comparing feed in tariff incentives in taiwan and germany abstract the current development of clean energy in taiwan is in the embryonic stage even though in recent times taiwan s development of renewable energy has emphasized wind power and photovoltaic power current statistics show they supply only a small portion of total national power needs and that wind power and solar power are still in development in order to promote the growth of clean energy it is necessary to compare the support mechanisms of developing clean energy in different countries the success of implementing clear energy in germany is often followed by other countries including taiwan thus this paper explores the german experience of implementing a feed in tariff hereafter fit and compared it with the fit system in taiwan to illustrate the differences and similarities between these countries the results could be used as a reference for the future modification of the fit system in taiwan

a theory of political transitions we develop a theory of political transitions inspired by the experiences of western europe and latin america nondemocratic societies are controlled by a rich elite the initially disenfranchised poor can contest power by threatening revolution especially when the opportunity cost is low for example during recessions the threat of revolution may force the elite to democratize democracy may not consolidate because it is redistributive and so gives the elite an incentive to mount a coup highly unequal societies are less likely to consolidate democracy and may end up oscillating between regimes and suffer substantial fiscal volatility

motives to adopt renewable electricity technologies evidence from sweden the diffusion of renewable electricity technologies rets has to speed up for countries to reach their often ambitious targets for renewable energy generation this requires a large number of actors including individuals companies and other organizations to adopt rets policies will most likely be needed to induce adoption but there is limited knowledge about what motivates ret adoption the purpose of this paper is to complement and expand the available empirical evidence regarding motives to adopt rets through a survey to over 600 ret adopters in sweden the main finding of the study is that there are many different motives to adopt rets and that ret adopters are a heterogeneous group with regard to motives although environmental concerns interest in the technology access to an re resource and prospects to generate economic revenues are important motives in general adopters differ with regard to how large importance they attach to the same motive and each adopter can also have several different motives to adopt there are also differences in motives between adopter categories especially independent power producers vs individuals and diversified companies and between rets especially wind power vs solar power this implies that a variety of policy instruments might be needed to induce further adoption of a variety of rets by a variety of adopter categories

eu renewable energy support policy faith or facts the recent eu commission proposal for promoting the supply of power from renewable energy sources was originally based on a pan european harmonised tradable green certificate tgc scheme we suggest on the basis of a multi disciplinary analysis that a pan eu tgc system is not the way forward for europe it is vital that the commission and the majority of member states avoids implementation of such policy designs put forward by a coalition of vested interests they should instead look at and act upon the available evidence from those countries that have experimented with tgcs e g flanders uk and sweden and design policies that stand a better chance of meeting the criteria of effectiveness efficiency and equity in particular the policies must enable eu to meet the immense innovation industrialisation challenge by inducing the development of a capital goods industry that can eventually diffuse a broad range of technologies that use renewable energy sources only then we can acquire an ability to implement an industrial revolution in the energy system in a way that broadly meets the criteria of effectiveness and dynamic efficiency

the u s investment tax credit for solar energy alternatives to the anticipated 2017 step down abstract solar photovoltaic pv installations in the united states have been deployed at a rapid pace in recent years a development that is attributed in significant part to the federal investment tax credit itc yet this credit is scheduled to step down from 30 to 10 at the beginning of 2017 for corporate investors for a sample of five u s states and different segments of the solar industry we find that the anticipated itc step down in 2017 would increase the levelized cost of solar power by a significant margin raising the specter of a cliff for the solar industry our analysis identifies and evaluates an alternative phase down scenario that would reduce the itc gradually over time and eliminate it completely by 2024 for this alternative phase down scenario it is shown that solar pv would remain broadly competitive provided the solar industry can maintain the pace of cost reductions demonstrated in past years

a review on global wind energy policy with the increasing negative effects of fossil fuel combustion on the environment in addition to limited stock of fossil fuel have forced many countries to inquire into and change to environmentally friendly alternatives that are renewable to sustain the increasing energy demand energy policy plays a vital role to mitigate the impacts of global warming and crisis of energy availability this paper explores the wind energy industry from the point of view of the wind energy policy it is noticed that energy policy could help increasing wind power generation as well as stimulating the energy industry it may be stated that without specific energy policy a country would not be able to solve the acute problems like reducing greenhouse gases ghgs emission scarcity of energy etc this paper discussed the existing successful energy policies for few selected countries based on literatures it has been found that fit rps incentives pricing law and quota system are the most useful energy policies practiced by many countries around the world then status of wind energy policy for malaysia was investigated and compared with few selected countries around the world

the fisher hypothesis revisited new evidence the nominal interest rate is examined with the is lm model incorporating the fisher hypothesis eight different interest rates are considered for different sample periods ending in 1993 when the livingston survey data are used the coefficients for the expected inflation rate real quantity of money and government spending are significant in most cases when the adaptive expectations model is applied the coefficients for real quantity of money and government spending are insignificant in most cases the fisher hypothesis only holds for the federal funds rate or the aaa bond rate the linear form regression can be rejected at the 1 level in favour of the box cox general functional form

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

does the fisher effect apply in australia the fisher hypothesis claims that changes in the expected inflation rate will be fully reflected in nominal interest rates and hence that real interest rates will remain constant over time evidence with australian data from 1965 to 1990 suggests that the fisher effect does not hold in the long run analysis is performed using recently developed econometric techniques which take account of possible nonstationarity in the date attention is also given to the effects of financial market deregulation on interest rates

foreign aid and statehood in africa has foreign aid destroyed state institutions in africa african states depend on development assistance to conduct basic government operations yet few of these states are well governed or effective at providing public goods the two trends mounting foreign aid and static or diminishing state performance raise an obvious question is aid dependency contributing to misrule and state failure in africa many critics argue the two phenomena are related i find they are not my analysis fails to show a negative association between aid receipts and two measures of democracy and economic freedom instead the evidence is consistent with a small positive relationship between aid and these indicators of state performance since the international community seems bent on reducing foreign aid an important issue is how african states can maintain and improve their performance with less foreign assistance

envisaging feed in tariffs for solar photovoltaic electricity european lessons for canada abstract while it is widely agreed that support schemes need to be put in place to promote the use of renewable electricity there is less consensus as to what are the best kinds of strategies to use what is attracting increasing attention in canada is a system of renewable portfolio standards in this all power suppliers are under an obligation to ensure that a certain percentage of the electricity they generate is from renewable resources they can either generate that electricity themselves or purchase green certificates from those who have used renewables to generate electricity recent experience from europe however suggests that a whole hearted commitment to this single strategy could be premature and potentially damaging for the development of all kinds of renewable electricity in canada solar photovoltaics included on the other side of the atlantic ocean the use of so called feed in tariffs that is an obligation for utilities to purchase at a set price the electricity generated by any renewable energy resource is widely credited with accelerating the development of renewable electricity in many countries the purpose of this article is to reflect upon this european experience with feed in tariffs to stimulate discussions regarding what promise they might hold for the development of solar photovoltaic electricity in canada the article is divided into three main sections in the first section policies to promote renewable electricity presently in place in different parts of canada are reviewed attention is then focused more specifically in the second section of this article upon feed in tariffs after defining and describing this alternative system experiences in the countries of the european union are reviewed the main strengths and weaknesses of feed in tariffs in the european experience are also examined the focus then moves back to canada in the third section of the article in this a system of feed in tariffs is proposed for the province of ontario in order to provide just one example of the kind of support that could be forthcoming

