urban influence on costs of production in the corn belt this article determines the relative technical efficiency of rural and urban influenced crop livestock enterprises in the corn belt farmers in urban influenced locations are less technically efficient than farmers in rural locations during 1998 2000 stochastic production frontier procedures indicate that a 10 increase in urban influence leads to a close to 4 decrease in technical efficiency the most successful urban influenced farms have controlled costs as effectively as rural farms they have tended to de emphasize that nondairy livestock activities particularly beef and hogs do not rely extensively on off farm income and have relatively large less residential lifestyle operations compared to less successful urban influenced farmers however our statistical analysis clearly bears out the refrain in popular literature that urban proximity raises the cost for and decreases the viability of traditional farms

reducing greenhouse gas emissions lessons from state climate action plans we examine how state level factors affect greenhouse gas ghg reduction policy preference across the united states by analyzing climate action plans caps developed in 11 states and surveying the cap advisory group members this research offers insights into how states approach the problem of choosing emissions abatement options that maximize benefits and minimize costs given their unique circumstances and the constellation of interest groups with power to influence state policy the state caps recommended ten popular ghg reduction strategies to accomplish approximately 90 of emissions reductions but they recommended these popular strategies in different proportions a strategy that is heavily relied on in one state s overall portfolio may play a negligible role in another state this suggests that any national policy to limit ghg emissions should encompass these key strategies but with flexibility to allow states to balance their implementation for the state s unique geographic economic and political circumstances survey results strongly support the conclusion that decisions regarding ghg reductions are influenced by the mix of actors at the table risk perception is associated with job type for all strategies and physical and or geographic factors may underlie the varying reliance on certain ghg reduction strategies across states

should renewable energy policy be renewable political flexibility brings about trade offs for policy makers aiming to support the deployment of renewable energy sources res on the one hand it allows incorporating new information on ex ante uncertain benefits and costs of res policy on the other hand it may deter res investments this paper scrutinizes how these trade offs play out economically and politically when res policy makers choose the degree of flexibility as well as the instruments to implement flexibility the analysis builds on a theoretical framework distinguishing between flexibility by design and by adjustment it is complemented by a discussion of three case studies res support schemes in germany and the united kingdom and the eu emissions trading scheme theoretical as well as empirical results suggest that the politically chosen degree of flexibility by policy design may be sub optimally low in contrast flexibility by policy adjustment is often excessively high

analyzing public preferences and increasing acceptability for the renewable portfolio standard in korea abstract in order to respond to the challenge of climate change similar to other countries korea has announced various policies to vitalize the development and uptake of renewable energy the renewable portfolio standard rps is the most striking example of a policy in this area this study employs a conjoint survey and bayesian mixed logit model to analyze consumer preferences for specific attributes of the rps policy it analyzes households marginal willingness to pay mwtp for the rps with specific attributes and simulates the degree of household acceptability of the policy through a scenario analysis comparison between costs and benefits of implementing the policy is also attempted by analyzing the households mwtp with the actual transition expense of rps implementation incurred by electricity supply companies the simulation results provide implications for improving rps policy implementation households consider the creation of new jobs as the most important policy attribute followed by increase in electricity prices damage to forests reduction in co 2 emissions and length of power outages moreover the korean household is willing to accept an increase of up to 1 39 in its electricity prices relative to 2012 and the median mwtp of each household for rps implementation is krw 734 99 month usd 0 67 month

renewable electricity support systems are feed in systems taking the lead abstract support systems for renewable energy sourced electricity res e can be classified into price and quantity based systems their most representative instruments are feed in systems price based and quota systems e g green certificates or a renewable portfolio standard quantity based the origins of these support systems are quite different and are motivated by different political and economic needs likewise their geographical distribution and effectiveness also differ worldwide feed in systems are the most widespread res e support system in recent years some classical quota countries have partially or even totally changed to feed in systems feed in systems seem to encourage higher res e deployment technology diversity and investor security although the manufacturing capacity for certain res e technologies has been more developed in some feed in countries lately this has changed to some extent due to the incorporation of emerging countries in the res e industry traditionally quota systems appeared to be more compatible with liberalisation of the electricity market however since the introduction of the premium system this argument can be countered since feed in premiums can be considered compatible with the electricity market as quota systems regarding the price paid for res e in quota countries higher green certificate prices have not led to higher res e quantities moreover the relative support levels in quota countries are higher on average than in fit countries contradicting the common argument that quota systems are more cost effective additionally feed in systems especially if stepped tariffs are designed encourage higher res e geographical dispersion avoiding the concentration of res e facilities in just a few locations which can lead to nimby not in my back yard syndrome all these factors may explain the steady spread of feed in systems worldwide the purpose of this paper is to assess the performance of quota and feed in systems thereby contributing to the worldwide debate on the suitability of the different res e support systems

effects of conflict on agriculture evidence from the boko haram insurgency abstract we investigate the effects of conflict on agriculture using the boko haram insurgency as a case study we identify the output input infrastructure and human capital effects as direct effects and the loss of talent and other environmental factors as indirect effects identified market effects include effects on product and input prices and increased risk premiums by combining a nationally representative panel dataset on nigerian agriculture with armed conflict data we find that the increased intensity of boko haram attacks significantly reduces total output and productivity but not land use and reduces the outputs of specific staple crops such as sorghum cassava soya and yam conflict is also found to reduce the hours of hired labor for men and women but does not affect the use of family labor agricultural wages are however significantly affected because it reveals if why and how conflict affects agriculture this study has important implications for post crisis recovery and agricultural development

decarbonization of the u s electricity sector are state energy policy portfolios the solution state governments have taken the lead on u s energy and climate policy it is not yet clear however whether state energy policy portfolios can generate results in a similar magnitude or manner to their presumed carbon mitigation potential this article seeks to address this lack of policy evidence and contribute empirical insights on the carbon mitigation effects of state energy portfolios within the u s electricity sector using a dynamic long term electricity dispatch model with u s power plant utility and transmission and distribution data between 2010 and 2030 this analysis builds a series of state level policy portfolio scenarios and performs a comparative scenario analysis results reveal that state policy portfolios have modest to minimal carbon mitigation effects in the long run if surrounding states do not adopt similar portfolios as well the difference in decarbonization potential between isolated state policies and larger more coordinated policy efforts is due in large part to carbon leakage which is the export of carbon intensive fossil fuel based electricity across state lines results also confirm that a carbon price of 50 metric ton co2e can generate substantial carbon savings although both policy options an energy policy portfolio or a carbon price are effective at reducing carbon emissions in the present analysis neither is as effective alone as when the two strategies are combined

federal policies for renewable electricity impacts and interactions abstract three types of policies that are prominent in the federal debate over addressing greenhouse gas emissions in the united states are a cap and trade program ctp on emissions a renewable portfolio standard rps for electricity production and tax credits for renewable electricity producers each of these policies would have different consequences and combinations of these policies could induce interactions yielding a whole that is not the sum of its parts this paper utilizes the haiku electricity market model to evaluate the economic and technology outcomes climate benefits and cost effectiveness of three such policies and all possible combinations of the policies a central finding is that the carbon dioxide co2 emissions reductions from ctp can be significantly greater than those from the other policies even for similar levels of renewable electricity production since of the three policies ctp is the only one that distinguishes electricity generated by coal and natural gas it follows that ctp is the most cost effective among these approaches at reducing co2 emissions an alternative compliance payment mechanism in an rps program could substantially affect renewables penetration and the electricity price effects of the policies hinge partly on the regulatory structure of electricity markets which varies across the country

