Renewable energy consumption and unemployment: evidence from a sample of 80 countries and nonlinear estimates

This article contributes to the discussion on the dynamic nexus of renewable energy consumption and unemployment by incorporating nonlinear cointegration and causality analysis. Using a sample of 80 countries spanning the period 1990–2013 and the advanced generation of unit root, cointegration and nonlinear Granger causality methodological approaches in panel data, we obtain mixed results about the impact of renewable energy consumption on unemployment. Although the total findings document a positive impact of renewable energy consumption on unemployment, disaggregated data across specific regions, such as Asia and Latin America, highlight the favourable effect on unemployment, implying that the effect of renewable energy consumption on jobs creation depends on the cost of adopting renewable energy technologies and energy efficiencies that seem to vary across the regions under investigation.     

Renewable energy and unemployment: A general equilibrium analysis

Using a three-sector general equilibrium model, the impact of renewable electricity support policies on the rate of equilibrium unemployment is analyzed. In a simple two-factor version of the model, the paper shows analytically that renewable electricity support policies lead to an increase in the rate of unemployment. A numerical analysis is conducted with an expanded three-factor model. In this version, most scenarios analyzed also lead to an increase in equilibrium unemployment. However, the paper identifies conditions in which renewable energy support policies can decrease the rate of equilibrium unemployment. In particular, when the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor is low, when capital is not mobile internationally, and when the labor intensity of renewable generation is high relative to conventional generation, renewable electricity support policies may reduce the rate of equilibrium unemployment. The model is parameterized to represent the US economy, such that the magnitudes of quantities can be observed. Although there is some variation in the results depending on parameters, the findings suggest in general that reducing electricity sector emissions by 10% through renewable electricity support policies is likely to increase the equilibrium unemployment rate by about 0.1–0.3 percentage points.     

Renewable energy and unemployment: A general equilibrium analysis

Using a three-sector general equilibrium model, the impact of renewable electricity support policies on the rate of equilibrium unemployment is analyzed. In a simple two-factor version of the model, the paper shows analytically that renewable electricity support policies lead to an increase in the rate of unemployment. A numerical analysis is conducted with an expanded three-factor model. In this version, most scenarios analyzed also lead to an increase in equilibrium unemployment. However, the paper identifies conditions in which renewable energy support policies can decrease the rate of equilibrium unemployment. In particular, when the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor is low, when capital is not mobile internationally, and when the labor intensity of renewable generation is high relative to conventional generation, renewable electricity support policies may reduce the rate of equilibrium unemployment. The model is parameterized to represent the US economy, such that the magnitudes of quantities can be observed. Although there is some variation in the results depending on parameters, the findings suggest in general that reducing electricity sector emissions by 10% through renewable electricity support policies is likely to increase the equilibrium unemployment rate by about 0.1–0.3 percentage points.     

Income inequality,unemployment, and poverty in Nigeria: a vector autoregressive approach

The main features of poverty are low levels of consumption and income, a fact‐of‐life in most African countries. This paper analyzes the fundamental trends of per capita income, government capital expenditure, the human development index, and the rate of unemployment in the Nigeria. A vector autoregressive model finds that: A reduced unemployment rate improves human development and consequently reduces poverty. As growth in public capital expenditure rises, unemployment falls and the human development index improves. Therefore, infrastructure‐based policies, which initially reduce unemployment, will also improve the living conditions of Nigerians in the end.     

经济政策主要变量对控制中国失业率有效性的实证检验

随着中国经济的增长,失业率却一直居高不下,因此国家采取各种手段进行宏观调控。在回顾各种经济学派对失业理论研究的基础上,着眼于经济政策对控制失业率是否有效,在简要分析货币政策和财政政策对失业率影响的基础上,选取1991—2011年中国城镇登记失业率、货币发行量以及财政支出,通过对三者进行单位根检验和Johansen协整检验,得到三者存在唯一的协整关系,并建立误差修正模型,得出货币发行量对失业率影响较大并且较稳定的结论,并通过格兰杰因果检验,得出货币发行量和财政支出与失业率之间都不存在因果关系,最后在实证研究的基础上对当前中国如何控制失业率提出相应的对策。     

