estimating residential water demand under multi part tariffs using aggregate data using a new model formulation and data from a sample of colorado utilities we investigated the price specification controversy marginal price versus average revenue when estimating residential water demand the improved statistical fit using average

energy transitions in small scale regions what we can learn from a regional innovation systems perspective the prevalent theories in the debate on sustainability transitions have been criticised for not sufficiently addressing energy change processes at the local level this paper aims to enhance our understanding of local energy reorganisation processes drawing on the regional innovation systems ris approach we argue that local development dynamics result from the interaction of various subsystems science politics public administration industry finance intermediaries and civil society the analysis of the involved subsystems and their interaction shows how energy transitions are shaped by different individual and organisational actors as well as institutions on the local level empirical evidence from case studies on the german cities of emden and bottrop illustrates our theoretical conceptualisation of energy transitions we conclude by presenting characteristic interaction patterns for energy transition drawn from the two cases

ngos in bangladesh activities resources and governance summary this paper reports results from one of the first large nationally representative surveys of non governmental organizations ngos in a developing country the ngo sector in bangladesh is highly organized and relatively homogeneous most ngos utilize a branch and headquarters structure in which branches have limited autonomy from headquarters at the branch level most ngos in the country whether big or small focus on credit services derive more of their income from fees for services than from grants rely on salaried rather than voluntary staff keep detailed financial accounts that are externally audited and hire middle class college educated men as managers the convergence to a modal institutional form probably is the result of the persuasive power of ideas sociological pressures toward acculturation and conformity as well as material incentives

organisation and governance of urban energy systems district heating and cooling in the uk a number of uk urban authorities are developing combined heat and power chp with district heating and cooling dhc networks as a means to achieve local sustainable and affordable energy and to contribute to economic regeneration findings from case study research in three uk cities are used to explore the local energy governance and organisation lego models adopted in the context of privatised centralised energy markets local developers are reliant on sources of social capital to make systems work given limited support from public policy and limited access to finance local actors drawing on non local community energy and commercial and technical networks of expertise work to introduce the technology into strategic planning establish its legitimacy and the legitimacy of a form of multi organisation suited to numerous stakeholders secure finance negotiate risks and responsibilities and engage with energy markets designed for large scale centralised provision for dhc to make a fully effective contribution to uk sustainable urban energy a more supportive government policy framework offsetting the difficulties of a centralised energy market will be needed to maximise the benefit of locally knowledgeable action the policy framework must be responsive to the specificity of locally appropriate configurations of actors and material infrastructure

revenue effects from changes in a declining block pricing structure block rate structures are used extensively in public utility pricing including residential electricity estimating price elasticities in this context is complicated by the resulting nonlinearity of the consumer s budget constraint this article

the triple helix an evolutionary model of innovations abstract the lock in model by arthur arthur w b 1988 competing technologies in dosi g freeman c nelson r silverberg g soete l eds technical change and economic theory pinter london pp 590 607 can be extended to the case of two and even three sources of random variation thus one can model a triple helix of university industry government relations in the case of two sources the stabilization of a technological trajectory is enhanced while in the case of three a complex regime can be generated conditions for lock in lock out return to equilibrium substitution etc are specified in relation to the assumed complexity of the dynamics under study and with reference to the stage of development that is before or after lock in some normative implications of the triple helix model of innovations can be specified

the verticality of policy mixes for sustainability transitions a case study of solar water heating in china abstract climate change and sustainable development are the defining challenges of the modern era the field of sustainability transitions seeks systematic solutions for fundamental transformations of socio technical systems towards sustainability and exploring the role of policy mixes has been a central research agenda within the field in the extant literature there exists a lack of both conceptual and empirical research on the vertical dimension of policy mixes for sustainability transitions this study provides a multilevel and evolutionary interpretation of the vertical interactions of policy mixes in the process of industrial path development towards sustainability transitions an exemplary case of solar water heating swh technology in shandong province in china is presented capturing both the bottom up and top down processes of interactions on the one hand urban level policy initiatives can inform higher level policymaking on the other hand national level priorities can greatly configure policy strategies for lower level governments moreover as the industry matures the interactions of multilevel policy mixes evolve from simpler unidirectional patterns to more complex bidirectional ones through a vertical policy learning feedback mechanism this study generates two important policy implications that extend beyond the chinese context first dynamic vertical interactions between multilevel governments indicate the need to develop more nuanced perspectives on the design of policy mixes second policy makers need to hold a more dynamic view of policy mixes by recognizing their temporal and coevolutionary nature through the policy learning process

