scholarly journals Asymmetric Incentives in Subsidies: Evidence from a Large-Scale Electricity Rebate Program

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koichiro Ito
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
Regression Discontinuity Design ◽  
Air Conditioner ◽  
Negative Externalities ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Effectiveness Analysis ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Short Run

Many countries use substantial public funds to subsidize reductions in negative externalities. Such policy designs create asymmetric incentives because increases in externalities remain unpriced. I investigate the implications of such policies by using a regression discontinuity design in California's electricity rebate program. Using household-level panel data, I find that the incentive produced precisely estimated zero treatment effects on energy conservation in coastal areas. In contrast, the rebate induced short-run and long-run consumption reductions in inland areas. Income, climate, and air conditioner saturation significantly drive the heterogeneity. Finally, I provide a cost-effectiveness analysis and investigate how to improve the policy design. (JEL D12, D62, H76, L94, L98, Q48)

Regression Discontinuity in Time: Considerations for Empirical Applications

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 533-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Hausman ◽  
David S. Rapson
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Economics ◽  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Autoregressive Process ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Regression Discontinuity Design ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Air Quality Data

Recent empirical work in several economic fields, particularly environmental and energy economics, has adapted the regression discontinuity (RD) framework to applications where time is the running variable and treatment begins at a particular threshold in time. In this guide for practitioners, we discuss several features of this regression discontinuity in time framework that differ from the more standard cross-sectional RD framework. First, many applications (particularly in environmental economics) lack cross-sectional variation and are estimated using observations far from the temporal threshold. This common empirical practice is hard to square with the assumptions of a cross-sectional RD, which is conceptualized for an estimation bandwidth shrinking even as the sample size increases. Second, estimates may be biased if the time-series properties of the data are ignored (for instance, in the presence of an autoregressive process), or more generally if short-run and long-run effects differ. Finally, tests for sorting or bunching near the threshold are often irrelevant, making the framework closer to an event study than a regression discontinuity design. Based on these features and motivated by hypothetical examples using air quality data, we offer suggestions for the empirical researcher wishing to use the RD in time framework.

scholarly journals Effectiveness of a Power Factor Correction Policy in Improving the Energy Efficiency of Large-Scale Electricity Users in Ghana

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (13) ◽  
pp. 2582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Lotsu ◽  
Yuichiro Yoshida ◽  
Katsufumi Fukuda ◽  
Bing He
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Power Factor ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
Power Factor Correction ◽  
Energy Crisis ◽  
Regression Discontinuity Design ◽  
The Government ◽  
Power Factor Improvement ◽  
The Impact

Confronting an energy crisis, the government of Ghana enacted a power factor correction policy in 1995. The policy imposes a penalty on large-scale electricity users, namely, special load tariff (SLT) customers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), whose power factor is below 90%. This paper investigates the impact of this policy on these firms’ power factor improvement by using panel data from 183 SLT customers from 1994 to 1997 and from 2012. To avoid potential endogeneity, this paper adopts a regression discontinuity design (RDD) with the power factor of the firms in the previous year as a running variable, with its cutoff set at the penalty threshold. The result shows that these large-scale electricity users who face the penalty because their power factor falls just short of the threshold are more likely to improve their power factor in the subsequent year, implying that the power factor correction policy implemented by Ghana’s government is effective.

scholarly journals Tourism taxes and negative externalities in tourism in australia: A CGE approach

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 200-214
Author(s):  
Ranjith Ihalanayake
Keyword(s):  
General Equilibrium ◽  
Computable General Equilibrium ◽  
International Tourism ◽  
Cge Model ◽  
Negative Externalities ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Tourism Sector ◽  
Australian Economy ◽  
Short Run

In this paper we analyse general equilibrium effects of an increase in a tourism tax which we hypothetically designed to internalise negative externalities of international tourism in Australia. Several simulations were carried out using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Australian economy. The simulations were carried out assuming two different economic environments, the short-run and the long-run. The simulation results suggest that due to an increase in tourism taxes, the international tourism sector tends to contract while the other sectors expand. Overall, an increase in tourism taxes appears to be welfare improving in the long-run though it generates a marginal contraction in overall economic activities in the short run.

scholarly journals Election Administration, Resource Allocation, and Turnout: Evidence From Kenya

2020 ◽  
pp. 001041402093808
Author(s):  
J. Andrew Harris
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Resource Allocation ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
Regression Discontinuity Design ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Election Administration ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Policy Choices

