This paper uses a new model of a competitive electricity market to investigate the role of storage in markets dominated by hydro generation. Competition amongst generators leads to an endogenous shadow price of stored water, which facilitates the efficient intra-day and inter-season substitution...

This paper presents a model of competing payment schemes. Unlike previous work on generic two-sided markets, the model allows for the fact that in a payment system users on one side of the market (merchants) compete to attract users on the other side (consumers who may use cards for purchases)....

The major diffculties in assessing market power in electricity wholesale spot markets mean that great weight should be placed upon assessing market outcomes against the fundamental determinants of supply, demand and competition. In this spirit we study whether the New Zealand market has been a...

This paper presents a model in which investors, acting in self-interest, force interest rates to the levels desired by the monetary authority. If interest rates move out of line with those required by the monetary authority, a statement (an open mouth operation) is all that is needed to restore...

In this paper, we introduce an electricity market model and use it to explore the effect of climate change on electricity output and prices. It is calibrated to the New Zealand Electricity Market, and includes multiple generation fuels, uncertain fuel availability, and storage options. The model...

This paper explains how central bank statements, rather than open market operations, can be used to implement monetary policy. In the extreme, policy instruments can be held constant, and yet interest rates will evolve along the path desired by the central bank. We show how the recent...

Cooperative and mutual organisational forms arise for reasons that include contracting problems between parties. Economic literature suggests a variety of allocative inefficiencies implied by these forms that largely have their origins in poor investment decisions. We demonstrate that a...

Incentive regulation allows decentralised decision-making under regulatory parameters set on the basis of industry characteristics. When there is uncertainty, sunk costs, and flexibility in the timing of investment a monopoly will invest later than is socially desirable because it garners only a...

This paper derives the optimal size and timing of interest rate target changes. Despite the simplicity of the optimal rule, we are able to replicate a number of puzzling features of interest rate targeting observe in practice, as well as explain some dynamic properties of market interest rates....

We appraise the theoretical basis and the consequent empirical work of Frank Wolak in his study of the New Zealand Electricity market in a report to the New Zealand Commerce Commission released in March 2009. The report found no multilateral actions, but concluded there was evidence of market...