investment and coordination in oligopolistic industries we examine investment by firms in 24 chemical product industries to determine whether firms invest preemptively to achieve persistent increases in market share or whether there is evidence of behavior to maintain market share the data indicate that investment reduces the probability that rival firms will expand capacity but the effect is temporary large firms tend to maintain market share while smaller firms tend to invest simultaneously with rivals the role of preemptive investment is limited to that of permitting a firm to invest with a lower probability of redundant investment by rivals preemption does not allow a persistent increase in market share but instead acts as a means by which firms may coordinate capacity investment to help avoid episodes of industry overcapacity

planning of renewables schemes deliberative and fair decision making on landscape issues instead of reproachful accusations of non cooperation abstract the main issues related to successful implementation policies concern the socio economic institutions that are conditional to planning in the energy policy domain but also in the domain of spatial planning successful investments and the siting of renewable power plants eventually determine the success rate of national efforts in establishing renewable capacity central planning usually has several objectives and these often have a detrimental effect on the goal of renewable energy application current problems related to implementation decisions concerning wind power schemes are an example to those who will be faced by other renewable power plants notably biomass regarding community acceptance of wind power schemes the visual evaluation of the impact of wind power on the values of the landscape is by far the most dominant factor in explaining opposition or support type of landscape fully overshadows other attitudinal attributes as well as other visual and scenic factors such as the design of wind turbines and wind farms and the number and the size of turbines planning regimes and decision making practices that really enhance the implementation processes of renewable energy require strong ecological modernization this means institutional changes that create involvement and trust of actors at the actual implementation level local opposition cannot be explained by the egotistical motives of local residents when the inclination to behave according to supposed backyard motives is investigated the scale to measure this phenomenon appears to indicate commitment to equity issues and fairness of decision making hence for wind power local involvement to represent the local values of site specific landscapes is crucial for other renewables the source specific features are different but conflicts can be expected as well because the fairness of implementation decisions will be equally significant

a path dependent contingent claims approach to capacity investments this note presents a contingent claims approach to strategic capacity planning we develop models for capacity choice and expansion decisions in a single firm environment where investment is irreversible and demand is uncertain these models illustrate specifically the relevance of path dependent options analysis to planning capacity investments when the firm adopts demand tracking or average capacity strategies it is argued that asian average type real options can explain hysteresis phenomena in addition to providing superior control of assets in place

public prioritisation of energy affordability in the uk much research has focused on the so called energy trilemma i e three leading energy policy issues energy security affordability and climate change mitigation whilst substantial understanding exists of why people support climate friendly energy policies little is known about why they think affordability is important particularly what leads members of the public to identify this policy goal as more important than other objectives here we examine this question via a nationally representative survey of 2441 uk residents and demonstrate that concerns about personal costs explain a small amount of variation in the prioritisation of affordability as an energy policy goal a range of other factors also significantly contribute one such factor is beliefs about who is responsible for energy transitions these findings suggest policy actions to address affordability concerns should go beyond energy prices and include additional considerations such as distributive justice and equality

public values for energy futures framing indeterminacy and policy making in the uk there are strong policy imperatives to transition toward low carbon energy systems but how and in what ways such transitional processes might be realised remains highly uncertain one key area of uncertainty pertains to public attitudes and acceptability though there is wide ranging research relevant to public acceptability very little work has unpacked the multiple questions concerning how policy makers can grapple with and mitigate related uncertainties in efforts to enact energy systems change in this paper public acceptability is identified as an indeterminate form of uncertainty that presents particular challenges for policy making we build on our existing research into public values for energy system change to explore how the outcomes of the project can be applied in thinking through the uncertainties associated with public acceptability notably we illustrate how the public values identified through our research bring into view alternative and quite different problem and solution framings to those currently evident within uk policy we argue that engagement with a wide range of different framings can offer a basis for better understanding and anticipating public responses to energy system change ultimately aiding in managing the complex set of uncertainties associated with public acceptability

