Essays In Industrial Organization And Regulation

Author : Gabor Palinko
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (64 download)

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Download or read book Essays in Industrial Organization and Environmental Economics written by Gabor Palinko and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation is comprised of three chapters in industrial organization, environmental economics and energy economics. In Chapter 2, I study carbon dioxide emission abatement technology for industries participating in the world's biggest emissions market, the European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS). I propose a production and abatement model to motivate the use of emissions as an input in a production function. I build on recent methods of the production function literature and propose an estimator for the production function that is consistent with my model. Using data from the EU ETS and Orbis, I estimate the elasticity of emissions to abatement expenditures for different manufacturing industries. Increasing the share of abatement expenditures of revenues by 1% is expected to reduce emissions by 8% in cement and 67% in chemicals, with other industries between these two extremes. I use the model's implications to translate estimated abatement elasticities to marginal abatement costs at the individual firm level. My findings show enormous differences both within and across industries. My estimates for the 25th, 50th and 75th percentile cement firms are 15, 22 and 36 euro/t respectively. In contrast, these estimates are 22, 48 and 363 euro/t for oil refineries. My findings suggests that, cement, chemicals and power firms are the most likely to decrease emissions as the EU ETS market price rises to levels close to the social cost of carbon.In Chapter 3, I analyze the impact of different policy instruments on the speed of transition to cleaner electricity generation. I develop a non-stationary fully dynamic entry and exit model of power generation. My model includes multiple technologies and hourly spot markets, both key features of the power generation market. I use the calibrated model to analyze the speed of transition away from coal power plants in PJM, the biggest electricity system in the United States. Correcting the negative externality of carbon dioxide emissions requires environmental regulation. My findings highlight the importance of analyzing the full transition path when comparing environmental policy instruments. Policies that lead to similar long-term outcomes induce vastly different transition dynamics. A carbon tax (the efficient instrument) set to $30/ton carbon dioxide is associated with an almost immediate entry of the long-run gas capacity. In contrast, gas entry and coal exit result in a slower and smooth transition. Welfare differences are significant. Both of these instruments improve only marginally on the baseline scenario and do not come close to the improvement possible by the carbon tax.In Chapter 4, I study bidding behavior in the New England frequency regulation market. Since 2015, this product is procured through a multi-dimensional Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) auction. Bidding under a VCG design is simple since truthful bidding is optimal. However, I find that participants bid higher when relative market power increases. This is indirect evidence against truthful bidding. Taking VCG bids as estimates for true marginal cost can be misleading. A combination of a complicated clearing mechanism and low stakes might prevent players to learn the optimal bidding strategy. My results suggest that switching from a uniform price to a VCG auction does not resolve the underlying strategic complexity.