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AbstractThis article investigates the role of demand uncertainty in explaining cyclical investment fluctuations in the container shipping industry. I develop and estimate a dynamic oligopoly model with learning in which firms choose investment and scrapping. In this model, firms are uncertain about the true parameters in the underlying process for demand, and form and revise their beliefs using available information. Counterfactual analysis reveals that uncertainty about the demand process amplifies investment cycles through (i) leading firms to revise beliefs more drastically as they experience demand fluctuations, and (ii) intensifying strategic incentives among firms.

According to the most recent annual report on university-based "spin-out" enterprises, universities are establishing a more significant and more effective presence in the commercial sector. The Higher Education Funding Council for England conducted a survey of 164 higher education institutions and discovered that the sector is becoming more business-oriented, is better at linking its research to the needs of industry, and is more cost-effective in setting up its own businesses than American universities. During the academic year that ended in 2003, the number of patents awarded to universities grew by 26% over the previous year. Universities now generate £168 million in revenue through consulting work with businesses and industry, and funding for regeneration projects that benefit local communities has climbed by 15 percent in recent years. Advertisement According to the Higher Education - Business and Community Interaction Survey 2002-03, universities in the United Kingdom created one spin-off company based on marketing a discovery from their research for every £17 million they spent on research, compared to a ratio of one for every £60 million spent in the United States. Universities are being urged to increase their income from business transactions by the government, which, through the funding council, is now providing support and financial advice on starting a business in order to generate "third stream" funding from the private sector to benefit universities. Other sources of funding for universities include public spending on research as well as a combination of government and student tuition fees for instruction. For the period 2001-2004, the government committed £120 million in financing to assist in the creation of university-linked businesses, with an extra £171 million provided in the expenditure review of 2002 for the purpose of fostering university-business link-ups. Kim Howells, Minister of Higher Education, made the following statement: "By fostering local enterprise and regenerating regions via ...

2021 Summer. ; Includes bibliographical references. ; Given the growing concerns about the consequences of climate change, development of renewable energy has attracted significant attention as a creditable alternative to fossil fuels. As a result, renewable energy has experienced significant growth in the U.S. as receiving government subsidies and support in the past decades. In order to confirm the efficiency and effectiveness of renewable support policies, this dissertation explores the role of renewable energy on regional economic growth, environmental quality, and residential electricity price in the U.S. Chapter 1 examines the effects of electricity generation from both types of energy sources on sustainable state economic growth. For the analysis, I extend the theoretical framework which incorporating the environmental externalities from energy use. Based on the theoretical model, I use the panel data set for 47 U.S. states from 1999 to 2017 by employing the two-step Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) model. The results show that renewable energy generation has a positive impact on state economic growth whereas non-renewable energy generation hampers economic growth. Furthermore, this paper finds that the effects of renew- able energy generation on economic growth are different at a level of development stage: at an early stage, electricity generation from renewable energy resources hampers economic growth while at an advanced-stage, renewable energy helps to grow the economy. The results imply that the very low operating costs for renewable energy could offset the huge financial burden of high initial investment costs in the long run. Chapter 2 demonstrates the linkages between energy-related CO2 emissions, economic growth, and renewable energy consumption for the 48 U.S. states over the period 1997-2017 by employing panel fixed-effects and the Method of Moments Quantile Regression with fixed effects developed by Machado and Silva (2019). The results provide strong evidence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation, consistent with what is known as the Environmental Kuznets Curve from fixed-effect estimation. Furthermore, this paper confirms that renewable energy consumption, electricity prices, and primary energy prices have negative impact on emissions whereas Heating Degree Days have a positive impact on emissions. Moreover, the panel quantile regression models confirm that the effects of all explanatory variables on CO2 emissions are heterogeneous at different quantiles. The main purpose of Chapter 3 is investigating the effect of renewable energy generation on retail residential prices while confirming the policy influences from Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) on the prices by using a sample of 48 U.S. states during the period 2001-2018. The empirical results of the feasible generalized least squares, and the two-step GMM models provide evidence that renewable energy generation leads to a reduction in residential electricity prices. Also, the renewable support policy, RPS, tends to increase residential electricity prices. The results imply that implementation of RPS requires additional fixed costs in the short-run however, these costs would be offset by very low operating costs of renewable energy generation in the long-run.