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Open Data for Electricity Modeling: Legal Aspects
No full textPower system modeling is data intensive. In Europe, electricity system data is often available from sources such as statistical offices or system operators. However, it is often unclear if these data can be legally used for modeling, and in particular if such use infringes intellectual property rights. This article reviews the legal status of power system data, both as a guide for data users and for data publishers. It is based on interpretation of the law, a review of the secondary literature, an analysis of the licenses used by major data distributors, expert interviews, and a series of workshops. A core finding is that in many cases the legality of current practices is doubtful: in fact, it seems likely that modelers infringe intellectual property rights quite regularly. This is true for industry analysis but also academic researchers. A straightforward solution is open data – the idea that data can be freely used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose. To be open, it is not sufficient for data to be accessible free of cost, it must also come with an open data license, the most common types of which are also reviewed in this paper
Internationale Erfahrungen und Best Practices für staatliche Förderverfahren
No full textHintergrund
Eine Vereinfachung und Verbesserung von Förderverfahren stellt angesichts der hohen Bedeutung von Förderungen für Unternehmen und Kommunen ein wichtiges Unterfangen zur Stärkung von Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und Standortqualität dar. Die Sächsische Staatsregierung verfolgt in der aktuellen Legislaturperiode das politische Ziel einer Vereinfachung der Regelungen für Mittelempfänger und Verwaltungsbehörden und insbesondere einer Bürokratieentlastung kleinerer Kommunen bei Förderverfahren. Sie hat sich in ihrer Eckwerteklausur März 2018 entschieden, zur Vereinfachung und Verbesserung von Förderverfahren eine Kommission mit sachkundigen Experten einzusetzen. Die „Kommission zur Vereinfachung und Verbesserung von Förderverfahren“ wurde am 15. Mai 2018 auf Vorschlag des Staatsministers der Finanzen eingesetzt. Es ist vorgesehen, dass sie der Staatsregierung bis 31. Mai 2019 einen Abschlussbericht vorlegt.
Die Kommission soll der Staatsregierung konkrete Vorschläge zur Vereinfachung von Förderprogrammen unterbreiten. Hierbei soll es vor allem um Pauschalierung von Zuschüssen, Flexibilisierung und Entbürokratisierung der Förderverfahren, Vereinfachungsmöglichkeiten landesrechtlicher Vorschriften und um Vorschläge zur Verbesserung und Bündelung der Förderung gehen. Insbesondere sollen Erleichterungen für Fördermittelempfänger im Fokus stehen. Die vorliegende Studie soll mit Hilfe internationaler Erfahrungen ausländischer Verwaltungen in der Reform von Fördermanagementprozessen ein weiterer Baustein bei der Entwicklung konkreter Vereinfachungsvorschläge sein. Dafür werden im Folgenden sechs zum Teil weitreichende Reformen des Fördermanagementprozesses in den Niederlanden, Kanada, Flandern (Belgien), Schweden, Wales (Großbritannien) und Irland ihrem Inhalt nach beschrieben und auf Ihre Auswirkungen hin untersucht. Es werden die wesentlichen Trends im internationalen Reformgeschehen rund um das Thema Förderprozessmanagement identifiziert und Handlungsempfehlungen für die Kommission abgeleitet
Flattening the Recession Curve - Comparing Initial Fiscal Responses to the Corona Crisis Across the EU
Get PDFWhile the ongoing pandemic affects all European economies, we show that it is likely to cause much more economic damage in some member states than in others. Early fiscal crisis responses by EU governments do not reflect these differences. If anything, countries which are likely to be especially vulnerable are currently committing fewer fiscal resources to fighting the economic fallout than others. A joint European policy response to share the fiscal burden of this crisis is, therefore, urgently needed
Polarization under rising inequality and economic decline
No full textSocial and political polarization is a significant source of conflict and poor governance in many societies. Thus, understanding its causes has become a priority of scholars across many disciplines. Here we demonstrate that shifts in socialization strategies analogous to political polarization and identity politics can arise as a locally-beneficial response to both rising wealth inequality and economic decline. Adopting a perspective of cultural evolution, we develop a framework to study the emergence of polarization under shifting economic environments. In many contexts, interacting with diverse out-groups confers benefits from innovation and exploration greater than those that arise from interacting exclusively with a homogeneous in-group. However, when the economic environment favors risk-aversion, a strategy of seeking low-risk interactions can be important to maintaining individual solvency. To capture this dynamic, we assume that in-group interactions have a lower expected outcome, but a more certain one. Thus in-group interactions are less risky than out-group interactions. Our model shows that under conditions of economic decline or increasing wealth inequality, some members of the population benefit from adopting a risk-averse, in-group favoring strategy. Moreover, we show that such in-group polarization can spread rapidly to the whole population and persist even when the conditions that produced it have reversed. Finally we offer empirical support for the role of income inequality as a driver of affective polarization in the United States, mirroring findings on a panel of developed democracies. Our work provides a framework for studying how disparate forces interplay, via cultural evolution, to shape patterns of identity, and unifies what are often seen as conflicting explanations for political polarization: identity threat versus economic anxiety
Taxation to the rescue? A tax reform to support EU economic recovery post-COVID-19