estimating the reduction in labor hours due to a new technology under uncertain demand abstract when investing in a new machine one must estimate the reduced labor costs in the past this was usually done in a deterministic way assuming that we have accurate point estimation of demand rates and the reduction in labor costs is proportional to the reduction in labor hours however if demand rates of products are known probabilistically the expected reduction in labor hours follows a probability distribution this distribution not just the mean value is important because 1 it shows the effect of the uncertainty in demand on estimating the reduction in labor hours and 2 it allows better estimation of labor cost savings when labor costs are not proportional to labor hours using the distribution of product demand rates this paper presents a procedure for estimating the distribution of reduction in labor hours obtained from a new machine

moral rules the moral sentiments and behavior toward a theory of an optimal moral system how should moral sanctions and moral rewards the moral sentiments involving feelings of guilt and of virtue be employed to govern individuals behavior if the objective is to maximize social welfare in the model that we examine guilt is a disincentive to act and virtue is an incentive because we assume that they are negative and positive sources of utility we also suppose that guilt and virtue are costly to inculcate and are subject to certain constraints on their use we show that the moral sentiments should be used chiefly to control externalities and further that guilt is best to employ when most harmful acts can successfully be deterred whereas virtue is best when only a few individuals can be induced to behave well we also contrast the optimal use of guilt and virtue to optimal pigouvian taxation and discuss extensions of our analysis

a theory of tolerance abstract we propose a theory of tolerance where endogenous lifestyles and exogenous traits are invested with symbolic value by people value systems chosen by parents for their children affect the esteem enjoyed by individuals in society intolerant individuals attach all symbolic value to a small number of attributes and are irrespectful of people with different ones tolerant people have diversified values and respect social alterity we study the formation of values attached to various types of attributes and identify circumstances under which tolerance spontaneously arises policy may affect the evolution of tolerance in distinctive ways and there may be efficiency as well as equity reasons to promote tolerance an empirical investigation of tolerance of homosexuality demonstrates that our theory helps to shed light on survey data of endorsed values

excess capacity and rationalisation in the west european synthetic fibre industry this paper examines the process of rationalisation in an international oligopoly confronted by persistent excess capacity and losses in particular it analyses the pattern of capacity reduction plant closures and product area withdrawals as the firms strove to restore their profitability it compares the actual pattern of rationalisation achieved between 1975 and 1981 with the predicted patterns of rationalisation based on theory both under a cartel with government intervention and in a competitive solution free from such intervention the paper is divided into four sections the first contains a brief outline of developments in the industry 1967 80 the second section examines the producer cartel and government intervention framework the third section is devoted to the development of a predicted competitive pattern of rationalisation finally the fourth section examines the actual pattern of rationalisation and compares this with both the cartel plus government intervention and the competitive pattern predictions

uptake and usage of cost reflective electricity pricing insights from psychology and behavioural economics abstract the australian electricity industry like many other countries globally is currently facing the complex challenge of reforming electricity tariffs momentum is growing for transitioning residential consumers toward more cost reflective pricing that better reflects the true costs of generation and supply and sends a price signal that presumably incentivises reduced consumption during peak periods under such tariffs customers pay more for electricity used during times of peak demand unlike traditional flat rate tariffs where the price remains stable regardless of time or demand pilot trials indicate that cost reflective tariffs might succeed in reducing peak demand but often only for a small minority of customers such that population wide demand response is minimal or insignificant in this paper we apply insights from psychology and behavioural economics to identify how cost reflective pricing can be designed depicted and delivered to enhance customer uptake and optimal usage thereby facilitating appropriate demand response for a larger cross section of the population by carefully considering the likely impact of relevant cognitive biases and psychological factors which routinely shape human decision making and behaviour we are able to propose practical strategies that industry can adopt to maximise the prospect of cost reflective pricing achieving significant population level peak demand reductions while providing shared benefits for customers retailers networks and regulators alike