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

renewables and climate change mitigation irreversible energy investment under uncertainty and portfolio effects abstract ongoing negotiations under the unfccc center around the possibilities for stabilization of greenhouse gases at a safe level new energy technologies are assumed to make major contributions to this goal however in the light of scientific uncertainty e g about climate sensitivity feedback effects etc market uncertainty e g fuel price volatility technological uncertainty e g availability of renewable technology socio economic uncertainty e g development of different macroeconomic factors and policy uncertainty e g about commitment to specific targets and stability of co2 prices it is difficult to assess the importance of different technologies in achieving robust long term climate risk mitigation one example currently debated in this context is biomass based energy which can be used to produce both carbon neutral electricity and at the same time offer the possibility of negative emissions by capturing carbon from biomass combustion at the conversion facility and permanently storing it in this study we analyze the impact of uncertainty on investment decision making at the plant level in a real options valuation framework and then use the ggi scenario database iiasa 2009 as a point of departure for deriving optimal technology portfolios across different socio economic scenarios for a range of stabilization targets focusing in particular on the new low emission targets using alternative risk measures

did aid promote democracy in africa the role of technical assistance in africa s transitions did foreign aid impede or catalyze democratization in africa in the 1990s we argue that after the cold war donors increased their use of technical assistance in aid packages improving their monitoring capacity and thus reducing autocrats ability to use aid for patronage to remain in power autocrats responded by conceding political rights to their opponents from legalizing opposition parties to staging elections we test our theory with panel data for all sub saharan african countries while other factors played pivotal roles in africa s political liberalization we find technical assistance helps to explain the timing and extent of africa s democratization

fisher s paradox and the theory of interest irving fisher s theory of interest has proved to be a most durable and influential contribution to economic theory a central element of fisher s contribution is the fisher hypothesis that over the longer term the real rate of interest is approximately constant being determined largely by time preference with movements in the nominal interest rate reflecting movements in the rate of inflation one for one the paradox of the fisher hypothesis is that despite its wide acceptance as the cornerstone of interest rate theory most empirical evidence appears to be inconsistent with the hypothesis at least in its strictest form this empirical anomaly was noted by fisher himself who attributed it to money illusion in the fifty years following the publication of the theory of interest a considerable literature has evolved around this paradox the unifying theme of this literature is a common acceptance of the essence of fisher s hypothesis most of the energy in this literature has been devoted to explaining systematic movements in the real rate of interest and to providing reasons why the relationship between the nominal interest rate and inflation may only be approximate in

the price of policy risk empirical insights from choice experiments with european photovoltaic project developers managing the transition to a renewable energy future is an important policy priority in many countries solar photovoltaic pv technology is expected to make an important contribution but due to relatively higher cost its growth to date has been largely driven by public policy notably feed in tariffs feed in tariffs have been implemented in various countries however with widely differing outcomes in terms of installed pv capacity previous research indicates that the level of policy risk may be an important driver for differences in renewable energy policy effectiveness more specifically we suggest that investors who take a decision between pv investment opportunities in different countries carefully weigh feed in tariff induced returns against a set of policy risks and choose the country with the most favorable risk return profile we empirically test this model based on a stated preference survey among european pv project developers consisting of 1575 choice decisions by 63 investors the findings of our study demonstrate that risk matters in pv policy design and that a price tag can be attached to specific policy risks such as the duration of administrative processes or uncertainty induced by an approaching capacity cap governments can build on our empirical results to design policies that will be effective in attracting private pv investment while at the same time maintaining efficiency by providing an adequate compensation for policy risk

small streams diverse sources who invests in renewable energy in finland during the financial downturn this article addresses the investment gap in renewable energy sources identified by several authors examining the case of a country finland which introduced policy measures to diversify its renewable energy portfolio we analyse the development of investments in renewable heat and power in response to new policy measures and contextual factors during the downturn period 2009 2013 we investigate investor heterogeneity i e the diversity of logics employed by different types of res investors in spite of a severe financial recession we find an emergence of new sources of investment among these new investor types we find diversity in investment drivers and available options these include investors mobilized by the feed in tariff to seek profitable targets and investors such as real estate owners investing in heat pumps for their own use and benefiting from low interest rates we find that the diversification of investors supports the diversification in res sources and brings in new investors undeterred by the financial downturn our findings imply that policy makers should recognize that the responses to distinct incentives and pressures vary by investor types this also means that a mix of policies is required to maximize the contribution of different sectors to filling the renewable energy investment gap

an examination of the relationship between australian industry equity returns and expected inflation this paper analyses the relationship between inflation and equity returns in australia over the period january 1974 to march 1996 analysis is based on monthly and quarterly data using value weighted equity indices at both the aggregate market and industry level three price indices the consumer price index cpi quarterly and the manufactured materials used index mmu and the manufacturing articles produced index map both monthly and quarterly are used to measure inflation results provide little evidence of the statistically significant negative relationship observed in the us for the full study period analysis is also conducted on three subperiods monetary targeting july 1976 january 1985 checklist approach february 1985 december 1989 and anti inflation january 1990 march 1996 at the market level the anti inflation subperiod does provide some evidence of a negative relationship between inflation and equity returns though statistical significance is not apparent with quarterly tim

social acceptance of renewable energy sources a review of contingent valuation applications abstract this paper presents a literature review addressing the public acceptance of renewable energy as a replacement for fossil fuels in electricity production this review was motivated by the global tendency for a substitution of conventional fuels by renewable energy sources res during the global financial crisis it studies research on the preferences and attitudes of local communities towards investments in renewable energy projects and their perception of the use of new energy technologies in their daily lives through various case studies worldwide an effort is made to identify the parameters that influence consumers energy behaviour together with their interest or lack thereof in the environmental impact of using fossil fuels to produce energy and their willingness to reduce it applications of contingent valuation are examined which are employed to analyse public attitudes towards the use of res for electricity production willingness to pay is observed to be correlated to socioeconomic characteristics including education interest in environmental issues and knowledge of res finally the profile of a typical green energy consumer and appropriate policy paths for the penetration of res into the energy market are outlined

comparing the feed in tariff incentives for renewable electricity in ontario and germany the development of feed in tariff fit programs to support green electricity in ontario the green energy and green economy act of 2009 and germany the erneuerbare energien gesetz of 2000 is compared the two policies are highly comparable offering similar rates for most renewable electricity technologies major differences between the policies include the level of differentiation found in the german policy as well as the use of a price degression strategy for fit rates in germany compared to an escalation strategy in ontario the german renewable electricity portfolio is relatively balanced compared to ontario where wind power dominates the portfolio at the federal level canada does not yet have a policy similar to the european directive on renewable energy and this lack may impact decisions taken by manufacturers of renewable technologies who consider establishing operations in the province ontario s green energy and green economy act could be benefit from lessons in the german system especially with regard to degression of feed in tariff rates over time which could significantly reduce payments to producers over the course of a contract and in turn encourage greater competitiveness among renewable power providers in the future

