Conscientious vs. ambivalent consumers: Do concerns about energy availability and climate change influence consumer behaviour?

Energy availability and climate change are interrelated concerns with economic components. They need to be addressed by policy makers and they require changes in energy consumption. This study examines whether concerns about energy availability and climate change influence consumer behaviour, policy perceptions, and beliefs about future energy consumption. This question is investigated by analysing data from the Eurobarometer 75.4, a comprehensive survey of citizens from all countries of the European Union that was conducted in June 2011 (n = 26,840). The regression results show that people concerned about climate change were significantly more likely to take action to mitigate climate change, and to be more favourably disposed towards energy policies and future changes in energy consumption, than people who were not concerned about climate change. On the other hand, people who were concerned about energy availability undertook fewer actions and neither supported energy policies nor believed in future changes in energy consumption. This surprising finding raises questions regarding the adequate communication of energy availability and policies to the public in the European Union.     

Would it have paid to be in the eurozone?

Giving up an independent monetary policy and a flexible exchange rate are the key aspects of joining a monetary union. In this paper we analyse how joining the euro area would have affected the Polish business cycle during the recent financial crisis. To this end we construct a small open economy DSGE model and estimate it for Poland and the euro area. Then we run a counterfactual simulation, assuming Poland's euro area accession in 1q2007. The results are striking — volatilities of GDP and inflation increase substantially. In particular, had Poland adopted the euro, GDP growth would have oscillated between − 6% and + 9% (− 9% to + 11% under more extreme assumptions) instead of between 1% and 7%. We conclude that during the analysed period independent monetary policy and, in particular, the flexible exchange rate played an important stabilizing role for the Polish economy.     

How working time reduction affects jobs and wages

In 1996, by law the maximum standard workweek in Portugal was reduced from 44 h to 40 h. We find that for workers involved this change reduced the job separation rate and increased hourly wages, keeping monthly earnings approximately constant. The working hours reduction also affected workers working less than 40 h per week; they were more likely to lose their job.     

Long-term global water projections using six socioeconomic scenarios in an integrated assessment modeling framework

In this paper, we assess future water demands for the agricultural (irrigation and livestock), energy (electricity generation, primary energy production and processing), industrial (manufacturing and mining), and municipal sectors, by incorporating water demands into a technologically-detailed global integrated assessment model of energy, agriculture, and climate change — the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM). Base-year water demands – both gross withdrawals and net consumptive use – are assigned to specific modeled activities in a way that maximizes consistency between bottom-up estimates of water demand intensities of specific technologies and practices, and top-down regional and sectoral estimates of water use. The energy, industrial, and municipal sectors are represented in fourteen geopolitical regions, with the agricultural sector further disaggregated into as many as eighteen agro-ecological zones (AEZs) within each region. We assess future water demands representing six socioeconomic scenarios, with no constraints imposed by future water supplies. The scenarios observe increases in global water withdrawals from 3710 km³ year^− 1 in 2005 to 6195–8690 km³ year^− 1 in 2050, and to 4869–12,693 km³ year^− 1 in 2095. Comparing the projected total regional water withdrawals to the historical supply of renewable freshwater, the Middle East exhibits the highest levels of water scarcity throughout the century, followed by India; water scarcity increases over time in both of these regions. In contrast, water scarcity improves in some regions with large base-year electric sector withdrawals, such as the USA and Canada, due to capital stock turnover and the almost complete phase-out of once-through flow cooling systems. The scenarios indicate that: 1) water is likely a limiting factor in meeting future water demands, 2) many regions can be expected to increase reliance on non-renewable groundwater, water reuse, and desalinated water, but they also highlight an important role for development and deployment of water conservation technologies and practices.     

What do ads buy? Daily coverage of listed companies on the Italian press

We match daily data on newspaper coverage of a sample of Italian listed companies with monthly data on the amount of advertising that a given company has purchased on a given newspaper. Controlling for time-invariant features of each newspaper and of each company – and for ownership links between companies and newspapers – we show that newspaper coverage of a company is positively and significantly related with advertising expenditure by that company on that newspaper. The magnitude of this correlation is quite large: when controlling for ownership links, a standard deviation increase in monthly ads expenditure (i.e. 75,000 euros) is on average associated with 8 additional articles per month mentioning that company. We also find that coverage of a company is higher the day after a press release, but especially in newspapers where more ads are purchased. This result on press releases is robust to controlling for time invariant features of each company–newspaper pair, i.e. for (company × newspaper) fixed effects.Moreover, coverage is correlated with past day absolute return and trading volume, and this relationship appears to be steeper for those newspapers where more ads are purchased, especially in the case of positive returns.     

