renewable energy drivers a panel cointegration approach the expected gains from res deployment to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions co2 and the cut off of external dependence of electricity sources could be important however it is crucial to

energy market liberalization and renewable energy policies in oecd countries abstract this paper investigates the effect of energy liberalization compared to other drivers on policies that support renewable energy in a long panel of oecd countries we estimate this effect by accounting for the endogeneity of liberalization related to joint decisions within a country s energy strategy using regulation in other industries as instruments we find that energy liberalization increases public support for renewable energy the effect of liberalization is the second largest after the effect of per capita income and is mostly driven by reductions in entry barriers while the effect of privatization is unclear this finding suggests that a reduction in the monopolistic power of state owned utilities has a positive effect on renewable energy policies when various types of actors are ensured access to the grid instead of it being provided to only a few large private firms

political instability corruption and policy formation the case of environmental policy abstract this paper develops a theory of environmental policy formation taking into consideration the degree of corruptibility and political turbulence the predictions that emerge are that the interaction between the two variables is important political instability has a negative effect on the stringency of environmental regulations if the level of corruption is low but a positive effect when the degree of corruption is high corruption reduces the stringency of environmental regulations but the effect disappears as political instability increases the empirical findings are fully consistent with the predictions of the model

petrol prices oil price rises and oil price falls some evidence for the uk since 1972 this paper examines the relationship between retail petrol prices excise duties and crude oil prices in the uk over the period 1973 1988 the existence of a stable relationship between the petrol price level of excise duty and spot oil price is confirmed through use of the cointegration approach although the speed of reaction of petrol prices to changes in the crude price depends on whether crude prices are rising or falling any asymmetry in the pricing response is virtually absent after an adjustment period of only four months

economies of traffic density in the deregulated airline industry this article estimates a structural model of competition among hub and spoke airlines in order to measure the strength of economies of traffic density on individual route segments we find that economies of density were strong during the sample period fourth quarter 1985 stronger than previous estimates by douglas caves laurits christensen and michael tretheway derived from traditional cost function methods we also find that the airlines competitive behavior was far from collusive in the markets under study markets requiring a connection at a hub airport our structural model also provides plausible estimates of demand elasticities we use our estimates to provide a cost based rationale for the major changes in the structure of the industry following deregulation for example the increase in airport and industry wide concentration and the increase in competition at the city pair market level and to simulate the effects of a merger of airlines that share a hub

retail fuel price adjustment in germany a threshold cointegration approach abstract consumers in germany often complain that retail fuel prices usually adjust quickly to crude oil price increases than decreases and characterize this pricing pattern as market power exploitation in this paper we use both weekly national and daily city specific berlin hamburg munich and cologne data to investigate the extent to which retail fuel prices in germany adjust to changes in the international crude oil price at the national level with weekly prices we find positive asymmetries for both gasoline and diesel within the period 2003 2007 reflecting that retail prices react more swiftly to crude oil price increases than decreases in contrast for 2009 2013 we observe symmetric adjustment and negative asymmetry for retail diesel and gasoline prices respectively the city level analysis supports our findings in the latter time period thus regulatory measures aimed at the retail fuel market over recent years seem to have been effective and contrary to consumers perception we find no evidence for excessive market power or collusion

assessing firm behavior in carve out markets evidence on the impact of carve out policy abstract airlines wanting to cooperatively set prices for their international air travel service must apply to the relevant authorities for antitrust immunity ati while cooperation may yield benefits it can also have anti competitive effects in markets where partners competed prior to receiving ati a carve out policy forbids ati partners from cooperating in markets policymakers believe will be most harmed by anti competitive effects we examine carve out policy applications to three ati partner pairings and find evidence more consistent with cooperative pricing in carve out markets in spite of the policy calling into question the effectiveness of the policy in achieving intended market outcomes

testing for asymmetric pricing in the canadian retail gasoline market abstract this paper applies a threshold regression model to test for asymmetric pricing in the retail gasoline market in canada using weekly data for the period january 1990 to december 1996 we present results for 13 canadian cities for both premium and regular gasoline within the context of an error correction model we test for the presence of asymmetric price behaviour using average changes in crude prices as well as various lags for the change in crude as possible thresholds we are unable to find any evidence to support this view