A general equilibrium analysis of production subsidy in a Harris-Todaro developing economy: an application to India

Since 1950s India has advocated import substituting industrialization policies to promote its manufacturing sector. The end result was creation of a dual economy: highly favored manufacturing sector with high and rigid wages and neglected agricultural sector with low wages and poverty. Because of the higher wages in the manufacturing sector, the rural laborers migrate to the urban sector, a typical characteristic of the Harris-Todaro developing economy. Realizing this crisis, the Indian government recently initiated policies to boost agricultural production to curb the labor migration and improve the welfare of the rural population. In this study, we develop a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model for India by incorporating Harris-Todaro economic characteristics of unemployment, labor migration, farm dependant population, and labor-intensive agriculture. We use the model to analyze the effects of agricultural production subsidy policies on employment, factor price, output price, output levels, and welfare in agricultural and manufacturing sectors. Our findings show that agricultural production subsidy increases agricultural production, reduces unemployment, raises the wage rate in the agriculture sector, augments the consumption among the rural and urban households, and increases the rental rate for capital in agricultural sector.     

Is energy consumption effective to spur economic growth in Pakistan? New evidence from bounds test to level relationships and Granger causality tests

The present study investigates the relationship between energy (renewable and nonrenewable) consumption and economic growth using Cobb–Douglas production function in case of Pakistan over the period of 1972–2011. We have used the ARDL bounds testing and Gregory and Hansen (1990) structural break cointegration approaches for long run while stationarity properties of the variables have been tested applying Clemente-Montanes-Reyes (1998) structural break unit root test.Our results confirm cointegration between renewable energy consumption, nonrenewable energy consumption, economic growth, capital and labor in case of Pakistan. The findings show that both renewable and nonrenewable energy consumption add in economic growth. Capital and labor are also important determinants of economic growth. The VECM Granger causality analysis validates the existence of feedback hypotheses between renewable energy consumption and economic growth, nonrenewable energy consumption and economic growth, economic growth and capital.     

Does urbanization increase pollutant emission and energy intensity? evidence from some Asian developing economies

This paper aims to investigate the effects of urbanization on pollutant emissions and energy intensity in selected Asian developing countries after controlling for the effects of disaggregated (renewable and non-renewable) energy consumption, trade liberalization, and economic growth. We use both linear and nonlinear panel data econometric techniques and employ recently introduced mean group estimation methods, allowing for heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. However, to check the robustness of our panel results, we also apply the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL)-bound testing approach to country-level data. In addition, the relationship between affluence and CO₂ emissions is examined in the context of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. The estimation results identify the population, affluence, and non-renewable energy consumption as major factors in pollutant emissions in Asian countries. However, the results of the EKC hypothesis show that when countries achieve a certain level of economic growth, their emissions tend to decline. Whereas nonlinear results show that renewable energy, urbanization, and trade liberalization reduce emissions, linear estimations do not confirm these outcomes. Thus, substitution of non-renewable for renewable energy consumption, cautious and planned urbanization programs and more liberal trading regimes may be viable options for sustainable growth of these developing Asian economies.     

Deriving natural rates of unemployment for sub-national regions: the case of Canadian provinces

In order to pursue informed stabilization policies, it is vital for policy-markers to have estimates of how much of the total unemployment rate can be classified as cyclical rather than natural unemployment. This paper describes a method for generating regional natural-rate estimates and applies this method to the case of Canadian provinces. Results indicate that unemployment insurance generosity and relative minimum wages play an important role in determining natural unemployment rates in Canadian provinces. One of the enduring characteristics of the Canadian labour market has been substantial and peresistent unemployment rate disparities across provinces. The results of this study indicate that these disparities are primarily explained by differences in provincial values of structural variables such as unemployment generosity and by differences in provincial sensitivities to these structural variables. A furher result is that variation in cyclical unemployment rates is substantially less in the traditionally high unemployment region of Atlantic Canada than it is in the traditionally low unemployment province of Ontario. This result implies that the most appropriate policies to reduce unemployment in Atlantic Canada are not regionally-applied expenditure policies but rather policies designed to reduce structural distortions in the provincial labour markets.     