what drives people s opinions of electricity infrastructure empirical evidence from ireland abstract across the eu significant infrastructure investment is needed in both generation from renewable energy sources res and the electricity grid to meet the european targets on emission reduction and res expansion experiences show however that citizens may object to new energy infrastructure in their localities which may cause delays in achieving the targets to avoid delays it is crucial to understand what drives people s opinions to explore people s opinions of different electricity generation and transmission technologies in ireland we conducted a nationally representative survey concerning the drivers we distinguish between socio demographics technology specific perceptions and energy policy preferences our results show that people generally have positive views of res technologies while this indicates that irish citizens agree to move towards cleaner electricity sources we find reluctance amongst people to have these technologies located close to their places of residence we find that across most technologies the tradeoff people make between economic and environmental policy objectives drives their opinions of and their tendencies to oppose technology developments the significance of most socio demographic variables however is largely technology dependent this highlights that policy makers need to understand how people make tradeoffs between policy objectives and how these tradeoffs relate to their opinions of different technologies

unpaid work and conformity why care we study the supply of unpaid eldercare in particular caring for parents in the uk focusing on both the division of care and caring tasks by gender and the effect of conformity to social norms in relation to caring we then investigate the effect of the amount of care on the well being of caregivers and whether agreeing with the care norm enhances their well being our results suggest that the eldercare reform neglects important aspects underlying the distribution of care hours and care tasks between caregivers and may potentially worsen intrahousehold inequality in earnings and well being in particular between men and women

household energy use applying behavioural economics to understand consumer decision making and behaviour household energy conservation has emerged as a major challenge and opportunity for researchers practitioners and policymakers consumers also seem to be gaining greater awareness of the value and need for sustainable energy practices particularly amid growing public concerns over greenhouse gas emissions and climate change yet even with adequate knowledge of how to save energy and a professed desire to do so many consumers still fail to take noticeable steps towards energy efficiency and conservation there is often a sizeable discrepancy between peoples self reported knowledge values attitudes and intentions and their observable behaviour examples include the well known knowledge action gap and value action gap but neither is household energy consumption driven primarily by financial incentives and the rational pursuit of material interests in fact people sometimes respond in unexpected and undesirable ways to rewards and sanctions intended to shift consumers cost benefit calculus in favour of sustainable behaviours why is this so why is household energy consumption and conservation difficult to predict from either core values or material interests by drawing on critical insights from behavioural economics and psychology we illuminate the key cognitive biases and motivational factors that may explain why energy related behaviour so often fails to align with either the personal values or material interests of consumers understanding these psychological phenomena can make household and community responses to public policy interventions less surprising and in parallel can help us design more cost effective and mass scalable behavioural solutions to encourage renewable and sustainable energy use among consumers

optional time of use prices for electricity econometric analysis of surplus and pareto impacts we estimate a model of time of use tou consumption and choice among optional tou tariffs in which the customer s choice among tariffs is based on its demand parameters which vary in the population we simulate the impact on consumption consumer surplus and profit of several optional tou rates that were offered experimentally in northern california the analysis suggests that with one possible exception the offering of these optional rates did not constitute a pareto improvement however total surplus excluding measurement costs is estimated to have risen by 1 41 to 2 55 per month per customer who chose the tou rates

wind power implementation the nature of public attitudes equity and fairness instead of backyard motives abstract public attitudes anywhere in europe show moderate to strong support for the implementation of renewable energy nevertheless planning wind power developments appears to be a complicated matter in most countries the problems that have to be dealt with during decision making processes on the siting of wind turbines are usually referred to as mere communication problems however public attitudes towards wind power are fundamentally different from attitudes towards wind farms this gap causes misunderstandings about the nature of public support for renewables in particular where planners easily assume support for renewables can be generated by information campaigns emphasising the environmental benefits whereas opposition to renewable energy schemes can be explained by a selfish not in my backyard attitude both explanations used by planners authorities and unfortunately by many scholars are falsified furthermore policies that still take this common knowledge for granted can have negative consequences for the implementation rates of renewables visual evaluation of the impact of wind power on landscape values is by far the dominant factor in explaining why some are opposed to wind power and others are supporting it moreover feelings about equity and fairness appear the determinants of backyard motives instead of selfishness

