Für den Ausbau von Windkraft und Solarenergie sowie für die Herstellung von Batterien, Elektromotoren und Brennstoffzellen sind Rohstoffe notwendig, die importiert werden müssen. Krisen in den vergangenen Jahren haben die Gefahr verdeutlicht, dass die Abhängigkeit von einzelnen Lieferanten...

Will private households owning a photovoltaic system share their electricity during a long-lasting power outage? Prior research has shown that our energy systems need to become more resilient by using dispersed energy sources-a role that could well be performed by these private photovoltaic...

Greening the economy entails jobs contracting in “high-polluting” economic activities and expanding in environment-friendly activities. Minimizing the corresponding transition costs is crucial to accelerate decarbonisation and reduce displacement costs for affected workers. Using...

Für den Ausbau von Windkraft und Solarenergie sowie für die Herstellung von Batterien, Elektromotoren und Brennstoffzellen sind Rohstoffe notwendig, die importiert werden müssen. Krisen in den vergangenen Jahren haben die Gefahr verdeutlicht, dass die Abhängigkeit von einzelnen Lieferanten...

The COVID-19 crisis noted many reports of dramatic price increases of essential items such as face masks, hand sanitisers and disinfectants. Already in March 2020 the Competition Authorities in Europe, by way of a joint statement by European Competition Network and individual public...

The COVID-19 crisis have once again elevated one of the most contentious themes in competition law and economics, namely how to deal with excessive pricing and price gouging, to the global stage. Dramatic, sudden price hikes on essential medicines and medical supplies (a practice known as price...

This paper discusses the merits and limits of the recent European energy policy aimed at reducing carbon emissions, devoting particular attention to the European Trading System of carbon permits and to the measures that the European Union has adopted to promote renewable energy sources. From the...

Italian electricity consumers have been free to choose their supplier since 2007, but about 66 percent are still supplied under the so-called maggior tutela, a regulated regime. Italy’s Annual Competition Law states that regulated prices will be phased out by July 1st, 2019. This paper...

We quantify the effects of the Swedish GCR, a program to reduce oil dependence and greenhouse gas emissions in the automobile industry. We find the GCR to increase the market shares of `green cars' and its cost to be $109/tonCO2 saved, thus 5 times the price of an emission permit. Since the main...

This report contains three separate papers, each addressing selected issues concerning natural gas policy and security of gas supply in Europe. The over-arching themes are vulnerability (to supply disruptions, to supplier pricing power) and fragmentation; and measures designed to overcome them,...