scholarly journals The Electricity Rebound Effect: Empirical Evidence From the Chinese Chemical Industry

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Houyin Long ◽  
Hong Zeng ◽  
Xinyi Lin
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Industry ◽  
Electricity Market ◽  
Rebound Effect ◽  
Electricity Price ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Cost Information ◽  
Cost Share ◽  
Electricity Cost ◽  
The Government

The Chinese government has adopted many policies to save energy and electricity in the chemical industry by improving technology and reforming its electricity market. The improved electricity efficiency and the electricity reform may indirectly reduce expected energy and electricity savings by decreasing the effective electricity price and the marginal cost of electricity services. To analyze the above issues, this paper employs the Morishima Elasticity of Substitution of the electricity cost share equation which is estimated by the DOLS method. The results show that: 1) There exists a rebound effect in the Chinese chemical industry, but it is quite large because the electricity price is being controlled by the government; 2) the reform of the electricity market reduces the rebound effect to 73.85%, as electricity price begins to reflect cost information to some extent; 3) there is still a lot of space for the reform to improve, and the rebound effect could be reduced further once the electricity price is adjusted to transfer the market information more correctly. In order to succeed in saving electricity and decreasing the rebound effect in the chemical industry, the policy implications are provided from perspectives of the improved energy efficiency and electricity pricing mechanism.

ICT4D in China and the Capability Approach

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Ting
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Capability Approach

For more than a decade, the Chinese government has poured copious resources into rural informatization as a means to increase agricultural productivity and rural economic growth. Such efforts so far have not produced definite results in rural areas, but increasing economic inequality and rising environmental threats have already forced the government to rethink its growth-centered development policy. Indeed, recent government releases clearly state the resolve to departure from the “GDP obsession” of the past. Meanwhile, the past three decades saw the rise of a powerful alternative development approach—the Capability Approach (CA), which focuses on empowering individuals and sees economic growth as one element of well-being. Given that the CA can potentially help devising a more coherent and holistic framework for Information and communications technologies for development (ICT4D), this paper examines the compatibility between the Capability Approach and the top-down socialist approach towards rural informatization in China. Built on two case studies of rural informatization in rural China, the present paper identifies potential obstacles to the adoption of the Capability Approach and discusses policy implications and suggestions.

scholarly journals De-Capacity Policy Effect on China’s Coal Industry

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 2331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuguang Hao ◽  
Mei Song ◽  
Yunan Feng ◽  
Wen Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Production Capacity ◽  
Coal Industry ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Stable Operation ◽  
Coal Production ◽  
Quality Development ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Policy Effect ◽  
The Government

Overcapacity in China’s coal industry has serious negative impacts on the rational allocation of coal resources and stable operation of the national economy. Since 2016, the Chinese government has implemented a series of de-capacity policies to optimise coal production capacity. Timely policy effect assessment is of great significance to the government to guide high-quality development of the coal industry. This paper first reviews the dilemma encountered by China’s coal industry prior to 2016, and then analyses the progress and effect of coal industry de-capacity. The main results are as follows: (1) The capacity reduction is mainly distributed in the central and southwestern regions. Most of the coal mines are state-owned, and there is a prominent worker resettlement problem. (2) The capacity optimisation policy has accelerated the implementation of the overall spatial planning of China’s coal supply. China’s coal production centre has shifted from the central and eastern regions to the west, and the industry’s high-quality development pattern has taken shape. (3) China’s coal industrial profitability has constantly been improving, industry concentration has increased significantly, and coal mining has become safer. (4) Due to the regional heterogeneity, the de-capacity policy effect has significant differences in coal production capacity and employee reduction in various regions. Finally, regarding the optimisation of China’s coal production capacity, some policy implications are given.

Promoting Solar Panel Investments: Feed-in-Tariff vs. Tax-Rebate Policies

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 1148-1164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volodymyr Babich ◽  
Ruben Lobel ◽  
Şafak Yücel
Keyword(s):  
Problem Definition ◽  
Solar Panel ◽  
Electricity Price ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Solar Panels ◽  
Tariff Policy ◽  
Investment Cost ◽  
The Government ◽  
Practical Factors ◽  
Feed In Tariff

Problem definition: Governments have adopted various subsidy policies to promote investment in renewable energy sources such as rooftop solar panels. The German government uses a feed-in-tariff policy that provides a guaranteed stream of payments for each unit of electricity generated by a household. In contrast, the U.S. government uses a tax-rebate policy that reduces the initial investment cost, and the household receives the retail price for the generated electricity. In this paper, we study the key practical factors that favor one policy over the other from the perspective of the government. These factors are the heterogeneity in the generating efficiency, the variability in the electricity price, and the variability in the investment cost. Academic relevance: Unlike the previous literature on the feed-in-tariff and tax-rebate policies, we focus on the effects of variability on a household’s investment timing. We identify the optimal policy for the government to manage the aggregate household investment, accounting for the heterogeneity in efficiency. Methodology: We consider an infinite-horizon, continuous-time model where the government moves first and announces either a feed-in tariff or a tax rebate. Then each household dynamically decides if and when to invest in a unit of solar panels. The objective of the government is to maximize the expected value of a subsidy policy, that is, the difference between the societal benefit of solar panel investments and the subsidy cost over time. Results: We characterize the timing of the investment decision of the households and the optimal subsidy parameters for the government. We identify which practical factors favor the feed-in-tariff or the tax-rebate policy. Policy implications: Our results suggest that a government should prefer the feed-in-tariff policy when the electricity price is highly uncertain. Intuitively, feed-in-tariff policy eliminates the price variability; thus, it removes the strategic delay in the investment. The tax-rebate policy should be adopted if the households are heterogeneous in generating efficiency, if the investment cost is highly variable, or if the price and cost uncertainty are positively correlated.

