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Este artículo explora la manera en la que las autoridades de la Unión Europea afrontan el riesgo de un efecto rebote que dificulte la efectividad de los esfuerzos hechos para mejorar la eficiencia energética. La elección de la zona de la UE se debe a su liderazgo internacional en la batalla contra el calentamiento global y el cambio climático. El artículo hace una mención específica a España por ser uno de los estados miembros de la UE más concernidos por estos problemas. Para hacer esto se realiza una sistemática revisión de la literatura siguiendo las técnicas avanzadas que recomienda el estado del arte. Después de esto, los principales hallazgos del artículo son 1) existe un amplio consenso académico en torno a la importancia del efecto rebote como barrera en la mejora de la eficiencia energética, 2) existe una falta de consenso sobre su tamaño, 3) los textos legales que abordan los objetivos en materia de eficiencia energética habitualmente ignoran el problema del efecto rebote.

This paper explores whether the changes in energy intensity in Spain have led to improvements in the energy consumption levels or to a backfire effect offsetting the expected decrease. Jevon's paradox or backfire effect happens when a rebound higher than 100% causes energy efficiency improvement to raise energy consumption. To test Jevon's paradox or the backfire effect caused by energy efficiency actions, a Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index I (LMDI-I) is used for the Spanish economy. The period under consideration ranges from 2000 to 2015, when three national action plans were implemented. The main methodological novelty of this paper consists on to block the economic activity effect in a second decomposition round to better explore the effect of energy efficiency on energy consumption. As a whole, our results do not support Jevon's paradox for the sectors analyzed. However, they do warn about a possible backfire effect in the industry, transport and service sectors. Major findings follow these same findings when the activity effect is blocked.

Focused on Ecuatorian’s Economy this article analyzes for the 2000-2014 period. i) What have the drivers of CO2 emission in Ecuador been? ii) What are the determining factors to be focused on with regards to energy policy efforts and the mitigation of GHG emissions? And iii) Is the economy of Ecuador moving towards decoupling between economic growth and environmental stress? To respond to question i) a decomposition analysis of the change in CO2 emissions has been developed using the LMDI-I model. The decomposing factors or effects used include Carbon Intensity, Renewable Energy Sources penetration, Energy Intensity, Economic Structure, Economic Activity and Population. To answer question ii) a so-called Innovative Accounting Approach (IAA) has been implemented. Another innovative aspect of the methodology used has been to incorporate decoupling analysis between economic growth and environmental stress. This facilitates answering question iii). This is the first time that a comprehensive model is undertaken as described. FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación – Agencia Estatal de Investigación y Proyecto RTI2018-096725-B-100 Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) y Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad de la Junta de Andalucía US1260925

The rebound effect caused by energy efficiency improvements demands greater attention from energy policymakers as it represents an important obstacle to energy consumption reduction measures. Despite the emerging literature about the rebound effect, no studies to date have managed to break down it. To do so, this study introduces the disruptive innovation of replacing the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index method used in previous literature with Structural Decomposition Analysis. Based on Input-Output tables, a re-spending model allows us to assess the Indirect Rebound Effect for 14 productive sectors. Finally, Structural Decomposition Analysis enables us to determine the Economy-Wide Rebound Effect caused by energy efficiency improvements. As far as we are aware, no other study to date has done so. Spain is used as a case study for the 2000–2014 period. Major findings indicate that total rebound effect varies from nearly to 10% to around 50%. The part of rebound explained by Direct rebound effect is around 10%. Indirect rebound effect shows values between 1.2% and 1.8%. Finally, Economic wide rebound effect varies from −4.51% to around 40% but without showing a clear trend for the period considered. The novelty of this study is that it attempts to break the overall rebound effect down to the direct, indirect, and economic wide rebound effect by combining the Cobb-Douglas production function and decomposition techniques.

In this study, an Index Decomposition Analysis-Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (IDA-LMDI) model was developed to find the drivers behind the changes in CO2 emissions between 1990 and 2012 in Colombia. The results facilitate the assessment of the impact in Colombia of the main measures regarding the mitigation of CO2 emissions. Likewise, it allows us to analyze whether the recent measures implemented by the Colombian authorities to mitigate emissions are moving in the right direction. To carry out the decomposition analysis, six effects were taken into consideration: carbonization, the substitution of fossil fuels, the penetration of renewable energy, energy intensity, wealth and population. The effects of income and population appear as drivers of emissions for the period analyzed. A stylized analysis allows richer conclusions to be extracted regarding a battery of recommendations for emission mitigation policies that are compatible with economic growth in Colombia.

