Household Energy consumption pattern in rural Kerala

The present thesis critically analyzes the micro level issues that influence the rural household energy behavior in Kerala. The aim of the study is to examine the energy consumption pattern at the household level in rural Kerala and to assess the variations in rural household energy consumption pattern across geo-climatic and socio-economic clusters. The researcher assess the attitudes of the rural households towards energy sources, uses and devices. The study tries to identify the factors influencing the adoption of energy conservation practices and shift to the improved energy

The Economics of Rubber Based Industry in Kerala

The importance of industrialisation in achiering rapid economic growth has been recognised in India's development strategy ever since the inception of economic planning in the country. Being the secondary sector in the generation of national income. industry contributes significantly to the process of economic development. Extensive debates have taken place on the nature of the industrialisation strategy to be pursued in the economy since Independence. This is reflected in the industrial policy which evolved through the various five year plans and policy resolutions. Stupendous efforts have been made by the government since the commencement of planning and particularly since the 1960s to industrialise the Indian economy and develop the infrastructural base for sustained industrial development. It is difficult to assess the performance of the industrial sector over the past three decades with respect to the broad objectives of industrialisation. However. there are certain areas in which the achievements have been clearly significant.

World Health Organization dietary norms: a quantitative evaluation of potential consumption impacts in the United States, United Kingdom, and France

The member countries of the World Health Organization have endorsed its Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity, and Health. We assess the potential consumption impacts of these norms in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom using a mathematical programming approach. We find that adherence would involve large reductions in the consumption of fats and oils accompanying large rises in the consumption of fruits, vegetables, and cereal. Further, in the United Kingdom and the United States, but not France, sugar intakes would have to shrink considerably. Focusing on sub-populations within each country, we find that the least educated, not necessarily the poorest, would have to bear the highest burden of adjustment.

Food consumption impacts of adherence to dietary norms in the United States: a quantitative assessment

Promotion of adherence to healthy-eating norms has become an important element of nutrition policy in the United States and other developed countries. We assess the potential consumption impacts of adherence to a set of recommended dietary norms in the United States using a mathematical programming approach. We find that adherence to recommended dietary norms would involve significant changes in diets, with large reductions in the consumption of fats and oils along with large increases in the consumption of fruits, vegetables, and cereals. Compliance with norms recommended by the World Health Organization for energy derived from sugar would involve sharp reductions in sugar intakes. We also analyze how dietary adjustments required vary across demographic groups. Most socio-demographic characteristics appear to have relatively little influence on the pattern of adjustment required to comply with norms, Income levels have little effect on required dietary adjustments. Education is the only characteristic to have a significant influence on the magnitude of adjustments required. The least educated rather than the poorest have to bear the highest burden of adjustment. Out- analysis suggests that fiscal measures like nutrient-based taxes may not be as regressive as commonly believed. Dissemination of healthy-eating norms to the less educated will be a key challenge for nutrition policy.

Does consumption-wealth ratio signal stock returns? VECM results for Germany

This paper studies the signalling effect of the consumption−wealth ratio (cay) on German stock returns via vector error correction models (VECMs). The effect of cay on U.S. stock returns has been recently confirmed by Lettau and Ludvigson with a two−stage method. In this paper, performance of the VECMs and the two−stage method are compared in both German and U.S. data. It is found that the VECMs are more suitable to study the effect of cay on stock returns than the two−stage method. Using the Conditional−Subset VECM, cay signals real stock returns and excess returns in both data sets significantly. The estimated coefficient on cay for stock returns turns out to be two times greater in U.S. data than in German data. When the two−stage method is used, cay has no significant effect on German stock returns. Besides, it is also found that cay signals German wealth growth and U.S. income growth significantly.

Inflation and income inequality: a shopping-time aproach: (Forthcoming, Journal of Development Economics)

Our work is based on a simpliÖed heterogenous-agent shoppingtime economy in which economic agents present distinct productivities in the production of the consumption good, and di§erentiated access to transacting assets. The purpose of the model is to investigate whether, by focusing the analysis solely on endogenously determined shopping times, one can generate a positive correlation between ináation and income inequality. Our main result is to show that, provided the productivity of the interest-bearing asset in the transacting technology is high enough, it is true true that a positive link between ináation and income inequality is generated. Our next step is to show, through analysis of the steady-state equations, that our approach can be interpreted as a mirror image of the usual ináation-tax argument for income concentration. An example is o§ered to illustrate the mechanism.