nimby or not exploring the relevance of location and the politics of voiced opinions in renewable energy siting controversies local protests against renewable energy facilities have added fuel to the debate about the so called nimby not in my back yard effect this paper identifies six variables that can hamper the comparison between different public perception studies and offers two broad conclusions on aggregate proximity does have strong influence on public attitudes to proposed projects but the nature strength and spatial scale of this effect may vary according to local context and value of the land residents of stigmatised places are more likely to welcome facilities that are relatively green while people who derive a more positive sense of identity from particular rural landscapes are likely to resist such potential developments especially if they also live there secondly the fear of being branded a nimby and the positive ethics associated with the notion of renewable are both likely to colour the responses of many interviewees these aspects need to be clarified and accounted for in analyses of elicited responses both quantitative and qualitative if we are to improve our understanding of the social construction of individual attitudes in siting conflicts

judicial errors and crime deterrence theory and experimental evidence abstractthe economic theory of crime deterrence predicts that the conviction of an innocent individual type i error is as detrimental to deterrence as the acquittal of a guilty individual type ii error in this paper we qualify this result theoretically showing that in the presence of risk aversion loss aversion or type i error aversion type i errors have a stronger effect on deterrence than type ii errors we test these predictions with two experimental studies in which participants choose whether to steal from other individuals under alternative combinations of probabilities of judicial errors the results indicate that both types of errors have a significant impact on deterrence as predicted type i errors have a stronger impact on deterrence than type ii errors this asymmetry is entirely explained by differences in the expected utility gains from crime whereas nonexpected utility factors do not play a significant role

consumer rationality and the status quo received microeconomic theory presumes rational consumers maximize utility over all commodity bundles recent analysis however suggests that a consumer s status quo may limit economic rationality bias consumer decisions and induce serious errors in survey based valuations of public and private goods using regression and choice theoretic frameworks we investigate the existence of status quo effects in the consumer valuation of a particular unpriced product the reliability of residential electrical service such valuations have become important in electric utility resource planning and rate making we find substantial status quo effects which must be addressed in welfare comparisons regarding electric service reliability

morality in the market abstract being honest can be a competitive disadvantage in markets with the opportunity to violate laws and regulations producers who are willing to cheat may crowd out more efficient producers who are honest and buyers who are willing to cheat may crowd out honest buyers with higher willingness to pay this mechanism makes morality honesty a bad substitute for sanctions in markets honesty reduces cheating but the output may be less efficiently produced and less efficiently allocated among buyers i also show that the effect of honesty depends crucially on the fraction of honest traders among both buyers and sellers while it does not matter whether a buyer or a seller pays the sanction it does matter who is honest

ethics welfare and capital markets abstract we examine implications of a society s cultural emphasis on moral sentiments entrepreneurs and investors interact in a game that entails both adverse selection and moral hazard entrepreneurs may attempt to breach their contracts and expropriate investors an agent is born into a particular culture but chooses whether to develop a moral conscience and thereby subject himself to moral sentiments in equilibrium societies that place less emphasis on guilt exhibit a lower risk of expropriation in contracts a greater net price of capital a larger size of firms increased capital inflows and greater social welfare the results of a greater emphasis on pride are in the same direction

public estimates of support for offshore wind energy false consensus pluralistic ignorance and partisan effects abstract meeting future energy demands will require large scale implementation of renewable energy projects if one of these energy sources offshore wind becomes a common sight off coastlines consideration of local public opinion and action will be critical previous research from the social sciences has lacked depth in examining the underlying factors that shape public opinion towards offshore wind development the current research brings a new perspective to the literature by showing that how members of the public perceive support among others relates to their own opinions of offshore wind energy we report results from two surveys the first focused on opinion formation relating to offshore wind in general among new england residents while the second focused on a specific offshore wind project in rhode island we find evidence that both supporters and opponents of offshore wind underestimate levels of support among others indicating a pluralistic ignorance effect and false consensus effect respectively we also find distinct patterns of perceived support among self identified republicans and democrats the findings hold important implications for policymakers and developers in understanding the nature of public support and opposition for offshore wind energy particularly with respect to individuals willingness to publicly engage with offshore wind projects