the governance of sustainable socio technical transitions a quasi evolutionary model of socio technical transitions is described in which regimes face selection pressures continuously differentiated transition contexts determine the form and direction of regime change in response to these pressures the articulation of pressures and the degree to which responses are coordinated and based on resources available within the regime define the transition context four alternative contexts are described endogenous renewal re orientation of trajectories emergent transformation and purposive transitions agency and power in the governance of regime transformation are analysed power to affect change depends on regime membership the distribution of resources for change and expectations

comparing innovation systems a framework and application to china s transitional context abstract this paper proposes a generic framework for analyzing innovation systems anchored around five fundamental activities r d implementation end use education linkage and focused on the performance implications of a system s structure and dynamics rather than simply describing the role and performance of particular actors institutions and policies this approach focuses on system level characteristics including the distribution of these activities within the system the organizational boundaries around them coordination mechanisms evolutionary processes and the effectiveness of the system in introducing diffusing and exploiting technological innovations the framework is applied to a comparison of china s national innovation system under central planning and since reforms revealing the evolving structure and dynamics of this system and current inconsistencies and perverse incentives that policymakers must address to realize their development goals more generally it provides a basis for addressing the implicit assumptions of organizational types roles and convergence among innovation systems emerging in very different contexts whether national regional or industrial

analyzing the functional dynamics of technological innovation systems a scheme of analysis various researchers and policy analysts have made empirical studies of innovation systems in order to understand their current structure and trace their dynamics however policy makers often experience difficulties in extracting practical guidelines from studies of this kind in this paper we operationalize our previous work on a functional approach to analyzing innovation system dynamics into a practical scheme of analysis for policy makers the scheme is based on previous literature and our own experience in developing and applying functional thinking it can be used by policy makers not only to identify the key policy issues but also to set policy goals

innovation and policy for bioenergy in the uk a co evolutionary perspective de laurentis c innovation and policy for bioenergy in the uk a co evolutionary perspective regional studies this paper analyses the role of niche innovation and regime interaction in the field of renewable energy in the uk adopting a co evolutionary approach and a dynamic multilevel perspective on system innovation it investigates niches development in the uk in the field of bioenergy and its interaction with the current energy regime contributing to the debate about spatial scales at which sustainability transitions can be conceptualized the paper utilizes the case of niche development in the region of wales to provide supporting evidence of the importance of context specific social and political relations that may foster or hinder regime transformation

energy demand with declining rate schedules an econometric model for the u s commercial sector we specify and estimate a model of the demand for electricity and natural gas in commercial buildings using data from the commercial building energy consumption survey although not observed declining rate schedules are approximated by a downward sloping function fitted to billing data for individual survey units marginal prices rates temperature variables and a large number of building characteristics are incorporated into the model as explanatory variables demand and rate schedule equations constitute a simultaneous system with prices and quantities jointly determined the effects on price elasticities of using endogenous marginal rather than exogenous average prices are estimated to be quite large

escaping carbon lock in this article explores the climate policy implications of the arguments made in understanding carbon lock in unruh 2000 which posited that industrial countries have become locked into fossil fuel based energy systems through path dependent processes driven by increasing returns to scale carbon lock in arises through technological organizational social and institutional co evolution culminating in what was termed as techno institutional complex tic in order to resolve the climate problem an escape from the lock in condition is required however due to the self referential nature of tic escape conditions are unlikely to be generated internally and it is argued here that exogenous forces are probably required

london and beyond taking a closer look at urban energy policy this paper considers the field of urban energy policy a neglected yet important topic cities account for approximately two thirds of global primary energy consumption creating significant benefits and costs as a result there has been growing interest in the contribution of cities to global energy policy issues such as climate change but a number of significant questions remain e g how do energy policy processes differ between national and urban scales and how can cities contribute most effectively to global policy goals we present the results of interviews with key stakeholders in london to illustrate some unique features of the urban energy policy cycle we then take a wider view proposing a research agenda with three key goals describing the global variety of urban energy consumption and policy understanding the resulting diversity in responsibility vulnerability and capacity and developing shared procedures and solutions tackling these questions is vital if cities are to contribute fully to current energy policy efforts

peaceful coexistence the role of religious schools and ngos in the growth of female secondary schooling in bangladesh abstract bangladesh rural advancement committee brac a non governmental organisation ngo runs a large number of non formal primary schools in bangladesh which target out of school children from poor families these schools are well known for their effectiveness in closing the gender gap in primary school enrolment on the other hand registered non government secondary madrasas or islamic schools today enrol one girl against every boy student in this article we document a positive spillover effect of brac schools on female secondary enrolment in registered madrasas drawing upon school enrolment data aggregated at the region level we first show that regions that had more registered madrasas experienced greater secondary female enrolment growth during 1999 2003 holding the number of secular secondary schools constant in this context we test the impact of brac run primary schools on female enrolment in registered madrasas we deal with the potential endogeneity of placement of brac schools usin