who delivers partisan clients in the argentine electoral market why do some parties fail to benefit from patronage in pork ridden political systems this article analyzes the interaction between patronage and partisanship to explain why some incumbents are more likely to benefit from pork politics than others we explain such differences by focusing on political parties access to resources supply side and voters dependence on fiscal largesse demand side we show how these differences affect the patron s choice of public sector wages and employment we use subnational level data to show different electoral returns from patronage for the two major political coalitions in argentina peronism and the ucr alianza and their effect on preferences over public sector wages and employment w hy do some political parties fail to benefit from patronage in pork ridden political systems this article analyzes the interaction between patronage and partisanship to explain why some incumbents are more likely to benefit from pork politics than others we explain returns to patronage by highlighting differences in the political parties access to resources supply side and the voter s dependence on public sector jobs demand side we propose that just as political parties cater their policies to particular groups of voters they pursue different strategies when allocating pork in exchange for support on the supply side we highlight the importance of partisan biases in the fiscal and electoral institutions that regulate the access and distribution of public resources on the demand side we show that patronage is a distributive mechanism that provides different returns to voters with different skills and labor market expectations

do corrupt governments receive less foreign aid critics of foreign aid programs argue that these funds often support corrupt governments and inefficient bureaucracies supporters argue that foreign aid can be used to reward good governments this paper documents that there is no evidence that less corrupt governments receive more foreign aid on the contrary according to some measures of corruption more corrupt governments receive more aid also we could not find any evidence that an increase in foreign aid reduces corruption in summary the answer to the question posed in the title is no

robust estimation and inflation forecasting this paper considers various models emerging from the fisher effect and or the term structure of interest rates for inflation forecasting this paper it is believed makes a contribution to the literature on estimation of the models by using a procedure that is robust for non normal errors improving the efficiency of the estimates considerably the consumer price index series 90 days and 180 days australian bank accepted bill rates covering the sample period 1968q1 to 1998q4 were used in this study contrary to earlier findings strong evidence was documented supporting the fisher effect in the presence of a structural break with the break point being at 1980q1 the overall results suggest that the error correction model of the fisher effect the term structure of interest rates and short run dynamics produce superior forecasts in particular when the models were estimated using the robust method these findings have important implications for economic policy analysis

risk based analysis and policy implications for renewable energy investments in greece significant renewable energy re investments have to be implemented in order to achieve the ambitious re targets set in the eu for 2020 and beyond moreover a great amount of capital has to be leveraged as these projects are followed by high investment and financing costs main aim of this paper is the provision of a comprehensive assessment of the existing risk elements of re investments in relation to the respective policies and the evaluation of their impact on the weighted average cost of capital wacc in greece a consultation procedure with key national energy stakeholders took also place including policy makers project developers investors equity providers bankers and energy analysts in the greek re market in order to provide a validation of the respective results it has been concluded that the policy design risk represents the risk element with the greatest impact on the cost of capital and thus the level of re investments deployment ased on the cost of capital valuation process followed the wacc was estimated to reach approximately 12 for onshore wind and little lower values for solar pv projects in greece

perception of risks in renewable energy projects the case of concentrated solar power in north africa the world needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to prevent climate change while meeting the energy needs of developed and developing economies recent studies suggest that generation of electricity from concentrated solar power in north african countries and its transmission to europe could provide european and north african partners with low carbon electricity the private capital will be likely required to achieve the scale of new investment and yet the north african region experience difficulties with sustaining high levels of foreign direct investment from the private sector the literature identifies a number of risks as barriers to investment and we examine these in the particular context of renewable energy development we conducted three stages of interviews with stakeholders to learn their perceptions of the risks most likely to affect renewable energy projects three class of risks regulatory political and force majeure which includes terrorism stand out as being of high concern of these regulatory risks are perceived as being the most consequential and the most likely to occur this suggests that attention to building the capacities of north african countries to develop implement and enforce sound regulations in a transparent manner could be an important step in promoting renewable energy cooperation with europe

connectedness network and dependence structure mechanism in green investments abstract we present an empirical study of renewable energy stock returns and their relation to four major investment asset classes stocks currency us treasury bonds and oil and several sources of uncertainty applying nonlinear causality and connectedness network analysis on data covering the period 2004 2016 we investigate the directionality and connectedness among different asset classes as well as between uncertainties first from the results of the estimation of directionality and network spillovers it can be concluded that the european stock market has a strong market dependence on renewable energy stock prices second uncertainties have an economically significant impact on both return and volatility spillover in energy investments third most of the uncertainties are net transmitters of volatility connectedness during the global financial crisis gfc and european sovereign debt crisis esdc

fixed feed in tariff versus premium a review of the current spanish system a b s t r a c t since 1998 the spanish government established a feed in system where res e generators could choose between two alternatives fixed feed in tariff and premium nowadays all res e 1 can be sold in the electricity market getting an additional premium except for solar photovoltaic one important novelty established in 2007 is a cap and floor system for facilities under the premium option the aim of this paper is to analyze and compare these two alternative options fixed fit and premiums which coexist at the same time in spain describe the evolution of both systems and evaluate its performance the introduction of this support system in spain led to very good results in terms of res e deployment the main advantage of the premium option is that it is a scheme integrated in the electricity market one disadvantage is that it can occasionally lead to overcompensation one way to try to avoid it is to set a cap value in order to evaluate the performance of this dual support system not only res e deployment has been assessed but also the policy stability the adequacy of res e production to the electricity demand pattern and the changes in the investors behaviour

strategic choices for renewable energy investment conceptual framework and opportunities for further research this paper introduces the special issue on strategic choices for renewable energy investment which is a collection of best papers presented at an international research conference held in st gallen switzerland in february 2010 substantial private investment is needed if public policy objectives to increase the share of renewable energy and prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change are to be achieved the aim of this paper and the entire special issue is to draw scholarly attention to the processes underlying strategic choices for renewable energy investment and how they are influenced by energy policy we disentangle the role of risk return perceptions portfolio effects and path dependence in explaining energy investment decisions and suggest that the heterogeneous universe of investors requires a segmentation of policies the paper outlines some of the rich opportunities for further research in this emerging area

the role of the business model in capturing value from innovation evidence from xerox corporation s technology spin off companies this paper explores the role of the business model in capturing value from early stage technology a successful business model creates a heuristic logic that connects technical potential with the realization of economic value the business model unlocks latent value from a technology but its logic constrains the subsequent search for new alternative models for other technologies later on an implicit cognitive dimension overlooked in most discourse on the topic we explore the intellectual roots of the concept offer a working definition and show how the xerox corporation arose by employing an effective business model to commercialize a technology rejected by other leading companies of the day we then show the long shadow that this model cast upon xerox s later management of selected spin off companies from xerox parc xerox evaluated the technical potential of these spin offs through its own business model while those spin offs that became successful did so through evolving business models that came to differ substantially from that of xerox the search and learning for an effective business model in failed ventures by contrast were quite limited

what is challenging renewable energy entrepreneurs in developing countries this paper cumulates the findings from a review of the challenges faced by renewable energy entrepreneurs in developing countries to date research that could facilitate the success of renewable energy entrepreneurs in the world s developing regions has been fragmented across two main bodies of literature management specifically entrepreneurship and renewable energy by conducting a qualitative review of the extant literature i propose that the findings from both bodies of research may be distilled to six 6 key challenges inadequate access to institutional finance the price of renewable energy technologies rets the lack of skilled labour underdeveloped physical infrastructure and logistics power dominance of incumbents inadequate government or policy support through this research i not only advance a unified conceptualisation of the challenges faced by renewable energy entrepreneurs in developing countries but also highlight a number of the revealed opportunities for future research

