input output analysis of alternative policies implemented on the energy activities an application for catalonia abstract the aim of this paper is to analyze the economic impact of alternative policies implemented on the energy activities of the catalan production system specifically we analyze the effects of a tax on intermediate energy uses a reduction in intermediate energy demand and a tax on intermediate uses combined with a reduction in intermediate energy demand the methodology involves two versions of the input output price model a competitive price formulation and a mark up price formulation the input output price framework will make it possible to evaluate how the alternative measures modify production prices consumption prices private real income and intermediate energy uses the empirical application is for the catalan economy and uses economic data for the year 2001 the combination of a tax on energy uses and an improvement in the energy efficiency of the production system is a measure that accomplishes both economic and environmental goals since it has no effects on prices it has a positive effect on private real income and finally energy consumption is considerably reduced

responsible entrepreneurship in developing countries understanding the realities and complexities developing countries have recently experienced a burgeoning of small scale individual entrepreneurs sies who range from petty traders to personal service workers like small street vendors barbers and owners of small shops as a result of market based reforms rapid urbanisation unemployment landlessness and poverty while sies form a major part of the informal workforce in developing countries and contribute significantly to economic growth their potential is being undermined when they engage in irresponsible and deceptive business practices such as overpricing sale of underweight or substandard products or attempts to hoard goods to name a few despite the growing interest in corporate social responsibility csr initiatives of small businesses in developing countries the sies have received almost no attention to address this void in the literature we explore the reasons for the less than optimal level of social responsibility demonstrated by some sies in developing countries we do so by drawing upon the existing literature to develop a comprehensive framework of social responsibility of sies highlighting their unique characteristics and the different contextual factors that they encounter in developing countries based on this framework we then present a set of propositions specifying the influence of these contextual factors such as business environment cultural traditions socio economic conditions and both international and domestic pressures on the business practices of sies the framework offers an explanation for the lack of responsible entrepreneurship of sies and has important implications for promoting sustainable business practices in developing countries where businesses are striving hard to survive and compete

the impact of domestic trade on china s regional energy uses a multi regional input output modeling to systematically reveal how domestic trade impacts on china s regional energy uses an interprovincial input output modeling is carried out to address demand derived energy requirements for the regional economies in 2007 based on the recently available data both the energy uses embodied in final demand and interregional trade are investigated from the regional and sectoral insights significant net transfers of embodied energy flows are identified from the central and western areas to the eastern area via interregional trade shanxi is the largest energy producer and interregional embodied energy deficit receiver in contrast to guangdong as the largest energy user and surplus receiver by considering the impacts of interregional trade the energy uses of most eastern regions increase remarkably for instance shanghai hainan zhejiang beijing jiangsu and guangdong have their embodied energy requirements 87 49 19 97 13 64 12 60 6 46 and 6 38 times of their direct energy inputs respectively in contrast the embodied energy uses of some central and western regions such as inner mongolia shanxi xinjiang shaanxi and guizhou decrease largely the results help understand the hidden network linkages of interregional embodied energy flows and provide critical insight to amend china s current end reduction oriented energy policies by addressing the problem of regional responsibility transfer

quantifying the impacts of energy price reform on living expenses in saudi arabia abstract as part of vision 2030 saudi arabia has initiated a broad based energy reform programme aimed at gradually reducing its dependence on oil this paper assesses the impacts of energy price reforms on living expenses of various household groups in saudi arabia for this purpose the input output table combined with household expenditure data are used to model the impacts results show that the distributional impacts of energy price reforms are regressive with low income households experiencing a higher increase in living expenses compared to high income households the impacts are primarily instigated by rising prices of energy intensive products after decomposing the impacts into direct and indirect effects it was found that indirect effect is not only responsible for a considerable rise in household expenditure on energy intensive products but it is also distributionally regressive it is therefore vital for policymakers to review and fine tune the social protection system to protect poor households against reforms