equation by equation estimation of multivariate periodic electricity price volatility electricity prices are characterised by strong autoregressive persistence periodicity e g intraday day of the week and month of the year effects large spikes or jumps garch and as evidenced by recent findings periodic volatility we propose a multivariate model of volatility that decomposes volatility multiplicatively into a non stationary e g periodic part and a stationary part with log garch dynamics since the model belongs to the log garch class the model is robust to spikes or jumps allows for a rich variety of volatility dynamics without restrictive positivity constraints can be estimated equation by equation by means of standard methods even in the presence of feedback and allows for dynamic conditional correlations dccs that can optionally be estimated subsequent to the volatilities we use the model to study the hourly day ahead system prices at nord pool and find extensive evidence of periodic volatility and volatility feedback we also find that volatility is characterised by positive leverage in half of the hours and that a dcc model provides a better fit of the conditional correlations than a constant conditional correlation ccc model

corruption federalism and policy formation in the oecd the case of energy policy we investigate whether the effect of government corruption is conditional on a country s institutional structure federal systems have an additional layer of government making lobbying relatively more costly we investigate whether the effect of government corruption on environmental policy in the form of restrictions on energy use is conditional on a federal system being in place using 1982 96 data from 11 industry sectors in 12 oecd economies we find that while greater government corruption reduces the stringency of environmental policy the effect declines in federal systems

asymmetric error correction models for the oil gasoline price relationship abstract the existing literature on price asymmetries does not systematically investigate the sensitivity of the empirical results to the choice of a particular econometric specification this paper fills this gap by providing a detailed comparison of the three most popular models designed to describe asymmetric price behavior namely asymmetric ecm autoregressive threshold ecm and ecm with threshold cointegration each model is estimated on a common monthly data set for the gasoline markets of france germany italy spain and uk over the period 1985 2003 all models are able to capture the temporal delay in the reaction of retail prices to changes in spot gasoline and crude oil prices as well as some evidence of asymmetric behavior however the type of market and the number of countries which are characterized by asymmetric oil gasoline price relations vary across models the asymmetric ecm prescribes that long run price asymmetries are most likely to be found in the second stage of the transmission chain conversely the ecm with threshold cointegration suggests that long run price asymmetries vary across countries and markets short run price asymmetries are captured by the asymmetric ecm specification and the tar ecm the latter model suggests that all european countries are likely to be affected by asymmetries at the distribution stage while the results obtained with the asymmetric ecm are mixed

the economics of international codesharing an analysis of airline alliances abstract international airline alliances allow airlines to coordinate their operations in providing international service this paper analyzes the effect of such alliances on traffic levels fares and welfare in the model the benefits of alliances arise because cooperative pricing of trips by the partners puts downward pressure on fares in the interline city pair markets these are markets where travel on both carriers is necessary the loss of competition in the interhub market which connects the hub cites of the partners generates a countervailing effect tending to raise the fare in that market while the presence of economies of traffic density complicates these impacts by generating cost links across markets simulation analysis shows that the above tendencies typically prevail welfare analysis shows that both consumer and total surplus typically rise following formation of an alliance despite the harm to interhub passengers suggesting that the positive effects of alliances may outweigh any negative impacts

rockets and feathers the asymmetric speed of adjustment of uk retail gasoline prices to cost changes abstract the paper develops a quadratic quantity adjustment model to test the hypothesis put forward in the recent monopolies and mergers commission report that the speed of adjustment of uk retail gasoline prices to cost changes is more rapid when costs rise than when they fall and that the adjustment path is more concentrated around the mean value on the upswing using data from 1982 to 1989 evidence of faster and more concentrated responses to cost increases were found

quality coordination and complementary products this article models the choice of price and quality where products are complementary and components can be provided by either one or two monopolists the firms have to choose price and quality simultaneously but can coordinate in the latter dimension we consider two specifications for the quality of the composite good bottleneck and additive set ups in both cases a single monopolist may produce lower quality as compared to dual ownership if the latter is modelled as a single stage quality and price setting game when separate markets for components of the composite good are added to the model we provide an example where dual ownership leading to higher quality also yields higher consumer surplus but not total welfare than a single monopolist

path dependency and input substitution implications for energy policy modelling in most policy oriented energy models the effectiveness of energy policy instruments crucially depends both on the values of the substitution elasticities between the various inputs and on the rates of technological progress in this paper we argue that due to the fixed cost nature of adjustments to relative price changes these technological parameters are affected by past developments failing to account for the role of history will result in biased parameter estimates and hence the implication for energy policy modelling is that the estimation period should be carefully selected we provide an empirical illustration using data for the netherlands

