Download or read book Risks Lessons Learned and Secondary Markets for Greenhouse Gas Reductions written by Donald F. Larson and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 61 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Risks Lessons Learned and Secondary Markets for Greenhouse Gas Reductions written by Donald F. Larson and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emissions trading could significantly reduce the costs of limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Complementary domestic policies to reduce fragmentation in evolving secondary markets, establish clear baselines and procedures, and strengthen host-country institutions could further reduce the risks and costs of emission limits.Collectively or individually, countries are likely to implement policies designed to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Experience from tradable quota schemes suggests that emissions trading could significantly reduce the costs of emission limits.The Kyoto Protocol provides the framework for a common trading mechanism for all countries - including countries that would not face immediate emission limits. Significantly, the Protocol places the responsibility for meeting emission limits with national governments.How policymakers choose to implement emission limits will significantly shape the incentives that drive evolving secondary markets for greenhouse-gas-based instruments. Potential market participants who were surveyed rate policy - related risk as higher than business-related risks. Domestic policies designed to reduce fragmentation in secondary markets, establish clear baselines and procedures, and strengthen host-country institutions can all help reduce the risks and costs of emission limits.This paper - a product of the Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to support more cost-effective environmental regulations. Donald Larson may be contacted at [email protected].
Download or read book Managing Climate Risk in the U S Financial System written by Leonardo Martinez-Diaz and published by U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission . This book was released on 2020-09-09 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication serves as a roadmap for exploring and managing climate risk in the U.S. financial system. It is the first major climate publication by a U.S. financial regulator. The central message is that U.S. financial regulators must recognize that climate change poses serious emerging risks to the U.S. financial system, and they should move urgently and decisively to measure, understand, and address these risks. Achieving this goal calls for strengthening regulators’ capabilities, expertise, and data and tools to better monitor, analyze, and quantify climate risks. It calls for working closely with the private sector to ensure that financial institutions and market participants do the same. And it calls for policy and regulatory choices that are flexible, open-ended, and adaptable to new information about climate change and its risks, based on close and iterative dialogue with the private sector. At the same time, the financial community should not simply be reactive—it should provide solutions. Regulators should recognize that the financial system can itself be a catalyst for investments that accelerate economic resilience and the transition to a net-zero emissions economy. Financial innovations, in the form of new financial products, services, and technologies, can help the U.S. economy better manage climate risk and help channel more capital into technologies essential for the transition. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5247742
Download or read book Risky Business written by James F. Perkaus and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report identifies three risk-management principles as particularly pertinent to greenhouse gas emissions rights: establishing transparency and disclosure rules; properly sequencing regulatory policies; and avoiding perverse incentives that result in excessive risk taking.
Download or read book Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies written by B. Eliasson and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 1999-05-20 with total page 1225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These proceedings contain 270 papers outlining ideas and contributions to the new scientific, technical and political discipline of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Control. The contributions were presented at the 4th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies (GHGT-4). It was the largest gathering of experts active in this new and fast-developing field.GHGT-4 was different from its predecessors in that it included all greenhouse gases, not only CO2, and all issues which could contribute to the mitigation of the greenhouse problem - technical, economic and political. The main focus was on practical solutions and real demonstrations of mitigation technology being planned and implemented today. It also addressed ways to increase the efficiency of power production and utilisation, and looked at proposals to encourage the development of renewable energy sources.During the Opening Session, 10 keynote addresses were heard from prominent personalities in government, industry and academia. To tackle this very inter-disciplinary problem and to achieve acceptable solutions, it is essential for industry and government to initiate intense dialogue and cooperation. Conferences like this can provide the opportunity for a meeting of minds between engineers and politicians in the face of global challenge. The primary attributes of this global challenge are manifold: the problem is global and international; it is inter-disciplinary, both in substance and approach; it covers technical, political and economic issues and involves government, science, industry and academia; it is complex and non-linear; and it will take the efforts of all parties involved to solve the problem.These proceedings contain ideas for starting demonstration projects and for making better use of the power and flexibility of market measures. They also show it is a problem we can influence and that there is a wealth of ideas. The challenge now is to find the right partners to put these ideas into action.
