Research Framework

CEMTPP is developing six targeted research and issues analysis programs, in marine transportation, urban energy systems, changing fuel mix and downstream infrastructure, international energy governance, energy and water services in rural Africa, and institutions of adaptation and mitigation for climate change.

Since the Center is small and our research agenda is ambitious, we must discipline our research with a common framework that organizes our analysis and provides focus and structure for its communication.

All of our research areas involve a complex mix of economic, technological, social, and political issues. Efficient energy, water, and transportation systems are at the core of productivity and growth. They are enmeshed in social considerations of reliability and security, market power, equity, and sustainability. In developed economies, they are being massively restructured. In developing economics, their formation is a fundamental test of governance in support of investment.

These are "chain" activities, delivering resources to endusers through chain of facilities that are capital-intensive and often dedicated to specific energy and geographical service. In parallel with each chain of facilities is a chain of transactional organizations and institutions—businesses, funding structures, commercial structures, governance institutions—that support formation, investment, funding, and operations. Investment commitment is predicated on the economic viability and coordinated performance of the whole chain. As the scope of markets and the costs and productivity of technologies evolve, these institutional structures coevolve.

We are developing the Tetrahedron—a framework integrating technical-economic, transactional, and political dimensions of energy, water, and marine transportation systems. This framework employs the conceptual bases provided by economic theory, operations research, transactions economics, and public choice theory. It serves as a template for coherent and complete analysis and communication in our research and issues analysis programs.