Search results for "microeconomics"

The interaction between intermittent renewable energy and the electricity, heating and transport sectors

2012

In a global perspective, it is essential that the world transfers from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources in order to minimise climate change effects. As a part of such transition energy savings are also important, as they can decrease production costs effectively. The nature of such a change is that it has to be implemented on a local level. Energy saving technologies are placed with the demand decrease and renewable energy is typically distributed where the resources are. In some parts of the world, energy savings have resulted in a stabilisation of the energy demands, however in the world as such, demands are still increasing in buildings, transport and industry. Although the deman…

Essays in optimal taxation and dynamic mechanism design

2010

Review of Jacob Viner, Lectures in Economics 301, edited by Douglas A. Irwin and Steven G. Medema, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick (USA) and Lo…

2014

Electoral opportunism and water pricing with incomplete transfer of control rights

2020

One of the forms of intervention in public services that lie beyond market forces is price control. While such regulation is justified by the need to achieve social goals, empirical evidence has sh...

Duopoly experimentation: Cournot competition

1999

Abstract This paper analyzes learning behavior in an industry facing uncertainty. We consider a duopoly game where firms have imperfect information about market demand and they learn through observing market prices. The main body of our study consists of showing how firms make the price a more informative signal through their experimental behavior, and how this behavior compares to its monopoly counterpart. We extend previous analysis to the case where the demand unknown parameter takes values on the real line. We also find that experimentation under Cournot duopoly is smaller than under monopoly whenever the demand's unknown parameter is sufficiently precise.

Existence of competitive equilibrium in a non-optimal one-sector economy without conditions on the distorted marginal product of capital

2012

Abstract This paper develops a method for proving the existence of competitive equilibrium in a distorted/non-optimal one-sector economy–a discrete time variant of the Romer model–without conditions on the equilibrium value of the marginal product of capital. Existence is obtained under weaker conditions than in Le Van et al. (2002) . Moreover, we provide an existence result for an economy with a regressive tax studied in Santos (2002) . The proofs rely on ideas of Becker and Boyd (1997) .

The cost of protection racket in Sicily

2008

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the current cost of protection rackets in Sicily. By means of a database constructed on judicial evidence, it has been possible to come up with an estimate of the average and total costs of the protection-money system, as well as finding out in which sectors of economic activity and in which provinces is most pervasive. The average monthly payment is approximately 600 euros per business, with stronger effects in those areas with a relatively more traditional economic structure. As a whole, in monetary terms, the protection racket in Sicily accounts for over 1.4% of gross regional product. Finally, the paper supports the hypothesis that in most cases,…

Fuzzy Degree of Geographic Appropriateness for Social Impact Investing

2017

Impact investing is an investment practice that is characterized by the explicit intentionality of attaining a social impact and the requisite of report and measure this impact in a transparent way. The investment decision making process has two main stages. In the first stage, filters are applied regarding four critical issues: target geography, impact theme, asset class and target return category. In this phase, the set of possible investment alternatives are determined based on their appropriateness for impact investment in terms of those four essential aspects. In a second stage, efficient portfolios are obtained taking into account financial criteria (maximizing expected return, minimi…

Stochastic modeling of Supramax spot and forward freight rates

2015

We conducted an empirical analysis of Supramax spot rates and propose a continuous time process to model the dynamics. The model incorporates features relevant for shipping freight rates, freight rate volatility that varies over time, sudden, big freight rate movements, and short-term, mean-reverting price trends. This suggests some degree of short-term predictability of Supramax spot rates, making shipping different from traditional asset markets, like stocks and currencies, and also most commodity markets. However, this does not imply that arbitrage profits are easily picked up in this market, as, financially speaking, spot freight rates are not traded assets. We instead focus on the rela…

Stackelberg equilibrium with many leaders and followers. The case of zero fixed costs

2017

Abstract I study a version of the Stackelberg game with many identical firms in which leaders and followers use a continuous cost function with no fixed cost. Using lattice theoretical methods I provide a set of conditions that guarantee that the game has an equilibrium in pure strategies. With convex costs the model shows the same properties as a quasi-competitive Cournot model. The same happens with concave costs, but only when the number of followers is small. When this number is large the leaders preempt entry. I study the comparative statics and the limit behavior of the equilibrium and I show how the main determinants of market structure interact. More competition between the leaders …