european gasoline markets price transmission asymmetries in mean and variance the main objective of this article is to analyse the different sources of asymmetric price transmissions in the fuel market for france germany and spain during the last decades the eu has carrie

is income inequality a driver for renewable energy consumption abstract although many initiatives have been made to research the effect of income inequality on environmental issues the question of whether income inequality affects renewable energy consumption hasn t been answered this gap in the literature raises an important question that needs to be answered by researchers can the income inequality affect renewable energy consumption as far as is known the study is the first attempt to discover this relationship therefore the impact of income inequality on renewable energy consumption is examined theoretically and empirically in 43 developed and developing countries for 2000 2015 in order to avoid the omitted variable problem economic environmental and institutional variables such as gdp per capita corruption co2 emissions and trade openness are included in the model the results demonstrate that the decline in income inequality will enhance renewable energy consumption in other words policymakers have the opportunity to reduce income inequality and environmental degradation at the same time similarly corruption control and raise co2 emissions will increase also renewable energy consumption otherwise economic determinants such as economic growth and trade openness have no meaningful effect on renewable energy consumption

market structure and the nature of price rigidity evidence from the market for consumer deposits panel data on consumer bank deposit interest rates reveal asymmetric impacts of market concentration on the dynamic adjustment of prices to shocks banks in concentrated markets are slower to raise interest rates on deposits in response to rising market interest rates but are faster to reduce them in response to declining market interest rates thus banks with market power skim off surplus on movements in both directions since deposit interest rates are inversely related to the price charged by banks for deposits the results suggest that downward price rigidity and upward price flexibility are a consequence of market concentration

the political drivers of renewable energies policies this paper empirically analyzes how political factors affect the deployment of renewable energy re sources and compares their explanatory power to that of other economic energy and environmental drivers that have received greater attention in the literature so far the sample encompasses the eu countries bound to attain the target of 20 share of gross final energy consumption by 2020 the panel data analysis shows that lobbying by the manufacturing industry negatively affects re deployment whereas standard measures of government quality show a positive effect furthermore left wing parties promote the deployment of re more than right wing parties

an empirical analysis of the competitive effects of the delta continental northwest code share alliance abstract the u s department of transportation dot expressed serious reservations before ultimately approving the delta continental northwest code share alliance the dot s main fear was that the alliance could facilitate collusion explicit or tacit on prices and or service levels in the partners overlapping markets however since implementation of the alliance there has not been a formal empirical analysis of its effects on price and traffic number of passengers levels the main objective of this paper is to conduct such an analysis with a particular focus on testing whether the data are consistent with collusive behavior by the three airlines the evidence does not suggest that the alliance facilitated collusion on the partners overlapping routes

fixed feed in tariff versus premium a review of the current spanish system a b s t r a c t since 1998 the spanish government established a feed in system where res e generators could choose between two alternatives fixed feed in tariff and premium nowadays all res e 1 can be sold in the electricity market getting an additional premium except for solar photovoltaic one important novelty established in 2007 is a cap and floor system for facilities under the premium option the aim of this paper is to analyze and compare these two alternative options fixed fit and premiums which coexist at the same time in spain describe the evolution of both systems and evaluate its performance the introduction of this support system in spain led to very good results in terms of res e deployment the main advantage of the premium option is that it is a scheme integrated in the electricity market one disadvantage is that it can occasionally lead to overcompensation one way to try to avoid it is to set a cap value in order to evaluate the performance of this dual support system not only res e deployment has been assessed but also the policy stability the adequacy of res e production to the electricity demand pattern and the changes in the investors behaviour

prices rise faster than they fall output prices tend to respond faster to input increases than to decreases this tendency is found in more than two of every three markets examined it is found as frequently in producer goods markets as in consumer goods markets in both kinds of markets the asymmetric response to cost shocks is substantial and durable on average the immediate response to a positive cost shock is at least twice the response to a negative shock and that difference is sustained for at least five to eight months unlike past studies which documented similar asymmetries in selected markets gasoline agricultural products etc this one uses large samples of diverse products 77 consumer and 165 producer goods accordingly the results suggest a gap in an essential part of economic theory as a start on filling this gap the study finds no asymmetry in the resonse of an individual decision maker a supermarket chain to its costs but it finds above average asymmetry where a cost shock is filtered through a fragmented w

