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on Regulation |
| By: | Bernold, Elizabeth; Ancev, Tiho; Baltaduonis, Rimvydas |
| Abstract: | Incentive-based policies, such as emissions taxes and emissions permit trading schemes, are increasingly used to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in many jurisdictions around the world. Taxes impose a fixed price on emissions, whereas under tradable permit schemes prices emerge in the secondary permit market. The delayed price discovery under tradable permit schemes creates uncertainty about the future cost of compliance that liable emitters will face. To mitigate this uncertainty, some jurisdictions, including Australia, have designed policies to regulate GHG emissions that commence with an emissions tax that is in force for several years, subsequently transforming into a tradable permit scheme. This paper examines the effects that this type of staged transition – from no regulation to a regulation by an emissions tax, to a regulation by tradable permits – has on several criteria of interest: abatement investment, quantity of emissions, permit prices and overall regulation efficiency. The effects of the regulation that employs an intertemporal mix of policy instruments are compared to the effects observable under regulation using single policy instrument: a tax only, and a tradable permit only regulation. Economics experiments in a laboratory were used to study economic behavior under these three types of regulation. The findings suggest that a regulation based on a staged transition from a tax to a tradable permit scheme results in more socially desirable outcomes on a range of criteria when compared to a regulation based solely on tradable permits. |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:syd:wpaper:2015-17&r=all |
| By: | Hyland, Marie |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at the restructuring of European electricity markets that has been taking place since the 1990s. This liberalisation process, driven largely by EU legislation aiming to create a single market for electricity, has led to significant changes in how electricity markets in member states operate. In this paper I estimate the impact of the restructuring process on electricity prices for industrial consumers. Much of the literature to date estimating the impacts of electricity market restructuring fails to take into account the potential endogeneity of the reform process. By using dynamic panel-data techniques, I aim to overcome this shortcoming. I find that once the potential endogeneity of reforms is accounted for, restructuring has, as of yet, had no statistically significant impact on electricity prices. This research highlights the importance of accounting for dynamics and endogeneity before drawing inferences about the results of EU electricity-market reform. |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp504&r=all |
| By: | Takanori Ida; Kayo Murakami; Makoto Tanaka |
| Abstract: | We report on a randomized controlled trial used to examine the effect of dynamic pricing when applied to households with rooftop photovoltaic (PV) power-generation systems. Using high-frequency data on household-level electricity use, PV generation, purchases, and sales, we find that critical peak pricing induced significant usage reductions of 3-4% among households with PV systems, a quarter of the effect size seen among average households without solar PV systems. In addition, we investigate the influence of the amount of PV power generated on treatment effects and the potential heterogeneity caused by participating households’ attributes. This is the first large-scale field experiment evaluating the demand response of households with PV generation capabilities. |
| Keywords: | randomized controlled trial, field experiment, photovoltaic generation, dynamic pricing |
| JEL: | D1 Q4 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kue:dpaper:e-15-006&r=all |
| By: | Di Cosmo, Valeria; O'Hora, Denis; Devitt, Niamh |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the electricity usage of 5,000 Irish residential consumers in response to the introduction of TOU tariffs and three different forms of financial feedback: immediate feedback from in-home displays (IHD), monthly billing and bimonthly billing. Halfhourly data on consumption collected during the trial indicated that TOU tariffs reduced consumption at peak, with some reductions lasting beyond the end of the peak period and post-peak spikes in usage were not observed. IHD feedback resulted in the most reliable reductions and bimonthly billing the least. Households with greater education used the information associated to the TOU tariffs slightly better than the average. |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp508&r=all |
| By: | Christoph Böhringer (Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre & ZenTra); Knut Einar Rosendahl (Norwegian University of Life Sciences, School of Economics and Business); Halvor Briseid Storrøsten (Statistics Norway, Oslo / Norway) |
| Abstract: | Unilateral climate policy induces carbon leakage through the relocation of emission-intensive and trade-exposed industries to regions with no or more lenient emission regulation. Both analytical and numerical studies suggest that emission pricing combined with border carbon adjustments may be a second-best instrument, and more cost-effective than output-based rebating, in which case domestic output is indirectly subsidized. No countries have so far imposed border carbon adjustments, while variants of output-based rebating have been implemented. In this paper we demonstrate that it is welfare improving for a region who has already implemented emission pricing along with output-based rebating for emission-intensive and trade-exposed goods to also introduce a consumption tax on these goods. Moreover, we show that combining output-based rebating with a consumption tax can be equivalent with border carbon adjustments. |
| Keywords: | Carbon leakage, output-based rebating, border carbon adjustments, consumption tax |
| JEL: | D61 H2 Q54 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zen:wpaper:54&r=all |
| By: | George Marbuah (Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences); Ing-Marie Gren (Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the issue of whether or not social capital explains per capita CO2 emissions dynamics in Swedish counties in an augmented environmental Kuznets curve framework. By accounting for issues of endogeneity in the presence of dynamic and spatial effects using geo-referenced emissions data, we show that per capita carbon emissions in a county matters for other counties and that net of economic, demographic and environmental factors, social capital has the potential to reduce carbon emissions in Sweden albeit less robustly. We test two different social capital constructs; trust in government and environmental engagement. Specifically, trust in the government inures to the reduction in CO2 emissions. Membership and engagement in environmental organisations reduces CO2 emissions only through its interaction with per capita income or trust. The implication of our estimates suggest that investment geared toward increasing the stock of social capital could inure to re ductions in CO2 emissions in addition to climate policy instruments in Sweden. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Kuznets curve, Social capital, CO2 emissions, Spatial panel analysis, Sweden |
| JEL: | C23 Q53 Q56 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fae:wpaper:2015.14&r=all |
| By: | Dürr, Niklas S.; Hüschelrath, Kai |
| Abstract: | We study competition in the German interurban bus industry two years after its liberalization in January 2013. In addition to a brief characterization of the liberalization process and several general market developments, we provide a detailed analysis of selected market characteristics such as concentration and competitive interaction, fares as well as service quality. We use the gained insights to discuss two recent policy issues - industry consolidation and possible abuses of market power by incumbents - and derive several recommendations to secure effective competition in the industry. |
| Keywords: | liberalization,interurban bus services,competition,merger,predation,Germany |
| JEL: | L11 L41 L43 L92 K21 K23 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:15062&r=all |
| By: | Javier Elizalde (University of Navarra); Markus Kinateder (University of Navarra); Ignacio Rodríguez-Carreño (University of Navarra) |
| Abstract: | This work performs a comparative welfare analysis of two types of entry regulation in a duopolistic retail market: number of licenses and minimum distance between stores. In a linear (Hotelling) market we show that a minimum distance rule is beneficial for the consumers and disadvantageous for the firms when demand is sufficiently inelastic. The distance rule that maximises social welfare is one quarter of the market under which firms will be located at the quartiles. Those locations are also optimal under regulated prices. This analysis, which is not yet considered in the literature, is motivated by a change of entry regulation in the drugstore market in the Spanish region of Navarre |
| Date: | 2014–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:una:unccee:wp0214&r=all |
| By: | Dürr, Niklas S.; Heim, Sven; Hüschelrath, Kai |
| Abstract: | We provide an empirical assessment of the German interurban bus industry two years after its deregulation in January 2013. In addition to a general description of key developments of the industry, we use a unique route-level price data set to study both competitive interaction in general and the potential price effects of a recently announced merger of the two largest players in the market in particular. We find that route-level average prices, inter alia, do not only depend on the number of competitors but especially on the composition of firms operating on a particular route. Although our empirical results suggest short-term price increases on certain route types post-merger, it remains an open question whether the merger should be classified as anticompetitive. |
| Keywords: | deregulation,competition,merger,interurban bus services,Germany |
| JEL: | L11 L41 L92 K21 K23 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:15061&r=all |