Balance sheet in the REDD +: Are global estimates measuring the wrong costs?

This article challenges some of the assumptions underpinning the UN programme to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD +) in developing countries. Firstly, it argues that the cost-effectiveness of REDD + may have been exaggerated as current estimates ignore some cost categories as well as the evolution of drivers. Whilst REDD + remains a ‘low-hanging fruit’ for climate mitigation, if all costs were included estimates would be at the high end of the currently accepted range. Secondly, the article highlights that REDD + will be affected by a large funding gap at least until the entry into force of a new climate protocol in 2020. This gap is due as much to the poor status of public finances in donor countries as to the languishing state of carbon markets, and it calls for a revision of the assumptions regarding the design of the programme. Finally, it is advocated that, in order to contribute to the development of the programme, economic research on REDD + should consider different policy options, assessing their efficiency and identifying measures that increase their cost-effectiveness.     

REDD+and community-controlled forests in low-income countries: Any hope for a linkage?

Deforestation and forest degradation are estimated to account for between 12% and 20% of annual greenhouse gas emissions and in the 1990s (largely in the developing world) released about 5.8 Gt per year, which was bigger than all forms of transport combined. The idea behind REDD + is that payments for sequestering carbon can tip the economic balance away from loss of forests and in the process yield climate benefits. Recent analysis has suggested that developing country carbon sequestration can effectively compete with other climate investments as part of a cost effective climate policy.This paper focuses on opportunities and complications associated with bringing community-controlled forests into REDD +. About 25% of developing country forests are community controlled and therefore it is difficult to envision a successful REDD + without coming to terms with community controlled forests. It is widely agreed that REDD + offers opportunities to bring value to developing country forests, but there are also concerns driven by worries related to insecure and poorly defined community forest tenure, informed by often long histories of government unwillingness to meaningfully devolve to communities. Further, communities are complicated systems and it is therefore also of concern that REDD + could destabilize existing well-functioning community forestry systems.     

The effects of government intervention on the market for corporate terrorism insurance

Nine OECD countries presently have national terrorism insurance programs based on some type of public–private risk sharing. While such arrangements have helped provide the necessary insurance capacity in the post-September 11, 2001 era, little is known about the effect of such governmental intervention on terrorism insurance markets. This paper focuses on the United States, where the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (TRIA) provides insurers with no cost federal reinsurance up to an industry-wide loss of $100 billion. We present an empirical analysis to compare how insurers' diversification behavior varies between property coverage (no governmental intervention) and terrorism coverage (with government intervention). We find evidence that insurers in the U.S. are much less diversified for terrorism coverage than they are for property lines of coverage. We interpret these findings as tentative evidence for moral hazard caused by the governmental intervention under TRIA.     

Growth effects of carbon policies: Applying a fully dynamic CGE model with heterogeneous capital

The paper develops a new type of computable general equilibrium (CGE) model in which growth is fully endogenous, based on the increasing specialization of sector-specific capital varieties. The model is used to simulate the effects of carbon policies on consumption, welfare, and sectoral development in the long run. The benchmark scenario is calculated based on endogenous sector-specific gains from specialization, which carry over to the simulations of a carbon policy following the 2 °C target. Applying the model to the Swiss economy, we find that carbon policy leads to growth rates of knowledge intensive sectors that are higher than in the benchmark and that all the non-energy sectors show positive growth rates. Compared to a state in which climate change has no negative effect, consumption in 2050 is reduced by 4.5% and entails a moderate but not negligible welfare loss.     

Interdependencies in the energy–bioenergy–food price systems: A cointegration analysis

The present paper studies the interdependencies between the energy, bioenergy and food prices. We develop a vertically integrated multi-input, multi-output market model with two channels of price transmission: a direct biofuel channel and an indirect input channel. We test the theoretical hypothesis by applying time-series analytical mechanisms to nine major traded agricultural commodity prices, including corn, wheat, rice, sugar, soybeans, cotton, banana, sorghum and tea, along with one weighted average world crude oil price. The data consists of 783 weekly observations extending from January 1994 to December 2008. The empirical findings confirm the theoretical hypothesis that the prices for crude oil and agricultural commodities are interdependent including also commodities not directly used in bioenergy production: an increase in oil price by 1 $/barrel increases the agricultural commodity prices between 0.10 $/tonne and 1.80 $/tonne. Contrary to the theoretical predictions, the indirect input channel of price transmission is found to be small and statistically insignificant.     

