Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models have been widely used for quantitative analysis of global economic issues. However, CGE models are frequently criticized for resting on weak empirical foundations. This paper builds on recent work in macro-econometric estimation, developing an approach...

China’s energy consumption for agricultural production has relied on petroleum and coal with relatively low input from power and other types of energy for a long time. Projections indicate that as China’s existing development trend leads to substantial growth of energy demand for...

In recent years there has been a flurry of activity aimed at evaluating the land use consequences of biofuels programs and the associated carbon releases. In this paper we argue that these studies have tended to underestimate the ensuing land use emissions, because they have ignored the role of...

This paper introduces water into the GTAP modeling framework at a river basin level. The new model: 1) distinguishes between irrigated and rainfed agriculture using different production functions; 2) takes into account heterogeneity in land quality across agro-ecological zones; 3) traces supply...

Rural buildings in China now account for more than half of China's total building energy use. Forty percent of the floorspace in China is in rural villages and towns. Most of these buildings are very energy inefficient, and may struggle to provide for basic needs. They are cold in the winter,...

The application of phase change materials (PCMs) grew rapidly in the last few years, especially in those areas like solar energy, thermal comfort control, green building, environmental conservation and electronic cooling etc. Tremendous efforts have therefore been made on finding new powerful...