Short-term increasing returns to production factors are usually found in empirical studies. We argue they can be due to omitted variables, particularly the intensity of factor utilisation. Thanks to original French firm-level data (1992-2008), we show how increasing returns to scale disappear...

In many countries, the electricity systems are quitting the vertically integrated monopoly organization for an operation framed by competitive markets. In such a competitive regime one can ask what the optimal operation/management of the nuclear generation set is. We place ourselves in a...

In many countries, the electricity systems are quitting the vertically integrated monopoly organization for an operation framed by competitive markets. It therefore questions how flexible nuclear plants capable of load-following should be operated in an open market framework. A number of...

In the case of a large nuclear set (like the French set), nuclear production needs to be flexible to adjust to the predicted evolutions of the energy demmand. Consequently, the dominant position of nuclear in the national energy mix makes it responsible for the overall equilibrium of the...

We look at the optimal inter-temporal management of the fuel reservoir of nuclear units in a liberalized electricity market. We use the assumption that nuclear fuel works as a “reservoir” of energy due to the periodical shutdown of nuclear units to reload their fuel. In the medium-term, how...

We use a firm production function approach to generate estimates of total factor productivity (TFP) and labor productivity in the manufacturing sector for a group of Latin American countries. We exploit these estimates to study the relative position of countries within this sector and to explore...

This article uses household data to measure the substitutability between time and money for eight commodity groups and different countries. The elasticities estimated using the household's market wage and an estimated opportunity cost of time are positive, indicating substitutability, and much...

In this paper, we focus on the issue of water loss caused by leakage from obsolete water mains. We develop in this theoretical paper, a cost minimization problem of a water utility that faces leakage from water mains. Our framework enables us to determine the optimal water main quality index...

In electricity markets where competition has been established for a long time, a nuclear operator familiar with the operation of such markets could be interested in the optimal long-term management of a flexible nuclear set (like the French) in a competitive market. To obtain a long vision of...

In many countries, the electricity systems are quitting the vertically integrated monopoly organization for an operation framed by competitive markets. It therefore questions how nuclear plants should be operated in an open market framework. We address the medium-term horizon of management to...