China’s growing demand for oil is significantly changing the international geopolitics of energy, especially in the Asian Pacific region. The recent growth in oil consumption, combined with forecasts of increased oil imports (especially from the Middle East), have led to deep concern among...

The Commission was asked to review the National Third Party Access Regime for Natural Gas Pipelines. The review sought to assess the benefits and costs of the Regime, including its effects on investment. The Commission’s preliminary findings were released for public comment in December 2003...

This paper analyses electricity generation in four Australian states and the Northern Territory in the late 1990s It finds that productivity growth estimates for electricity generators can change significantly when allowance is made for greenhouse gas emissions. Using an innovative analytical...

Nigeria is going through a difficult political and economic transition after decades of independence.Yet, Nigeria remains a society rich in cultural, linguistic, religious, ethnic and political diversity. Today, the average Nigerian struggles hard to make ends meet; sees himself or herself as...

This paper explores the consequences of rising returns to human capital investment on the personal savings rate. Over the past two decades, the return to college education has increased relative to high school education leading economists to argue the presence of 'skill biased technological...

We use U.S. county data (3,058 observations) and 41 conditioning variables to study growth and convergence. Using OLS and 3SLS-IV we report on the full sample and metro, non-metro, and 5 regional samples: (1) OLS yields convergence rates around 2 percent; 3SLS yields 6–8 percent; (2)...

The study of the stylized facts of economic growth has allowed an advance of this field of economic analysis in its empirical and theorical works. Today, Health Economics is faced with new requirements of society, i.e. better care at a sustainable cost. Furthermore, since the problems linked...

Economic phenomena are interrelated. From a growth perspective, time analysis concerning the choices of present and future consumption and the choices between the allocation of scientific resources should be combined with a space analysis regarding the dissemination of economic activity through...

The purpose of this paper is to put the future of the US dollar into a logical framework which comprises the global development mechanism. Two models of growth collide: the US «locomotive», based on the international use of the dollar, and which requires exogenous pushes coming permanently...