duopoly supergames with product differentiation abstract when goods are complements or very close substitutes more tacit collusion is supported by trigger strategies in price setting supergames than in quantity setting supergames for moderate or poor substitutes the situation is reversed this contrasts with the static situation where price setting strategies always lead to higher welfare

renewable energy policies and initiatives for a sustainable energy future in malaysia abstract effective policies and incentive on renewable energy re is critical to promote low carbon economy and society in the future re was first introduced in the country s energy mix through the fifth fuel policy which was formulated under the eighth malaysia plan 2001 2005 to reduce dependency on fossil fuel and to address the rising global concern on climate change this paper addresses the re progress and achievement over the past 10 years and discusses the key policies for re programmes funding schemes and incentives that has been introduced by the government of malaysia to develop and promote the utilisation of re the recent re mechanisms under the tenth malaysia plan 2011 2015 will also be highlighted

review on malaysia s national energy developments key policies agencies programmes and international involvements this paper aims to present a review on malaysia s national energy developments by looking at various angles in terms of renewable energy and energy efficiency energy demand and consumption by sectors are presented as well as the fuel mix in electricity generation key energy policies implemented from the incorporation of malaysia s national oil company petronas in 1974 until the national green technology policy 2009 and a future policy will be addressed the roles of key players as well as important agencies in energy development are briefly presented key programmes in energy development such as malaysian industrial energy efficiency improvement project small renewable energy power programme and building energy efficiency programme are discussed as well as successful initiatives from the programmes malaysia s international involvements towards reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon emissions especially montreal protocol and kyoto protocol are highlighted as a conclusion malaysia is aware of its role in formulating its national energy development policies sensitive towards the country s development towards the environment and utilization of energy resources as well as conscientious and responsive towards the call for sustainable development in promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency

product market imperfections and loan commitments i show in a model of competitive banks that the characteristics of loan contracts are affected by product market imperfections in the borrower s industry a bank loan commitment increases the value of a borrower firm operating in an imperfectly competitive industry and thus dominates a simple loan even in the absence of risk sharing considerations and informational asymmetries between the borrower and the bank while it is individually rational for a firm to obtain a loan commitment all the firms in that industry taken together are made worse off by the existence of loan commitments a loan commitment is a contract guaranteeing future availability of credit to a borrower at a prespecified fixed or stochastic interest rate although bank loan commitments are an important financial instrument and there exists an extensive literature analyzing them the rationale for their existence is still a matter of research this paper provides an explanation for the existence of bank loan commitments to borrowers from industries in which there is imperfect competition in the product market it is shown that in such industries the option to acquire financing at predetermined rates enhances the borrower s strategic power and thus creates value for the individual borrower consider an industry with imperfect competition where firms face the problem of noncooperatively exploiting a product market opportunity the optimal product market strategy of a firm depends on the output of its rivals a firm with access to resources at a lower marginal cost than its competitors has a strategic advantage that it can exploit to gain a larger market share and profits it is shown here that a firm that does not have such a strategic advantage can create it by purchasing for a fixed initial fee an option to acquire a factor of production such as financing at favorable terms specifically by initially negotiating a bank loan commitment the firm can finance an expansion of output to meet a strategic contingency at more favorable terms than would be possible if the expansion had to be financed in the spot market the ability to exercise the commitment enables the firm to threaten its rivals strategically and moves the industry to an equilibrium more favorable to that firm thus creating value for the borrower it is shown below that it is optimal for all firms to acquire bank loan commitments altering the industry equilibrium in the process

cost based access regulation and collusion in a differentiated duopoly abstract this paper revisits the conventional doctrine that it is easier to collude among equals applied in the context of vertically related markets in a differentiated duopoly model we study how cost based access price regulation may hinder the sustainability of tacit collusion

