Is There an Energy Efficiency Gap?

Many analysts have argued that energy efficiency investments offer an enormous “win-win” opportunity to both reduce negative externalities and save money. This overview paper presents a simple model of investment in energy-using capital stock with two types of market failures: first, uninternalized externalities from energy consumption, and second, forces such as imperfect information that cause consumers and firms not to exploit privately-profitable energy efficiency investments. The model clarifies that only if the second type of market failure cannot be addressed directly through mechanisms such as information provision, energy efficiency subsidies and standards may be merited. We therefore review the empirical work on the magnitude of profitable unexploited energy efficiency investments, a literature which frequently does not meet modern standards for credibly estimating the net present value of energy cost savings and often leaves other benefits and costs unmeasured. These problems notwithstanding, recent empirical work in a variety of contexts implies that on average the magnitude of profitable unexploited investment opportunities is much smaller than engineering-accounting studies suggest. Finally, there is tremendous opportunity and need for policy-relevant research that utilizes randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental techniques to estimate the returns to energy efficiency investments and the welfare effects of energy efficiency programs.

From Reunification to Economic Integration: Productivity and the Labor Market in Eastern Germany

macroeconomics, Reunification, Economic Integration, Productivity, Labor Market, Eastern Germany

What Explains the German Labor Market Miracle in the Great Recession?

Germany experienced an even deeper fall in GDP in the Great Recession than the United States with little employment loss. Employers’ reticence to hire in the preceding expansion - associated in part with a lack of confidence it would last - contributed to an employment shortfall equivalent to 40 percent of the missing employment decline in the recession. Another 20 percent may be explained by wage moderation. A third important element was the widespread adoption of working time accounts, which permit employers to avoid overtime pay if hours per worker average to standard hours over a window. We find that this provided disincentives for employers to lay off workers in the downturn. While the overall cuts in hours per worker were consistent with the severity of the Great Recession, reduction of working time account balances substituted for traditional government-sponsored short time work.unemployment, Germany, Great Recession, short time work, working time accounts, Hartz reforms, extensive vs. intensive employment margin

What Explains the German Labor Market Miracle in the Great Recession?

Germany experienced an even deeper fall in GDP in the Great Recession than the United States, with little employment loss. Employers' reticence to hire in the preceding expansion, associated in part with a lack of confidence it would last, contributed to an employment shortfall equivalent to 40 percent of the missing employment decline in the recession. Another 20 percent may be explained by wage moderation. A third important element was the widespread adoption of working time accounts, which permit employers to avoid overtime pay if hours per worker average to standard hours over a window of time. We find that this provided disincentives for employers to lay off workers in the downturn. Although the overall cuts in hours per worker were consistent with the severity of the Great Recession, reduction of working time account balances substituted for traditional government-sponsored short-time work.Hartz reforms, working time accounts, short time work, Great Recession, Germany, unemployment, extensive vs. intensive employment margin

The Workers' Compensation System of British Columbia: Still in Transition

This inventory addresses eight core issues in the British Columbia workers' compensation system:* How is the system administered?* How do claims flow through the system?* What dispute resolution procedures are used, and to what effect?* What benefits are paid?* How are vocational rehabilitation services provided?* How is the system financed?* What are the actual costs of administration, benefits, claims processing, and appeal?* What aspects of the system deserve further attention

Washington Pension System Review

The purpose of this study is to analyze the incidence of Total Permanent Disability (TPD)pensions in Washington State's workers' compensation program. Concerns exist at both thelegislature and in the Department of Labor and Industries as there appears to have been a sharp upturn in the number of pensions awarded since late in the 1990s. This report examines the factors that may be causally related to any upsurge in such awards. Our task is to evaluate pension incidence for both the state fund and the self-insured populations, with a view towards identifying causes of the trend in both sectors, although we concentrate more on the state fund Cclaims due to data limitations

Modelling relationships between road access and recreational fishing site choice while accounting for spatial complexities

This study examined the relationships between road access and the fishing site choices of northern Ontario recreational anglers. A revealed preference choice model (random utility model) was estimated with fishing trip data from an angling diary with resident anglers from the Thunder Bay and Wawa areas. The results showed that poor quality gravel roads and trails heavily and negatively impacted fishing site choices by Thunder Bay anglers who fished only during the open water season. Poorer quality roads and trails had much less impact on the fishing site choices of other Thunder Bay anglers. Wawa area anglers were, on average, less impacted by poor quality roads and trails than were Thunder Bay area anglers. Several methods of incorporating spatial complexities into the fishing site choice models were also investigated. First, an accessibility attribute was included in the models to account for potential spatial cognitive limitations of anglers when choosing fishing sites. While this attribute had a significant effect in the models, the effect was different for Thunder Bay and Wawa area anglers. A second spatial measure focused on whether anglers took fishing trips near their previously chosen fishing sites. Anglers often took fishing trips back to the fishing sites they previously chose. Thunder Bay area anglers also tended to take fishing trips that were close to their previously chosen fishing site. Finally, various generalized extreme value models were used to determine if nearby sites have correlated unobserved utilities. Results from a cross-nested logit model, which permit researchers to allocate fishing alternatives into more than one nest, showed that spatially near fishing alternatives shared some unobserved utility. Therefore, nearby fishing sites were better substitutes than were far away fishing sites. Generalized nested logit models were estimated to assess whether one global parameter could capture the correlation pattern among the unobserved utilities for the fishing sites. A global parameter was rejected in favour of nest specific parameters. While not truly a local level analysis, the generalized nested logit model was sufficient to capture some spatial heterogeneity present in the correlations among the unobserved utilities

