This paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature and assesses the progress on the effects of Indonesia’s REDD+ program. Due to the significance of Indonesia in terms of global rainforests and the comprehensive implementation practice of REDD+ programs since 2009, focusing on the case study of Indonesia enables interesting insights regarding the challenges and opportunities of REDD+. Indonesia faced challenges during the project’s implementation, but there were also reductions. This success is attributed to the set program design of REDD+. In this paper, we show that without international development cooperation in the field of climate change mitigation, the countries in the Global South lack locally driven forest conservation or restoration incentives. These incentives emanate exogenously from international development cooperation programs in the field of climate change mitigation. The review of the program also shows that despite the rigorous institutional design of REDD+ in Indonesia, not all the stakeholders could benefit from the program appropriately. Because of the de facto weakness of the smallholder farmers, indigenous population groups, and other vulnerable categories in the political process of Indonesia, these groups’ interests have not come fully to their own in Indonesia. Hence, we conclude that international programs that target environmental protection, while addressing inferior institutional quality, bad governance and operate through more accountable NGOs than government agencies would perform better in terms of global environmental targets and the sustainability of local livelihoods. 

Gatto, A., Sadik-Zada, E.R. REDD+ in Indonesia: An assessment of the international environmental program. Environ Dev Sustain (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-024-05368-w 

The present paper reviews the green hydrogen uptake policies in the United States and the European Union. While the EU has a rather broad public support strategy that envisages the entire hydrogen value chain, the U.S. policies are more focused on hydrogen research hubs and subsidies having electric vehicle applications. From the experience of the solar and wind power rollout of the past three decades, we know that the subsidization schemes of the end product play an important role in the transition to renewables. These kinds of subsidization schemes are still lacking for clean hydrogen both in the EU and the U.S. This paper provides a brief overview of selected subsidization schemes from other renewables markets, which are then applied to define an exemplary subsidization path to empower large-scale growth in a market for green hydrogen. Here is proposed a long-term subsidization scheme – deemed as an adequate strategy for the expansion of clean hydrogen in an electricity mix. The suggested exemplary subsidization path recommends shifting from feed-in tariffs to direct marketing with market premiums once a certain threshold is reached, while both can be flanked by the issuance of a Guarantee of Origin for green hydrogen so that there is one market for hydrogen and another market for the certificates. 

Gatto, A., Sadik-Zada, E.R., Lohoff, T., Aldieri, L., Vinci, C.P., Peitz, K.A. 2024. An exemplary subsidization path for the green hydrogen economy uptake: Rollout policies in the United States and the European Union. Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 440, 140757. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.140757

The paper revisits the nexus between natural resources and economic growth from the lens of the theory of economic development. It augments the traditional dual-sector economy model by the assumption that in addition to capitalists, also workers contribute to capital accumulation through private savings out of their wage income. The proposed differential game theory model of the interaction between the public and the elites identifies two realistic open-loop Nash and three Stackelberg scenarios for the management of the commodity-driven budget surplus. Based on the conventional transversality conditions, the model detects a progressing decay of social cohesion and institutional quality. It shows that at the early stages of the exploitation of natural resource riches, both the public and elites enable rather modernization-friendly scenarios. At the rather advanced stages of the exploitation of natural resources both groups try to maximize their short-term private benefits and by doing so protract or even inhibit the process of economic modernization. The study finds that the savings behavior of the workers has a positive modernization effect. Nevertheless, workers’ savings cannot fully offset the negative modernization effects of the inferior management of natural resource revenues. 

Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada, Resource rents, savings behavior, and scenarios of economic development. Resources Policy, Volume 81, 2023, 103258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2022.103258

The study elaborates on the perspectives of fuel cell electric buses in German public transportation from a purely economic point of view and formulates recommendations for policies in public transportation in Germany. To this end, the study proposes nine valid scenarios and embeds diesel and fuel-cell bus operations into them. The total cost of ownership-based scenario analysis shows that beginning from 2035 fuel cell electric buses will be economically more attractive than diesel buses. The study identifies carbon pricing and subsidization of solar and wind power generation as the central drivers of fuel cell-based public transportation. 

Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada, Ernesto DR Santibanez Gonzalez, Andrea Gatto, Tomasz Althaus, Fuad Quliyev, Pathways to the hydrogen mobility futures in German public transportation: A scenario analysis, Renewable Energy, Volume 205, 2023, Pages 384-392, ISSN 0960-1481, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2022.12.087

The present study addresses the nexus between the development of e-government and petty corruption in the provision of public sector services in developing and transition economies.The augmented double superimposed principal-agent model serves as the theoretical framework of the present study and shows on the theoretical level how e-government could potentially limit petty corruption. To address the research question empirically, the study applies random tobit and linear random effects panel estimators to a dataset made of 121 countries, which covers the time period between 2008 and 2018. Estimations reveal that the adoption of electronic government in the delivery of public sector services has been the central factor that contributed to the reduction of petty corruption in developing and transition economies. The level of per capita income, political rights, civil liberties and share of natural resources in gross exports also correspond with less bribery in the public sector service delivery. Furthermore, the study finds that a lower level of socio-economic development corresponds with a greater level of petty corruption. Hence, e-government presents one of the utmost opportunities for socio-economic development and offers solutions for the improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness of public administration. 

Sadik-Zada, E.R., Gatto, A., Niftiyev, I. 2022. E-Government and Petty Corruption in Public Sector Service Delivery (with Andrea Gatto and Ibrahim Niftiyev) ׀ Technology Analysis and Strategic Management ׀ H-Index: 68. IF: 1.867

The paper critically addresses the prospective role of lithium in the long-run development of electromobility from the lens of strong sustainability. The  study shows that the geographical concentration of global lithium riches and rather an oligopolistic market structure of the worldwide primary supply makes the global lithium supply vulnerable to unexpected shocks. Furthermore, the work finds that the current transition to lithium-based electromobility does not exhibit traits of strong or long-term sustainability. This is attributed to the limits of lithium endowments, the negligible recycling capabilities of lithium-ion batteries, and environmental degradation induced by the transition to lithium-ion battery-based electromobility. We conclude that lithium-ion battery-based electromobility is rather a meaningful bridging technology until the time when lithium-ion batteries could be reliably replaced by the green hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles.

Sadik-Zada, E.R., Gatto, A. and Scharfenstein. M. 2023. Sustainable management of lithium and green hydrogen and long-run perspectives of electromobility, Technology Forecasting and Social Change 186, Part A, 121992. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2022.121992

The role of civic participation in issues directly or indirectly related to environmental quality is reputed to be on the rise globally. Bottom-up grassroots movements can be conducive to powering socially acceptable, smooth, and hence, more efficient transitions toward low-carbon energy futures. This factor can also unlock the potential of communities, improving the adaptation and social acceptability towards major changes and providing possible policy instruments. On contrary, bottom-up grassroots movements are unfavorable to the extension of renewable energy capacities, especially in the case of wind energy, if this causes costs for the local communities, which outweigh the corresponding benefits. Determining these dynamics is pivotal for addressing public ecological concerns and calls for quantitative regional studies. This paper addresses the nexus between civic engagement and energy transition in 11 countries of the Nordic-Baltic Sea Region. The study detects a strong positive relationship between civic engagement within environmental organizations and the share of renewable energy sources in the domestic electricity mixes of the countries of the Nordic-Baltic Sea Region. Nonparametric panel estimator with fixed effects reveals that the impact of civic engagement has been continuously rising – i.e. the significance of civic engagement as a factor in the energy transition has risen. Nevertheless, the study also finds that the magnitude of civic engagement over the years has been relatively stable in most countries of the region since 1981. In a few of them, civic engagement has been declining. The work argues that this decline could be attributed to the fact that politics, especially since 2005, deemed environmental issues as an important aspect of public policy – a factor that contributed to mainstreaming the phenomenon. 

