Unit Of Gross Domestic Product Research Articles

Oil vulnerability index of oil-importing countries

This paper assesses the relative oil vulnerability of 26 net oil-importing countries for the year 2004 on the basis of various indicators—the ratio of value of oil imports to gross domestic product (GDP), oil consumption per unit of GDP, GDP per capita and oil share in total energy supply, ratio of domestic reserves to oil consumption, exposure to geopolitical oil market concentration risks as measured by net oil import dependence, diversification of supply sources, political risk in oil-supplying countries, and market liquidity. The approach using the principal component technique has been adopted to combine these individual indicators into a composite index of oil vulnerability. Such an index captures the relative sensitivity of various economies towards developments of the international oil market, with a higher index indicating higher vulnerability. The results show that there are considerable differences in the values of individual indicators of oil vulnerability and overall oil vulnerability index among the countries (both inter and intraregional).

Analysis of Energy Consumption and Energy Intensity Indicators in Central and Eastern European Countries

This paper focuses on changes in the national economies and on the final energy consumption during the transformation period in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and other Central and Eastern European countries. One of the legacies in countries with central planning in the economy and energy sec tor is the inefficient use of energy. An increase in energy efficiency is one of the most important strategic goals in these countries. Achievements in countries with transition economies during the last decade clearly demonstrate significant progress in this area. However , the methodology of energy efficiency comparison in developed and developing countries is still under discussion . This paper present s the comparison of various indicators such as energy consumption per unit of Gross Domestic Product (GOP) and energy consumption per capita as well as their changes in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The paper also focuses on the assessment of real differences in energy efficiency in the EU- 15 countries and the new member states of the EU-25 .

06/00469 Economic reform, energy, and development: the case of Mexican manufacturing: Aguayo, F. and Gallagher, K. P. Energy Policy, 2005, 33, (7), 829–837

Given increasing concern over global climate change and national security there is a burgeoning interest in examining the relationship between economic growth and energy use in developed and developing countries. More specifically, delinking energy use per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) has fast come to be seen as in the interests of national economies and the world as a whole. Recent attention has been paid to the dramatic decreases in the energy intensity of the Chinese economy, which fell by 55 percent between 1975 and 1995 (Sinton and Fridley, 2000). Do other developing economies follow similar trajectories? This paper examines the energy intensity of the Mexican economy for the period 1988 to 1998. Although the long-term trend in Mexican energy intensity is rising, the energy intensity of the Mexican economy began to decline in 1988. This paper delineates the factors that have contributed to these reductions. Diminishing Mexican energy use per unit of GDP has been driven by significant decreases in industrial energy intensity. We show that these changes are due to changes in the composition of Mexican industrial structure, and technological change.

The Ecological Footprint Intensity of National Economies

At least three perspectives—industrial ecology (IE), ecological modernization theory (EMT), and the “environmental Kuznets curve” (EKC)—emphasize the potential for sustainability via refinements in production systems that dramatically reduce the environmental impacts of economic development. Can improvements in efficiency counterbalance environmental impacts stemming from the scale of production? To address this question we analyze cross‐national variation in the ecological footprint (EF) per unit of gross domestic product (GDP). The EF is a widely recognized indicator of human pressure on the environment. The EF of a nation is the amount of land area that would be required to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb the wastes it generates. The most striking finding of our analyses is that there is limited variation across nations in EF per unit of GDP. This indicates limited plasticity in the levels of EF intensity or eco‐efficiency among nations, particularly among affluent nations. EF intensity is lowest (ecoefficiency is highest) in affluent nations, but the level of efficiency in these nations does not appear to be of sufficient magnitude to compensate for their large productive capacities. These results suggest that modernization and economic development will be insufficient, in themselves, to bring about the ecological sustainability of societies.

Economic reform, energy, and development: the case of Mexican manufacturing

Given increasing concern over global climate change and national security there is a burgeoning interest in examining the relationship between economic growth and energy use in developed and developing countries. More specifically, decoupling energy use per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) has fast come to be seen as in the interests of national economies and the world as a whole. Recent attention has been paid to the dramatic decreases in the energy intensity of the Chinese economy, which fell by 55% between 1975 and 1995. Do other developing economies follow similar trajectories? This paper examines the energy intensity of the Mexican economy for the period 1988–1998. Although the long-term trend in Mexican energy intensity is rising, the energy intensity of the Mexican economy began to decline in 1988. This paper explores the factors that have contributed to this reduction. Diminishing Mexican energy use per unit of GDP has been driven by significant decreases in industrial energy intensity. We show that these changes have resulted from changes in the composition of Mexican industrial structure, and technological change.

Oil price movements and globalisation: is there a Connection?

There has been considerable speculation over the years concerning the cost of large oil price movements (“shocks”) to consuming countries. For the advanced industrial countries, the conventional wisdom appears to be that, because these economies are becoming more service–oriented, less energy is needed per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) and hence a lessening of the economic costs associated with increased oil prices. On the other hand, because many newly industrialised or catching–up countries are entering a phase of energy–intensive industrialisation, the same oil shocks are placing an increasing burden on these economies. One can easily argue, however, that industrialisation is only one facet of economic change taking place in the world economy. Conceivably, the rapid pace of increased globalisation may significantly modify these patterns. To test this proposition, an operational definition of globalisation is developed and shown to be positively associated with the strength of oil price shocks. The main finding of the study is that increased globalisation appears to be strengthening the impact of oil price shocks in the advanced industrial countries, but to a much lesser extent in the newly industrialising countries.

Ecological Modernization or Subversion?

The pan-European conference at Czechoslovakia's Dobris Castle in 1991 was the beginning of an unusual era of Europeanization of environmental policy. Two contrasting hypotheses have been advocated regarding the effect of Europeanization on ecological modernization in Central and Eastern Europe. On one hand, proponents of the caterpillar hypothesis expect the transition process to have led toward ecological modernization. On the other hand, proponents of the capacity-building hypothesis posit an interdependence between ecological and political modernization. Even cursory analysis of environmental performance indicates that there has been much less ecological modernization in Eastern Europe than was expected 10 years ago. In fact, what might be termed ecological subversion, involving the dismantling of environmental institutions and entailing increased pollution per unit of gross domestic product, is the pattern in several countries, hence falsifying the caterpillar hypothesis. The subtle interplay between political and ecological modernization is evident but remains to be fully clarified.

Carbon intensity and economic development 1962–1991: A brief exploration of the environmental Kuznets curve

The relationship between national carbon dioxide emissions intensity (CO 2 emitted per unit of Gross Domestic Product) and level of economic development has changed from essentially linear in 1962 to strongly curvilinear in 1991. The inverted-U curve reached statistical significance briefly in the early 1970s and increasingly since 1982. This is the result not of groups of countries passing through stages of development, but of efficiency improvements in a small number of wealthy countries combined with worse performance in poor and middle-income countries. The curvilinear relation is deepening and is likely to persist due to constraints on poorer countries in the world economy.