Motivated by policy events experienced during the last two decades by the European natural gas industry, this paper develops a simple model for analyzing the interaction between gas release and capacity investment programs as tools to improve the performance of imperfectly competitive markets....

EU has to attain the strategic objectives for 2020: 20% of energy from renewable sources, cutting the emissions of greenhouse gases by 20% and diminishing the dependence on imported fuels, that is why in the last years European Commission has decided that MS should increase the flexibility of...

Regulation in the sanitation sector in Brazil is facing a great deal of debate regarding the government level in which conceding authority should reside and how private operators can fulfill social objectives. The main objective of this study is to show that these issues are not the crucial...

This SIMAT Working Paper deals with an intensively discussed topic in the German natural gas economy: The price-link in natural gas contracts. Because of opposite price developments of the energy commodities such as oil, coal or natural gas, the traditionally used oil price-link is facing a...

This SIMAT Working Paper deals with an intensively discussed topic in the German natural gas economy: The price-link in natural gas contracts. Because of opposite price developments of the energy commodities such as oil, coal or natural gas, the traditionally used oil price-link is facing a...

With three waves of internal energy market legislation already adopted and a fourth just tabled, a key question is “do we have an institutional structure that can effectively deliver the ambitious goals of the EU energy and climate change policy?”. To answer this question, the chapter...

There is no gainsaying that energy enables growth in both developing and developed economy contexts. The innovations that lead to (i) the roll-out of long-distance energy networks operated by vertically-integrated utilities as a means of delivering affordable and reliable energy, and (ii) viable...

Empirical work shows that competition is important for promoting economic growth. However, in Japan the promotion of competition has long been compromised by ministerial guidance and exemptions from the competition law. Thus, the level and growth of productivity have been low in many...

Maintaining rapid economic growth depends increasingly on productivity gains, particularly in the service sector. Competition has an important role to play in achieving such gains. However, Korea’s development strategy has tended to weaken competition and has left a legacy of government...

Regulation in the sanitation sector in Brazil is facing a great deal of debate regarding the government level in which conceding authority should reside and how private operators can fulfill social objectives. The main objective of this study is to show that these issues are not the crucial...