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The wind regime in Colombia has been rated among the best in South America. However, under the current circumstances, and on its own, the interconnected system would not likely promote wind power. This report is targeted to analysts, planners, operators, generators and decision makers in Colombia and other countries in the region and provides a set of policy options to promote the use of wind power. The potential instruments assessed in this study include financial instruments, government fiscal mechanisms, and adjustments to the regulatory system. The single most effective policy instrument to promote wind power in Colombia consists on valuing the firm energy offered by wind, its potential complementarity to the hydrological regime and enabling wind power an access to reliability payments.

This paper proposes a functional coefficient quantile regression model with heterogeneous and time-varying regression coefficients and factor loadings. Estimation of the model coefficients is done in two stages. First, we estimate the unobserved common factors from a linear factor model with exogenous covariates. Second, we plug-in an affine transformation of the estimated common factors to obtain the functional coefficient quantile regression model. The quantile parameter estimators are consistent and asymptotically normal. The application of this model to the quantile process of a cross-section of U.S. firms' excess returns confirms the predictive ability of firm-specific covariates and the good performance of the local estimator of the heterogeneous and time-varying quantile coefficients.

Merger efficiencies provide the primary justification for why mergers of competitors may benefit consumers. Surprisingly, there is little evidence that efficiencies can offset incentives to raise prices following mergers. We estimate the effects of increased concentration and efficiencies on pricing by using panel scanner data and geographic variation in how the merger of the brewers Miller and Coors was expected to increase concentration and reduce costs. All else equal, the average predicted increase in concentration led to price increases of 2%, but at the mean this was offset by a nearly equal and opposite efficiency effect.

We examine how persistent firms' participation is in R&D subsidy and tax incentive programs, and whether persistence is driven by individual heterogeneity—observed and unobserved—or by state dependence. Using a panel of Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 2001–2008, we estimate a set of dynamic models of program participation. True state dependence of participation in each program is found to be significant, while unobserved heterogeneity accounts for about 41 and 29 % of observed persistence in subsidy and tax credit programs, respectively. Both tend to reach mostly stable R&D performers. We also identify significant differences across programs. Highly productive firms within a given industry are more likely to obtain subsidies; the use of tax credits, in contrast, is unrelated to a firm's productivity. Our results suggest that R&D tax incentives and R&D subsidies are not substitutes and that any unintended misallocation of support is likely to persist.

A leading explanation in the economic literature is that monetary policy has real effects on the economy because firms incur a cost when changing prices. Using a unique database of cost and retail price changes, we find that variation in menu costs results in up to 13.3% fewer price increases. We confirm that these effects are allocative and have a persistent impact on both prices and unit sales. We provide evidence that the menu cost channel operates only when cost increases are small in magnitude, which is consistent with theory and provides the first empirical evidence of boundary conditions.

Social interactions among individuals within a species profoundly influence behavioural and life history traits, impacting fitness. While extensively studied in cooperative and eusocial species, the effects of social environment on fitness in non-social species, particularly insects, remain less explored. Our study investigates the impact of social environment, specifically male density, on fitness-related traits in the hymenopteran parasitoid Venturia canescens. The research focuses on longevity, reproductive behaviours (latency before mating, mating probability and duration), and offspring production capacity. Through a lifespan study, males were exposed to either isolation or regular encounters with conspecific males, alternating with periods of female presence or absence. Results show a trend of reduced longevity in socially exposed males and a significant decline in mating success with age in the social context. However, reproductive behaviours and offspring produced by males remain unaffected. This study sheds light on the intricate interplay between social environment, ageing, and reproductive strategies in non-social insect species, emphasizing the need for further exploration of social effects on male behaviour and notably potential influences of interactions between male and females but also between females.Significance StatementImpacts of social interactions on individuals were largely explored in social species, but remain little studied in non-social ones. This study aims at testing the impact of male-male interactions before the encounter of a female (past social interactions) on male reproductive behaviours and longevity in a non-social parasitoid wasp. We show that longevity is negatively affected by the past social interactions in this wasp. Those interactions also impose a decline in male mating probability with age (senescence pattern) or mating experience (number of matings). Latency before mating, mating duration and offspring production are not influenced by social environment. On the other hand, offspring production increases with mating experience.

[...]the project builds research capacity, and focuses on dissemination and strategic policy engagement skills with the aim of understanding the local channels of knowledge into policy making, illustrated in box 1, thus establishing critical relationships with relevant stakeholders.6Box 1 Research informing policy: an example from Pakistan A notable illustration of the knowledge to policy making process is currently underway in Pakistan, where Tobacconomics works with two think tanks—the Pakistan Institute for Development Economics (PIDE) and Social Policy Development Centre (SPDC). Along with the concerted advocacy efforts of the tobacco control community, the think tanks’ research outcomes were reflected in the government’s new budget with the removal of the third tax tier and increased rates in both the remaining tax tiers. Since the tax reform, SPDC has evaluated the impacts on consumption and government revenues and communicated the analysis to all stakeholders, including the government. [...]authors in Pakistan (SED5) also examined supply side aspects of the tobacco industry, specifically, how tobacco tax increases affect macroeconomic factors like employment, agricultural output and economic growth. [...]before the think tank’s results are disseminated, they must be robust.

The authors analyze 884 Internet-based restaurant menus from inside and outside San Jose, California, which they collected before and after the city implemented a 25% minimum wage increase in 2013. Their findings suggest that nearly all of the cost increase was passed through to consumers, as prices rose 1.45% on average. Minimum wage price elasticities averaged 0.058 for all restaurants and ranged from 0.044 to 0.109, depending on the type of restaurant. The authors’ estimate of payroll cost increases net of turnover savings is consistent with these findings. Equally important, border effects for restaurants are smaller than is often conjectured. Price differences among restaurants that are one-half mile from either side of the policy border are not competed away, indicating that restaurant demand is spatially inelastic. These results imply that citywide minimum wage policies need not result in substantive negative employment effects nor shifts of economic activity to nearby areas.

I modify a cournot oligopoly model to examine the effect of pipeline capacity constraints on regional wholesale gasoline prices. The model includes a discontinuous supply function for a common input (transportation) with a constrained low-cost mode (pipelines) and an unconstrained higher cost mode (rail, truck or barge). The equilibrium outcome demonstrates a piecewise linear relationship between the low-cost capacity constraint and the equilibrium price. The shape of the transportation supply curve is also shown to affect the relationship between firm average marginal costs and the equilibrium price. I also present a test of the model’s implications, demonstrating that it is able to explain a recent pronounced increase in wholesale gasoline prices for cities in British Columbia Canada. While the exercise is motivated by a specific market, the model and its implications apply to a broad set of discussions on inter-regional arbitrage in the context of imperfect competition.

Promoting water conservation is crucial for building a modern ecological civilization. The water resource tax helps enforce water-saving policies and strict usage controls. The difference-in-differences (DID) method avoids endogeneity and omitted variable bias, making it ideal for policy evaluation. Using the 2017 pilot water tax expansion as a quasi-natural experiment, this study applies DID to assess the reform’s impact on total factor productivity (TFP) in water-intensive industries. The results indicate that the TFP of water-intensive enterprises in pilot regions increased by an average of 2.5% and that the reform has a positive and significant effect on TFP, with notable improvements in management efficiency and resource allocation. The findings further imply that the reform encourages better management practices, such as optimized water use and cost-effective resource allocation, rather than technological innovation as the main driver of improved productivity. This underscores tax reforms’ dual role in enhancing operational efficiency and environmental sustainability. The findings demonstrate water resource tax reforms’ potential to foster a more sustainable industrial sector, especially in water-stressed regions.