• Energy Research

The renewable energy resources (RER) have been known, and some of them have even been used, for many thousands of years, and the contemporary science has turned them lately into a more effective, comfortable and economical means of production of energy. The particularities of the basic kinds of alternative energy resources are brought forward as well as the policies carried out in different countries in support of their wider implementation and usage.

This paper examines the relationship between spot and futures prices for energy commodities (crude oil, gasoline, heating oil markets and natural gas). In particular, we examine whether futures prices are (1) an unbiased and/or (2) accurate predictor of subsequent spot prices. We find that while futures prices are unbiased predictors of future spot prices, with the exception those in the natural gas markets at the 3-month horizon. Futures do not appear to well predict subsequent movements in energy commodity prices, although they slightly outperform time series models.

Une evaluation avec un modele mondial d’equilibre general. Dans un monde d’efficacite paretienne (ou de premier rang), l’internalisation des externalites telles que la pollution peut etre realisee par des taxes ou par des marches de permis, aussi bien dans un pays qu’a l’echelle internationale. La taxe environnementale est alors egale au cout social marginal de reduction des emissions de pollution, c’est-a-dire a la perte economique entrainee par une variation unitaire des emissions.

Hungary, one of the leading in the reforms countries from South Europe, bravely privatizes the energy sector with foreign capital. While in West as a result of the liberalization reached was a plenty of electrical energy and strong decrease of the tariffs, in Hungary it led to surplus of powers, but there is a long way to go till reaching lower tariffs. Now the country faces the challenges to liberalize the energy market, meeting all the problems accompanying this process.

Este documento presenta un estudio sobre la demanda de combustibles en el Perú, uno de los componentes más relevantes dentro del mercado de hidrocarburos derivados, identificándose que su evolución está marcada por las fluctuaciones del precio del petróleo en el mercado mundial debido al pequeño tamaño de al economía doméstica, y a la carga tributaria a la cual están sometidos los combustibles.

This paper surveys the history of the oil industry with a particular focus on the events associated with significant changes in the price of oil. Although oil was used much differently and was substantially less important economically in the nineteenth century than it is today, there are interesting parallels between events in that era and more recent developments. Key post-World-War-II oil shocks reviewed include the Suez Crisis of 1956-57, the OPEC oil embargo of 1973-1974, the Iranian revolution of 1978-1979, the Iran-Iraq War initiated in 1980, the first Persian Gulf War in 1990-91, and the oil price spike of 2007-2008. Other more minor disturbances are also discussed, as are the economic downturns that followed each of the major postwar oil shocks.

The total debt of the oil and gas sector globally stands at roughly $2.5 trillion, two and a half times what it was at the end of 2006. The recent fall in the oil price represents a significant decline in the value of assets backing this debt, introducing a new element to price developments. In common with other episodes of retrenchment induced by rapid declines in asset values, greater leverage may have amplified the dynamics of the oil price decline. The high debt burden of the oil sector also complicates the assessment of the macroeconomic effects of the oil price decline because of its impact on capital expenditure and government budgets, and due to the interaction with a stronger dollar.

Reducing the emission of greenhouse gases to reduce climate change is high on the policy agenda. Discounted costs of reduction are estimated to be substantial. They depend on the employment of various flexibility mechanisms that affect these costs. One of these flexibility mechanisms is the so-called when-flexibility stressing the timing of policy measures aimed at reducing CO2-emissions. This paper surveys the arguments in favour of early and late reduction. By means of an illustration of some of the key-mechanisms, we discuss an applied analysis of optimal timing performed with the applied general equilibrium model DICE.