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I study the economic implications of the world oil market dominated by OPEC and non-OPEC major oil producing countries using a general equilibrium model of trilateral trade with oil duopoly. There are three countries and three goods, x, y, and oil (z). Home (H) is endowed with good x . Foreign (F) is endowed with good y and also produces oil (z). Middle (M) is an oil producing country and supplies oil only. I consider two types of oil market structure; (1) Cournot duopoly and (2) perfect competition. I find that Foreign is actually worse off under Cournot duopoly despite being a duopolist for wide range of parameter values that reflect real world situations. This is mainly due to reduced consumption of oil and reduced value of good y endowment under duopoly when Foreign is a net oil exporter or oil autarky, and is also due to worsening terms-of-trade effect under duopoly when Foreign is a net oil importer. Welfare reversal with higher welfare of Foreign under oil duopoly occurs only under highly unrealistic parameter values, and hence the main results of the study remain robust.

The outbreak and the spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted the global financial sector, including the alternative clean and renewable energy sector. This paper aims to assess the impact of the pandemic, COVID-19 on the stock market indices of the clean energy sector using quantile regression methods.

This study utilized daily data sets on the four major categories of stocks: (1) Morgan Stanley Capital International Global Alternative Energy Index, (2) WilderHill Clean Energy Index, (3) Renewable Energy Industrial Index (RENIXX) and (4) the S&P 500 Global Clean Index. The study adopts a multifactor capital asset pricing model.

Clean and alternative energy stocks are powerful instruments for diversification. However, the impact of the volatility index induced by infectious disease is negative and significant across quantiles.

For investors and policymakers, considering how the uncertainty caused by COVID-19 and the geopolitical index influences renewable energy markets is of great practical importance. For investors, it throws insights into portfolio diversification. For policy makers, it helps to devise strategies to reboot the economy along the lines of the deployment of renewables. This study sheds light on a global green-energy transition and has practical implications for renewable energy resilience in post-pandemic times.

This paper can be considered as a pioneer that explores the nexus between oil prices, interest rates, volatility index, and geopolitical risk upon the stock indices of clean and alternative sources of (renewable) energy in the COVID-19 pandemic situation. The results have important insights into the area of energy and policy decision-making. Additionally, the paper's novelty lies in using the explanatory variables associated with the Covid 19 pandemic.

Using cross-sectional household survey data, this paper aims to determine the impact of food price increases on poverty in Indonesia.

This paper uses the quadratic almost ideal demand system applied to the 2013 Indonesian household survey data. The impact of food price increase on household welfare is calculated using a welfare measure, compensating variation.

Three food groups with the most outstanding price impact on poverty, rice, vegetables and fish, were studied. The 20% increase in the price of each food group causes an increase in the headcount ratio by 1.360 points (rice), 0.737 points (vegetables) and 0.636 points (fish). Maintaining food price stability for these food groups is very important because the more the price increases, the more the impact on poverty. Food price policies in rural areas are also more critical than in urban areas because the impact of food price increases in rural areas is higher.

This paper does not consider the positive impact of rising food prices on food-producing households.

Implementing appropriate poverty alleviation policies through food policies for main food groups and social protection.

Promoting rural development policies and agricultural growth.

This paper contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical results regarding the impact of domestic food prices increase on poverty in Indonesia.

This paper aims to explore the extreme effect of crude oil price fluctuations and its volatility on the economic growth of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. It also investigates the asymmetric and dynamic relationship between oil price and economic growth. Further, a separate analysis for each MENA oil-export and oil-import countries is conducted. Furthermore, it studies to what extent the quality of institutions will change the effect of oil price fluctuations on economic growth.

As the effect of oil price fluctuations is not the same over different business cycles or oil price levels, the paper uses a panel quantile regression approach with other linear models such as fixed effects, random effects and panel generalized method of moments. The panel quantile methodology is an extension of traditional linear models and it has the advantage of exploring the relationship over the different quantiles of the whole distribution.

The paper can summarize results as following: changes in oil price and its volatility have an opposite effect for each oil-export and oil-import countries; for the former, changes in oil prices have a positive impact but the volatility a negative effect. While for the latter, changes in oil prices have a negative effect but volatility a positive effect. Further, the impact of oil price changes and their uncertainty are different across different quantiles. Furthermore, there is evidence about the asymmetric effect of the oil price changes on economic growth. Finally, accounting for institutional quality led to a reduction in the impact of oil price changes on economic growth.

The study concludes more detailed results on the impact of oil prices on gross domestic product growth. Thus, it can be used as a decision-support tool for policymakers.

