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1791. Policies for Funding a Response to Climate Change

Author:
Brian Roach
Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:
This paper asserts that a significant increase in public funding for climate change research and development (R) is needed in the United States. While additional public R funding alone is unlikely to provide a sufficient policy response to climate change, it is a critical policy component in an effective long-run strategy. Different possibilities for generating additional public revenues for R funding are considered. The analysis demonstrates that quite modest taxes on carbon emissions or gasoline could fund a significant increase in public R funding for clean energy. As an alternative to tax instruments, the paper also considers a program of voluntary retirement contributions to a clean energy fund. These clean energy retirement accounts (CERAs) would allow individuals to directly contribute to a fund that would be used exclusively to support climate change-related R Specifically, the paper suggests that CERA funds be used to offer low-interest loans to private firms and to form private-public partnerships pursuing the long-term development of clean energy technologies. Loan repayment and the eventual profitability of some partnerships will at least partially fund payments to CERA holders when they retire. Using reasonable assumptions, a simulation analysis demonstrates the financial feasibility of the program and the conditions in which the program would be fully self-funding.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States

1792. NATO and the challenge of non-lethal weapons

Author:
Cees M. Coops
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
The capability to apply lethal force manu militari has always been a hallmark of the military, as an instrument in the hands of their political masters to further the interests of the state. Driven by technological innovation, the means to apply lethal force and large scale destruction have been expanded tremendously over the centuries, to the extent that nation states decided that it was in their common interest to curtail or prohibit their use outright, but lethality remained as a qualifying factor. It is not surprising, therefore, that the phenomenon of Non- Lethal Weapons (NLW) was virtually non-existent during the Cold War.
Topic:
Political Violence, NATO, Science and Technology, War, and Weapons of Mass Destruction

1793. Civic Engagement on the Move

Author:
J.D. Lasica
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
Conventional wisdom holds that the growing influence of mobile media has contributed to the steady dissolution of society's civic bonds. The creeping sense of disengagement was documented recently in a Duke University study that found we are feeling far more socially isolated today than we were two decades ago. The more we hunker down by checking stocks and scores on our iPhones, sharing our photos on Flickr and jabbering into our Razr phones, the less likely we are to hold a conversation with a stranger, volunteer at a homeless shelter or join a political cause. Or so the argument goes.
Topic:
Civil Society, Democratization, Demographics, Politics, and Science and Technology

1794. Leading Without Followers: the Political Economy of Japan's ICT Sector

Author:
Kenji E. Kushida
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy
Abstract:
Despite global leadership by Japanese firms in sectors such as automobiles, precision equipment, and various high tech components, Japanese firms in the ICT sector have followed a persistent pattern of leading without followers. While leading the domestic market to ever-high levels of sophistication, sometimes beyond that of most other advanced industrial countries, Japanese ICT companies have retreated dramatically from international markets. Moreover, in technology after technology, Japanese ICT firms invest heavily, undertake extensive R, and for network technologies, deploy infrastructure rapidly, only to find that global technological trajectories shift in a different direction. While globally successful Japanese industries were able to use their domestic market as a springboard into international markets, Japan's ICT sector became decoupled from global markets, trapping Japanese firms in the domestic market.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Japan, Israel, and Asia

1795. Does Digital Divide or Provide? The Impact of Cell Phones on Grain Markets in Niger

Author:
Jenny C. Aker
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
Due partly to costly information, price dispersion across markets is common in developed and developing countries. Between 2001 and 2006, cell phone service was phased in throughout Niger, providing an alternative and cheaper search technology to grain traders and other market actors. Weconstruct a novel theoretical model of sequential search, in which traders engage in optimal search for the maximum sales price, net transport costs. The model predicts that cell phones will increase traders' reservation sales prices and the number of markets over which they search, leading to a reduction in price dispersion across markets. To test the predictions of the theoretical model, we use a unique market and trader dataset from Niger that combines data on prices, transport costs, rainfall and grain production with cell phone access and trader behavior. We first exploit the quasi-experimental nature of cell phone coverage to estimate the impact of the introduction of information technology on market performance. The results provide evidence that cell phones reduce grain price dispersion across markets by a minimum of 6.4 percent and reduce intra-annual price variation by 12 percent. Cell phones have a greater impact on price dispersion for market pairs that are farther away, and for those with lower road quality. This effect becomes larger as a higher percentage of markets have cell phone coverage. We provide empirical evidence in support of specific mechanisms that partially explain the impact of cell phones on market performance. Robustness checks suggest that the results are not driven by selection on unobservables, nor are they solely a result of general equilibrium effects. Calculations of the four-firm concentration index suggest that the grain market structure is competitive, so the observed reductions in price dispersion are not due to greater market collusion. The primary mechanism by which cell phones affect market-level outcomes appears to be a reduction in search costs, as grain traders operating in markets with cell phone coverage search over a greater number of markets and sell in more markets. The results suggest that cell phones improved consumer and trader welfare in Niger.
Topic:
Agriculture, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Africa and Nigeria

