In this paper we consider the impact of vertical integration on a retailer's choices of product variety and specific, brand-supporting investment. In an incomplete contract environment, vertical merger encourages investment in integrated supply, and foreclosure of non-integrated manufacturers....

Hybrid governance structures between markets and hierarchies in many industries, e.g., in energy and telecommunications, challenge antitrust and regulation policy. The paper focuses on the theoretical and methodological basis provided by the New Institutional Economics (NIE) for analyzing the...

This paper deals with the German government's proposal to Iiberalize the domestic electricity supply industry. The government bill aims to establish a retail wheeling model in the electricity transmission and distribution System. The Opposition against this model mainly comes from the publicly...

This paper deals with the efficiency characteristics of alternative governance structures in the electricity sector. The analysis begins with the description of some technical aspects of the electricity supply industry. The goal is to identify the main co-ordination tasks within, and between the...

This paper deals with the efficiency characteristics of alternative regulatory policies in the electricity sector. The analysis begins with the presentation of the analytical concept of the ?regulatory contract, which is based on the New Institutional Economics. The main part of the paper deals...

Gegenstand dieses Beitrags ist ein Überblick über den Status quo des Strombinnenmarkts und die jüngsten Kommissionsvorschläge für eine Änderung der Stromrichtlinie und den Erlass einer Netznutzungsverordnung für grenzüberschreitende Stromlieferungen. Besonderes Augenmerk wird der Frage...

This paper presents a theoretical model to investigate the incentive of private producer and policymaker to reduce seasonality in a given market, where consumers derive different utilities from the consumption of the good in different seasons. The (seasonal) product differentiation is modelled...