Saving-capm: uma proposta de solução para o equity premium puzzle do consumption-capm

Em 1985, Mehra e Prescott levantaram uma questão que até hoje não foi respondida de forma satisfatória: o prêmio de risco das ações americanas é muito maior do que poderia ser explicado pelo “paradigma neoclássico de finanças econômicas” (financial economics) representado pelo modelo C-CAPM. E, a partir de então, este problema não resolvido ficou conhecido como o “Equity Premium Puzzle” (EPP) ou o “Enigma do Prêmio (de risco) das Ações”. Este enigma estimulou a produção de uma série de artigos, dissertações e teses que tentaram ajustar os modelos intertemporais de utilidade esperada aos dados dos mercados financeiros. Dentro deste contexto, esta tese busca (i) revisar a evolução histórica da teoria dos modelos de maximização da utilidade intertemporal dos agentes, (ii) analisar os pressupostos e conceitos chaves desses modelos, (iii) propor um novo modelo que seja capaz de solucionar o EPP, (iv) aplicar este modelo proposto aos dados históricos anuais entre 1929 e 2004 e (v) validar a lógica deste modelo através das metodologias Mehra-Prescott e Hansen-Jagannathan. Esta tese faz uma crítica de que os estudos até aqui desenvolvidos tentaram explicar a dinâmica de um mercado financeiro altamente sofisticado, através de um modelo de economia não-monetária e de subsistência. Assim, a sua contribuição consiste na alteração desse pressuposto de uma economia de subsistência, considerando que a renda disponível do setor privado não seja integralmente consumida, mas que também possa ser poupada. Assumindo que as pessoas obtêm satisfação (utilidade) tanto pelo consumo atual como pela poupança atual (que será o consumo futuro), será deduzido que a utilidade marginal de consumir é igual à de poupar, em todo e qualquer período. Com base nisso, a utilidade marginal a consumir é substituída pela utilidade marginal de poupar dentro do modelo básico do C-CAPM. Para reforçar a idéia de que o modelo desta tese usa dados de poupança em vez de consumo, ao longo do trabalho ele será chamado de Sanving-CAPM, ou S-CAPM. Este novo modelo mostrou-se capaz de solucionar o EPP quando submetidas às abordagens Mehra-Prescott e Hansen-Jagannathan.

Testing consumption optimality using aggregate data

The objective of this paper is to test for optimality of consumption decisions at the aggregate level (representative consumer) taking into account popular deviations from the canonical CRRA utility model rule of thumb and habit. First, we show that rule-of-thumb behavior in consumption is observational equivalent to behavior obtained by the optimizing model of King, Plosser and Rebelo (Journal of Monetary Economics, 1988), casting doubt on how reliable standard rule-of-thumb tests are. Second, although Carroll (2001) and Weber (2002) have criticized the linearization and testing of euler equations for consumption, we provide a deeper critique directly applicable to current rule-of-thumb tests. Third, we show that there is no reason why return aggregation cannot be performed in the nonlinear setting of the Asset-Pricing Equation, since the latter is a linear function of individual returns. Fourth, aggregation of the nonlinear euler equation forms the basis of a novel test of deviations from the canonical CRRA model of consumption in the presence of rule-of-thumb and habit behavior. We estimated 48 euler equations using GMM, with encouraging results vis-a-vis the optimality of consumption decisions. At the 5% level, we only rejected optimality twice out of 48 times. Empirical-test results show that we can still rely on the canonical CRRA model so prevalent in macroeconomics: out of 24 regressions, we found the rule-of-thumb parameter to be statistically signi cant at the 5% level only twice, and the habit ƴ parameter to be statistically signi cant on four occasions. The main message of this paper is that proper return aggregation is critical to study intertemporal substitution in a representative-agent framework. In this case, we fi nd little evidence of lack of optimality in consumption decisions, and deviations of the CRRA utility model along the lines of rule-of-thumb behavior and habit in preferences represent the exception, not the rule.

The economics of demand-led growth: theory and evidence for Brazil

Includes bibliography

The economics of climate change in Latin America and the Caribbean: Paradoxes and challenges of sustainable development

The robust growth of Latin American and Caribbean economies in recent years has led to an improvement in economic and social conditions in the region. It has also had collateral negative effects, however, such as more air pollution in urban areas and a serious deterioration of various natural assets, including non-renewable resources, water resources and forests. There are economies and societies within the region that are highly vulnerable to all sorts of adverse impacts of climate change, and whose production structures and consumption patterns still tend to leave a large carbon footprint. This situation has reached the point of undermining the foundations of the region’s economic buoyancy. Latin America and the Caribbean therefore needs to make the transition in the years to come towards a sustainable form of development that will preserve its economic, social and natural assets for future generations and leave them with a legacy of a more equal, more socially inclusive, low-carbon form of economic growth. Viewed from this standpoint, the climate change challenge is also a sustainable development challenge, and if it is to be addressed successfully, a global consensus that recognizes the asymmetries and paradoxes of the problem will have to be reached..