financing investments in renewable energy the impacts of policy design abstract the costs of electric power projects utilizing renewable energy technologies rets are highly sensitive to financing terms consequently as the electricity industry is restructured and new renewables policies are created it is important for policymakers to consider the impacts of renewables policy design on ret financing this paper reviews the power plant financing process for renewable energy projects estimates the impact of financing terms on levelized energy costs and provides insights to policymakers on the important nexus between renewables policy design and financing we review five case studies of renewable energy policies and find that one of the key reasons that ret policies are not more effective is that project development and financing processes are frequently ignored or misunderstood when designing and implementing renewable energy policies the case studies specifically show that policies that do not provide long term stability or that have negative secondary impacts on investment decisions will increase financing costs sometimes dramatically reducing the effectiveness of the program within u s electricity restructuring proceedings new renewable energy policies are being created and restructuring itself is changing the way rets are financed as these new policies are created and implemented it is essential that policymakers acknowledge the financing difficulties faced by renewables developers and pay special attention to the impacts of renewables policy design on financing as shown in this paper a renewables policy that is carefully designed can reduce renewable energy costs dramatically by providing revenue certainty that will in turn reduce financing risk premiums

a perspective on multinational enterprises and climate change learning from an inconvenient truth this paper explores whether and how an important environmental issue such as climate change can not only give multinational enterprises the opportunity to develop green firm specific advantages fsas but also help reconfigure key fsas that are viewed as the main sources of firms profitability growth and survival we examine the nature and geography of such fsa development and develop two organizing frameworks which are subsequently applied to climate change using information from global 500 firms implications and future directions for international business research are indicated

the perils of unearned foreign income aid remittances and government survival given their political incentives governments in more autocratic polities can strategically channel unearned government and household income in the form of foreign aid and remittances to finance patronage which extends their tenure in political office i substantiate this claim with duration models of government turnover for a sample of 97 countries between 1975 and 2004 unearned foreign income received in more autocratic countries reduces the likelihood of government turnover regime collapse and outbreaks of major political discontent to allay potential concerns with endogeneity i harness a natural experiment of oil price driven aid and remittance flows to poor non oil producing muslim autocracies the instrumental variables results confirm the baseline finding that authoritarian governments can harness unearned foreign income to prolong their rule finally i provide evidence of the underlying causal mechanisms that governments in autocracies use aid and remittances inflows to reduce their expenditures on welfare goods to fund patronage

which renewable energy policy is a venture capitalist s best friend empirical evidence from a survey of international cleantech investors governments around the world have adopted ambitious targets to increase the share of renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions they pursue a variety of policy approaches to achieve these targets it has been a popular theme for contributions in energy policy to investigate the effectiveness of such policies this article adds a new perspective to the debate namely looking at the policy preferences of private investors in innovative clean energy technology firms we surveyed 60 investment professionals from european and north american venture capital and private equity funds and asked them to assess the effectiveness of various policies in terms of stimulating their interest to invest in innovative clean energy technologies in addition to quantitative rankings we use qualitative interview data to capture additional information on why investors prefer some policies over others the combined analysis compensates for the inherent limitations of a quantitative ranking using generic policy types the results of this exploratory analysis demonstrate that all other things being equal investors in our sample perceived feed in tariffs to be the most effective renewable energy policy the overall preference for feed in tariffs is even more pronounced among investors based in europe and with higher exposure to clean energy

retail electricity tariff and mechanism design to incentivize distributed renewable generation abstract this paper examines the question of how to incentivize the adoption and use of renewable energy resources with particular attention on distributed renewable energy dre prior experience suggests that price and quantity based programs such as feed in tariffs provide more efficient renewable adoption and use and lower program costs than programs that set quantity targets only we also examine some cost allocation issues raised by the use of dre systems and fixed time invariant retail pricing this combination can result in customers with dre systems paying a disproportionately small portion of system capacity costs we suggest two retail pricing schemes real time pricing and a two part tariff with demand charges to address these issues

green energy market development in germany effective public policy and emerging customer demand this paper reviews the development of renewable energy in germany from 1973 to 2003 it investigates the relative importance of energy policy and green power marketing in shaping the renewable energy market more than a decade of consistent policy support for renewables under the feed in law streg and its successor eeg has been an important driver for increasing renewable electricity generation to date putting the country in a better position than most of its peers when it comes to achieving european union targets for renewable energy green power marketing driven by customer demand on the other hand is growing but has had limited measurable impact so far we discuss potential intangible benefits of green power marketing and scenarios for future market development the paper concludes with lessons that can be learned from the german case for policy design and market development in other countries

cost effectiveness of renewable electricity policies we analyze policies to promote renewable sources of electricity a portfolio standard rps raises electricity prices and primarily reduces gas fired generation a knee of the cost curve exists between 15 and 20 goals for 2020 in our central case and higher natural gas prices lower the cost of greater reliance on renewables a renewable energy production tax credit lowers electricity price at the expense of taxpayers which limits its effectiveness in reducing carbon emissions and it is less cost effective at increasing renewables than a portfolio standard neither policy is as cost effective as a cap and trade policy for achieving carbon emission reductions

fighting corruption to improve schooling evidence from a newspaper campaign in uganda what are the most effective ways to increase primary school enrollment and student learning we argue that innovations in governance of social services may yield the highest return since social service delivery in developing countries is often plagued by inefficiencies and corruption we illustrate this by using data from an unusual policy experiment a newspaper campaign in uganda aimed at reducing capture of public funds by providing schools parents with information to monitor local officials handling of a large education grant program the campaign was highly successful and the reduction in capture had a positive effect on enrollment and student learning jel d73 i22 o12

the cinderella options a study of modernized renewable energy technologies part 1 a technical assessment abstract this paper examines the status of and prospects for renewable energy technologies it is argued that the prospects for obtaining large scale supplies are good especially in the industrialized countries and that sufficient evidence exists for them to be taken much more seriously in the energy policy process reasons for their low status include inadequate data and a scepticism born of past disappointments however a failure to transfer existing knowledge to the policy community and well documented institutional and psychological processes are probably more important a major change of attitudes is required and is in the long run inevitable but the process will not be easy together with energy efficiency and natural gas renewable sources will then emerge as the third leg of the triad which will lead the way out of the growing energy environmental impasse however the changes involved could either deepen or alleviate political conflicts a great deal will hinge upon the timing and path of the changes

investment barriers and incentives for marine renewable energy in the uk an analysis of investor preferences abstract deployment of marine renewable energy mre in the uk is desirable in order to address climate change meet mandatory eu renewable energy targets and provide significant economic development opportunities including new export markets public funding constraints in the uk mean that substantial investment is required from the private sector to commercialize the industry by focussing on investor attitudes and behaviours towards wave and tidal technologies this paper reveals significant observations from the investment community with serious implications for the future of the mre industry through a series of in depth interviews with individuals from the investment community device developers and industry support the research seeks to identify common barriers and incentives to investment the paper demonstrates that although investors attitudes are generally aligned they do appear to have changed over time of the participants that had previously invested in early stage mre device development none were likely to do so again it is concluded that this is a function of investors greater understanding of the scale and unpredictability of the costs and the length of time required to develop these technologies this presents a significant policy challenge for all actors interested in the commercialization of wave and tidal technologies

co integration error correction and the fisher effect 1989 co integration error correction and the fisher effect applied economics vol 21 no 12 pp 1611 1620

fisher hypothesis in japan analysis of long term interest rates under different monetary policy regimes this paper investigates the validity of the fisher hypothesis in japanese long term interest rates two three four five seven and ten years using non stationary time series models initially the entire sample period october 1987 june 2006 is investigated then the samples divided into three segments depending on each period s monetary policy regimes are investigated thus the asymmetric impacts of inflation expectation on japanese long term interest rates can be investigated the first period examined is from october 1987 june 1991 the second period is from july 1991 july 2000 the third period is from march 2001 june 2006 in the first period monetary policy is tightening but in the second and third periods it is easing thus it is concluded that the fisher hypothesis is valid only in all maturities of long term interest rates in the first period however it does not hold in any of the maturities in the entire sample period or in the second and third periods

