Policy changes in the Swiss electricity market: Analysis of likely market responses

The Swiss electricity market is still a public monopoly. Switzerland do not intend to be part of the single European electricity market, but given its strategic geographical position—Switzerland is in the middle of the core area of the European Union, Swiss power producers maintain electricity exchanges (imports and exports) with neighbouring countries. These exchanges represent an important source of revenue for Swiss utilities.

Switzerland is currently facing a period of fundamental policy changes. Even though the market has not been legally liberalised, emergent liberalisation is taking place. Furthermore, nuclear dismantling has been debated since the early 1980s. People have not yet accepted the dismantling proposition, so there is actually no law banning the construction of new nuclear plants, but given the current attitude of the population and the politicians any new nuclear investments are most unlikely.

The aim of this paper is to illustrate likely market responses to different policy changes in the Swiss electricity market, such as nuclear phase-out and changes in international exchanges policies that may arise as a consequence of the emergent liberalisation that is taking place in this market.

This article presents a conceptualisation model that helps understanding the logic of the dynamic behaviour of the Swiss electricity market, and illustrates the rationale of politicians and decision makers involved in the market planning process, as well as the possible consequences of the implementation of different policies. The purpose is not to forecast or quantify market response, but to identify and understand possible scenarios for market behaviour.     

Competition and Innovation in Retail Electricity Markets: Evidence from Italy

Italy's 2015 Annual Competition Law, if finally approved, provides for phasing out retail electricity price regulation, as well as the implementation of full retail liberalisation, from 1 July 2018. This is a significant reform, not just because it is consistent with the broader market design for electricity. Indeed, retail liberalisation is a qualifying element of the full integration of the European Union's electricity market. The full opening of retail markets provides a great opportunity for innovation, both on the demand side and on the supply side. This article investigates the theoretical background, and presents some empirical evidence, on the competition–innovation nexus in retail electricity markets.     

WATER PRIVATISATION : TOO MUCH REGULATION?

Water privatisation has had some success in allowing capital to be raised without going to government, in improving efficiency and in depoliticising industry decisions. But there is little sign of the liberalisation that, in other privatised utilities (notably gas and electricity), has been so beneficial to customers. It is time to reconsider the view that 'water is different' and to examine how to liberalise the water market. Two necessary steps appear to be to separate the pipeline networks from other activities and to adopt a more light-handed approach to environmental and quality regulation.     

Investment Incentives and Electricity Spot Market Competition

In this paper we analyze investment decisions of strategic firms that anticipate competition on many consecutive spot markets with fluctuating (and possibly uncertain) demand. We study how the degree of spot market competition affects investment incentives and welfare and provide an application of the model to electricity market data. We show that more competitive spot market prices strictly decrease investment incentives of strategic firms. The effect can be severe enough to even offset the beneficial impact of more competitive spot markets on social welfare. Our results obtain with and without free entry. The analysis demonstrates that investment incentives necessarily have to be taken into account for a serious assessment of electricity spot market design.     

减税降费政策对酒店业的影响研究

2012年国家开始了营业税改增值税试点,营改增政策的实施对酒店行业产生了深远影响.2018年以来,特别是2019年国家实施了更大规模的减税降费政策,对促进企业投资、有效降低企业税负、激发市场活力、推动整个经济高质量快速发展起到了巨大的作用.文章以酒店业为研究对象,通过梳理适用酒店业的减税降费政策内容,分析了这些减税降费政策对酒店行业经营、投资及融资等方面的影响,提出了有针对性的建议,以使酒店行业企业更好地利用税收政策,享受改革红利,促进企业快速高质量发展.     