revisiting the bright and dark sides of capital flows in business groups prior studies report that the business group structure and the associated intra group capital flows are prone to conflicts of interest between controlling shareholders and minority investors yet business group is a prevalent and stable structure around the globe particularly where capital markets are underdeveloped using data from china this paper empirically studies the trade off between the negative and positive roles played by intra group capital flows and tests the efficiency implications of such trade off we find that from the perspective of the whole group intra group capital flows are most efficient when the groups are least subject to conflicts of interest between controlling shareholders and minority shareholders and when they face strong external financing constraints

embracing new agriculture commodity through integration of java tea as high value herbal crops in solar pv farms abstract integration of agriculture and renewable energy resources rer is currently a hot topic discussed worldwide based on the need for green energy and sustainable economy the decreasing trend of global market value for the traditional agricultural commodity such as rubber and palm oil really affected the gross national income gni and thus the government of malaysia outlined a number of strategic thrusts to boost economic growth herbal products have been given sufficient rooms for extension as the first approved entry point projects epp1 driver of sustainability orthosiphon stamineus also known as java tea is among the five commercialize high value herbal crops hvhc and chosen to be deployed under pv arrays based on its sustainability and potential market value the financial analysis is based on 3 months harvesting cycle with reference to the harvesting coefficience p c and realistic cash flow the internal rate of return irr is valued at 15 74 that benchmarks positive net return for herbal producers the cash functions based on return on investment roi can be achieved after 10 months cycle of production with net present value npv of rm8 863 59 this initiative flows in line with the cleaner production cp concept of efficient usage of natural resources to minimize waste and pollution the concept of agro technology integration is presented with strong financial return for the unused space under pv arrays configured for large scale pv farms

collusion in differentiated duopolies revisited abstract in a letter previously published in this journal rothschild 1992 rothschild r 1992 on the sustainability of collusion in differentiated duopolies economics letters 40 33 37 claims to obtain results in contrast with those obtained by deneckere 1983 deneckere r 1983 duopoly supergames with product differentiation economics letters 11 37 42 we show however that taking correctly into account non negativity constraints on output rothschild s formulation yields the same conclusions as deneckere s

standardization and the stability of collusion we characterize the interplay between firms decision in terms of product standardization and the nature of their ensuing market behaviour we prove the existence of a nonmonotone relationship between firms decision at the product stage and their intertemporal preferences c 1998 elsevier science s a

investment capital structure and complementarities between debt and new equity we study simultaneous investment and financing decisions made by incumbent owners in the presence of capital market imperfections we present a theory for how the optimal combination of debt and equity financing depends on the firm s internal funds we identify complementarities between the two financial instruments we test these predictions empirically with panel data on 3 119 corporations in the compustat database our estimates using instrumental variable techniques support our theoretical predictions regarding the link between internal funds and capital investments as well as the interaction effects between debt and new equity we explore implications for managers financiers and policy makers

sustaining collusion when the choice of strategic variable is endogenous abstract this paper addresses the problem of maintaining collusion in a differentiated duopoly when both the prospective deviant and punisher are free to choose between price and output as their strategic variables we show that the traditional formulation of the supergame in which firms commit for the duration to either price or output as their single common strategic variable overlooks the possibility of an asymmetric equilibrium in the punishment phase the results obtained here have obvious parallels with those found in the comparative statics literature

product market competition and optimal debt contracts the limited liability effect revisited abstract this paper shows that asymmetric information between lenders and borrowers plays a crucial role in the existence of interactions between financial decisions and output market strategies lenders offer an optimal renegotiation proof financial contract which resembles a standard debt contract computing cournot equilibria debt causes firms to compete less aggressively the usual positive limited liability effect on quantities is offset by a negative one due to endogenous financial costs

on the relationship between firm size and export intensity export marketing literature supports the view that firm size is positively related to export intensity although the empirical findings have been mixed a number of theoretical arguments are used to support this proposition i e international marketing economies of scale limited managerial and financial resources of small firms decisionmaker s risk perception based on a large survey of the italian manufacturing industry the article falsifies the proposition and challenges some widely held assumptions in export marketing literature