A policy spectrum for spectrum economics

Recent reforms to radio spectrum regulation have sparked controversy over the respective merits of two mutually exclusive liberalization regimes: property rights and commons. This debate is restrictive because it is largely incomplete and misunderstood. It is also costly in terms of opposition and delays to reforms. Goals of efficient spectrum allocation are better served by a wider policy toolkit, inclusive of hybrid and intermediary regimes. In this article I sketch the contours of a ‘spectrum of spectrum regimes’, triangulating regulatory, private ownership and unlicensed approaches. I illustrate this triangulated model, which I then apply to confront allocative decisions in digital dividend policy, such as the FCC’s open access clause in the 700 MHz auction and Ofcom’s current review of UHF spectrum release in the 800 MHz band.     

Quantifying the sustainability of economic resource networks: An ecological information-based approach

Sustainability as a concept has multiple disparate perspectives stemming from different related disciplines which either maintain ambiguous interpretations or concentrate on metrics pertaining to single aspects of a system. Given the embedded multi-dimensionality of sustainability, systemic approaches are needed that can cope with interactions of different dimensions. Past efforts for measuring sustainability holistically have taken an accounting approach based on the availability and efficiency of resource flows. However, an accounting approach fails to fully incorporate the intensive parameters pertaining to sustainability. An ecological information-based approach is a promising holistic measurement which incorporates both intensive and extensive dimensions of sustainability. This paper evaluates this approach by applying it to six economic resource trade flow networks: virtual water, oil, world commodity, OECD + BRIC commodity, OECD + BRIC foreign direct investment, and iron and steel. From the perspective of biomimicry, it appears that these networks can achieve higher levels of efficiency without weakening their robustness to resource delivery. The trends of measured efficiency and redundancy of the studied networks are demonstrated to be useful in reflecting long term changes while the trend in robustness levels were found to exhibit similar behavior to an ecosystem in its early phase of development.     

Privatizing public services and strategic behavior: The impact of incentives to reduce workers' compensation claim duration

During the 1990s, the state of Ohio contracted out Workers' Compensation (WC) case management, incorporating a large bonus payment intended to reward reduced claim duration. The bonus is essentially a decreasing function of average days away from work, excluding claims longer than 15 months. In response, duration is predicted to decrease for claims with moderate injuries and increase for some severe claims so that claimants will miss more than 15 months of work and be excluded from the calculation. I show that contractors increased duration for severe claims but find no evidence that contractors successfully reduced duration for moderate claims. However, contractors received large bonus payments. This is likely because the financial reward to merely excluding a small share of severe claims from the calculation of the bonus payment is large enough to enable TCMs to receive the full bonus. These contractor responses are inconsistent with state intentions, suggesting public entities should anticipate strategic behavior when crafting performance-based incentives.     

Divestment of the English Forestry Estate: An economically sound choice?

This paper evaluates if the proposed divestment of the English Forestry Commission Estate in 2010 was economically rational. The analysis is composed of two parts. First, an amenity value threshold for continued public access to the Estate was estimated. Based on a stated value of the Estate (i.e. £700 million) and assuming a discount rate of 3.5% the Estate should never have been considered for sale. However, assuming a discount rate of 5% then the associated critical amenity value was estimated to be approximately £5 million. Second, travel cost methods were employed to value public access to the Forest of Dean as a proxy for the Estate. An on-site survey was conducted that yielded estimates of consumer surplus that exceed the critical amenity value of the Estate by two orders of magnitude even when we employ a discount rate above that typically used in public policy decision making. Therefore, we conclude that the policy to divest the Estate for £700 million was not ‘a good deal’ and as such the resulting policy reversal was an economically sensible decision.     

Wind tunnel simulation and evaluation of soil conservation function of alpine grassland in Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Aiming at studying soil conservation function of alpine grassland in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, this paper simulated soil erosion changes under different degrees of human disturbance in a wind tunnel laboratory. Three types of grasslands were selected, which include alpine meadow (QH-1), alpine steppe meadow (QH-2) and alpine steppe (QH-3), and the soil erosion rate was taken as the index to measure soil conservation function. The experimental results show that the soil erosion rates of three grassland samples increase with wind velocity under different treatments but the increment of erosion rate varied greatly. Under original status, soil erosion rates are in turn QH-1 < QH-2 < QH-3, which indicates that the soil conservation services are QH-1 > QH-2 > QH-3. When the aboveground vegetation was cut, the soil erosion rate change of QH-1 is the same as that of QH-3 and compared with the original status both of them changed a little. And when the root system was destroyed the erosion rates range in turn as QH-1 < QH-2 < QH-3. So the data suggest that soil conservation service for the three types of grasslands should be QH-1 > QH-2 > QH-3. The economic values of soil conservation were estimated, which include the values of organic carbon fixation, nutrient retention and reducing soil disuse.     

