世界経済・社会統計 = World development indicators

This paper provides an insight to the feasibility of adopting hydrogen as a key energy carrier and fuel source in the near future. It is shown that hydrogen has several advantages, as well as few drawbacks in using for the above purposes. The research shows that hydrogen will be a key player in storing energy that is wasted at generation stage in large-scale power grids by off-peak diversion to dummy loads. The estimations show that by the year of 2050 there will be a hydrogen demand of over 42 million metric tons or 45 billion gallon gasoline equivalent (GGE) in the United States of America alone which can fuel up 342 million light-duty vehicles for 51 × 1011 miles (82 × 1011 km) travel per year. The production at distributed level has also been discussed. The paper also presents the levels of risk in production, storage and distribution stages and proposes possible techniques to address safety issues. It is shown that the storage in small to medium scale containers is much economical compared to doing the same at large-scale containers. The study concludes that hydrogen has a promising future to be a highly feasible energy carrier and energy source itself at consumer level.

/pdf/hydrogen-as-an-energy-carrier-prospects-and-challenges-1ykjitdmy8.pdf

Hydrogen as an energy carrier: Prospects and challenges

We examine the effects of aid on growth in cross-sectional and panel data—after correcting for the possible bias that poorer (or stronger) growth may draw aid contributions to recipient co

/pdf/aid-and-growth-what-does-the-cross-country-evidence-really-2kylgcncmi.pdf

Aid and Growth: What Does the Cross-Country Evidence Really Show?

We estimate the effect of broadband infrastructure, which enables high-speed internet, on economic growth in the panel of OECD countries in 1996-2007. Our instrumental-variable model derives its non-linear first stage from a logistic diffusion model where pre-existing voice-telephony and cable-TV networks predict maximum broadband penetration. We find that a 10 percentage-point increase in broadband penetration raises annual per-capita growth by 0.9-1.5 percentage points. Results are robust to country and year fixed effects and controlling for linear second-stage effects of our instruments. We verify that our instruments predict broadband penetration but not diffusion of contemporaneous technologies like mobile telephony and computers.

Broadband Infrastructure and Economic Growth

This paper introduces the concepts of time-speci…c weak and strong cross section dependence. A double-indexed process is said to be cross sectionally weakly dependent at a given point in time, t, if its weighted average along the cross section dimension (N) converges to its expectation in quadratic mean, as N is increased without bounds for all weights that satisfy certain ‘granularity’ conditions. Relationship with the notions of weak and strong common factors is investigated and an application to the estimation of panel data models with an in…nite number of weak factors and a …nite number of strong factors is also considered. The paper concludes with a set of Monte Carlo experiments where the small sample properties of estimators based on principal components and CCE estimators are investigated and compared under various assumptions on the nature of the

/pdf/weak-and-strong-cross-section-dependence-and-estimation-of-4sg0174d2g.pdf

Weak and Strong Cross Section Dependence and Estimation of Large Panels

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/36478/1/590264257.pdf

The effects of oil price shocks on the Iranian economy

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/36476/1/590262629.pdf

One size fits all? Decentralization, corruption, and the monitoring of bureaucrats

The majority of theoretical and empirical studies on the relationship between decentralization and corruption argues that the devolution of power might be a feasible instrument to keep corruption at bay. We argue that this result crucially depends on the effectiveness of monitoring bureaucrat’s behavior. The benefits of interjurisdictional competition only occur if there is a supervisory body such as a free press, which is often lacking in less-developed countries. Using cross-country data, we analyze the relationship between decentralization and corruption taking different degrees of the freedom of the press into account. Our main finding is that decentralization counteracts corruption in countries with high degrees of press freedom, whereas countries without effective monitoring suffer from decentralization. Our policy implication is that a free press is a necessary pre-condition for successful decentralization programs.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1419929_code459177.pdf?abstractid=1419929&mirid=1

One Size Fits All? Decentralization, Corruption, and the Monitoring of Bureaucrats

This paper empirically studies the impact of decentralization on foreign aid effectiveness. For this purpose, we examine a commonly used empirical growth model, considering aid modality as well as different measures of political and fiscal decentralization. Our panel estimations reveal that fiscal decentralization negatively impacts aid effectiveness, while measures of political decentralization have no significant effect or even a positive one. This result is robust for grants and overall ODA, while the growth impact of other aid types is not generally conditional on decentralization. We therefore conclude that donor countries should carefully consider how both anti-poverty instruments - foreign assistance and decentralization - work together.

Decentralization and Foreign Aid Effectiveness: Do Aid Modality and Federal Design Matter in Poverty Alleviation?

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/30667/1/61076442X.pdf

Gunther Markwardt

Papers

The effects of oil price shocks on the Iranian economy

One size fits all? Decentralization, corruption, and the monitoring of bureaucrats

One Size Fits All? Decentralization, Corruption, and the Monitoring of Bureaucrats

Decentralization and Foreign Aid Effectiveness: Do Aid Modality and Federal Design Matter in Poverty Alleviation?

Aid, growth and devolution