We investigate the role tacit collusion plays in Asymmetric Price Transmission (APT), the tendency of prices to respond more rapidly to positive than to negative cost shocks. Using a laboratory experiment that isolates the effects of tacit collusion, we observe APT pricing behavior in markets...

Designing a desirable block tariff structure for residential water use has been a challenging task for regulated utilities. In this study, we investigated whether the existing increasing block tariff design addresses the issue of affordability, especially for lower-income groups. Using the South...

Flow-based market coupling provides zonal day-ahead markets with appropriate signals of possible real-time congestions by incorporating information on local load and generation patterns. It relies on predictive parameters, notably the base case and generation shift keys. Also it only monitors...

Children of Asian immigrants in most English-speaking destinations have better academic outcomes, yet the underlying causes of their advantages are under-studied. We employ panel time-use diaries by two cohorts of children observed over a decade to present new evidence that children of Asian...

In most developed countries, the economic pressure on hospitals to improve their efficiency has increased considerably over the past 30 years. Simple cost reimbursement for hospital care has almost universally been superseded by much more high-powered economic incentive-based systems. These...

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the world’s deadliest communicable disease. To circumvent surges of TB cases, several studies have been carried out analyzing the determinants of TB incidence and recommended policy measures based on the significant indicators. Although the determinants were...

Using data from 70 of the most COVID-19 affected countries, this paper attempts to explain the cross-country variations in the number of officially confirmed COVID-19 positive cases. The findings indicate that regional characteristics play an essential role. Percent of people living in the urban...

This paper describes the development of the competition of electricity retail in Europe in general and the situation in Germany in particular. The competition in the retail business has been forcing electricity retailers to spend increasing resources on marketing, sales and customer service....

Research on subjective wellbeing typically assumes that responses to survey questions are comparable across respondents and across time. However, if this assumption is violated, standard methods in empirical research may mislead. I address this concern with three contributions. First, I give a...

The uniqueness of human labour is at question in times of smart technologies. The 250 years-old discussion on technological unemployment reawakens. Frey and Osborne (2013) estimate that half of US employment will be automated by algorithms within the next 20 years. Other follow-up studies...