Following the Hotelling model of spatial competition used by Massoud and Bernhardt (2002) to analyze competition in ATM fees, in this paper we analyze the effects of banning fees on the usage of ATMs by account holders. We find that the prohibition also reduces the fees charged to non-account...

The European Commission is introducing new regulations on submission and publication of data in electricity markets (SPDEM) and on wholesale energy market integrity and transparency (REMIT). I discuss issues relevant for undertaking an evaluation such regulations. I argue that, for market...

One focus of the G20 Summit in Hamburg in July 2017 was the United Nations' sustainable development goals, including those set for the water sector. Despite progress, around 800 million people worldwide do not have adequate access to drinking water. Increasing block tariffs are an instrument...

Beim Hamburger G20-Gipfel im Juli 2017 standen unter anderem die nachhaltigen Entwicklungsziele der Vereinten Nationen im Mittelpunkt - auch im Bereich Wasser: Trotz Fortschritten haben bis heute weltweit circa 800 Millionen Menschen keinen Zugang zu einer adäquaten Trinkwasserversorgung. Ein...

Recent studies investigate policies motivating consumers to make an active choice as a way to protect unsophisticated consumers. We analyze the optimal timing of such choice-enhancing policies when a firm can strategically react to them. In our model, a firm provides a contract with automatic...

Firms often set long notice periods when consumers cancel a contract, and sometimes do so even when the costs of changing or canceling the contract are small. We investigate a model in which a firm offers a contract to consumers who may procrastinate canceling it due to naive present-bias. We...

This paper analyzes a modified yardstick competition mechanism (MYC), where the yardstick employed consists of a tariff basket and total costs. This mechanism has a significant information advantage: the regulator ?only? needs to observe total costs and output of all firms. The modified...

We analyze the properties of progressive water tariffs that are often applied in the sector in the form of discretely increasing block tariffs (IBT). We are particularly interested in water tarification in a poverty context where a subsistence level of water has to be allocated to each...

Orthodox price theory turns on flexible prices that move frequently to maintain market-clearing equilibrium. Fixed prices are a source of market imperfections and failures. In the traditional ethics of pricing, by contrast, prices should be set at a just norm and stay there, with only rare...

We study competition for consumer attention, in which platforms can sacrifice service quality for attention. A platform can choose the "addictiveness" of its service. A more addictive platform yields consumers a lower utility of participation but a higher marginal utility of allocating...