地方政府执行房地产调控政策分析

近年来,我国政府针对房价过高问题,陆续出台了一系列调控政策,但是执行效果并不理想。从地方政府行为动机角度出发,运用博弈分析方法,认为调控政策的有效执行受到外部损失、房地产行业税收贡献率、相应调控政策执行成本及对房地产开发商超额利润的惩戒力度等四个因素制约。中央政府对地方政府的政绩考核应以经济为主要指标,以房价调控绩效为辅助指标,调动地方政府执行政策积极性。只有这样,才能从根本上解决房地产调控政策制定与执行不统一的问题,达到对房地产市场有效调控的目标。     

Multilateral Trade Liberalisation and Foreign Direct Investment Inflows

This paper investigates two questions: how does multilateral trade liberalisation affect inward foreign direct investment, and does this impact (if any) depend on the domestic trade policy? The analysis uses a panel data set comprising 171 countries spanning the period 1995–2012. Results indicate that multilateral trade policy liberalisation is conducive to higher FDI inflows in host countries. Furthermore, our evidence suggests that domestic trade policy almost always positively drives inward FDI in a context of multilateral trade policy liberalisation. Countries which initially have the most restrictive trade policy regimes appear to be the greatest beneficiaries of FDI inflows when they liberalise their trade policy in the context of multilateral trade liberalisation.     

新市场环境下的发电商监管

随着市场化改革的进一步推进和电煤价格的上涨,我国的发电市场环境发生了新的变化,在新的形势下电力监管中出现了新的问题,本文分析了目前的问题并结合国内外先进市场监管经验的基础上提出了改进措施。     

中国制度环境下私募股权投资现状与趋势

本文通过历史研究方法,对中国私募股权投资市场的发展历史、现状以及特点进行分析,并运用规范性分析研究未来私募股权投资整体行业的发展趋势,提出了私募股权投资在政策法规、行业发展和产品创新等方面的建议.私募股权投资在面临行业和法律政策调整的背景下,可以加强与政府合作,从募、投、管、退各个环节提升服务质量以及产品和业务的创新,进而实现行业可持续发展.     

Film marketing in Europe: bridging the gap between policy and practice

Concerns with US domination of European cinema screens and the apparent lack of success of policy makers to support sustainable development of the film industry has meant that these issues have remained topical for policy makers and researchers. This is also evidenced by both media attention and an increased research focus on the film industry, particularly from a marketing perspective.^1–7 To date, neither policy nor empirical research has had a significant impact on the development and understanding of the industry. This paper seeks to bridge the perceived gap between policy and the practice of film marketing in Europe. The interface between film marketing policy and practice in Europe offers an interesting venue to explore. While the macro‐environment is invariably emphasised in terms of its impact on marketing, many marketing academics and practitioners neglect the role that policy plays in shaping the practice of marketing. This paper undertakes an historical analysis of protectionism in the US film industry from its inception and highlights the likely impact of similar protectionism in the European context. It also explains how Hollywood studios control domestic and international markets. The historical overview shows the importance of vertical integration in producing a successful marketing campaign. An exploration of the debate focusing on the call for liberalisation of the global audiovisual market is also undertaken from an industrial and cultural perspective to assess the possible impact that this will have upon film marketing in Europe, in addition to the implications for European cultural identity. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications     

Vertical structure and the risk of rent extraction in the electricity industry

This paper studies how competition and vertical structure jointly determine generating capacities, retail prices, and welfare in the electricity industry. Analyzing a model in which demand is uncertain and retailers must commit to retail prices before they buy electricity in the wholesale market, we show that welfare is highest if competition in generation and retailing is combined with vertical separation. Vertically integrated generators choose excessively high retail prices and capacities to avoid rent extraction in the wholesale market when their retail demand exceeds their capacity. Vertical separation eliminates the risk of rent extraction and yields lower retail prices.     