multiple input multiple output production choices and technology in the u s wheat region duality theory motivates a translog expected profit function consistent with multiple products price uncertainty preseason climate constraints acreage control policies and possibly nonhomothetic technology although multiple outputs are allowed enterprise specific data is not necessary instead time series measures of output revenues and expected prices input expenses and prices and fixed input flows are employed appropriate measures of elasticities of choice returns to size and biases in technological change are derived results indicated decreasing returns to size rather limited though complementary responsiveness of choices to price changes and the nature of biases in technological changes

the effectiveness of federal renewable policies in india abstract the government of india has set ambitious targets for renewable energy however unsubsidized renewable energy is still at least 50 more expensive than fossil fuel power and requires policy support at federal as well as state levels in this context a comparative evaluation of the effectiveness of these policies becomes important using financial models we provide a framework to compare existing federal policies generation based incentive viability gap funding and accelerated depreciation for wind and solar technologies with a new class of debt related federal policies our main finding is that debt related policies offer the most potential for cost effectiveness in the long term they also perform well across other criteria a particularly attractive policy is reduced cost extended tenor debt which compared to existing policies would reduce total subsidies by up to 78 have 100 viability gap coverage potential and provide 76 of subsidy recovery

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

an assessment of greenhouse gas emissions weighted clean energy standards abstract this paper quantifies the relative cost savings of utilizing a greenhouse gas emissions weighted clean energy standard ces in comparison to a renewable portfolio standard rps using a bottom up electricity sector model for hawaii this paper demonstrates that a policy that gives clean energy credit to electricity technologies based on their cardinal ranking of lifecycle ghg emissions normalizing the highest emitting unit to zero credit can reduce the costs of emissions abatement by up to 90 in comparison to a typical rps a ghg emissions weighted ces provides incentive to not only pursue renewable sources of electricity but also promotes fuel switching among fossil fuels and improved generation efficiencies at fossil fired units ces is found to be particularly cost effective when projected fossil fuel prices are relatively low

an exploratory game theoretic analysis of biomass electricity generation supply chain this study proposes a game theoretic approach to model and analyze the process of utilizing biomass for power generation considering three players distributor facility developer and participating farmer we characterize the nash equilibrium of the sequential game and discuss its features a special attention is devoted to the analysis of the impact of incentives and initial target on the equilibrium in which the biomass is part of electricity production

energy environmental and economic effects of renewable portfolio standards rps in a developing country abstract this paper analyses the potential of renewable energy for power generation and its energy environmental and economic implications in pakistan using a bottom up type of long term energy system based on the markal framework the results show that under a highly optimistic renewable portfolio standard rps of 80 fossil fuel consumption in 2050 would be reduced from 4660 pj to 306 pj and the ghg emissions would decrease from 489 million tons to 27 million tons nevertheless price of the electricity generation will increase significantly from us 47 mwh under current circumstances in the base case to us 86 mwh under rps80 however the effects on import dependency energy mix diversity per unit price of electricity generation and cost of imported fuels indicate that it may not be desirable to go beyond rps50 under rps50 in 2050 fuel consumption of the power sector would reduce from 21 under the base case to 9 of total fossil fuels supplied to the country it will decrease not only ghg emission to 170 million tons but also will reduce import dependency from 73 under the base case to 21 and improve energy diversity mix with small increase in price of electricity generation from us 47 mwh under the base case to us 59 mwh under rps 50

elasticity of substitution and technical efficiency evidence from the us electricity generation abstractthe implications of national or regional energy policies for technical efficiency and environmental outcomes in electricity generation depend on fossil fuel input substitution this study u

the renewables portfolio standard in texas an early assessment texas has rapidly emerged as one of the leading wind power markets in the united states this development can be largely traced to a well designed and carefully implemented renewables portfolio standard rps the rps is a new policy mechanism that has received increasing attention as an attractive approach to support renewable power generation though replacing existing renewable energy policies with an as of yet untested approach in the rps is risky early experience from texas suggests that an rps can effectively spur renewables development and encourage competition among renewable energy producers initial rps targets in texas were well exceeded by the end of 2001 with 915 mw of wind installed in that year alone rps compliance costs appear negligible with new wind projects reportedly contracted for well under 3 us cent k wh in part as a result of a 1 7 us cent kwh production tax credit an outstanding wind resource and an rps that is sizable enough to drive project economies of scale obliged retail suppliers have been willing to enter into long term contracts with renewable generators reducing important risks for both the developer and the retail supplier finally the country s first comprehensive renewable energy certificate program has been put into place to monitor and track rps compliance c 2002 published by elsevier science ltd less

governmental intervention approaches to promote renewable energies special emphasis on japanese feed in tariff abstract almost all countries have issued laws and regulations to promote renewable energy re however the applications and motivations of such laws as well as achievements have been different currently the japanese government has announced its targets to expand the electricity feed in tariff scheme for solar power along with other energy sources within two years to meet the goal set by the japanese prime minister who in the 15th united nations climate change conference cop15 held in september 2009 proclaimed to cut 25 of greenhouse gas ghg emissions from the 1990 levels by 2020 in this paper the current japanese energy policies and measures for promoting re in comparison to popular methods followed worldwide are explored furthermore a least cost feed in tariff lcfit simulation model for japanese case was developed to calculate the optimal mix of technologies to reach certain targets the lcfit also calculates the tariff that should be proposed for each technology and the total cost for the program with and without a carbon tax and estimates the premium added to the bill of the customer every month

a mixed integer linear programming model of a zonal electricity market with a dominant producer we consider a liberalized electricity market divided in zones interconnected by capacitated transmission links where a large dimensional power producer operates we introduce a model for determining the optimal bidding strategies of the large dimensional producer so as to maximize his own market share while guaranteeing an annual profit target and satisfying technical constraints the model determines the optimal medium term resource scheduling and yields the hourly zonal electricity prices as it includes constraints representing the market clearing process in order to compute the global solution the complementarity conditions are formulated as mixed integer linear constraints and the revenue terms are expressed by piece wise linear functions the model can be used for analyzing the behavior of market prices in electricity markets where a large dimensional producer can exert market power it can also be used by investors as a simulation tool for evaluating both the impact on the market and the profitability of investment decisions in the zonal electricity market a case study related to the italian electricity market is discussed

a comparison of autoregressive univariate forecasting procedures for macroeconomic time series the actual performance of several automated univariate autoregressive forecasting procedures applied to 150 macroeconomic time series are compared the procedures are the random walk model as a basis for comparison long autoregressions with three alternative rules for lag length selection and a long autoregression estimated by minimizing the sum of absolute deviations the sensitivity of each procedure to preliminary transformations data periodicity forecast horizon loss function employed in parameter estimation and seasonal adjustment procedures is examined the more important conclusions are that akaike s lag length selection criterion works well in a wide variety of situations the modeling of long memory components becomes important for forecast horizons of three or more periods and linear combinations of forecasts do not improve forecast quality appreciably

agricultural land values and the value of rights to future land development we investigate the inuence of fu ture land development on current agricultural land values from a theoretical model of land markets we derive a reduced form expression for agricultural land values in terms of observable variables this result dictates the speci cation of our econometric model and we nd strong sup port for the model in an application to new york state the estimated model together with a spa tial interpolation algorithm is used to generate a surface of estimated development rights values for orange county this approach overcomes several problems that arise with the use of stan dard appraisal methods to value conservation easements jel q24

