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on Regulation |
| By: | Oksana Papelnyuk (National Research Moscow State University of Civil Engineering); Ekaterina Nezhnikova (People Friendship university of Russia) |
| Abstract: | Today, energy supply has become one of the main problems of the mankind. Needs in energy increase as technology develops. It is expected that by 2035 the world energy consumption will have increased threefold as compared to 1998. In response to these needs, fossil fuel reserves are being rapidly depleted. The widespread use of traditional energy sources in the housing, transportation and industrial sectors complicates the problem even more.Demographic, economic and cultural changes increase energy consumption in the housing sector and cause even higher levels of the related greenhouse gas emissions. The goal of this work is to identify opportunities for developing renewable energy sources (RES) in the housing sector to improve its energy efficiency.The results of the study show that the construction industry, and especially the housing sector, can save more energy as compared to other types of the energy use. RES are important in reducing CO2 emissions in the housing sector and in improving the energy efficiency of buildings. In recent years, the production and consumption of energy from renewable sources in the housing sector have increased. However, the main volume of energy consumption in buildings is provided by fossil fuels. The main barriers to the introduction of renewable energy in the DNC housing system are financial ones, as well as logistical problems of biomass transportation and storage. To reduce these barriers, the authors offer a number of measures, including the governmental support for the use of renewable energy in the systems of heat supply and cooling of buildings, as well as the creation of storage facilities for renewable energy. |
| Keywords: | Investment, energy sources, renewable energy sources, housing sector |
| Date: | 2019–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:9010598&r=all |
| By: | Paloma Taltavull de La Paz; Francisco Juarez; Paloma Monllor |
| Abstract: | The analysis of energy poverty has attracted increasing interest in some countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Austria and New Zealand. Thomson and Snell (2013) examine the EU case as a whole. These studies have provided empirical evidence suggesting that households with some members over 60 years of age, families with children, disabled or chronically ill persons are the most vulnerable groups (ITD, 2001, pp. 8-9, cited in Boardman 2012: p 23) when it comes to energy poverty. The reason for this lies in the fact that their energy costs are higher than other basic needs (O' Neill et al., 2006). Empirical evidence also suggests that energy expenditure is essential; In fact, households could be considered as a "captive demand" affected by market control decisions - pricing - and this has severe social effects.The relevance of this problem is twofold. Firstly, because an adequate temperature in the home ensures well-being at any income level. Secondly, because high energy costs could reflect low energy efficiency in buildings, which aggravates poverty situations. Reducing the energy bill does not necessarily imply a cold environment when buildings are energy efficient, a condition that could guarantee both lower energy costs and an adequate temperature if this problem is addressed to eradicate it. The latter relates energy poverty to the energy efficiency of buildings - a key element of EU energy policy to ensure the medium-term sustainability of cities in the European Union. If solutions are found to reduce fuel poverty problems, a twofold objective would be achieved: (a) to reduce energy consumption through a more balanced energy consumption scheme in buildings; and (b) to improve the health and welfare levels of disadvantaged households by reducing energy cost payments based on lower consumption. Incentive policies for investment in rehabilitation are the most widely accepted as they improve energy efficiency and reduce energy poverty.The literature does not contain evidence that measures the sensitivity of energy poverty on changes in poverty levels or that assess the impact of property rates on energy scarcity. Economic logic supports the idea that a sudden fall in income can reduce the purchasing power and could have different effects on energy poverty levels depending on the type of tenure. In this paper, an indicator is calculated that identifies energy poverty in households using the Household Condition Survey (EU-Silk) for Spanish region, combining differently available indicators that allow an approximation to this phenomenon. It takes into account the structure of housing tenure and the level of poverty to explain fuel poverty. The present paper adds empirical evidence of the existence of fuel poverty using Spanish statistics to test two hypotheses. Ho1 is whether and how (housing) deprivation signals are linked to fuel poverty; whereas Ho2 tests the role of fuel poverty as an element directly related to poverty. They both allow us to support the Boardman (2012) views about the group of households affected the most by fuel poverty. This paper hypothesizes that a household is poor in energy if it cannot pay the electricity bill with the available resources. This implies that households whose income is close to a precarious without necessarily reaching the poverty line are considered (as there is no information