the environment left wing political orientation and ecological economics the objectives of this commentary are twofold the first is to examine the relationship between a party s position within the left right political spectrum and its stance on environmental issues as stated in party manifestos the second is to examine the relationship between individuals ideological orientation and pro environmental beliefs attitudes and self reported behavior equality distributional concerns and market skepticism are typically regarded as defining factors of left wing political orientation our results suggest that left wing parties and individuals are also more pro environmental than their right wing counterparts ecological economics similarly embraces sustainability efficient resource allocation and equitable distribution and is skeptical towards the ability of unregulated markets to achieve these objectives the hypothesis is put forward that ecological economics is more likely to be supported by left wing parties and individuals

renewable energy consumption and economic growth nexus evidence from a threshold model abstract the existing literature on renewable energy consumption and economic growth nexus produces mixed results as the effect of renewable energy consumption on economic growth can be either positive negative or not significant this paper examines the causal link between renewable energy use and economic growth by employing a threshold model using a 103 country sample in the 1995 to 2015 period we find that the relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth depends on the amount of renewable energy used our results demonstrate that the effect of renewable energy consumption on economic growth is positive and significant if and only if developing countries or non oecd countries surpass a certain threshold of renewable energy consumption however if developing countries use renewable energy below a given threshold level the effect of renewable energy consumption on economic growth is negative however we also find that renewable energy consumption has no significant effect on economic growth in developed countries and a positive and significant effect on economic growth in oecd countries the findings of this paper suggest that for developing countries to realize positive economic growth from their investment to renewable energy they need to surpass a certain threshold of renewable energy consumption

drivers promoting renewable energy a dynamic panel approach we study the commitment to renewable energy sources focusing on a set of 24 european countries and applying panel dynamic estimators europe is a leading player in the fight against climate change and the estimators we use reveal themselves to be appropriate in handling the persistency effect on renewables the level of renewable energy use in the previous period has a positive and highly significant effect on the current level of use traditional energy sources restrain the impetus towards renewables social awareness of sustainability climate change mitigation and co2 reduction targets are not enough to motivate the switch from traditional to renewables energy sources income and prices of fossil based fuels were not significant for the development of renewables in the period from 1990 to 2006 suggesting that it was not the market that encouraged renewables

selling costs and switching costs explaining retail gasoline margins recent theoretical work has shown that price discrimination can take place in imperfectly competitive as well as monopoly markets the persistence of higher retail margins on unleaded than on leaded gasoline during the 1980s suggests that discrimination may occur even in very competitive markets this article studies a number of cost based explanations for such gasoline pricing as well as the possibility of price discrimination the analysis indicates that gas stations discriminate against groups of customers who are less likely to switch to another station the conclusions highlight the influence of shopping or search costs on pricing decisions even in markets thought to be quite competitive

impacts of code share alliances on airline cost structure a truncated third order translog estimation abstract the airline industry has undergone significant changes following deregulation more than a decade ago a prominent development in recent years has been the proliferation of airline alliances an important question arises are alliances cost savings or competition reducing this paper addresses the first part of the question however the answer has bearing on the second part as well since results in industrial economics suggest that unless a merger or alliance can substantially reduce costs consumers are unlikely to enjoy lower prices e g farrell j and c shapiro 1990 horizontal mergers an equilibrium analysis american economic review 80 1 107 26 this paper estimates a truncated third order translog cost function using quarterly firm level data of 10 airlines for the period 1994qi to 2001qi using the estimated function we assess whether alliances have any impacts on costs and if so the extent to which the cost structure of airlines are affected it is found that the truncated third order translog is an appropriate specification and alliances do appear to lower costs however while the impacts are statistically significant in economic terms the magnitude appears to be immaterial

symmetric or asymmetric price adjustments in the oil market an empirical analysis of the relations between international and domestic prices in the federal republic of germany 1972 89 abstract this paper investigates how german consumer and wholesale prices for gasoline and light heating oil react to changes in the corresponding rotterdam prices monthly data from 1972 to 1989 are employed and the subperiods of the 1970s 1972 to 1979 and 1980s 1980 1989 are distinguished error correction models are estimated to seperate long run equilibrium relations and short run adjustment processes for the 1980s we find rapid symmetric and full adjustment of the german prices to the rotterdam prices whereas during the 1970s we find some asymmetries and at least for gasoline the adjustment processes took considerably more time

investigation of production sales and inventory relationships using multicointegration and non symmetric error correction models the accumulated sum of a stationary series is called integrated if a linear combination of some of the integrated series is stationary it is said to be cointegrated this paper presents empirical results on inventories to consider the possibility of a deeper form of cointegration called multicointegration which is introduced in granger and lee 1989 a vector integrated series is multicointegrated if the accumulated sum of its stationary cointegrated linear combination is again cointegrated with itself inventory which is the accumulated sum of production minus sales is probably cointegrated with production and sales the empirical results generally support the presence of multicointegration of production and sales in many u s industries and industrial aggregates the results also favour the non symmetric error correction model providing evidence that the strength of attraction is different on both sides of the attractor a modified s s rule for inventory control is investigated in the context of a non symmetric error correction model and the results generally do not support the s s rule sufficient evidence is found to conclude that multicointegration is a useful concept in the area of inventory determination

does government ideology influence deregulation of product markets empirical evidence from oecd countries this paper examines how government ideology has influenced deregulation of product markets in oecd countries i analyze a dataset of non manufacturing regulation indicators covering energy transport and communication industries in 21 oecd countries over the 1980 2003 period and employ two different indices of government ideology the results suggest that government ideology has had a strong influence on the deregulation process market oriented governments promoted the deregulation of the energy transport and communication industries this finding identifies remarkable differences between leftist and rightwing governments concerning the role of government in the economy and basic elements of political order

do gasoline prices respond asymmetrically to crude oil price changes the authors test and confirm that retail gasoline prices respond more quickly to increases than to decreases in crude oil prices among the possible sources of this asymmetry are production inventory adjustment lags and market power of some sellers by analyzing price transmission at different points in the distribution chain the authors attempt to shed light on these theories spot prices for generic gasoline show asymmetry in responding to crude oil price changes which may reflect inventory adjustment effects asymmetry also appears in the response of retail prices to wholesale price changes possibly indicating short run market power among retailers

open skies over the middle east the dynamism of air traffic markets in the middle east obscures the persistence of restrictions on international competition but how important are such restrictions for passenger traffic this paper uses detailed data on worldwide passenger aviation to estimate the effect of air transport policy on international air traffic the policy variable is a quantitative measure of the commitments under international agreements the paper analyzes for the first time not only bilateral agreements but also plurilateral agreements such as the one between arab states the analysis finds that more liberal policy is associated with greater passenger traffic between countries higher traffic levels appear to be driven primarily by larger numbers of city pairs being served rather than by more passengers traveling along given routes to demonstrate the quantitative implication of the estimates two liberalization scenarios in the middle east are evaluated deepening the plurilateral agreement among arab states would lead to a 30 percent increase in intraregional passenger traffic widening the agreement to include turkey would generate significantly larger gains because current policy vis a vis turkey is much more restrictive

entry deterrence and strategic alliances researchers have written extensively on the impact that strategic alliances between airlines have on airfare but little is known of the market entry deterrent impact of strategic alliances using a structural econometric model this paper examines the market entry deterrent impact of codesharing a form of strategic alliance between incumbent carriers in domestic air travel markets we find evidence of market entry deterrence but deterrence impact depends on the specific type of codesharing between market incumbents as well as the identity of the potential entrant we quantify the extent to which market incumbents codesharing influences potential entrants market entry cost and probability of market entry

airline code share alliances and their competitive effects abstract code share alliances have become a prominent feature in the competitive landscape of the airline industry however policy makers are extremely hesitant to approve proposed code share alliances when the potential partners route networks have significant overlap the main concern is that an alliance may facilitate price collusion on partners overlapping routes this article shows how policy makers can use a structural econometric framework to quantify the competitive effects of proposed code share alliances where potential alliance partners compete on overlapping routes in the prealliance industry as an example i apply the econometric model to the delta continental northwest alliance this proposed alliance was initially greeted with skepticism by the u s department of transportation owing to the potential partners unprecedented level of route network overlap for the markets considered in my analyses it appears as though the ultimate approval of the alliance by policy makers was justified

domestic airline alliances and consumer welfare this article investigates the consumer welfare consequences of the recent code share agreement between continental airlines and northwest airlines we develop a discrete choice model based on individual flight characteristics this structural model recognizes that consumers i may have heterogeneous preferences for flight attributes and ii may face different prices for the same flight the empirical methodology also deals with the measurement error problem stemming from the absence of consumer level data on prices the estimation results suggest that whereas the code share agreement did not impact consumers significantly on average it increased the average surplus of connecting passengers but decreased the average surplus of nonstop passengers interestingly the magnitude of our welfare results may be attributed in large part to changes in product characteristics other than prices