Sadik-Zada, E.R., Gatto, A. 2022. Civic Engagement and Energy Transition in the Nordic-Baltic Sea Region: Parametric and Nonparametric Inquiries (with Andrea Gatto) ׀ Socio-Economic Planning Sciences ׀ H-Index: 52. IF: 4.923 

In this paper, we address the production linkages and employment effects of the petroleum sector on the rest of the Azerbaijani economy. The availability of the input-output tables for the years 2006, 2008, and 2009 enables the assessment of the changes with regard to the multiplier effects of the extractive industries over the first 3 years of the oil boom. We find that despite advanced infrastructure, well-developed petrochemical complex, and local content policies, the degree of integration of the international oil and gas business into the domestic economy is rather weak. In addition, both production and job creation multipliers slightly decreased after 3 years of exponential growth rates of oil production. The assessment of the production multipliers indicates that additional investments in processing, construction, and network industries have the highest production linkages. Concerning employment multipliers agriculture, education, health care, and public sector have the greatest job creation effects. To assess the fiscal employment effects of the oil revenues, which cannot be captured over the static input-output analysis, we employ the cointegrating nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model. The model reveals a sustainable job creation effect of oil revenues in the case of Azerbaijan.

Sadik-Zada, E.R., Loewenstein, W., Hasanli, Y. 2019. Production Linkages and Dynamic Fiscal Employment Effects of the Extractive Industries: Input-Output and Nonlinear ARDL Analyses of Azerbaijan ׀ Mineral Economics 34, 3-18. ׀ H-Index: 16. Impact Factor: 2.48 

The present inquiry focuses on the modernization perspectives of the commodity‐exporting countries through the lens of development economics. To this end, the study adopts the Kaldorian framework to address the modernization effects, epitomized in the absorption of surplus labor. To trace the process of economic modernization, the study augments Lewis’s dualistic economy model by the extractive sector. Three different scenarios for the management of resource revenues are scrutinized. An altruistic mode, which implies a pure redistribution of the revenues among the poor swaths of the population, protracts the process of economic modernization, requires a greater amount of capital stock, and harbors a greater risk of a poverty trap. This effect is less pronounced if the modern sector is more capital‐intensive. A productive mode, which elicits full reinvestment of the commodity revenues, in contrast, accelerates the pace of economic modernization. Further, predicated on the scrutiny of a more realistic scenario, a bargaining mode, the study derives the condition for a net positive (or negative) modernization effect. The study identifies technical progress alongside capital accumulation as a further important source of economic modernization.

Sadik-Zada, E.R. 2021. Natural Resources, Technological Progress, and Economic Modernization. Review of Development Economics 25(1), 381-404. ׀ H-Index: 47. IF: 1.430

The paper embeds the distributional bargaining concept in the labor surplus economy setting. In the petroleum-abundant labor surplus economies, distributional bargaining comes into its own, mainly over the subsidization of the large swaths of the population working in the sectors with substantial amounts of disguised unemployment. These are primarily the subsistence agriculture and the public sector. The open-loop noncooperative differential game model yields three feasible bargaining equilibria, whereby only the antagonistic and the allocation modes are compatible with the setting of inferior institutional quality that dominates most natural-resource-dependent countries. Both modes have been scrutinized in the context of a developing dual economy model and show that political bargaining in the allocation mode unambiguously protracts the process of economic modernization. The outcome of the antagonistic mode for the process of structural change depends on the magnitude of the labor cost increase in this phase. To assess the bargaining–modernization nexus empirically, the author employs the (Pooled) Mean Group and Dynamic Fixed Effects estimators for panel datasets spanning the years 1990–2016 for 21 oil-producing countries and the System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimators for a panel with 82 countries. We find that the revenues generated from exports of natural resources have a positive long-run impact on the economic modernization. Consistent with our theoretical model, the interaction of the authoritarian regime type with the natural resource wealth has a robust negative impact on the indicators of economic modernization. 

