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Explaining industry influence in the International Maritime Organization
No full textThis dissertation explains how industry actors influence environmental maritime regulation in the
International Maritime Organization (IMO). The reason for this topic and focus is the significant
implications for the role of private actors in global regulatory affairs, coupled with the relative lack of
explanations concerning how industry actors actually change political outcomes when they participate as
political discussants. In the IMO, industry actors have extensive access to policy development, which
makes it a relevant case to understand in more detail.
The theoretical basis of the dissertation is rooted in organizational institutionalism, but the foundation for
the issue and its relevance is drawn from International Political Economy (IPE) literature. One novelty of
the use of organizational institutionalism is the perspective it offers in terms of understanding the way IMO
deliberations play out. Core concepts are institutionalized norms, values, and taken-for-granted beliefs,
which together serves as the base for explaining the power of industry actors in the IMO and the way these
actors exercise influence.
Methodologically, the dissertation approached this issue through direct participation in IMO sessions and
the use of interviews with IMO delegates from 2016 through 2018, which includes almost 300 hours of
observation and more than 60.000 words of field notes. The material was analysed qualitatively by using
process-tracing, which allowed the inference of the most plausible explanation of how industry influence
works.
The findings of the dissertation shows that industry actors gain influence by deploying technical arguments
to influence substance or appeals to consistency to influence format of the regulation. State delegates and
other industry delegates consider the use of technical arguments to be legitimate, because IMO delegates
fundamentally view the IMO process as one of solving technical problems and making global standards
rather than a political process. Industry achieves influence when state delegates believe the reasoning and
substance of the technical arguments makes sense, as long as state delegates believe the issue under
discussion is not too political to allow industry influence. This results in a constant balance, where state
delegates weigh the political contention against the potential contribution of industry actors in a given
discussion.
One important implication of this is the role of ‘invisible rules’, or institutionalized norms and beliefs, in
the structuring of industry influence. Industry power is both constrained and enabled by beliefs and norms
that IMO delegates’ largely take for granted, rather than formal rules or procedures that protect the IMO
from capture by private interests.
This dissertation and its findings add to the theoretical understanding of industry power in global
governance and international regulation by showing how industry influence pans out in a specific case,
and expanding the theoretical repertoire for how researchers can approach such challenges. It also adds to
the discussion about the appropriate role of firms and business interests in political life, and shows that
there are nuances in the way industry power can be controlled and misused in an intergovernmental
organization
Implications for Public Policy
No full textEnergy Systems Integration (ESI) is an emerging paradigm and at the centre of the EU energy debate. ESI takes a holistic view of the electricity, gas and heat sectors to deliver a clean, reliable and affordable energy system. By identifying and exploiting the synergies within and between the sectors, ESI aims to increase flexibility in the energy system, maximize the integration of renewable energy and distributed generation, and reduce environmental impact. While ESI-enabling technologies have been studied from a technical perspective, the economic, regulatory and policy dimensions of ESI are yet to be analysed. This paper discusses ESI in a multi-step approach. We first focus on the economics of ESI-enabling technologies. We briefly discuss how the EU national regulators incentivise their adoption. We identify major economic and policy barriers to ESI and propose policy solutions to overcome these barriers. We conclude that current regulatory frameworks in the EU do not stimulate sufficient ESI investments and only through proper design of incentives the ESI paradigm could be achieved
Electrification and Household Welfare in India
Full text linkAccess to reliable energy is central to improvements in living standards and is a Sustainable Development Goal. This study moves beyond counting the electrified households and examines the effect of the hours of electricity households receives on their welfare. We hypothesize that additional hours of electricity have different effects on the poor, the middle income and the rich, as well as in rural and urban areas. The methods used are panel fixed effects instrumental variables, cross sectional fixed effects instrumental variables, and logistic regression with data from the Indian Human Development Survey 2005-2012. We focus on extensive and the intensity margins, i.e. how access and additional hours of electricity affect household welfare in terms of consumption expenditure, income, assets and poverty status. The results show large gaps between the benefits and costs of electricity supply among consumer groups. We also find that electricity theft is positively correlated with the net returns from electrification. Progressive pricing with targeted subsidies for the poor can increase household welfare while reducing the financial losses of the State Electricity Boards
