Output responses to oil-price shocks not only tend to be weaker, but also to peak earlier recently. This paper builds a model that incorporates a realistic structure of US petroleum consumption and explores three possible explanations for the changes. The first is based on deregulation in the transportation sector, which has brought more competition and improved efficiency in the industry. The ...

Growth studies show, counter to intuition, that the discovery of a natural resource may be a curse rather than a blessing since resource-rich countries grow slower than others. Moreover, resource abundance may involve a displacement of a growth-essential manufacturing sector, leading to Dutch Disease. Norway is an important exception to the curse and the disease. Since oil production started in...

The biggest agricultural sector that contributes to the Malaysian economy is the oil palm industry. The effluent generated during the production of crude palm oil known as palm oil mill effluent (POME). POME undergoes anaerobic treatment that requires long retention time and produces large amount of methane that consequently contributes to global warming. In this study, an isolated bacteria was...

Biodiesel is a promising non-toxic and biodegradable alternative fuel in transport sector. Of all the biodiesel properties, specific gravity and viscosity are the most significant for the effects they have on the utilization of biodiesel fuels in unmodified engines. This paper presents models, which have been derived from experimental data, for predicting the specific gravity and dynamic viscos...

This paper discusses the policy issues facing the country of Sno TomJ e PrRncipe, a small island country in the Gulf of Guinea, given the discovery and imminent exploitation of large reserves of oil in its territorial waters. While presenting huge opportunities, the history of other African oil-exporting countries demonstrates that there are dangers as well. An appropriate policy for macro bala...

It goes without saying that crude oil is important for both developed and emerging economies, with crude oil-related expenditures representing a significant proportion of total economic inputs, and an even more substantial share of total energy consumption. For example, energy expenditures of about $1,233 billion in the US currently account for some 8.8% of its GDP (from a high of 13.7% in 1981...

The IT center of Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) is one of the largest information centers in the State of Kuwait. It provides many services to KOC departments and other Kuwait oil sector companies (K-Companies). These services need to ensure High Availability (HA) and flexibility in their operations. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of the damage that affects the Business Continuity...

YERCEPTIONS OF A GLOBAL CRISIS have been rampant for over a decade. Third world nations fear their development prospects are being undermined by a series of devastating external shocks. Unprecedentedly high levels of foreign debt service, coupled with climbing interest rates and falling export revenues, have forced many developing countries to cut imports, restrict public-sector spending, curta...

The financial sector has been viewed traditionally as either providing the “oil” for the “wheels of commerce” or as a parasite on the real sector of the economy where real productivity gains provide for increasing real wages and per capita incomes. The present paper takes a different route and attempts to an analysis of financial institutions on a par with the production sector of the economy. ...

Angola’s difficulties in achieving macro-economic stability and economic liberalization have serious implications for private-sector development. Hyperinflation, and frequent policy reversal, constrain and distort investment in both the informal and formal parts of the private sector. But macro-economic instability arises in part out of mechanisms that subsidize powerful oligopolies, enabling t...