Essays on energy demand and renewable natural resource management

This thesis is a collection of five self-contained papers in the area of energy demand and renewable natural resource management. Paper 1 analyzes the dynamics in cooking fuel choices among Ghanaian households over the period 2005 and 2013 and further investigate the main forces driving households’ choice of cooking fuel. Evidence from this paper reveals a significant transition from fuelwood use towards LPG over the period. Results also reveal factors such as price, reliability in supply of LPG, income and other household attributes as significant factors influencing households’ choice of a given energy type for cooking. Paper 2 investigates the long and short run demand drivers of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in Ghana and presents a 10-year forecast of future trends in demand. Results identify income, price and urbanization as the main drivers of demand. Projections from three scenarios suggest that demand for LPG will reach a minimum of 5.9 million metric tons by the year 2022. Paper 3 examines the causal dynamics among energy use, real GDP and CO₂ emissions in the presence of regime shifts in six emerging African economies. Results confirm the presence of regime shift effects in the long run inter-linkages among energy use, real GDP and CO₂ emissions in the countries considered. This suggests that structural shifts have both economic and environmental effects. Paper 4 develops a stage-structured bioeconomic model to analyze the effects of interspecies competition between roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and fallow deer (Dama dama) on net present value of harvesting, and the associated harvesting strategies. Our analysis shows that unilateral interspecies competition of the fallow deer on the roe deer reduces the marginal benefit of holding an additional individual of both species. Our numerical calculations suggest interspecies competition has a small impact on total net present value, compared to the impact on roe deer population density. Results are also sensitive to assumptions made about trophy prices and discount rate. Inclusion of trophy benefits implies reduced harvest of both young males and females. For the fallow deer, pulse harvesting is optimal, whereas this is not the case for roe deer. Paper 5 presents an analysis of the hunting lease market in Sweden. The determinants of hunting lease prices are analyzed using spatial and non-spatial hedonic price models. From the hedonic model, the associated hunting values are also derived. Results from the paper suggest the presence of spatial spillovers in lease prices. It also indicate factors such as proximity to urban centers, income, size of the hunting field, and congestion cost as key drivers of hunting lease prices. Further, the results indicate high hunting values for moose and fallow deer

An empirical analysis of hunting lease pricing and value of game in Sweden

Hunting generates considerable benefits to hunters, while simultaneously causing damages to agriculture and forestry. The aim of this paper is to estimate hunting values for multiple hunted species, by disentangling the role of wildlife harvesting opportunities from other factors which affect hunting lease prices. We examine the determinants of hunting lease prices in Sweden using both spatial and non-spatial econometric techniques. Our analysis confirms considerable hunting values for large ungulates such as moose and fallow deer. Results also suggest that hunters prefer to have a diverse set of ungulate species on their hunting ground. Moreover, the study reveals the presence of spatial spillovers in lease prices, implying that landowners have little scope for exerting monopoly power on the lease market. It also indicate that proximity to urban centers, income, size of the hunting field, and congestion cost are key drivers of hunting lease prices

Optimal management of two ecologically interacting deer speciesreality matters, beliefs don't

The aim of this paper is to analyze the optimal management of two ecologically interdependent, competing species, roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and fallow deer (Dama dama). To this end, we develop a numerical stage-structured model, accounting for species-specific life history characteristics, gender, and stage-specific hunting values. Two contrasting management regimes are considered: optimal joint management of the two species and management where the decision maker is ignorant about interspecific competition. Results from our case study show that the presence of interspecific competition reduces roe deer population size and harvest by 30% and 47%, respectively, and reduces the net present value by 9%. High interspecific competition could lead to the exclusion of the roe deer from the area. In contrast, ignorance about the level and consequences of interspecific competition has no impact on harvest decisions and revenues. The explanation is the higher hunting benefits for fallow deer.Summary for Managers Wildlife managers need bioeconomic models for decisions on ecologically interdependent species. This study investigates optimal joint management of roe and fallow deer when the fallow deer exerts a negative impact on roe deer due to interspecific competition. Results show that interspecific competition reduces the net present value of hunting at the study site by 9%. Regulations will not increase the net present value of hunting in a situation where the manager is ignorant of interspecific competition

Economically optimal management of two deer species competing for food

This paper presents a bioeconomic model to analyze the role of interspecies competition between roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and fallow deer (Dama dama) and the implications of the competition on optimal harvesting strategies. Analytical solutions derived from the model suggest that the degree of inter-specie competition is an important factor in the landowner's decision to maintain a given population of both species, as it affects the net marginal benefit from managing the two species. Our numerical results suggest that the effect of inter-species competition on total net economic benefit is small compared to the impact on roe deer population density. Inclusion of trophy values implies reduced harvest of young males, but also reduced harvest of females. Our model also shows that a pulse harvesting regime for the dominant species is economically optimal

Bring Back our Light: Power Outages and Industrial Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa

Power cuts have become a characteristic feature of many Sub-Saharan African economies. This paper attempts to estimate the firm level impact of power out- ages using panel data on firms from 15 Sub-Saharan African countries. Further, I evaluate the impact of electricity self-generation in ameliorating the effects of power outages on firm performance using a quasi-experimental approach. Results from the analysis reveal significant negative effects of electricity short- ages on firm productivity, size and labor employment. Finally, contrary to the notion that self-generation may be helpful for firms during outage periods, evidence from this paper suggest that reliance on self-generation is associated with productivity losses albeit short run revenue gains

Energy demand in Ghana: A disaggregated analysis

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of energy demand in Ghana by estimating demand functions for key disaggregated energy components including gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), kerosene, biomass, residual fuel oil (RFO) and electricity. Our results show that energy prices, income, urbanization and economic structure are significant demand drivers of the different energy types in Ghana with varying estimated elasticities. Further, there is evidence of high degree of inter-fuel substitution in energy demand in Ghana, particularly from gasoline, diesel and kerosene towards LPG consumption. We recommend, among different policy options, a customization of energy price subsidization policies, especially on LPG, to reduce the unintended beneficiary dilemma or spillover effect of current government policy. Other policies such as intensification of energy conservation programs and market entry of independent power trading companies to enhance energy service delivery through competition are also discussed

Financial development and economic growth in Ghana: Does the measure of financial development matter?

The aim of this paper is to investigate the long-run growth effects of financial development in Ghana. We find that the growth effect of financial development is sensitive to the choice of proxy. Both the credit to the private sector as ratios to GDP and total domestic credit are conducive for growth, while broad money stock to GDP ratio is not growth-inducing. The indexes created from principal component analysis confirmed the sensitivity of the effect to the choice of proxy. The findings here suggest that whether financial development is good or bad for growth depends on the indicator used to proxy for financial development

Corrigendum to “Energy demand in Ghana: A disaggregated analysis” [Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 53 (2016) 924–935]

The authors regret that their institutional affiliations inadvertently did not appear in the published version of the original article. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused

Effects of carnivore presence on hunting lease pricing in South Sweden

Carnivore conservation is considered essential because the species offer significant benefits to biodiversity. However, their predation on ungulates reduces ungulate populations with subsequent effects on hunters' harvests and welfare. In this paper, we use the hedonic price method to estimate the effects of large carnivores on hunting lease prices. We disentangle the impact of carnivores through their effect on game harvest from their effect on hunters' preferences. Results reveal that lynx impose a significant economic cost to owners of hunting rights due to the predation of game. On average, the implicit cost of an additional lynx family is SEK 1.51 million (EUR 0.162 million) per year, and with 95% certainty, the cost per lynx family is at least SEK 340 thousand (EUR 36.6 thousand) per year