Measuring Energy Poverty and Its Impact on Economic Growth in Pakistan

During the last two decades, energy poverty has captured the growing attention of researchers and policymakers due to its strong association with economic poverty and poor economic performance. This study uses a broad set of macro level indicators and makes the first attempt to measure energy poverty and its impact on economic growth of Pakistan over the period of 1990 to 2017. Our energy poverty indicator considers four main dimensions of energy poverty, namely, energy services, clean energy, energy governance and energy affordability. A composite value of the energy poverty index shows that although the overall energy poverty has reduced in Pakistan during the selected sample period, the country shows an increasing dependence on polluted energy supply to meet its growing energy demand. In the second stage of investigation, the study tests the neoclassical growth theory where we incorporate energy poverty along with human capital as a source of economic growth. The main findings show a stable short-run cointegration between energy poverty and economic growth. These strong negative linkages between energy poverty and economic growth for the sample economy complement the previous literature on the subject.

Measuring Energy Poverty and Its Impact on Economic Growth in Pakistan

During the last two decades, energy poverty has captured a growing attention of researchers and policymakers due to its strong association with economic poverty and poor economic performance. This study uses a broad set of macro level indicators and makes the first attempt to measure energy poverty and its impact on economic growth of Pakistan over the period 1990 to 2017. In particular, our energy poverty indicator considers four main dimensions of energy poverty, namely, energy services, clean energy, energy governance and energy affordability. Our main results show that though the overall energy poverty has reduced in Pakistan during the selected sample period, the country shows an increasing dependence on polluted energy supply in order to meet its growing demand of energy. In second stage of the investigation, we test the neoclassical growth theory where we incorporate energy poverty along with human capital as source of economic growth. Our cointegration results reveal a strong relationship between energy poverty and economic growth that is also dynamically stable in short run. These strong negative linkages between energy poverty with economic growth for the sample economy complement the previous literature on the subject.

An Integration of Neoclassical Growth Theory and Economic Structural Change with Monopolistic Competition Theory

Wealth accumulation is a deterministic factor mechanism of national economic growth. Neoclassical growth theory is basically concerned with capital and wealth accumulation in perfectly competitive market. Global markets are characterized by a great variety of markets. Nevertheless, there only a few rigorous models of wealth accumulation with other types of markets within neoclassical growth framework. This study attempts to contribute literature of economic growth by introducing monopolistic competition and monopoly into neoclassical growth theory. The model is based on a few well-established economic theories. The model is constructed within framework of the Solow-Uzawa two-sector neoclassical growth model. The description of to monopolistic competition is influenced by the Dixit-Stiglitz model of monopolistic competition. The modelling of monopoly is based on monopoly theory. We model behavior of the household with Zhang’s utility function and concepts of current income and disposable income. The unique contribution of this research is to integrate these theories in a comprehensive framework. We construct the basic model and then analyze properties of the model. The existence of a unique equilibrium point is identified by simulation. The effects of changes in some parameters comparative static analyses in some parameters.

A note on Heterodox Macroeconomics by Blecker and Setterfield

Blecker and Setterfield's new textbook from 2019 presents an updated discussion of heterodox models of growth and distribution. This note clarifies and elaborates on three important issues discussed in the book. First, the text presents mainly one-sectoral and one-technique models, which is a reasonable set-up to keep things simple but not always enough to discuss some controversial issues. Second, continuous substitution is important but not essential for neoclassical growth theory. Third, the popular Goodwin model presented in the text does not produce ‘limit cycles.’

Introduction: Chris Freeman’s “History, Co-Evolution and Economic Growth”: an affectionate reappraisal

We maintain that Chris Freeman’s approach to the study of the interplay between technical change and economic growth is still a very fertile source of insights. Alas, in much of mainstream research Freeman’s contribution is hardly considered. We show that this is a result of the basic assumptions of neoclassical growth theory (both “old” and “new”) that prevent a pregnant treatment of technical and institutional change. We conclude that if we want to make real progress with understanding the long-run dynamics of capitalist systems, Freeman’s “reasoned history” is an invaluable starting point.

Monopolies and perfect competition in Solow–Uzawa’s general equilibrium growth model

The purpose of this study is to introduce monopolies to neoclassical growth theory. This unique contribution attempts to make neoclassical economic growth theory more realistic in modelling the complexity of economic growth and development with different types of market structures. This study is based on a few well-established economic theories in the literature of economics. We frame the model on basis of the Solow–Uzawa two-sector growth model. The modelling of monopoly is based on well-developed monopoly theory. We model behavior of the household with Zhang’s concept of disposable income and utility function. The model endogenously determines profits of monopolies which are equally distributed among the homogeneous population. We build the model and then identify the existence of an equilibrium point by simulation. We conduct comparative static analyses in some parameters.

Institutions as the Driver of Economic Growth in Classic, Neoclasic and Endogenous Theory

The research in this paper focuses on the perception of institutions as the drivers of economic growth. A critical presentation of the views of classical, neoclassical and endogenous growth theorists on this issue is given. It was pointed out that the classical economic theory presented in the works of Smith, Ricardo and Malthus implies the importance of the existence of an appropriate institutional framework for initiating economic growth. The attitude of the classics is that the state can stimulate economic growth through various measures aimed at building quality institutions. On the contrary, the neoclassical growth theory has completely neglected the treatment of institutions in the analysis of economic growth. Institutions as drivers of economic growth are not taken into account in the Robert Solow’s model. However, broadly speaking, it can be assumed that the impact of institutions on the initiation of economic growth is embedded in the category of residuals and the premise of the existence of a high substitution of production factors. But, this fact, even from a distance, does not call into question the general conclusion about the unacceptable neglect of the importance of institutions in explaining the physiology of economic growth by neoclassicists. Finally, the paper emphasizes the fact that only with the emergence of an endogenous growth theory, the question of the underdevelopment of the institutions as an important model of slow economic progress of certain countries is explored. Unfortunately, the developed theoretical models of growth, which include institutions as a full concept, still do not exist in the endogenous theory of economic development.

BUSINESS CYCLES, GROWTH, AND IMPORTED ENERGY IN A SMALL-OPEN GROWTH MODEL

This paper generalizes an economic growth model proposed by Zhang (2017) by allowing all constant coefficients to be time-dependent. This paper shows existence of business cycles in the generalized model due to periodic shocks. Zhang’s original model is developed for a small open economy with imported energy and imported goods. The economy is composed of two sectors and all markets are perfectly competitive. The economy has fixed land and population. Production side is the same as in neoclassical growth theory, while demand side is modelling with Zhang’s utility and concept of disposable income. We generalize and simulate the model. We demonstrate existence of business cycles due to different exogenous periodic shocks.

Economic Growth and Inequality with Tourism in an Integrated Walrasian-General Equilibrium and Neoclassical-Growth Theory

This paper studies dynamic interdependence between economic growth, tourism, and inequalities in income and wealth in a small open economy. We build the dynamic model in an integrated Walrasian-general equilibrium and neoclassical-growth theory for a small open economy with multiple sectors and heterogeneous households in a perfectly competitive economy. The economy consists of one service sector which supplies non-traded services and one industrial sector which produces traded goods. We treat wealth accumulation and land distribution between housing and supply of services as endogenous variables. We show that the motion of the economy with J types of households is given by J nonlinear differential equations. We simulate the motion of the system with three groups of households. We also conduct comparative dynamic analysis with regards to the rate of interest, the price elasticity of tourism, the global economic condition, and the rich class’ human capital, and the rich class’ propensity to consume housing.