IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v99y2021ics014098832100181x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strategic behaviors and transfer of wholesale costs to retail prices in the electricity market: Evidence from Colombia

Author

Listed:
  • Correa-Giraldo, Manuel
  • Garcia-Rendon, John J.
  • Perez, Alex

Abstract

This paper estimates the pass-through of prices from wholesale to retail using monthly data for the period January 2017–March 2020 for residential users in the Colombian electricity market, which is characterized by large hydroelectric capacity and inelastic demand. Although much of the literature has found the pass-through rate to be incomplete, results are consistent with other studies that have been conducted for electricity markets and have shown that firms have no incentive to adjust their profit margins in the face of a cost shock. These results also converge with the regulatory framework of the retail electricity market in Colombia. In particular, the results reveal that the cost pass-through is more than complete with a rate of 115%. There is also evidence of an increase in the magnitude of the cost pass-through year by year. When analyzed by type of retailer, the results suggest that the cost pass-through of two major dominant and vertically integrated retailers is statistically higher than the remaining retailers with a pass-through close to 120%, suggesting that dominant retailers integrated with power generation could exercise market power.

Suggested Citation

  • Correa-Giraldo, Manuel & Garcia-Rendon, John J. & Perez, Alex, 2021. "Strategic behaviors and transfer of wholesale costs to retail prices in the electricity market: Evidence from Colombia," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:99:y:2021:i:c:s014098832100181x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105276
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014098832100181X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105276?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. de Bragança, Gabriel Godofredo Fiuza & Daglish, Toby, 2017. "Investing in vertical integration: electricity retail market participation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 355-365.
    2. Natalia Fabra & Mar Reguant, 2014. "Pass-Through of Emissions Costs in Electricity Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(9), pages 2872-2899, September.
    3. Neurohr, Bertram, 2018. "A merger approach to cartel overcharge analysis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 28-30.
    4. Day, Christopher J & Bunn, Derek W, 2001. "Divestiture of Generation Assets in the Electricity Pool of England and Wales: A Computational Approach to Analyzing Market Power," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 123-141, March.
    5. Matthew S. Lewis, 2011. "Asymmetric Price Adjustment and Consumer Search: An Examination of the Retail Gasoline Market," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 409-449, June.
    6. Grether, E T, 1970. "Industrial Organization: Past History and Future Problems," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(2), pages 83-89, May.
    7. Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg & Rebecca Hellerstein, 2013. "A Structural Approach to Identifying the Sources of Local Currency Price Stability," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 80(1), pages 175-210.
    8. Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg & Rebecca Hellerstein, 2008. "A Structural Approach to Explaining Incomplete Exchange-Rate Pass-Through and Pricing-to-Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 423-429, May.
    9. Emi Nakamura & Dawit Zerom, 2010. "Accounting for Incomplete Pass-Through," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 77(3), pages 1192-1230.
    10. Nils-Henrik M. von der Fehr & Petter Vegard Hansen, 2010. "Electricity Retailing in Norway," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 25-46.
    11. Paul L. Joskow & Edward Kohn, 2002. "A Quantitative Analysis of Pricing Behavior in California's Wholesale Electricity Market During Summer 2000," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 1-35.
    12. Paul Joskow & Edward Kahn, 2002. "A quantitative analysis of pricing behaviour in California's wholesale electricity market during summer 2000: the final word," Working Papers EP02, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    13. Abdala, Manuel A., 2008. "Transmission pricing in privately-owned electricity grids: An illustration from the Argentine electricity pool," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 1284-1305, July.
    14. Gugler, Klaus & Liebensteiner, Mario & Schmitt, Stephan, 2017. "Vertical disintegration in the European electricity sector: Empirical evidence on lost synergies," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 450-478.
    15. Huanxing Yang & Lixin Ye, 2008. "Search with learning: understanding asymmetric price adjustments," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 39(2), pages 547-564, June.
    16. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, December.
    17. Jouvet, Pierre-André & Solier, Boris, 2013. "An overview of CO2 cost pass-through to electricity prices in Europe," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1370-1376.