changes in energy requirements of the residential sector in india between 1993 94 and 2006 07 abstract a substantial amount of primary and secondary energy is consumed by the residential sector residential energy consumption includes energy required for construction activity and household consumption hence there is a need to quantify energy consumption its significance and causes calculating energy intensity of goods and services is the first step towards quantifying the causes this research is based on the 115 sector classification input output tables for india for 1993 94 1998 99 and 130 sector classification input output tables for 2003 04 and 2006 07 energy intensity of sectors related to household consumption has been calculated to analyze the trend between 1993 94 and 2006 07 indirect energy requirements of indian households have been assessed in this study from calculations of total primary energy intensity along with private final consumption expenditure results indicate that energy consumption has increased for all categories except medical care and hygiene percentage increase in indirect primary energy consumed by households is maximum for house building and recreation categories finally a complete decomposition analysis of indirect primary energy consumed by households has been carried out based on changing structural composition of the private final consumption expenditure energy intensity patterns per capita expenditures on energy and population

the impacts of china s household consumption expenditure patterns on energy demand and carbon emissions towards 2050 abstract this paper explores how china s household consumption patterns over the period 2005 2050 influence the total energy demand and carbon dioxide co2 emissions in two baseline scenarios and how it influences carbon prices as well as the economic cost in the corresponding carbon mitigation scenarios to this end we first put forward two possible household consumption expenditure patterns up to 2050 using the working leser model taking into account total expenditure increase and urbanization for comparison both expenditure patterns are then incorporated in a hybrid recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium model the results reveal that as income level increases in the coming decades the direct and indirect household energy requirements and co2 emissions would rise drastically when household expenditure shifts from material products and transport to service oriented goods around 21 000 mtce 1 of primary energy and 45 billion tons of co2 emissions would be saved over the 45 year period from 2005 to 2050 moreover carbon prices in the dematerialized mitigation scenario would fall by 13 in 2050 thus reducing the economic cost

co2 emissions from household consumption in india between 1993 94 and 2006 07 a decomposition analysis abstract co 2 emission from anthropogenic activities is one of the major causes of global warming india being an agriculture dependent country global warming would mean monsoon instability and consequent food scarcity natural disasters and economic concerns however with proper policy interventions co 2 emissions can be controlled input output analysis has been used to estimate direct and indirect co 2 emissions by households for 1993 94 1998 99 2003 04 and 2006 07 complete decomposition analysis of the changes in co 2 emissions between 1993 94 and 2006 07 has been done to identify the causes into pollution energy intensity structure activity and population effects according to broad household consumption categories results indicate that activity structure and population effects are the main causes of increase in co 2 emission from household fuel consumption to identify the causes at the sectoral level a second decomposition has been done for changes between 2003 04 and 2006 07 to identify the causes in the next stage finally alternative energy policy options have been examined for each consumption category to reduce emissions combined strategies of technology upgradation fuel switching and market management in order to reduce co 2 emissions for sectors like batteries other non electrical machinery construction and electronic equipments including television for which all the effects are positive need to be adopted

meeting the millennium development goals in brazil can microeconomic simulations help the authors investigate whether micro simulation techniques can shed light on the types of policies that should be adopted by countries wishing to meet their millennium development goals they compare two families of micro simulations the first family of micro simulations decomposes required poverty changes into a change in the mean and a reduction in inequality although it highlights the importance of inequality reduction it appears to be too general to be of much use for policymaking the second family of micro simulations is based on a richer model of behavior in the labor markets it points to the importance of combining different policy options such as educational expansion and targeted conditional redistribution schemes to ensure that the poorest people in society are successfully reached but the absence of market equilibria in these statistical models as well as the strong stability assumptions which are implicit in their use argue for extreme caution in their interpretation

promises and pitfalls in environmentally extended input output analysis for china a survey of the literature abstract as the world s largest developing economy china plays a key role in global climate change and other environmental impacts of international concern environmentally extended input output analysis ee ioa is an important and insightful tool seeing widespread use in studying large scale environmental impacts in china calculating and analyzing greenhouse gas emissions carbon and water footprints pollution and embodied energy this paper surveys the published articles regarding ee ioa for china in peer reviewed journals and provides a comprehensive and quantitative overview of the body of literature examining the research impact environmental issues addressed and data utilized the paper further includes a discussion of the shortcomings in official chinese data and of the potential means to move beyond its inherent limitations

