California is faced with an unprecedented budget crisis. The state is also committed to significant reductions in greenhouse gases that cause climate change. Meanwhile, the price of gasoline is...
Equity Effects of Increasing-Block Electricity Pricing (2008)
Utility regulators frequently attempt to use tariff structures to pursue both distributional and efficiency goals. Efficiency necessitates setting prices as close to marginal costs as possible while...
Cost, Conflict and Climate: U.S. Challenges in the World Oil Market (2008)
Dramatic increases in the price of crude oil during the last half of 2007 have ratcheted up attention on energy policy, but cost is only one of the three oil challenges that confront the U.S. This...
The Market Value and Cost of Solar Photovoltaic Electricity Production (2008)
The high cost of power from solar photovoltaic (PV) panels has been a major deterrent to the technology's market penetration. Proponents have argued, however, that typical analyses overlook many of...
The Market Value and Cost of Solar Photovoltaic Electricity Production (2008)
The high cost of power from solar photovoltaic (PV) panels has been a major deterrent to the technology's market penetration. Proponents have argued, however, that typical analyses overlook many of...
Borenstein, Severin, Busse, Meghan, KELLOGG, RYAN M
Regulators and firms often use incentive schemes to attract skillful agents and to induce them to put forth effort in pursuit of the principals' goals. Incentive schemes that reward skill and effort,...
Borenstein, Severin, Busse, Meghan, Kellog, Ryan
Regulators and firms often use incentive schemes to attract skillful agents and to induce them to put forth effort in pursuit of the principals' goals. Incentive schemes that reward skill and effort,...
Severin Borenstein, Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell, James Bushnell
Using historical cost data, we simulate the California electricity market after deregulation as a static Cournot market with a competitive fringe. Our model indicates that, under the pre-deregulation...
Severin Borenstein, Severin Borenstein, James Woods, Kathryn Myronuk
www.ucei.berkeley.edu/ucei
Beyond Concentration Measures (2007)
Severin Borenstein, Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell, James Bushnell, Christopher R. Knittel, Christopher R. Knittel
Workable Energy
The Trouble With Electricity Markets (2007)
Severin Borenstein, Severin Borenstein
This paper is part of the working papers series of the Program on Workable Energy
Measuring Market Inefciencies in California's Restructured (2007)
Wholesale Electricity Market, Severin Borenstein, James B. Bushnell, A. Wolak, Seminars Jun Ishii, ...
this paper we estimate the extent to which each of these factors---input costs, scarcity, and market power---in#uenced market outcomes in the California power market from 1998 through 2000. We...
www.ucei.org MARKET POWER IN CALIFORNIA’S GASOLINE MARKET (2007)
Severin Borenstein, Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell, James Bushnell, Matthew Lewis, Matthew Lewis
by
Severin Borenstein, Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell, James Bushnell, Frank Wolak, Frank Wolak, ...
We present a method for decomposing wholesale electricity payments into production costs, inframarginal competitive rents, and payments resulting from the exercise of market power. The method also...
In May 2007, a Los Angeles Times newspaper article reported that the California Solar Initiative (CSI), commonly called the "million solar roofs" program, was being hobbled by a requirement that...
Wealth Transfers Among Large Customers from Implementing Real-Time Retail Electricity Pricing (2007)
Adoption of real-time electricity pricing -- retail prices that vary hourly to reflect changing wholesale prices -- removes existing cross-subsidies to those customers that consume disproportionately...
Customer Risk from Real-Time Retail Electricity Pricing: Bill Volatility and Hedgability (2007)
One of the most critical concerns that customers have voiced in the debate over real-time retail electricity pricing is that they would be exposed to risk from fluctuations in their electricity cost....
Severin Borenstein, Nancy L. Rose, Severin Borenstein, Nancy L. Rose, Severin Borenstein, Nancy L. Rose, ...
