Attribution of changes in the generalized Fisher index with application to embodied emission studies

The Fisher index and its extensions have been used in multiplicative decomposition analysis applied to energy and emissions. In this study, we extend the concept of additive decomposition of the Fisher index in the national accounts and propose an attribution analysis of the generalized Fisher index in the context of structural decomposition analysis (SDA). The proposed attribution analysis allows changes of an aggregate index derived through the application of the generalized Fisher index decomposition in SDA to be attributed to give the contributions of the individual components at a finer level. Using the proposed approach, we attribute changes in the carbon emissions embodied in China's exports and show that valuable information at the industry sector level is revealed. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.