The imposition of universal coverage and uniform pricing constraints, as part of the universalservice obligations, makes the universal service provider less aggressive in the price game when itcompetes with a firm that does not cover the whole set of markets (Valletti et al., 2002). In...

In this paper we give an example in which the price of tradeable emission permits increasesdespite firms' adoption of a less polluting technology. This is in contrast with Montero (2002) andParry (1998), among others. If two Counot players switch to a cleaner technology, the price forpermits may...

In this paper we carry out a preliminary exploration of a time scales’ conjecture, whichpostulates that “reasonable” notions of sustainability must include a suitable synchronisationof time scales of both the processes of human development and those of the naturalenvironment. We perform...

In this paper we study the short term price behavior of December 2008 future prices for EU emissionallowances. We model returns and volatility dynamics of this price showing that a standard ARMA-GARCHframework is not adequate and that the gaussianity assumption is rejected due to the occurrence...

The heterogeneity of the available physical capital with respect to productivity and emissionintensity is an important factor for policy design, especially in the presence of emissionrestrictions. In a vintage capital model, reducing pollution requires to change the capitalstructure through...

While stochastic volatility models improve on the option pricing error when compared to theBlack-Scholes-Merton model, mispricings remain. This paper uses mixed normalheteroskedasticity models to price options. Our model allows for significant negative skewnessand time varying higher order...

In this paper, we analyse competition among jurisdictions to attract firms through low taxes oncapital and/or high level of public goods, which enhance firms’ productivity. We assume that thecompeting jurisdictions are different in (population) size and that the mobility of capital is...

Many papers in the litterature have adopted the expected utility paradigm to analyze insurancedecisions. Insurance companies manage policies by growing, by adding independent risks.Even if adding risks generally ultimately decreases the probability of insolvency, the impacton the insurer's...

In this paper, we consider a décision-maker facing a financial risk flanked by a backgroundrisk, possibly non-financial, such as health or environmental risk. A decision has to be madeabout the amount of an investment (in the financial dimension) resulting in a future benefiteither in the same...

This paper evaluates the predictive power of different information sets for the European Central Bank(ECB) interest rate setting behavior. We employ an ordered probit model, i.e. a limited dependent variableframework, to take into account the discreteness displayed by policy rate changes. The...