The so-called “oil price war” of 2014-2016 took place between several main global oil producers; OPEC (led by Saudi Arabia), Russia and the newcomer; American tight oil or fracking oil. These oil producers were competing against each other over market shares in the global oil market, by maintaining their high oil production rates, even if this led to a decline in oil prices and a reduction in revenues from oil sales. As energy politics need more coverage in International Political Economy (IPE) theory, this paper aims to argue that Saudi Arabia's policies during the oil price war of 2014-2016 reflected a policy of neomercantilism, which is the IPE equivalent of the school of realism in International Relations (IR).

This paper tests for neomercantilism by testing three of its main definitional components. The first definitional component is that the state, as the political authority, intervenes in the economic decisions. The second component is the primacy of the state interests over business corporate profits, or the primacy of political and security considerations over short-term economic and corporate profit considerations. The third is the zero-sum or relative gains nature of dealings between states. Afterwards, this paper tests for neomercantilism in the Saudi policy by examining how each of these definitional components is reflected in the Saudi policy during the oil price war.

As energy politics need more coverage in International Political Economy (IPE) theory, this paper argues that Saudi Arabia's policies during the oil price war of 2014-2016 reflected a policy of neomercantilism, which is the IPE equivalent of the school of realism in International Relations (IR).

As energy politics need more coverage in International Political Economy (IPE) theory, this paper argues that Saudi Arabia's policies during the oil price war of 2014-2016 reflected a policy of neomercantilism, which is the IPE equivalent of the school of realism in International Relations (IR).

This research investigates how subsidy programs in Vietnam's residential electricity market affect consumers' well-being.

Two perspectives are employed: cash transfer and quantity-based subsidy. The effectiveness of cash transfer is measured in three ways: benefit incidence, beneficiary incidence and materiality. The quantity-based subsidy is established under the increasing block rate pricing, with the first two block rates being lower than the marginal cost. To improve the quantity-based subsidy, the research examines the consumer surplus under four proposals.

The results show that both types of subsidies are ineffective in supporting the poor.

In order to achieve a more equal distribution among households, the subsidy program should remove all subsidized blocks and reflect the full marginal cost. Changes should be made to the price structure regarding both marginal price and intervals.

To mitigate the impact of the quantity-based subsidy, the government should improve the cash transfer by reducing extortion and improving targeting efficiency, especially for poor households living in rented houses.

This paper is the first to discuss the welfare effect of the electricity subsidy in Vietnam. First, it comprehensively evaluates the cash transfer subsidy in Vietnam. Second, it suggests a modification in the residential electricity tariff.

Among the many factors fueling the inflationary tendencies in an economy such as monetary shocks, structural shocks, demand shocks, external shocks and demographic changes, the issue of inflation (INF) has also been found to be related to fiscal policy decisions of the government. The purpose of this study is to investigate the inflationary tendencies in India particularly from the fiscal point of view. The study also examines the influence of other potential determinants such as output growth rate, interest rate, trade-openness (TO) and oil price inflation (OPI).

To examine the dynamic nature of association between fiscal deficit and inflation, the study applies the Toda-Yamamoto (1995) test and Breitung and Candelon (2006) test to investigate the nature of causality in time and frequency domain frameworks. In addition, to scrutinize the possibility of a long-run association, that too from an asymmetric point of view, the study applies a Non-linear Autoregressive Distributed lag model (NARDL) given by Shin et al. (2014). Finally, non-linear cumulative dynamic multipliers are used to trace the traverse between disequilibrium position of short-run and subsequent long-run equilibrium of the system.

The authors found a unidirectional causality from fiscal deficit to inflation in case of time domain analysis and no feedback causality is reported. However, in case of frequency domain design, causality from fiscal deficit to inflation is found at low frequencies only, i.e. no short-run causality is established and hence dynamic nature of the relationship between the two variables is vindicated. Using NARDL model, the results document the existence of an asymmetric long-run direct association between fiscal deficit and inflation. However, an increase in deficit is found to be more inflationary and a decrease affects the inflation with a lower magnitude. The asymmetric impact of fiscal deficit on inflation can be explained through the existence of liquidity constraints, consumption-investment downward inflexibility and the downward price stickiness. Contractionary monetary policy action is found to be more effective than an expansionary one, signifying the asymmetric influence of monetary policy actions on the inflation of India. Similarly, in a supply-constrained economy with downward price rigidity, the authors found an asymmetric impact of output growth and output decline on inflation. As regard to the trade-openness, although an asymmetry is reported, the signs refute the validation of Romer (1993) hypothesis. Finally, the impact of oil price inflation on the inflationary pressures is according to theory but the coefficients are devoid of statistical significance.

These results indicate some important policy recommendations. Fiscal consolidation strategy should be executed in an appreciable manner to achieve the sound fiscal health and lower INF. The disciplined fiscal strategy would also be imperative for an effective monetary policy. Monetary authorities should possess noticeable credibility to manage the macroeconomic system and policy stances should be implemented according to requirements of the economy. Growth in output should be encouraged to have two-fold benefits to the economy – reducing INF on the one hand and fiscal deficits on the other.