increasing synergies between institutions and technology developers lessons from marine energy abstract this paper describes innovation activities in the marine energy sector across ten european countries in 2011 intense knowledge creation occurred in the uk and northern european countries while european research networks encouraged public private partnerships facilitating knowledge diffusion an analysis based on a technological innovation system tis has identified challenges for the system to evolve from one phase of development to another i e from pre development to take off phase in order for marine energy to pass successfully through the commercialisation valley of death entrepreneurial experimentation and production is crucial entrepreneurial initiatives were developed mainly in the united kingdom denmark norway and ireland whereas france germany and sweden were active through venture capital initiatives additional system builders such as the authorities in charge of energy policies could offer guidance for research ensure legitimacy and effectively mobilise resources for system development although public support was efficient in stimulating private investment national targets seemed less efficient in creating a long time horizon for private investors due to consecutive unexpected changes in contrast positive interactions between technology developers and policy makers could empower market formation ultimately the creation of a policy community also involving local communities could foster a positive environment for the development of innovation activities

using network analysis to understand public policy for wave energy abstract the uk s wave energy sector is at a pre commercial stage transitioning from prototype demonstration towards a revenue supported industry a host of advantages that could be realised through successful commercialisation include the potential to generate 40 50 twh yr 3 7bn of export and 10 000 jobs by 2020 with tidal despite this criticisms have been made about the lack of coordination between funding bodies communication between stakeholders and overly centralised actors although the value of strong problem solving networks has been noted problems arise in validating the presence nature and value of relationships as well as identification of tacit and informal linkages here network analysis is used to validate these criticisms and provide insight into sector activities it is shown that although high levels of interaction are occurring overall there are wide disparities prime movers are clearly present and less mature developers are isolated from the system as it develops norms and practices this combined with government fund gating has led to a matthew effect whereby some have access to finance and are shaping institutional norms while others struggle although convergence is expected a lack of public sector coordination transparency of decision making and comparability between devices has reduced both investor and stakeholder legitimacy

the critical role of informed political direction for advancing technology the case of swedish marine energy marine energy technologies can contribute to meeting sustainability challenges but they are still immature and dependent on public support this paper employs the technological innovation systems tis framework to analyze the development and diffusion of swedish marine energy up until 2014 while there were promising device developers relevant industrial capabilities and world class research the system suffered from weaknesses in several important innovation processes finally the analysis identifies the lack of informed political direction as a critical blocking factor and highlights its connection to domestic market potential

inside the black box technology and economics economists have long treated technological phenomena as events transpiring inside a black box and on the whole have adhered rather strictly to a self imposed ordinance not to inquire too seriously into what transpires inside that box the purpose of professor rosenberg s work is to break open and examine the contents of the black box in so doing a number of important economic problems be powerfully illuminated the author clearly shows how specific features of individual technologies have shaped a number of variables of great concern to economists the rate of productivity improvement the nature of learning processes underlying technological change itself the speed of technology transfer and the effectiveness of government policies that are intended to influence technologies in particular ways the separate chapters of this book reflect a primary concern with some of the distinctive aspects of industrial technologies in the twentieth century such as the increasing reliance upon science but also the considerable subtlety and complexity of the dialectic between science and technology other concerns include the rapid growth in the development of costs associated with new technologies as well as the difficulty of predicting the eventual performance characteristics of newly emerging technologies

chinese industrial reform accomplishments prospects and implications why has china grown so fast when conditions thought to be necessary for growth were absent nowhere is this dissonance greater than in china s industrial sector which has recorded big gains in output employment and exports in the absence of privatization effective bankruptcy legislation and other policy innovations widely seen as prerequisites for successful reform this essay reviews the accomplishments of chinese industry since the start of reform in 1978 focusing on the internal dynamics of the development process considers the future of partial reform and discusses the implications of china s industrial reform experience

estimating water demand under increasing block tariffs using aggregate data and proportions of users per block forming a strategy for the management of a water resource requires reasonable knowledge of the effects that alterations in the control variables bring on water use such knowledge of the determinants influencing domestic water demand constitutes an essential ingredient of a pricing policy for domestic water supply special attention should be paid to the effects of the level shape and frequency of the tariff since these are the variables that can be altered by the policy maker