financing large scale wind and solar projects a review of emerging experiences in the indian context renewable energy can play a strategic role in india in meeting the country s growing energy demands as well as combating climate change policymakers have recognized this potential and over the last decade have intensified their efforts towards creating a conducive regulatory and policy framework policy instruments such as renewable obligations feed in tariffs and generation based incentives have specially aided the transformation towards large scale generation enabling higher efficiency and lower costs of generation however financing has emerged as a significant barrier for sustaining the momentum gained in recent years given this background this paper provides an overview on the evolution of large scale generation and the consequent changes in financing requirements it further reviews the emerging trends and barriers in the financing landscape and analyses the impact of policy performance in this context finally it considers the design of a national renewable finance framework complete with targeted finance push instruments that can complement existing demand pull policies in facilitating investment

environmental policies and risk finance in the green sector cross country evidence abstract this paper provides a detailed description of venture capital investment in the green sector across 29 countries over the period 2005 2010 and identifies the role that policies might play in explaining observed cross country differences the analysis is based on a deal level database of businesses seeking financing combined with indicators of renewable policies and government r d expenditures the econometric analysis relates the number of deals and their volumes in a country to deployment and supply policies using count data and limited dependent variable tobit models the results suggest that both supply side policies and environmental deployment policies designed with a long term perspective of creating a market for environmental technologies are associated with higher levels of venture capital relative to more short term fiscal policies when focusing on policies related to renewable energy generation the results confirm the positive association of generous feed in tariffs fits with venture capital investment however in the solar sector excessively generous fits tend to discourage investment perhaps reflecting a lack of credibility over the longer term thus both sets of results point to long term policy stability sustainability and credibility as important policy features to ensure venture capital backing of innovative and risky ventures in a country s green sector

more dollars than sense refining our knowledge of development finance using aiddata summary in this introductory essay to the special issue we introduce a new dataset of foreign assistance aiddata that covers more bilateral and multilateral donors and more types of aid than existing datasets while also improving project level information about the purposes and activities funded by aid we utilize that data to provide a brief overview of important trends in foreign aid contributors to this special issue draw on aiddata as well as other sources to analyze aid transparency new donors not previously described or analyzed aid allocation and aid effectiveness our recurring theme in this introductory essay is that aiddata and these initial academic projects refine rather than revolutionize our understanding of aid the database has added significant numbers of new projects dollar amounts donors and details about those projects though there is much more yet to add we worry that aid debates have been driven by too little information and that many claims are based on limited or very poor evidence rectifying these problems will not be instantaneous refining knowledge takes a lot of time and hard work the common feature of the papers in this special issue is their careful attention to nuance and detail in spite of what some recent authors have claimed aid is neither a simple solution nor a sufficient cause of most problems in developing countries its motivations distribution and effects are complex and shifting capturing this complexity requires detailed data careful thought and sophisticated methods that allow scholars to make conditional causal and descriptive inferences 2011 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

who invests in renewable electricity production empirical evidence and suggestions for further research transforming energy systems to fulfill the needs of a low carbon economy requires large investments in renewable electricity production res e recent literature underlines the need to take a closer look at the composition of the res e investor group in order to understand the motives and investment processes of different types of investors however existing energy policies generally consider res e investments made on a regional or national level and target investors who evaluate their res e investments according to least cost high profit criteria we present empirical evidence to show that res e investments are made by a heterogeneous group of investors that a variety of investors exist and that their formation varies among the different types of renewable sources this has direct implications for our understanding of the investment process in res e and for the study of motives and driving forces of res e investors we introduce a multi dimensional framework for analyzing differences between categories of investors which not only considers to the standard economic dimension which is predominant in the contemporary energy literature but also considers the entrepreneurship innovation adoption and institutional dimensions the framework emphasizes the influence of four main investor related factors on the investment process which should be studied in future research motives background resources and personal characteristics

a method for the correction of the feed in tariff price for cogeneration based on a comparison between croatia and eu member states the european commission has adopted directive 2004 8 ec on the promotion of cogeneration which the eu member states as well as candidates including croatia were obliged to accept among other terms and conditions the directive requires certain support mechanisms such as feed in tariff prices and premiums added to market electricity prices in this paper the cost effectiveness of selling electricity at the feed in tariff prices in the selected eu member states is compared to selling it on the european electricity market with or without premiums the results of this comparison will indicate whether correction of the croatian feed in tariff price to a higher value would be justified the cost effectiveness ratio of a cogeneration unit upgraded with mean reverting and jump diffusion processes is used for comparison at the end of this paper a method is suggested for the correction of feed in tariff prices with examples of corrected prices for the years 2008 and 2009 such corrections have been proven to be justified and are compared to the feed in tariff prices in most of the selected eu member states

support systems for the diffusion of renewable energy technologies an investor perspective concern over climate change impacts and the projected depletion of fossil fuels has urged more governments to adopt policies that stimulate the diffusion of renewable energy technologies ret with an increasingly diverse suite of support instruments the question emerges as to which instruments or combinations are able to achieve faster more substantial diffusion results although various support instruments were extensively addressed in policy studies there is still no consensus this is partly because many policy studies take a policy maker approach in comparing support instruments leaving relationships between policy design and policy results as a black box this paper proposes an investor oriented perspective to analyze the diffusion potential of support systems for ret the main argument is that it is not the type of support instrument but rather its risk profitability characteristics that influence investor behavior and the rate of diffusion the two instruments most frequently discussed and compared are the feed in tariff and the quota model the analysis in this paper concludes that policy design is crucial while often feed in tariffs are applauded and quota system feared feed in tariffs may also bring about disappointing diffusion results when poorly designed while quota systems may be also conceived as attractive instruments for independent power producers

the investor specific price of renewable energy project risk a choice experiment with incumbent utilities and institutional investors abstract renewable energy investments in germany have recently soared trebling the output of wind and solar power generation in only ten years while incumbent utilities have lagged behind in terms of investment new entrants have significantly contributed to this growth existing literature has primarily focused on explaining the lethargy of incumbents former investments although there is a growing need to investigate recent investment drivers to secure the necessary power plant capacity at a moderate cost from incumbents and new entrants alike to close this gap a choice experiment involving 1 659 investment choices by 52 european professional investors was conducted in significant contrast to the case with altruistic investors this survey underlines the importance of using financial incentives to attract professional investors given full exposure to electricity price risk incumbent utilities would facilitate projects at a 3 04 risk premium whereas institutional investors demand 6 61 generally incumbent utilities and institutional investors are equally attracted by low risk projects however when risk increases institutional investors are more hesitant to become involved while incumbent utilities confidently navigate these higher risk projects

