Energy security is one of the main targets of energy policy. However, the term has not been clearly defined, which makes it hard to measure and difficult to balance against other policy objectives. We review the multitude of definitions of energy security. They can be characterized according to...

Many studies of the water and sewerage industries place significant importance on the benefits of economies of scale and scope and how these relate to vertically integrated firms. We have re-examined the early literature on scale and scope economies and find that these studies do not implicitly...

This paper examines the lessons from independent transmission system operators in energy in the context of the potential introduction of an independent system operator in the water sector. A key lesson from the energy sector is that there is a basic choice between having an independent system...

We derive monthly and quarterly series of UK GDP for the inter-war period from a set of monthly indicators that were constructed by The Economist at the time. The monthly information is complemented with data for quarterly industrial production, allowing us to employ mixed-frequency methods to...

The UK and other EU countries are concerned to deliver secure, sustainable and affordable electricity, to meet challenging targets for decarbonisation and renewable energy. The UK Government has consulted and concluded that the present electricity market arrangements will not deliver all three...

This paper proposes a theoretical framework to analyze the impacts of credit and technology shocks on business cycle dynamics, where firms rely on banks and households for capital financing. Firms are identical ex ante but differ ex post due to different realizations of firm specific technology...

This paper develops a model of the relationship between the age of a dictator and economic growth. In the model a dictator must spread the resources of the economy over his reign but faces mortality and political risk. The model shows that if the time horizon of the dictator decreases, either...

Consumers constantly make decisions on the goods and services they purchase, in most cases with incomplete information. Many products that are available in stores, in catalogues, or over the internet are not presented with a full list of attributes or technical specifications. Lack of...

Utilizing data on criminal charges lodged against candidates to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of representatives, we study the conditions that resulted in approximately a quarter of members of parliament elected in 2004 and in 2009 facing or having previously...

Economists acknowledge the problems of regulated transmission but take different views about the likely efficiency of merchant transmission. This paper examines the evidence on alleged market failure and regulatory failure as experienced in practice in Australia and Argentina. In these examples,...