"How Airlines Market Work...Or Do They? Regulatory Reform in the Airline Industry, " is forthcoming as a chapter in Economic Regulation and Its Reform: What Have We Learned?, edited...
Do Investors Forecast Fat Firms? Evidence from the Gold Mining Industry (2006)
Borenstein, Severin, Farrell, Joseph
JEL CODES: D21, G3, L2, L72KEYWORDS: profit function, free cash flow, gold mining, x-efficiency, rent seeking, fatABSTRACT: Conventional economic theory assumes that firms always minimize costs given...
Ali Hortaçsu, Steven L. Puller, Severin Borenstein, Jim Bushnell, Stephen Holl, Marc Ivaldi, ...
We examine the bidding behavior of firms competing in the newly created spot market for electricity in Texas, where electricity generating firms submit hourly supply schedules to sell power. We...
Wealth Transfers from Implementing Real-Time Retail Electricity Pricing (2005)
Adoption of real-time electricity pricing -- retail prices that vary hourly to reflect changing wholesale prices -- removes existing cross-subsidies to those customers that consume disproportionately...
Retail Policies and Competition in the Gasoline Industry (2005)
Borenstein, Severin, Bushnell, Jim
We explore issues relating to the vertical structure of ownership and control in gasoline distribution and retailing. Some have argued that refiner control of the retail sector has increased...
Valuing the Time-Varying Electricity Production of Solar Photovoltaic Cells (2005)
Solar PV panels generate electricity only during daylight hours and generate more electricity when the sun is shining more intensely. As a result, in summer-peaking electricity systems, such as...
The Long-Run Efficiency of Real-Time Electricity Pricing (2005)
Retail real-time pricing (RTP) of electricity -- retail pricing that changes hourly to reflect the changing supply/demand balance -- is very appealing to economists because it "sends the right price...
U.S. Domestic Airline Pricing, 1995-2004 (2005)
Between 1995 and 2004, I find that airline prices fell more than 20% adjusted for inflation. I also show that premia at hub airports declined and that there is now substantially less disparity...
Borenstein, Severin, Bushnell, James, Knittel, Christopher R., Wolfram, Catherine
In the three years following the restructuring of the California electricity industry, 1998 to 2000, power trading occurred in both a day-ahead market and a real-time market. Despite the fact that...
Market Power in California's Gasoline Market (2004)
Borenstein, Severin, Bushnell, James, Lewis, Matthew
In recent months, prices for California's special (CaRFG) gasoline have again exceeded U.S. average prices by much more than the difference in production costs. A number of observers have attributed...
Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell, Christopher R. Knittel, Catherine Wolfram September
with other commodities, electricity is often traded on both forward and spot As This was initially true in the restructured California electricity industry markets. 1998 to 2000. Though the power...
On the Efficiency of Competitive Electricity Markets With Time-Invariant Retail Prices (2003)
Borenstein, Severin, Holland, Stephen P.
The standard economic model of efficient competitive markets relies on the ability of sellers to charge prices that vary as their costs change. Yet, there is no restructured electricity market in...
Severin Borenstein, Stephen P. Holl, Severin Borenstein, Stephen P. Holl
Abstract: The standard economic model of efficient competitive markets relies on the ability of sellers to charge prices that vary as their costs change. Yet, there is no restructured electricity...
Borenstein, Severin, Holland, Stephen P.
The standard economic model of efficient competitive markets relies on the ability of sellers to charge prices that vary as their costs change. Yet, there is no restructured electricity market in...
Dynamic Pricing, Advanced Metering, and Demand Response in Electricity Markets (2002)
Borenstein, Severin, Jaske, Michael, Rosenfeld, Arthur
In this monograph, we present an overview and analysis of the possible approaches to bringing an active demand side into electricity markets. In section I, we describe the ways in which economic...
Measuring Market Inefficiencies in California's Restructured Wholesale Electricity Market (2002)
Borenstein, Severin, Bushnell, Jim, Wolak, Frank A.
