector dynamic entrepreneurs or surplus labor the 1972 international labour office ilo report on kenya and its use of the term informal sector sparked off a great deal of controversy in the development literature over the meaning and usefulness of such a concept some critics have argued that the motivations and activities of participants in what is called the informal sector are so fundamentally diverse in nature that to write of a single sector which can be usefully incorporated in models of the urban economy of ldcs is fruitless partly as a response to these critics others have disaggregated the urban economy into two or three subsectors which are then used to analyze the interdependence and explain the dynamics of the urban labor market through time unfortunately the empirical base for testing these models and resolving some of these arguments is extremely sketchy and in most cases nonexistent in a partial attempt to fill this lacuna especially in kenya a survey of informal sector enterprises in nairobi was launched in mid 1977 the results of the survey are used to test some general hypotheses about the sector and the paper offers an alternative view of the role of the sector in the urban economy of an ldc with particular reference to kenya

meta analysis of empirical evidence on energy poverty the case of developing economies abstract energy poverty has evolved as an important issue of research from academic and policy perspectives during the last two decades the energy poverty estimates exhibit widespread variations across regions methodologies and datasets making the task of energy and development policies challenging the variations in energy poverty estimates necessitate a systematic and rigorous analysis of these empirical studies to obtain a true measure of energy poverty the present study conducts a meta analysis of 30 studies and 103 estimates of energy poverty on average 71 1 percent of the population in the overall sample studies has been identified as energy poor high i square statistic values suggest heterogeneity bias in the sample studies therefore analysis at the subgroup level has been conducted meta regression analysis of overall sample and subgroups has identified type of methodology citations impact factor of the journal regional dummies average key crude oil price and gross domestic product as significant factors that explain heterogeneity in the energy poverty effect sizes we recommend inclusion of local and regional factors in assessment of energy poverty for developing a uniform methodology to assess energy poverty across developing economies

community pressure and clean technology in the informal sector an econometric analysis of the adoption of propane by traditional mexican brickmakers abstract in many developing countries the informal sector comprised of low technology unlicensed micro enterprises is a major source of pollution environmental management in this sector is exceptionally challenging though clean technologies offer a means of mitigating the problem to our knowledge there has been no rigorous empirical research on why informal or even small scale firms do and do not adopt them as a first step toward filling this gap this paper presents the results of an econometric analysis of the diffusion of propane among informal traditional brickmakers in cd juarez mexico a leading source of air pollution owing to their reliance on cheap highly polluting fuels such as used tires and scrap wood the two key policy implications of our analysis are that 1 it is possible to successfully promote the adoption of a clean technology by intensely competitive informal firms even when the new technology significantly raises variable costs and 2 community pressure applied by competing firms and private sector local organizations can generate incentives for adoption

enabling mini grid development in rural india summary rural electrification rates in india lag behind government goals in part due to the inability of distribution companies discoms to fund central grid expansion in the absence of central grid electrification mini grids offer significant potential for an immediate pathway toward rural electrification and the attendant gains in economic growth and productivity yet private investment in mini grids has been virtually absent in india using a comprehensive life cycle cost analysis we find that mini grids based on solar pv power and storage are more economical than incumbent energy services available to households without central grid connection under current law a prospective entrepreneur in india does not require a license or certification in order to build a mini grid and subsequently provide electricity services in the area covered by said installation conversely there is no legal or regulatory framework that specifies what is to happen if the central grid were to be extended to an area that is already covered by a mini grid we report detailed survey evidence from interviews with entrepreneurs analysts and policymakers whose assessments converge on the same point mini grid investments would be jeopardized in the event of central grid extension precisely because discoms would by regulatory order provide electricity services at highly subsidized rates well below their full economic cost our fieldwork suggests that the threat of central grid extension is a gateway barrier preventing mini grid development in india the issues associated with the gateway barrier have common elements with the so called holdup problem as identified in the economics of organizations there have been two recent federal policy guidelines and one actual state level policy addressing the regulatory status of mini grids we examine the effectiveness of these policies proposals in terms of an entrepreneur s willingness to develop mini grids in the future