Alternative market structures are distinguishable by the degree of parallel action exhibited by producers. We show that the correlation between output levels varies systematically with the degree of interdependence among firms, and establish an ordering among alternative behavioral hypotheses...

Since the late 90s,, European industries of electricity and gas have been subject to a process of concentration at both horizontal and vertical levels. At first glance, this consolidation is quite natural since, on the one hand, the application of European directives to open to competition has...

A model for world crude oil and natural gas markets is estimated. It confirms low price and high income elasticities of demand for both crude oil and natural gas, which explains the market power of oil producers and price volatility following shocks. The paper establishes a relationship between...

In this paper, we tackle the dilemma of pruning versus proliferation in a vertically differentiated oligopoly under the assumption that some firms collude and control both the range of variants for sale and their corresponding prices, likewise a multiproduct firm. We analyse whether pruning...

US shale gas production is generally expected to continue its fast rise. However, a cautious evaluation is needed. Shale gas resource estimates are potentially overoptimistic and it is uncertain to which extent they can be produced economically. Moreover, the adverse environmental effects of...

Coal is at the core of the debate about climate change mitigation policies, yet the international market for it is not well represented in most energy models. This paper presents the COALMOD framework which is a model of the international steam coal market that can be readily used to explore...