This dissertation studies the science and policy-making of alternative energy using biofuels as a case study, primarily examining the instruments that can be used to alleviate the impacts of climate change and their relative efficacy. Three case studies of policy-making on biofuels in the...

In the period 2010-2011 we carried out a survey of fifteen leading European experts on the future of advanced (second and third generation) biofuel technologies. The survey focuses on eliciting probabilistic information on the future costs of these technologies and on the potential role of RD&D...

The mix of public and private research funding investments in alternative energy presents a challenge for isolating the effect of government R&D funding. Factors such as energy prices and environmental policy influence both private and public R&D decisions. Moreover, because government R&D is...

We analyze the relationships within the liquid fuels system and its associated supply chain using innovative network filtering methods, namely the Minimum Spanning Tree and Triangulated Maximally Filtered Graph. Our findings reveal that biofuels form robust connections with their feedstocks that...

We analyze the long-term impacts of large-scale expansion of biofuels on land-usechange, food supply and prices, and the overall economy in various countries or regions using amulti-country, multi-sector global computable general equilibrium model augmented with an explicitland-use module and...

We quantify the emergence of biofuel markets and its impact on U.S. and world agriculturefor the coming decade using the multi-market, multi-commodity international FAPRI (Food andAgricultural Policy Research Institute) model. The model incorporates the trade-offs betweenbiofuel, feed, and food...

Guaranteeing tax reductions and exemptions, the European governments intend to increase the share of biofuels in total EU fuel consumption to 5.75% by 2010. The financial support of this EU objective is frequently justified by expected positive environmental impacts, most notably the mitigation...

Interest in biofuels is growing worldwide as concerns about the security of energy supply and climate change are moving into the focus of policy makers. With the exception of bioethanol from Brazil, however, production costs of biofuels are typically much higher than those of fossil fuels.As a...

Last year the German Parliament exempted biofuels from the gasoline tax. The promotion of biofuels is being justified by allegedly positive effects on climate, energy, and agricultural policy goals. The paper takes a closer look at bio-ethanol as a substitute for gasoline. We analyze the basic...

In June 2002 the German Parliament decided to exempt biofuels from the gasoline tax. The policy to promote biofuels is being justified by allegedly positive effects on the climate, energy, and agricultural policy. The working paper takes a closer look at bio-ethanol as a substitute for gasoline...