This paper quantitatively evaluates the performance of Chile's CO2 emissions between 1991 and 2013 using a ‘complete decomposition’ technique to examine emissions and their components. A decomposition analysis based on log-mean divisia index method (LMDI I) was conducted. Six decomposition factors were considered: Carbon Intensity effect (CI), RES penetration effect (RES), Energy Intensity effect (EI), Economy Structure effect (ES), Income effect (Yp) and Population effect (P). To know how these factors could influence each other in the future, the Innovative Accounting Approach (IAA) was used, including forecast error variance decomposition and Impulse Response Functions (IRFs). These two methodologies allow us to identify the drivers of CO2 emission changes in the past (1991–2013), test policy measures and learn how these drivers could influence each other in the future, to evaluate whether the current measures meet the Paris commitments. The LMDI analysis results show that the Energy Intensity Factor is the main compensating factor of Chile's CO2 emissions and the only effect with a clear trend to aid the economy's decoupling. IAA and IFRs results react similarly and confirm that carbon intensity reacts to shocks more significantly in the short term. The reaction to RES has the same and opposite behavior to shocks in ES and Yp, to disappear in the long term.

A set of 17-year panel data (1996&ndash, 2013) across a representative sample from eighteen Latin American countries is used to respond four research questions: Did Latin American Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions prove the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis? Did the quality of institutions play a compensating role for income on environmental stress? Did technological progress help decouple income from environmental stress? Has the Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH) been proven? In order to answer the research questions, the paper expands the traditional EKC approach by including an exclusive quality analysis of institutions, technological progress, and PHH as part of the model. This innovation is developed considering the most recent literature about EKC as a starting point. Major findings show that the relationship between income and GHG emissions is adjusted to the traditional EKC hypothesis for the analyzed period. They also show that the quality of institutions and technological progress improve environmental sustainability. However, the variables, Foreign Direct Investment and International Trade, provide a negative answer to the fourth question. The main methodological contribution of this paper is to use a threefold extended classic EKC model to conduct the feasible generalized least squares method. The paper also contributes to the growing body of PHH literature.

The Labour Market Insertion Contract was an Active Labour Market Policy introduced in Spain. It was aimed at individuals who had difficulties entering the labour market, and it was introduced with the purpose of reducing the rate of unemployment. This article provides an estimation of the average impact that this contract had on the employability of individuals in the short and long term. A microeconomic analysis was carried out based on causal statistical inference by using propensity score matching and kernel and radial estimators. Data was taken from the most comprehensive database available, which is the Continuous Sample of Work Histories. Results are consistent with literature reports and show that the employability of participants was inferior to that of individuals with similar, temporary-type contracts. This research contributes to the literature by evaluating whether there was empirical evidence to support the political decision to revoke or replace this kind of direct employment programme. Junta de Andalucía proyecto SEJ-132 Universidad Autónoma de Chile Universidad de Sevilla. Departamento de Análisis Económico y Política Económica

At the Conference of the Parties held in Copenhagen in 2009 (COP15), the Chinese government announced its 2020 commitment to reduce the carbon intensity of the Chinese economy to 40–45% of its 2005 level. A number of analysts have criticised this target, indicating that these reductions can be achieved without the implementation of any active climate change policy. In this paper, we test this argument using a combined input–output based econometric projection approach and the World Input–Output Database (WIOD). Our results show that the projected carbon intensity for 2020 is likely to be 50% lower than the carbon intensity of 2005, without additional active climate change policy measures performed by the Chinese government. On top of it, our study indicates that the total volume of CO 2 emissions would be by 2020 seven times the volume of the year 2005.