impact of deployment of renewable portfolio standard on the electricity price in the state of illinois and implications on policies abstract the renewable portfolio standard rps of the state of illinois specifies a schedule for the fraction of electricity produced from wind to be phased in through 2025 the price of electricity due to implementation of rps in order to achieve a six year payback on investment on new wind farms was estimated for six scenarios that examined the effect of electricity consumption growth rate production tax credit of 0 022 kw h or unrestricted investment tax credit of 30 and projected changes in installed project costs in all cases the electricity price was found to be dominated by the installed project cost capital cost thus any policy that affects the capital cost directly or indirectly would have a significant effect on the electricity price whereas investment tax credit has a direct effect policies that encourage technology improvement and improve transmission lines would have a similar effect of lowering the capital cost carbon tax on the other hand would increase the electricity price to the consumers although it offers other benefits

the role of public policy in optimizing renewable energy development in the greater southern appalachian mountains abstract this research presents a third component of a comprehensive decision support system for energy planning that allows for combining existing electricity generating capabilities with increased use of renewable energy sources it focuses on energy planning at the regional level and concentrates specifically on the greater southern appalachian mountains of the eastern united states a region that was chosen for analysis not only due to its heavy dependence on coal for electricity but also because of its potential for increased use of wind and solar power previous research used a geographic information system gis model for identifying renewable energy potential to provide input data for a multi objective linear programming molp model to determine the optimal constrained mix of renewable energy sources and existing fossil fuel facilities by balancing annual generation costs against the corresponding greenhouse gas emissions this new component of the system analyzes three potential public policies renewable portfolio standard carbon tax and renewable energy production tax credit that have been used to foster increased renewable energy usage these policies require minor modifications to the molp model for implementation the results of these policy cases were then analyzed to determine the impact that these policies have on generation cost and pollution emissions within the region

are renewable energy subsidies effective evidence from europe abstract we test if policy support for renewable electricity have been effective in promoting renewables in the five largest european countries in the period 2000 2010 we collect data on the exact amount of monetary incentives and the average tariffs granted the econometric analysis reveals a positive correlation between subsidies and the production of incentivized energy as well as the installed capacity we find that a 1 1c increase in the incentive tariff leads to an increase in renewable generation of 0 4 1 18 26 feed in tariffs appear to outperform tradable green certificates overall the analysis shows that these policies have been effective in promoting renewable energy both in the short and in the long run

renewable generation and electricity prices taking stock and new evidence for germany and austria abstract economic theory predicts that the increase of renewable electricity production should reduce the price of electricity in the short run which is also known as the merit order effect although the merit order effect is only one of several consequences of renewable production on the electricity system it is crucial to determine its size for the economic evaluation of renewable energies in this paper we present a comprehensive overview of relevant past research results on the price effect of renewables additionally we conduct a new empirical analysis of the price effect of renewable production for the austrian german region a market that clearly qualifies for a merit order effect analysis given its characteristics based on the review and our own analysis we show that the merit order effect varies depending on the region and the assessment method chosen we also find that the size of this effect is less dispersed throughout different markets than previously suggested by the literature

evaluating renewable portfolio standards and carbon cap scenarios in the u s electric sector this report examines the impact of renewable portfolio standards rps and cap and trade policy options on the u s electricity sector the analysis uses the national renewable energy laboratory s regional energy deployment system reeds model that simulates the least cost expansion of electricity generation capacity and transmission in the u s to examine the impact of a variety of emissions caps and rps scenarios both individually and combined the generation mix carbon emissions and electricity price are examined for various policy combinations simulated in the modeling

univariate arima forecasts of defined variables many important variables in business and economics are neither measured nor measurable but are simply defined in terms of other measured variables for instance the real interest rate is defined as the difference between the nominal interest rate and the inflation rate there are two ways to forecast a defined variable one can directly forecast the variable itself or one can derive the forecast of the defined variable indirectly from the forecasts of the constituent variables using box jenkins univariate time series analysis for four defined variables real interest rate money multiplier real gnp and money velocity the forecasting accuracy of the two methods is compared the results show that indirect forecasts tend to outperform direct methods for these defined variables

on the economics of renewable energy sources abstract with the global expansion of renewable energy re technologies the provision of optimal re policy packages becomes an important task we review pivotal aspects regarding the economics of renewables that are relevant to the design of an optimal re policy many of which are to date unresolved we do so from three interrelated perspectives that a meaningful public policy framework for inquiry must take into account first we explore different social objectives justifying the deployment of re technologies and review model based estimates of the economic potential of re technologies i e their socially optimal deployment level second we address pivotal market failures that arise in the course of implementing the economic potential of re sources in decentralized markets third we discuss multiple policy instruments curing these market failures our framework reveals the requirements for an assessment of the relevant options for real world decision makers in the field of re policies this review makes it clear that there are remaining white areas on the knowledge map concerning consistent and socially optimal re policies

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

entry growth and survival in the green industry abstractentry growth and survival in the green industry regional studies economists are interested in the factors that induce firm entry lead to growth and help firms succeed in various markets such information can be helpful to policy makers but unfortunately such patterns have not been considered for green industries this paper takes advantage of a recent definition of green industries proposed by the us bureau of labor statistics bls to investigate patterns characterizing these industries within the state of texas

the effect of local and global learning on the cost of renewable energy in developing countries high upfront costs are a critical barrier for investments in clean infrastructure technologies in developing countries this paper uses a case study of thailand s electricity sector to create realistic estimates for the relative contributions of local and global technological learning to reducing these cost in the future and discusses implications of such learnings for international climate policy for six renewable electricity technologies we derive estimates for the share of locally and globally sourced goods and services and analyze the effects of local and global learning during the implementation of thailand s renewable energy targets for 2021 our results suggest that in aggregate the largest potential for cost reduction lies in local learning this finding lends quantitative support to the argument that the conditions enabling local learning such as a skilled workforce a stable regulatory framework and the establishment of sustainable business models have a more significant impact on cost of renewable energy in developing countries than global technology learning curves the recent shift of international support under the united nations framework convention on climate change towards country specific technology support is therefore promising however our results also show that the relative importance of local and global learning differs significantly between technologies and is determined by technology and country characteristics this suggests that international support need to consider both the global perspective and local context and framework conditions in order to reap the full benefits of technological learning across the wide range of clean technologies

estimating the value of wind energy using electricity locational marginal price abstract there is an increasing interest in adding renewables such as wind to electricity generation portfolios in larger amounts as one response to concern about atmospheric carbon emissions from our energy system and the resulting climate change most policies with the aim of promoting renewables e g rps fit do not explicitly address siting issues which for wind energy are currently approached as the intersection of wind resource land control and transmission factors this work proposes the use of locational marginal price lmp the location and time specific cost of electricity on the wholesale market to signal locations where generation can address electricity system insufficiency after an examination of the spatial and temporal behavior of lmp in michigan over the first two years of wholesale market operation this work combines lmp with wind speed data to generate a value metric high value sites in michigan tend to be sites with higher wind speeds with the bulk of value accruing in the fall and winter seasons

urbanization and the viability of local agricultural economies urbanization presents both opportunities and challenges for farmers and farm supporting sectors on the urban fringe this paper examines the effects of urbanization on the viability of input suppliers and output processors and on the cost and profitability of farming an analytical model is developed to provide insights into such effects this model motivates a multiple equation empirical model that we estimate using county level panel data for california idaho oregon and washington results provide evidence that urbanization has a significant impact on agricultural infrastructure farm production costs and net farm income and suggest that agriculture related opportunities of urbanization outweigh the challenges

the merit order effect a detailed analysis of the price effect of renewable electricity generation on spot market prices in germany the german feed in support of electricity generation from renewable energy sources has led to high growth rates of the supported technologies critics state that the costs for consumers are too high an important aspect to be considered in the discussion is the price effect created by renewable electricity generation this paper seeks to analyse the impact of privileged renewable electricity generation on the electricity market in germany the central aspect to be analysed is the impact of renewable electricity generation on spot market prices the results generated by an agent based simulation platform indicate that the financial volume of the price reduction is considerable in the short run this gives rise to a distributional effect which creates savings for the demand side by reducing generator profits in the case of the year 2006 the volume of the merit order effect exceeds the volume of the net support payments for renewable electricity generation which have to be paid by consumers

amenity benefits and the optimal allocation of land agricultural land often yields sig nificant amenity benefits that may not be re flected in the prevailing allocation of land be tween agricultural and nonagricultural uses this paper introduces a simple supply demand model that incorporates these benefits in the de termination of optimal land allocation three stage least squares and county level data are used to estimate the supply and demand param eters these estimates confirm the plausibility of the conceptual model results from the con tingent valuation literature illustrate the extent of underallocation of land to agriculture due to existing institutional conditions some correc tive measures and their distributional effects are discussed and quantified jel q24

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

u s federal government subsidies for clean energy design choices and implications abstract subsidies for clean energy deployment have become a major component of u s federal energy and climate policy after a surge in spending under the american recovery and reinvestment act of 2009 they are an even larger component but now face increased scrutiny given their lasting presence how does one design these subsidies to be as cost effective as possible surprisingly the conceptual framework and empirical evidence available to help policymakers identify which subsidies generate the most bang for the buck are limited to help answer this question we begin with an overview of the justifications for and the arguments against subsidizing clean energy technologies next we briefly describe major subsidies finally we summarize key design choices suggesting an increased focus on upfront cash payments for physical outcomes such as capacity this contrasts with the considerable focus on tax credits loan guarantees production and cost based subsidies which have been more prominent to date

state level renewable electricity policies and reductions in carbon emissions abstract a wide range of renewable electricity policies has been adopted at the state level in the united states but to date there has been no large scale empirical assessment of the effect of these policies on carbon emissions such an assessment is important because scholars have pointed out that increases in renewable electricity will not necessarily lead to declines in carbon emissions we examine the effects of a range of policies across 39 states we find significant and robust decreases in carbon emissions associated with the introduction of public benefit funds a form of carbon tax adopted by 19 states to date our aim in this paper is not to provide a final judgment on these policies many of which may not have been in place long enough to show strong effects but to shift the attention of the research community away from proximate measures such as increases in clean electricity generation and onto measurement of lower carbon emissions

linear complementarity models of nash cournot competition in bilateral and poolco power markets two cournot models of imperfect competition among electricity producers are formulated as mixed linear complementarity problems lcps and a simple example is presented to illustrate their application the two models simulate bilateral markets the models include a congestion pricing scheme for transmission but other transmission pricing approaches can also be represented in this framework the two models differ from each other in that one has no arbitrage between nodes of the network while in the other model arbitragers erase any noncost based differences in price the latter bilateral model turns out to be equivalent to a cournot model of a poolco the models differ from other cournot market models in that they include both of kirchhoff s laws via a dc approximation can include arbitragers possess unique solutions and are readily solved by efficient lcp algorithms the key assumption that permits their formulation as lcps is that each producer naively assumes that its output will not affect transmission prices

wind energy deployment in the u s an empirical analysis of the role of federal and state policies abstract using a 50 state panel dataset covering the years 1990 2011 we empirically examine the effectiveness of national and state level policies that encourage wind energy deployment in the u s this study is the first to use econometric techniques to examine both the impact of the flagship federal policy the production tax credit and the influence of the production tax credit on the effectiveness of state level policies first we show that the national production tax credit alone has been effective in promoting wind energy deployment 1 4 gw per year on average in the u s second we show that production tax credit influences the effectiveness of state level policies in promoting wind deployment for example in the presence of the production tax credit mandatory green power option increases wind deployment in a state by 200 mw per year on average third we show that the array of renewable energy resources within a given state positively influences the responsiveness to state and national wind policies

imperfect price deflation in production systems numeraire prices that are measured with error create challenges for econometric estimation a straightforward approach for a model with linear input demands such as generated from a quadratic normalized profit function is proposed where the numeraire price is measured with error numeraire measurement error is likely because expected output price is measured imperfectly by actual output price an approach using generalized method of moments is developed to estimate such errors in variables systems that avoids use of extra sample data or additional structural specifications monte carlo examination of small sample properties shows promise measurement error is statistically significant using aggregate u s agricultural data

renewable energy certificate mechanism in india a preliminary assessment abstract the indian national action plan for climate change napcc envisages several measures to address global climate change one of the important measures identified involves increasing the share of renewable energy in total electricity consumption in the country this would mean napcc envisages renewable energy to constitute approximately 15 of the energy mix of india by 2020 to achieve the target set by the napcc indian ministry of power launched renewable energy certificate rec mechanism in november 2010 however participation in the rec markets is low and recs have failed to attract significant investment so far in this study a preliminary attempt has been made to assess the performance of existing rec mechanism in india after highlighting the salient features of the indian renewable energy policy framework a brief description of renewable purchase obligation rpo and source specific rpos for different states is discussed along with an overview of rec market in india to date the performance of indian rec mechanism is evaluated by cost competiveness decentralized distributed generation and renewable energy portfolio diversity and their effectiveness has also been measured on the basis of the available data although it is difficult to make any conclusive remark on the success or failure of rec mechanism due to its short experience this study examines the process to date to come out with some recommendations which can be used to fine tune the functioning of existing rec market in india for instance rec price bounds should be revised because it has been not explicitly supporting cost competiveness by offering 60 33 higher average price than the existing average feed in tariff fit it is also observed that state wise contribution in registered capacity is skewed towards few states like tamil nadu 27 maharashtra 23 and uttar pradesh 22 which puts pressure on policy makers to restructure the existing rec mechanism

market and welfare effects of renewable portfolio standards in united states electricity markets abstract this study analyzes the market and welfare effects of the introduction of renewable portfolio standards rps while considering the empirically relevant a interaction of compliance with voluntary green power markets b differences in consumer preferences and c imperfect competition among electricity suppliers the study accounts for both the supply and demand effects of rps i e increased costs and a higher consumer valuation for regular power our analysis shows that the regular power price always increases after the introduction of rps while the effect of rps on the equilibrium price of green power the quantities of regular and green power the welfare of consumers and suppliers profits is case specific and dependent on the relative magnitude of the cost and utility effects the strength of consumer preference for green power the suppliers costs before rps the impact of rps on green power costs and the degree of competition among power suppliers while the introduction of rps aims at increasing the use of green energy in electricity production our analysis shows that the introduction of the policy can end up reducing the total quantity of green power used intriguingly this adverse policy impact will occur under seemingly optimal conditions for the green power sector i e a high consumer valuation of green energy and or low cost difference between the green power and its conventional counterpart finally the analysis shows that the policy design can play a key role in determining the incidence of rps while the identification of the winners and losers of the policy can provide insights on the political economy of rps and the positions held by different groups in policy negotiations

