Renewable energy technology options for Parihaka Papakāinga : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Engineering in Renewable Energy Systems at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

The Parihaka Papakāinga Trust - the administering body of communally owned Māori land at Parihaka, Aotearoa New Zealand - initiated university research into sustainable energy practices and technologies within a context of community and infrastructure development. As one part of this wider research topic, various renewable energy conversion technologies were compared in terms of cost, effect on increasing the energy independence of the papakāinga (excluding transport, covered elsewhere), and reducing papakāinga greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Consumption of electricity, LPG and firewood was assessed in 14 study buildings over 12 months. Energy demands both now and also for hypothetical scenarios 20 years in the future were proposed, taking into account energy efficiency opportunities, low energy housing design and potential electric vehicle charging loads from parallel research. The local solar, wind and hydro potentials were assessed over 12 months, and estimations of the long-term resources were made using long-term reference data from the region. An estimation was also made of land area requirements to support a short rotation coppicing (SRC) fuelwood plantation. The technical and economic performance of a range of electricity and heat generation technologies was modelled, both on an individual building basis and on a community-wide basis. The technologies with the largest expected economic benefits (after energy efficiency and building design) were a grid-connected community solar PV array with output available for consumption by as much of the papakāinga as possible, and wood-burners for space and water heating in new homes. However further study is required into the design and costs of a feasible metering and billing solution to allocate the benefits of community owned distributed electricity generation. The technologies with the largest expected effect on energy independence include combining solar water heaters with wood-burners and wetbacks for space and water heating, and producing firewood locally with an SRC plantation. Based on the household study, transport behaviours or technologies are expected to have a larger effect on GHG emissions than papakāinga infrastructure. Recommendations include a billing/metering feasibility study potentially followed by a community PV array, an SRC trial, and solar water heaters and wood-burners with water heating for new homes

Reduced Chern-Simons Quiver Theories and Cohomological 3-Algebra Models

We study the BPS spectrum and vacuum moduli spaces in dimensional reductions of Chern-Simons-matter theories with N>=2 supersymmetry to zero dimensions. Our main example is a matrix model version of the ABJM theory which we relate explicitly to certain reduced 3-algebra models. We find the explicit maps from Chern-Simons quiver matrix models to dual IKKT matrix models. We address the problem of topologically twisting the ABJM matrix model, and along the way construct a new twist of the IKKT model. We construct a cohomological matrix model whose partition function localizes onto a moduli space specified by 3-algebra relations which live in the double of the conifold quiver. It computes an equivariant index enumerating framed BPS states with specified R-charges which can be expressed as a combinatorial sum over certain filtered pyramid partitions.Comment: 47 page

A Profile of Frail Older Americans and Their Caregivers

Provides a profile of older Americans and their caregivers, focusing on people age 65 and older who are not in nursing homes, and those with severe disabilities. Includes policy implications and recommendations for community-based home care options

Financial sector inefficiencies and the debt Laffer curve

The authors analyze the implications of inefficient financial intermediation for dbt management, using a model in which firms rely on bank credit to finance their working capital needs, and, lenders face a high state verification and enforcement costs of loan contracts. Their analysis shows that lower expected productivity, higher contract enforcement, and verification costs, or higher volatility of productivity shocks may shift the economy to the wrong side of the debt Laffer curve, with potentially sizable output, and welfare losses. The main implication of this analysis is that debt relief may generate little welfare gains, unless is accompanied by reforms aimed at reducing financial sector inefficiencies.Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Environmental Economics&Policies,Strategic Debt Management,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Financial Intermediation,Strategic Debt Management

Volatility and the welfare costs of financial market integration

The authors examine the effect of volatility on the costs and benefits of financial market integration. The authors use a basic framework that combines the costly state verification model and the contract enforceability approach. They assess the welfare effects of financial market integration by comparing welfare under financial market integration and comparing welfare under financial autarky and financial openness. Under financial openness, foreign banks, which have lower costs of intermediation and a lower markup rate, have free access to domestic capital markets. The analysis shows that financial integration may be welfare-reducing if world interest rates under openness are highly volatile. The authors extend the basic framework in various directions. They show that opening the economy to unrestricted inflows of capital, in particular, may magnify the welfare cost of existing distortion, such as congestion externalities or deposit insurance.Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Financial Intermediation,Financial Economics

