Evaluating the impact of energy and environment on economic growth in BRI countries

This study investigates the impact of renewable energy consumption (REC), nonrenewable energy consumption (NREC), and carbon emissions on economic growth in 133 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries from 1996 to 2020. We divided our sample into four income groups. For empirical estimation, this study employs panel quantile regression (PQR), and fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) estimation techniques. The results confirm that REC have a positive impact on economic growth and NREC has a negative impact on economic growth. A 1% increase in REC and carbon emissions results in an increase in economic growth of 0.108% and 1.085%, respectively. A 1% increase in NREC reduces economic growth by 0.263% in the full sample countries. There are regional differences, although NREC has a positive impact on economic growth in all income groups in the long run. These novel empirical findings will help policymakers design energy policies to fulfill the target of economic growth in BRI countries.

Econometric Modeling to Measure the Efficiency of Sharpe’s Ratio with Strong Autocorrelation Portfolios

Sharpe’s ratio is the most widely used index for establishing an order of priority for the portfolios to which the investor has access, and the purpose of this investigation is to verify that Sharpe’s ratio allows decisions to be made in investment portfolios considering different financial market conditions. The research is carried out by autoregressive model (AR) of the financial series of returns using Sharpe’s ratio for evaluations looking over the priority of financial assets which the investor can access while observing the effects that can cause autocorrelated series in evaluation measures for financial assets. The results presented in this study confirm the hypothesis proposed in which Sharpe’s ratio allows decisions to be made in the selection of investment portfolios under normal conditions thanks to the definition of a robustness function, whose empirical estimation shows an average 73% explanation of the variance in the degradation of the Spearman coefficient for each of the performance measures; however, given the presence of autocorrelation in the financial series of returns, this similarity is broken.

The Influence of Gender Equality on Volunteering Among European Senior Citizens

This research analyzes how gender equality influences the participation of European senior citizens in a range of volunteering activities (Social Awareness, Professional and Political, Education, and Religion). The main contribution is the simultaneous consideration of different levels of data aggregation: individual, national and welfare system. This allows conclusions to be drawn on the effects of variables linked to sociodemographic characteristics, gender equality and welfare systems. The empirical estimation utilised microdata from the World Values Survey (2005/09 and 2010/14) and the United Nations Development Programme. Results suggest that the European senior citizens appear to believe that they are more equal than the official statistics of their countries indicate. Men are more likely to participate in professional and education activities; women are more likely to be involved in religious organisations. Welfare systems influence volunteering behaviours. The promotion of macro-policies for gender equality could be important for increasing participation in non-profit organisations.

Feasibility-Based Design Model For Road Vertical Alignment

Road vertical alignment design is a multi-objective design problem that needs to consider multiple constraints. Intelligent design based on optimization algorithms cannot wholly solve problems, such as multi-objective, uncertainty, and constraint dynamics. The article proposes a model of dynamically transforming design constraints into feasible regions as the design develops, to provide decision information before design actions rather than performing constraint evaluation after the design that reduces the empirical estimation. The design actions are divided into new design actions and modifying design actions, and corresponding feasible regions derived from constraints of design specifications and control elevations are established, respectively. Geometrical equations and program algorithms of feasible regions are described in the graphic environment, which is applied to the vertical alignment design to improve the design efficiency and decision-making level.

Empirical Estimation of the Energy Impacts of Projects Installed through Residential Property Assessed Clean Energy Financing Programs in California

We examine the energy use impacts of energy efficiency and solar PV projects financed by residential property assessed clean energy (R-PACE) programs in California. We leverage household-level interval meter data to apply normalized metered energy consumption (NMEC) methods at significant scale—more than 25,000 electric meters and more than 15,000 gas meters. We develop a comparison group to account for non-project-related changes in usage. The projects include homes that replaced existing HVAC equipment with higher-efficiency units and homes that installed central heating or air conditioning equipment for the first time. We have limited information on pre-project household equipment stock so we develop a method to infer new installations. We find that projects that installed energy efficiency technologies reduce electricity consumption by approximately 3% and gas consumption by approximately 3.5% on average. When we remove homes that installed new cooling and heating equipment for the first time, savings rise to approximately 5% for electricity and approximately 6% for gas. Given the California climate and the results of an existing study of similar California projects, these results are in line with expectations. Solar PV projects produce electricity that offsets approximately 69% of household electricity consumption on average. We estimate that California R-PACE projects installed through the end of 2019 produce annual reductions in grid-tied electricity consumption of 506 GWh (equivalent to the electricity consumption of approximately 74,000 California households) and gas consumption reductions of 2 million therms (equivalent to the gas consumption of approximately 4700 California households) in a typical weather year.

Socio-cultural integration of first generation immigrants in Greece

We analyze the socio-cultural integration (SCI) of first generation immigrants as the outcome of economic integration and regularization. We focus on Greece for which similar evidence do not exist and report SCI levels and the factors that are conducive to them. We construct a simple socio-cultural integration index and analyze its variation against pre and post migration factors, using a sample of 200 first generation immigrants in Greece. Robust empirical estimation techniques are applied. Results reveal interesting findings with regard to immigrants’ types of adaptation to the host community. On a zero to ten scale, average SCI levels are estimated at 5.7 (± 2.5) which is high in absolute terms but low in terms of the degree (type) of integration. After controlling for the socio-demographic profile of the respondents, naturalization and their time living in Greece, we find that education and employment status are the most important determinants of socio-cultural integration.

Accounting for Inequality Aversion Can Justify the 2◦ C Goal

Impact assessment models are a tool largely used to investigate the benefit of reducing polluting emissions and limiting the anthropogenic mean temperature rise. However, they have been often criticised for suggesting low levels of abatement. Countries and regions, that are generally the actors in these models, are usually depicted as having standard concave utility functions in consumption. This, however, disregards a potentially important aspect of environmental negotiations, namely its distributive implications. The present paper tries to fill this gap assuming that countries\regions have Fehr and Schmidt (1999) (F&S) utility functions, specifically tailored for including inequality aversion. Thereby, we propose a new method for the empirical estimation of the inequality aversion parameters by establishing a link between the well known concept of elasticity of marginal utility of consumption and the F&S utility functions, accounting for heterogeneity of countries/regions. By adopting the RICE model, we compare its standard results with the ones obtained introducing F&S utility functions, showing that, under optimal cooperation, the level of temperature rise is significantly lower in the last scenario. In particular, in the last year of the simulation, the optimal temperature rise is 2.1 ◦ C. Furthermore, it is shown that stable coalitions are easier to be achieved when F&S preferences are assumed, even if the advantageous inequality aversion parameter (altruism) is assumed to have a very low value. However, self–sustaining coalitions are far from reaching the environmental target of limiting the mean temperature rise below 2 ◦ C despite the adoption of F&S utility functions.