the scope of imf conditionality international organizations are governed by two parallel sets of rules formal rules which embody consensual procedures and informal rules which allow exceptional access for powerful countries a new data set drawn from the imf s records of conditionality provides an opportunity to study the bargaining process within an important international organization and answer questions about the institution s autonomy i find evidence of u s influence which operates to constrain condition ality but only in important countries that are vulnerable enough to be willing to draw on their influence with the united states in ordinary countries under ordinary circumstances broad authority is delegated to the imf which adjusts conditionality to accommodate local circumstances and domestic political opposition the imf has refrained from exploiting the vulnerability of particular countries to maximize the scope of conditionality international organizations have become increasingly important actors in inter national politics they have proliferated have expanded in membership have acquired new legal enforcement powers and have extended their reach into the details of domestic political economy in their member states af ew including the international monetary fund imf or simply the fund command significant resources and wield considerable authority some critics have argued that these international organizations are sufficiently autonomous to create a democratic def icit at the international level as they pursue a vision of undemocratic liberal ism 1 other critics have argued that international organizations are nothing more than instruments in the hands of powerful states 2 these critiques of course cannot simultaneously be true and both run into difficulties the puzzle that the rogue agency view cannot explain is why the principals have chosen to delegate so much authority in principal agent terms this view posits that both screening and monitoring have failed the principals are unable to select agents with preferences similar to their own and are unable

assessment of the feed in tariff mechanism for renewable energies in taiwan abstract due to taiwan s lack of natural resources dependence on imported energy and pursuit of sustainable development renewable energies are extremely important for taiwan s future energy supply since taiwan s feed in tariff fit is still in its initial stage one must examine whether the current system is compatible with a well designed fit scheme this study examines the main features of taiwan s fit system and assesses design options using several criteria additionally one of the most important elements of a fit scheme namely a tariff system is discussed taiwan s fit scheme has the design options required by well functioning fits and the guaranteed return tariff system coincides with the spirit underlying leading global fits however many issues such as setting goals by stages refinement of the tariff calculation methodology and elimination of other non economic barriers must be addressed to achieve future developmental goals and green industry growth

understanding carbon lock in abstract this paper narrative argues that industrial economies have been locked into fossil fuel based energy systems through a process of technological and institutional co evolution driven by path dependent increasing returns to scale it is asserted that this condition termed carbon lock in creates persistent market and policy failures that can inhibit the diffusion of carbon saving technologies despite their apparent environmental and economic advantages the notion of a techno institutional complex is introduced to capture the idea that lock in occurs through combined interactions among technological systems and governing institutions while carbon lock in provides a conceptual basis for understanding macro level barriers to the diffusion of carbon saving technologies it also generates questions for standard economic modeling approaches that abstract away technological and institutional evolution in their elaboration the question of escaping carbon lock in is left for a future paper

electricity generation from renewables in the united states resource potential current usage technical status challenges strategies policies and future directions abstract in order to secure the energy future and protect the environment the u s is looking for renewable resources to meet the increasing energy demands for its electricity sector which accounts for 40 of total u s energy consumption in 2011 the overall aim of this article is to summarize the possible approaches that can be used to improve and optimize the utilization of renewables for electricity generation in the united states first an overview is presented about the resource potential current usage and technical status of electricity generation from renewables in the united states second a number of economic operational regulatory sustainability and technical challenges that are likely to be encountered are identified third strategies are outlined that can be used to minimize costs deal with the spatial nature of renewables smooth temporal variations associated with intermittency and achieve successful integration of electricity generated from renewable resources into the u s power grid fourth a sustainability assessment framework for renewable resource deployment for electricity generation in the u s is discussed the framework considers multiple criteria including cost environmental and social impacts thus giving a comprehensive assessment of each renewable energy resource for electricity generation in the united states fifth the current u s renewable energy policy is analyzed and rigorous recommendations are made for optimizing future u s renewable energy policy that can permanently induce a long term sustainable shift towards electricity generation from renewables finally directions for future research are highlighted

renewable deployment in india financing costs and implications for policy india s ambitious goals for renewable energy raise many questions regarding the nature of investment required we conduct financial modeling of actual renewable projects in india and derive the following insights first the high cost of debt is the most pressing problem higher cost and inferior terms of debt in india may raise the cost of renewable energy by 24 32 compared to the u s second even if cost of debt goes down loan terms including short tenors and variable interest rates will become significant impediments given that they add 13 14 to the cost of renewable energy in india compared to the u s finally due to the high cost of debt policy lessons from the u s and europe which focus on finer instruments such as duration of revenue support revenue certainty investor risk perception and completion cost certainty are not likely to be as effective with potential impacts on the cost of renewable energy in the 3 11 range in fact we find that an interest rate subsidy which reduces the cost of debt reduces the overall subsidy burden by 13 16 this suggests that indian policymakers need to prioritize the provision of low cost long term debt and take a closer look at the successful efforts by china and brazil 2013 elsevier ltd

assessing the strength and effectiveness of renewable electricity feed in tariffs in european union countries in the last two decades feed in tariffs fit have emerged as one of the most popular policies for supporting renewable electricity res e generation a few studies have assessed the effectiveness of res e policies but most ignore policy design features and market characteristics e g electricity price and production cost that influence policy strength we employ 1992 2008 panel data to conduct the first econometric analysis of the effectiveness of fit policies in promoting solar photovoltaic pv and onshore wind power development in 26 european union countries we develop a new indicator for fit strength that captures variability in tariff size contract duration digression rate and electricity price and production cost to estimate the resulting return on investment we regress this indicator on added res e capacity using a fixed effects specification and find that fit policies have driven solar pv development in the eu however this effect is overstated without controlling for country characteristics and is concealed without accounting for policy design we do not find robust evidence that fit policies have driven wind power development overall we show that the interaction of policy design electricity price and electricity production cost is a more important determinant of res e development than policy enactment alone

quantifying the impact of r d on pv project financing costs abstract energy technology research and development r d typically focuses on advancing the performance and reducing equipment and installation costs however such r d can also have significant indirect impacts on other factors incorporating the impact that r d activities have on financing costs can provide a more complete picture of the consequences of these decisions and may allow policymakers to make better decisions in this paper we discuss some historical examples of r d impacting financing costs in the solar energy sector summarize the areas of r d that can impact financing and describe methodological approaches that can be used to quantify the impact of r d on financing costs and as a result the levelized cost of energy lcoe we estimate that r d driven reductions in financing costs in the solar sector from current levels to low risk levels could reduce lcoe approximately 25 alternatively without the r d advances needed to prevent future risks and complications financing costs in the solar sector could increase by as much as 115

conflicts between decentralized renewable electricity production and landscape services a spatially explicit quantitative assessment for switzerland abstract the production of decentralized renewable electricity often collides with provisioning regulating and cultural services of the landscape in this paper we operationalize the landscape service approach and generate conflict maps between three renewable energies wind pv forest biomass and six competing landscape services nutrition and materials aesthetics physical and experiential interactions heritage and symbolic content water and liquid flows lifecycle maintenance habitat and gene pool protection media content analysis and expert interviews were used to ground truth the national conflict maps in several swiss regions and to understand to what degree the national conflict assessments match the regional and local perceptions of these conflicts in switzerland approximately 40 000 km 2 biomass from forests is by far the least conflicting renewable energy followed by pv on roofs for the latter 68 of the technically feasible energy potential can be generated with low conflicts and more is expected with new materials wind has a high conflict potential only 12 of the technically feasible energy potential is low conflict pv on open land marginal land and shrubland is at the moment not currently feasible in switzerland the accuracy of our conflict assessment is sufficiently high to estimate the proportion that socially sustainable energy could cover of the overall energy gap of 22 25 twh yr caused by the phase out of swiss nuclear plants by 2050 low conflict solar energy from rooftops could contribute approximately 30 of the required 22 25 twh yr intensified wood production and wind energy could add another 40 the gap of approximately 30 must come from undisputed energy sources such as biogas from recycled organic material from centralized renewable energies such as geothermal or large hydropower or from new or technologically improved renewable energies the presented decision support tools are a timely contribution to the designation of legally binding zones for renewable energy production

oil nontax revenue and the redistributional foundations of regime stability nontax revenues make up a substantial amount of government revenue around the world though scholars usually focus on individual sources of such revenue for example foreign aid and state owned oil companies using a theory of regime change that builds on recent models of the redistributional foundations of dictatorships and democracies i generate hypotheses regarding all nontax revenue and regime stability i argue that an increase in nontax revenue should be associated with less taxation of elites in democracies more social spending in dictatorships and more stability for both regime types i find support for all three of these hypotheses in a cross sectional time series analysis covering all countries and years for which the necessary data are available significantly i show that the particular source of nontax revenue does not make a difference they all act similarly with regard to regime stability and the causal mechanisms

china s sovereign wealth fund investments in overseas energy the energy security perspective abstract sovereign wealth funds swfs are state owned investment funds that invest in real and financial assets since the global financial crisis in 2008 swfs investments have resulted in national security concerns of host countries because swfs continue to expand rapidly and have become increasingly active in real time strategic transactions given this background china which has the biggest swf in the world is facing severe challenges of energy resources shortages while its plan is to accomplish social and economic development goals energy security is a key driving force of the energy investment policy of china s swfs this makes the swf investments more complicated and more politically sensitive the combination of sovereign rights and the strategic importance of energy also makes geopolitics more complicated and brings more uncertainty to swf investments this article explores the relationship between energy security and energy investments of china s swfs it is recognised that the energy investment of swfs must follow a sustainable path to coordinate energy security economic growth return on investment and national security concerns government policymakers are urged to balance the financial and political returns on swfs against potential negative effects the conclusion presents insights for policymakers energy scholars and swf researchers

mobilizing private finance for low carbon innovation a systematic review of barriers and solutions this paper analyses the field of innovation studies regarding barriers to low carbon innovation and consequences for finance investment and divestment and contributes to a more holistic understanding of the underlying mechanisms a combination of technological barriers combined with economic barriers institutional and political barriers contribute to sub optimal low carbon investment all along the innovation cycle policy makers need to take a systemic approach to enable the redirection of diverse private financial sources instruments range from cutting dirty r d subsidies and support for clean technology innovation and diffusion levelling the institutional playing field and making risks of high carbon and low carbon technologies transparent to providing a consistent but adaptive long term transition strategy this would allow financiers to gradually shift their investments away from high carbon mainstream markets and scale low carbon technology niche markets however financiers also need to sharpen their competencies with regard to new clean technologies and markets

are tradable green certificates a cost efficient policy driving technical change or a rent generating machine lessons from sweden 2003 2008 in the european policy debate tradable green certificates tgc have been suggested to be a superior regulatory framework for promoting the diffusion of renewable electricity technologies the purpose of this paper is to assess the performance of the swedish tgc system contributing to the european debate on the suitability of different types of frameworks the expectations of the tgc system were that it would a be effective in terms of increasing the supply of green electricity b do this in a cost effective manner from both a social and a consumer perspective c generate an equitable distribution of costs and benefits and d drive technical change so far it has performed adequately in terms of effectiveness and social cost effectiveness however consumer costs have been substantially higher than expected very large rents are generated and at best it contributes marginally to technical change thus a tgc framework should be selected if the overriding concern is to minimize short term social costs of reaching a certain goal with a high degree of predictability however it cannot be expected to also drive technical change keep consumer costs down and be equitable such trade offs need to be revealed and not obscured by analysts

how aid targets votes the impact of electoral incentives on foreign aid distribution despite allegations that foreign aid promotes corruption and patronage little is known about how recipient governments electoral incentives influence aid spending this article proposes a distributional politics model of aid spending in which governments use their informational advantages over donors in order to allocate a disproportionate share of aid to electorally strategic supporters allowing governments to translate aid into votes to evaluate this argument the author codes data on the spatial distribution of multilateral donor projects in kenya from 1992 to 2010 and shows that kenyan governments have consistently influenced the aid allocation process in favor of copartisan and coethnic voters a bias that holds for each of kenya s last three regimes he confirms that aid distribution increases incumbent vote share this evidence suggests that electoral motivations play a significant role in aid allocation and that distributional politics may help explain the gap between donor intentions and outcomes

levelized cost of electricity lcoe of renewable energies and required subsidies in china newhuadu business school research fund china sustainable energy program g 1305 18257 national social science foundation of china 12zd059 ministry of education 10 jbg 013

germany s solar cell promotion dark clouds on the horizon abstract this article demonstrates that the large feed in tariffs currently guaranteed for solar electricity in germany constitute a subsidization regime that threatens to reach a level comparable to that of german hard coal production a notoriously outstanding example of misguided political intervention yet as a consequence of the coexistence of the german renewable energy sources act eeg and the eu emissions trading scheme ets the increased use of renewable energy technologies does not imply any additional emission reductions beyond those already achieved by ets alone similarly disappointing is the net employment balance which is likely to be negative if one takes into account the opportunity cost of this form of solar photovoltaic pv support along the lines of the international energy agency iea 2007 energy policies of iea countries germany 2007 review international energy agency oecd paris p 77 we recommend the immediate and drastic reduction of the magnitude of the feed in tariffs granted for solar based electricity ultimately producing electricity on this basis is among the most expensive greenhouse gas abatement options

financial incentives to mobilise local citizens as investors in low carbon technologies a systematic literature review abstract mobilising greater levels of private finance through local citizen investment in low carbon technologies can help bridge the capital shortfall to meeting climate objectives while also building societal support for the low carbon transition within this context we undertake a systematic review of literature assessing the impact of technology specific economic and financial incentives promoting greater levels of investment in low carbon technologies from local citizen investors both individuals and community groups we focus in particular on the impact of feed in tariffs compared to quota schemes grants tax incentives and soft loans the analysis suggests that local citizen investors do not necessarily act in an economically rational manner in response to these incentives it underscores the importance of understanding the preferences of target demographics the local context as well as the characteristics of the technologies in question and suggests interventions should be considered as part of wider policy packages while identifying challenges to be overcome through instrument design we find that feed in tariffs grants and tax incentives can be successful in mobilising greater levels of investment from local citizen investors but that soft loans tend to be less effective as a stand alone instrument the review identifies areas meriting further exploration in this emerging field of research

rent and rent seeking in renewable energy support policies feed in tariff vs renewable portfolio standard abstract two popular policies for fostering electricity from renewable energy sources res e are fit feed in tariffs and rps renewable portfolio standards although it is essential for the government to intervene in the renewable energy market for a positive externality of res e poorly designed market regulations can lead to excess profits for the renewable energy sector which in turn increases policy costs in addition those who benefit from such regulations may actively seek rents this paper explores the rents or windfall profits generated through rps and fit and furthermore investigates which is more substantial for the case of south korea which has had experience with fit and rps over the past 10 years according to the results rents generated from rps were bigger than those from fit except for solar pv in south korea moreover this study also investigates the policy design elements that could curb these rents