financial analysis on the proposed renewable heat incentive for residential houses in the united kingdom a case study on the solar thermal system abstract this short communication paper focuses on the renewable heat incentive rhi scheme in the united kingdom uk and in particular on its implication on domestic installations of solar thermal systems stss first a short review on the sts in the uk is provided then a detailed description of the rhi is discussed a financial analysis is presented afterwards analysing the impact of the rhi scheme on the applicants in terms of the net present value and the internal rate of return from the financial analysis it has been found that the rhi scheme for domestic installations is only attractive if a longer period of rhi payment i e 17 years or a higher rhi rate i e 0 32 per kw h is implemented the current proposal from the uk government is not financially viable and as a result it may hinder the penetration of domestic solar thermal systems in the residential sector in the uk

feed in tariff outlook in malaysia this paper aims to present the feed in tariff fit outlook in malaysia which is in the process of being enacted through a renewable energy re policy by the government of malaysia gom a brief in policies leading towards the re policy and the potential of each re sources under fit mechanism have been discussed the successful utilisation of re source in electricity generation and the fit implementation globally are positive indicators to implement fit in malaysia potentials of fit on biomass biogas and solid waste energy are currently very promising in malaysia but it is solar energy which is predicted to be the main re of the future surpassing all other res

research joint ventures product differentiation and price collusion abstract we investigate the interplay between firms decisions in product development either joint or independent and their ensuing repeated pricing either collusive or bertrand nash a joint venture develops a single product whereas independent ventures develop their respective products which can be differentiated we prove that joint product development and the resulting lack of horizontal product differentiation may destabilise collusion whilst firms r d decisions have no bearings on collusive sustainability if differentiation is vertical we also discover the non monotone dependence of firms venture decisions at the development stage upon their time preferences as well as upon consumers willingness to pay

the relationship between firm growth size and age estimates for 100 manufacturing industries this study uses a sample of all firms operating in 100 manufacturing industries to examine some aspects of firm dynamics it finds that firm growth the variability of firm growth and the probability that a firm will fail decrease with firm age it also finds that firm growth decreases at a diminishing rate with firm size even after controlling for the exit of slow growing firms from the sample gibrat s law therefore fails although the severity of the failure decreases with firm size copyright 1987 by blackwell publishing ltd

publics knowledge attitudes and behavioral toward the use of solar energy in yemen power sector abstract this paper presents the information of the public s views on the solar energy use in yemen it examines the public knowledge of attitudes and behavioral intentions that include the variables willingness to pay willingness to change and willingness to invest and then compare them a personal interview with 348 urban household and 258 rural household was performed the descriptive statistics chi square for independence odds ratios mann whitney and kruskal wallis tests were the statistical tools employed in the analysis the results showed that the citizens in both areas have a moderate level of knowledge about renewable energy resources the benefits and drawbacks of solar energy use in the power sector and the solar power technologies despite that they have highly positive attitudes towards the use of renewable energy particularly solar energy and its technologies they also accept to engage in the renewable energy activities which aim to improve the quality of the electrical service provided in the country the findings also indicate 66 55 7 and 78 4 of urban citizens are willing to pay to change and to invest compared to 70 55 4 and 75 6 of rural citizens the place of residence factor affected significantly the citizens knowledge level about renewable energy wind biomass and geothermal energy renewable energy resources the drawbacks of solar energy use in the power sector and the solar power technologies it also affected significantly the citizens attitudes towards the use of solar power technologies at home the implications for the policymakers are that elevating the knowledge and awareness of the citizens by formal and informal education and enacting effective supportive policies assists in encouraging the citizens to use renewable energies in their daily lives would lead to achieve the country s renewable energy targets for 2025