scholarly journals What is Currently Driving the Growth of China’s Household Electricity Consumption? A Clustering and Decomposition Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (17) ◽  
pp. 4648
Author(s):  
Ming Meng ◽  
Shucheng Wu ◽  
Jin Zhou ◽  
Xinfang Wang
Keyword(s):  
Rebound Effect ◽  
Decomposition Analysis ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Electric Power System ◽  
Electricity Price ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Driving Factor ◽  
Consumption Growth ◽  
Effective Measure ◽  
Climate Conditions

The rapid growth of household electricity consumption is threatening the sustainable development of China’s economy and environment because of its impacts on the operation efficiency of the electric power system. To recognize the driving factors of the consumption growth and offer policy implications, based on the consumption-related data of 2015 and 2016, this research used the rank sum ratio (RSR) method to divide China’s 30 provinces into 5 groups and a logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) algorithm to decompose the composition growth of each group into the quantitative contribution of each driving factor. The following conclusions were drawn from the empirical analysis. (1) The Yangtze basin is the most vigorous region of consumption growth and should be principally monitored. (2) Climate conditions have a remarkable impact on consumption growth and should be a key consideration when making differentiated household electricity policies. (3) The rebound effect has already appeared in a few of the most developed regions. Electricity price is an effective measure in dealing with this effect. (4) The improvement of the income level is the most important driving factor for consumption growth. (5) For provinces with high growth vitality, the change in the burden level of electricity expenditure prompts consumption growth. However, for provinces with low growth vitality, the situations are opposite. (6) The impacts of electricity price and population on consumption growth are negligible.

scholarly journals Strategies for poverty alleviation supply chain with government subsidies and misreporting behavior in China

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. e0253761
Author(s):  
Fangyu Ye ◽  
Qilong Deng
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Poverty Alleviation ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Optimal Decision ◽  
Cost Information ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
Cost Coefficient ◽  
The Government ◽  
Negative Implication ◽  
Optimal Decision Making

In the poverty alleviation supply chain, subsidies for enterprises or farmers are widely implemented as part of government policy. However, subsidy fraud often occurs, such as misreporting cost information to secure subsidies. Inspired by this, our study aims to explore the optimal decision-making problem of the three-level (government + enterprises + farmers) poverty alleviation supply chain under asymmetric cost information. Four-stage models are constructed to capture the interactions among these three players. Additionally, numerical examples are used to analyze the implications of key parameters, such as cost coefficient and punitive measures coefficient, on supply chain members’ optimal decision and profit. Our findings demonstrate that both the enterprise and the farmer can obtain maximum profit from the misreporting behavior. Unfortunately, this behavior always damages the profit of other participants and weakens the efficiency of subsidy policy. Moreover, to mitigate the negative implication of misreporting behavior, the government can establish punitive measures to curtail misreporting. Our work provides important policy implications for governments and enterprises. To ensure that more consumers have access to poverty alleviation products, government organizations should prioritize such projects. In addition, the provision of public facilities and technical guidance should be more effective and prompt to share enterprises’ and farmers’ costs. We further recommend that subsidy policies be formulated according to recipients’ performance in poverty alleviation projects, with corresponding supervision and punitive measures. Finally, in cooperating with farmers in poverty alleviation, enterprises should maximize their interests and reduce costs through technological innovation and channel sharing.

Optimization of a Sawmill-Based Polygeneration Plant

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Salomón ◽  
María F. Gómez ◽  
James Spelling ◽  
Andrew Martin
Keyword(s):  
Electricity Market ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
District Heating ◽  
Electricity Production ◽  
Operational Parameters ◽  
Electricity Cost ◽  
The Government ◽  
Pelletization Plant ◽  
Annual Capacity

