Natural gas plays an important role in many European energy systems especially with regard to the envisioned transition towards a less carbon intensive energy supply. Being dependent on imports - especially from Russia - this raises questions about the future development and security of Europe's...

We study the effects of different information structures (full information, supply uncertainty and demand uncertainty) on equilibrium prices, allocative efficiency and bidding behavior in a (supply-side) uniform-price multi-unit auction, using supply function competition and a novel experimental...

The NRP70 project "The Future of Swiss Hydropower: An Integrated Economic Assessment of Chances, Threats and Solutions" (HP Future) has been initiated in 2014 with the objective to identify options for Swiss hydropower (HP) to adopt to the ongoing and expected electricity system changes. The...

The allocation of permits is an important design aspect of an emissions trading scheme. Traditionally, governments have favoured the free allocation of greenhouse gas permits based on individual historical emissions (‘grandfathering’) or industry benchmark data. Particularly in the European...

This paper explores the likely impact of emissions trading design on transaction costs. Transaction costs include both the costs for the private sector to comply with the scheme rules and the costs of scheme administration. In economic theory transaction costs are often assumed to be zero. But...

Trading schemes for emission allowances have become a panacea for nations aspiring to reduce their aggregate emissions of greenhouse gases from industry in a cost-effective manner. The contention of this paper is that an emissions trading scheme (ETS) should not be based on blanket coverage of...

A detailed proposal for an economy-wide emissions trading scheme in Australia was tabled by the government in December 2008 with a proposed start date for mid-2010. The government proposes unilateral linking, with no initial bilateral linkages, through the clean development mechanism and joint...