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on Regulation |
| By: | Renato Gomes (Toulouse School of Economics, 1, Esplanade de l’Université, 31080, Toulouse, France); Andrea Mantovani (Toulouse Business School, 1, Place Alphonse Jourdain, 31068, Toulouse, France) |
| Abstract: | Online marketplaces, such as Amazon, or online travel agencies, such as Booking.com, greatly expand consumer information about market offers, but also raise firms’ marginal costs by charging high commissions. To prevent show-rooming, platforms adopted price parity clauses, which restrict sellers’ ability to offer lower prices in alternative sales channels. Whether to uphold, reform, or ban price parity has been at the center of the policy debate, but so far little consensus has emerged. In this paper, we investigate a natural alternative to lifting price parity; namely, we study how to optimally cap platforms’ commissions. The optimal cap reflects the Pigouvian precept according to which the platform should not charge fees greater than the externality that its presence generates on other market participants. Employing techniques from extreme-value theory, we are able to express the optimal cap in terms of observable quantities. In an application to online travel agencies, we find that current average fees are welfare increasing only if platforms at least double consumers’ consideration sets (relative to alternative ways of gathering information online). This suggests that, in some markets, regulation capping commissions should bind if optimally set. |
| Keywords: | platforms, price parity, regulation, commission caps, extreme value theory. |
| JEL: | D83 L10 L41 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:2009&r=all |
| By: | Florent Laroche (LAET - Laboratoire Aménagement Économie Transports - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - ENTPE - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Ayana Lamatkhanova |
| Abstract: | The paper explores the effect of the competitive tender for users through prices and frequencies in the regional railway passenger market. The analysis is original by an extended perimeter to seven European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, UK) and a total of 103 routes mixing market open to competition by tendering with market still under monopoly. Data are cross sectional and have been selected for one day. The method is based on an econometric analysis (Sureg) developed for other modes (air, coach) but never yet applied to the rail market and its specificities in terms of competition. For the regional services where competition is "for the market", the competition is analyzed through a dummy as a threat to lose the tender. Intermodal competition is limited to the coach services (dummy) and carpooling services (dummy). Results show that the threat of intra-modal competition can increase price for users but have no significant effect on frequencies. The analysis country by country highlights a similar performance for Sweden and Switzerland in spite of high differences in terms of competition. It suggests that the ability to negotiate contracts of public authorities and political choices can be more determinant than potential competition. Finally, effect of intermodal competition are weak mainly because of a limited offer. Results show that the probability to find a carpooling service increases when prices of train are increasing. |
| Keywords: | market structure,competition,tender,regional train,Railway competition,Regional Economy,Tender offer regulation |
| Date: | 2020–09–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-02930832&r=all |
| By: | Devika Bhatia (Economics Discipline, Business School, University of Western Australia); Sangeeta Bansal (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi) |
| Abstract: | Profit shifting in transfer pricing arises due to the informational advantage of the multinational enterprise (MNE) with its cost structure. This paper explores the possibility of designing a tariff structure as an incentive compatible instrument to elicit a truthful response from the firm regarding its cost structure. Under perfectly competitive markets, incentive compatible tariffs exist and are also used in analysing pooling and separating equilibria. The paper can be extended to include other instruments such as APAs. Other extensions can be in the direction of including multiple governments competing for investment by a given MNE in the context of a multiple principals and single agent. |
| Keywords: | transfer pricing, game theory, mechanism design, principal agent model, incentive compatibility |
| JEL: | C70 C73 D82 F23 H26 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwa:wpaper:20-14&r=all |
| By: | Rickels, Wilfried; Proelß, Alexander; Geden, Oliver; Burhenne, Julian; Fridahl, Mathias |
| Abstract: | Under the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), operators must surrender allowances corresponding to the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from their installations. The supply of allowances in the EU ETS decreases linearly and, all else equal, is expected to end around 2057. An earlier cut-off date is likely to follow from the European Council's recent decision that the EU should reach net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. Scenarios published by the European Commission even anticipate a net-negative cap in the EU ETS from 2045 onwards, generated through carbon dioxide (CO2) removals. Upholding emissions trading, in the long run, therefore entails significant use of credits resulting from atmospheric CO2 removal activities. However, in its current form, the ETS Directive does not contain any legal basis for generating CO2 removal credits. Integrating CO2 removal into the EU ETS would, thus, require fundamental amendments of the ETS Directive, waiving the currently mandatory association binding emitting activities to the adoption of emission abatement technologies. The next policy window for such amendments will open in 2021, following the decision on a more ambitious EU 2030 emission reduction target. This conceptual paper explores various design options for integrating negative emissions technologies (NETs) into the EU ETS. We discuss their potential implications for emissions trading at large and address the specificity of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS); repealing the provision that installations exclusively using biomass are not covered by the ETS Directive, BE(CCS) installations could in principle fall within the scope of the ETS Directive. Theoretically, it would be possible to consider free allocation of biogenic credits to BE(CCS) installations. Bioenergy operators could avoid having to surrender these biogenic allowances through the use of CCS and instead sell them on the EU ETS market, having implicitly received credits for the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. |