Biomass-based fuels have attracted worldwide interest due to their plentiful supply and their environmentally friendly characteristics. In many cases they are still considered waste but for most industries in Sweden, biomass has changed from being simply a disposal problem to become an important part of the energy supply, thanks to the long-term efforts made by the government, researchers and industry, where energy policies have played an important role. However, the amount of power that could be generated from biomass resources is much greater than that which is currently used. To effectively capture this resource requires a new generation of biomass power plants and their effective integration into already existing industrial processes. The implementation of an integrated polygeneration scheme requires the simultaneous consideration of technical, economic and environmental factors to find optimum solutions. With this in mind, a unified modeling approach that takes into account thermodynamic as well as economic and environmental aspects was used. The analysis was done using ASPEN Utilities and the MATLAB optimization toolbox. A specific case of a sawmill in Sweden, with an annual capacity of 130’000 m3 of sawn wood, has been analyzed and different options for generating electricity and process heat (for the sawmill and for a district heating network) as well as densified biofuels was analyzed. Optimization was then applied for different configurations and operational parameters. The results show that the sawmill has the capability to not only supply its own energy needs, but also to export from 0.4 to 1MW of electricity to the grid, contribute 5 to 6 MWth of district heating and 20 000 ton/y of biomass pellets. The production of pellets helps to maintain the electricity production throughout the year when the district heating demand is lower. However, the levelized electricity cost is higher than the usual electricity price in the Nordic electricity market and may have difficulty to competing with low-cost electricity sources, such as nuclear energy and hydropower. In spite of this, polygeneration remains attractive for covering the energy demands of the sawmill and pelletization plant.

How to Tell the Truth without Outraging the Press?

MedienJournal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Li Xiguang
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Stories ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Chinese News Media

The commercialization of meclia in China has cultivated a new journalism business model characterized with scandalization, sensationalization, exaggeration, oversimplification, highly opinionated news stories, one-sidedly reporting, fabrication and hate reporting, which have clone more harm than good to the public affairs. Today the Chinese journalists are more prey to the manipu/ation of the emotions of the audiences than being a faithful messenger for the public. Une/er such a media environment, in case of news events, particularly, during crisis, it is not the media being scared by the government. but the media itself is scaring the government into silence. The Chinese news media have grown so negative and so cynica/ that it has produced growing popular clistrust of the government and the government officials. Entering a freer but fearful commercially mediated society, the Chinese government is totally tmprepared in engaging the Chinese press effectively and has lost its ability for setting public agenda and shaping public opinions. 

The Problem of Agricultural Taxation in West Pakistan and an Alternative Solution: A Comment (Notes & Comments)

1973 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-437
Author(s):  
Sarfaraz Khan Qureshi
Keyword(s):  
Capita Income ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Per Capita Income ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Water Rate ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
The Government

In the Summer 1973 issue of the Pakistan Development Review, Mr. Mohammad Ghaffar Chaudhry [1] has dealt with two very important issues relating to the intersectoral tax equity and the intrasectoral tax equity within the agricultural sector in Pakistan. Using a simple criterion for vertical tax equity that implies that the tax rate rises with per capita income such that the ratio of revenue to income rises at the same percentage rate as per capita income, Mr. Chaudhry found that the agricultural sector is overtaxed in Pakistan. Mr. Chaudhry further found that the land tax is a regressive levy with respect to the farm size. Both findings, if valid, have important policy implications. In this note we argue that the validity of the findings on intersectoral tax equity depends on the treatment of water rate as tax rather than the price of a service provided by the Government and on the shifting assumptions regard¬ing the indirect taxes on imports and domestic production levied by the Central Government. The relevance of the findings on the intrasectoral tax burden would have been more obvious if the tax liability was related to income from land per capita.

scholarly journals Electricity Markets during the Liberalization: The Case of a European Union Country

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 4317
Author(s):  
Štefan Bojnec ◽  
Alan Križaj
Keyword(s):  
Electricity Markets ◽  
Electricity Market ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Primary Energy ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Daily Maximum ◽  
Energy Prices ◽  
Electricity Prices ◽  
Electricity Power

This paper analyzes electricity markets in Slovenia during the specific period of market deregulation and price liberalization. The drivers of electricity prices and electricity consumption are investigated. The Slovenian electricity markets are analyzed in relation with the European Energy Exchange (EEX) market. Associations between electricity prices on the one hand, and primary energy prices, variation in air temperature, daily maximum electricity power, and cross-border grid prices on the other hand, are analyzed separately for industrial and household consumers. Monthly data are used in a regression analysis during the period of Slovenia’s electricity market deregulation and price liberalization. Empirical results show that electricity prices achieved in the EEX market were significantly associated with primary energy prices. In Slovenia, the prices for daily maximum electricity power were significantly associated with electricity prices achieved on the EEX market. The increases in electricity prices for households, however, cannot be explained with developments in electricity prices on the EEX market. As the period analyzed is the stage of market deregulation and price liberalization, this can have important policy implications for the countries that still have regulated and monopolized electricity markets. Opening the electricity markets is expected to increase competition and reduce pressures for electricity price increases. However, the experiences and lessons learned among the countries following market deregulation and price liberalization are mixed. For industry, electricity prices affect cost competitiveness, while for households, electricity prices, through expenses, affect their welfare. A competitive and efficient electricity market should balance between suppliers’ and consumers’ market interests. With greening the energy markets and the development of the CO2 emission trading market, it is also important to encourage use of renewable energy sources.

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