PODCAST: China’s energy economy

A presentation given by Les Oxley, Professor in Economics at the University of Canterbury at a public lecture organised by Motu Economic and Public Policy Research

Click below to play the presentation

china coalPART I

[audio:https://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/wp-content/upload/2009/08/Les-Oxley-China-Energy-pt-1.mp3]

PART II

[audio:https://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/wp-content/upload/2009/08/Les-Oxley-China-Energy-pt-2.mp3]

China’s economic growth performance is well documented and its role as a global economic force well understood. However, with this economic growth come issues related to the demand and supply of energy, substitution possibilities (within energy sources and between labour and capital) and the implications for emissions and other environmental factors.

Empirical research in these areas is less well understood, as are ongoing changes in policy. This is in part owing to the lack of access to relevant data or the fact the material is not translated into English. The seminar will report the results from some recent work on inter-factor and inter-fuel substitution possibilities based on a newly collated fuel price data and consider some of the implications of the work; look at results on the ‘law of one price’ in fuel prices across Chinese cities (hence providing some information of the role of the market within China’s energy economy); and relate all these results to recent changes in both energy and environmental policies in China.

Les Oxley is Professor in Economics at the University of Canterbury. He is also Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia’s School of Economics and School of Mathematics and Statistics, and Adjunct Professor at Chiang Mai University, Thailand. His current research includes: defining and measuring the size, scale and effects of the ‘knowledge economy’ in New Zealand; the effects of land ownership and sales on the New Zealand economy in the late 19th and early 20th century; measuring and effects of innovation on the New Zealand economy; nonparametric methods applied to forecasting electricity prices; and non-linear cointegration. Some of this work is funded with support from the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Marsden Fund and the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology.