We analyze a number of unstudied aspects of retail electricity competition. We first explore the implications of load profiling of consumers whose traditional meters do not allow for measurement of their real time consumption, when consumers are homogeneous up to a scaling factor. In general,...

We present preferences exhibiting a so-called subordinate good, namely a commodity that receives a negative price-cost margin according to Ramsey pricing. We also show that they deliver Ramsey quantities proportional to the efficient ones

The Chinese government has implemented reverse Ramsey pricing in the People's Republic of China's (PRC) electricity market, i.e., the residential electricity price has been lower than the industrial electricity price for decades, and the claimed rationale for this reverse Ramsey pricing is...

When is it optimal for a government to default on its legal repayment obligations? We answer this question for a small open economy with domestic production risk in which contracting frictions make it optimal for the government to finance itself by issuing non-contingent debt. We show that...

We characterize optimal monetary policy in a New Keynesian search-and-matching model where multiple-worker firms satisfy demand in the short run by adjusting hours per worker. Imperfect product market competition and search frictions reduce steady state hours per worker below the efficient...

Most airports operate under public ownership, while some are privatized and economically regulated. Only a few airports are privately owned and experience little or no ex-ante regulation of airport charges. On the other hand, airports nowadays earn as much revenue from transport-related...

We characterize optimal monetary policy in a New Keynesian search-and-matching model where multiple-worker firms satisfy demand in the short run by adjusting hours per worker. Imperfect product market competition and search frictions reduce steady state hours per worker below the efficient...

Universal service providers (USP) are increasingly active in business segments other than the segment consisting of their Universal Service Obligation (USO). Price regulation of USO services is usually cost-oriented and differentiated between USO- and non-USO-products. Hence, regulatory rules on...

When is it optimal for a government to default on its legal repayment obligations? We answer this question for a small open economy with domestic production risk in which contracting frictions make it optimal for the government to finance itself by issuing non-contingent debt. We show that...

This paper studies the aggregate and distributional implications of introducing user fees for publicly provided excludable public goods into a model with consumption and income taxes. The setup is a neoclassical growth model where agents differ in earnings and second-best policy is chosen by a...

A digressive tax like a variable rate sales tax or a tax on price gives firms an incentive for expanding output. Thus, unlike unit and ad valorem taxes which amplify the harm from monopoly, a digressive tax lessens the harm. We analyse a tax on price with respect to efficiency and practical...

When is it optimal for a government to default on its legal repayment oblig- ations? We answer this question for a small open economy with domestic production risk in which the government optimally finances itself by issuing non-contingent debt. We show that Ramsey optimal policies occasionally...

In many countries, current water-pricing policies are dictated by the sole objective of breaking-even in each period. This results in large withdrawals, which are not sustainable in the long-run, hence not optimal. In this paper, I derive the optimal dynamic water resource management policy of a...

The Ramsey rule for the consumption rate of discount assumes a transfer of money of a (representative) agent at one point in time to the same agent at another point in time. Climate policy (implicitly) transfers money not just over time but also between agents. I propose three alternative...

We examine the optimal taxation problem in a two sector neoclassical economy with workers and capitalists. We show that in a steady state of this economy the optimal policy may involve a capital income tax or subsidy, differential taxation of labour income and redistribution. The level and the...

In the first chapter, I consider the institutional structures as well as the doctrines typically encountered in the surface water sector. To investigate the sources and methods of government support in the water sector, I categorize different sorts of government support according to the location...

In an imperfectly competitive economy with direct and indirect taxes, the first best wage subsidy overcompensates workers and provides the incentive to misreport working hours. We show that in the second best optimum where the government cannot use a wage subsidy, the optimal policy is to tax...

This paper studies the long run properties of intertemporal distortions in a broad class of second best economies. Our unified framework encompasses and extends many well known models, such as variants of the Ramsey taxation model with aggregate or idiosyncratic risk, and economies with...

In recent years, a new set of models drawing on Vickrey [1969] has been developed to analyze the economics of congestible facilities. These models are structural in that they derive the cost function from consumers' time-of-use decisions and the congestion technology. Standard models, in...

A policy issue central banks are confronted with is whether inflation targets should be adjusted to account for the systematic upward bias in measured inflation due to quality improvements in consumption goods. We show that in the context of a Ramsey equilibrium the answer to this question...

A policy issue central banks are confronted with is whether inflation targets should be adjusted to account for the systematic upward bias in measured inflation due to quality improvements in consumption goods. We show that in the context of a Ramsey equilibrium the answer to this question...

The article first reviews the charge scheme used to finance the airport infrastructure in Norway. Then an econometric approach is taken using empirical data for production and costs from 2007 to 2009 in order to derive long-run marginal costs for passengers and air traffic movements at Norwegian...

Ramsey pricing is considered to be a quasi-optimum pricing scheme designed for a multiproduct natural monopolist. Ramsey prices are optimal for airports with cost recovery problems, but are inefficient for busy airports. If so then it is interesting to check if current charges are close to the...

We develop a simple Ramsey model with numerous Cournotian industries where entry generates an endogenous markup. The model produces two different regimes: a monopoly and an oligopoly one. We provide a rigorous study of non-smooth dynamics and we also analyse the global dynamics of the model,...

In this paper, I consider a general and informational efficient approach to determine the optimal access rule and show that there exists a simple rule that achieves the Ramsey outcome as the unique equilibrium when networks compete in linear prices without network-based price discrimination. My...

We construct a large customer-level database and use it to study electricity pricing patterns from 1963 to 2000. The data show tremendous cross-sectional dispersion in the electricity prices paid by manufacturing plants, reflecting spatial price differences and quantity discounts. Price...