a panel data analysis of the fungibility of foreign aid the donor community has been increasingly concerned that development assistance intended for crucial social and economic sectors might be used directly or indirectly to fund unproductive military and other expenditures the link between foreign aid and public spending is not straightforward because some aid may be fungible this article empirically examines the impact of foreign aid on the recipient s public expenditures using cross country samples of annual observations for 1971 90 for the base sample of 14 developing countries it finds that aid is not fungible at the aggregate level and there is no associated tax relief increasing the number of countries however makes aid fungible moreover results based on the main sample indicate that aid is fungible in three out of five sectors examined developing country governments receiving earmarked concessionary loans for agriculture education and energy reduce their own resources going to these sectors and use them elsewhere only loans to the transport and communication sector are fully spent on the purposes intended by donors because most aid appears to be fungible the rate of return on a specific donor funded project tells little about the impact of that assistance a better approach may be to tie foreign aid to an overall public expenditure program that provides adequate resources to crucial sectors

does foreign aid promote the expansion of government building on the literature on public finance i seek to advance our understanding of variations in government size by exploring the impact of official development assistance on fiscal policy i hypothesize that foreign aid operates in accordance with the flypaper effect systematically generating incentives and opportunities for the expansion of government spending results from a time series cross sectional regression analysis of growth in government spending over the 1970 99 time period are consistent with the hypothesis for middle and lower income nations aid represents an important determinant of government expansion looking at the tax and revenue side of the equation however reveals a more perverse pattern of response aid promotes not only increased spending but also reduced revenue generation the results have important implications from both a theoretical and policy perspective inter alia they point to the potentially self defeating nature of efforts to promote market oriented programs of state retrenchment via development assistance as well as to the importance of incorporating international transfers into future research on government spending

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

power sector renewable energy integration for expanding access to electricity in sub saharan africa abstract a looming energy supply crisis in sub saharan africa ssa raises concerns about a long lasting energy shortage this energy crisis is expected to persist for an indefinite period in the region unless immediate actions are taken to reverse the trend although global aspiration to reduce greenhouse gas ghg emissions into the atmosphere is high such desire is low in ssa regional stakeholders are more worried about increasing power generation capacity to enhance better access to different sorts of development to progress in line with advanced patterns of energy development globally to increase the availability of electrical energy and to sustain emissions reductions exploitation of local renewable energy re resources is inevitable consequently this paper presents a comprehensive review of re integration for expanding access to electricity in ssa the review covers the sustainability of re resources in ssa the regional status of re applications and the necessity of re power generation integration planning from a management aspect finally the benefits of re integration into the power sector of ssa and some conceptual challenges affecting its integration in the region are highlighted

further evidence on the fisher effect the strong form of the fisher hypothesis states that the nominal rate of interest fully adjusts to anticipated inflation weaker forms of the hypothesis identify circumstances where the nominal interest rate either overadjusts or underadjusts previous tests of the hypothesis using australian data and error correction techniques have found conflicting results vector autoregressive innovations are used to estimate the fisher equation and in general the strong form of the hypothesis is rejected in favour of underadjustment however the strong form of the hypothesis cannot be rejected in the period following deregulation of the financial system

understanding economic policy reform one of the eventual consequences of the global debt crisis was a wave of market oriented economic reforms this paper discusses the state of our knowledge on the political economy of this process why were inefficient and often unsustainable policies maintained for so long why are so many governments reforming now after decades of adherence to policies of an opposite kind have the reformers internalized the correct lessons from the east asian experience finally are there any helpful rules for reformers to follow in guiding their policies through complicated political terrain

feed in tariff promotion and innovative measures for renewable electricity taiwan case analysis abstract taiwan located in a subtropical area is a high energy importing nation with approximately 98 of our energy supplied by imported fuels since 2000 in this regard renewable electricity systems from its richness of solar radiation and strong monsoon are thus becoming attractive due to the energy economic and environmental policies for pursuing clean electricity supply sustainable development and greenhouse gases emission mitigation in taiwan the objective of this paper was to present an analysis of profitable promotion and innovative measures for renewable electricity in taiwan because the photovoltaic pv power and wind power systems have rapidly increased the total installed capacity from 2 7 mw in 2000 to 1006 2 mw in 2013 the description in the paper was thus summarized on an analysis of renewable electricity supply since 2000 and its future goals up to 2030 and then centered on the new promotion legislation i e renewable energy development act in the measures of feed in tariff fit and tax subsidy incentives current subsidiary and innovative programs to promote the development of renewable electricity technologies including roof type pv power off shore wind power and biogas to power were also described due to its innovation promotion for renewable energy exploitation in recent years pingtung county located in the southernmost of taiwan was introduced as a case study finally some recommendations for promote renewable electricity development were addressed in the paper

strategic rigidity and foresight for technology adoption among electric utilities abstract the variation in the adoption of a technology as a major source of competitive advantage has been attributed to the wide ranging strategic foresight and the integrative capability of a firm these possible areas of competitive advantage can exist in the periphery of the firm s strategic vision and can get easily blurred as a result of rigidness and can permeate in the decision making process of the firm this article explores how electric utility firms with a renewable energy portfolio can become strategically rigid in terms of adoption of newer technologies the reluctance or delay in the adoption of new technology can be characterized as strategic rigidness brought upon as a result of a firm s core competence or core capability in the other more conventional technology arrangement this paper explores the implications of such rigidness on the performance of a firm and consequently on the energy eco system the paper substantiates the results by emphasizing the case of iberdrola s a an incumbent firm as a wind energy developer and its adoption decision behavior we illustrate that the very routines that create competitive advantage for firms in the electric utility industry are vulnerable as they might also develop as sources of competitive disadvantage when firms confront environmental change and uncertainty

public policy influence on renewable energy investments a panel data study across oecd countries this paper examines the impact of public policy measures on renewable energy re investments in electricity generating capacity made by institutional investors using a novel combination of datasets and a longitudinal research design we investigate the influence of different policy measures in a sample of oecd countries to suggest an effective policy mix which could tackle failures in the market for clean energy the results call for technology specific policies which take into account actual market conditions and technology maturity to improve the conditions for institutional investments advisable policy instruments include economic and fiscal incentives such as feed in tariffs fit especially for less mature technologies additionally market based instruments such as greenhouse gas ghg emission trading systems for mature technologies should be included these policy measures directly impact the risk and return structure of re projects supplementing these with regulatory measures such as codes and standards e g rps and long term strategic planning could further strengthen the context for re investments

aid and government fiscal behavior assessing recent evidence this paper reviews evidence published in the last 10 years that has added to our understanding of the effects of aid on government spending and tax effort in recipient countries with a discussion of when general budget support is a fiscally efficient aid modality three generalizations are permitted by the evidence aid finances government spending the extent to which aid is fungible is over stated and even where it is fungible this does not appear to make the aid less effective and there is no systematic effect of aid on tax effort beyond these conclusions effects are country specific

fiscal games and public employment a theory with evidence from russia why do some governments both in different countries and in regions within those countries employ more workers than others existing theories focus on the level of economic development political redistribution and social insurance but they raise additional puzzles and do not account for all evidence or for a global trend toward decentralization of public employment the authors propose a new theory inspired by russia s recent experience that locates one motive for subnational public employment growth in a political and fiscal game between central and subnational governments in countries with weak legal systems local and regional officials may deliberately set their employment levels beyond their fiscal capacity prompting bailouts from the central government which fears the political cost to it if wage arrears accumulate and provoke strikes the authors model the logic of such brinkmanship derive several propositions and show that they and the model s assumptions fit empirical evidence from russia in the 1990s deficiencies of that country s overstaffed underequipped irregularly paid ineffective and strike prone public sector appear to result in part from a system of dysfunctional incentives created by the interaction of electoral pressures with the system of fiscal federalism the authors suggest parallels with latin american countries such as argentina and brazil