A systematic review of the energy and climate impacts of teleworking

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) increasingly enable employees to work from home and other locations (‘teleworking’). This study explores the extent to which teleworking reduces the need to travel to work and the consequent impacts on economy-wide energy consumption. Methods/Design: The paper provides a systematic review of the current state of knowledge of the energy impacts of teleworking. This includes the energy savings from reduced commuter travel and the indirect impacts on energy consumption associated with changes in non-work travel and home energy consumption. The aim is to identify the conditions under which teleworking leads to a net reduction in economy-wide energy consumption, and the circumstances where benefits may be outweighed by unintended impacts. The paper synthesises the results of 39 empirical studies, identified through a comprehensive search of 9,000 published articles. Review results/Synthesis: Twenty six of the 39 studies suggest that teleworking reduces energy use, and only eight studies suggest that teleworking increases, or has a neutral impact on energy use. However, differences in the methodology, scope and assumptions of the different studies make it difficult to estimate ‘average’ energy savings. The main source of savings is the reduced distance travelled for commuting, potentially with an additional contribution from lower office energy consumption. However, the more rigorous studies that include a wider range of impacts (e.g. non-work travel or home energy use) generally find smaller savings. Discussion: Despite the generally positive verdict on teleworking as an energy-saving practice, there are numerous uncertainties and ambiguities about its actual or potential benefits. These relate to the extent to which teleworking may lead to unpredictable increases in non-work travel and home energy use that may outweigh the gains from reduced work travel. The available evidence suggests that economy-wide energy savings are typically modest, and in many circumstances could be negative or non-existent

The contribution of information and communication technologies to growth in Europe and the US: A macroeconomic analysis.

The assessment and monitoring of the effects of various tax reforms in Member States has become a key policy concern in the Community. In the Presidency Conclusions of the Lisbon European Council on 23-24 March 2000, the European Council requested the Council and the Commission to assess "the contribution of public finances to growth and employment, and assessing, on the basis of comparable data and indicators, whether adequate concrete measures are being taken in order to … alleviate the tax pressure on labour …". Such an evaluation needs an accurate, timely and comparable system of tax indicators enabling the Commission and the Council to quantify the early impact of tax reforms on the tax rates on labour, capital and consumption.  This paper presents a proposal for such a system, discusses its properties and compares it with other available sets of tax rates.fiscal policy, tax reforms, growth

Capital quality improvement and the sources of growth in the euro area

Capital quality improvement is a general phenomenon. Therefore quality correction is needed in price indexes. There is substantial evidence of biases in the official price indexes of capital equipment. We apply to euro area statistics estimates of these biases based on US data thus deriving quality-adjusted price indexes. Adjusted for quality, productive capital stocks of equipment and software grow on average 3 percentage points faster annually - a doubling of their growth rates. Quality-adjusted output grows 0.46 percentage points faster annually - a 20 percent increase. In terms of growth accounting, quality adjustment subtracts 11 percentage points from the share of TFP in aggregate growth and adds them to the share of equipment stock. For the 1990s only the difference is even higher: 14 percentage points. When all is told, embodied technological change accounts for 46 percent of (quality-adjusted) output growth in the euro area over the period 1982 to 2000. JEL Classification: O3, O47, D24, E22embodied technological change, equipment investment, euro area, investment price deflators, output growth

Finance and economic growth - a review of theory and the available evidence.

The EU's structural reform agenda attaches a considerable weight to the establishment of efficiently working and integrated EU financial markets. While there is a firm consensus that a well-functioning financial sector is a precondition for the efficient allocation of resources and the exploitation of an economy's growth potential, the economic literature is less consensual on how and to what extent finance affects economic growth.  This paper reviews the economic theory and available evidence with particular focus on three questions:  how does financial development affect economic growth;  what are the features of a growth supportive financial structure;  how are financial structures related to structural change and technical progress? financial development, economic growth, financial structures, structural change,technical progress

An analysis of EU and US productivity developments (a total economy and industry level perspective)

The 1990s witnessed some important shifts in the underlying growth performances of the EU and US economies, with a significant gap opening up in terms of GDP, and more importantly, GDP per capita, growth rates. From a situation over the period 1980-1995 when EU and US living standards were growing at roughly an equivalent rate, the second half of the 1990s saw the emergence of a significant growth gap in favour of the US. These EU-US differences are mirrored at the EU Member State level, with simple measures of dispersion indicating that individual country divergences relative to the average EU performance have grown by close to 50 per cent in the 1990s compared with the 1980s. These extra- and intra-EU divergences in economic fortunes have been the subject of intense research efforts in recent years, with policy makers keen to decipher the reasons for their own respective outturns and to further refine the “magic formula†for boosting their long run growth performances. The present study will contribute to this ongoing debate regarding the sources of growth in general, with specific attention being devoted to productivity determinants given their importance in shaping medium to long run changes in living standards.GDP, United States, US, productivity, labour productivity, industry, industry level analysis, Denis, McMorrow, R�ger

Critical Evaluation of Cross-Border Infrastructure Projects in Asia

This paper attempts to fill gaps faced by policymakers and practitioners in the evaluation of cross-border infrastructure projects. It first defines what constitutes cross-border infrastructure projects, and then outlines an analytical framework and criteria to evaluate them. The criteria identify additionalities and externalities specific to cross-border infrastructure projects that need to be stressed in covering broader and indirect impacts that are not usually captured in the analysis of national projects. Then the paper examines to what extent the defined criteria are applicable in evaluating recent cross-border infrastructure projects. It also reports on emerging impacts patterns evidenced in relevant studies. The paper draws lessons and implications for design and implementation of cross-border infrastructure projects.asian infrastructure projects design implementation; asian trade costs; economic analysis infrastructure projects

Potential Output: Measurement Methods, "New" Economy Influences and Scenarios for 2001-2010 - A comparison of the EU-15 and the US.

This paper presents an overview of the various methodologies for estimating potential output at the macroeconomic level. Emphasis was laid on the production function approach which is used together with the univariate statistical HP filter method to produce potential output estimates for the US and the EU15 economies (as well as the individual EU Member States) from 1966-2002. The paper also assesses the role of "new" economy influences on potential growth and provides estimates of the likely contribution to past and future output capacity from this source. Finally, potential growth scenarios are given for the EU15 as a whole and the US for the period 2001-2010, with the central scenario pointing to annual average growth rates of 2 ¾% for the EU15 and 3% for the US over the next ten years.macroeconomic analysis, potential growth, potential output

Is information and communication technology (ICT) the right strategy for growth in Mexico?

Although empirical evidence available suggests that information and communication technologies (ICT) have positively contributed to important sectors of the Mexican economy, it is still unknown to which extent ICT have truly contributed to productivity among these sectors. The increasing implementation and imports of ICT technologies, the growing demand for ICT-skilled human capital and training, the rising level of wages and the large demand and adoption of these technologies seem to indicate a positive correlation between ICT implementation and economic growth in Mexico. To answer whether ICT may be a key strategy for economic growth in the Mexican economy is the main purpose of this work. --Information technology,total factor productivity,growth,knowledge,human capital,technology diffusion