Services of general interest (SGI) are a key component of the EU economy, accounting for 26% of GDP and 30% of employment within the EU. They cover economic and noneconomic activities alike. They are to be distinguished from services of general economic interest (SGEI), which are economic...

To decarbonize the power sector policy-makers need to commit to long-term credible rules for climate and energy policy. Otherwise, time-inconsistent policy-making will impair investments into low-carbon technologies. However, the future benefits and costs of decarbonization are subject to...

We propose a novel framework for the economic assessment of climate-change policy. Our main point of departure from existing work is the adoption of a "satisficing", as opposed to optimizing, modeling approach. Along these lines, we place primary emphasis on the extent to which different...

Global climate change and other environmental challenges require the development of new energy technologies with lower emissions. In the near-term, R&D investments, either by government or the private sector, can bring down the costs of these lower emission technologies. However, the results of...

In recent years, the installed capacities of renewable energies have steadily been increasing. This raises the question for optimal locations of renewables. Ideally, the market prices induce efficient locations. Distorting effects, i.e. non incorporation of the physical grid situations, could...

Based upon probabilistic reliability metrics, we develop an optimization model to determine the efficient amount and location of firm generation capacity to achieve reliability targets in multiregional electricity systems. A particular focus lies on the representation and contribution of...

This paper examines the acceptance of burden sharing rules that refer to the costs of the Ger-man energy transition, which is one of the most challenging and disputed national climate and energy policy measures. Based on data from a comprehensive survey of more than 2,200 citi-zens, the...

This paper analyzes the effect of environmental policies on the direction of energy innovation across countries over the period 1990-2012. Our novelty is to use threshold regression models to allow for discontinuities in policy effectiveness depending on a country's relative competencies in...

If bioenergy has a less negative impact on the climate than fossil energy, it may be optimal to have a significant increase in the use of bioenergy over time. Due to the difference in the way the climate is affected by the two types of energy, the future time path of the use of bioenergy may be...

Instruments chosen to pursue climate related targets are not always efficient. In this paper we consider an economy with three climate related targets for its electricity generation: a given share of "green" electricity, a given expansion of "green" electricity, and a given reduction of "black"...