thou shalt not covet prohibitions temptation and moral values abstract this paper proposes a theory of the relationship between prohibitions and temptation in the presence of self control problems moral values may increase individual material welfare and utility by serving as a self commitment device the model investigates the relationship between morality and temptation the individual gains from morality the interaction between external sanctions and moral self punishment and the spread and strength of individually optimal moral values the empirical analysis based on survey data for a large set of countries documents a hump shaped pattern of morality in social class which supports the theoretical predictions of the model

social acceptance of renewable energy innovation an introduction to the concept this paper introduces the special issue on social acceptance of renewable energy innovation it is a collection of best papers presented at an international research conference held in tramelan switzerland in february 2006 while there are ambitious government targets to increase the share of renewable energy in many countries it is increasingly recognized that social acceptance may be a constraining factor in achieving this target this is particularly apparent in the case of wind energy which has become a subject of contested debates in several countries largely due to its visual impact on landscapes this paper introduces three dimensions of social acceptance namely socio political community and market acceptance factors influencing socio political and community acceptance are increasingly recognized as being important for understanding the apparent contradictions between general public support for renewable energy innovation and the difficult realization of specific projects the third dimension market acceptance has received less attention so far and provides opportunities for further research particularly from management scholars

promises and conventions an approach to pre play agreements abstract i analyze how informal agreements can be sustained by moral emotions with regard to a large class of two player games specifically i assume that people feel guilty if they breach an agreement and that the guilt increases according to the degree of the harm inflicted on the other a central insight is that it is easier to sustain efficient informal agreements if actions are strategic complements than if they are strategic substitutes i complement this general insight by studying two specific cases where negotiators face uncertainty about the breach of the agreement i show that while the optimal agreement in a game with strategic substitutes must compromise on surplus maximization and efficiency the optimal agreement in a game with sufficiently strong strategic complements tends to maximize both the surplus and the probability of compliance especially if the game is symmetric

capacity utilization theoretical models and empirical tests abstract this paper examines the determinants of industry capacity utilization in 40 chemical product industries over a period of roughly two decades a series of testable hypotheses are developed based on three operations research models of capacity expansion the manne model the newsboy model and the whitt luss model the hypotheses are tested on the chemical industries sample using multiple regression analysis the empirical results are consistent with most predictions derived from the newsboy and whitt luss models which suggests that firms made expansion decisions in a manner roughly in accordance with these models capacity utilization was positively related to capital intensity and the trend rate of demand growth and was negatively related to demand variability geographic plant dispersion and plant lumpiness the magnitude of investment scale economies and the extent of multi plant operation had little effect on capacity utilization

measurement of natural and cyclical excess capacity in china s coal industry abstract overcapacity is a persistent problem in china s economy previous de capacity measures based on the quantity of the total excess capacity have failed to prevent the recurrence of increasingly worse overcapacity to solve this problem we attempt to quantitatively analyze china s excess coal capacity by dividing it into the long term natural excess capacity and short term cyclical excess capacity using the state space model and kalman filter algorithm the results show that china s excess coal capacity can indeed be divided into natural excess capacity and cyclical excess capacity and they have different causes fluctuations roles and effects on the price in 1995 2001 cyclical excess capacity was the main factor of overcapacity but in 2002 2015 natural excess capacity played a key role cyclical excess capacity has a negative effect on the price whereas natural excess capacity has little effect on it therefore policy makers should focus on the causes the fluctuations and the roles of natural excess and cyclical excess in addition to those of the total excess capacity they should also consider the relationship between the capacity and price based on the different effects of the natural excess capacity and cyclical excess capacity on the price