No full textThe COVID19 – crisis puts a strain on public households in the EU, not only because of necessary rescue packages, but also due to a drop of tax revenues in the face of an economic downward spiral. A European tax reform to support the economic recovery without putting an extra burden on companies s thus in strong need. One solution is to secure corporate taxes that formerly slipped through public budgets due to tax avoidance. In this Policy Brief, Pola Schneemelcher argues that the EU must now focus on the already proposed international minimum tax rate. Member states will not be able to implement it on their own; consensus at international level is necessary, but noncommittal. A legally binding solution can therefore only exist at EU level
Persistent Category Ambiguity: The case of social entrepreneurship
No full textLiterature on categories recognizes that in the early stages of a category, ambiguity can arise from divergent frames used to define the category. Yet it also largely expects this ambiguity to be either temporary, or else detrimental to the survival and evolution of the category. In this study, we demonstrate and explain how, alternatively, category ambiguity can persist when multiple frames continue to be applied to a category as it progresses into maturity. Drawing on an in-depth qualitative study of the case of social entrepreneurship, we examine how and under what conditions this outcome occurs. We specify two co-occurring conditions that prompt category stakeholders to shift their framing from exclusive to inclusive, enabling category ambiguity to persist. We furthermore show how the use of category frames that draw from pre-existing resonant categories supports the persistence of category ambiguity. We contribute to literature on categories by clarifying the antecedents of category evolution towards a trajectory of persistent ambiguity
Flying in the Face of Climate Change: Quantitative psychological approach examining the social drivers of individual air travel
No full textAviation contributes substantially to anthropogenic climate change. This paper situates individual behaviour changes alongside technological efficiency gains and policy processes in the search for significant emission reduction in the aviation sector.
Using online survey methodology (N = 393) and expanding upon existing psychological perspectives on individual attitudes and behaviours, this study focuses on the social influence on air travel.
Considering social identity and global social networks, two new instruments, the Cosmopolitan Identity Scale (CIS) and the Global Social Interconnectedness Score (GSIS), were introduced to capture the social drivers of air travel within standardized questionnaires. Different subgroups of travellers were clustered and compared along external and psychological variables, to allow the construction of more effective policies in the aviation sector.
Overall, the awareness of environmental problems caused by flying led to a perceived dilemma between environmental attitudes and travel, which resulted in the engagement with carbon offsets. The global social interconnectedness, built through international experience, led to increased travel to visit friends and family, and an overall increase in flight kilometres. The social identification as a cosmopolitan was related to social media use and predicted flight kilometres directly, implying a particular sensitivity to social norm messages in online campaigns
Electricity balancing as a market equilibrium: Estimating supply and demand of imbalance energy
No full textStable power systems require equalizing demand and supply of electricity at short time scales. Such electricity balancing is often understood as a sequential process: exogenous shocks, such as weather events or technical outages, cause system imbalances that system operators close by activating balancing reserves. By contrast, we study electricity balancing as a market where the equilibrium price (imbalance charge) and quantity (system imbalance) are determined endogenously by supply and demand. System operators supply imbalance energy by activating reserves. Market parties that, deliberately or not, deviate from schedules create demand for imbalance energy. When deliberately taking open positions, firms respond to price signals from electricity markets and imbalance charges. Based on this market framework, we estimate the demand curve of imbalance energy, and hence the price responsiveness of market parties to deviate from schedules. To overcome the classical endogeneity problem of price and quantity in the market equilibrium, we deploy instruments that we derive from a novel theoretical framework. Using data from Germany, we find that firms reduce the physical system imbalance by about 2.8 MW for each increase in the imbalance charge by EUR 1 per MWh. This price response is remarkable because such behavior is prohibited. It is, however, beneficial: on average, such strategic deviations reduced the German system imbalance by 20%
Judicial review of regulatory decisions: Decoding the contents of appeals against agencies in Spain and the United Kingdom
No full textAbstract
Despite the important role that courts play to supervise the legality of regulatory agencies' actions, only few comparative studies analyze the contents of judicial appeals against regulatory decisions within European countries. This paper builds on the comparative administrative law scholarship and administrative capacities literature to analyze the content of 2,040 rulings against decisions issued by competition and telecommunications regulators in Spain and the United Kingdom. To understand the substance of the appeals, the study classifies cases according to the alleged administrative principles under breach and the regulatory capacities under challenge. Findings show a clear country‐sector variation regarding the information contained in judicial disputes for both dimensions of analysis, which can be explained as a result of existing differences between the institutional settings of courts. These results offer a more in depth understanding of the political role of judicial oversight over regulatory agencies embedded in different institutional arrangements and policy sectors