are left wing party strength and corporatism good for the environment evidence from panel analysis of air pollution in oecd countries abstract the effect of left wing party strength and corporatism on air pollution levels in up to 21 oecd countries over the period 1980 or 1990 1999 is tested with both fixed effects and random effects estimators controlling for scale composition technique as well as aggregate time effects robust evidence is found that parliamentary green left libertarian party strength is associated with lower pollution levels the rise of ecologically oriented parties has thus had a real impact on air pollution levels traditional left wing party strength is possibly also associated with lower pollution levels but the evidence is less consistent and robust combined left wing party strength in government is possibly associated with higher pollution levels but this result is also far from robust and is practically small no evidence is found for a consistent systematic impact of corporatism on pollution levels

wavelet based test of co movement and causality between oil and renewable energy stock prices abstract we studied co movement and causality between oil and renewable energy stock prices using continuous and discrete wavelets firstly to obtain information on dynamic correlations over time and for different time scales from wavelet coherence and secondly to obtain information on linear and non linear granger causality in the time frequency domain for general and sectoral renewable energy indices for the period 2006 2015 our findings indicate that dependence between oil and renewable energy returns in the short run was weak but gradually strengthened towards the long run mainly for the period 2008 2012 our causality tests provide evidence against linear causality at higher frequencies and in favour of unidirectional and bidirectional linear causality at lower frequencies in contrast we found consistent evidence of non linear causality running from renewable energy indices to oil prices at different time horizons and mixed evidence of causality running from oil to renewable energy prices these results have potential implications for investors in terms of hedging and for policymakers in terms of policy support decisions regarding the development of renewable energy

comprehensive effectiveness assessment of renewable energy generation policy a partial equilibrium analysis in china abstract in order to stimulate renewable energy and control carbon dioxide emissions the chinese government has already introduced lots of renewable energy generation policies under this background it is of great significant to figure out the economic environmental and social effectiveness of these polices firstly this paper systematically studied the framework and content of renewable energy generation policies secondly this paper built a basic partial equilibrium model to calculate the equilibrium state of electricity market and carbon emissions on this base the effectiveness of seven renewable energy generation policies was analyzed by introducing policies into the basic model and comparing relevant indicators in different policy scenarios with that in basic scenario further an empirical analysis was made to estimate the actual benefits of these policies in china this paper proposed an analysis method for evaluating the mechanism effectiveness and efficiency of renewable energy generation policies all the results and discussions in this paper can provide specific suggestions for chinese government to shape a blueprint for implementing different kinds of policies

asymmetric dynamic pricing in a local gasoline retail market asymmetric price adjustment is a common phenomenon in many markets around the world particularly in retail gasoline markets this paper studies the existence of this phenomenon in the retail gasoline market in the city of santiago chile using a data set of weekly gas station prices that covers a period of almost four years we found that prices adjust asymmetrically and the asymmetry is different for branded gas stations and unbranded stations in addition we found that the asymmetry for high margin stations is statistically equivalent to that for low margin stations this evidence is suggestive of collusion as a rationale for the asymmetric pricing policy observed

the price effects of international airline alliances abstract this paper provides evidence on the effect of international airline alliances on fares the main finding is that alliance partners charge interline fares that are approximately 25 percent below those charged by nonallied carriers according to our theoretical model the main source of this fare reduction is the internalization of a negative externality that arises from the uncoordinated choice of interline sub fares in the absence of an alliance the paper also looks for evidence of an anti competitive alliance effect in the gateway to gateway markets while the point estimates show that an alliance between two previously competitive carriers would raise fares by about 5 percent this effect is not statistically significant

hybrid cooperation agreements in networks the case of the airline industry abstract this paper develops a unified framework to analyze a continuum of hybrid cooperation agreements along two dimensions their degree of revenue sharing scope of alliances and their degree of cost sharing scope of joint ventures the analysis focuses on the air transportation industry distinguishing between interline and interhub markets as economies of traffic density become stronger we find that the socially optimal cooperation agreement moves from full alliance to joint venture in interline markets whereas it moves from joint ventureto merger in interhub markets these results are driven by the tradeoff between a procompetitive effect of alliances in interline markets and an anticompetitive effect in interhub markets along with the efficiency gains associated with joint ventures in interhub markets we also develop an empirical application for intercontinental routes for the period 2010 2016 that identifies a positive impact of deeper degrees of airline cooperation revenue and cost sharing on traffic both in interline and interhub markets therefore the potential anticompetitive effect of deeper alliances in interhub markets is not observed in our sample

determinants of renewable energy development in the eu countries a 20 year perspective abstract the objective of the paper is to identify factors which determine energy policy in the eu countries in the middle of 1990s this objective is achieved in three stages first the changes in the distribution of res in 26 eu countries in the period between 1995 and 2014 are investigated the analysis demonstrates that over the last 20 years the eu countries diversify the res they use which results in substantial changes in their distribution second the distribution of energy sources in 1995 is described as it is assumed that the distribution might be a crucial factor influencing energy policy in each country third several other factors related to energy security environmental concerns economy and politics are considered as potential determinants of renewable energy development two statistical methods of variable selection namely the best subset regression and the lars method reveal that the present in 2014 share of res in the energy mix significantly depends on the condition of the eu countries in the middle of 1990s the distribution of energy sources in 1995 is the crucial determinant of renewable energy development countries without their own fossil fuel sources are the ones which develop renewable energy to the greatest extent other important factors boosting re development include gdp per capita concentration of energy supply swi and the costs of consumption of energy obtained from fossil fuels in relation to gdp

international airfares in the age of alliances the effects of codesharing and antitrust immunity this paper provides empirical evidence showing the effect of airline cooperation on the interline fares paid by international passengers the analysis focuses on two measures of cooperation codesharing and antitrust immunity and the results show that their partial effects are both negative the presence of codesharing on an international interline itinerary reduces the fare by 8 17 with the exact number depending on the sample used and the estimation method moreover the presence of antitrust immunity reduces the fare by 13 21 codesharing and immunity are substitutes however in the sense that their combined effect is smaller than the sum of their partial effects taking account of this difference which is captured by an interaction variable in the regressions the combined effect ranges between 17 and 30 these results provide strong evidence that airline cooperation in the fare setting process generates substantial benefits for interline passengers

renewable energy and politics a systematic review and new evidence abstract this paper reviews the literature in the intersection of renewable energies and politics adopting a multidisciplinary social sciences perspective we begin by analyzing the recent literature dealing with renewable energies and politics illustrating the analysis with bibliometric data the search protocol revealed 853 contributions dated from 1998 then we focus on the 186 contributions approached from a social sciences perspective establishing a taxonomy to classify the contributions into the main issues covered we identify contributions dealing with governance with public acceptance with markets and prices and with political or policy determinants of renewable energies in an empirical application we show that more democratic countries tend to invest more in renewable energies taking into account other determinants e g income energy dependence pollution emissions of this investment

rivalry between strategic alliances abstract rivalry between strategic alliances is investigated in a model where each alliance member maximizes its own profit and some share of its partner s profit a complementary alliance confers a strategic advantage by allowing the partners to credibly commit to greater output owing to both within alliance complementarities and cross alliance substitutabilities although rivalry between different alliances can sometimes lead to a prisoners dilemma for firms it tends to improve economic welfare on the other hand an alliance that arises due purely to the threat of entry may reduce welfare

do petrol prices increase faster than they fall in market disequilibria abstract this paper tests the idea that petrol prices respond more quickly to price increases than to decreases we show that the results previously documented in the literature for australia are spurious due to failure to establish the stationarity property of the price series and the co integration relationship between retail and wholesale prices when neglecting to account for a regime shift in the data using a robust approach involving a threshold error correction model we find little evidence to support the contention that retail petrol price reverts asymmetrically to long run equilibrium asymmetric adjustments in retail prices are found only in four of the twenty eight retail gas stations in queensland these results cast doubt on the previously reported pervasiveness of this asymmetric price response phenomenon in australia we further caution on erroneous inference with the use of weekly rather than daily data and when failing to account for a regime shift in the data

corruption pollution and the kuznets environment curve abstract this paper examines the implications of corruption and rent seeking behavior by the government for the relationship between pollution and growth cases of both cooperative and non cooperative interaction between the government and the private firm are studied it is shown that corruption is not likely to preclude the existence of an inverted u shaped kuznets environmental curve under both these cases however for any level of per capita income the pollution levels corresponding to corrupt behavior are always above the socially optimal level further the turning point of the kuznets curve takes place at income and pollution levels above those corresponding to the social optimum