competitive auction mechanisms for the promotion renewable energy technologies the case of the 50 mw photovoltaics projects in cyprus abstract there are a range of policy frameworks and support mechanisms to promote the penetration of renewable energy technologies into the energy mix assembled by the governments and regulatory bodies around the world the three dominant and most common support schemes that have also been implemented within the eu and proven successful in the past include the competitive auctions the feed in tariff scheme fit and tradable green certificates tgcs this study reviews the use of the competitive auction mechanism for the promotion of power generation from renewable energy technologies the process of the specific policy instrument as well as its pros and cons are introduced successful and failed case studies from countries that have already incorporated this mechanism into their renewable energy technologies development policies are also presented among these cases is the cyprus auction procurement for the licensing of 50 mw of photovoltaic power plants conducted in january 2013 which is thoroughly elaborated in this paper the timeline of the bids is presented and the auction winner strategy is tracked and examined a discussion is also presented on the feasibility of the awarded projects eventually the entire auction procurement procedure is evaluated to expose the defects of the mechanism and to offer some recommendations for the viability of the process

malaysia s renewable energy policies and programs with green aspects malaysia as a developing country and a member of the association of southeast asian nations asean is looking into inexhaustible and repeatable alternative energy sources such as solar wind mini hydro and biomass the estimated gdp at 2010 is 15 385 per capita and the economic and industrial growth of the country implies that energy demand is growing very fast in addition the growing prices of fossil fuels and greenhouse gas ghg emissions make inevitable renewable energy solutions for the country geographically malaysia is located in a region of tropical and humid climate which provides easy access to a variety of renewable energy sources the government of malaysia has initiated renewable energy policies to encourage industries and individuals to employ renewable energy powered systems in power applications this paper first gives a brief overview of the current status of renewable energy in malaysia then it provides the energy policies specifically the renewable energy policies in malaysia in section 2 the renewable energy programs are reviewed in section 3 the building energy efficiency program with green aspect is provided in section 4 lastly the conclusion and forecasts of this paper are

opec s oil exporting strategy and macroeconomic in stability aguiar conraria and wen 2008 argued that dependence on foreign oil raises the like lihood of equilibrium indeterminacy economic instability for oil importing countries we argue that this relation is more subtle the endogenous choices of prices and quantities by a cartel of oil exporters such as the opec can aect the directions of the changes in the likelihood of equilibrium indeterminacy we show that uctuations driven by self ful lling expectations under oil shocks are easier to occur if the cartel sets the price of oil but the re sult is reversed if the cartel sets the quantity of production these results oer a potentially interesting explanation for the decline in economic volatility i e the great moderation in oil importing countries since the mid 1980s when the opec cartel changed its market strategies from setting prices to setting quantities despite the fact that oil prices are far more volatile today than they were 30 years ago

malaysia energy strategy towards sustainability a panoramic overview of the benefits and challenges sustainable energy supply is essential for actualizing malaysia s vision to become a high income country the current power production and demand trends show that malaysia has a reserve margin that will only last for the next few years this calls for further investment research and development in the country s power sector in order to meet the ever increasing energy demand the government s diversification policy and power sector expansion plan emphasizes on the incorporation of renewable energy sources ress and other less co2 emitting sources like nuclear into the national energy mix however the environmental ramifications of this policy should be part of any future expansion plan of national grid this paper presents a panoramic overview of the malaysian energy sector the energy policy revolution and the power sector expansion strategy towards secure sustainability we want to bring into focus the benefits and challenges of malaysia s power sector expansion plan with the aim of stimulating further discussion and research on the environmental ramifications of the plan

delivered pricing and the impact of spatial differentiation on cartel stability abstract this paper analyzes the impact of spatial differentiation on the sustainability of collusion on delivered prices it shows that the choice of the punishment mechanism that enforces collusion is crucial for determining whether differentiation facilitates cartel pricing or not if punishments are optimal then differentiation tends to facilitate collusion optimal punishments impose minmax profits on deviators independently of the degree of differentiation a high degree of differentiation then renders deviations less profitable since it makes business stealing more costly but does not affect the deviator s punishment profits depending on the transport cost technology excessive differentiation may have a countervailing effect however because it also implies high transport costs for the cartel if collusion is sustained by standard grim trigger punishments instead then collusion may be easiest for minimal differentiation the reason is that competitive and thus grim trigger punishment profits are higher the higher the degree of differentiation