collaboration patterns external shocks and uncertainty swiss nuclear energy politics before and after fukushima abstract energy shocks like the fukushima accident can have important political consequences this article examines their impact on collaboration patterns between collective actors in policy processes it argues that external shocks create both behavioral uncertainty meaning that actors do not know about other actors preferences and policy uncertainty on the choice and consequences of policy instruments the context of uncertainty interacts with classical drivers of actor collaboration in policy processes the analysis is based on a dataset comprising interview and survey data on political actors in two subsequent policy processes in switzerland and exponential random graph models for network data results first show that under uncertainty collaboration of actors in policy processes is less based on similar preferences than in stable contexts but trust and knowledge of other actors are more important second under uncertainty scientific actors are not preferred collaboration partners

residential demand for electricity under inverted block rates evidence from a controlled experiment block rate structures are used extensively in public utility pricing including residential electricity estimating price elasticities in this context is complicated by the resulting nonlinearity of the consumer s budget constraint this article estimates the demand for electricity under inverted block rates using data from a residential rate experiment the study provides an opportunity to obtain short run price elasticities in an experimental setting and to compare alternative estimators developed for nonlinear budget constraints elasticities of demand with respect to individual components of the block rate are developed using a modification of the structural maximum likelihood estimator

structural dynamics of innovation networks funded by the european union in the context of systemic innovation of the renewable energy sector innovation in the renewable energy re sector relies on the concept of systemic innovation which requires interaction between two innovation aspects technology exploration and market exploitation the european union eu has introduced political instruments for systemic re innovation by integrating resources from different thematic and geographic areas however using these instruments to establish an ecosystem for systemic innovation remains unexplored this study develops a framework for evaluating the systemic innovation performance of networks through a time series analysis of network structural properties overall eu funded innovation networks have not evolved in a systemic direction first the network exhibits densely connected local clusters for technology exploration and market exploitation of re innovation which are disconnected from each other over time the gap between the two phases has weakened with increasing connectivity but the local clusters supporting either explorative or exploitative activities have diminished the existing networking linkages among organizations are considered ineffective because their positions in the network tend to display a mismatch with their innovation patterns this research presents policy suggestions for optimizing the exploration and exploitation activities in the eu s funding program and their complementarities to establish a systemic innovation environment in the re sector

uk local authority engagement with the energy service company esco model key characteristics benefits limitations and considerations abstract this paper explores how some uk local authorities las have opted to engage with the energy service company esco model in a bid to enhance their influence over local energy system change and help them to deliver on their political public good objectives three common approaches to la esco model engagement are outlined including the 1 la owned arm s length model 2 private sector owned concession agreement model and 3 community owned and run model the la s decision to establish its own esco or alternatively enter into a partnership with another predominantly depends on its willingness to expose itself to risk the level of strategic control it desires and the resources it has at its disposal however the business case is contingent on the extent to which the national policy and regulatory framework facilitates and obligates las to play an active energy governance role stronger alignment of local and national energy agendas through communication and coordination between different governance actors could help to remove critical barriers to la esco engagement and their wider energy governance activities

emerging in between the multi level governance of renewable energy in the english regions abstract analysis explains the emergence of a regional dimension to the multi level governance of renewable energy in england the case sits in a tense yet informative position between the two poles of ordered and messy multi level governance these tensions which are currently debilitating could be rendered more creative and fruitful if greater authority was devolved to the regions and if policy learning between the regions and the central government was institutionalised more deeply improved legitimacy and accountability mechanisms must accompany increased authority however english ambivalence over regionalisation generally means such changes are unlikely

religious schools social values and economic attitudes evidence from bangladesh this paper uses new data on female graduates of registered secondary secular schools and madrasas from rural bangladesh and tests whether there exist attitudinal gaps by school type and what teacher specific factors explain these gaps even after controlling for a rich set of individual family and school traits we find that madrasa graduates differ on attitudes associated with issues such as working mothers desired fertility and higher education for girls when compared to their secular schooled peers on the other hand madrasa education is associated with attitudes that are still conducive to democracy we also find that exposure to female and younger teacher is associated with more favorable attitudes among graduates

uk innovation systems for new and renewable energy technologies drivers barriers and systems failures abstract a better understanding of the systemic processes by which innovation occurs is useful both conceptually and to inform policy making in support of innovation in more sustainable technologies this paper analyses current innovation systems in the uk for a range of new and renewable energy technologies and generates policy recommendations for improving the effectiveness of these innovation systems although incentives are in place in the uk to encourage innovation in these technologies system failures or gaps are identified in moving technologies along the innovation chain preventing their successful commercialisation sustained investment will be needed for these technologies to achieve their potential it is argued that a stable and consistent policy framework is required to help create the conditions for this in particular such a framework should be aimed at improving risk reward ratios for demonstration and pre commercial stage technologies this would enhance positive expectations stimulate learning effects leading to cost reductions and increase the likelihood of successful commercialisation