中国可再生能源消费、经济增长与碳排放的动态关系

通过协整检验、脉冲响应分析和方差分解,对1980—2009年中国的可再生能源消费、碳排放量与经济增长之间的动态关系、冲击效应和贡献度进行了分析。研究结果显示:可再生能源消费、经济增长与碳排放之间存在长期、稳定的协整关系;经济增长受其他变量的冲击均表现为正效应;可再生能源消费的冲击对碳排放的影响微弱,而经济增长的冲击影响较强而持续,且前期波动剧烈但后期平稳;受碳排放的影响,可再生能源消费的累积冲击效应为负,而且正负冲击效应交替出现。     

US Fiscal Policy,Manufacturing Stagnation,and the Shift to Financialization in the Era of Globalization: An Econometric Analysis, 1973–2015

ABSTRACT

Financialization can be partially attributed to the decline in the US manufacturing profit rate since the 1970s. However, scholars have not reached a consensus regarding the factors responsible for stagnation in manufacturing. This paper employs an Auto-regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model to test the impact of both national defense and government consumption expenditure on manufacturing profitability in the United States from 1973, the onset of stagnation, to 2015. Its goal is two-fold: to determine whether stagnation is associated with a decline in Keynesian policies, and to examine the potential for state fiscal programs to reverse this trend and facilitate a shift of private investment away from the financial sector and into manufacturing. The paper finds that the impact of government consumption expenditure on the manufacturing profit rate is positive and significant in both the short-term and long-term (from 1973–2015 and 1973–1993), while the long-term impact becomes negative from 1983 to 2015, when the financial sector profit rate began its upward trend. This casts doubt on whether Keynesian fiscal policies could be employed to restore a healthy profit rate in the manufacturing sector and lower unemployment.     

中国碳减排目标的可达性:能源政策与经济发展

2009年11月,中国国务院宣布到2020年,在2005年的基础之上将碳排放强度,即单位GDP二氧化碳排放量降低40%～45%。这一目标能否达成对于中国以及全球抵御气候变化都将产生深刻影响。分析我国能源消耗和经济发展的历史和现状,系统梳理到目前为止我国所制定和实施的能源政策,并结合情景分析预测了我国能否达到既定的碳排放强度削减目标。结果表明,我国实现减排目标是乐观的,但仍需要有针对性的政策导向。最后根据以上分析,对我国下一阶段的能源消耗和经济发展政策提出了相应建议,即加大科技支出,继续淘汰落后产能,推动先进生产技术应用;加大产业结构调整力度,大力发展第三产业;推动能源价格市场化进程。     

Dynamics of Macroeconomic Adjustment with Growth: Some Simulation Results *

This paper examines the impact of several macroeconomic policies, both demand and supply management policies, on economic activity within a small macroeconomic simulation model. The model is based on a standard analytical framework that underlies adjustment policies in developing economies (Des). The standard approach has been to use aggregate government expenditure as an instrument of fiscal policy to shock economic activity in a DE, with a negative dynamic response typically observed. In the context of such a small macroeconomic simulation model we decompose government expenditure into consumption and investment expenditure. Simulation exercises with and without model-consistent expectations throw up some contrasting results in the sense that fiscal policy can influence output positively through the effects of public sector investment on private investment in a DE such as India. [F43, E62]     

搜索、政府花费和失业

本文在将搜索理论和经典的经济增长理论结合的基础上引入生产性政府花费,讨论了政府花费对就业和消费的影响。利用最一般的生产和效用函数,证明了均衡状态存在的唯一性。当失业工人和空闲职位的匹配是有效时,表示经济系统的四维动力系统存在一个稳定的二维流形。     

可再生能源的技术创新障碍与激励政策建议

发展可再生能源具有重要的战略意义与现实的经济意义,但可再生能源在我国仍处于幼稚产业阶段,推进可再生能源的创新面临着诸多障碍。分析了这些障碍的类型,包括路径依赖障碍、市场门槛障碍和技术性障碍等,并从创新政策的角度提出改进的建议。     

