For Richer or Poorer: The Capture of Growth and Politics in Emerging Economies

The emerging economies Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Turkey - in short, the BRICSAMIT - have come to be considered the economic powerhouses of recent decades. Not only have these countries managed to reduce poverty; most have embarked on a steep economic growth path and play an increasingly influential role on the global scene. But today, all eight BRICSAMIT countries occupy the top ranks as some of the most unequal countries in the world. The price these countries - and millions of their citizens - pay for this is high. Excessive inequality hampers development prospects: negatively impacting growth potential, threatening poverty reduction, leading to mass migration flows and 'brain drain', and reducing opportunities for young people.This report, which was commissioned by civil society networks across the BRICSAMIT countries, aims to increase the urgency to tackle the structural causes of inequality by shedding light on the nature and scope of the issue in the BRICSAMIT, and the economic, political and social consequences these countries are now facing as a result

Energy markets and climate change

Innovations mechanisms on energy markets are discussed, in particular valorization of energy products which invokes decarbonization of energy recourses. The valorization, meaning higher value of energy products, is expressed as electrification and entry of modern renewable energy based on geothermal, wind and solar resources, entailing distributed energy systems with storage and auxiliary technologies. Consumption of electricity on grid grows along with manifold higher unit cost of electricity compared to fuels, and the distributed energy systems expands even faster though it is many times costlier than electricity on grid. The valorization can be explained by adding valuable attributes to functionalities of energy products such as consumer convenience, autonomy, flexibility silence, cleanness, and it contributes to communities’ interest through local income and jobs. The decarbonization, meaning lower carbon or more electrons per resource mass, is expressed as lower energy-intensity of economies and substitution of coal and oil for gas and gas for renewable energy. Modern renewable energy grows faster than rival fossil fuels. It doubles every 3 to 4 years in several countries. The rivalry intensifies regarding the decreasing energy-intensity of economies in many countries, albeit slowly. Extrapolation of the annual average growth rates as trends for coming last twenty five years shows increase of income and slow increase of energy consumption along with emission reduction of carbon dioxide due to renewable energy by more than 50% compared to 2015. Trends on energy markets show that mitigation of climate change is possible

Perceptions of ‘the rich’ limit the scope of tax policies in Mexico and beyond

Perceptions of poverty, wealth, and social mobility underpin policy preferences about redistribution in Mexico and beyond. But Mexicans’ desired level of equality is inconsistent with the contribution that they are willing to offer, especially at the top end of the scale. Instead of being seen as a burden, taxes should be understood as an investment in an inclusive, prosperous, and fair society, writes Alice Krozer (Colegio de México)

Innovative offices for smarter cities, including energy use and energy-related carbon dioxide emissions

Background: Concentration of knowledge work in cities generates innovations entailing economic development. This paper addresses the challenge of turning around the present trend of urban sprawl toward the concentrated knowledge work in cities. The assumption is that dislocation of office and residential housing entailing longer commuting mileage is the main cause of urban sprawl. Methods: The life cycle costs method is used for comparison of office systems. The present offices system is compared to the concentrated mega offices system outside cities, as well as the local and home offices within cities. The life cycle costs are assessed with statistical data on space, materials and energy, and information services. These are the main resources of the offices systems given labor and capital. Results: Commuting costs about 22% of the annual average wage and causes congestion, fragmentation of districts, health risks and pollution. These high costs can be reduced by changes in the office systems. The present office system with commuting adds 40% to the average labor costs. The innovative office systems reduce these costs by 15 to 28% of the present offices. Sensitivity analyses underpin the findings for nearly all urban conditions. The local office systems are particularly cost-effective. The local office system can also save nearly 78% energy and reduce 74% CO2 emission of the present offices along with less space use. Congestion, as well as fragmentation of communities and nature caused by commuting can be avoided. Conclusions: Some project developers invest in the distributed offices. Policies encourage such investments if they reallocate funds from infrastructure into refurbishing of the available housing and internalize the external effects of land use in the costs of real estate development. These policies increase smartness of cities, reduce energy use, and improve living qualities in cities

New approach to the design of Schottky barrier diodes for THz mixers

Near-ideal GaAs Schottky barrier diodes especially designed for mixing applications in the THz frequency range are presented. A diode fabrication process for submicron diodes with near-ideal electrical and noise characteristics is described. This process is based on the electrolytic pulse etching of GaAs in combination with an in-situ platinum plating for the formation of the Schottky contacts. Schottky barrier diodes with a diameter of 1 micron fabricated by the process have already shown excellent results in a 650 GHz waveguide mixer at room temperature. A conversion loss of 7.5 dB and a mixer noise temperature of less than 2000 K have been obtained at an intermediate frequency of 4 GHz. The optimization of the diode structure and the technology was possible due to the development of a generalized Schottky barrier diode model which is valid also at high current densities. The common diode design and optimization is discussed on the basis of the classical theory. However, the conventional fomulas are valid only in a limited forward bias range corresponding to currents much smaller than the operating currents under submillimeter mixing conditions. The generalized new model takes into account not only the phenomena occurring at the junction such as current dependent recombination and drift/diffusion velocities, but also mobility and electron temperature variations in the undepleted epi-layer. Calculated diode I/V and noise characteristics are in excellent agreement with the measured values. Thus, the model offers the possibility of optimizing the diode structure and predicting the diode performance under mixing conditions at THz frequencies