    18. Larsen, Erik R. & Dyner, Isaac & Bedoya V., Leonardo & Franco, Carlos Jaime, 2004. "Lessons from deregulation in Colombia: successes, failures and the way ahead," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(15), pages 1767-1780, October.
    19. Szőke, Tamás & Hortay, Olivér & Balogh, Eszter, 2019. "Asymmetric price transmission in the Hungarian retail electricity market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    20. Mar Reguant, 2014. "Complementary Bidding Mechanisms and Startup Costs in Electricity Markets," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 81(4), pages 1708-1742.
    21. Simshauser, Paul, 2018. "Price discrimination and the modes of failure in deregulated retail electricity markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 54-70.
    22. Green, Edward J & Porter, Robert H, 1984. "Noncooperative Collusion under Imperfect Price Information," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(1), pages 87-100, January.
    23. Cardona, M & Gallego, J & Garcia, J & Franco, J, 2020. "Prepaid electricity and in-home displays: an alternative for the most vulnerable households in Colombia," Documentos de trabajo - Alianza EFI 18990, Alianza EFI.
    24. Hunold, Matthias & Muthers, Johannes, 2019. "Spatial competition and price discrimination with capacity constraints," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    25. Mariano Tappata, 2009. "Rockets and feathers: Understanding asymmetric pricing," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 40(4), pages 673-687, December.
    26. Lunde, Asger & Sandberg, Rickard & Söderberg, Magnus, 2019. "Calculating the damage of a cartel subject to transition periods: The international uranium cartel in the 1970s," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    27. Policarpo Garcia, Carolina & Furquim de Azevedo, Paulo, 2019. "Should competition authorities care about conglomerate mergers?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 78-118.
    28. Zachmann, Georg & von Hirschhausen, Christian, 2008. "First evidence of asymmetric cost pass-through of EU emissions allowances: Examining wholesale electricity prices in Germany," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 99(3), pages 465-469, June.
    29. Sijm, Jos & Chen, Yihsu & Hobbs, Benjamin F., 2012. "The impact of power market structure on CO2 cost pass-through to electricity prices under quantity competition – A theoretical approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 1143-1152.
    30. Jos Sijm & Karsten Neuhoff & Yihsu Chen, 2006. "CO 2 cost pass-through and windfall profits in the power sector," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 49-72, January.
    31. Severin Borenstein & James Bushnell & Christopher R. Knittel, 1999. "Market Power in Electricity Markets: Beyond Concentration Measures," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 65-88.
    32. Catherine D. Wolfram, 1999. "Measuring Duopoly Power in the British Electricity Spot Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(4), pages 805-826, September.
    33. E. Glen Weyl & Michal Fabinger, 2013. "Pass-Through as an Economic Tool: Principles of Incidence under Imperfect Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 121(3), pages 528-583.
    34. Duso, Tomaso & Szücs, Florian, 2017. "Market power and heterogeneous pass-through in German electricity retail," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 354-372.
    35. Severin Borenstein & A. Colin Cameron & Richard Gilbert, 1997. "Do Gasoline Prices Respond Asymmetrically to Crude Oil Price Changes?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 305-339.
    36. repec:dau:papers:123456789/7761 is not listed on IDEAS
    37. Mirza, Faisal Mehmood & Bergland, Olvar, 2012. "Pass-through of wholesale price to the end user retail price in the Norwegian electricity market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 2003-2012.
    38. Defeuilley, Christophe, 2009. "Retail competition in electricity markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 377-386, February.
    39. Klemperer, Paul D & Meyer, Margaret A, 1989. "Supply Function Equilibria in Oligopoly under Uncertainty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(6), pages 1243-1277, November.
    40. Nathan H. Miller & Matthew Osborne & Gloria Sheu, 2017. "Pass-through in a concentrated industry: empirical evidence and regulatory implications," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 48(1), pages 69-93, March.
    41. MacKay, Alexander & Miller, Nathan H. & Remer, Marc & Sheu, Gloria, 2014. "Bias in reduced-form estimates of pass-through," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 123(2), pages 200-202.
    42. Mulder, Machiel & Willems, Bert, 2019. "The Dutch retail electricity market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 228-239.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David Rios & Alex Perez & Jaime Carabali & Luis Meneses, 2024. "Poder de mercado y eventos climáticos adversos en un mercado de electricidad hidro-dominado," Borradores de Economia 1266, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    2. Alejandro Betancur-Ramos & John Grimaldo-Guerrero & John William Grimaldo-Guerrero & Juan Rivera-Alvarado & Eilin G mez-Mesino, 2022. "Users, Vehicles Electrics, and Energy Markets in Colombia," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 12(5), pages 11-17, September.