A History Of The Sleaford Navigation

No detailed study of any part of the canal and navigation system of Lincolnshire has so far been undertaken and, using primary sources almost exclusively, this work is the first complete account of the origins and the development of one of these rural navigations and the effects it had upon the local communities. The early history of south Lincolnshire's drainage is considered and its close relationship with the River Slea/Kyme Eau. The importance of these waterways to the towns of Boston and Lincoln is also discussed. With the quickening of industrial and agricultural change in England during the second half of the 18th. century the waterway systems of the country were extended and attempts were made to make navigable the River Slea/Kyme Eau in order to become a part of this network. Those attempts are here considered in detail, as is the opposition given to the various schemes by both individuals and corporate bodies. A number of surveys, reports, estimates and applications to Parliament for an Act were made and these and the Parliamentary proceedings are examined. In support of a navigation the vital role played by Sir Jospeh Banks, the President of the Royal Society, both in Parliament and in relation to Drainage and Navigation Commissioners and supportes of the scheme, is explained. The trading patterns exemplified by the Navigation during the early deccades of the 19th. century give insight into the economic climate both locally and nationally and the importance of water transport for freight to this district is fully demonstrated. Competing forms of transport are examine, in particular the railway, which was established in direct opposition to the Sleaford Navigation. Finally, the reasons for the decline and closure of the waterway are considered and the present-day efforts to re-open the river to vessels

The role of Sir Joseph Banks, K.B., P.R.S., in the promotion and development of Lincolnshire canals and navigations

Sir Joseph Banks, K.B., P.R.S., was Lincolnshire's foremost figure of the late 18th. century and his influence within the county was such that few public works were undertaken with which he was not connected. Included in these public works were canal and navigation promotions and major works of drainage of the fenlands which had a secondary navigation function associated with them. This thesis begins with a brief biography of Sir Joseph which places him in his historical setting both nationally and internationally and is followed by a consideration of his life in his home county. In this his waterways' connections are introduced. For Sir Joseph to understand waterways~ promotion he had to learn and this process is discussed in detail. Most of this took place outside Lincolnshire and before the periods of 'Canal Mania' and, therefore, he was ideally placed to make use of this acquired expertise for the benefit of his county when the pressure for canal promotion began in Lincolnshire. The heart of the Lincolnshire systems of canals and navigations is now, as in his day, the River Witham and Banks' role as a Commissioner for drainage and navigation is considered. Included here is his part in the promotion of the drainage of the fens to the east of Boston and the formation of the 'Witham Navigable Drains'. Each of the Lincolnshire waterways with which he had some connection is discussed as are the details of the various roles he assumed. On the Sleaford Navigation, for example, he was a promoter; on the Horncastle Navigation he was 'President' of the company, while on the Grantham Canal he was a protector of the Witham Trusts' interests during the promotion period. In his different capacities Sir Joseph was often in contact with the most important canal engineers of his time. With them he developed different relationships and those with William Jessop, John Rennie and George Maxwell are especially investigated in depth. Finally, an assessment is attempted of the part he played and the significance of his contribution to the promotion and development of the Lincolnshire waterways

Theoretical and empirical examinations of spatial scale and aggregation effects on the principal axis factoring technique when the observations are areal units

Previous assessments of factor analytic invariance to scale and aggregation effects have led to discrepant results. To determine the true effects, this study comprehensively examines the influence of scale and aggregation on factorial ecologies. This investigation is completed for three data sets, four scales, and thirty aggregations at each scale. Of these three data sets, two are artificial. These two data sets differ only by levels of spatial autocorrelations as one data set contains independent areal unit observations while the other set includes modest positive spatial autocorrelations. The third data set consists of variables from the 1986 Saskatoon enumeration areas. Several prominent themes emerge from these findings. when areal unit observations are independent, scale effects are trivial and aggregation effects are substantial However, introduction of positive spatial autocorrelations among variables generates sizable scale effects and reduced aggregation effects. The theoretical data results are also moderately predictable from basic spatial unit data characteristics. Empirical results display considerable scale effects and modest aggregation effects. When increasing scale with the empirical data, communalities, eigenvalues, percentage of explainable data set variation, factor scores, and factor loadings are altered. These exact variations include increasing explanatory power of factor models with fewer significant factors and increasing generality of the largest unrotated factors. These findings along with several other modifiable results, attest to the substantial effects of scale and aggregation on factorial ecologies, with modifiable results from factorial ecologies, one must question the completion of contemporary factorial ecologies in geography