Savings and the terms of trade under borrowing constraints

The authors examine the extent to which permanent terms-of-trade shocks have an asymmetric effect on private savings. Using a simple three-period model, they show that if households expect to face binding constraints on borrowing in bad states of nature (when the economy is in a long trough rather than a sharp peak). Savings rates will respond asymmetrically to favorable movements in the permanent component of the terms of trade - in contrast with the predictions of conventional consumption-smoothing models. They test the asymmetric effects of terms-of-trade disturbances using an econometric model that controls for various standard determinants of private savings. The results - based on panel data for non-oil commodity exporters of Sub-Saharan Africa for 1980-96 (a group of countries for which movements in the terms of trade have traditionally represented a key source of macroeconomic shocks) - indicate that increases in the permanent component of the terms of trade (measured using three alternative filtering techniques) indeed tend to be associated with higher rates of private savings.Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Fiscal&Monetary Policy,Environmental Economics&Policies,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Banks&Banking Reform,Inequality,Economic Theory&Research

Aid Volatility and Poverty Traps

This paper studies the impact of aid volatility in a two-period model where production may occur with either a traditional or a modern technology. Public spending is productive and "time to build" requires expenditure in both periods for the modern technology to be used. The possibility of a poverty trap induced by high aid volatility is first examined in a benchmark case where taxation is absent. The analysis is then extended to account for self insurance (taking the form of a first-period contingency fund) financed through taxation. An increase in aid volatility is shown to raise the optimal contingency fund. But if future aid also depends on the size of the contingency fund (as a result of a moral hazard effect on donors' behavior), the optimal policy may entail no self insurance.

Macroeconomic Adjustment with Segmented Labor Markets

This paper analyzes the macroeconomic effects of fiscal and labor market policies in a small open developing country. The basic framework considers an economy with a large informal production sector and a heterogeneous work force. The labor market is segmented as a result of efficiency considerations and minimum wage laws. The basic model is then extended to account for unemployment benefits, income taxation, and imperfect labor mobility across sectors. Under the assumption of perfect labor mobility, we show that a permanent reduction in government spending on nontraded goods leads in the long run to a depreciation of the real exchange rate, a fall in the market-clearing wage for unskilled labor, an increase in output of traded goods, and a lower stock of net foreign assets. A permanent reduction in the minimum wage for unskilled workers improves competitiveness, and expands the formal sector at the expense of the informal sector. Hence, in a two-sector economy in which the minimum wage is enforced only in the formal sector and wages in one segment of the labor market are competitively determined, efficiency wage considerations do not alter the standard neoclassical presumption. A reduction in unemployment benefits is also shown to have a positive effect on output of tradable goods by lowering both the level of efficiency wages and the employment rent of skilled workers.

Financial Sector Inefficiencies and Coordinate Failures: Implications for Crisis Management

This paper analyzes the implication of inefficient financial intermediation for crisis management in a country where firms are highly-indebted. The analysis is based on a model in which firms rely on bank credit to finance their working capital needs and lenders face high state verification and enforcement costs of loan contracts. The analysis shows that higher contract enforcement and verification costs, lower expected productivity, or higher volatility, may shift the economy to the wrong side of the debt Laffer curve, with potentially sizable employment and output losses. The main implication of this analysis for the current policy debate on crisis management is East Asia is that dept reduction, in addition to debt rescheduling, may be required as part of the process of reducing financial sector inefficiencies.

Financial sector inefficiencies and coordination failures : implications for crisis management

The authors analyze the implications for crisis management of inefficient financial intermediation in a country (such as Indonesia or the Republic of Korea) where firms are highly indebted. They base their analysis on a model in which firms rely on bank credit to finance their working capital needs and loan contracts entail high state verification and enforcement costs for lenders. They find that higher volatility of output, lower productivity, or higher costs for contract enforcement and verification may shift the economy to the inefficient portion of the debt Laffer curve - with potentially sizable losses in employment and output. What implications does this have for the policy debate on crisis management in East Asia? Debt reduction, in addition to debt rescheduling, may be required to reduce employment and output losses in the presence of inefficiencies in the financial sector. In practice this may be difficult to coordinate among a large group of creditors because of the free-riding problem: Each creditor has an incentive to refrain from offering debt relief on its own claims and wait for others to do so, thereby raising the expected value of its own claims.Strategic Debt Management,Financial Intermediation,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies