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on Regulation |
| By: | Amparo Moyano; Frédéric Dobruszkes |
| Abstract: | Since high-speed rail (HSR) is designed primarily to connect large cities, it challenges how smaller cities en-route are still going to be serviced by rail. Scholars have focused mainly on cities bypassed by HSR that have experienced a decrease in conventional rail services or on how several smaller cities have nevertheless been able to secure appropriate facilities to be served by high-speed trains in the context of compromises between HSR travel time and political pressures. Indeed, local and regional authorities often do their best to secure specific rail infrastructures to accommodate HSR services. However, in their euphoria they usually forget to consider HSR operations. Yet it is the services supplied (routes, frequencies and timetables) that ultimately determine the utility of HSR for those smaller cities, and the real possibility of being connected to other cities. In this context, this paper complements the existing literature by revisiting the case for smaller en-route HSR cities through a service-oriented perspective. We examine four European case studies and find that cities that initially succeed in securing HSR infrastructure may still be bypassed to some extent. Reasons include intermodal competition based on travel time, insufficient potential markets for train companies seeking higher revenues and rail stations not being designed appropriately. |
| Keywords: | High-speed rail; Bypass; Service supply; Servicing intermediate cities |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/261983&r=reg |
| By: | José Francisco Tudón Maldonado |
| Abstract: | Net neutrality encourages content provision but also creates congestion externalities from the increase in data traffic. I study the consequences of net neutrality in Twitch.tv, a popular internet platform. Twitch is non-neutral because it gives priority to the most popular content providers by compressing their data, which makes them accessible to more consumers. I estimate a two-sided-market model that considers the interactions between content provision, its consumption, and congestion. Using an exogenous technological upgrade that increased data traffic, I identify the costs of congestion for content providers and for their consumers and, using exogenous time-series variations within panels, I identify the benefits of prioritization. I use the estimated preferences and technological parameters to study the counterfactual in which net neutrality is imposed in the platform, which requires priority to be allocated anonymously. Consumer welfare drops 5%, whereas content provision does not increase, but its average quality drops. I then consider a counterfactual rent-extractive platform that charges for prioritization under the non-neutral regime. In this case, net neutrality, which prohibits priority charges, increases content provision, but consumer welfare still drops due to lower content quality and congestion externalities. |
| JEL: | D22 D62 L13 L14 |
| Date: | 2017–11–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jmp:jm2017:ptu168&r=reg |
| By: | Tetsuji Okazaki (Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo); Ken Onishi (School of Economics, Singapore Management University); Naoki Wakamori (Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo) |
| Abstract: | Excess production capacity has been a major concern in many countries, in particular, when an industry faces declining demand. Strategic interaction among firms might delay efficient scrappages of production capacity and policy interventions that eliminate such strategic incentives may improve efficiency. This paper empirically studies the effectiveness of policy interventions in such an environment, using plant-level data on the Japanese cement industry. Our estimation results show that a capacity coordination policy that forces firms to reduce their excessive production capacity simultaneously can effectively reduce excess capacity without distorting firms' scrappage decisions or increasing the market power of the firms. |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tky:fseres:2017cf1073&r=reg |
| By: | Ciara O'Dwyer; L. (Lisa B.) Ryan; Damian Flynn |
| Abstract: | Future power systems with high penetrations of variable renewables will require increased levels of flexibility from generation and demand-side sources in order to maintain secure and stable operation. One potential flexibility source is largescale energy storage, which can provide a variety of ancillary services across multiple time-scales. In order for appropriate levels of investment to take place, and in order for existing assets to be utilized optimally, it is essential that market signals are present which encourage suitable levels of flexibility, either from storage or alternative sources. Suboptimal storage plant dispatch due to uncertainty and inefficient market incentives are represented as operational constraints on the storage plant, and the impact of these inefficiencies are highlighted. Thus changes required in operational practices for storage plant at different installed wind capacity levels, and the challenges that private storage plant operators will face in generating appropriate bids in a market environment at high variable renewable penetrations are explored. The impacts on system generating costs and storage profits are explored under different plant operating assumptions. |
| Keywords: | Energy storage; Power system simulation; Pumped storage power generation; Wind energy |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:oapubs:10197/9103&r=reg |
| By: | Grenestam, Erik (Department of Economics, Lund University); Nordin, Martin (AgriFood Economics Centre, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the effects of super-fast internet connections on the academic achievement of students in upper secondary school. We link detailed register data on around 250,000 students to local levels of access to optic fiber broadband, in order to estimate a causal effect of broadband on student GPA. We show that reaching full coverage in the student’s parish of residence causes a GPA reduction ranging from 3 to 6 percent of a standard deviation. Estimates are consistently more negative for boys and students with low ability and/or low-educated parents. Using PISA survey data, we provide evidence that students living in areas with the greatest high-speed broadband expansion also spend more time online during weekdays, suggesting student time use as a potential mechanism. |
| Keywords: | Education; Broadband; Internet; High-school; GPA |
| JEL: | H52 I24 I28 J24 O33 |
| Date: | 2017–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2017_017&r=reg |
| By: | Belleflamme, Paul; Peitz, Martin |
| Abstract: | Competition between two-sided platforms is shaped by the possibility of multihoming. If users on both sides singlehome, each platform provides users on either side exclusive access to its users on the other side. In contrast, if users on one side can multihome, platforms exert monopoly power on that side and compete on the singlehoming side. This paper explores the allocative effects of such a change from single- to multihoming. Our results challenge the conventional wisdom, according to which the possibility of multihoming hurts the side that can multihome, while benefiting the other side. This is not always true: the opposite may happen or both sides may benefit. |
| Keywords: | Network effects , two-sided markets , platform competition , competitive bottle- neck , multihoming |
| JEL: | D43 L13 L86 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mnh:wpaper:43193&r=reg |
| By: | Olga Chiappinelli |
| Abstract: | We exploit a new dataset based on EU procurement award notices to investigate the relationship between the degree of centralization of public procurement and its performance. We focus on the case of Italy, where all levels of government, along with a number of other public institutions, are involved in procurement and are subject to the same EU regulation. We find that i) municipalities and utilities, which currently award the largest shares of contracts, perform worse than all other institutional categories; and ii) decentralization implies lower performance only when it comes with weak competences of procurement officials. The evidence seems to suggests that a re-organization of the procurement system, both in terms of partial centralization and better professionalization of procurement officials, would help improve overall procurement performance. |
| Keywords: | Public Procurement, Decentralization, Procurement performance, Public works |
| JEL: | H11 H57 H71 H77 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1704&r=reg |
| By: | Gayle, Philip; Xie, Xin |
| Abstract: | Researchers have written extensively on the impact that strategic alliances between airlines have on airfare, but little is known of the market entry deterrent impact of strategic alliances. Using a structural econometric model, this paper examines the market entry deterrent impact of codesharing, a form of strategic alliance, between incumbent carriers in domestic air travel markets. We find evidence of market entry deterrence, but deterrence impact depends on the specific type of codesharing between market incumbents as well as the identity of the potential entrant. We quantify the extent to which market incumbents’ codesharing influences potential entrants market entry cost and probability of market entry. |
| Keywords: | Entry Deterrence; Strategic Alliances; Dynamic Entry/Exit Model; Airline Competition |
| JEL: | L13 L93 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:83233&r=reg |
| By: | Almunia, Miguel (University of Warwick); Gaete, Gonzalo (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | Traffic accidents cause more than one million annual deaths worldwide and yield substantial economic costs to society. This paper studies the effects of a penalty points system (PPS) introduced in Spain in 2006. We find a 20% decrease in cumulative road fatalities in the five years after the reform, compared to a synthetic control group constructed using a weighted average of other European countries. Using estimates of the value of a statistical life, we calculate that the PPS yielded a net economic benefit of €4.6 billion ($6 billion) over this period, equivalent to 0.43% of Spain’s GDP. |
| Keywords: | road fatalities; traffic enforcement; penalty points system (PPS); synthetic control; Spain. JEL Classification: I18, R41, K32. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:348&r=reg |
| By: | Curtis, John; McCoy, Daire; Aravena Novielli, Claudia |
| Abstract: | The paper uses a multinomial logit model to study the determinants of domestic space heating systems in Ireland. Nine types of heating systems are considered, classified by fuel type (liquid, electric, gas and solids or combinations thereof). Heating system choice is modelled as a function of household socio-demographic variables and dwelling attributes; information on occupants’ knowledge of fuel costs, energy efficiency, and fuel emissions; as well as actual environmental behaviours. Key findings are that environmental concerns, including knowledge of fuel costs, emissions, or engagement in environmentally sustainable behaviours, are not an important determining factor in heating system choice across the majority of households. No clear trend emerges on the likelihood of specific heating systems being associated with a broad range of socio-demographic variables, including age, income, and working status. Certain building attributes are associated with specific heating system types, with analyses segregated by new build properties, properties with their original heating system, and also by tenure type (i.e. mortgage, rental, etc.). For example, we find public sector landlords’ properties have a substantially higher likelihood that the heating system is solid fuel based compared to other heating systems, which identifies an obvious opportunity to target de-carbonisation of heating systems. |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp576&r=reg |
| By: | Bergland, Olvar (School of Economics and Business, Norwegian University of Life Sciences); Mirza, Faisal (Department of Economics, University of Gujrat) |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at the potential systematic variation in energy savings resulting from daylight saving time(DST)in a number of geographic areas varying in latitude ranging from Northern to Southern Europe. We are using the same econometric specification and estimation method for a consistent dataset of electricity load covering 35 countries in Europe. Thus our results provide a comprehensive set of consistent and comparable estimates of the DST effect. The average treatment effect results obtained from difference-in-difference regression for 46 electricity load zones ranges from zero in northern most parts of Norway and Sweden to more than 2.5 % in a number of locations. We find some evidence that energy savings from DST decreases with latitude, and especially for homogeneous groups of countries. The diversity in estimated effects cuts across geographical, cultural and economic factors. |
| Keywords: | daylight savingstime; electricityconsumption; di erence-in-di erence |
| JEL: | C21 C24 Q40 |
| Date: | 2017–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nlsseb:2017_008&r=reg |
| By: | Attavanich, Witsanu |
| Abstract: | Despite facing with the air pollution caused by traffic congestion ranked top ten in the world, the Thai government launched a tax refund policy for first time car buyers between 16 September 2011 and 31 December 2012 aiming to give an opportunity to low-to-middle income people to own their first car with discounted price and stimulate economic growth. Although past studies evaluated the impacts of the program on several aspects, the environment aspect has been ignored. The objective of this study is therefore to evaluate the impact of the first-time car buyer program on environmental cost of air pollution in Bangkok using hourly air pollution records from monitoring stations for five major pollutants and the happiness data. The article finds that the program increased the levels of air pollution. Using the estimated willingness to pay for a unit reduction of each pollutant, this study reveals that the value of total environmental cost generated from the program is approximately equal to $6.173 billion dollars annually. |
| Keywords: | First-Time Car Buyer Program; Environmental Cost; Air Pollution; Bangkok; Subjective Well-Being; Interrupted Time Series; Program Evaluation |
| JEL: | Q51 Q53 Q58 |
| Date: | 2017–04–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:83170&r=reg |