Angeliki N. Menegaki

Safety alerts reduce willingness to visit parks irrigated with recycled water

This study demonstrates the effects of framing safety precautions on the presentation of a controversial product (recycled water [RW]) to the inhabitants of two Greek towns by asking them whether they would visit various configurations of a public park irrigated with RW. The same questions are posed in an additional version augmented with a safety alert. Among many others, results mainly show that willingness to visit (WTV) a park irrigated with RW or willingness to pay for RW decrease when respondents are confronted with the safety statement that ‘the irrigated parts are isolated and have been properly marked for the visitor so that he/she does not come into touch with RW’. Moreover, WTV does not decrease when there is previous experience with the park. The upgrade of RW from secondary to tertiary treatment is valuated only when safety alerts are present. The paper yields promotion insights useful for relevant utilities, organizations, and governments which are interested in forming a social marketing mix for this product while contributing to the theoretical and empirical understanding of framing effects with their experimental demonstration in the two case studies.

Renewable energy, rents and GDP growth in MENA countries

ABSTRACT This is an empirical study on the causal relationship between economic growth and renewable energy for MENA countries in a multivariate panel framework over the period 1997–2009 using a fixed effects model with time effects and including combustible waste, employment, fossil fuel consumption, rents and political stability as additional independent variables in the model. Results show that renewable energy affects GDP growth negatively in the long run while there is a short-run bidirectional relationship between renewable energy and fossil fuel energy consumption. In the long run, GDP is affected by rents and political stability. Also, the dynamic effects model provides evidence that for Iraq, there are additional parameters that affect the renewable energy–growth relationship.

The Energy-Growth Nexus (EGN) Checklist for Authors

Abstract This chapter discusses the research conducted on the energy-growth nexus (EGN) from a prospective author’s and a reviewer’s point of view. The analysis summarizes the questions that have received much attention to date, and those that are less addressed. It also pays attention to the common methodological approaches employed in the existing studies, and it highlights possible paths that future research in the field could consider. In this way, the analysis identifies common practices and channels, by which future efforts could provide useful contribution to the ongoing debate. This chapter also discusses the ways to address and ensure transferability of the results beyond the energy-related scientific community reaching for policy design and implementation. Finally, this chapter discusses the technical and practical requirements and the necessary steps to be taken by prospective authors and researchers in the field while preparing their manuscripts for publication, and it reviews some common questions and comments appearing during peer review.

Critical Issues to Be Answered in the Energy-Growth Nexus (EGN) Research Field

Abstract Thirty-nine years after the seminal paper of Kraft and Kraft (1978) on the EGN, research has generated ample papers that illustrate equivocal results. At the same time, economic, environmental, and social challenges are so many that new variables and metrics enter this research field in an attempt to express the EGN relationship as accurately and comprehensively as possible. The EGN is not an exercise for economists only, but offers a new, unmapped, common research ground to ecologists and social scientists. This interdisciplinary approach will generate rich results for succinct policy making. New concepts such as sustainability and energy efficiency enter the EGN, and new sprouts are generated such as the energy-water nexus and the food-energy-water nexus. Additional aspects must be covered in the presentation of the EGN to make them worthwhile and comparable.

Practical Issues on Energy-Growth Nexus Data and Variable Selection With Bayesian Analysis

Abstract Given that the energy-growth nexus (EGN) is short of a complete theoretical base, the production function used therein is typically complemented with numerous variables that characterize an economy. Researchers are often puzzled not only with the selection of variables per se, but also with the variable sources and the various data handlings which become apparent and available only after years of experience in this research field. Thus, this chapter is divided into two distinctive parts: The first part contains an overview of the available data sources for the EGN as well as a succinct selection of advice on data handlings, transformations, and interpretations that could come handy to students and practitioners. The second part is more technical and deals with variable selection with Bayesian analysis, which appears as a reasonable solution to the overwhelming problem of variable selection in the EGN. Besides a worked example, the chapter provides with an introduction to Bayesian analysis and the essentials to Bayesian estimation and prediction.

Alternative energy and growth in BRIC countries

ABSTRACT This is an empirical study on the causal relationship between economic growth and alternative energy for BRIC1 countries in a multivariate panel framework over the period 1992–2008 using a fixed effects model with time effects and including greenhouse gas emissions, trade, capital, and employment as additional independent variables in the model. The results are also compared with a counterpart full energy model which comprises all types of energy consumption. The results from both models confirm causality between both alternative energy and full energy and GDP providing evidence for the feedback hypothesis which can be the situation in emerging economies which are not energy efficient. Also, the dynamic effects model provides evidence that in Russia and China, there are additional parameters that affect the alternative energy or full energy and growth relationship.