Efficient Policymaking Research Articles

Measuring the savings from energy efficiency policies: a step beyond program evaluation

Recent worldwide events are producing growing agreement that rapid, large-scale energy efficiency is a necessary, feasible, and economical way of reducing the need for new energy supplies. Yet, many obstacles must be overcome for commitments to energy efficiency to be successful, perhaps none more important than measuring policy-related energy savings. To address this topic, this paper provides several examples of how readily available MWH sales data can be employed to monitor and verify energy efficiency policies and detect changes in trends at the state and utility levels. The analyses used for this kind of savings verification are collectively referred to in this paper as counterfactual simulation. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the practicality and value in using standardized research designs and econometric models to inform energy efficiency policymakers and the public as to the benefits of energy efficiency policies.

Conflicting Interests in Environmental Policy-making?

This paper focuses on possible conflicts of interests between the political aims of reduced emissions from energy consumption, redistribution of welfare and efficient policy-making. We use the results from a LES estimation to calculate the consumption reductions, compensating variations and excess tax burdens of three different tax schemes: one linear and two non-linear. Unless the tax scheme is optimally designed to correct for externalities, there is a conflict of interests between the aims of reduced consumption and efficient policy-making. When ranking different tax schemes, there is a conflict between the aims of redistributing welfare and reduced consumption if we are concerned with the well-being of individual households, but not if we are concerned only with the mean household in different parts of the income distribution.

Has Monetary Policy Become More Efficient? A Cross‐Country Analysis

Over the past twenty years, macroeconomic performance has improved in industrialized and developing countries alike. In a broad cross-section of countries inflation volatility has fallen markedly while output variability has either fallen or risen only slightly. This increased stability can be attributed to either: 1) more efficient policymaking by the monetary authority, 2) a reduction in the variability of the aggregate supply shocks, or 3) changes in the structure of the economy. In this paper we develop a method for measuring changes in performance, and allocate the source of performance changes to these two factors. Our technique involves estimating movements toward an inflation and output variability efficiency frontier, and shifts in the frontier itself. We study the change from the 1980s to the 1990s in the macroeconomic performance of 24 countries and find that, for most of the analyzed countries, more efficient policy has been the driving force behind improved macroeconomic performance.

Simulating demographic and socioeconomic processes on household level and implications for giant panda habitats

Human activities have significantly affected wildlife habitats. Although the ecological effects of human impacts have been demonstrated in many studies, the socioeconomic drivers underlying these human impacts have seldom been studied. We developed a household-based, stochastic, and dynamic model that simulates the impacts of household demographic and socioeconomic interactions on fuelwood use, a key factor affecting the quantity and quality of habitats for the giant pandas ( Ailuropoda melanoleuca). Using Wolong Nature Reserve (China) as a case study, this model mimics household production and consumption processes and integrates various demographic and socioeconomic factors. Household interviews conducted in 1998 within the Reserve provided the data for parameterization. The simulation results fit well with both the data used in constructing the model and with a set of independent data. Age structure and cropland area were found to be the most sensitive factors in terms of fuelwood consumption, and thus deserve more attention in panda habitat conservation. This model could help reserve managers to understand the interrelationships among local economy, local cultural traditions, and habitat degradation, facilitating more scientific and economically efficient policymaking.

Lay Knowledge and Public Participation in Technological and Environmental Policy

The aim of this paper is to attempt to answer a key question of current STS scholarship and activism alike. Namely, what role should lay knowledge play in an adequate managing of technology and environment-related issues? On the basis of the intrinsic limitations of expert knowledge, the potential utility of local knowledge, and the need for political legitimacy, we argue for an active role for lay knowledge in technological and environmental policymaking. In our view, public participation should not end with a political sensitivity to public perceptions or public opinion; it should actively involve lay knowledge in order to achieve firm political legitimacy and a technically efficient policymaking in environment or technology-related issues. In the second part of this paper, we will apply our general argument to a case study of forestry policy: the so-called "eucalyptus problem" in Asturias, northern Spain.