The study contributes to the existing literature in the following ways. First, taking note of dynamic nature of the relationship between these two variables, the study examined the deficit INF nexus in a dynamic and asymmetric framework. The novelty of the study is ensured by the very nature of it is the first study in case of India to identify the fiscal INF in an asymmetric configuration. The authors applied a NARDL model, given by Shin et al. (2014) to examine the existence of any cointegrating relationship in an asymmetric paradigm. Second, the nature of causality between fiscal deficit and INF has been examined in a time domain and FD framework to portray precisely the casual interactions between these two variables in the short-run and long run. The study will, therefore, enrich the existing literature along the asymmetric lines.

This study aims to identify the marginal impact of introducing a signal attribute of pasture-raised beef on consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for other independent attributes.

The study is divided into two steps. The first, qualitative, consisted of investigating the values consumers have regarding beef production. To this end, 52 interviews with Brazilian and US consumers were conducted using laddering. In the second, quantitative, six experiments, (face to face and online) with 267 consumers of beef were performed.

As a result, the main value found for the Brazilians was security, while for the Americans was self-direction. For consumers, the WTP for animal welfare was the most important in the choice experiments where this information was present.

These findings offer an alternate beef differentiation, enabling it to be sold with higher added value by integrating these.

This study aims to examine the effects of energy consumption on economic growth by means of a panel data analysis of 75 net energy-importing countries for the period 1990 to 2012.

For the purpose of the analysis, the countries are classified into two groups, and each group is then classified into subgroups. The first group is formed based on the energy import dependence of the countries and is classified into two subgroups according to whether their dependence is greater than or less than 50 per cent. The second group is formed based on the income level of the countries and is classified into four subgroups, specifically, low-income economies, lower-middle-income economies, upper-middle-income economies and high-income economies.

The findings obtained for both panel data and for each country indicate that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between energy consumption and economic growth over the long term such that energy consumption contributes more to economic growth as the import dependence of the country decreases. Moreover, the effect of energy consumption on economic growth decreases as the income level of the country increases. This indicates that the efficient use of energy is as important as energy consumption, which is regarded as an important indicator of economic development.

The authors expect that these findings will make a valuable contribution to the results of future studies, as they analyze the relationships among the variables by including the energy intensities of the countries.

Este estudio examina los efectos del consumo de energía en el crecimiento económico, mediante un análisis de datos de panel de 75 países importadores netos de energía para el período 1990-2012.

A los efectos del análisis, los países se clasifican en dos grupos y cada grupo luego se clasifica en subgrupos. El primer grupo se forma en base a la dependencia de los países en materia de importación de energía y se clasifica en dos subgrupos según su dependencia sea superior o inferior al 50%. El segundo grupo se forma sobre la base del nivel de ingresos de los países y se clasifica en cuatro subgrupos: economías de ingresos bajos, economías de ingresos medios-bajos, economías de ingresos medios-altos y economías de ingresos altos.

Los hallazgos obtenidos, tanto para los datos de panel como para cada país, indican que existe una relación positiva y estadísticamente significativa entre el consumo de energía y el crecimiento económico a largo plazo, de modo que el consumo de energía contribuye más al crecimiento económico a medida que disminuye la dependencia de las importaciones del país. Además, el efecto del consumo de energía en el crecimiento económico disminuye a medida que aumenta el nivel de ingresos del país. Esto indica que el uso eficiente de la energía es tan importante como el consumo de la misma, que se considera un indicador importante del desarrollo económico.

Los autores esperan que estos hallazgos aporten una valiosa contribución para estudios futuros, ya que analizan las relaciones entre las variables mediante la inclusión de las intensidades de los países.

Consumo de energía, Crecimiento económico, Importadores netos de energía, Panel de datos

Artículo de investigación

Energy is a driving force of economic development in the modern world, while as a commodity group it holds the greatest share of the world seaborne trade. Oil, natural gas and coal are the three most important sources of energy for the European Union which, as a bloc, represents 17% of the total energy consumption. The aim of the present paper is to explore the economics and trade issues of these three major energy commodities and investigate the role of the maritime transport in the energy trade within the context of the EU-25. A number of factors are considered in order to discuss contemporary opportunities and challenges that arise in this context for the shipping business. The examination reveals the critical dependence of EU-25 energy supply on seaborne trade and the considerable reliance of the maritime transport on such commodities for the generation of shipping business within the realms of the EU-25. Among the parameters regarded as conducive to the demand of shipping services in the context of the EU energy trade are the energy demand factor, the import dependency factor, the cost effective production element, and seaborne trade related parameters while consideration is also given to environmental issues.