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    A Global Assessment of Domestic Petroleum Fuel Prices

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    Oil prices have been increasingly volatile since 2004. However, the impact of this volatility on domestic end-user prices differs significantly by fuel and country. Some countries fully pass through global price movements to domestic end-user prices, and some countries freeze domestic fuel prices for long periods of time. Fuel subsidies emerge or grow if domestic prices significantly diverge from international prices in times of rising international oil prices. This paper draws on two new databases developed by the author for the purposes of this paper to analyze the degree of pass-through of international price volatility onto domestic consumers for eight fuels between December 2017 and December 2023 for up to 125 economies, depending on the fuel. This period saw significant oil price volatility on account of events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The paper finds that domestic prices in many countries did not follow international fuel prices within the period analyzed. Countries with price controls had much lower levels of pass-through than those with price deregulation. Countries that adjusted their fuel prices at frequent intervals (weekly or monthly) had higher levels of price pass-through than those adjusting them quarterly or less frequently. Currency depreciation and the existence of an official fuel subsidy are associated with lower levels of price pass-through, and the impact of being a net crude oil or net refined fuel exporter is mixed. The results show that not tracking international prices closely is associated with higher incidences of fuel shortages, fuel smuggling, and fuel black marketing

    Global Stock-Take of Fuel Subsidies and Pricing Policies

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    Oil price increases that began in late 2020 led to a global proliferation of liquid fuel subsidies and price controls as governments tried to reduce, redistribute, or delay the impact of rising and volatile energy prices on consumers. This paper draws on a unique database to analyze the petroleum product pricing regimes and consumer price subsidies implemented in 154 economies since 2021. The results indicate that currently a majority of countries regulate fuel prices. Of the 154 economies examined, less than half had deregulated fuel prices as of January 2025. In all, 45 percent of the economies that regulate fuel prices have frozen prices for months and, in some cases, for years. Such infrequent price adjustments, common in Sub-Saharan Africa and in the Middle East and North Africa, lead to significant market distortions, including fuel shortages, smuggling, and unsustainable subsidy costs. Pressure on governments to intervene in the fuel markets surged in 2022 following the spike in international oil prices. In response, 132 of the 154 governments studied instituted a form of fuel price control or subsidy measure in 2022: 59 governments provided direct fuel subsidies, 61 cut fuel taxes, and 41 froze fuel prices entirely. Overall, 29 governments implemented both tax reductions and price subsidies in 2022. A few countries that had deregulated fuel prices prior to 2022 ended up reregulating prices. As of January 2025, 14 countries continued to maintain the 2022 fuel tax reductions. Additionally, fuel prices remained unchanged in several countries over this period. As of January 2025, at least 16 economies were implementing subsidy reforms, while nine others were considering reforming their existing subsidies in the coming years. These economies can benefit from the lessons learned from previous episodes of rising oil prices as well as those from recent international experience, which are documented in this paper and the two new World Bank global databases developed for this study

    Global Evolution of Power Market Designs

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    The design of the power market determines how the sector can address complex economic, social, environmental, and engineering challenges to deliver sustainable and reliable electricity at least cost to consumers. This is no simple task, as supply and demand must be balanced every second, multiple resource and network constraints must be satisfied, and the market must send the correct price signals to motivate efficient generation and investment in the sector over time. There is significant heterogeneity in the electricity market designs adopted by countries globally. No “one-type-fits-all” blueprint exists, and for any design to function well, the country, political, and economic context matters. At this juncture, the experimentation continues. This paper takes stock of the global patterns and trends in the adoption of different power market design options, utilizing a unique new Global Power Market Structures Database (Akcura 2024) covering 230 economies for the period 1989 to 2024. The paths these countries have taken in structuring their power markets provide valuable lessons on the multiple models that can support the development of the power sector in different country contexts. The paper draws on global experience to shed light on promising design options for the future

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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