Primary Program
About
Lester C. Hunt was a part-time Professor of Economics at the University of Portsmouth and a KAPSARC Visiting Researcher. Lester previously worked at the Universities of Essex (1979-1980), Swansea (1980-1985 and 1987-1989), Surrey (1989-1991 and 1999-2017), and Portsmouth (1994-1998, and 2017 onwards). At Surrey he was Head of Economics (1999-2003) and Director of SEEC (2003-2015). At Portsmouth he was Head of Economics (1996 -1998) and Head of Economics and Finance (2017-2021). In addition to working in higher education, Lester was an Economic Adviser in the forecasting division of HM Treasury (1985-1987), an Energy Analyst/Economist at Midlands Electricity (1991-1994) and a Senior Research Fellow at KAPSARC (2015-2017). Lester holds a B.Sc. (Hons) in Economics with Econometrics from Loughborough University, an MA in Economics from the University of Essex, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Surrey. He has been an Editor of The Energy Journal since 2006.
Publications
12 June 2024
Projecting Saudi Arabia’s CO2 Dynamic Baselines to 2060: A Multivariate ApproachUsing an econometric model, we generate scenario projections of CO2 emissions under different sets of assumptions on the underlying drivers. These drivers include GDP, the energy price, economic structure, and the underlying emissions trend. Our baseline scenario projects that Saudi ...
11 April 2021
Estimating Different Order Polynomial Logarithmic Environmental Kuznets Curvesbe followed since it potentially could lead to misleading conclusions. Instead, it should be based upon the sign and statistical significance of the estimated coefficients of the leading terms, the location of turning point(s), and the sign and statistical significance of the estima...
01 January 2020
Modelling industrial energy demand in Saudi ArabiaBetween 1986 and 2016, industrial energy consumption in Saudi Arabia increased by tenfold, making it one of the largest end-use sectors in the Kingdom. Despite its importance, there appear to be no published econometric studies on aggregate industrial energy demand in Saudi Arabia. W...
22 November 2019
The ‘IPhone Effect’: The Impact of Dual Technological Disruptions on ElectrificationMeeting climate change goals requires both the decarbonization of the electricity sector and the electrification of much of the rest of the economy. However, the electricity sector is navigating major disruptions that are changing the regulatory and business landscape. This article f...
01 April 2019
Estimating the Impact of Energy Price Reform on Saudi Arabian Intergenerational Welfare using the MEGIR-SA ModelIn particular, the model analyzes how these price increases might affect the welfare of Saudis through a direct increase in ener... The analysis suggests that the increase in end-user energy prices results in a net overall favorable effect on the intertemporal welfare of all households.
01 February 2018
Correction to: Measuring persistent and transient energy efficiency in the US (Energy Efficiency, (2016), 9, 3, (663-675), 10.1007/s12053-015-9388-5)The article Measuring persistent and transient energy efficiency in the US, written by Massimo Filippini and Lester C. Hunt, was originally published Online First without open access. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
19 January 2018
Voluntary disclosure, greenhouse gas emissions and business performance: Assessing the first decade of reportingThis study explores the empirical relationships between GHG emissions and an extensive range of business performance measures for UK FTSE-350 listed firms over the first decade or so of such reporting. Despite the popular and policy generated environmental imperatives over this perio...
01 November 2017
Oil subsidies and renewable energy in Saudi Arabia: A general equilibrium approachIn 2016, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) announced its Vision 2030 strategic plan incorporating major changes to the economic structure of the country, including an intention to deploy 9.5 GW of renewable energy in an effort to reduce the penetration of oil in the electricity gener...
19 July 2017
Prices versus policy: An analysis of the drivers of the primary fossil fuel mixEnergy policymakers often attempt to shape their countries’ energy mix, rather than leave it purely to market forces. By calibrating and simulating a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model, this paper analyzes the primary fossil fuel mix in the USA and compares it ...
01 March 2017
Foreword to the special issue: Renewables and diversification in heavily energy subsidized economies
08 December 2016
Modeling and forecasting electricity demand in Azerbaijan using cointegration techniquesPolicymakers in developing and transitional economies require sound models to: (i) understand the drivers of rapidly growing energy consumption and (ii) produce forecasts of future energy demand. This paper attempts to model electricity demand in Azerbaijan and provide future forecas...
01 September 2016
Modelling residential electricity demand in the GCC countriesThis paper aims at understanding the drivers of residential electricity demand in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries by applying the structural time series model. In addition to the economic variables of GDP and real electricity prices, the model accounts for population, weather,...
19 June 2016
Measuring persistent and transient energy efficiency in the USThe promotion of US energy efficiency policy is seen as a very important activity. Generally, the level of energy efficiency of a country or state is approximated by energy intensity, commonly calculated as the ratio of energy use to GDP. However, energy intensity is not an accurate ...
01 December 2015
Measurement of energy efficiency based on economic foundationsEnergy efficiency policy is seen as a very important activity by almost all policy makers. In practical energy policy analysis, the typical indicator used as a proxy for energy efficiency is energy intensity. However, this simple indicator is not necessarily an accurate measure given...
01 July 2015
Economic modelling of energy services: Rectifying misspecified energy demand functionsAlthough it is well known that energy demand is derived, since energy is required not for its own sake but for the energy services it produces – such as heating, lighting, and motive power – energy demand models, both theoretical and empirical, often fail to take account ...
19 January 2018
Voluntary disclosure, greenhouse gas emissions and business performance: Assessing the first decade of reportingThis study explores the empirical relationships between GHG emissions and an extensive range of business performance measures for UK FTSE-350 listed firms over the first decade or so of such reporting. Despite the popular and policy generated environmental imperatives over this perio...