primary energy and greenhouse gases embodied in australian final consumption an input output analysis input output modeling of primary energy and greenhouse gas embodiments in goods and services is a useful technique for designing greenhouse gas abatement policies the present paper describes direct and indirect primary energy and greenhouse gas requirements for a given set of australian final consumption it considers sectoral disparities in energy prices capital formation and international trade flows and it accounts for embodiments in the gross national expenditure as well as the gross domestic product primary energy and greenhouse gas intensities in terms of mj and kg co2 e are reported as well as national balances of primary energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions

energy requirements of sydney households supporting the lifestyles of the populations of modern cities requires vast quantities of natural resources and leads to environmental stresses such as air and water pollution research into the metabolism of cities therefore aims at understanding the physical flows into within and out of cities with a view to reducing the use of resources and the environmental impacts one important physical indicator is energy use most studies on cities only consider direct or end user energy consumption since the function of cities is to serve the lives of their residents indirect energy use in cities or energy embodied in the consumption of goods and services by its residents can be regarded as being as important as direct energy use however physical models of cities are extremely complex and have difficulty in dealing with boundary issues and hence the indirect resource requirements in this paper we use input output analysis and detailed household expenditure data to yield comprehensive energy use breakdowns for the 14 statistical subdivisions of sydney multivariate regression and structural path analysis spa are used to interpret the results clear correlations can be drawn between energy use and income household size age and degree of urbanity the structural path analysis is used to demonstrate how significant differences in lifestyles between inner and outer areas of sydney leads to different energy use characteristics this final consumption based approach to analysing the energy requirements for households has important implications for measures aimed at reducing energy use which tend to only consider direct energy use d 2004 elsevier b v all rights reserved

energy models for demand forecasting a review abstract energy is vital for sustainable development of any nation be it social economic or environment in the past decade energy consumption has increased exponentially globally energy management is crucial for the future economic prosperity and environmental security energy is linked to industrial production agricultural output health access to water population education quality of life etc energy demand management is required for proper allocation of the available resources during the last decade several new techniques are being used for energy demand management to accurately predict the future energy needs in this paper an attempt is made to review the various energy demand forecasting models traditional methods such as time series regression econometric arima as well as soft computing techniques such as fuzzy logic genetic algorithm and neural networks are being extensively used for demand side management support vector regression ant colony and particle swarm optimization are new techniques being adopted for energy demand forecasting bottom up models such as markal and leap are also being used at the national and regional level for energy demand management

impacts of a rise in electricity tariff on prices of other products in vietnam abstract this study examines the impacts of increasing electricity tariff to the long run marginal cost on prices of other products using a static input output approach it is found that such an increase would drive up the prices of all other products although the aggregate price impact from such an increase is not large it would be socially difficult to implement this increase at one time particularly given that vietnam is facing high inflation rate a roadmap for electricity tariff increase is thus discussed

economic and environmental effects of a co2 tax in latin american countries abstract the environmental extension from the leontief pricing model is used to simulate the economic and environmental effects of setting different co2 tax rates in three latin american countries brazil mexico and chile it considers a regulatory scenario in which the tax is applied only to emissions from the electricity sector and another scenario in which tax is applied to emissions from all economic sectors the results show that the effects of a co2 tax on sectoral prices and emissions in each country are very different for the same tax rate but these effects are similar in each country when comparing both regulatory scenarios this is explained by the composition carbonization of the electric generation and energy matrix of each of the countries which significantly affects the effectiveness of co2 taxes to reduce emissions in addition the economic sectors most affected by the different regulatory scenarios are similar in all countries

an overview of energy consumption of the globalized world economy abstract for the globalized world economy with intensive international trade an overview of energy consumption is presented by an embodied energy analysis to track both direct and indirect energy uses based on a systems input output simulation in 2004 the total amounts of energy embodied in household consumption government consumption and investment are 7749 874 and 2009 mtoe million tons of oil equivalent respectively the united states is shown as the world s biggest embodied energy importer 683 mtoe and embodied energy surplus receiver 290 mtoe in contrast to china as the biggest exporter 662 mtoe and deficit receiver 274 mtoe energy embodied in consumption per capita varies from 0 05 uganda to 19 54 toe rest of north america based on a forecast for 2005 2035 china is to replace the united states as the world s leading embodied energy consumer in 2027 when its per capita energy consumption will be one quarter of that of the united states