This paper estimates the impact of a hypothetical change in Spain's energy mix on a number of productive sectors. The change would be brought about by substituting power generation from natural gas with generation from biomass. The total amount of electricity supplied has been calculated to remain constant so that a crowding-out effect would be derived from the displacement of one technology with another. An input–output (IO) framework has been used to estimate the overall economic impact on 26 productive sectors included on Spain's 2007 IO Table. Based on the available literature, the consideration of net impact improves the analysis. The results show that the overall net impact across all productive sectors of this change in the energy mix would be positive and equal to about 0.5% for the period. Higher impacts were measured for the ‘Electricity power and Electricity Supply’ sector (15.4%) followed by the ‘Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry’ sector (7.1%). Only the ‘Gas generation and Gas supply’ sector showed a negative impact (–2.5%), which is consistent with the reduced use of natural gas. The overall calculated total impact for Spain's productive sector was equal to € 8074.95 million at the 2007-equivalent value.

This chapter evaluates the cumulative impact (2014–2020) that a tax on electricity consumption would have on it consumption in Spain. Changes in electricity consumption are caused by increasing purchasing prices due to tax. Impact on revenues and CO2 emissions are also assessed through a model price. Tax reform is inspired on final report presented by a Group of Experts commissioned by the Government of Spain in 2014. The evaluation has been performed by considering two scenarios, without (Scenario 1) and with tax recycling between the new tax and employer-paid Social Security benefits or with tax using a price stability tool (Scenario 2). Data comes from the Social Accounting Matrix at purchase prices for Spain in 2006 (SAMESP06). Right rates of a carbon tax designed on electricity consumption would range between 6.24% and 5.52% to reach the total target.

This paper provides an estimation of the socio-economic impacts of increasing the production capacity of installed solar parks in Andalusia (southern Spain). Solar parks use photovoltaic technology for electricity generation. A CGE (computable general equilibrium) approach is used to capture impact assessments of an increased roll out of solar parks in Andalusia on production activities, employment and other macroeconomic variables as a consequence of increasing power output by this means to 400 MW by 2013 as stipulated in the program named as ‘PASENER (Plan Andaluz de Sostenibilidad Energetica) 2007–2013’ implemented by the Andalusian Regional Government. Results show that compliance with the PASENER goal would increase the activity level of the economic sectors considered by 3.1 %, and total employment generated would reach 215,148 equivalent fulltime jobs lasting one year. The other macroeconomic variables considered would also increase. The deployment of the photovoltaic technology would provide up to 527,573 tonnes of CO2 abatement if it displaces an equivalent installed capacity of thermal plants.

This article provides an economic assessment of greenhouse gas emissions savings associated with the use of biofuels for the transportation sector in Spain. The reference year used is 2010 in accordance with the target for the implementation of biofuels and other renewable fuels set down in European legislation (Directive 2003/30). The assessment is based on the premise that an increased use of biofuel will displace a similar amount of fossil fuel on a BTU basis, with the amount of biofuel used in 2010 taken as a reference point to conduct the estimates. The results show that the most cost-efficient biofuel is the biodiesel obtained from waste oil. Regarding the differences between first- and second-generation biofuels, the results show that the latter had very high associated costs. Reaching the biofuel target for 2010 by primarily using first-generation used-oil biodiesel blends would have led to a saving of 58°M€. In contrast, reaching this target by exclusively using second-generation biofuels would have led to a 1000 M€ increase in total costs.

This paper aims to estimate the economic impacts of increasing the production capacity of the installed biofuel plants in Andalusia (southern Spain). A computable general equilibrium (CGE) approach is used to calculate the changes in the economic sectors' activity, in employment as well as in GDP and other macroeconomic variables relevant to biofuel plants in Andalusia under two distinct scenarios (i) based on an operating biodiesel plant (with 90 ktoe/year of installed capacity); (ii) upgrading to 2174 ktoe by 2013 in compliance with the regional ‘Plan Andaluz de Sostenibilidad Energetica (PASENER) 2007–2013'. Results show that compliance with the PASENER goal would increase the activity level of the economic sectors considered by 3.04%, the total induced employment generated would reach 167,975 equivalent full-time jobs lasting one year and the GDP would increase by 9.82%.