Consumption Diagnosis of Sweet Cassava in three Municipalities in Cuba

Cassava is an important staple food for human and animal feeding in Cuba. Despite its importance, there is little or nonexistent information to diagnose preferences and frequency of consumption of cassava in that country. In this sense, the present article characterizes the preferences and frequency of consumption of cassava in the municipalities of Plaza de la Revolución-La Habana province, El Salvador–Guantanamo province and San José de Las Lajas–Mayabeque province in Cuba. A survey was conducted through a questionnaire containing twelve closed and two open questions. The sample was determined based on the number of total population of each municipality considering 95% as confidence interval and 5% as error margin. The results were statistically analyzed by calculating the absolute and the relative frequencies of each question. It was observed that the acquisition of cassava in the municipalities of Plaza de la Revolución, El Salvador and San José de las Lajas in Cuba is done by purchase small quantities of fresh cassava for home consumption within one week, due to the extreme perishability of cassava, which limits consumers' ability to store fresh roots at home. The choice of cassava is made based on both skin colour (light brown) and pulp (white) and empirical knowledge about its ease of cooking, and that cassava is mostly consumed in boiled and fried forms up to four times a week in times where there is root market supply with the desirable culinary characteristics (cooking facility), that is, from September to December.

Essays in behavioral economics

In this work we conduct an experimental analysis on different behavioral models of economic choice. In particular, we analyze the role of overconfidence in shaping the beliefs of economics agents about the future path of their consumption or investment. We discuss the relevance of this bias in expectation formation both from a static and from a dynamic point of view and we analyze the effect of possible interventions aimed to achieve some policy goals. The methodology we follow is both theoretical and empirical. In particular, we make large use of controlled economic field experiments in order to test the predictions of the theoretical models we propose. In the second part of the thesis we discuss the role of cognition and personality in affecting economic preferences and choices. In this way we make a bridge between established psychological research and novel findings in economics. Finally, we conduct a field study on the role of incentives on education. We design different incentive schemes and we test, on randomized groups of students, their effectiveness in improving academic performance.

Three Essays in Spatial Economics

This work contributes to the field of spatial economics by embracing three distinct modelling approaches, belonging to different strands of the theoretical literature. In the first chapter I present a theoretical model in which the changes in urban system’s degree of functional specialisation are linked to (i) firms’ organisational choices and firms’ location decisions. The interplay between firms’ internal communication/managing costs (between headquarters and production plants) and the cost of communicating with distant business services providers leads the transition process from an “integrated” urban system where each city hosts every different functions to a “functionally specialised” urban system where each city is either a primary business center (hosting advanced business services providers, a secondary business center or a pure manufacturing city and all this city-types coexist in equilibrium.The second chapter investigates the impact of free trade on welfare in a two-country world modelled as an international Hotelling duopoly with quadratic transport costs and asymmetric countries, where a negative environmental externality is associated with the consumption of the good produced in the smaller country. Countries’ relative sizes as well as the intensity of negative environmental externality affect potential welfare gains of trade liberalisation. The third chapter focuses on the paradox, by which, contrary to theoretical predictions, empirical evidence shows that a decrease in international transport costs causes an increase in foreign direct investments (FDIs). Here we propose an explanation to this apparent puzzle by exploiting an approach which delivers a continuum of Bertrand- Nash equilibria ranging above marginal cost pricing. In our setting, two Bertrand firms, supplying a homogeneous good with a convex cost function, enter the market of a foreign country. We show that allowing for a softer price competition may indeed more than offset the standard effect generated by a decrease in trade costs, thereby restoring FDI incentives.

Essays in Health Economics

In the first chapter we develop a theoretical model investigating food consumption and body weight with a novel assumption regarding human caloric expenditure (i.e. metabolism), in order to investigate why individuals can be rationally trapped in an excessive weight equilibrium and why they struggle to lose weight even when offered incentives for weight-loss. This assumption allows the theoretical model to have multiple equilibria and to provide an explanation for why losing weight is so difficult even in the presence of incentives, without relying on rational addiction, time-inconsistency preferences or bounded rationality. In addition to this result we are able to characterize under which circumstances a temporary incentive can create a persistent weight loss. In the second chapter we investigate the possible contributions that social norms and peer effects had on the spread of obesity. In recent literature peer effects and social norms have been characterized as important pathways for the biological and behavioral spread of body weight, along with decreased food prices and physical activity. We add to this literature by proposing a novel concept of social norm related to what we define as social distortion in weight perception. The theoretical model shows that, in equilibrium, the effect of an increase in peers' weight on i's weight is unrelated to health concerns while it is mainly associated with social concerns. Using regional data from England we prove that such social component is significant in influencing individual weight. In the last chapter we investigate the relationship between body weight and employment probability. Using a semi-parametric regression we show that men and women employment probability do not follow a linear relationship with body mass index (BMI) but rather an inverted U-shaped one, peaking at a BMI way over the clinical threshold for overweight.