total factor energy efficiency of regions in china abstract this paper analyzes energy efficiencies of 29 administrative regions in china for the period 1995 2002 with a newly introduced index most existing studies of regional productivity and efficiency neglect energy inputs we use the data envelopment analysis dea to find the target energy input of each region in china at each particular year the index of total factor energy efficiency tfee then divides the target energy input by the actual energy input in our dea model labor capital stock energy consumption and total sown area of farm crops used as a proxy of biomass energy are the four inputs and real gdp is the single output the conventional energy productivity ratio regarded as a partial factor energy efficiency index is computed for comparison in contrast to tfee our index is found fitting better to the real case according to the tfee index rankings the central area of china has the worst energy efficiency and its total adjustmentof energy consumption amount is over half of china s total regional tfee in china generally improved during the research period except for the western area a u shape relation between the area s tfee and per capita income in the areas of china is found confirming the scenario that energy efficiency eventually improves with economic growth

estimation and control of spanish energy related co2 emissions an input output approach this article uses input output methods to obtain the energy related co2 intensities for the spanish economy in 1992 based on those intensities it yields a structural decomposition of spanish energy related co2 emissions and an estimation of the price effects of several hypothetical carbon taxes levied on fossil fuel consumption these results are related to the ongoing discussion within eu circles and member states about the consequences of carbon energy taxes and to the simulated effects of such taxes in various countries the paper also responds to the lack of reliable disaggregated data on spanish co2 emissions and to the growing awareness on the limited effectiveness of spanish climate change policies

measuring structural change and energy use decomposition of the us economy from 1997 to 2002 abstract the steadily increasing focus on energy production and consumption has led to growing research attention to patterns of energy use within economies of particular interest has been comparing the driving forces of increasing efficiency and economic structural change input output analysis ioa and decomposition analysis have become critical tools for performing such analyses this study analyzes aggregate energy use in the united states in 1997 and 2002 to discover the causes of changing energy usage and flows results show that rising population and household consumption acted to drive up energy demand but this driving force was offset by considerable structural change within the economy particularly related to a quickly increasing trade deficit in manufacturing goods thus while total energy intensity the ratio of energy use to economic output declined by approximately 12 between 1997 and 2002 changes in the structure of the economy explain this drop more than increased energy efficiency the level of aggregation at which decomposition analyses are run was identified as a crucially sensitive parameter for the determination of structural change and future studies should specifically address the amount of detail necessary to adequately measure changes in economic structure

on the application of input output analysis to energy issues abstract the paper develops a static input output i o framework for analysing energy issues in the short run in addition to reviewing the conventional static i o model the paper discusses two problems in its applications i interdependence between the projected sectoral output in the multiplier analysis and ii definition of substitution effect in changing the energy input coefficient the corresponding modifications will be analysed an unconventional supply driven i o model is also discussed here in order to improve the completeness on the application of the input output model

economic energy and greenhouse emissions impacts of some consumer choice technology and government outlay options abstract the impacts of selected spending options in the australian economy are determined in terms of energy consumption greenhouse gas emissions and a range of economic parameters six case studies of one current practice and one alternative environmentally motivated spending option are carried out describing consumer choices technologies and government outlays the assessment method is based on input output theory and as such enables both the direct and indirect effects of spending to be quantified in general the results indicate that pro environmental objectives such as reductions in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are compatible with broad socio economic benefits such as increases in employment and income and reductions in imports

input output simulations of energy environment economy interactions in the uk this paper shows how a number of the complex interrelationships between energy environment and economic welfare can be investigated with the aid of a 10 sector input output i o model of the uk with pollution emission coefficients and a european sulphur deposition vector the paper reviews relevant past applications of i o analysis in the energy environment area and describes the endam program and its operation it is used to simulate the effects of a variety of policies and possibilities not only through changes in exogenous variables final demand and income taxes and transfers but also through changes in the structural matrices and their coefficients in each case the full effects direct indirect and income induced can be traced and the changes in comparative static equilibrium values discovered in this way policy issues connected with energy use and environmental impacts employment and economic welfare have been investigated