estimating the implied cost of carbon in future scenarios using a cge model the case of colorado abstract using colorado as a case study we develop a state level computable general equilibrium cge model that reflects the roles of coal natural gas wind solar and hydroelectricity in supplying electricity we focus on the economic impact of implementing colorado s existing renewable portfolio standard updated in 2013 this requires that 25 of state generation come from qualifying renewable sources by 2020 we evaluate the policy under a variety of assumptions regarding wind integration costs and assumptions on the persistence of federal subsidies for wind specifically we estimate the implied price of carbon as the carbon price at which a state level policy would pass a state level cost benefit analysis taking account of estimated greenhouse gas emission reductions and ancillary benefits from corresponding reductions in criteria pollutants our findings suggest that without the production tax credit federal aid the state policy of mandating renewable power generation rps is costly to state actors with an implied cost of carbon of about 17 per ton of co2 with a 3 discount rate federal aid makes the decision between natural gas and wind nearly cost neutral for colorado

implementing renewable energy portfolio standards the good the bad and the ugly in a two state comparison abstract understanding how household practices with regard to energy usage change and how to most effectively encourage the adoption of technologies that utilize renewable energy sources at the residential scale are important issues for addressing the environmental impacts of energy use here the social practices model spaargaren 2003 is applied to examine solar technology adopters in two u s states who were interviewed about adopting residential solar electric technology and specifically about their experiences with the rebate and incentive programs available to them examining the policies and interrogating their potentially unintended consequences from the perspective of the user sheds light on how residential solar incentive programs act as systems of provision shaping the practices of solar technology adopters in hopes of improving these incentive programs and effectively encouraging increased residential solar technology adoption findings suggest that feed in tariffs offer additional positive outcomes related to broadening the context for adoption and encouraging future energy conservation while size restrictions wholesale pricing in net metering agreements and inconsistent policy mechanisms across utilities in the same state all have potentially unintended negative consequences utilizing a perspective attentive to social practice offers a means of improving the design and implementation of energy policy

decarbonizing europe s power sector by 2050 analyzing the economic implications of alternative decarbonization pathways abstract the european union aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 95 in 2050 compared to 1990 levels the transition towards a low carbon economy implies the almost complete decarbonization of europe s power sector which could be achieved along various pathways in this paper we evaluate the economic implications of alternative energy policies for europe s power sector by applying a linear dynamic electricity system optimization model in over 36 scenarios we find that the costs of decarbonizing europe s power sector by 2050 vary between 139 and 633 bn 2010 which corresponds to an increase of between 11 and 44 compared to the total system costs when no co2 reduction targets are implemented in line with economic theory the decarbonization of europe s power sector is achieved at minimal costs under a stand alone co2 reduction target which ensures competition between all low carbon technologies if however renewable energies are exempted from competition via supplementary renewable energy res e targets or if investments in new nuclear and ccs power plants are politically restricted the costs of decarbonization significantly rise moreover we find that the excess costs of supplementary res e targets depend on the acceptance of alternative low carbon technologies for example given a complete nuclear phase out in europe by 2050 and politically implemented restrictions on the application of ccs to conventional power plants supplementary res e targets are redundant while in such a scenario the overall costs of decarbonization are comparatively high the excess costs of supplementary res e targets are close to zero

the effects of suburbanization on agriculture this article conceptualizes the effects of suburban population density and land speculation on agricultural production choices prices and profits a dual profit function model and a system of reduced form price equations are used to estimate these effects for new jersey results show that vegetable production is the only subsector to benefit from suburbanization while livestock is the most adversely affected suburbanization reduces responsiveness to agricultural prices and discourages capital and land use the overall impact on profits is positive when capital gains on land are included policy implications for farmland preservation and right to farm legislation are discussed

the importance of the design of market based instruments for co2 mitigation an age analysis for spain in the past few decades economists have defended the use of market based instruments mbi in environmental and climate policy there have been many papers which have compared the costs of attaining environmental objectives with mbis and with command and control instruments however very few have compared different mbis in examining these costs this paper seeks to analyse various mbis for co2 mitigation from the viewpoint of cost effectiveness using an age applied general equilibrium model for the case of spain a distinction is drawn between 1 quantity instruments which represent different extents of a market for emission permits and 2 price instruments which represent different types of tax each instrument can affect different segments of the emission sources and therefore can have very different effects on the economy as a whole we show how mbi can help to minimise mitigation costs but also how taxes and tradable emission permits that are limited or constrained by many exemptions and distortions can raise costs considerably

incentives and prices in an emissions trading scheme with updating abstract emissions trading schemes where allocations are based on updated baseline emissions give firms less incentive to reduce emissions for a given quota or allowance price nevertheless according to bohringer and lange on the design of optimal grandfathering schemes for emission allowances europ econ rev 49 2005 2041 2055 such allocation schemes are cost effective if the system is closed and allocation rules are identical across firms in this paper we show that the cost effective solution may be infeasible if marginal abatement costs grow too fast moreover if a price cap or banking borrowing is introduced the abatement profile is no longer the same as in the case with an auction or lump sum allocation in addition we show that with allocation based on updated emissions the quota price will always exceed marginal abatement costs possibly misguiding policy makers and investors about abatement costs numerical simulations indicate that the quota price most likely will be several times higher than marginal abatement costs unless a significant share of allowances is auctioned

performance of wholesale electricity markets with high wind penetration abstract this paper examines the impact of progressively deeper levels of wind generation and or abatement on the performance of a wholesale market and its incumbent thermal generators with non convex unit commitment constraints comparison is made to the result that marginal cost pricing should induce investors to build the least cost capacity mix since it is not clear that this will hold in renewable rich systems it is first found that unit commitment and forecast uncertainty do not cause significant departure from this result when the generator fleet is optimal optimality in this sense is determined in a capacity expansion problem that does not feature unit commitment and which allows thermal generators to be built or retired as greater renewable generation or abatement is mandated in contrast the wholesale market with no retirement of thermal generation experiences progressively greater disparity between total system prices and costs and lower returns to generators simply due to over capacity rather than any form of variability related market failure a carbon price is observed to be far superior to a renewable portfolio standard when the existing set of thermal generators do not retire but this difference is less stark when the generation mix is optimal the implications of these results for market design and system planning are then discussed

a bilevel model for electricity retailers participation in a demand response market environment abstract demand response programmes are seen as one of the contributing solutions to the challenges posed to power systems by the large scale integration of renewable power sources mostly due to their intermittent and stochastic nature among demand response programmes real time pricing schemes for small consumers are believed to have significant potential for peak shaving and load shifting thus relieving the power system while reducing costs and risk for energy retailers this paper proposes a game theoretical model accounting for the stackelberg relationship between retailers leaders and consumers followers in a dynamic price environment both players in the game solve an economic optimisation problem subject to stochasticity in prices weather related variables and must serve load the model allows the determination of the dynamic price signal delivering maximum retailer profit and the optimal load pattern for consumers under this pricing the bilevel programme is reformulated as a single level milp which can be solved using commercial off the shelf optimisation software in an illustrative example we simulate and compare the dynamic pricing scheme with fixed and time of use pricing we find that the dynamic pricing scheme is the most effective in achieving load shifting thus reducing retailer costs for energy procurement and regulation in the wholesale market additionally the redistribution of the saved costs between retailers and consumers is investigated showing that real time pricing is less convenient than fixed and time of use price for consumers this implies that careful design of the retail market is needed finally we carry out a sensitivity analysis to analyse the effect of different levels of consumer flexibility

