UKERC Review of evidence for the rebound effect: Technical report 5: Energy, productivity and economic growth studies

This report forms part of the TPA’s assessment of evidence for a rebound effect from improved energy efficiency. Technical Report 5 focuses upon the relationship between energy, productivity and economic growth and examines the claim that improved energy efficiency will increase economy-wide energy consumption - the so-called ‘Khazzoom-Brookes postulate’

What is Product-Service Systems (PSS)? A Review on PSS Researches and Relevant Policies

In order to achieve sustainable society, it is necessary to transform industrial structure to the one that does not reduce the Earth's resources. Under this circumstance, a business model of "not selling goods, but selling services" has been expected as a measure of co-existence of business and the environment. This idea, which is called as "Product-Service Systems: PSS" or "Servicizing" etc., has been studied in Europe, the United States and international organisations, and is now studied in Japan. However, the idea of PSS is still not effectively used for policy development.One of the major reasons is that PSS concept itself is under-developed. Under the unclear concept of PSS, researchers are working towards more scientific understanding while policy makers are trying to develop new policy measures, and there is confusion in those communities. In order to develop policy measures, it is necessary to make clear the position of PSS in socio-economic system. This paper overviews previous PSS researches and relevant policy measures conducted in Japan, the US and EU, and tries to grasp the context of researches and policy activities and to find out the agenda of the current status. The characteristics of PSS rest on the innovative relationship between producer and consumer. However, PSS researches are stuck at measurement of environmental loads, and relevant policies tend to be rest on the ones targeting producers. In order to get out of this situation, it is necessary to ask question what is PSS and to make it clear where PSS can be positioned in socio-economic system. PSS is important, because PSS has an element of creating sufficiency as well as eco-efficiency. It is recommended that PSS concept needs to be examined as a research effort, and environmentally sound product policy needs to be systematically organised

A collection of tools for factory eco-efficiency

co-efficiency is generally defined as doing more with less, aiming to decouple environmental impact from economic and social value creation. This paper presents three tools to guide the implementation of eco-efficiency in factories: (1) definition and patterns of good practices for sustainable manufacturing, (2) a self-assessment tool and maturity grid, and (3) a factory modelling framework

The Roles of the Environment and Natural Resources in Economic Growth Analysis

The primary aim of this paper is pedagogical. We first present and discuss a “wiring diagram” framework in order to elucidate the general links between economic growth and "natural capital." After developing the general framework, we develop parallel frameworks applicable to several specific sectors of the economy (agriculture, forestry, and manufacturing). Two appendices provide a mathematical formulation of the economy-wide framework and a brief historical review of the role of natural resources and the environment in economic growth theory.economic growth, natural resources, sustainable development

Emissions Trends and Labour Productivity Dynamics Sector Analyses of De-coupling/Recoupling on a 1990-2005 Namea

This paper provides new empirical evidence on Environmental Kuznets Curves (EKC) for greenhouse gases (GHGs) and air pollutants at sector level. A panel dataset based on the Italian NAMEA over 1990-2005 is analysed, focusing on both emission efficiency (EKC model) and total emissions (IPAT model). Results show that looking at sector evidence, both decoupling and also eventually re-coupling trends could emerge along the path of economic development. CH4 is moderately decreasing in recent years, but being a minor gas compared to CO2, the overall performance on GHGs is not compliant with Kyoto targets, which do not appear to have generated a structural break in the dynamics at least for GHGs. SOx and NOx show decreasing patterns, though the shape is affected by some outlier sectors with regard to joint emission-productivity dynamics, and for SOx exogenous innovation and policy related factors may be the main driving force behind observed reductions. Services tend to present stronger delinking patterns across emissions. Trade expansion validates the pollution haven in some cases, but also show negative signs when only EU15 trade is considered: this may due to technology spillovers and a positive ‘race to the top’ rather than the bottom among EU15 trade partners (Italy and Germany as the main exporters and trade partner in the EU). Finally, general R&D expenditure show weak correlation with emissions efficiency. EKC and IPAT derived models provide similar conclusions overall; the emission-labour elasticity estimated in the latter is generally different from 1, suggesting that in most cases, and for both services and industry, a scenario characterised by emissions saving technological dynamics. Further research should be directed towards deeper investigation of trade relationship at sector level, increased research into and efforts to produce specific sectoral data on ‘environmental innovations’, and to verifying the value of heterogeneous panel models capturing sector heterogeneity.Greenhouse Gases, Air Pollutants, NAMEA, Trade Openness, Labour Productivity, EKC, STIRPAT, Delinking

UKERC Review of evidence for the rebound effect: Technical report 3: Elasticity of substitution studies

This Working Paper forms part of the TPA’s assessment of evidence for a rebound effect from improved energy efficiency. Technical Report 3 focuses upon empirical estimates of the elasticity of substitution between energy and capital. This parameter has been identified as a key determinant of the likely magnitude of the rebound effect in different sectors. The report clarifies the meaning and importance of this parameter, summarises and compares empirical estimates of this parameter, evaluates the reasons that have been proposed for the differing results, discusses whether a consensus has been reached to whether energy and capital can be considered as ‘substitutes’ or ‘complements’ and draws some implications for the rebound effect

Measures of Technology and the Business Cycle: Evidence from Sweden and the U.S.

Empirical evidence on the cyclical behavior of technology shocks, or the relative importance of technology shocks versus other structural shocks as sources of fluctuations, hinges crucially on the identification of technological changes. In this paper, we study different measures of technology in order to find out (i) to what extent they capture the same underlying phenomenon and (ii) whether the implications for macroeconomic theory vary between approaches. Several variations of the production function approach and structural VAR models are investigated: the classic Solow residual, the refined Solow residuals of Burnside et al (1995) and Basu and Kimball (1997), large cointegrated VAR models as in King et al (1991) and a small VAR in first differences à la Galí (1999). It turns out that the different measures of technological change are reasonably coherent when applied to US data. However, they are often insignificantly related in the case of Sweden. Furthermore, our results do not support the hypothesis that business cycle fluctuations are primarily drive by changes in technology.Technology shocks; Production function approach; Structural VAR models

Duality theory and cost function analysis in a regional context: the impact of public infrastructure capital in the Greek Regions

There has been a significant resurgence of interest in the effects of public capital on the economic fortunes of the private sector of late. This renewed concern was sparked by the research of Aschauer on US infrastructure and the ensuing debate between himself, Munnell and Holtz-Eakin. This debate and much of the subsequent work in the US and elsewhere has been conducted utilising production functions. There is, however, another potentially more rewarding strand in the infrastructure literature that is based on duality theory and cost function analysis. This approach has been thought of as overcoming some of the methodological problems inherent in the use of production functions in this research context. This paper, using cost functions, attempts to estimate the impact of the productive categories of the Public Investment Programme of Greece on regional development, and especially on large scale manufacturing activities. The results demonstrate that public capital has a significant positive impact on the performance of the private sector, and reduces private costs of production. Also considered here are the links between infrastructure provision and private sector input factors of production.