global primary energy use associated with production consumption and international trade presented in this study is a comprehensive analysis for energy use of different economic entities in global supply chains including the exploiter producer consumer intermediate trader and final trader the systems input output analysis method is adopted to trace the direct and indirect energy use associated with both intermediate production and final consumption activities in the economic system in the world economy 15 of the energy use embodied in trade turns out to be induced by final consumption and 85 is attributed to intermediate production different trading patterns for different economies are identified with the separation between energy trade for intermediate production and that for final consumption for japan with a production oriented trading pattern intermediate trade should be a top priority in local trade structure adjustment while final trade needs more attention for the government in the united states as the country is in a consumption oriented trade pattern this analysis aims to provide an in depth insight into energy sustainability as well as a sound scientific reference for policy making at the regional national and global scale

comprehensive evaluation of household indirect energy consumption and impacts of alternative energy policies in china by input output analysis abstract households consume a large amount of indirect energy through the consumption of goods and services this fact makes the quantitative analysis of indirect household energy consumption the foundation of energy policy design this paper improves the compilation method of energy input output tables and establishes a sequence of energy input output tables for china based on these tables the indirect energy consumption of both rural and urban households is calculated then with economic data for the year of 2005 the adjusted input output price model is applied to evaluate how the alternative energy policies impact production prices consumption prices and real income of rural and urban households through the mechanism of indirect energy consumption by using electricity as an example this research has practical implications for chinese economy the integration of energy efficiency improvements and energy prices increase serves as a means to achieve both economic and energy conservation goals and may also have a positive effect on residents real income and a minimal effect on production prices

a quantile approach to assess the effectiveness of the subsidy policy for energy efficient home appliances evidence from rizhao china abstract a one year subsidy program for energy efficient home appliances has been implemented in china we construct a dataset consisting of participant and non participant households in both urban and rural areas of rizhao city by applying a quantile regression and counterfactual analysis this study disentangles the impact of this subsidy program and inherent household attributes on per capita residential electricity consumption first contrary to the mean regression the elasticity of electricity consumption to household s income age education and energy saving awareness varies markedly across the electricity consumption distribution and shows discrepancy between urban and rural areas second while inherent household attributes are identified as a primary determinant to the changes in residential electricity consumption the effect induced by the subsidy incentive is more significant at the middle of the electricity consumption distribution than at the tails third there are significant rebound effects that lead to overall increase in household electricity consumption our results suggest that the disparity between urban and rural regions and targeted consumer behavior changes should be taken into account to ensure the effectiveness of a future energy efficient subsidy program

energy requirements of households in brazil abstract in this study we determine the total direct plus indirect energy requirements of a given set of brazilian households we use a generalized input output model in order to calculate the energy embodied in goods and services purchased by households of different income level in 11 capital cities of brazil our results show that on average the total energy intensity of household expenditure increases with income level although there is a considerable spread in energy intensities within income classes as well as disparities between regions of the country the total yearly average energy requirement per household in brazil in 1995 96 was 173 6 gj 61 of which was indirect with 32 8 gj for the lower income level 66 of which was indirect and 602 2 gj for the higher income level 62 of which was indirect of this total average energy requirement 76 was required for only three consumption categories utilities 31 mobility 28 and shelter 17 this analysis calls for the attention that has to be given not only to the direct energy consumption as motor fuels and electricity for example but also to the consumption categories that encompass an important part of the indirect energy requirement of households in capital cities in brazil

interactions in swiss households energy demand a holistic approach abstract this article analyzes the interactions and possible trade offs between direct energy consumption and embodied energy requirement of households in switzerland in order to assess the net impacts of standard energy policies focusing exclusively on direct energy use direct and embodied energy demand of swiss households are estimated by combining consumption data of a national expenditure survey with data on energy intensity from life cycle analysis using a system of equations and an instrumental variable approach we find that both domains are driven by same determinants but that there is no evidence for significant substitution between them we also find an increasing effect of income on both domains with particularly important effects on embodied energy from a policy perspective our findings highlight a concern that economic growth could bring about an increasing global energy demand through energy requirement for non energy commodities however the wide spread policies targeting direct energy are unlikely to cause a substantial shift in household consumption to embodied energy