1796. Desert Power: The Economics of Solar Thermal Electricity for Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East

Author:
David Wheeler and Kevin Ummel
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
A climate crisis is inevitable unless developing countries limit carbon emissions from the power sector in the near future. This will happen only if the costs of lowcarbon power production become competitive with fossil fuel power. We focus on a leading candidate for investment: solar thermal or concentrating solar power (CSP), a commercially available technology that uses direct sunlight and mirrors to boil water and drive conventional steam turbines. Solar thermal power production in North Africa and the Middle East could provide enough power to Europe to meet the needs of 35 million people by 2020.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Europe, Middle East, and North Africa

1797. Who Buys Whom in International Oligopolies with FDI and Technology Transfer?

Author:
Leo A. Grünfeld and Francesca Sanna-Randaccio
Publication Date:
01-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
Under what conditions will a technology leader from a small country acquire a laggard from a large country, and vice versa? We answer this question with a two-firm two-country Cournot model, where firms enter new markets via greenfield FDI or acquisition. The model takes into account both technological and market size asymmetries, and allows for M transaction costs, like corporate finance and legal fees. We show that to be the acquirer, a firm from a small country needs not only a strong technological lead but also the ability to exploit it on a global scale, which requires low international technology transfer costs. Moreover, we find that a multilateral greenfield investment liberalization may actually increase the incentives for foreign acquisitions. The effect of such liberalization on the nationality of the acquirer depends largely on the extent of the technology gap.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Science and Technology

1798. Data DNA: The Next Generation of Statistical Metadata

Author:
Cynthia M. Taeuber, Daniel W. Gillman, and Laura Smith
Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
Statistical metadata is commonly defined as data about data. Metadata documents information about a statistical dataset's background, purpose, content, collection, processing, quality, and related information that an analyst needs to find, understand, and manipulate statistical data. As such, the metadata for a statistical dataset broadens the number and diversity of people who can successfully use a data source once it is released. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss issues related to the development and use of statistical metadata and to describe resources to standardize and automate statistical metadata. While there are many types of metadata – this paper is concerned only with statistical metadata.
Topic:
Development, Government, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Europe

1799. How to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions Now

Author:
Mary Graham and Elena Fagotto
Publication Date:
05-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
Support is growing in the 110th Congress for legislation to counter climate change. Yet action on any of the major cap-and-trade proposals will leave a critical policy gap. None of the proposed systems would take full effect for at least five years. Meanwhile, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase and company executives are locking in future emissions as they finalize plans for new power plants, factories and cars. The Administration's latest climate action report, circulated in draft in March 2007, estimates that a 19 percent increase in U.S. emissions between 2000 and 2020 will contribute to persistent drought, coastal flooding and water shortages in many parts of the country and around the world. This policy brief proposes that Congress legislate product-by-product and factory-by-factory disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions to create immediate incentives for companies to cut those emissions. Labeling products and disclosing factory emissions would provide market benefits now by exposing inefficiencies and informing the choices of investors, business partners, employees and consumers and would give companies the information base they need to prepare for cap-and-trade regulation.
Topic:
Development, Energy Policy, Environment, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States

1800. Innovation and Adaptability in a Digital Era: How Wealthy Nations Stay Wealthy

Author:
Tobias Schulze-Cleven, Bartholemew C. Watson, and John Zysman
Publication Date:
05-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy
Abstract:
The challenge for the advanced countries is to stay wealthy in a rapidly evolving and ever more competitive global economy. As a new digital era emerges and the mechanisms of value creation – i.e. the engines of productivity and growth – change in volatile marketplaces, wealthy nations have to find new ways to adapt. Particularly in Europe, successful adjustment has often been posed as a choice between social protection and market flexibility. In this paper, we recast this all too common framing and emphasize instead that competitive advantage for the advanced countries may be built through appropriate social policy. Upon clarifying the character of competition in the emerging digital era, we argue that the long-standing strong social protection systems particularly in many European countries could be leveraged to these countries' unique advantage in the emerging digital era. With such benefits as promoting social peace and assisting people in meeting new labour market demands, social protection systems have an important role to play in helping societies reorganize existing economic structures in support of successful adaptation to new competitive conditions.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, International Political Economy, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Europe