Public policy and innovation: The case of pharmaceuticals

The pharmaceutical industry has been subject in recent years to an expanding set of regulatory constraints and related policy actions adversely affecting its level of innovation. The experiences of this industry provides some important insights for recent national policy discussions on declining innovation in the U.S. and the need for economic “revitalization”. The first section of the paper considers the societal benefits resulting from new drug therapies and other kinds of industrial innovation. An analysis of the basic characteristics of the R and D investment decision is then undertaken along with recent trends in various determinant factors. The last half of the paper evaluates the effects of government regulatory, patent, and reimbursement policies on R and D incentives and the level of pharmaceutical innovation. The paper concludes with several recommendations for policy changes to improve the incentives for industrial innovation in this and related high technology industries.     

Behavior of the firm under rate-of-return regulation with two capital inputs

Traditional electric utility companies face a trade-off between building generation facilities that utilize renewable energy (RE) and non-renewable energy (non-RE). The firm's input decision to build capacity for either source depends on several constraining factors, including input prices, policies that promote or discourage RE use, and the type of regulation faced by the firm. This paper models the utility company's decision between RE and non-RE capital inputs. From the model, we derive the result that rate-of-return (ROR) regulation decreases the investment in RE capital relative to the unregulated firm. These findings suggest restructuring electricity generation markets, which removes the ROR on generating assets, can increase the relative use of RE. A second result of the model shows that the renewable portfolio standard (RPS) increases the investment in capital that requires RE as a source of electricity, as expected. This paper contributes to the literature on the substitution between renewable and non-renewable resources, by examining the policies that affect the investment in the two types of technologies. The model can also be applied to other regulated utilities, such as water or natural gas companies, with outputs that are produced from different types of capital.     

Evolving Electric Utility Regulatory Policy

A bstract . Current electric utility pricing methods understate the marginal social casts of electricity. Electricity prices are set to cover the utility's average cost rather than the higher marginal social cost. This mispricing hides from consumers the true cost their consumption imposes on society and, thereby, encourages them to ignore efficient conservation opportunities. Additionally, the conservation market suffers from a number of imperfections such as barriers to the acquisition of information, high upfront capital costs and the lack of conservation equipment availability. The electricity and conservation multimarket equilibrium is not achieved. The result is that society overconsumes (excess demand) electricity, overinvests in electric generating plants and underinvests (excess supply) in conservation resources. The large, yet uncertain, level of foregone conservation investment offers new opportunities for regulators and electric utility managers to improve economic efficiency with regulatory and planning policies that appropriately encourage the cost effective use of conservation resources. In the absence of the most efficient policy, marginal social cost pricing, integrated resource planning (IRP) is being adopted as a potential second-best regulatory policy and utility resource planning framework to improve energy efficiency. IRP uses mathematical optimization methods to search among many alternate resource portfolios of electricity creating and saving technologies. These methods identify the mix that best meets society's needs with the least social cost , where the social external costs and benefits of generating plant and conservation, respectively, are considered. Such a goal requires the choice of a resource portfolio that optimizes a complex objective function. As a result, the solution offers a resource action plan for electric utilities that may be Pareto-improving.     

Assessing the effects of power grid expansion on human health externalities

Generation expansion planning is the framework under which power grid capacity expansions are made. Under this framework, mathematical optimization tools are used to determine the type of generation technology to invest in, and when and where these investments should be made in order to minimize market costs such as investment costs, fixed and variable operating & maintenance costs, and fuel costs over a long term planning horizon. Given the current infrastructure and policies, fossil fuels (such as coal, oil, and natural gas) are among the most economical sources of electricity. Thus, under these assumptions, these energy sources dominate the resulting expansion plans. However, fossil fuel combustion creates by-products contributing to ground-level ozone, particulates, and acid rain, which have harmful health implications such as premature death, respiratory-related illnesses, cardiovascular injuries, pulmonary disorders, and autism leading to lost days at school or work on a daily basis. In this research, we formulate a linear program to solve a multi-period generation expansion planning problem minimizing market costs for a centrally dispatched power system. We can then assess the human health externalities of the resulting expansion plan by studying the model output with an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) screening tool that determines the human health externalities from the electricity sector. Results with and without emission limits and other policies can then be evaluated and compared based on predicted societal costs including human health externalities. This research enables policy makers to directly assess the health implications of power grid expansion decisions by explicitly estimating the total societal costs by quantifying externalities as part of the investment strategy.     