Decisions about how to organize and run an election can shape political participation. Policy choices may distribute election resources unequally, skewing voting outcomes. In low- and middle-income countries where electoral capacity and resources are scarce and decision-making highly centralized, election administration has the potential to shape results on a large scale. In the context of Kenya’s August 2017 elections, I study the consequences of a legislated threshold that determines the capacity of polling centers to quickly serve voters by reducing election-day lines. Using a regression discontinuity design, I find that turnout is 2.4% lower in congested polling places just below the threshold relative to polling places above the threshold. Relative to other hypothetical thresholds, the chosen threshold benefits the incumbent president, as incumbent strongholds receive more polling resources than opposition areas. The results demonstrate how electoral resource allocation shapes political behavior and election outcomes.

scholarly journals Endogenous viral mutations, evolutionary selection, and containment policy design

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Mellacher
Keyword(s):  
Policy Design ◽  
Viral Evolution ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Evolutionary Selection ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Evolutionary Advantage ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Containment Policy ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

AbstractHow will the novel coronavirus evolve? I study a simple epidemiological model, in which mutations may change the properties of the virus and its associated disease stochastically and antigenic drifts allow new variants to partially evade immunity. I show analytically that variants with higher infectiousness, longer disease duration, and shorter latent period prove to be fitter. “Smart” containment policies targeting symptomatic individuals may redirect the evolution of the virus, as they give an edge to variants with a longer incubation period and a higher share of asymptomatic infections. Reduced mortality, on the other hand, does not per se prove to be an evolutionary advantage. I then implement this model as an agent-based simulation model in order to explore its aggregate dynamics. Monte Carlo simulations show that a) containment policy design has an impact on both speed and direction of viral evolution, b) the virus may circulate in the population indefinitely, provided that containment efforts are too relaxed and the propensity of the virus to escape immunity is high enough, and crucially c) that it may not be possible to distinguish between a slowly and a rapidly evolving virus by looking only at short-term epidemiological outcomes. Thus, what looks like a successful mitigation strategy in the short run, may prove to have devastating long-run effects. These results suggest that optimal containment policy must take the propensity of the virus to mutate and escape immunity into account, strengthening the case for genetic and antigenic surveillance even in the early stages of an epidemic.

scholarly journals Rice trade policy and productivity: empirical evidence from Nigeria’s Rice sub-sector

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-106
Author(s):  
Ogheneruemu Obi-Egbedi ◽  
Olaide A Akin-Olagunju ◽  
Isaac B Oluwatayo
Keyword(s):  
Exchange Rate ◽  
Trade Policy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Producer Price ◽  
Vector Error Correction ◽  
Rice Productivity ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Error Correction Modeling ◽  
Rice Trade

Low productivity, modest production and large-scale importation characterize Nigeria’s rice subsector despite government intervention through trade policy measures since independence. Studies on Nigeria’s trade policy and rice productivity are scanty in the literature. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of the country’s rice trade policy on rice productivity from 1961-2017, employing the Vector Error Correction Modeling approach. The results show that protectionist trade policy reduced rice productivity in the short run but was not significant in the long run. Producer price and domestic consumption improved rice productivity in the short run although, the latter reduced productivity in the long run. Similarly, fertilizer consumption and exchange rate reduced productivity in the short run but exchange rate increased productivity in the long run. Thus, government should focus on exchange rate, liberalized trade policy and appropriate fertilizer policy to improve Nigeria’s rice productivity.

scholarly journals Milk Production Response in Pakistan

2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-121
Author(s):  
Mohammad Pervez Wasim
Keyword(s):  
Milk Production ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Relative Price ◽  
Livestock Farming ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Farm Mechanization ◽  
Short Run ◽  
High Level

In third world countries, where the level of mechanization in agriculture is low, livestock rearing is mainly for draught purpose. On the other hand, the use of animals for draught purpose is low in developed countries owing to the high level of farm mechanization and the animals are mainly reared for the consumption of meat and milk. Milk production in Pakistan is an important enterprise for over five million households owning buffaloes and cattle. Supply response of livestock has been undertaken mostly in developed countries. In developing countries livestock farming is not done on a large scale basis. This study is an attempt to obtain the best estimates of the response of milk producers while making a decision about production allocation of milk in Pakistan. The main objectives of the study are: (1) to test whether Pakistani milk producers respond to price movements (2) to estimate the elasticities of production with respect to milk producers: (a) relative price (b) credit and lagged production (c) to make a comparison of short-run and long-run price elasticities with that of developed and underdeveloped countries (d) to identify policy measures. The study is based on secondary data at the Pakistan level and covers a period of 31 years, starting from 1971-72 to 2002-03. Marc Nerlove’s (1958) partial adjustment lagged model is used for the study. The result of the analysis reveals that in the process of making the production decisions for milk production, all the variables (relative price, credit availability and lagged milk production) are equally important.

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