The European Union's (EU) Directive 2003/30/EC [1] set an objective of reaching a 5.75% share of renewable energy as a proportion of the total energy consumption of the transport sector by 2010. As all the Member States (MSs) of the EU-27 were obliged to comply with this directive different public policy measures were developed and implemented to promote the use of biofuels in transport—biofuels being the main renewable energy source (RES) in this sector. In this article, we review the public measures undertaken in the EU-27, and show how these measures primarily involve tax incentives and biofuel blending mandates on fuel sales. All countries, with the exception of Finland, introduced tax incentives of various types to promote the use of biofuels, while 18 MSs also implemented biofuel blending mandates through the passing of legislation relating to this matter.

In addition to public policies aimed at improving the energy efficiency of buildings, EU authorities have also promoted the use of Renewable Energy Sources for heating and cooling uses (RES H&C). This paper analyses the main policy measures implemented in EU-27 countries up to 2009: i.e. subsidies, tax incentives, financial support and feed-in tariffs. Twenty-three Member States (MSs) have developed some of these policy measures. The most widespread measure is the subsidy (22 MSs have implemented these) because from a political point of view, subsidies provide a straightforward approach to promote the use of RES H&C. Secondly, tax incentives have been used for reducing investment costs and making renewable energy profitable. Thirdly, financial incentives and feed-in tariffs have been used sparingly. While financial incentives might be used more extensively for promoting RES H&C if they are accompanied by other policy measures, feed-in tariffs are not likely to be implemented significantly in the future because this measure is not designed for household heat producers.

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the main tax incentives used in the EU-27 member states (MSs) to promote green electricity. Sixteen MSs use tax incentives to promote green electricity simultaneously with other promotion measures, especially quota obligations and price regulation. However, not all available technologies are promoted. For example, six MSs (Germany, Romania, Slovak Republic, Denmark, Sweden and Poland) have included an exemption on the payments of excise duties for electricity when the electricity is generated from renewable energy sources (RES). This tax incentive is the most widely used. Limited tax incentives in personal income tax are available in Belgium, France, Czech Republic and Luxembourg. In corporate tax, tax incentives consist mainly of a deduction in the taxable profit (Belgium, Greece, Czech Republic and Spain). Lower tax rates in VAT are applied in three MSs, France, Italy and Portugal. Only Spain and Italy use effective tax incentives in property tax. As a great diversity of tax incentives has been used to promote green electricity, this adds another difficulty to the EU objective of providing a renewable energy policy framework, but also it offers a useful set of case studies which can be used to inform EU policy development.

The goal of this article is to calculate the cumulative impact of the tax on the retail sales of certain fuels (IVMH, in Spanish initials) and its effects on some fundamental economic variables, on the price indices and on remaining tax collections. The novel aspect of this work is to use as methodology a very simple price model applied to a regional Social Accounting Matrix (SAM)–instead of a input-output table–done for Andalusia where we introduce a new tax. The main results of this article show that the introduction of the IVMH in the regional economy may be provoke marginal variations on economy prices. There is also a global increase of tax collections of 0.057%.

This paper evaluates the Diagnostic Program in Spain which is a publicly funded program to promote internationalization of companies located in Andalusia (south of Spain). The methodology used is the propensity score-matching. The treatment group consists of companies which participated in the Program until 2008. The control group has companies which planned to participate in the Program but had not done so up to that date. The response variable measures the ratio of export to total sales for each company. Four covariates have been taken into account: activity, location, sales and number of employees. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the companies that participated in the Program improved their ratio of exports to total sales by about 10 percentage points.

This paper provides a production and consumption-based empirical macroeconomic-climate assessment of Sweden’s CO2 emissions. The core methodology is based on three complementary quantitative methods, namely energy-economy-environment indicators, econometric analyses, and a multi-regional input-output (MRIO) sectoral model. Based on the latest available data (1971–2011), indicators show a sharp decarbonisation of Sweden’s energy supply mix pre-1990, and reductions or reversals in energy intensity, CO2 intensity and energy use post-1990. Reductions in energy intensity are mostly attributed to substantial increases in economic activity rather than reductions in energy use. Econometric results show that variability of CO2 emissions is best explained by CO2 intensity than any other tested variable. The MRIO model shows that the Swedish emissions trading balance is negative with both the European Union and the rest of the world (i.e. embodied CO2 emissions in imports are higher than embodied emissions in exports). Sweden’s low-carbon intensity is a critical and horizontal explanatory factor in our results.