We present a method for decomposing wholesale electricity payments into production costs, inframarginal competitive rents, and payments resulting from the exercise of market power. The method also...
Severin Borenstein, Severin Borenstein, Stephen P. Holl, Stephen P. Holl
Abstract: The standard economic model of efficient competitive markets relies on the ability of sellers to charge prices that vary as their costs change. Yet, there is no restructured electricity...
Electricity Restructuring: Deregulation or Reregulation? (2000)
Borenstein, Severin, Bushnell, James
We discuss the lessons that can be gleaned from the experience with electricity restructuring to date. The gains from restructuring are most likely to occur through improvement in the efficiency and...
Exercising Market Power in Proprietary Aftermarkets (2000)
Borenstein, Severin, MacKie-Mason, Jeffrey K., Netz, Janet S.
In many recent antitrust cases, manufacturers of complex high-technology equipment have been accused of exercising market power in the sale of proprietary service or parts necessary to maintain the...
Diagnosing Market Power in California's Deregulated Wholesale Electricity Market (2000)
Severin Borenstein, Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell, James Bushnell, Frank Wolak, Frank Wolak
Effective competition in wholesale electricity markets is a necessary feature of a successful electricity supply industry restructuring. We examine the degree of competition in the California...
Understanding Competitive Pricing and Market Power in Wholesale Electricity Markets (1999)
Discussions of competition in restructured electricity markets have revealed many misunderstandings about the definition, diagnosis, and implications of market power. In this paper, I attempt to...
Diagnosing Market Power in California's Deregulated Wholesale Electricity Market (1999)
Borenstein, Severin, Bushnell, James, Wolak, Frank
Effective competition in wholesale electricity markets is the cornerstone of the deregulation of the electricity generation industry. We examine the degree of competition in the California wholesale...
Evidence from the Gold Mining Industry (1999)
Severin Borenstein And, Severin Borenstein, Joseph Farrell
: Conventional economic theory assumes that rms always minimize costs given the output they produce. News articles and interviews with executives, however, indicate that rms from time to time engage...
Do Investors Forecast Fat Firms? (1999)
Evidence From The, Severin Borenstein, Joseph Farrell Y
Conventional economic theory assumes that rms always minimize costs given the output they produce. News articles and interviews with executives, however, indicate that rms from time to time engage in...
Market Power in California Electricity Markets (1995)
Severin Borenstein, Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell, James Bushnell, Edward Kahn, Edward Kahn, ...
This paper is part of the working papers series of the Program on Workable Energy
The Economics of Customer Lock-In and Market Power in Services (1993)
Severin Borenstein, Janet S. Netz, Severin Borenstein, Janet S. Netz
Abstract: Many businesses provide aftermarket services, including parts, maintenance, consulting, upgrades and modifications to durable consumer and business equipment. We investigate the effect on...
Competition and price dispersion in the U.S. airline industry (1991)
Borenstein, Severin., Rose, Nancy L.
"Latest revision: June 1991."
Competition and Price Dispersion in the U.S. Airline Industry.
Borenstein, Severin, Rose, Nancy L
The authors study dispersion in the prices an airline charges to different passengers on the same route. This variation in fares is substantial: the expected absolute difference in fares between two...
On the Efficiency of Competitive Electricity Markets with Time-Invariant Retail Prices
Severin Borenstein, Stephen Holland
Most customers in electricity markets do not face prices that change frequently to reflect changes in wholesale costs, known as real-time pricing (RTP). We show that not only does time-invariant...
Do Gasoline Prices Respond Asymmetrically to Crude Oil Price Changes?
Severin Borenstein, A. Colin Cameron
Our empirical investigation confirms the common belief that retail gasoline prices react more quickly to increases in crude oil prices than to decreases. Nearly all of the response to a crude oil...
Measuring Market Inefficiencies in California's Restructured Wholesale Electricity Market
Severin Borenstein, James B. Bushnell, Frank A. Wolak
We present a method for decomposing wholesale electricity payments into production costs, inframarginal competitive rents, and payments resulting from the exercise of market power. Using data from...
How to Carve a Medical Degree: Human Capital Assets in Divorce Settlements.
Borenstein, Severin, Cournat, Paul N
This paper examines effects of the legal rules for property division at divorce on investment in human capital during marriage. The authors show that current rules generally lead to suboptimal levels...
Market Incentives for Safe Commercial Airline Operation.
Borenstein, Severin, Zimmerman, Martin B
Airlines are insured against most direct costs of an accident, but they cannot insure against demand loss. Some have argued that such consumer reaction will discipline unsafe operations. The authors'...
The Trouble with Electricity Markets: Understanding California's Restructuring Disaster
In June 2000, after two years of fairly smooth operation, California's deregulated wholesale electricity market began producing extremely high prices and threats of supply shortages. The upheaval...
Carrot and Yardstick Regulation: Enhancing Market Performance with Output Prizes.
Bagnoli, Mark, Borenstein, Severin
The fundamental objective of most regulatory mechanisms is to expand output at a sufficiently low cost to consumers. Many useable mechanisms, such as Loeb and Magat's, require detailed demand...
Market power in California electricity markets
Borenstein, Severin, Bushnell, James, Kahn, Edward, Stoft, Steven
An Empirical Analysis of the Potential for Market Power in California's Electricity Industry.
Borenstein, Severin, Bushnell, James
Using historical cost data, we simulate the California electricity market after deregulation as a static Cournot market with a competitive fringe. Our model indicates that, under the prederegulation...
Exercising Market Power in Proprietary Aftermarkets
Severin Borenstein, Janet S. Netz
Over 20 recent antitrust cases have turned on whether competition in complex durable-equipment markets prevents manufacturers from exercising market power over proprietary aftermarket products and...
Exercising Market Power in Proprietary Aftermarkets
Severin Borenstein, Janet S. Netz
Over 20 recent antitrust cases have turned on whether competition in complex durable-equipment markets prevents manufacturers from exercising market power over proprietary aftermarket products and...
Severin Borenstein, Jeff MacKie-Mason, Janet Netz
Many businesses provide aftermarket services, including parts, maintenance, consulting, upgrades and modifications to durable consumer and business equipment. We investigate the effect on the...
U.S. Domestic Airline Pricing, 1995-2004
Between 1995 and 2004, I find that airline prices fell more than 20% adjusted for inflation. I also show that premia at hub airports declined and that there is now substantially less disparity...
Diagnosing Market Power in California's Deregulated Wholesale Electricity Market
Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell, Frank Wolak
Effective competition in wholesale electricity markets is the cornerstone of the deregulation of the electricity generation industry. We examine the degree of competition in the California wholesale...
U.S. Domestic Airline Pricing, 1995-2004
Between 1995 and 2004, I find that airline prices fell more than 20% adjusted for inflation. I also show that premia at hub airports declined and that there is now substantially less disparity...
Sticky Prices, Inventories, and Market Power in Wholesale Gasoline Markets
Severin Borenstein, Andrea Shepard
A model with costly adjustment of production and costly inventories implies that wholesale gasoline prices will respond with a lag to crude oil cost shocks. Unlike explanations that rely upon menu...
The Competitive Effects of Transmission Capacity in A Deregulated Electricity Industry
Severin Borenstein, James. Bushnell, Steven Stoft
In an unregulated electricity generation market, the capacity of transmission lines will determine the degree to which generators in different locations compete with one another. We show, however,...
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...
Hubs and High Fares: Dominance and Market Power in the U.S. Airline Industry
This article estimates the importance of route and airport dominance in determining the degree of market power exercised by an airline. The results indicate that an airline's share of passengers on a...
Price Discrimination in Free-Entry Markets
Using a spatial model of monopolistic competition, we investigate price discrimination in free-entry, zero-profit markets. We show that when brands are heterogeneous, competition does not prevent...
Understanding Competitive Pricing and Market Power in Wholesale Electricity Markets
Discussions of competition in restructured electricity markets have revealed many misunderstandings about the definition, diagnosis, and implications of market power. In this paper, I attempt to...
Electricity Restructuring: Deregulation or Reregulation?
Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell
We discuss the lessons that can be gleaned from the experience with electricity restructuring to date. The gains from restructuring are most likely to occur through improvement in the efficiency and...
Do Gasoline Prices Respond Asymmetrically to Crude Oil Price Changes?
Borenstein, Severin, Cameron, A Colin, Gilbert, Richard
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...
The Dominant-Firm Advantage in Multiproduct Industries: Evidence from the U.S. Airlines.
In many industries, the largest firms are most successful in entering and competing in individual markets or submarkets. While this success is often attributed to cost or quality differences, it may...
On the Efficiency of Competitive Markets for Operating Licenses.
Some economists and policy makers have suggested that market allocation of scarce operating licenses, broadcasti ng licenses, and airport "slots," for instance, would lead to their efficient use....
SEVERIN BORENSTEIN, JAMES BUSHNELL, CHRISTOPHER R. KNITTEL, CATHERINE WOLFRAM
For two years prior to the collapse of California's restructured electricity market, power traded in both a forward and a spot market for delivery at the same times and locations. Nonetheless, prices...
Dynamic Pricing in Retail Gasoline Markets
Severin Borenstein, Andrea Shepard
This paper tests for price patterns in retail gasoline markets consistent with those predicted by models of implicit collusion among firms. Recent supergame models show that the highest supportable...
Do Airlines in Chapter 11 Harm Their Rivals? Bankruptcy and Pricing Behavior in U.S. Airline Markets
Severin Borenstein, Nancy L. Rose
The behavior of firms in financial distress has attracted considerable academic and policy interest in recent years. The turmoil in the U.S. airline industry has triggered much of the public policy...
Competition and Price Dispersion in the U.S. Airline Industry
Severin Borenstein, Nancy L. Rose
This papers analyzes dispersion in the prices that an airline charges to different customers on the same route. Such variation in airlines fares is substantial: the expected absolute difference in...
Settling for Coupons: Discount Contracts as Compensation and Punishment in Antitrust Lawsuits
A number of recent antitrust lawsuits have been settled with discount contracts in which the defendants agree in the future to sell to the plaintiffs at a discount off of the price they offer to...
Sticky Prices, Inventories, and Market Power in Wholesale Gasoline Markets
Severin Borenstein, Andrea Shepard
We present and test an explanation for lags in the adjustment of wholesale gasoline prices to changes in crude oil prices. Our simple model with costly adjustment of production and inventories...
The Competitive Effects of Transmission Capacity in a Deregulated Electricity Industry
Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell, Steven Stoft
In an unregulated electricity generation market, the degree to which generators in" different locations compete with one another depends on the capacity to transmit electricity" between the...
An Empirical Analysis of the Potential for Market Power in California's Electricity Industry
Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell
We use demand and plant-level cost data to simulate competition in a restructured California electricity market. This approach recognizes that firms might have an incentive to restrict output in...
Do Investors Forecast Fat Firms? Evidence from the Gold Mining Industry
Severin Borenstein, Joseph Farrell
Conventional economic theory assumes that firms always minimize costs given the output they produce. News articles and interviews with executives, however, indicate that firms from time to time...
Diagnosing Market Power in California's Restructured Wholesale Electricity Market
Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell, Frank Wolak
Effective competition in wholesale electricity markets is a necessary feature of a successful electricity supply industry restructuring. We examine the degree of competition in the California...