is there a tradeoff between bank competition and financial fragility abstract we use a model of mean shifting investment technologies to study the relationship between market structure risk taking and social welfare in lending markets introduction of loan market competition is shown to reduce lending rates and to generate higher investments without increasing the equilibrium bankruptcy risk of borrowers hence there need not be a tradeoff between lending market competition and financial fragility such a tradeoff may not emerge either when banks compete by conditioning interest rates on investment volumes irrespectively of whether credit rationing takes place or not

price vs quantity competition in oligopoly supergames abstract in a repeated oligopoly with differentiated products and firms following trigger strategies quantity competition leads to a less efficient outcome than price competition this result contrasts with the repeated duopoly result where price competition is less efficient under certain conditions

solar photovoltaic in malaysia the way forward abstract this paper examines solar photovoltaic pv in malaysia first it analyzes the current energy demand in malaysia and discusses some of the national policies and the installations of solar pv in urban and rural areas in the country next the general feed in tariff fit scheme is explained indicating its potential as one of the investment options for malaysians finally the loan financing option for solar pv is presented providing examples that have been implemented in other countries as well as explaining the green technology financing scheme gtfs for companies and the proposed soft loan scheme for individual households in malaysia it also analyses the impact of the proposed interest rate to household consumers in malaysia in terms of total profit net present value and internal rate of return it is found that the fit scheme could potentially help in increasing renewable energy penetration particularly for solar pv to provide upfront capital for solar pv installation it is shown that the gtfs is a good financial source for companies while for individual home owners a soft loan facility from banking institutions is a feasible source if the interest rate is 5 or less

an evaluation of the installation of solar photovoltaic in residential houses in malaysia past present and future abstract this paper examines solar energy development in malaysia particularly in relation to the installation of solar photovoltaic pv in residential houses it analyzes the past activities related to solar energy in malaysia in terms of research and developments r ds the implementations used as well as the national policies for the past 20 years which have pushed the installation of pv in the country the feed in tariff fit scheme is discussed showing comparative cost benefit analysis between the pv installation in houses in the united kingdom uk and malaysia and with other investment schemes available in malaysia to investigate the awareness of renewable energy policies and incentives a preliminary survey of the public opinion in malaysia has been carried out and an evaluation of public willingness to invest in the fit scheme by installing the pv on their houses is presented the cost benefit analysis shows that the proposed fit programme is capable of generating good return on investment as compared to the one in the uk but the return is lower than other investment tools the survey suggests that most malaysians are unaware of the government s incentives and policies towards renewable energies and are not willing to invest in the fit scheme

consumer loss aversion product experimentation and tacit collusion abstract two firms compete to attract loss averse consumers that are uncertain about how well the goods on sale fit their needs to resolve valuation uncertainty firms can allow prospective customers to test experiment their products before purchase we investigate firms dynamic incentives to allow experimentation and analyze the resulting effects on the profitability and the stability of tacit collusion depending on the regulatory regime in place i e whether experimentation is forbidden mandated or simply allowed but not imposed laissez faire the degree of loss aversion has ambiguous effects both on the profits that firms can achieve through tacit collusion and on the stability of these agreements while in static environments consumer welfare is always maximized by a policy that forbids experimentation the opposite happens in a dynamic environment

sustainable energy transitions in emerging economies the formation of a palm oil biomass waste to energy niche in malaysia 1990 2011 the economic development in emerging economies in southeast asia has significantly increased the use of fossil fuel based energy this has severe implications for global climate change and against this background scholars within the sustainable transition tradition have taken an interest in addressing how transitions towards more sustainable development pathways in this region may be achieved this paper contributes to the abovementioned literature by examining the conducive and limiting factors for development and proliferation of a palm oil biomass waste to energy niche in malaysia during the period 1990 2011 rising oil prices strong pressure on the palm oil industry from environmental groups and a persisting palm oil biomass waste disposal problem in malaysia appear to have been conducive to niche proliferation and on top of this national renewable energy policies and large scale donor programmes have specifically supported the utilisation of palm oil biomass waste for energy however in spite of this the niche development process has only made slow progress the paper identifies reluctant implementation of energy policy rise in biomass resource prices limited network formation and negative results at the niche level as the main factors hindering niche development