on the cost of the electricity bill per household, it is not possible to apply the 10% rule nor to analyze whether households fall below the poverty line after paying the electricity bill).The situation of the energy poor is approached by parameterizing a set of variables that capture the existence of energy poverty. The methodology used is based on an extraction of factors that include all these variables and capture their explanatory capacity to explain the situation of energy poverty. The factorial calculation is that the method extracts the common behaviour of these variables and combines them (linearly) in such a way that a variable is constructed that is an explanation of individual facts related to the analyzed phenomenon. Results suggest that the extracted factors combined with housing tenure characteristics, determine the existence of three main groups of fuel poor: (1) energy poverty derived from the status of' poor household', (2) energy poverty derived from the inadequacy of housing to household and (3) energy poverty derived from the low quality of housing. Using these factors in their standardized form, households are classified into two groups: those who suffer and those who do not energy poverty. |
| Keywords: | Energy Consumption; Fuel Poverty; Housing demand; Tenure |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2019–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2019_292&r=all |
| By: | Thomas Douenne (Paris School of Economics – Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne); Adrien Fabre (Paris School of Economics – Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | Using a new survey and National households' survey data, we investigate French perception over carbon taxation. We find that French people largely reject a tax and dividend policy where revenues of the tax would be redistributed uniformly. However, their perception about the properties of the tax are biased: people overestimate the negative impact on their purchasing power, wrongly think the scheme is regressive, and do not perceive it as environmentally effective. Our econometric analysis shows that correcting these three bias would suffice to generate majority acceptance. Yet, we find that people's beliefs are persistent and their revisions biased towards pessimism, so that only few can be convinced. |
| Keywords: | Climate Policy, Carbon tax, Bias, Beliefs Preferences |
| JEL: | D72 D91 H23 H31 Q58 |
| Date: | 2019–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fae:ppaper:2019.05&r=all |
| By: | Jean-Pierre Amigues (TSE(INRA)); Michel Moreaux (TSE(UT Capitole)) |
| Abstract: | To prevent climate change, three options are currently considered: improve the energy conversion efficiency of primary energy sources, develop carbon free alternatives to polluting fossil fuels and abate potential emissions before they are released inside the atmosphere. We study the optimal mix and timing of these three mitigation options in a stylized dynamic model. Useful energy can come from two sources: a non-renewable fossil fuel resource and a carbon free renewable resource. The conversion efficiency rate of fossil energy into useful energy is open to choice but higher conversion rates are also more costly. The economy can abate some fraction of its potential emissions and a higher abatement rate incurs higher costs. The society objective is to maintain below some mandated level, or carbon cap, the atmospheric carbon concentration. In the empirically relevant case where the economy is actually constrained by the cap, at least temporarily, we show that the optimal path is a sequence of four regimes: a 'pre-ceiling' regime before the economy is actually constrained by the cap, a 'ceiling' regime at the cap, a 'post-ceiling' regime below the cap and a final regime of exclusive exploitation of renewable resources. If the abatement option has ever to be used, it should be started before the beginning of the ceiling regime, first at an increasing rate and at a decreasing rate once the cap constraint binds. The efficiency performance from any source steadily improves with the exception of a time phase under the ceiling regime when it is constant. Renewables take progressively a larger share of the energy mix but their exploitation may be delayed significantly. Absolute levels of carbon emissions drop down continuously but follow a non monotonic pattern in per useful energy unit relative terms. |
| Keywords: | energy efficiency, carbon pollution, non-renewable resources, renewable resources, abatement |
| JEL: | Q00 Q32 Q43 Q54 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fae:wpaper:2019.14&r=all |
| By: | Abay Mulatu (Coventry University) |
| Abstract: | Adequately measuring the stringency of national environmental regulation is a crucial issue in the empirical literature on the link between environmental policy and economic performance such as productivity, export competitiveness and foreign investment flows. As Levinson (2008, p. 1) argues, ?The problem is not merely one of collecting the appropriate data; merely conceiving of data that would represent it is difficult?. The empirical literature on the link between environmental regulation and economic outcomes contains various proxies of stringency of environmental regulation. The divergent nature of these proxies is arguably a major factor for the mixed evidence witnessed in this literature (Millimet and Roy 2016 ; Mulatu 2017 , 2018 ). The construction or use of the various measures of stringency is seldom preceded by a discussion of what exactly stringency is. In this paper, we develop a simple analytical model ? based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve ? that captures the idea of relative stringency as a differential preference with respect to the environment. The model serves as a general framework to estimate a measure of national environmental standards for a selected group of countries. |
