Imran Sharif Chaudhry

Socio-Economic Analysis of Household Energy Security: Evidence from 3D Energy Losses Surface Maps (ELSMs)of a Town Using Conjuncture of Factors Matrix, Digital and Mathematical Analysis

Pakistan is facing perpetual and worsening energy crisis. For vision 2025, the most important litmus test is to overcome energy crisis and ensure energy security by imaginative and innovative energy alternatives. In the same context, scientists, experts and researchers have been focusing on renewables and non-renewable energy generation alternatives, but have largely ignored the flip side. The extravagant use of energy, unlawful connections and losses in distribution system are contributors to ongoing energy crisis. For energy security in a developing country like Pakistan, elimination of energy losses seems a viable option, alongside generation of energy. Therefore, there is a need to have socio-economic analysis of energy losses. In this paper, energy losses for electricity were estimated for Lali Bagh Town of Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province using a versatile and innovative socio-economic framework. This framework was based on factors matrix comprising socio-economic, environmental and energy factors pertaining to households. Within the factors matrix approach, three methods were used for analysis of energy losses; the statistical analysis to obtain trend and ratings of electricity losses, digital analysis of the data by computer assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) to get the digitally iterated and attenuated models along with representative equations and mathematical analysis of equations by Newton-Leibniz integration process to obtain numerical value of the ratings. Based on the results obtained, three dimensional energy losses surface maps (ELSMs) were prepared for Lali Bagh Town of Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. At the end, policy recommendations have been given in the context of vision 2025. Paper is a unique combination of theoretical, mathematical and digital cum spatial economics. JEL Classification: O22, Q21, Q31, Q41. Keywords: Socio-economic, Analysis, Energy, Security, Electricity, Losses, Factors, Matrix, Digital, Maps.

The currency union effect on intra-regional trade in Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the currency union (CU) effect on aggregate intra-trade in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and on bilateral trade among individual countries using the gravity model. Design/methodology/approach – Using panel dynamic ordinary least square, we examined the short- and long-run CU effect on aggregate intra-ECOWAS trade and bilateral trade among ECOWAS countries from 1995 to 2010. Chow poolability test was conducted for the appropriateness of pooling the cross-section parameters as against individual model. The augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF) test; the Phillips–Perron (PP) test; and the Kwiatkowski, Phillips, Schmidt and Shin (KPSS) test were conducted on the individual data series, and the Levin, Lin and Chu test; the Im, Pesaran and Shin test; the Breitung test; and the Hadri test were used for testing cross-sectional independent panel unit root tests. Kao panel cointegration test was conducted to identify long-run relationships. Find...