renewable energy and employment in germany abstract the positive impacts of an increasing share of renewable energy on the mitigation of climate change as well as on the decrease of the dependency of energy imports are indisputable however one persistent problem for the german economy has been its high level of unemployment in the recent past therefore any policy strategy will be measured also by its net impact on the labor market the paper describes the results of a study that models this impact and is novel within three respects firstly an input output vector for the renewable energy sector was developed based on the results of more than 1000 interviews with an extensive questionnaire secondly gross and net effect of two different policy scenarios for germany until 2030 were calculated and thirdly the approach varies from earlier studies by its explicit modeling of export and foreign trade effects

embodied energy use in china s industrial sectors abstract as the world s top energy consumer china is facing a great challenge to solve its energy supply issue in this paper energy use from all industrial sectors in china s economy of 2007 was explored by conducting an extended environmental input output analysis we compare the energy consumption embodied in the final demand for goods and services from 29 sectors with the energy demand required for the actual production process in each sector two different viewpoints for sectoral energy use have been presented energy use is directly allocated to the producer entity and energy use is reallocated to sector s supply chain from consumption perspective our results show that considerable amount of energy use is embodied in the supply chain especially for construction and other service activities sectors which is not detected if energy use is allocated on a production basis when further dividing embodied energy consumption into direct energy consumption and indirect energy consumption total indirect energy consumption is much higher than that of total direct energy consumption accounting for 80 6 of total embodied energy consumption in 2007 our results provide a more holistic picture on sectoral energy consumption and therefore can help decision makers make more appropriate policies

an analysis of co2 emissions of japanese industries during the period between 1985 and 1995 this paper examines the factors that have an effect on co2 emissions produced by japanese industries between 1985 and 1995 by using input output tables the effects of environmental technological changes etc and production technological changes ptc on co2 emissions are considered separately furthermore backward and forward linkage effects in each sector that shows the extent to which each sector spreads or receives co2 emissions impacts across all of sectors will be calculated the results show that both types of technologies contributed to a decrease in co2 emissions during the bubble economy of the late 1980s but not during the recession of the early 1990s trade factors succeeded in decreasing co2 emissions in both periods thus trade structures facilitated the turning of japan into a net importer of co2 emissions between 1985 and 1995 the backward and forward linkage effects also decreased during the boom of the late in 1980s but not the recession of the early 1990s while the chemical products and electrical machinery sectors continued to reduce both effects this indicates that both sectors were relatively successful in decreasing their co2 emissions impacts between 1985 and 1995

industrial co2 emissions from energy use in korea a structural decomposition analysis abstract this paper attempts to quantify energy consumption and co 2 emissions in the industrial sectors of korea the sources of the changes in co 2 emissions for the years 1990 2003 are investigated in terms of a total of eight factors through input output structural decomposition analysis changes in emission coefficient caused by shifts in energy intensity and carbon intensity changes in economic growth and structural changes in terms of shifts in domestic final demand exports imports of final and intermediate goods and production technology the results show that the rate of growth of industrial co 2 emissions has drastically decreased since the 1998 financial crisis in korea the effect on emission reductions due to changes in energy intensity and domestic final demand surged in the second period 1995 2000 while the impact of exports steeply rose in the third period 2000 2003 of all the individual factors economic growth accounted for the largest increase in co 2 emissions the results of this analysis can be used to infer the potential for emission reduction in korea

carbon dioxide emissions in the u s economy a structural decomposition analysis this paper provides an empirical analysis of the impact of various influences on carbon dioxide emissions it incorporates methodological refinements of input output structural decomposition analysis which is the examination of economic change by means of a set of comparative static variations in key parameters of i o tables the analysis is performed using a two tiered klem model which allows for estimation of substitution and technological change effects within and between input aggregates the model is used to decompose the sources of change in co2 emissions in the u s over the 1972 82 timeframe using hybrid energy value tables for the initial and terminal years results show the significant effect of substitution within the energy sector and between energy and other inputs as the leading causes of the decline in carbon dioxide emissions

