FSI researchers examine the role of energy sources from regulatory, economic and societal angles. The Program on Energy and Sustainable Development (PESD) investigates how the production and consumption of energy affect human welfare and environmental quality. Professors assess natural gas and coal markets, as well as the smart energy grid and how to create effective climate policy in an imperfect world. This includes how state-owned enterprises – like oil companies – affect energy markets around the world. Regulatory barriers are examined for understanding obstacles to lowering carbon in energy services. Realistic cap and trade policies in California are studied, as is the creation of a giant coal market in China.
Does Subsidizing Renewable Energy Technologies Today Really Accelerate Their Realization of Cost Reductions in the Future?
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Proponents of public subsidies to renewable energy technologies often claim that subsidizing renewables today accelerates their realization of cost reductions in the future on account of learning-by-doing. A number of previous studies claim to find evidence that certain renewable energy technologies are characterized by statistically and economically significant learning effects; however, these studies assume away potentially important channels of cost reductions besides learning. John's paper uses data for the U.S. wind energy industry to show the implications of the assumptions implicit in previous studies of learning in renewable energy technologies.
Encina Hall East
John Anderson
Graduate Researcher
Speaker
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International Studies Association 51st annual convention, "Theory vs. Policy? Connecting Scholars and Practitioners
PESD Assistant Director Mark Thurber will be presenting a paper on oil governance at the International Studies Association 51st annual convention, "Theory vs. Policy? Connecting Scholars and Practitioners."
In the paper, which is entitled "The Limits of Institutional Design in Oil Sector Governance: Exporting the ‘Norwegian Model,'" Mark and his co-authors (PESD affiliated researchers David Hults and Patrick Heller) draw examples from PESD's larger study of national oil companies to argue that separating policy, regulatory, and commercial functions in oil administration works well in Norway but is not the best prescription for all oil-producing countries. As the premiere annual event of the ISA, which is the most widely known and respected scholarly association in the field of international studies, the conference in New Orleans attracts participants from around the world.
New Orleans, LA
Mark C. Thurber
Program on Energy and Sustainable Development
616 Jane Stanford Way
Encina Hall East, Rm E412
Stanford, CA 94305
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mthurber@stanford.edu
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Mark C. Thurber is Associate Director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development (PESD) at Stanford University, where he studies and teaches about energy and environmental markets and policy. Dr. Thurber has written and edited books and articles on topics including global fossil fuel markets, climate policy, integration of renewable energy into electricity markets, and provision of energy services to low-income populations.
Dr. Thurber co-edited and contributed to Oil and Governance: State-owned Enterprises and the World Energy Supply (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and The Global Coal Market: Supplying the Major Fuel for Emerging Economies (Cambridge University Press, 2015). He is the author of Coal (Polity Press, 2019) about why coal has thus far remained the preeminent fuel for electricity generation around the world despite its negative impacts on local air quality and the global climate.
Dr. Thurber teaches a course on energy markets and policy at Stanford, in which he runs a game-based simulation of electricity, carbon, and renewable energy markets. With Dr. Frank Wolak, he also conducts game-based workshops for policymakers and regulators. These workshops explore timely policy topics including how to ensure resource adequacy in a world with very high shares of renewable energy generation.
Dr. Thurber has previous experience working in high-tech industry. From 2003-2005, he was an engineering manager at a plant in Guadalajara, México that manufactured hard disk drive heads. He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a B.S.E. from Princeton University.
Associate Director for Research at PESD
Social Science Research Scholar
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Should oil-producing countries emulate the "Norwegian Model"?
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PESD Associate Director Mark C. Thurber presented a paper entitled 'The Limits of Institutional Design in Oil Sector Governance: Exporting the "Norwegian Model"' at the 2010 Annual Convention of the International Studies Association (ISA) in New Orleans on February 18th.
The paper, co-authored with PESD affiliated researchers David Hults and Patrick Heller, draws on PESD's larger study of national oil companies to conclude that the approach to petroleum administration that has worked for Norway is not always a wise strategy for countries with less developed institutional and human capacity.
As the premiere annual event of the ISA, which is the most widely known and respected scholarly association in the field of international studies, the conference in New Orleans attracts participants from around the world.
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PESD Associate Director Mark Thurber (far right) discusses oil governance at the 2010 Annual Convention of the International Studies Association (ISA) in New Orleans February 18.
Patrick Heller
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Digging in Deep: Carbon Capture and Storage Technology in China is Driven by Energy Security Concerns
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BusinessForum China
The Limits of Institutional Design in Oil Sector Governance: Exporting the Norwegian Model
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Norway has made a point of administering its petroleum resources using three distinct government bodies: a national oil company (NOC) engaged in commercial hydrocarbon operations; a government ministry to help set policy; and a regulatory body to provide oversight and technical expertise. In Norway's case, this institutional design has provided useful checks and balances, helped minimize conflicts of interest, and allowed the NOC, Statoil, to focus on commercial activities while other government agencies regulate oil operators including Statoil itself. Norway's relative success in managing its hydrocarbon resources has prompted development institutions to consider whether this "Norwegian Model" of separated government functions should be recommended to other oil-producing countries, particularly those whose oil sectors have underperformed.
Seeking insight into this question, we study eight countries with different political and institutional characteristics, some of which have attempted to separate functions in oil in the manner of Norway and some of which have not. We conclude that while the Norwegian Model may be a "best practice" of sorts, it is not the best prescription for every ailing oil sector. The separation of functions approach is most useful and feasible in cases where political competition exists and institutional capacity is relatively strong. Unchallenged leaders, on the other hand, are often able to adequately discharge commercial and policy/regulatory functions in the oil sector using the same entity, although this approach may not be robust against political changes (nor do we address in this paper any possible development or human welfare implications of this arrangement).
When technical and regulatory talent is particularly lacking in a country, better outcomes may result from consolidating commercial, policy, and regulatory functions in a single body until institutional capacity has further developed. Countries like Nigeria with vibrant political competition but limited institutional capacity pose the most significant challenge for oil sector reform: unitary control over the sector is impossible but separation of functions is often impossible to implement. In such cases reformers are wise to focus on incremental but sustainable improvements in technical and institutional capacity.
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The future of coal power will require hard choices
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PESD researcher Varun Rai discusses India's climate change policies on ClimateOne at the Commonwealth Club
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Why the United States has yet to Benefit from Electricity Industry Re-structuring
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Frank Wolak discusses restructuring of the electricity industry in the U.S. using examples from California and explains the problems involved in energy market design.
Building 420, Room 40
Frank Wolak
Stanford University
Economics Department
579 Jane Stanford Way Stanford, CA 94305-6072
Website: https://fawolak.org/
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wolak@zia.stanford.edu
Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Holbrook Working Professor of Commodity Price Studies in Economics
Senior Fellow, by courtesy, at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
Frank A. Wolak is a Professor in the Department of Economics at Stanford University. His fields of specialization are Industrial Organization and Econometric Theory. His recent work studies methods for introducing competition into infrastructure industries -- telecommunications, electricity, water delivery and postal delivery services -- and on assessing the impacts of these competition policies on consumer and producer welfare. He is the Chairman of the Market Surveillance Committee of the California Independent System Operator for electricity supply industry in California. He is a visiting scholar at University of California Energy Institute and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
Professor Wolak received his Ph.D. and M.S. from Harvard University and his B.A. from Rice University.
Director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development
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