Water flows,energy demand,and market analysis of the informal water sector in Kisumu,Kenya

In rapidly growing urban areas of developing countries, infrastructure has not been able to cope with population growth. Informal water businesses fulfill unmet water supply needs, yet little is understood about this sector. This paper presents data gathered from quantitative interviews with informal water business operators (n = 260) in Kisumu, Kenya, collected during the dry season. Sales volume, location, resource use, and cost were analyzed by using material flow accounting and spatial analysis tools. Estimates show that over 76% of the city's water is consumed by less than 10% of the population who have water piped into their dwellings. The remainder of the population relies on a combination of water sources, including water purchased directly from kiosks (1.5 million m³ per day) and delivered by hand-drawn water-carts (0.75 million m³ per day). Energy audits were performed to compare energy use among various water sources in the city. Water delivery by truck is the highest per cubic meter energy demand (35 MJ/m³), while the city's tap water has the highest energy use overall (21,000 MJ/day). We group kiosks by neighborhood and compare sales volume and cost with neighborhood-level population data. Contrary to popular belief, we do not find evidence of price gouging; the lowest prices are charged in the highest-demand low-income area. We also see that the informal sector is sensitive to demand, as the number of private boreholes that serve as community water collection points are much larger where demand is greatest.     

Structural oil price shocks and policy uncertainty

Increases in the real price of oil not explained by changes in global oil production or by global real demand for commodities are associated with significant increases in economic policy uncertainty and its four components (the volume of newspaper coverage of policy uncertainty, CPI forecast interquartile range, tax legislation expiration, and federal expenditures forecast interquartile range). Oil-market specific demand shocks account for 31% of conditional variation in economic policy uncertainty and 22.9% of conditional variation in CPI forecast interquartile range after 24 months. Positive oil shocks due to global real aggregate demand for commodities significantly reduce economic policy uncertainty. Structural oil price shocks appear to have long-term consequences for economic policy uncertainty, and to the extent that the latter has impact on real activity the policy connection provides an additional channel by which oil price shocks have influence on the economy. As a robustness check, structural oil price shocks are significantly associated with economic policy uncertainty in Europe and energy-exporting Canada.     

An application of Lotka–Volterra model to Taiwan's transition from 200 mm to 300 mm silicon wafers

In this paper, we explore the innovation growth of 200 mm and 300 mm silicon wafers from Taiwan. Using the historic data, we simulate the growth of the area of 200 mm and 300 mm silicon wafers manufactured in Taiwan by the competitive Lotka–Volterra model. The parameters in the Lotka–Volterra model estimated with the realistic data are obtained numerically. The dynamic growth of competitive relationship between 200 mm silicon wafers and 300 mm silicon wafers is then analyzed. To prove the performance of the model, we further compare the famous Bass model and the Lotka–Volterra model. We also perform the equilibrium analysis to determine the long-term stability state in the simulation trajectory. Our research exhibits that 200 mm silicon wafers and 300 mm silicon wafers show a prey–predator relationship under the assumption of natural competition in the global semiconductor market. From a managerial perspective, the coefficients in the Lotka–Volterra model of exponential growth, self-interaction and cross-interaction represent the strength of product attractiveness, niche capacity and interaction for two competition products. We also find that there exists a stable equilibrium state for 200 mm silicon wafers and 300 mm silicon wafers. The prey 200 mm generation does not disappear completely; it finally settles to a constant market alongside the predator 300 mm generation.     

A note on incomplete factor taxation

Optimal capital taxes may be positive in the steady state in Ramsey models with an incomplete set of factor taxes. I show this possibility crucially depends on how fiscal policy is constrained at date t = 0. If the government is barred from manipulating the value of initial assets, the Chamley–Judd result reappears: the optimal capital tax is always zero in the steady state.     

Causality between consumer price and producer price: Evidence from Mexico

We examine the relationship between two inflation indices, consumer price index (CPI) and producer price index (PPI) for Mexico, a case study country which has successfully implemented inflation targeting after the economic crisis and high inflationary situation in 1995. Since the causality running from PPI to CPI exemplifies the cost push nature of inflation and the opposite is the indicator of demand pull inflation, this analysis could provide significant policy implications. We contribute to the literature by decomposing the time–frequency relationship between CPI and PPI through continuous wavelet approach. Our results indicate a bidirectional relationship between CPI and PPI. In short periods (1 to 7 months scale) CPI is leading PPI, while for longer periods (8 to 32 months scale) PPI is the leading variable.