HOUSING POLICY IN DEVELOPING ECONOMIES: Evaluating the Macroeconomic Impacts*

This paper presents a view of the role of the housing sector in developing countries which emphasizes the potentially high macroeconomic costs of inappropriate housing policies. Traditional public finance perspectives on the role of the housing sector in the economy focus on efficiency and equity implications of the rather modest levels of government spending in the sector. This paper points out that this traditional approach is misleading in that it is less government's spending in the sector than its role in defining regulatory frameworks, pricing policies, and policies affecting the financial sector that comprise the major instruments for influencing the performance of the housing sector and, in turn, the way its performance affects the macroeconomy. The paper also presents a simplified framework for analyzing how housing policies influence the housing sector and the macroeconomy. Simple applications of the framework suggest that the macroeconomic implications of housing policy choices can be of major importance. This is emphasized by two case studies, of policies in Argentina and Poland, where recent housing policies appear to have had major impacts on levels of investment, price and wage levels, and savings rates.     

Optimal investment and reinsurance policies for an insurer with ambiguity aversion

In this paper, we study the optimal investment and reinsurance problem for an insurer based on the variance premium principle, in which three cases are considered. First, we assume that the financial market does not exist. The insurer only holds an insurance business, and the optimal reinsurance problem is studied. Subsequently, we assume that there exists a financial market with an accurately modeled risky asset. The optimal investment and reinsurance problem is investigated under these conditions. Finally, we consider the general case in which the insurer is concerned about the model ambiguity of both the insurance market and the financial market. In all three cases, the value function is set to maximize the expected utility of terminal wealth. By employing the dynamic programming principle, we derive the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) equations, which are satisfied by the value functions and obtain closed-form solutions for optimal reinsurance and investment policies and the value functions in all three cases. Most interestingly, we elucidate how investment improves the insurer’s utility and find that the existence of ambiguity can significantly affect the optimal policies and value functions. We also compare the ambiguities in the two markets and find that ambiguity in the insurance market has much more significant impact on the value function than the ambiguity in the financial market. It implies that it is more valuable for insurer to precisely evaluate the insurance risk. We also provide some numerical examples and economic explanations to illustrate our results.     

Liberalisation of Utilities and Evolving European Regulation

In this article, David Coen and Chris Doyle provide an overview of recent liberalisation and regulatory developments affecting key utility sectors (electricity, gas, postal service, and telecommunications) in the European Union. They examine what kind of competition is suitable in the utilities, and discuss obstacles that lie in the path of competition. They address in detail the institutional design of sector specific regulation. National and supra-national regulatory structures are analysed and these are illustrated by examples drawn from several European countries. In institutional terms, they argue that it is important regulatory regimes have a high degree of flexibilityand speed to allow for the continued evolution of the EU utility sector.     

Dividends and leverage: How to optimally exploit a non-renewable investment

In this paper we model the situation where a non-renewable investment is given, for instance a resource reservoir, and show how to optimally trade-off between dividends and leverage, in order to maximize a performance indicator for shareholders, up to the bankruptcy time. We then study the way market risk (the volatility of the market price of the resource) impacts the optimal policies and the default risk of the company. The moments when the policies are rebalanced are analyzed and we give a measure of the agency costs which appear between the shareholders and the debt-holders.     

个人住房贷款政策对房地产市场的影响研究

金融政策的调整对房地产业发展具有重要影响,这一点在许多国家已经得到证实,在中国也逐步成为政府调节房地产业发展的手段。近年来,个人住房贷款政策随着房地产调控政策的出台而随之变化,本文研究中国个人住房贷款政策调整在对房地产市场的影响,并对如何促进房地产行业的发展,做出相关建议。