Sadik-Zada, E.R. 2019. Distributional Bargaining and the Speed of the Structural Change in the Labour-Surplus Petroleum Exporting Countries ׀ European Journal of Development Research 31(1), 1-48. ׀ H-Index: 51. IF: 2.53 

This survey addresses production and employment effects, which emanate from the extractive industries of Kazakhstan. To this end, the study employs static input-output models (IOMs) of Kazakhstan for the years 2007, 2010, 2012, and 2017 and dynamic nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) models for the period 1995–2018. IOMs show that extractives in Kazakhstan exhibit relatively strong links to domestic manufacturing. NARDL estimators reveal a positive relationship between commodity revenues and manufacturing value added in the commodity revenue boom phase and a high level of resilience of Kazakh manufacturing to the downward movements of the commodity revenues. Commodity revenues have a statistically significant positive impact on the aggregate employment rate. The study does not detect asymmetries concerning the job creation effects of extractives in the manufacturing sector.

Sadik-Zada, E.R. Addressing the Growth and Employment Effects of the Extractive Industries: White and Black Box Illustrations from Kazakhstan. Post-Communist Economies 33(4), 402-434. ׀ H-Index: 29. IF: 2.4

This survey investigates the inequality-fine wine imports nexus. To this end, the study employs cointegration techniques to analyze two panel datasets, one of which will analyze data from 12 countries between 1871 and 2018, and another that analyzes data from 66 countries between 1995 and 2017. Estimations indicate that income inequality leads to more fine wine imports in the long run. Changes in income have only a short-term effect on fine wine imports. Nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) estimators reveal an asymmetric long-run relationship between income inequality and fine wine imports in the cases of Argentina and the United States. 

Niklas, B., Sadik-Zada, E.R. 2019. Income Inequality and Status Symbols: The Case of Wine Imports. Journal of Wine Economics 14(4), 365-372. doi:10.1017/jwe.2019.33. ׀ H-Index: 9. IF: 2.178.

This study revisits the relationship between economic variables and alcohol consumption from a macro perspective. Focusing explicitly on the asymmetries of the responsiveness of alcohol consumption during the expansion and contraction phases of the business cycle, asymmetric panel estimators are employed. We employ a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model for a panel of 24 countries for the period 1961 to 2014. Findings show that expansion leads to a long-term increase in average alcohol consumption, while during contraction, the level of average alcohol consumption persists. Expansion, together with a pronounced reduction in the unemployment rate could, however, lead to a net reduction of gross alcohol and wine consumption. Nonetheless, if the recession corresponds with a surge in unemployment, this leads to a long-run increase in the level of total gross alcohol consumption but a decrease in wine and beer consumption. Reduction in unemployment does not lead to a reduction in beer consumption, as pre-expansion levels of beer consumption persist. 

Sadik-Zada, E.R., Niklas, B. 2021. Phases of Business Cycles and Patterns of Alcohol Consumption: An Evidence from the Nonlinear Panel ARDL Analysis. (with Britta Niklas) ׀ Journal of Wine Economics 14(6), 429-438. ׀ H-Index: 9. IF: 2.178

The present inquiry lays a groundwork for the analysis of the net greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint of oil in the oil-abundant settings. To address the research question, the study puts forward a three-sector decision model, which provides a common ground for the assessment of the interaction of the structuralist and institutional factors influencing environmental pollution in the oil-reliant economies. The study shows that fossil-fuel abundance triggers forces, which induce diametrically opposed effects concerning atmospheric pollution. These are the rising carbon-intensive oil extraction and processing and fossil-fueled power generation versus shrinkage of the carbon-intensive manufacturing and growth of the low-carbon tertiarization. The theoretical analysis enables compartmentalization of the essential factors, which determine GHG emissions in the respective countries. To assess the significance of the proposed theoretical framework, the study employs multivariate panel co-integration techniques and two-stage fixed effects estimations for a dataset of 38 oil-producing countries for the time period between 1960 and 2018. In contrast to the existing literature, this study drives apart from the black box approaches that employ just one omnibus variable, per capita income. 