evaluating the relationships among economic growth energy consumption air emissions and air environmental protection investment in china abstract this paper analyzed the interactions among china s economic growth and its energy consumption air emissions and air environmental protection investment during 2000 2007 conventional energy and emergy are applied to quantify energy consumption and emissions impact respectively the five indicators based on money energy and emergy including ratio of nonrenewable energy to renewable energy rnr energy use per unit gdp eupg environmental cost per unit gdp ecpg impact of emissions per unit energy consumption iepec and environmental benefit per unit environmental protection investment ebpei are presented to depict the relationships among economic growth and energy consumption and impact of air emissions and air environmental protection investment the results show that energy consumption rapidly rises with china s fast economic growth however energy efficiency and environmental loading intensity from energy consumption are reduced simultaneously but their improvements fall far behind economic growth rate impact of air emissions mainly composed of impact of emissions on human health especially dust is slightly decreased the performance of air environmental protection investment is obviously declined in the study period generally speaking the conflict among economy energy and air environment protection is slightly mitigated but still acute due to great dependence of china s economy on fossil energy and inefficient environmental protection measures finally this paper discusses the corresponding issues and then puts forward some related suggestions

efficiency performance and regulation of the international gas industry a bootstrap dea approach abstract natural gas has become increasingly important as a source of energy in recent years it is widely viewed as an attractive means of realizing environmental objectives post kyoto and individual country gas industries have been extensively restructured to encourage investment from the private sector barriers to international trade in gas have fallen particularly in areas such as europe and asia as pipeline facilities have expanded and trading systems have become established an important question for policy makers concerns the use of scarce resources by this expanding industry regulatory authorities increasingly use efficiency comparators to incentivise minimum cost use of resources by price cap methods yardstick competition and other techniques this paper explores some of the policy developments which affect efficiency of resource use in the gas industry and uses data envelopment analysis to measure relative performance at the individual country level recent developments in bootstrapping techniques are used to correct efficiency estimates for bias and to assess the uncertainty surrounding such estimates the implications of these results for regulatory authorities are then explored

distributional incidence of green electricity price subsidies in china abstract distributional incidences are fundamental to environmental and energy policies a condition that has led to controversies on the equity of environmental and energy policy using data from china s urban household income and expenditure survey data from 2007 this study quantified the distributional effects of the green electricity price subsidy policy among chinese urban household and compared its effects by using lifetime income and annual income to classify households respectively the results show that total electricity subsidies are mainly driven by indirect electricity subsidies by using lifetime income to classify households subsidies to households in the poorest two groups accounted for less than 10 2 of the total subsidies whereas money distributed to households in the top two deciles reached 35 4 the comparison using annual income to group households also demonstrated the similar impact of the green electricity price subsidy policy china s future market reforms should allow electricity prices to reflect pollution abatement costs additionally a multi step block electricity price schedule can reduce the regressivity of the policy

wage inequality and the distribution of education abstract this paper analyzes the relationship between education and wage inequality in metropolitan brazil the study is based on data from ten brazilian annual household surveys pnads which are available for the period 1976 1986 the universe of analysis is limited to occupied prime age males the inequality measure used was theil s second measure which is analytically convenient for a study of the determinants of inequality it is shown that there exist sharp differences in wage inequality across metropolitan areas to identify whether these large regional differences in inequality are directly associated with differences in educational levels or with differences in the steepness of the wage education profiles some simulations are conducted the results indicate that regional differences in the distribution of education are not able to explain much of the regional differences in wage inequality as a matter of fact the differences in wage inequality were shown to be intrinsically associated with differences in the steepness of the wage education profiles

distributional impacts of climate change mitigation in indian electricity the influence of governance abstract studies that examine the distributional impacts of climate change mitigation policies often neglect the influence of institutions that implement these policies this study examines the short term consumption side distributional impacts of expanding low carbon electric supply in the state of maharashtra india with a focus on the influence of regulatory discretion in pricing households welfare impacts from economy wide electricity price shocks are simulated against a baseline that is calibrated to actual household economic and electricity service conditions including actual electricity budgets block tier prices and supply rationing industrial price impacts are propagated to households using a leontief input output analysis regulatory pricing decisions are evaluated based on social welfare metrics for economic efficiency and income inequality the analysis reveals new linkages between climate change mitigation electricity policy and income distribution low income households can be shielded from mitigation impacts without losses in aggregate welfare to the extent that regulators can recover mitigation costs through industrial price increases regulators flexibility to distribute costs across households is constrained by industrial customers migration off the grid reduced supply interruptions to the rural poor from the resulting demand contraction are a potential co benefit of mitigation distributional impacts therefore depend on other electricity policies that are driven by the political economy of the sector