local implementation for green manufacturing technology diffusion policy in china from the user firms perspectives abstract in recent years china has started to change its growth strategy to a more sustainable model in response to the limits to growth dilemma specifically the national policy advocates to promote the use of green manufacturing technologies through demonstration projects and to incentivize chinese manufacturers to adopt these green technologies that are also encouraged by local governments these green technologies can increase the economic gains of manufacturers by reducing costs on energy consumption and shift away from selling low margin products however the local authorities often encounter obstacles when implementing policies for promoting these technologies among manufacturing firms this paper explores the factors that affect the decision making of user firms throughout the policy implementation process based on the econometric analysis of the survey for china s electric motors upgrading project in guangdong province this study shows that three key factors are helpful in the local government s effort to implement the national project i e manufacturers awareness the understanding of the energy efficiency technology and the long term macroeconomic benefits in addition encouraging the participation of financial institutions is especially useful for local governments to convince small and medium sized firms these findings are beneficial for local implementation of green manufacturing technology diffusion policies in china and have worldwide policy implication as well

economics and identity this paper considers how identity a person s sense of self affects economic outcomes we incorporate the psychology and sociology of identity into an economic model of behavior in the utility function we propose identity is associated with different social categories and how people in these categories should behave we then construct a simple game theoretic model showing how identity can affect individual interactions the paper adapts these models to gender discrimination in the workplace the economics of poverty and social exclusion and the household division of labor in each case the inclusion of identity substantively changes conclusions of previous economic analysis

social responses to wind energy development in ontario the influence of health risk perceptions and associated concerns this study documents and analyzes the role of health risk perceptions and other associated concerns of wind energy development henceforth wed in ontario drawing on the risk society framework we conduct a longitudinal media content analysis to document and analyze perceptions of and responses to wed over a nine year period attention is paid to temporal variations in responses relative to ontario s green energy act 2009 henceforth gea legislation aimed at the rapid expansion of renewable energy the study reveals that the most radical forms of resistance to wed on health grounds are driven by perceived injustices in the treatment of potential at risk citizens and citizens with health concerns the gea is fuelling these perceptions of injustices in subtle and nuanced ways particularly by acting as a major confounder to health risk concerns contrary to several existing studies we problematize the use of financial incentives to foster the development of wind energy we also provide policy recommendations which include the need for increased public engagement in the wed process the importance of using third party health and environmental assessments to inform developments as well as the need for post development strategies to address ongoing community concerns

which utilization and service level lead to the maximum eva abstract in this paper a model for evaluating the influence of utilization wip fgi service level and production lead time on eva economic value added is developed in order to link the available logistical key figures with a market perspective and discuss their influence on company value the question answered in this paper is what is the optimal utilization and service level of a production system in order to achieve the maximum possible eva for a company a single product single machine make to order production system with investment dependent machine capacity is modeled the model combines a market share concept based on delivery production lead time and service level with concepts describing the logistical relationships between wip utilization production lead time and service level in addition to the explanatory use of the model it can provide support for strategic decisions concerning investing or divesting machinery the main application of this model is in describing the link between capacity investment and company value comprehensively based on data available from cost accounting in real companies furthermore this paper shows that high flexibility of personnel and machine capacity increases the maximum possible eva of production systems even if this flexibility is linked to additional costs

the combinatorial assignment problem approximate competitive equilibrium from equal incomes this paper proposes a new mechanism for combinatorial assignment for example assigning schedules of courses to students based on an approximation to competitive equilibrium from equal incomes ceei in which incomes are unequal but arbitrarily close together the main technical result is an existence theorem for approximate ceei the mechanism is approximately efficient satisfies two new criteria of outcome fairness and is strategyproof in large markets its performance is explored on real data and it is compared to alternatives from theory and practice all other known mechanisms are either unfair ex post or manipulable even in large markets and most are both manipulable and unfair

the learning curve and pricing in the chemical processing industries data on 37 chemical products are used to test a number of hypotheses about the learning curve and industrial price behavior the results document a strong and consistent learning effect learning is found to be a function of cumulated industry output and cumulated investment rather than calendar time standard economies of scale appear significant but small in magnitude relative to the learning effect variations in the slope of the learning curve are linked to differences in r d expenditures and capital intensity market concentration is found to be a strong influence on price flexibility and the timing of learningrelated price changes

