Accounting for network operators' heterogeneity is of crucial importance for regulators. In contrast to observed heterogeneity, the consideration of unobserved differences is far more challenging. Most estimation models try to account for unobserved factors that impact the network operators'...

The European electricity market design is based on zonal markets with uniform prices. Locational price signals within these zones - necessary to ensure long-term efficiency - are not provided. Specifically, if intra-zonal congestion occurs due to missing grid expansion, the market design is...

This paper analyzes the performance of the European railway sector in the period of deregulation (1990-2005). Using a stochastic frontier panel data model that controls for unobserved heterogeneity a multiple-output multipleinput distance function model is estimated in order to evaluate the...

The objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of regulatory and environmental conditions on technical efficiency of European railways. Using a panel data set of 31 railway firms from 22 European countries from 1994 to 2005, a multioutput distance function model, including regulatory and...

Reviewing the development of network access charges in the German electricity market since 2002 reveals significant variation. While some firms continually increased or decreased their access charges, a variety of firms exhibited discontinuous behavior with price changes in both directions. From...