on the sustainability of collusion in differentiated duopolies abstract we consider a rule designed to maintain collusion in a duopoly made up of firms producing differentiated products we analyse both price setting and quantity setting models and show that product differentiation plays a crucial role in determining the effectiveness of this rule our results contrast with those obtained by earlier writers

a critical review of china s rapidly developing renewable energy and energy efficiency policies renewable energy and energy efficiency reee policies have far reaching implications for energy security climate change economic competitiveness pollution and human livelihood for these reasons reee has become a national priority for the chinese government particularly since 2005 this paper aims to critically review china s reee policies in six sectors electricity industry transportation buildings and local government in addition to examining the progress china has made in the development and implementation of reee policies this review also identifies limitations and room for improvement finally five policy recommendations are presented

prisoners dilemma in duopoly super games abstract the choice between quantity and price in order to stabilize collusion is modeled here it is shown that this relocates the prisoners dilemma backward from the market stage to the stage where the market variable is chosen in order to sustain collusion and where discount rates appear as the payoffs likewise a prisoners dilemma arises also when both the market variable and the type of behavior cooperative or non cooperative are simultaneously chosen journal of economic literature classification numbers c72 d43 l13

exploring the relationship between energy usage segregation and environmental degradation in n 11 countries numerous studies regarding the economic growth environmental pollution link have struggled to determine the effects of various forms of energy consumption on environmental degradation particularly in the context of emerging economies this study examines the environmental kuznets curve ekc for co2 emissions in n 11 countries during 1990 2014 by segregating three forms of energy consumption renewable biomass and non renewable urbanization and trade openness are additional explanatory variables that are used in the empirical framework using the generalized moments method gmm the empirical evidence confirms the presence of an n shaped relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation for n 11 countries this study analyzed the interaction effects among trade openness biomass consumption and economic growth these interactions had a negative impact on co2 emissions levels of n 11 countries suitable policy recommendations have been provided based on the detailed results

an anatomy of cartel contracts we study cartel contracts using data on 18 contract clauses of 109 legal finnish manufacturing cartels one third of the clauses relate to raising profits the others deal with instability through incentive compatibility cartel organization or external threats cartels use three main approaches to raise profits price market allocation and specialization these appear to be substitutes choosing one has implications on how cartels deal with instability simplifying we find that large cartels agree on prices cartels in homogenous goods industries allocate markets and small cartels avoid competition through specialization

renewable energy in five south east asian countries review on electricity consumption and economic growth abstract the present study is an archival statistical overview of the possibility of renewable energy production in five south east asian countries and their economic capacity the five south east asian countries under review are the philippines thailand malaysia indonesia and singapore all of which have a combined population of 420 million this number is a little less than the population of 25 european countries these five countries have created a large market in the world and have enjoyed significant economic growth in recent years tropical climate in the region facilitates the potential for using clean and green energies this article clarifies the effective relation between energy capacities and economic indices in these countries and analyzes the results using a survey the paper shows that despite the shortage of energy in these countries brought by their fast economic growth the share of renewable energy in energy production is constantly declining and more reliance is still placed on fossil fuels for energy production

price or quantity in tacit collusion abstract we investigate the choice of market variable price or quantity of an optimal implicit cartel if the discount factor is high the cartel can realize the monopoly profit in both cases otherwise it is optimal for the cartel to rely on quantities in the collusive phase if goods are substitutes and prices if goods are complements the reason is that this minimizes the gains from deviations from collusive play

cartel stability and product differentiation abstract this paper employs a supergame theoretic model of collusion to analyze the effects of different levels of product differentiation on cartel stability in contrast to earlier work the ability of the parties to reach an agreement is assumed here the focus is on how greater product homogeneity increases both the gain to cheating on a collusive agreement and the magnitude of the punishments that follow a defection the total effect on the likelihood a cartel is stable is therefore unclear two particular differentiated products models are then used to demonstrate that contrary to the conventional view greater homogeneity can reduce cartel stability