consumer attitudes and voluntary rate schedules for public utilities attitudes enter as latent explanatory variables in a model of consumers choice among optional rate schedules offered by a public utility a consistent estimator of the choice model is described that utilizes the distribution of the latent attitude variables conditional on manifest indicator variables the model is applied to households choice between time of use and non time differentiated rates for electricity to determine the impact of attitudes about energy conservation copyright 1987 by mit press

price environment and security exploring multi modal motivation in voluntary residential peak demand response peak demand on electricity grids is a growing problem that increases costs and risks to supply security residential sector loads often contribute significantly to seasonal and daily peak demand demand response projects aim to manage peak demand by applying price signals and automated load shedding technologies this research investigates voluntary load shedding in response to information about the security of supply the emission profile and the cost of meeting critical peak demand in the customers network customer willingness to change behaviour in response to this information was explored through mail back survey the diversified demand modelling method was used along with energy audit data to estimate the potential peak load reduction resulting from the voluntary demand response a case study was conducted in a suburb of christchurch new zealand where electricity is the main source for water and space heating on this network all water heating cylinders have ripple control technology and about 50 of the households subscribe to differential day night pricing plan the survey results show that the sensitivity to supply security is on par with price with the emission sensitivity being slightly weaker the modelling results show potential 10 reduction in critical peak load for aggregate voluntary demand response

robust capacity planning under uncertainty the existence of uncertainty influences the investment production and pricing decision of firms therefore capacity expansion models need to take into account uncertainty this uncertainty may arise because of errors in the specification statistical estimation of relationships and in the assumptions of exogenous variables one such example is demand uncertainty in this paper a cautious capacity planning approach is described for solving problems in which robustness to likely errors is needed the aim is to cast the problem in a deterministic framework and thereby avoid the complexities inherent in nonlinear stochastic formulations we adopt a robust approach and minimize an augmented objective function that penalises the sensitivity of the objective function to various types of uncertainty the robust or sensitivity approach is compared with friedenfelds equivalent deterministic demand method using numerical results from a large nonlinear programming capacity planning model it is shown that as ca

presidential address institutions and culture how and why does distant political and economic history shape the functioning of current institutions this paper argues that individual values and convictions about the scope of application of norms of good conduct provide the missing link evidence from a variety of sources points to two main findings first individual values consistent with generalized as opposed to limited morality are widespread in societies that were ruled by non despotic political institutions in the distant past second well functioning institutions are often observed in countries or regions where individual values are consistent with generalized morality and under different identifying assumptions this suggests a causal effect from values to institutional outcomes the paper ends with a discussion of the implications for future research jel a10 d7 e00

the role of values in public beliefs and attitudes towards commercial wind energy mandates for renewable energy lead to siting disputes because meeting the mandates requires the development of renewable energy production facilities proposals for one common form of renewable energy commercial wind farms are frequently met with forceful local opposition dissatisfied with simplistic explanations for this opposition i e nimby social scientists have urged a more nuanced understanding of public attitudes towards wind energy and other renewables based on a survey of residents of coastal michigan this article explores the role of general values and beliefs in shaping attitudes towards the potential development of commercial wind energy projects in or near respondents communities structural equation modeling reveals that support of commercial wind energy depends largely on a belief that wind farms will provide economic benefits to the community underlying values have substantial and important indirect effects on beliefs regarding the likely economic outcomes of wind farm development altruistic values buoy wind energy attitudes while values of traditionalism diminish wind energy support the pivotal role of values in attitudes towards renewables lends support for more participatory development processes

how projected electricity price and personal values influence support for a 50 renewable energy target in australia abstract this study investigated how projected electricity prices and personal values influence public support for a 50 renewable energy target ret in australia in an online experiment 404 participants rated their support for a 50 ret across eight projected increases in their quarterly power bills multi level modelling indicated that 1 support for the 50 ret fell as the projected price of electricity increased 2 although participants with low self enhancement values and high self transcendent values were most supportive of the 50 ret these value based differences disappeared as projected electricity prices increased implications of these findings for energy policy design are discussed