Sadik-Zada, E.R., Gatto, A. 2021. The Puzzle of Greenhouse Gas Footprints in Oil Producing Countries ׀ Socio-

Economic Planning Sciences 100936. ׀ H-Index: 52. IF: 4.923

This book project accommodates a substantial number of contributions on the novel business models, technology advances and public regulations that are favorable for the development of a circular economy and green economic growth in the developing and transition economies, and in the structurally challenged areas within the industrialized world. The positive examples make clear that the frontiers of circular and bio-economy development, and green growth are by no means confined to economically advanced countries. This means that developing economies do not have to repeat the inverted U-shaped income–environment relationship and enter the carbon-saving sustainable growth and development track commencing from the initial phases of economic modernization. The positive examples in this book project show that the pathways to sustainable development in the Global South are real. There is, however, no guarantee that developing countries would join them. To assure this, advanced countries must rethink their international development cooperation and enhanced development policies in the realm of international climate action. 

ISBN 978-3-0365-7564-3 (hardback); ISBN 978-3-0365-7565-0 (PDF)

https://doi.org/10.3390/books978-3-0365-7565-0 

This book deals with the role of oil abundance in economic growth. The major theoretical contribution of the analysis is the transformation of the rentier state theory into the language of mathematical economics. The mathematical formalization of the rentier state theory enables a more sophisticated analytical tool for the assessment of the role of nonrenewable resource revenues in economic growth and institutional dynamics. The embedding of the elements of a rentier state into the labor surplus economy framework leads to grave consequences as reflected in the quantitative part of the survey. The augmented labor surplus economy model shows that both the political economy and the purely economic causes of the resource curse can have similar effects on the resource allocation in the affected nation. Hence, it is not possible to use econometric tools to compartmentalize the effects of the Dutch disease and those explanations based upon political economy. This is the reason why one can only estimate the total growth effects of oil revenues. Besides cross-country panel estimations, a case study of Azerbaijan provides additional insights into petroleum based economic development. These international panel and country specific estimations are partly based on the two sector model of economic growth. In the case of Azerbaijan, a vector error correction model, which is based upon the behavioral model of the equilibrium exchange rate, is applied to detect the Dutch disease tendencies. Logos Verlag Berlin. ISBN 978-3-8325-4342-6

Maschinenbelegungspläne sind i.d.R. NP-schwer, dies macht die Anwendung heuristischer Lösungsmethoden erforderlich. Im Rahmen dieser Untersuchung werden unterschiedliche Varianten der Maschinenbelegung untersucht. Anschließend wird die prinzipielle Funktionsweise von Metaheuristiken zur Lösung des Maschinenbelegungsproblems analysiert. Ein wesentlicher Teil der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Aufstellung eines Ansatzes zum Vergleich der Metaheuristiken. Dieser Ansatz dient später als Rahmen für die zusammenfassende Untersuchung algorithmischer Vergleiche der Metaheuristiken zur Maschinenbelegung. Die Untersuchung liefert den aktuellen Performancestand von Metaheuristiken bei der Lösung von JSSP. PFSP, OSSP und SMSP.  Westdeitscher Universitätsverlag Bochum.

