Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Antonio Massarutto Title: Economic regulation of waste management utilities: Taking stock of the Italian reform Abstract: Since 2018, the economic regulation of Italian municipal waste utilities is attributed to an inde-pendent authority, ARERA. This original model is supposed to facilitate the transition towards the circular economy paradigm, that associates demanding public service obligations to recy-cling and valorization of waste, in the context of a vertically-integrated industry with a wide differentiation of conditions and maturity throughout the country. This paper analyzes the ex-perience of the first two years and discusses the outcomes reached. We start from a discussion of the fundamental economic characteristics of the waste management industry and of how the circular economy paradigm has radically changed it, raising rather new regulatory issues. We next analyze the structure of the Italian municipal waste management industry and its trajecto-ries of evolution face to the challenge to achieve the demanding targets imposed by the EU Circular Economy Package. We present then the regulatory approach adopted by ARERA in the first regulatory period (2020-2021) and discuss its advantages and drawbacks, based on the experience made in the early phase of its implementation. Classification-JEL: L44, L51, Q53, Q58, H44, K23 Keywords: Note: Pages:5-33 Volume: 2020/2 Year: 2020 Issue:2 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=68595&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:efeefe:v:html10.3280/EFE2020-002001 Number: 1 X-File-Ref: http://www.francoangeli.it/Riviste/References.ashx?idArticolo=68595 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Krishna Muniyoor Title: Cost-benefit analysis of adopting the solar photovoltaic water pumping system: A case of Rajasthan Abstract: Rajasthan, the largest state in India, occupies 10.5 per cent of the total geographical area of the country, although about two-thirds of its area is arid. The state has a predominantly agrarian economy, and agriculture is the mainstay of about two-thirds of the workforce. Interestingly, only 28 per cent of the net cultivable area in the state is irrigated, compared to the national average of 49.8 per cent. With the aim to improve irrigation facilities and increase agricultural productivity, the state government implemented the solar photovoltaic water pumping system (SPVWPS) in 2008-09 as an appropriate alternative to grid-connected water pumping. The aim of this paper is to assess the costs and benefits of adopting the SPVWPS using data from a field survey of 126 households. The findings show that use of the SPVWPS offers substantial benefits to adopters in the long run. In addition, government subsidy plays a major role in determining the payback period of adopters? investment in the scheme. The paper suggests that, alongside timely implementation of the scheme, the government should facilitate domestic manufacturing of solar cells and panels to fully harness social benefits of the SPVWPS. Classification-JEL: E22, D61, Q15 Keywords: Note: Pages:35-49 Volume: 2020/2 Year: 2020 Issue:2 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=68596&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:efeefe:v:html10.3280/EFE2020-002002 Number: 2 X-File-Ref: http://www.francoangeli.it/Riviste/References.ashx?idArticolo=68596 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Kabeya Clement Mulamba Title: Relationship between education and households? electricity-saving behaviour in South Africa: A multilevel logistic analysis Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between the education level of household heads and households? energy-saving practices at the micro-level in South Africa. It uses the community survey of 2016 as data source. Multilevel logistic models are estimated to account for similari-ties between households in same municipalities. The results point to a significant and positive relationship between the education level of household heads and households? energy-saving practices. One can therefore infer that a household whose head is educated is more likely to have light bulbs, switch off lights in the house when not in use, and switch off appliances at the wall (not with remotes) when not in use than households whose heads have no education. Therefore, education offers a tool to incentivise households to save electricity, which will also contribute indirectly to the effort of addressing the challenges of climate change, amongst oth-ers. Classification-JEL: C31, D21, R21, Q4 Keywords: Note: Pages:51-74 Volume: 2020/2 Year: 2020 Issue:2 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=68597&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:efeefe:v:html10.3280/EFE2020-002003 Number: 3 X-File-Ref: http://www.francoangeli.it/Riviste/References.ashx?idArticolo=68597 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Maria Chiara D?Errico Title: Competition in the Italian electricity market: The unforeseen social welfare losses of reform Abstract: The worldwide wave of reforms investing power industry has created new challenges to both supply demand side management. After deregulation, electric utilities restructured their opera-tions from vertically integrated mechanisms to open market systems in order to establish a new competitive sector. Reform has involved also the Italian power sector, but competition, as lar-gely shown by the empirical literature particularly in the first years of reform, has been far to be reached, and the electricity markets has been characterized by conditions of oligopoly and exercise of market power. This paper aims to analyze welfare loss and deviation from the competitive equilibrium recorded in the day ahead Italian electricity market after the first wave of reforms was almost implemented. The study presents a theoretical and empirical model to construct a competitive equilibrium, estimating market power, both, on the supply and demand sides of the day ahead electricity market. Results show the effect of non-competitive equilibriums for the hourly markets in the period 2013-2014. In an ideal competitive market, prices would be lower than historical prices by about 2-5% and quantities would be higher by about 0.5-1%. Classification-JEL: D43, L13, L81, Q41 Keywords: Note: Pages:75-91 Volume: 2020/2 Year: 2020 Issue:2 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=68598&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:efeefe:v:html10.3280/EFE2020-002004 Number: 4 X-File-Ref: http://www.francoangeli.it/Riviste/References.ashx?idArticolo=68598 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Alireza Ghadertootoonchi Author-Name: Maryam Fani Author-Name: Masoume Bararzadeh Title: The effect of energy subsidies on the sustainability of economy, society and environment: A case study of Iran Abstract: The elimination of energy subsidies leads to the increase in CPI (Consumer Price Index) di-rectly and indirectly. In this study, the effects removing energy subsidies on the Iranian econ-omies have been investigated; though, the main innovation introduced in the study was to con-sider the effect of energy price realization on the economy with respect to the monetary policy (path) that can be regarded as the third option; that is, rising energy price creates new sources that can cover the deficits of the countries. The countries don?t need to cover their budget defi-cits by borrowing from the central bank; for this purpose, dynamic modeling in Vensim soft-ware was used via the equations obtained from the Time Series Data set prepared from 2000 to 2014. The results show that the annual increase of 10, 20, and 30 percent of prices after 2011 could have reduced liquidity volume in 2014 by 0.04, 0.11, and 0.75 million billion Rials respectively and leading to CPI reduction by 4, 7 and 10.3 units. Besides, the results indicated that the households reacted to gasoline price change more than the other two energy carriers; that is, gas and electricity. And the first income decile was the most sensitive decile of popula-tion towards price changes. compared to 2009, gasoline, gas and electricity consumption of the first decile declined by 68.5%, 21%, and 10% in 2010, respectively. Classification-JEL: C8, Q4, Q3 Keywords: Note: Pages:93-129 Volume: 2020/2 Year: 2020 Issue:2 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=68599&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:efeefe:v:html10.3280/EFE2020-002005 Number: 5 X-File-Ref: http://www.francoangeli.it/Riviste/References.ashx?idArticolo=68599 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Antonia Gkergki Title: The relationship between energy consumption and economic growth: New evidence from Greece Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between the energy consumption and economic growth from 1968 to 2019 in Greece, by employing the vector error-correction model estimation. A series of econometric tests are employed concerning the stationary of the data, and the co-integration and the relationship among the variables during the long- and short-term. The em-pirical results suggest that there is no bidirectional relationship between economic growth and energy consumption. More specifically, GDP per capita does not affect the energy consump-tion of the three primary sources either in the long-term or the short-term. In other words, the economic crisis and its implications for GDP do not affect energy consumption, and they are not responsible for the considerable decrease in energy sources? consumption. On the other hand, the energy consumption of oil and coal negatively affect the GDP per capita. These re-sults are different from previous studies? conclusions for Greece; this is because the never been experienced before. These findings raise new research questions and also show the limi-tations of the Greek market, as it is regulated and controlled by the government. Classification-JEL: O13, O47, Q32, Q43 Keywords: Note: Pages:131-153 Volume: 2020/2 Year: 2020 Issue:2 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=68600&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:efeefe:v:html10.3280/EFE2020-002006 Number: 6 X-File-Ref: http://www.francoangeli.it/Riviste/References.ashx?idArticolo=68600 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Andrea Molocchi Title: From production to consumption: An inter-sectoral analysis of air emissions external costs in Italy Abstract: Aim of the paper is to attempt an estimate of the air emissions external costs related to activity sectors in Italy with both a production and demand perspective and to explore possible appli-cations of the approach in public policies. This is done by adopting an environmentally ex-tended national input-output modelling (about 20 substances are covered, among which CO2 emissions) and law recognized methods for calculating air emissions external costs in Italy. The external costs resulting from this exercise on 2015 emissions sum up to ? 77.4 billion, ? 51.7 billion of which are related to all economy sectors of activity, while ? 25.7 billion are due to household activities. Total external costs of air emissions embodied in final demand sum up to 53.0 billion euro in 2015 if total activated production is considered (including external costs embodied in imports), while they decrease to 36.1 billion euro if only domestic activated pro-duction is considered (assuming zero external costs embodied in imports). The specific exter-nal costs embodied in final demand, calculated for each sector through input-output analysis, are then compared with the specific external costs of direct emissions of the same sector pro-duction, highlighting the additional information provided by input-output analysis: many branches with relatively low direct external costs show much higher external costs when the supply chain branches are included in the assessment. A final chapter discusses the main poli-cy application areas of the suggested approach, focusing particularly on national environmental fiscal reform, company level environmental management, public investments planning and sustainable finance. Classification-JEL: H23, Q48, Q51 Keywords: Note: Pages:155-180 Volume: 2020/2 Year: 2020 Issue:2 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=68601&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:efeefe:v:html10.3280/EFE2020-002007 Number: 7 X-File-Ref: http://www.francoangeli.it/Riviste/References.ashx?idArticolo=68601 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Gerard Bikorimana Author-Name: Charles Rutikanga Author-Name: Didier Mwizerwa Title: Linking energy consumption with economic growth: Rwanda as a case study Abstract: This paper analyzes the link between energy consumption and economic growth in Rwanda for the period 1985-2017. The ARDL bounds test was used to test for the existence of co-integration, while the Toda and Yamamoto granger causality test was applied to test for causal direction. The results from the estimation of the ARDL bounds test showed that there was no evidence of co-integration between the considered variables under study. Additionally, the empirical findings confirmed that there was no relationship between economic growth and energy consumption in Rwanda. The findings supported the "neutrality hypothesis" between energy consumption and economic growth. This implies that neither conservative nor expansive policies in relation to energy consumption have any effect on economic growth. Furthermore, the study found a uni-directional granger causality running from energy consumption to economic growth. The results of this findings are consistent with the "growth hypothesis" which postulates that energy consumption leads to economic growth Classification-JEL: C22, Q43, O13, O55 Keywords: Note: Pages:181-200 Volume: 2020/2 Year: 2020 Issue:2 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=68602&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:efeefe:v:html10.3280/EFE2020-002008 Number: 8 X-File-Ref: http://www.francoangeli.it/Riviste/References.ashx?idArticolo=68602