Download or read book The Clean Development Mechanism CDM written by Ariel Dinar and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2013 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, countries took up the difficult task of finding a common approach that would slow down the build-up of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere and delay changes to the planet''s climate. A widespread concern among many of the participants in the newly formed United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was that the emission reductions needed to significantly affect climate change would cost so much that it could jeopardize the chances of a coordinated international solution. To address this concern, several flexible mechanisms were designed, including the CDM.While many applaud the CDM, others are concerned with its performance and achievements, and whether or not it will be continued beyond 2012. Critics argue, among other things, that it has not delivered on the sustainable development objective for which it was established and that projects are unevenly distributed, both geographically and sectorally.Much analysis is available on CDM, but very little comprehensive analysis, addressing various aspects of CDM is available. With a major decision for its continuation, a multi-dimensional analysis would be needed. This book is about the economic assessment of certain (not certain) CDM performances, and its future sustainability and trajectory.
Download or read book Energy Derivatives written by Peter C. Fusaro and published by Energy Publishing Enterprises dba. This book was released on 2000 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The new finanacial markets for energy trading are growing globally. Financial derivatives now influence energy price formation for oil, gas and electricity. The power of the Internet is driving these global changes more rapidly and adding more price volatility. This book is the second of three books on energy trading and risk management written by best selling author Peter C. Fusaro. It covers the key new markets of emissions trading, weather driving, electronic energy trading, bandwidth trading and electricty and gas trading in Europe.
Download or read book Ten Years of Post socialist Transition Lessons for Policy Reform written by Grzegorz W. Kolodko and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Relative Effects of Skill Formation and Job Matching on Wage Growth in Ethiopia written by Taye Mengistae and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: April 1999 - Estimated age and job seniority profiles of wages and marginal productivity in Ethiopia suggest that both skill formation and job matching significantly affect growth of wages and productivity over time. However, job matching is by far the more important of the two sources of growth in wages and productivity. Mengistae analyzes production and labor market data for a random selection of small to medium-size firms in Ethiopia to answer two questions: Does a worker's marginal productivity increase with time in the labor market or with job seniority, as must be the case if on-the-job skill formation or job matching has anything to do with the dynamics of wages observed in the data? Assuming that marginal productivity grows with experience or seniority, is skill formation more or less important than job matching as a source of growth in productivity? The main feature of Mengistae's analysis is the joint regression of the log of the average product of hours in a firm and the log of average hourly earnings of a firm's employees on the shares of experience-seniority cells of workers in total annual hours in the firm. Marginal productivity falls as experience in the labor market passes the 15-year mark, but the expected marginal product of a mobile worker with 16 or more years of experience is still nearly 80 percent higher than that of the base group. The between-jobs growth of hourly wages with potential experience is also large, but not as large as growth in marginal productivity for workers with less than 15 years of experience. Mengistae concludes that job matching is far more important than skill formation as a source of growth in productivity. Net mobility gains account for at least twice the share of the return to skill formation in the observed between-jobs growth of wages with market experience. The rate of return to skills formation is higher in the United States than in Ethiopia. The relative return to skills formation is probably lower in Ethiopia partly because the flow of information about the labor market is more restricted there. This paper-a product of the Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to identify firm-level sources of growth in productivity. The author may be contacted at [email protected].
Download or read book The Theory of Access Pricing written by Tommaso M. Valletti and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2001 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book What Triggers Market Jitters written by Graciela Laura Kaminsky and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Movements in stock prices in East Asia during the crisis in 1997-98 were triggered by both local and neighbor-country news. Having the highest impact was news about agreements with international organizations and credit rating agencies. But some changes seem to have been driven by herd instincts in the market itself, including overreactions to bad news. In the chaotic financial environment of East Asia in 1997-98, daily changes in stock prices of as much as 10 percent became commonplace. Kaminsky and Schmukler analyze what type of news moved the market in those days of extreme market jitters. They find that movements are triggered by both local and neighbor-country news. News about agreements with international organizations and credit rating agencies have the most weight. Some of those large changes in stock prices, however, cannot be explained by any apparent substantial news but seem to be driven by herd instincts in the market itself. On average, the one-day market rallies are sustained while the largest one-day losses are recovered - suggesting that investors overreact to bad news.