Trading Inefficiencies in California's Electricity Markets
Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell, Christopher R. Knittel, Catherine Wolfram
We study price convergence between the two major markets for wholesale electricity in California from their deregulation in April 1998 through November 2000, nearly the end of trading in one market....
Do Airline Bankruptcies Reduce Air Service?
Severin Borenstein, Nancy L. Rose
The airline industry's current financial crisis has raised concerns over the ramifications of airline bankruptcies for air service and the economy. Such bankruptcies, however, nearly always occur...
On the Efficiency of Competitive Electricity Markets With Time-Invariant Retail Prices
Severin Borenstein, Stephen P. Holland
The standard economic model of efficient competitive markets relies on the ability of sellers to charge prices that vary as their costs change. Yet, there is no restructured electricity market in...
Wealth Transfers from Implementing Real-Time Retail Electricity Pricing
Adoption of real-time electricity pricing %u2014 retail prices that vary hourly to reflect changing wholesale prices %u2014 removes existing cross-subsidies to those customers that consume...
Customer Risk from Real-Time Retail Electricity Pricing: Bill Volatility and Hedgability
One of the most critical concerns that customers have voiced in the debate over real-time retail electricity pricing is that they would be exposed to risk from fluctuations in their electricity cost....
How Airline Markets Work...Or Do They? Regulatory Reform in the Airline Industry
Severin Borenstein, Nancy L. Rose
Following a brief review of the U.S. domestic airline industry under regulation (1938-1978), we study the changes that have occurred in pricing, service, and competition in the 28 years since...
Severin Borenstein, Meghan Busse, Ryan Kellogg
Regulators and firms often use incentive schemes to attract skillful agents and to induce them to put forth effort in pursuit of the principals' goals. Incentive schemes that reward skill and effort,...
Settling for Coupons: Discount Contracts as Compensation and Punishment in Antitrust Lawsuits.
Many recent class-action antitrust lawsuits have been settled with discount contracts in which the defendants agree to sell to the plaintiffs in the future at a discount off of the retail price...
Sticky Prices, Inventories, and Market Power in Wholesale Gasoline Markets
Severin Borenstein, Andrea Shepard
We present and test an explanation for lags in the adjustment of wholesale gasoline prices to changes in crude oil prices. Our simple model with costly adjustment of production and inventories...
Exercising Market Power in Proprietary Aftermarkets
Severin Borenstein, Jeffrey MacKie-Mason, Janet Netz
In many recent antitrust cases, manufacturers of complex high- technology equipment have been accused of exercising market power in the sale of proprietary service or parts necessary to maintain the...
Inefficiencies and Market Power in Financial Arbitrage: A Study of California's Electricity Markets
Knittel, Christopher, Wolfram, Catherine, Bushnell, James, Borenstein, Severin
As with other commodities, electricity is often traded on both forward and spot markets. This was initially true in the restructured California electricity industry from 1998 to 2000. Though the...
The Long-Run Efficiency of Real-Time Electricity Pricing
Retail real-time pricing (RTP) of electricity Ð retail pricing that changes hourly to reflect the changing supply/demand balance Ð is very appealing to economists because it Òsends the right price...
Market Power in Electricity Markets: Beyond Concentration Measures
Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell, Christopher R. Knittel
The wave of electricity market restructuring both within the United States and abroad has brought the issue of horizontal market power to the forefront of energy policy. Traditionally, estimation and...
Wealth Transfers Among Large Customers from Implementing Real-Time Retail Electricity Pricing
Adoption of real-time electricity pricingÑretail prices that vary hourly to reflect changing wholesale pricesÑremoves existing cross-subsidies to those customers that consume disproportionately...
Customer Risk from Real-Time Retail Electricity Pricing: Bill Volatility and Hedgability
Bill Volatility and Hedgability Severin Borenstein One of the most critical concerns that customers have voiced in the debate over real-time retail electricity pricing is that they would be exposed...