| Keywords: | European Emission Trading,Carbon Dioxide Removal,Negative Emission Technologies |
| JEL: | K33 Q54 Q58 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:2164&r=all |
| By: | Hannah Goozee (IPC-IG) |
| Abstract: | "The seventh goal of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is dedicated to ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. While energy was only implicit in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the SDGs emphasise the direct linkage between household energy access and consumption and poverty and development. This attention is closely related to the expanded understanding of poverty, as it moves beyond a monetary definition, to be seen as a holistic measure of overall quality of life". (...) |
| Keywords: | Energy, poverty, Sustainable Development Goals |
| Date: | 2019–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:oparab:351&r=all |
| By: | Javier Aliaga Lordemann (Full Fellow Member at ABCE); Alejandra Terán Orsini (Junior Researcher at INESAD) |
| Abstract: | This paper seeks to analyze the evolution of the Bolivian vehicle stock in the mid-term and its policy implications. First, we analyze the relationship between income and vehicle ownership in the country during the period 1970 - 2017 through robust econometric techniques. Based on these results, we use an energy-mix accounting model programmed in General Algebraic Modelling System (GAMS) to analyze how the vehicle fleet and the derived demand of gasoline, natural gas and diesel oil evolved over time. Finally, we observe the trajectory of CO2eq in the transport sector for different types of vehicle categories. Our results prove that the relationship between vehicle ownership and per capita income is highly non-linear and we observe an excessive increase in the vehicle fleet during the last decade. Both of these results will speed up the saturation level of the vehicle fleet in Bolivia. With more equivalented vehicles (EV) on the roads, we expect that the consumption of derivatives will increase over the next years. Hence, we assume imbalances in diesel oil and gasoline production and a lower decarbonization path. Without an energy policy in the transport sector or any energy efficiency measures, the consumption of derivatives would grow 6.9 times and the total emissions of CO2eq would increase 7.93 times in the 2000-2035 period. |
| Keywords: | Car ownership, integrated energy-transport modelling, energy-mix, emissions . |
| JEL: | H23 C25 L62 L9 O3 Q47 Q5 R4 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adv:wpaper:202004&r=all |
| By: | Bruno de Borger (University of Antwerp); Ismir Mulalic (Technical University of Denmark); Jan Rouwendal (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Most studies of the effects of transport infrastructure on the performance of individual firms have focused on marginal expansions of the rail or highway network over time. In this paper, we study the short-run effects of a large discrete shock in the quality of transport infrastructure, viz. the opening of the Great Belt bridge connecting the Copenhagen area with a neighboring island and the mainland of Denmark. We analyse the effect of the opening of the bridge on the productivity of firms throughout the country using a two-step approach: we estimate firm- and year-specific productivity for a large panel of individual firms, using the approaches developed by Levinsohn and Petrin (2003) and De Loecker (2011). Then, controlling for firm-fixed effects, we relate productivity to a calculated measure of accessibility that captures the effect of the opening of the bridge. We find large productivity effects for firms located in the regions near the bridge, especially for relatively small firms in the construction and retail industry. Estimation results further suggest statistically significant but small positive wage effects throughout the country, even in regions far from the bridge. Finally, there is some evidence that the bridge has stimulated new activities in the Copenhagen region at the expense of firms disappearing on the neighboring island Funen. |
| Keywords: | production functions, productivity, accessibility, agglomeration, transport infrastructure |
| JEL: | R12 H54 O18 |
| Date: | 2019–09–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20190065&r=all |
| By: | ITF |
| Abstract: | This report reviews progress on technical standards for heavy vehicles that could enable trucks and buses with zero or near-zero emissions. It focuses on plug-in and fuel cell electric vehicles that use technologies at the forefront of green and inclusive economic development. It includes information on technical standards on charging and refueling infrastructure, and identifies remaining barriers and opportunities for their future development. The report offers valuable insights for all stakeholders involved in the transition to carbon-free mobility and clean energy. |
| Date: | 2020–09–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:itfaac:77-en&r=all |
| By: | Ta, Chi L. |
| Keywords: | Resource/Energy Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea20:304245&r=all |
| By: | Ordoñez, Pablo J. |
| Keywords: | Resource/Energy Economics and Policy, International Development |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea20:304284&r=all |
| By: | Zhang, Wendan |
| Keywords: | Risk and Uncertainty |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea20:304665&r=all |