Authors:FLORENCE BLANCHE LIMI Abstract: The aims of this paper is to assess the effect of diversification of energy sources on quality of life in Sub-Saharan African countries from 2000 to 2015. Using the Shannon Wiener, Stirling (1999-2000) index and several estimation methods, our results show that diversification of energy sources has a positive influence on the quality of life. However, these countries should promote the diversification of energy sources through a specific structural change allowing a policy of decentralization of power generation, because improving access to energy increase in life expectancy of the population. Keywords: Energy Diversification of sources, Quality of life, Shannon Wiener Index PubDate: 2021-11-01 DOI: 10.15173/esr.v25i1.4438 Issue No:Vol. 25, No. 1 (2021)
Authors:Carlos Rodriguez, Braulio Quintero Abstract: Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States of America. As part of the political-economic arrangement between both political entities, Puerto Rico does not control the local price of oil because it does not have domestic sources of oil, and it does not control its monetary policy, as that is a right reserved by the U.S. Federal Reserve System. This paper investigates the impacts of exogenous shocks of oil price and monetary policy on the Economic Activity Index, Puerto Rico Consumer Price Index, total non-farm employment, electricity consumption, gasoline consumption, and cement sales. Impulse response functions are used to study the oil price and monetary policy shocks. The oil price shock had a more significant effect on gasoline consumption than on electricity consumption. Monetary policy shocks had a higher magnitude on electricity consumption than on gasoline consumption. The monetary policy and oil price shock had minimal effect on the aggregated endogenous variables, Economic Activity Index, and Puerto Rico Consumer Price Index. This study suggests that individuals in Puerto Rico are vulnerable to a volatile oil market. Also, both exogenous variable shocks had minimal impact on employment. As for future steps, it would be prudent to investigate the effect of both exogenous variables on individual employment sectors, not aggregated. Besides, the government of Puerto Rico should develop policies to minimize the effect of oil price shocks. PubDate: 2021-11-01 DOI: 10.15173/esr.v25i1.4621 Issue No:Vol. 25, No. 1 (2021)
Authors:Kevin Jones Abstract: This paper explores information contained in the basis for wholesale electricity on the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) electricity exchange. Utilizing Fama and French’s (1987) approach, the basis is found to have predictive power on changes in real-time (spot) prices but provides only limited evidence of a time-varying forward premium. This result contradicts Huisman and Kilic’s (2012) theory that the basis in an electricity market which relies primarily on storable forms of power for electricity production (such as MISO) should contain information on both changes in spot prices and provide evidence of a time-varying forward premium. PubDate: 2021-11-01 DOI: 10.15173/esr.v25i1.4661 Issue No:Vol. 25, No. 1 (2021)
Authors:Lucia Morales, Jim Hanly Abstract: Fossil fuels were exposed to a major shock during the Global Financial Crisis of 2007/08. This paper examines the influence of Brent Crude Oil, Natural Gas and Coal on three major European power markets (APXUK, NordPool and Phelix) during this period of uncertainty. Both univariate and bivariate frameworks are employed to evaluate, short run, long run and asymmetric power market responses to fossil fuels behaviour. The results point to a stronger relationship between fossil fuel shocks and the APXUK market across all three generational fuels, while results for Phelix are significant only in the case of coal and crude oil. For the Nordic region there is no significant evidence of a causal effect between the power market and the broader energy markets. These findings highlight that the Nordic market appears to be insulated from fossil fuel shocks thanks to its strong focus on renewables, while APXUK and Phelix were significantly exposed to fossil fuels fluctuations. PubDate: 2021-11-01 DOI: 10.15173/esr.v25i1.4248 Issue No:Vol. 25, No. 1 (2021)
Authors:Osama Alfalah, Barrak Algharabali Abstract: The objective of this paper was to investigate the determinants of gasoline demand in Kuwait and to assess their impact on consumption. We used the Standard Demand Equation (SDE), the Cointegration Techniques, and the Error Correction Model (ECM) on annual time-series data for Kuwait from 1972 to 2018. We obtained a price elasticity of -0.341 in the long-run, while the short-run price elasticity was insignificant, indicating that changes in prices had minimal or no effect on gasoline consumption in Kuwait. This may be at least in part due to consumers shifting their consumption from a higher grade of gasoline to a less expensive grade when prices changed. We also found that the income elasticity is 0.175 in the short-run and 0.234 in the long-run, indicating that income will be more effective in changing consumption in the long-run. We conclude that reducing gasoline subsidies could result in substantial governmental savings, but this may have an inequitable impact on low-income Kuwaitis. PubDate: 2021-11-01 DOI: 10.15173/esr.v25i1.4713 Issue No:Vol. 25, No. 1 (2021)
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