Considering Aquacultural Externality in Coastal Land Allocation Decisions in India

Commercial aquaculture in India has come under attack for having caused negative agricultural and environmental impacts. This paper formulates an interactive model of non-renewable and renewable resources to characterize land allocations between aquaculture and agriculture in ecologically and economically sustainable fashion. Through an empirical application, various economic and policy circumstances that affect the optimal land allocation mix are evaluated. The aquaculture industry must address two economic effects: off-site negative effects on renewable food and other coastal resources, and on-site self-pollution of shrimp ponds. Current regulatory and land-use policies are inadequate to address these effects.     

财政支出结构扭曲与居民消费——基于中国省级面板数据的实证研究

基于1997-2009年省级面板数据,分别从总量和结构两个角度对财政支出与居民消费的关系进行了经验分析。结果表明：第一,从总量角度出发,地方财政支出对居民消费具有挤入作用,说明财政支出的规模较为合理;第二,从结构角度出发,地方财政支出对居民消费具有较大的挤出作用,说明财政支出的结构严重扭曲;第三,各类财政支出对居民消费产生了不同效应,经济建设支出、民生支出和行政管理支出对居民消费具有挤出效应,科技支出与财政支农支出对居民消费具有挤入效应。     

Renewable energy subsidies: Second-best policy or fatal aberration for mitigation?

This paper evaluates the consequences of renewable energy policies on welfare and energy prices in a world where carbon pricing is imperfect and the regulator seeks to limit emissions to a (cumulative) target. The imperfectness of the carbon price is motivated by political concerns regarding distributional effects of increased energy prices. Hence, carbon prices are considered to be temporarily or permanently absent or endogenously constrained by their effect on energy prices. We use a global general equilibrium model with an intertemporal fossil resource sector and calculate intertemporally optimal policies from a broad set of policy instruments including carbon taxes, renewable energy subsidies and feed-in-tariffs, among others. If carbon pricing is permanently missing, mitigation costs increase by a multiple (compared to the optimal carbon pricing policy) for a wide range of parameters describing extraction costs, renewable energy costs, substitution possibilities and normative attitudes. Furthermore, we show that small deviations from the second-best subsidy can lead to strong increases in emissions and consumption losses. This confirms the rising concerns about the occurrence of unintended side effects of climate policy – a new version of the green paradox. Smart combinations of carbon prices and renewable energy subsidies, however, can achieve ambitious mitigation targets at moderate additional costs without leading to high energy price increases.     

What does MENA region initially need: Grow output or mitigate CO2 emissions?

We contribute to the economic growth–CO₂ emissions literature in the MENA region by focusing on both production and environmental functions. Adopting an original analytical framework, our empirical investigation parallels two approaches. The first one follows the studies by Lean and Smyth (2010a) and Sadorsky (2012) which examine the dynamic interaction of energy consumption and trade openness using production function. The second one extends the recent works by Halicioglu (2009), Jalil and Mahmud (2009), and Jayanthakumaran et al. (2012) which attempt to introduce energy consumption and trade openness in the environmental function as a solution to circumvent omitted variable bias. Our findings suggest that MENA countries should adopt policies to control the increase of pollution as well as to stabilize the productivity growth. One of these policies is to increase the share of renewable energy relative to non-renewable energy sources.     

低碳经济下的中国可再生能源产业发展对策探析

基于"低碳经济"发展的本质要求,减少对化石等高碳型能源的需求,增加对可再生能源(新能源)等低碳型能源的生产与消费,促使经济发展方式由"高碳经济"向"低碳经济"转型,这将具有重要的意义。文章分析了发展可再生能源产业对发展"低碳经济"的重要作用以及目前我国可再生能源产业发展存在的问题。据此,提出了符合低碳经济要求的我国可再生能源产业发展的政策建议,具体为:提高对发展可再生能源产业重要性的认识;促进可再生能源技术创新,增强企业自主创新能力,提高可再生能源产业的技术水平;组建可再生能源产业发展的协调机构,建立统一管理的协调机制;完善可再生能源产业政策与法规。