This paper explores the issue of the balance between liberalisation and regulation in electricity systems, which is the essence of much of the detailed policies which are implemented in the sector. By liberalisation I take to mean the use of market or quasi-market mechanisms as part of a reform...

Monetary authorities often seem reluctant to discuss the conduct of monetary policy. There is a concern that greater openness in monetary policy-making may lead to volatility in financial markets, and specifically in interest rates. To date there is very little direct empirical evidence; however,...

This paper discusses whether a new paradigm is necessary for independent economic regulation of electricity (and closely associated natural gas) systems. We begin by summarising the nature of the traditional model of electricity reform and the place of economic regulation within it. Next we...

Economic agents' behavior is affected by their position in a network, either exogenous or endogenous, in which they interact with a subset of neighbours only. The network's links, which may be generated by vertical and/or horizontal relations, or by more complex morphologies, may explain the...

We examine global economic dynamics under learning in a New Keynesian model in which the interest-rate rule is subject to the zero lower bound. Under normal monetary and fiscal policy, the intended steady state is locally but not globally stable. Large pessimistic shocks to expectations can lead...

DCM (Discrete Choice Models) is a package for estimating a class of discrete choice models. Written in Ox, DCM is a class that implements a wide range of discrete choice models including standard binary response models, with notable extensions including conditional mixed logit, mixed probit,...

The paper presents various tests for assessing whether a time series is subject to drift. We first consider departures from the null hypothesis of no drift against the alternative of a deterministic and/or a non-stationary stochastic drift with initial value zero. We show that the standard...

Despite the recent trend towards greater transparency of monetary policy, in many respects central bankers still prefer to speak with mystique. This paper shows that the resulting perception of ambiguity could be desirable. Under the plausible assumption that there is imperfect common knowledge...

The European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) limits CO2 emissions from covered sectors, especially electricity until December 2007, after which a new set of Allowances will be issued. The paper demonstrates that the impact of controlling the quantity rather than the price of carbon is to reduce...

This paper considers a multivariate t version of the Gaussian dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) model proposed by Engle (2002), and suggests the use of devolatized returns computed as returns standardized by realized volatilities rather than by GARCH type volatility estimates. The t-DCC...