| Keywords: | Environmental-Regulation, Environmental Kuznets Curve, Co2 emissions |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:8911118&r=all |
| By: | Spodniak, Petr; Ollikka, Kimmo; Honkapuro, Samuli |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp631&r=all |
| By: | Kalle Kappner (Institute for Economic History, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) |
| Abstract: | Did cholera function as a potent catalyst for the reform of urban water infrastructure in 19th century Europe's disease-ridden cities, serving as "our old ally" in the struggle for urban sanitation (Robert Koch)? Based on a detailed case study of Berlin's hydrological reconfiguration, this paper challenges popular narratives that paint the emergence of safe tap water supplies and sanitary sewers as an efficient, scientifically motivated reaction to Europe's recurrent cholera epidemics since 1831. While historians have long stressed the dominance of aesthetical and industrial over sanitary concerns, the study of Berlin's contemporary discourse suggest that the causal link between cholera and water infrastructure reform was not only weak, but ambiguous. Far from motivating the right actions for the wrong reasons, cholera's conception through the dominant miasmatist frameworks and limited proto-epidemiological tools of the prebacteriological era inspired inefficient, at times even counterproductive approaches that potentially deepened the urban mortality penalty. Berlin's role as a political and scientific center of 19th century Europe suggests that her experience was the norm rather than the exception. A nuanced understanding of Western Europe's sanitary past has important implications for the continuing struggle for urban sanitation in today's developing world. |
| Keywords: | Cholera, Water-Borne Disease, Epidemic, Sanitation, Berlin, Germany, Tap Water, Sewers, 19th Century, Miasma, Mortality, Urban Penalty |
| JEL: | N33 N53 N93 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0167&r=all |
| By: | John K. Stranlund (University of Massachusetts Amherst); James J. Murphy (Department of Economics, University of Alaska Anchorage); John M. Spraggon (University of Massachusetts Amherst); Nikolaos Zirogiannis (Indiana University Bloomington) |
| Abstract: | We present results from laboratory emissions permit markets designed to investigate the transmission of abatement cost risk to firms’ compliance behavior and regulatory enforcement strategies. With a fixed expected marginal penalty, abatement cost shocks produced significant violations and emissions volatility as predicted. Tying the monitoring probability to average permit prices effectively eliminated noncompliance, but transmitted abatement cost risk to monitoring effort. Tying the penalty to average prices reduced violations, but did not eliminate them. Some individuals in these treatments sold permits at low prices, presumably in an attempt to weaken enforcement. While tying sanctions directly to prevailing permit prices has theoretical and practical advantages over tying monitoring to prices, our results suggest that this strategy may not be as effective as predicted without additional modifications. |
| Keywords: | experimental economics, Emissions markets, risk and uncertainty, incomplete information, permit markets, compliance, enforcement, laboratory experiments. |
| JEL: | C92 L51 Q58 D62 H23 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ala:wpaper:2018-05&r=all |
| By: | Shingo Takagi (Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan); Nobuhiro Hosoe (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we develop a structural auction model and quantify the effects of policy measures aiming to enhance competition in the Japanese retail power market. We employ a theoretical model that incorporates asymmetries between the incumbent and entrants in terms of both the cost and information structures, where the costs of the former are assumed common knowledge, and empirically estimate the structural parameters characterizing their cost distributions using public power procurement data. We then conduct counterfactual simulations to quantify two competition-promoting policy measures: a bid preference program for entrants, and an increase in the number of potential bidders. We take a parametric approach to estimate the structural model successfully in contrast to a nonparametric approach that previous studies took. Our simulation results show that these procompetitive measures would barely increase participation by potential entrants but would elicit more aggressive incumbent bidding behavior. Further, a modest bid-preferential rate would improve welfare and reduce the probability of realizing inefficient allocations associated with a costly winning bidder. |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ngi:dpaper:19-18&r=all |
| By: | Brazil, William; Harold, Jason; Curtis, John |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp628&r=all |
| By: | Andarge, Tihitina |
| Keywords: | Risk and Uncertainty |
| Date: | 2019–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea19:291281&r=all |