While productivity growth in electricity generation is associated with multiple positive effects from an economic and environmental perspective, measuring it is challenging. This paper proposes a framework to estimate and decompose productivity growth for a sector characterized by multiple...

In the 2011 post-Arab Spring migration wave, over 64,000 migrants landed on the southern Italian coast, with many of them potentially working illegally on farms through caporalato, a widespread system of illegal recruitment of underpaid farm labor run by Italian agrimafias. To test this...

This book brings together contributions of a distinguished panel of regulators as well as lawyers and economists from both academia and industry to present their insights on the digital convergence phenomenon in the telecommunications industry. The contributions cover a great deal of the...

The international conference "Group Decision and Negotiation (GDN) 2006" aims at bringing together researchers in the areas of Group Decisions, Negotiations, and Negotiation Support Systems. Participants share a common research focus on complex decision problems, which involve multiple...

Scale characteristics are key properties of production functions that determine optimal firm sizes, and have considerable policy implications for sectors undergoing restructuring. However, estimates of scale characteristics typically vary with the assumptions of the underlying empirical model....

The increase in municipal economic activity in the utilities sector frequently comes under scrutiny. It is presumed that public utilities have less incentive to provide efficient service than private companies. This could result in excessive costs and prices for end users. New microdata on...

In the 1990s, a number of municipalities started privatizing their energy utilities; in recent years, there has been an intensive debate about whether a paradigm shift has taken place since then. Cities and municipalities have considered putting the energy, water, gas and heat supply back into...

Die Ausweitung der kommunalen Wirtschaftstätigkeit in der Energieversorgung wird oftmals kritisch betrachtet. Es wird vermutet, dass öffentliche Unternehmen im Vergleich zu privaten Unternehmen geringeren Anreizen zu effizienter Leistungserstellung unterliegen. Das könnte überhöhte Kosten...

Nachdem in den 90er Jahren viele Kommunen ihre Energieversorgungsunternehmen privatisiert hatten, ist mittlerweile oft von einem Paradigmenwechsel die Rede. Städte und Gemeinden ziehen demnach in Betracht, die Versorgung mit Strom, Wasser, Gas und Wärme wieder in die Hände öffentlicher...