    3. Qunpeng Fan, 2022. "Management and Policy Modeling of the Market Using Artificial Intelligence," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-14, July.
    4. Ander Iraizoz & José M Labeaga, 2022. "Incidence and Avoidance Effects of Spatial Fuel Tax Differentials: Evidence using Regional Tax Variation in Spain," Working Papers halshs-03789430, HAL.
    5. Garcia-Rendon, John & Rey Londoño, Felipe & Arango Restrepo, Luis José & Bohorquez Correa, Santiago, 2023. "Sectoral analysis of electricity consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence for unregulated and regulated markets in Colombia," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    6. Alex Perez & Jaime Carabali & Luis Meneses, 2022. "Pass-through in Colombia s Unregulated Retail Electricity Market," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 12(4), pages 575-583, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brown, David P. & Eckert, Andrew & Eckert, Heather, 2018. "Carbon pricing with an output subsidy under imperfect competition: The case of Alberta's restructured electricity market," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 102-123.
    2. Duso, Tomaso & Szücs, Florian, 2017. "Market power and heterogeneous pass-through in German electricity retail," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 354-372.
    3. Natalia Fabra & Mar Reguant, 2014. "Pass-Through of Emissions Costs in Electricity Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(9), pages 2872-2899, September.
    4. Dagoumas, Athanasios S. & Polemis, Michael L., 2020. "Carbon pass-through in the electricity sector: An econometric analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    5. Guo, Bowei & Castagneto Gissey, Giorgio, 2021. "Cost pass-through in the British wholesale electricity market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    6. Takanori Adachi & Michal Fabinger, 2017. "Multi-Dimensional Pass-Through, Incidence, and the Welfare Burden of Taxation in Oligopoly," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1040, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    7. Matthias Janssen & Magnus Wobben, "undated". "Electricity Pricing and Market Power - Evidence from Germany," Working Papers 200121, Institute of Spatial and Housing Economics, Munster Universitary.
    8. Janssen, Matthias & Wobben, Magnus, 2008. "Electricity pricing and market power: Evidence from Germany," CAWM Discussion Papers 9, University of Münster, Münster Center for Economic Policy (MEP).
    9. Dagoumas, Athanasios & Polemis, Michael, 2018. "Analysing Carbon Pass-Through Rate Mechanism in the Electricity Sector: Evidence from Greece," MPRA Paper 91067, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Brown, D.P. & Tsai, C.H. & Woo, C.K. & Zarnikau, J. & Zhu, S., 2020. "Residential electricity pricing in Texas's competitive retail market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    11. Obradovits, Martin, 2014. "Asymmetric Pricing Caused by Collusion," MPRA Paper 58889, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Takanori Adachi & Michal Fabinger, 2017. "Multi-Dimensional Pass-Through and Welfare Measures under Imperfect Competition," Papers 1702.04967, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2018.
    13. Takanori Adachi & Muhammad Michal Fabinger, 2017. "Multi-Dimensional Pass-Through, Incidence, and the Welfare Burden of Taxation in Oligopoly," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1040, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    14. Simeone, Christina E. & Lange, Ian & Gilbert, Ben, 2023. "Pass-through in residential retail electricity competition: Evidence from Pennsylvania," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    15. Felix Montag & Alina Sagimuldina & Monika Schnitzer, 2021. "Does Tax Policy Work When Consumers Have Imperfect Price Information? Theory and Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 9138, CESifo.
    16. Alex Perez & Jaime Carabali & Luis Meneses, 2022. "Pass-through in Colombia s Unregulated Retail Electricity Market," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 12(4), pages 575-583, July.
    17. Christos Genakos & Mario Pagliero, 2022. "Competition and Pass-Through: Evidence from Isolated Markets," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 35-57, October.
    18. Rachel Griffith & Lars Nesheim & Martin O'Connell, 2018. "Income effects and the welfare consequences of tax in differentiated product oligopoly," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(1), pages 305-341, March.
    19. Yi Jiang & Tingting Que & Miaomiao Yu, 2022. "Price asymmetries in the US airline industry," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 57(4), pages 793-814, November.
    20. Simshauser, P., 2020. "Merchant utilities and boundaries of the firm: vertical integration in energy-only markets," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2039, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Pass-through; Retail electricity market; Asymmetry price; Colombia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • D4 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:99:y:2021:i:c:s014098832100181x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.