technological change in economic models of environmental policy a survey this paper provides an overview of the treatment of technological change in economic models of environmental policy numerous economic modeling studies have confirmed the sensitivity of mid and long run climate change mitigation cost and benefit projections to assumptions about technology costs in general technical progress is considered to be a noneconomic exogenous variable in global climate change modeling however there is overwhelming evidence that technological change is not an exogenous variable but to an important degree endogenous induced by needs and pressures hence some environmenteconomy models treat technological change as endogenous responding to socio economic variables three main elements in models of technological innovation are i corporate investment in research and development ii spillovers from r d and iii technology learning especially learning by doing the incorporation of induced technological change in different types of environmental economic models tends to reduce the costs of environmental policy accelerates abatement and may lead to positive spillover and negative leakage

trendy solutions why do states adopt sustainable energy portfolio standards abstract thirty four states had adopted sustainable energy portfolio standards seps or similar goals by the end of 2008 with 14 adoptions since 2006 there appears to be something trendy about seps and states may adopt seps when internal variables would indicate otherwise this analysis extends the current discussion of seps adoption beyond internal variables relying on innovation and diffusion theory logistic regression with seps adoption as the dependent variable is used to test internal determinants and diffusion measures for the years 1997 2008 of the internal determinants variables affluence and government ideology were found to be positive and significant the results show that regional and neighbor diffusion variables are significant in seps adoption decisions even when accounting for ideological distance from previous adopters

the policy implications of the different interpretations of the cost effectiveness of renewable electricity support abstract the cost effectiveness of support for renewable electricity is a main criterion to assess the success of policy instruments together with effectiveness the costs of support are also a source of significant concern for governments all over the world however significant confusion exists in the literature on the cost effectiveness of public support for renewable electricity while some authors define the concept of cost effectiveness as that which complies with the equimarginality principle many others including documents from relevant organisations european commission international energy agency intergovernmental panel on climate change define it as the lowest costs of support generally equating it with the minimisation of consumer costs the aim of this paper is to clarify the differences between both approaches and their policy implications regarding the choice of instruments and design elements it is shown that they partly overlap and that their policy implications clearly differ leading to very different policy prescriptions while the former favours technology neutral instruments and design elements the minimisation of consumer costs approach favours instruments and design elements which adjust support levels to the costs of the technologies

state renewable energy electricity policies an empirical evaluation of effectiveness over the past decade state governments have emerged as us energy policy leaders across the country states are adopting policy instruments aimed at carbon mitigation and renewable energy deployment one of the most prevalent and innovative policy instruments is a renewable portfolio standard rps which seeks to increase the share of renewable energy electrification in the electricity market this analysis evaluates the effectiveness of state energy programs with an empirical investigation of the linkage between state rps policy implementation and the percentage of renewable energy electricity generation across states we use a variant of a standard fixed effects model referred to as a fixed effects vector decomposition with state level data from 1998 to 2006 results indicate that rps implementation is not a significant predictor of the percentage of renewable energy generation out of the total generation mix yet for each additional year that a state has an rps policy they are found to increase the total amount of renewable energy generation these findings reveal a potentially significant shortcoming of rps policies political institutions natural resource endowments deregulation gross state product per capita electricity use per person electricity price and the presence of regional rps policies are also found to be significantly related to renewable energy deployment

dynamics of a rural land market experiencing farmland conversion to acreages the case of saunders county nebraska this study analyzes an urban influenced real estate market that is experiencing land use transitions evaluating a three year period of unimproved real estate sales in saunders county nebraska has identified components that contribute to farmland values applying these components illustrates that buyers having special motivations often pay premiums to obtain agricultural land a model based on farmland productivity determines a crossover point where it becomes economically justifiable to convert farmland into acreage tracts illustrating productivity levels where concerns over development hold merit areas experiencing farmland development will obtain valuable information for land use and planning decisions from applying this research

cost benefit analysis of various california renewable portfolio standard targets is a 33 rps optimal abstract renewable portfolio standards rpss require a certain fraction of the electricity generated for a given region be produced from renewable resources california s rps mandates that by 2020 33 of the electricity sold in the state must be generated from renewables such mandates have important implications for the electricity sector as well as for the whole society in this paper we estimate the costs and benefits of varying 2020 california rps targets on electricity prices greenhouse gas ghg emissions criteria pollutant emissions the electricity generation mix the labor market renewable investment decisions and social welfare we have extended the rps calculator model developed by energy and environmental economics e3 inc to account for distributions of fuel and generation costs to incorporate demand functions and to estimate the effects of rps targets on ghg emissions criteria pollutant emissions and employment the results of our modeling provide the following policy insights 1 the average 2020 electricity price increases as the rps target rises with values ranging between 0 152 and 0 175 kw h 2008 dollars for the 20 rps to 50 rps respectively 2 the 33 and 50 rps targets decrease the ghg emissions by about 17 6 and 35 8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent mmtco2e relative to the 20 rps 3 the ghg emission reduction costs of the rps options are high 71 94 per ton relative to results from policy options other than rps or prices that are common in the carbon markets and 4 a lower target e g a 27 rps provides higher social welfare than the 33 rps mandate under low and moderate co2 social costs lower than 35 ton while a higher rps target e g 50 is more beneficial when using high co2 social costs or rapid renewable technology diffusion however under all studied scenarios the mandated 33 rps for california would not provide the best cost benefit values among the possible targets and would not maximize the net social benefit objective

consequences of a carbon tax on household electricity use and cost carbon emissions and economics of household solar and wind abstract the study was conducted to determine the consequences of a carbon tax equal to an estimated social cost of carbon of 37 2 mg on household electricity cost and to determine if a carbon tax would be sufficient to incentivize households to install either a grid tied solar or wind system u s department of energy hourly residential profiles for five locations 20 years of hourly weather data prevailing electricity pricing rate schedules and purchase prices and solar panel and wind turbine power output response functions were used to address the objectives two commercially available household solar panels 4 kw 12 kw two wind turbines 6 kw 12 kw and two price rate structures traditional meter smart meter were considered averaged across the five households the carbon tax is expected to reduce annual consumption by 4 4 552 kwh year for traditional meter households and by 4 9 611 kwh year for households charged smart meter rates the carbon tax increases electricity cost by 19 202 year for a household cost of 202 year the carbon tax is expected to reduce social costs by 11 annual carbon tax collections of 234 household are expected adding the carbon tax was found to be insufficient to incentivize households to install either a solar panel or wind turbine system installation of a 4 kw solar system would increase the annual cost by 1546 247 and decrease co 2 emissions by 38 2526 kg valued at 94 household the consequence of a carbon tax would depend largely on how the proceeds of the tax are used

an analytical approach to activating demand elasticity with a demand response mechanism abstract the aim of this work is to demonstrate analytically the conditions under which activating the elasticity of consumer demand could benefit social welfare we have developed an analytical equilibrium model to quantify the effect of deploying demand response on social welfare and energy trade the novelty of this research is that it demonstrates the existence of an optimal area for the price signal in which demand response enhances social welfare this optimal area is negatively correlated to the degree of competitiveness of generation technologies and the market size of the system in particular it should be noted that the value of unserved energy or energy reduction which the producers could lose from such a demand response scheme would limit its effectiveness this constraint is even greater if energy trade between countries is limited finally we have demonstrated scope for more aggressive demand response when only considering the impact in terms of consumer surplus