Download or read book Mutual Funds and Institutional Investments written by Estelle James and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: One of the biggest criticisms leveled at defined contribution individual account (IA) components of social security systems is that they are too expensive. This paper investigates the cost-effectiveness of three options for constructing funded social security pillars: 1) IA's invested in the retail market with relatively open choice, 2) IA's invested in the institutional market with constrained choice among investment companies, and 3) a centralized fund without individual accounts or differentiated investments across individuals. Our questions: What is the most cost-effective way to organize a mandatory IA system, how does the cost of an efficient IA system compare with that of a single centralized fund, and are the cost differentials large enough to outweigh the other important considerations? Our answers, based on empirical evidence about mutual and institutional funds in the U.S.: The retail market (option 1) allows individual investors to benefit from scale economies in asset management, but at the cost of high marketing expenses that are needed to attract and aggregate small sums of money into large pools. In contrast, a centralized fund (option 3) can be much cheaper because it achieves scale economies without high marketing costs, but gives workers no choice and hence is subject to political manipulation and misallocation of capital. Mandatory IA systems can be structured to get the best of both worlds: to obtain scale economies in asset management without incurring high marketing costs or sacrificing worker choice. To accomplish this requires centralized collections, a modest level of investor service and constrained choice. The system of constrained choice described in this paper (option 2) is much cheaper than the retail market and only slightly more expensive than a single centralized fund. We estimate that it will cost only .14-.18% of assets annually. These large administrative cost savings imply a Pareto improvement so long as choice is not constrained too much.'
Download or read book Self employment and Labor Turnover written by Tom Krebs and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Approaches to Liberalizing Services written by Sherry Stephenson and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: May 1999 - Liberalization of services at the subregional level has followed two broad approaches-the GATS model and the NAFTA model-neither of which automatically guarantees the full liberalization of trade in services. The question that participants in integration efforts at both the subregional and the broader regional level must ask is what kind of approach to liberalizing services offers both maximum transparency and the greatest degree of nondiscrimination for service suppliers. Only since completion of the Uruguay Round have developing countries in East Asia and the Western Hemisphere shown interest in liberalizing services. Ambitious efforts are now being made to incorporate services in liberalization objectives of both subregional and regional integration efforts, including in the Asia-Pacific region under APEC and in the Western Hemisphere under the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) process. At the subregional level, member countries of both ASEAN (in East Asia) and MERCOSUR (in Latin America) have chosen to follow the liberalization model set forth in the World Trade Organization's (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and to open their services markets gradually and piecemeal. In the Western Hemisphere, Mexico has successfully promoted the NAFTA model of a more comprehensive liberalization of services markets-and several Latin American countries have adopted the same approach. Regionally, APEC has chosen a concerted voluntary approach to liberalizing services markets. Within the Western Hemisphere, participants are defining which approach they will use in the negotiations on services launched as part of the FTAA in April 1998. In all these efforts, a stated desire to promote more efficient services markets is often hindered by reluctance to open services markets rapidly or comprehensively because of historically entrenched protectionism in the sector and ignorance of the regulatory measures that impede trade in services. Presumably it would be easier to liberalize services at the subregional level, among countries at similar stages of development (although liberalization's economic value there might be questioned). Liberalizing services at the broader regional level is a difficult and ambitious goal, given the diversity of countries involved in such efforts. Thus liberalization will probably move more slowly at the regional than at the subregional level-perhaps even more slowly than at the multilateral level. It is possible that the new round of multilateral talks on services scheduled to begin under the WTO in 2000 may well eclipse the recently begun regional efforts. This paper-a product of Trade, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to assist developing countries in the multilateral trade negotiations. The author may be contacted at [email protected].
Download or read book Subjective Economic Welfare written by Martin Ravallion and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 43 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: April 1999 - As conventionally measured, current household income relative to a poverty line can only partially explain how Russian adults perceive their economic welfare. Other factors include past incomes, individual incomes, household consumption, current unemployment, risk of unemployment, health status, education, and relative income in the area of residence. Paradoxically, when economists analyze a policy's impact on welfare they typically assume that people are the best judges of their own welfare, yet resist directly asking them if they are better off. Early ideas of utility were explicitly subjective, but modern economists generally ignore people's expressed views about their own welfare. Even using a broad set of conventional socioeconomic data may not reflect well people's subjective perceptions of their poverty. Ravallion and Lokshin examine the determinants of subjective economic welfare in Russia, including its relationship to conventional objective indicators. For data on subjective perceptions, they use survey responses in which respondents rate their level of welfare from poor to rich on a nine-point ladder. As an objective indicator of economic welfare, they use the most common poverty indicator in Russia today, in which household incomes are deflated by household-specific poverty lines. They find that Russian adults with higher family income per equivalent adult are less likely to place themselves on the lowest rungs of the subjective ladder and more likely to put themselves on the upper rungs. But current household income does not explain well self-reported assessments of whether someone is poor or rich. Expanding the set of variables to include incomes at different dates, expenditures, educational attainment, health status, employment, and average income in the area of residence doubles explanatory power. Healthier and better educated adults with jobs perceive themselves to be better off, controlling for income. The unemployed view their welfare as lower, even with full income replacement. Individual income matters independent of per capita household income. Relative income also matters. Living in a richer area lowers perceived economic welfare, controlling for income and other factors. This paper-a product of Poverty and Human Resources, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to better understand the relationship between objective and subjective economic welfare. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project Policies for Poor Areas (RPO 681-39). The authors may be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected].
