Today in the British electricity industry, most electricity suppliers hedge a large proportion of their residential customer base requirements by owning their own plant. The non-storability of electricity and the corresponding need for an instantaneous matching of generation and consumption...

This Selected Issues paper discusses the economics of energy price reform in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Economic policies in Iran have traditionally relied on the abundant availability of energy at a low price to finance the country’s economic development. Low domestic energy prices...

This Joint Staff Advisory Note focuses on the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) for Albania. The note analyzes the National Strategy for Development and Integration (NSDI) program, which represents a significant improvement in process over the previous PRSP. The note discusses that the...

This study examines the consequences of a) a domestic carbon tax policy, and, b) participation in a global tradable emission permits regime on carbon emissions, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and poverty, in India. The results, based a computable general equilibrium model of the Indian economy,...

Over the next 50 years, China will face an increase of its old-age population by approximately three times. Such a demographic change may result in a large increase of pension payments, which would require a significant rise in the pension contribution rate. This also implies important...

We estimate and then simulate a model of Kenyan economic development from 1965 to 1997 with two objectives in mind. The first is to demonstrate the degree of volatility of cyclical shocks that developing countries experience and to calculate the domestic nominal adjustments required by these...