what is the cost of a renewable energy based approach to greenhouse gas mitigation energy policies for greenhouse gas ghg mitigation in the united states have set sector specific standards such as the renewable fuel standard rfs and the renewable portfolio standard rps for the transportation and the electricity sectors respectively this paper examines the welfare costs and effectiveness of ghg abatement with these policies and compares them with those under a carbon tax normalized to achieve the same level of abatement over the 2007 2030 period we show that the global welfare cost per ton of ghg abatement with the rfs and rps is 171 while with the carbon tax it is 7

renewable energy sources in the spanish electricity market instruments and effects the implementation of directive 2001 77 ec on the promotion of electricity produced from renewable sources sets a target of 22 1 of electricity consumption in the eu in 2010 and establishes various mechanisms that member countries may adopt depending on their needs this paper analyses these mechanisms their implementation in spain by means of rd 661 2007 and the degree of fulfilment of objectives it concludes with an analysis of the effectiveness of the mechanisms adopted and recommendations on market design

fiscal federalism and interjurisdictional externalities new results and an application to us air pollution abstract the economics of fiscal federalism has identified two book end departures from first best provision of a public good local governments may respond to local conditions but ignore inter jurisdictional spillovers alternatively central governments may internalize spillovers but impose uniform incentives ignoring local heterogeneity we provide a simple model that demonstrates that the choice of pricing policy also depends crucially on a third factor the shape of marginal costs of providing the public good if marginal costs are convex then marginal abatement cost elasticities will be higher around the local policies this increases the deadweight loss of those policies relative to the centralized policy ceteris paribus if they are concave then the opposite is true using a detailed simulation model of the us electricity sector we then empirically explore these tradeoffs for us air pollution we find that us states acting in their own interest lose about 31 5 of the potential first best benefits whereas the second best uniform policy loses only 0 2 of benefits the centralized policy outperforms the state policy for two reasons first inter state spillovers are simply more important that inter state heterogeneity in this application second because of the convexity of the marginal cost functions elasticities are much lower over the range relevant to the centralized policy dampening the distortions

implementing the eu renewable target through green certificate markets abstract the european parliament has agreed on a target of a 20 share of renewables in the eu s total energy consumption by 2020 to achieve the target the european council has adopted mandatory differentiated national targets for each of the member states in this paper we consider the use of green certificates to reach the renewable targets and we analyze the potential for cost reductions by allowing for trade in green certificates across member states we show that differentiated national targets cannot ensure a cost effective implementation of the overall target for the eu s renewable energy consumption trade in green certificates can ensure a cost effective distribution of renewable energy production but the national targets prevent a cost effective distribution of energy consumption nevertheless our numerical model indicates that eu wide trade in green certificates may cut the eu s total cost of fulfilling the renewable target by as much as 70 compared with a situation with no trade however the design of green certificate markets may have a large impact on the distribution of costs across countries

an equilibrium market power model for power markets and tradable green certificates including kirchhoff s laws and nash cournot competition abstract we investigate the economic impacts of introducing tradable green certificates to promote electricity produced from renewable energy sources we formulate a mixed complementarity multi region partial equilibrium model clearing both the electricity and green certificate markets under the assumption of nash cournot market competition we introduce a mixed complementarity formulation of the tradable green certificate policy scheme the main contribution of this paper is to combine a public support scheme for electricity production with a power market model in which strategic generators compete and exercise market power in a capacitated transmission network with spatial energy exchange any policy instrument interfering with the free market solution in a partial equilibrium model will reduce social welfare as a result of deadweight losses from the policy these welfare losses may be substantial we show that losses from tradable green certificates influence different market actors depending on the market conditions but existing firms are likely to bear most of these losses in markets with cournot competition where producers act strategically green certificates help to increase market competition if new firms are able to enter the market existing firms will not be motivated to compete with new generation capacity the consumer surplus from introducing tradable green certificates under cournot competition may increase despite the deadweight losses the policy incurs

supply demand and technology in a multiproduct industry texas field crops the purpose of this paper is to examine the structure of agricultural production for six texas field crops cotton grain sorghum wheat corn rice and hay which account for nearly 95 of recent field crop value specific objectives are to a test the structure of technology to determine i if output and input utilization choices for individual products are independent of production decisions about other outputs and ii if products and or inputs can be consistently aggregated b estimate a coherent set of interrelated supply functions for the six commodities and input demand functions for fertilizer and hired labor because the empirical focus of this paper is specific to one state the results will be of limited value for interpreting specific production relationships elsewhere however the problem is of common interest in production agriculture and the techniques used demonstrate an important application of dual modeling

commitment versus discretion in climate and energy policy to decarbonize the power sector policy makers need to commit to long term credible rules for climate and energy policy otherwise risk of opportunistic policy making will impair investments into low carbon technologies however the future benefits and costs of decarbonization are subject to substantial uncertainties thus there may also be societal gains from allowing policy makers the discretion to adjust the policies as new information becomes available we examine how this trade off between policy commitment either unconditional or state contingent and discretion affects the optimal intertemporal design of market based instruments in the power sector using a dynamic partial equilibrium model we show that commitment to a state contingent level of ambition for the market based instrument leads to higher welfare than both unconditional commitment and discretion with benefit uncertainty the choice between the practically more feasible approaches of unconditional commitment and discretion is analytically ambiguous a basic numerical illustration suggests that policy discretion may outperform unconditional commitment in terms of welfare however this result is reversed when only a limited fraction of benefit uncertainty resolves in reasonable time when future policy makers have own agendas or when investors are risk averse with cost uncertainty policy discretion is welfare superior if the government can commit to a technology deployment target

climate policy and power producers the distribution of pain and gain abstract climate policies do not affect all power producers equally in this paper we evaluate the supply side distributional consequences of emissions reduction policies using a simple and novel partial equilibrium model where production takes place in technology specific sites in a quantitative application hydro wind and solar firms generate power combining capital and sites which differ in productivity in contrast the productivity levels of coal gas and nuclear technologies are constant across sites we parameterise the model to analyse the effects of stylised tax and subsidy schemes carbon pricing outperforms all other instruments and crucially leads to more equitable outcomes on the supply side technology specific and uniform subsidies to carbon free producers result in a greater welfare cost and their supply side distributional impacts depend on how they are financed power consumption taxes have exceptionally high welfare costs and should not be the instrument of choice to reduce emissions or to finance subsidies aiming to reduce emissions

renewable energy sources their global potential for the first half of the 21st century at a global level an integrated approach abstract the risk of human induced climate change and the volatility of world oil markets make non fossil fuel options important this paper investigates the potential for wind solar pv and biomass wsb to deliver energy the focus is on land opportunities and constraints and on production costs as a function of resource availability and depletion and of innovation dynamics the context is provided by the ipcc sres scenarios as simulated with the image 2 2 model we explicitly consider several sources of uncertainty aspects of the food vs energy trade off and the effects of interaction between the three options through their claims on land we show that potential production concepts are strongly dependent on the chosen land use scenario and should therefore be used with an indication of the underlying assumptions our results indicate a potential for liquid biofuels in the order of 75 300 ej year 1 and for electricity from wsb options at production costs below 10 kwh 1 of 200 300 pwh year 1 theoretically future electricity demand can be amply met from wsb sources in most regions by 2050 below 10 kwh 1 but major uncertainties are the degree to which land is actually available and the rate and extent at which specific investment costs can be reduced in some regions competition for land among the three wsb options may significantly reduce the total potential as estimated from simple addition which is another source of uncertainty

electricity price increase in texas what is the role of rps over the last two decades more than half of the states in the united states have adopted a renewable portfolio standard rps while vital environmental goals underlie the rationale for rps there is a rising concern that the policy may lead to increased electricity prices using the synthetic control method we conduct a comparative case study of texas an early adopter of rps and arguably a success story our statistical tests find no evidence that rps was a contributing factor in texas s electricity price increase

