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This paper investigates the extent to which clients were able to influence performance measurement appraisals during the downturn in commercial property markets that began in the UK during the second half of 2007. The sharp change in market sentiment produced speculation that different client categories were attempting to influence their appraisers in different ways. In particular, it was recognised that the requirement for open-ended funds to meet redemptions gave them strong incentives to ensure that their asset values were marked down to market. Using data supplied by Investment Property Databank, we demonstrate that, indeed, unlisted open ended funds experienced sharper drops in capital values than other fund types in the second half of 2007, after the market turning point. These differences are statistically significant and cannot simply be explained by differences in portfolio composition. Client influence on appraisal forms one possible explanation of the results observed: the different pressures on fund managers resulting in different appraisal outcomes.

Der Konflikt zwischen Ökologie und Ökonomie wird dadurch unnötig verschärft, daß wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Prinzipien und Erkenntnisse bei der Gestaltung einer ökonomisch rationalen Umweltpolitik nur unzureichend berücksichtigt werden. Die Ziele der Umweltpolitik werden von der Politik häufig nicht nach ihrer tatsächlichen Dringlichkeit, sondern nach dem Kriterium ihrer Öffentlichkeitswirkung festgelegt. Beispielhaft hierfür steht die Verpackungsverordnung mit ihren Recyclingquoten, die ihrer Höhe nach mit ökonomischer Rationalität teilweise nicht mehr zu vereinbaren sind. Im Gegensatz zum Ordnungsrecht mit seinen Ge- und Verboten lassen ökonomische Instrumente im Umweltschutz (Abgaben, Steuern, handelbare Nutzungsrechte) den Betroffenen Spielraum für individuelle ökonomische Anpassungsentscheidungen. Dementsprechend werden die für den Umweltschutz aufgewendeten Ressourcen dorthin gelenkt, wo sie den größten Entlastungseffekt erzielen. Ökonomische Instrumente ermöglichen mithin mehr Umweltschutz für weniger Geld. Darüber hinaus löst der permanente Kostendruck bei Einsatz ökonomischer Instrumente Innovationsanreize aus, die bei ordnungsrechtlichem Vorgehen durch den staatlicherseits vorgeschriebenen „Stand der Technik" blockiert sind. Die Anwendung ökonomischer Instrumente in der umweltpolitischen Praxis der Bundesrepublik beschränkt sich auf wenige Ausnahmen, die zudem einer marktwirtschaftlichen Umweltpolitik kaum entsprechen. Beispielsweise büßte die 1981 als richtungsweisend konzipierte Abwasserabgabe bereits im Vorfeld der Beratungen die ihr ursprünglich zugedachte Anreizwirkung weitgehend ein. Sie wurde zu einem Vollzugsinstrument des Ordnungsrechts degradiert. Die Einführung ökonomischer Instrumente stellt eine grundlegende institutionelle Innovation dar, die die bestehenden Besitzstände verändern würde. Der für ihre Einführung erforderliche Konsens zwischen den Gesellschaftsgruppen ist daher nur schwer zu erreichen. Den praktischen Einsatzmöglichkeiten ökonomischer Instrumente sind bei realistischer Betrachtung der technischen, ökonomischen, ökologischen und rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen engere Grenzen gesetzt, als eine Betrachtung erwarten läßt, die lediglich auf die theoretische Vorteilhaftigkeit dieser Instrumente abstellt. Dennoch kann die stärkere Berücksichtigung ökonomischer Konzepte im Umweltschutz zu einem wesentlichen Fortschritt in Richtung auf eine ökonomisch rationale Umweltpolitik beitragen.

The security of energy supply has again become a similarly hot topic as it was during the oil crises in the 1970s, not least due to the recent historical oil price peaks. In this paper, we analyze the energy security situation of the G7 countries using a statistical risk indicator and empirical energy data for the years 1978 through 2007. We find that Germany's energy supply risk has risen substantially since the oil price crises of the 1970s, whereas France has managed to reduce its risk dramatically, most notably through the deployment of nuclear power plants. As a result of the legally stipulated nuclear phase-out, Germany's supply risk can be expected to rise further and to approach the level of Italy. Due to its resource poverty, Italy has by far the highest energy supply risk among G7 countries.

We make use of a bootstrap panel analysis of causality between energy use and economic growth for a sample of sixteen African countries over the period 1988-2010. Our results show that growth and energy use are strongly linked in Africa. However, African countries are heterogeneous and there is no "one way" recommendation about energy-growth relationship that may work for all countries in Africa.

The stylized model presented in this paper extends the approach developed by Fischer and Newell (2008) by analysing the optimal policy design in a context with more than one externality while taking explicitly into account uncertainty surrounding future emission damage costs. In the presence of massive uncertainties and technology spillovers, well-designed support mechanisms for renewables are found to play a major role, notably as a means for compensating for technology spillovers, yet also for reducing the investors’ risks. However, the design of these support mechanisms needs to be target-aimed and well-focused. Besides uncertainty on the state of the world concerning actual marginal emission damage, we consider the technological progress through R&D as well as learning-by-doing. A portfolio of three policy instruments is then needed to cope with the existing externalities and optimal instrument choice is shown to be dependent on risk aversion of society as a whole as well as of entrepreneurs. To illustrate the role of uncertainty for the practical choice of policy instruments, an empirical application is considered. The application is calibrated to recent global data from IEA and thus allows identifying the main drivers for the optimal policy mix. In addition to assumptions on technology costs and uncertainty of emission damage cost, the importance of technology spillover clearly plays a key role. Yet under some plausible parameter settings, direct subsidies to production are found to be of lower importance than very substantial R&D supports.

Today’s investment decisions in large-scale onshore wind projects in Germany are no longer determined only by the investment’s economic benefit, but also by concerns associated to social acceptance. Despite a mostly positive attitude towards the expansion of wind power, local public concerns often stem from the belief that the proximity to large-scale wind farms may lead to a decrease in property prices. In particular, the change in landscape caused by the construction of a wind farm may have an adverse impact on the view from some properties, and thus may negatively affect their price. To investigate the potential devaluation of properties in Germany due to wind farms, we use a quasi-experimental technique and apply a spatial difference-in-differences approach to various wind farm sites in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. We adopt a quantitative visual impact assessment approach to account for the adverse environmental effects caused by the wind turbines. To properly account for spatial dependence and unobserved variables biases, we apply augmented spatial econometric models. The estimates indicate that the asking price for properties whose view was strongly affected by the construction of wind turbines decreased by about 10-17%. In contrast, properties with a minor or marginal view on the wind turbines experienced no devaluation.

The Russian-Ukrainian crisis has revitalized the European concerns of supply disruptions of natural gas as experienced in 2006 and 2009. However, the European supply situation, regulation and infrastructure have changed since: imports are more diversified, EU member states better connected and a common regulation on the security of supply has been introduced. Nevertheless, several East European countries are highly dependent on Russian natural gas. This paper investigates different Russian natural gas export disruptions scenarios and analyses short- and long-term reactions to ensure a sufficient supply of natural gas within Europe. We use the Global Gas Model (GGM), a large-scale mixed complementarity representation of the natural gas sector with a high-level of technical granularity with respect to storage and transportation infrastructure. We find that most of the EU member states are not severely affected by a complete drop out of Russian exports. Removing infrastructure bottlenecks within the EU should still be prioritized in order to secure a sufficient natural gas supply for all EU member states.