Though corn-ethanol is promoted as renewable, models of the production process assume fossil fuel inputs. Moreover, ethanol is promoted as a means of increasing energy security, but there is little discussion of the dependability of its supply. This study investigates the sensibility of...

The Tokyo Grain Exchange (TGE) finds prices for futures contracts using sequences of electronic Walrasian tacirc;tonnement auctions. The lengths of auctions are endogenous, thus, unlike data from other exchanges, data from the TGE offer an obvious measure of the time it takes price to converge to...

The Tokyo Grain Exchange (TGE)'s itayose mechanism provides the opportunity to analyze functioning Walrasian tacirc;tonnement auctions (WTA). In 15,677 auctions conducted over 1997ndash;1998 for corn and redbean futures contracts, price formation is unexpectedly similar to that observed in...

One of the goals of the U.S. ethanol mandate is to reduce fossil fuel use in the transportation sector. But some critics of the mandate argue that a more efficient way of reducing fuel consumption would be to focus on improvements in fuel efficiency of motor vehicles. We consider the time span...

We compare the financial benefits of displacing oil using three alternative-vehicle technologies: natural gas (NGVs), battery-electric (BEVs), and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). On a cost-per-barrel basis, NGVs would be the least expensive way to displace oil, while PHEVs would be the...

If ethanol were to be produced in a truly sustainable manner, it would take all the corn in the United States to displace about 3.5 percent of our gasoline consumption. Furthermore, ethanol would not necessarily be a more reliable source of fuel. By displacing gasoline with ethanol, we are...