do economic instruments matter wind turbine investments in the eu 15 abstract this paper analyses how governments in the eu 15 countries have succeeded in stimulating investments in wind turbines between 1985 and 2005 i use four different evaluation criteria tobin s q euler equation estimation investment accelerator model and the effective marginal tax rate to describe the observed investment patterns after a period of rapid growth in capital stock 1985 2000 a period of modest growth 2001 2005 can be observed even though the economic attractiveness of investing increases modestly this pattern cannot be explained by the evaluation criteria unless we accept economic attractiveness is a necessary condition and not a necessary and sufficient condition when analysing which policy has worked best the policies of germany denmark and spain stand out their early and consistent support has been based on feed in tariffs combined with subsidies

emissions reductions or green booms general equilibrium effects of a renewable portfolio standard renewable portfolio standards rps are commonly promoted as a policy tool to reduce emissions associated with fossil generation while also stimulating development of local renewable resource endowments we develop a general equilibrium model of an rps policy that captures key features such as a fixed factor renewable endowment substitution across sectors of the economy and endogenous price responses we analytically decompose the effects of an rps into a a substitution effect b an output tax effect and c an output effect we show that an increase in the rps can either deliver large resource booms or large emissions savings but not both our framework can translate different renewable resource endowments and pre existing standards across states into economic and environmental impacts to inform current renewable energy and climate policies

the effect of environmental policies on risk reductions in energy generation abstract we demonstrate that environmental policies can decrease the risks in energy generation for private investors when several renewable technologies are simultaneously triggered this is because diverse renewable technologies can hedge the intermittent generation of other forms of renewable power our study is distinct from previous literature which has not examined environmental policies through a risk reduction analysis or has only considered a few technologies such as wind and solar when analyzing risk reduction benefits this paper is important as environmental policies can be justified not only due to environmental benefits but also economically from a risk reduction perspective by using basic diversification gains

the structure of u s agricultural technology 1910 78 this paper utilizes 1910 78 time series data and a single product aggregate translog profit function to measure the structure of u s agricultural technology duality relations are used to devise a multifactor measure of biased technical change a measure of nonhomotheticity is introduced which indicates the effects scale change has had on aggregate cost shares the empirical analysis finds that different nonhomothetic technologies characterized the prewar and postwar periods differing technical change biases are consistent with relative price trends during the two periods showing that the long run structure of u s agricultural technology has been consistent with the hayami ruttan induced innovation theory

complementarity and substitutability a review of state level renewable energy policy instrument interactions abstract this paper provides an extensive review of two streams of literature the first part of the review focuses on policy tools and their interrelationships and the second part focuses on the literature on the state renewable energy policy tools based on the reviews this paper investigates how policymakers choose a set of interrelated renewable energy policy instruments and identify under what conditions policy instruments complement or substitute we extend the political market framework by examining the influences of 1 administrative agencies on the supply side 2 interest groups on the demand side and 3 the policy induced problem situation changes on the adoption of state renewable energy policy tools building upon reviews of both policy tools and policy diffusion theories a set of hypotheses are advanced for state renewable energy policy interactions among public benefit fund pbf renewable portfolio standards rps and corporate tax incentive cti the hypotheses are tested by three event history models in which rps pbf and cti serve as dependent variables separately the complementary effects between previous use of rps and adoption of pbf between previous use of pbf and adoption of rps and between previous use of cti and adoption of rps are confirmed we also find support for the policy substitutability between previous use of cti and adoption of pbf

location matters the impact of renewable power on transmission congestion and emissions abstract many governments offer subsidies for renewable power to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the power sector however most support schemes for renewable power do not take into account that emissions depend on the location of renewable and conventional power plants within an electricity grid i simulate optimal power flow in a test grid when 4 renewable power plants connect to the grid across 24 potential sites amounting to over 10 000 configurations each configuration is associated with different levels of emissions and renewable power output i find that emission reductions vary by a factor of 7 and that curtailment due to transmission congestion is more likely when renewable power plants are concentrated in an area of the grid with low demand large cost savings could be obtained by allowing subsidies for renewable power to vary across locations according to abatement potential or by replacing subsidies with a price on emissions

clean energy revisiting the challenges of industrial policy abstract large public investments in clean energy technology arguably constitute an industrial policy one rationale points to market failures that have not been corrected by other policies most notably greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on oil another inspiration for clean energy policy reflects economic arguments of the 1980s it suggests strategic government investments would increase u s firms market share of a growing industry and thus help american firms and workers this paper examines the reasoning for clean energy policy and concludes that while a case can be made that subsidizing clean energy might help address market failures the case may be narrower than some assert and turning theory into sound practice is no simple feat an appropriate price on greenhouse gases is an essential precondition to ensuring efficient incentives to develop and deploy cost effective emissions abating technologies however efficient prices alone are unlikely to generate efficient levels of basic research and development by private firms government investments in clean energy are unlikely to produce net increases in employment in the long run in part because pushing home grown technologies at taxpayers expense offers no guarantee that the eventual products ultimately would not be manufactured somewhere else spending on clean energy technologies is not well suited to fiscal stimulus the authors recommend that federal energy spending should invest in technologies with the lowest expected cost of abatement and highest probability of market penetration funding decisions ought to be insulated as much as possible from rent seeking by interest groups purely political distortions and the parochial preferences of legislators

does california s co2 price affect wholesale electricity prices in the western u s a abstract using a sample of daily market data we quantify the effect of california s co 2 cap and trade program on the wholesale electricity prices of four interconnected market hubs in the western u s a north of path 15 np15 and south of path 15 sp15 in california mid columbia mid c in the pacific northwest and palo verde pv in the desert southwest a 1 metric ton increase in california s co 2 price is estimated to have increased the electricity prices by 0 41 mwh p value p value p value 0 0056 for mid c and 0 15 mwh p value 0 0925 for pv these estimates reflect a the np15 and sp15 sellers pricing behavior of fully including the co 2 price in their intra state transactions b the mid c price s 100 pass through of the co 2 price in the pacific northwest s hydro export to california and c the statutory obligation of paying the co 2 emissions cost by california s buyers of the electricity imported from the desert southwest the policy implication is that internalization of co 2 s externality in the western u s a requires a cap and trade program with a regional scope that encompasses all four hubs thereby remedying the california program s limited geographic coverage which introduces distortions in neighboring markets

enhancing public acceptance of renewable heat obligation policies in south korea consumer preferences and policy implications abstract renewable heat obligation rho policies have continued to attract global attention and the south korean government plans to start enforcing these policies in 2016 to ensure the effectiveness of rho policies various preferences of stakeholders including end users should be considered in policy development because their benefits and costs can vary according to their level of obligation a choice experiment was conducted to analyze the preferences of end users for two types of rho policies one aimed at heat suppliers and the other at building owners the results indicate the necessity to focus on costs when designing rho policies because this element was the most important factor influencing the public s acceptance of these policies and suggest that for rho policies aimed at heat suppliers the government should convince end users of the stability of the heat supply a factor considered to be important by consumers finally the minimum level of the subsidy required to gain public approval of both types of rho was examined the annual government subsidies for the rho for heating suppliers is expected to be krw 330 billion which can be covered by collecting taxes from those consumers not subject to these obligations the results for rhos for building owners indicate krw 900 billion to 1 8 trillion as the amount of subsidy spending required of the government