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...

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...

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...

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...

This paper develops sufficient conditions under which the Weak Green Paradox may (and may not) hold in terms of subsidies for biofuel production such that the supply-side responses by fossil fuel producers may more than offset the substitution to biofuels. Analytical results are derived and...

Biokraftstoffe werden weltweit in immer mehr Ländern von der Politik gezielt gefördert. Dies geschieht aus agrar-, energie- und klimapolitischen Gründen. Dieser Beitrag beschreibt die derzeitigen und zukünftigen Märkte für Biokraftstoffe und die Förderprogramme in einzelnen Ländern....

Recent contributions have questioned whether biofuels policies actually lead to emissions reductions, and thus lower climate costs. In this paper we make two contributions to the literature. First, we study the market effects of a renewable fuel standard. Opposed to most previous studies we...