Access to electricity is fundamental to ensure basic human activities and is a direct measure of energy poverty. In recent years, significant steps towards rural electrification have been fostered by intergovernmental organisations with the scope to ensure energy security to all—especially rural people, the poor and the vulnerable. Cooking is a basic daily household activity and is strictly related to energy security. Nevertheless, in most developing countries and the rural world, cooking is still done through polluting, ineffective and dangerous kerosene stove and animal manure and primordial tools. To tackle this issue, pushed-down energy policies calibrated to enhance environmental, social and economic performances of rural households have to face ancient habits. This book chapter aims to analyze the feasibility of environmental preservation policies within cooking activities in Kyenjojo District of Uganda in terms of sustainability performance. The study is predicated on the field survey data with 63 households. The performed analyses indicate that electrification has not substantially changed the cooking behaviors of the households. Furthermore, the study analyses the causes for the lagging transition to clean energy use in cooking. We find that besides behavioural and taste aspects affordability and level of education play an important role in the context of the household-level energy transition. This significance of education may be imputed to the fact that poor rural people have not been educated about environmental protection and paves the way for new research explorations, bottom-up projects, sustainable development policies and energy transition modeling. 

Sadik-Zada, E.R., Gatto, A., Blick, N. 2021. Rural Electrification and Transition to Clean Cooking: The Case Study of Kanyegaramire and Kyamugarura Solar Mini-Grid Energy Cooperatives in the Kyenjojo District of Uganda. In: W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.). Sustainable Policies and Practices in Energy, Environment and Health Research. World Sustainability Series, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-86304-3_32 

Modern cities all over the world are increasingly facing global urban heat islands (UHIs). The issue calls for sound urban development and planning policies and requires measuring, monitoring, and adapting to major climate change shocks in the cities, as well as environmental and socioeconomic impact mitigation. The most affected people are recurrently those living in tropical and subtropical, low-income countries—especially the poor and the vulnerable categories. A peculiar role is attributed to resource and commons governance, for which a tailored sustainability action became a priority. Major notable consequences of UHI are, indeed, impacting energy consumption, water and air quality, and climate change, as well as environmental and public health. These societal problems are directly intertwined with grand challenges—above all climate justice and resilience policies formulation for the vulnerable. The former requires prompt multidimensional solutions to disentangle complex systems conundrums. This book chapter aims to furnish a comparative global picture of some key features related to the UHI phenomenon and trends, making use of the CIESIN's Satellite-Derived Environmental Indicators on Global Urban Heat Island. These data are corroborated by additional datasets analyses. For this scope, selected cities located in different world regions pertaining to both the Global North and Global South are used as case studies. Statistical and econometrics tests are performed—including OLS and multilevel multivariate regression analysis. These pieces of evidence are examined with respect to their latitude, population, and mean day and night temperature differences. The work finds that the Global South countries are more exposed to UHI vulnerability. Lastly, possible resilience policies, mitigation strategies, and practical actions to address the discussed issues are eventually inquired. 

Sadik-Zada, E.R., Gatto, A. 2021. Urban Heat Islands Effect in the Global North and Global South: A Global Perspective on the Drivers and Mitigation Strategies. Forthcoming in Global Urban Heat Island Mitigation: Trends, Impacts, Strategies, and Technologies. Book edited by Dev Niyogi. Publisher: Elsevier 

This chapter explores the foreseeable repercussions of South East Europe (SEE) energy transition in terms of regional sustainability, resilience, vulnerability, and energy security. It examines enhancement of the natural gas pipelines in the framework of the Southern Gas Corridor, its broad ramifications for the SEE, as well as consequences for regional integration in energy security in the area. The chapter argues that natural gas will be relevant within the decarbonization pathway, coal-to-renewables transition, and energy security over the full transition toward a low-carbon economy. A moderate share of natural gas in the energy mix contributes to the robustness of the decarbonization strategy over the reduction of the growing electricity intermittency risk that emanates from the growing share of the renewables in the energy mix. Regardless of the undertaken landscape and energy mix, the decarbonization targets should not be subject to trade-offs with purely economic targets in the face of the short- to middle-term economic turmoils.

In: Mišík M., Oravcová V. (eds) From Economic to Energy Transition. Energy, Climate and the Environment. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. pp. 491-514. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55085-1_17