This papers studies the effects on service quality and consumer surplus of a minimum price which is fixed by a bureaucratic non-monopolistic professional association. It shows that the price set by a Niskanen-type professional assocation will maximize consumer surplus only if consumers demand...

In the course of the deregulation of the telecommunication and energy sector new price regulation mechanisms were introduced to cap the access price to the respective transportation grid. While products and services are supplied under competitive market conditions the transportation girds...

This paper develops an analytical framework for studying the Baumol-Oates efficiency of traditional single instrument abatementpolicies vis-à-vis green defaults in the face of price inertia and deliberate defaultingby subpopulations. In this special case ofbehavioural heterogeneity, command and...

Many developing countries around the world apply progressive water tariffs, often structured in the form of discretely increasing block tariffs (IBTs). These tariffs have been criticized in the welfare economic literature due to their perceived inefficiency: many of the prices charged under IBTs...

In recent years, European environmental policy has focused primarily on the reduction of carbon emissions and on fostering the expansion of renewable energy production. In 2008, the EU established the 20/20/20 vision, demanding that carbon emissions and energy consumption both be reduced by 20%,...

Die Vereinten Nationen haben das Jahr 2008 zum Internationalen Jahr der Sanitärversorgung ausgerufen. Der Weltwassertag am 22. März erhält damit eine besondere Bedeutung - nicht zuletzt, weil eines der zentralen Millenniumsziele der Vereinten Nationen verfehlt zu werden droht. Das Ziel, die...

This paper models some reductions in output that may follow the opening of electricity markets to competition. Specifically, we show that vertical separation of electricity generation, transmission and distribution could reduce welfare compared to the previous system of vertically integrated...