rockets and feathers revisited an international comparison on european gasoline markets this paper re examines the issue of asymmetries in the transmission of shocks to crude oil prices onto the retail price of gasoline relative to the previous literature the distinguishing features of the present paper are i use of updated and comparable data to carry out an international comparison of gasoline markets ii two stage modeling of the transmission of oil price shocks to gasoline prices first refinery stage and second distribution stage in order to assess possible asymmetries at either one or both stages iii use of asymmetric error correction models to distinguish between asymmetries that arise from short run deviations in input prices and from the speed at which the gasoline price reverts to its long run level iv explicit possibly asymmetric role of the exchange rate as crude oil is paid for in dollars whereas gasoline sells for different sums of national currencies v bootstrapping of f tests of asymmetries in order to overcome the lowpower problem of conventional testing procedures in contrast to several previous findings the results generally point to widespread differences in both adjustment speeds and short run responses when input prices rise or fall

retail price asymmetries in local gasoline markets the experience of the salt lake city retail gasoline market during the 1989 to 1993 period suggests that there was asymmetric adjustment wholesale and retail price data unique to the salt lake market are used to test for the existence of three types of price asymmetry during this period with respect to the magnitude of the pass through of wholesale price changes evidence of price asymmetry during periods of average weekly wholesale price changes is found however during market shocks the evidence points in the direction of retail price symmetry evidence of asymmetry with respect to the timing and pattern of the retail price response is found for periods of both average and market shock changes since gasoline is purchased by the consumer in local markets conclusions reached by studies of market pricing behaviour that rely on national data may not be relevant for local policy decisions this appears to be the case for the salt lake city market

what is better for mitigating carbon emissions renewable energy or nuclear energy a panel data analysis abstract this paper investigates the determinants of carbon emissions based on energy consumption analyzing the data of 30 countries using nuclear energy for the period 1990 2014 renewable energy and nuclear energy consumption are adopted as determinants and real coal price and real gdp are used as additive variables the panel cointegration analysis and granger causality tests are conducted to investigating the relationship among the variables first the panel cointegration test results suggest that long run equilibrium relationship exists among carbon emissions renewable energy consumption and nuclear energy consumption the results of the long run cointegrating vector and granger causality tests indicate that nuclear energy does not contribute to carbon reduction unlike renewable energy thus the development and expansion of renewable not nuclear energy are essential to prevent global warming though there is a concern that rising energy prices caused by the expansion of renewable energy may impact the economy negatively our empirical results also imply that renewable energy consumption will promote economic growth in other words our evidence shows that using and expanding renewable energy is both economically and ecologically beneficial

asymmetric pass through of oil prices to gasoline prices with interval time series modelling abstract modelling and analyzing the pass through of crude oil prices to retail gasoline prices has received an increasing attention in existing literature however most of the ongoing efforts focus on point valued data which may suffer from the informational loss this paper first employs the threshold autoregressive interval valued tari models developed recently by sun et al 2018a to investigate this transmission and proposes a novel consistent interval based test to detect threshold effects and derives its asymptotic properties these interval based tari model and test superior to traditional point based methods can produce more efficient parameter estimation and more powerful inference due to the informational gain of interval data that is interval data simultaneously contain more information e g trend and volatility than point valued data during the same period empirical results suggest that retail gasoline prices are adjusted upwards faster than downwards and this short run asymmetry is statistically significant during the whole sample our findings reveal that both the level and volatility of oil prices have a positive impact on the price of gasoline which contributes to the asymmetries in the transmission of oil price shocks these results are robust before and after financial crisis furthermore it is interesting to find that after financial crisis both the error correction adjustment speeds and the asymmetries decrease

price asymmetry in the dutch retail gasoline market abstract this article analyses the retail price adjustments in the dutch gasoline market we estimate an asymmetric error correction model on weekly price changes for the years 1996 2001 we construct five datasets one for each working day the conclusions on asymmetric pricing are shown to differ over these datasets suggesting that the choice of the day for which the prices are observed matters more than commonly believed in our view the insufficient robustness of the outcomes might explain the mixed conclusions found in the literature using these two approaches we also show that the effect of asymmetry on the dutch consumer costs is negligible