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on Regulation |
| By: | Andrés-Cerezo, D., Fabra, N.; Fabra, N. |
| Abstract: | We asses how firms' incentives to operate and invest in energy storage depend on the market structure. For this purpose, we characterize equilibrium market outcomes allowing for market power in storage and/or production, as well as for vertical integration between storage and production. Market power reduces overall efficiency through two channels: it induces an inefficient use of the storage facilities, and it distorts investment incentives. The worst outcome for consumers and total welfare occurs under vertical integration. We illustrate our theoretical results by simulating the Spanish wholesale electricity market for different levels of storage capacity. The results are key to understand how to regulate energy storage, an issue which is critical for the deployment of renewables. |
| Keywords: | Storage, electricity, market structure, investment, vertical relations |
| JEL: | L22 L94 |
| Date: | 2020–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:20122&r=all |
| By: | Krekel, Christian (London School of Economics); Rechlitz, Julia (DIW Berlin); Rode, Johannes (Darmstadt University of Technology); Zerrahn, Alexander (DIW Berlin) |
| Abstract: | Although there is strong support for renewable energy plants, they are often met with local resistance. We quantify the externalities of renewable energy plants using wellbeing data. We focus on the example of biogas, one of the most frequently deployed technologies besides wind and solar. To this end, we combine longitudinal household data with novel panel data on more than 13,000 installations in Germany. Identification rests on a spatial difference-in-differences design exploiting exact geographical coordinates of households, biogas installations and wind direction and intensity. We find limited evidence for negative externalities: impacts are moderate in size and spatially confined to a radius of 2,000 metres around plants. We discuss implications for research and regional planning, in particular minimum setback distances and potential monetary compensations. |
| Keywords: | renewables, biogas, externalities, social acceptance, wellbeing, spatial analysis |
| JEL: | C23 Q42 Q51 R20 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13959&r=all |
| By: | Tu Chi Nguyen; Anshul Rana; Erik Magnus Fernstrom; Vivien Foster |
| Keywords: | Energy - Energy Demand Energy - Energy Markets Energy - Energy Policies & Economics Energy - Energy Sector Regulation Energy - Energy and Environment |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:33689&r=all |
| By: | Jean-Etienne de Bettignies; Hua Fang Liu; David T. Robinson |
| Abstract: | This paper develops and tests a model in which 1) purpose-driven firms emerge as an optimal organizational form even for profit-maximizing entrepreneurs; and 2) CSR arises endogenously as a response to imperfect regulatory oversight. Purpose-driven organizations allow entrepreneurs to create rents for socially responsible (e.g. environmentally concerned) workers by allowing them to reduce the negative externalities (e.g. pollution) that would be generated without them, and to extract these rents through lower wages. Through this rent extraction entrepreneurs internalize the pro-social preferences of their responsible workers, and in turn engage in CSR through self-regulation, provided that regulatory oversight is poor enough - and hence regulation is loose enough - to make self-regulation worthwhile. The key prediction of the model is a negative impact of regulatory oversight on CSR activity. To test this, we exploit the UK's 2012 decision to mandate greenhouse gas emissions disclosure in all public firms. Consistent with our theory, we find that firms in the UK receive lower CSR ratings after increased regulatory oversight compared to firms from the other 15 European countries which did not experience mandatory disclosure requirements. We also perform a number of robustness checks and explore the interaction between oversight, wages and CSR. These empirical findings provide further support for the model. |
| JEL: | D62 J31 M14 M52 Q58 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28159&r=all |
| By: | Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude (Dalhousie University); Boulatoff, Catherine (Dalhousie University) |
| Abstract: | We explore the power of behavioral economic insights to influence the level of households' recycling and Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) by examining the effectiveness of a green nudge, the adoption of a Clear Bag Policy that was implemented in 2015 in a mid-size urban municipality in Canada. Using a Regression Discontinuity (RD) Design on universe administrative data, our analysis shows that this green nudge promoted recycling, and reduced both refuse and total MSW. While recycling increased by 15 percent, total MSW decreased by 27 percent overall between August 2015 and July 2017. Our results also demonstrate heterogeneity in response to a Clear Bag Policy across neighborhoods with varying socioeconomic indicators. Our findings suggest that green nudges can serve as effective policy instruments in devising future environment policies. |
| Keywords: | environmental policy, green nudge, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), regression discontinuity design, ArcGIS |
| JEL: | D12 D91 H23 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13925&r=all |
| By: | McGaughey, Ewan (King's College, London) |
| Abstract: | The Green Recovery Act is a draft Act of Parliament that will end climate damage, recovery the environment and economy, and ensure a living planet. Focused on UK law reform, it shows how the smallest possible legal changes can have the biggest possible impact, and how greenhouse gas emissions can be brought to an end without any cost, and huge benefits to taxpayers, and businesses. It has nine parts, on a Green Recovery Commission; transport; energy; coal, oil and gas elimination; full employment, income and training guarantee; agriculture, supermarkets and stores; finance and corporate governance; local authority empowerment; and international and trade agreements. The Act's key ideas are to ban all fossil fuels as fast as technologically practicable, and to mainstream this principle across all public and private bodies. The text of the Act is preceded by an executive summary, and fully referenced explanatory notes. |
| Date: | 2020–06–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:lawarx:w57xb&r=all |
| By: | Johansson, Per-Olov (CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics) |
| Abstract: | The European Union’s Emissions Trading System, EU ETS, has been reformed, shifting the system from a fixed-cap system into a system with an endogenous supply of permits. This paper discusses how to handle the scheme in project appraisal. The focus is on a few relatively straightforward empirical approaches that can be used to approximate how the path of the endogenous supply of permits is affected by an exogenous change in emissions. A particularly surprising feature of the reformed scheme is that an exogenous increase in emissions could cause a reduction in total emissions, a kind of Green Paradox. In addition, overlapping national policies as well as the Paris Agreement to combat climate change that entered into force on 4 November 2016 could neutralize any exogenous impact of the project, reintroducing the ‘waterbed’ so that the project is evaluated as if it sorted under a fixed-cap system. The paper proposes a couple of shortcuts that hopefully simplify economic evaluations of projects affecting the supply of permits. For convenient reference, the paper also lays out the mechanics of the reformed system. |
| Keywords: | Cost–benefit analysis; permits; waterbed puncture; endogenous cap; ETS; climate gases; Paris Agreement |
| JEL: | H23 H43 Q51 Q54 |
| Date: | 2020–12–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:slucer:2020_017&r=all |
| By: | Fabio Antoniou (Athens University of Economics and Business); Manthos D. Delis (Montpellier Business School); Steven Ongena (University of Zurich - Department of Banking and Finance; Swiss Finance Institute; KU Leuven; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)); Chris Tsoumas (Hellenic Open University) |
| Abstract: | Effective environmental policy should consider how the financiers of polluting firms behave. In a theoretical model describing the periods before and after policy implementation, we show that loan spreads for firms participating in cap-and-trade programs are a function of the costs of compliance and the specific features of the permits markets. With higher permits storage and lower permit prices, firm financing costs fall. Our empirical analysis exploits the dichotomy created by phase III of the EU Emission Trading System, designed to increase and pass the cost of Carbon dioxide emissions to the polluters. In contrast with possible program intentions but in line with our theoretical predictions, loan spreads fall by 25% on average starting in 2013. We empirically identify permits storage before program implementation and its associated effect as key drivers of the fall in loan spreads for affected firms, and we show that this dynamic partly undermines the expected reduction in Carbon dioxide emissions. |
| Keywords: | Pollution permits; Loan spreads; Bond spreads; EU Emission Trading System; Carbon dioxide emissions |
| JEL: | G21 G12 Q5 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp20117&r=all |
| By: | Bottasso, Anna; Marocco, Paolo; Robbiano, Simone |
| Abstract: | In this study we investigate the effects of Price Matching Guarantees (PMGs) commercial policies on U.S. online consumer electronics daily prices. By applying a Diff-in-Diff identification strategy we find evidence in favor of price reductions occurring after the PMG policy is repealed. We further investigate if such effect is heterogeneous according to products characteristics, by exploiting User Generated Contents (UGCs, as products popularity and quality) and online search visibility measures (Google Search Rank). Estimates suggest that for high quality (visibility) products PMGs policies harms competition by keeping prices high, while for low quality (visibility) products, prices decrease during the policy validity period. |
| Keywords: | online platforms; price matching guarantees; platform pricing; user generated contents; policy evaluation; counterfactual evaluation |
| JEL: | L00 L10 L11 L41 L81 |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:104811&r=all |
| By: | Antonio Mele (University of Lugano; Swiss Finance Institute; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)); Francesco Sangiorgi (Frankfurt School of Finance & Management gemeinnützige GmbH) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effects of trading disclosure requirements in markets with insider traders and professional investors. The insiders garble their trading throughout a mixed strategy. A number of differentially informed professional investors acquire information and contribute to increased mar- ket efficiency. A “reform” introducing post-trade transparency leads these professional investors to acquire less information and, then, to trade less, contributing to less price discovery. This information crowding-out may be so strong to neutralize the generally positive effects related to public disclosure or to harm market quality, resulting in diminished liquidity and informationally less efficient market. |
| Keywords: | post-trade transparency, information crowding-out |
| JEL: | D82 G14 G18 |
| Date: | 2020–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp20118&r=all |
| By: | Hiekkanen, Kari; Seppälä, Timo; Ylhäinen, Ilkka |
| Abstract: | Abstract The role of digital technologies is becoming increasingly important in our day-to-day life. Digital technologies have become part of our social life as well as business operations across different industrial and public sectors. Because of digitalization, the internet protocol and data traffic have been on the rise for several years. Several estimates of the growth in energy consumption of data networks and the information economy sector have been presented in recent years. Occasionally consumer behavior has been claimed to be behind of these increases in electricity use. This report analyzes the energy and electricity consumption of the Finnish information economy sector from 2011 until 2018. Additionally, we compare the Finnish electricity use to other European countries with similar data available. Our report shows that the energy efficiency of the technologies used in the information sector has not kept pace with the growth in the volumes of data transferred on fixed and mobile networks. |
| Keywords: | Information economy sector, ICT sector, IP traffic, Data usage, Energy consumption, Electricity consumption |
| JEL: | L8 L82 L86 L94 |
| Date: | 2021–01–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:report:107&r=all |
| By: | Davide Strusani; Georges V. Houngbonon |
| Keywords: | Information and Communication Technologies - Digital Divide Information and Communication Technologies - ICT Economics Information and Communication Technologies - Information Technology Information and Communication Technologies - Telecommunications Infrastructure |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:33616&r=all |