Download or read book Life During Growth written by William Easterly and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The progress of life during growth is surprisingly uneven. This paper reaches this conclusion with a panel dataset of 95 indicators covering up to 4 time periods (1960, 1970, 1980, and 1990). The indicators cover 7 subjects: (1) individual rights and democracy, (2) political instability and war, (3) education, (4) health, (5) transport and communications, (6) inequality across class and gender, and (7) "bads". Virtually all of these indicators show quality of life across nations to be positively associated with per capita income. However, when country effects are removed using either fixed effects or an estimator in first differences, I find that the effects of growth on "life" are uneven and often nonexistent. Moreover, exogenous time shifts are more important than growth effects in the majority of indicators. With the fixed effects estimator, growth has an impact on the quality of life that is significant, positive, and more important than exogenous shifts for 12 out of 95 indicators. With a first-differences IV estimator, growth has a causal impact on the quality of life that is significant, positive, and more important than exogenous shifts for 7 out of 79 quality of life. The conclusion speculates about such explanations for the uneven results as (1) the long and variable lags that may come between growth and changes in the quality of life, and (2) the possibility that world growth is more important than home country growth for many quality of life indicators.
Download or read book Decentralization in Regional Fiscal Systems in Russia written by Lev M. Freinkman and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 57 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: April 1999 - Considering the positive impact decentralization has had on regional economic performance and expenditure structure, Russia's federal government should: Decisively protect local self-governance and budget autonomy; Make intergovernmental fiscal relations more transparent; Develop universal models of interactions between regional and municipal governments; Impose stricter limits on total debt and budget deficits of subnational governments. To shed light on decentralization in Russia, Freinkman and Yossifov examine intergovernmental fiscal relations within regions. To analyze trends, they review channels of fiscal allocation within regions-tax sharing and local transfer schemes. To evaluate the potential impact of various fiscal decentralization patterns on regional economic performance (including growth and the budget deficit), they study data on the structure of 89 Russian consolidated regional budgets for 1992-96. They find that local governments' relative share of Russia's consolidated budget, although substantive (roughly a quarter of the total budget), did not expand after 1994. The federal government's relative role in financing public goods and services declined as the relative role of local governments increased substantially. Local governments collected more revenues in 1996 (6.4 percent of GDP) and spent more than regional governments. They also substantially increased social financing (including health, education, and social protection). Russia made no progress toward a more transparent system for tax assignments. The average level of expenditure decentralization is similar for ethnically Russian regions and national republics and okrugs but revenue arrangements differ greatly. True decentralization has taken place in oblasts and krais, where local authorities are provided with a bigger share of subnational tax revenues. A redistribution model applies in republics and autonomous okrugs, where greater local outlays have been financed through larger transfers from regional governments. Regions near each other tend to have similar budget arrangements-the result of intensive interactions between neighbors and probably supported by the activities of regional associations. The size of a region's territory does not influence decentralization outcomes. Fiscal decentralization seems positively related to the share of education spending in regional budgets. And regions with more decentralized finances tend to experience less economic decline. But budget control is weaker in more decentralized regions. Instability and lack of transparency in intergovernmental fiscal relations provide subnational governments little incentive for responsible fiscal policy. Further decentralization without greater transparency could bring greater debt and deficits. This paper-a product of the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Sector Unit, Europe and Central Asia Region - is part of a larger effort in the unit to study fiscal decentralization in transition economies. Lev Freinkman may be contacted at [email protected].