Energy policies and risks on energy markets; a cost-benefit analysis
Abstract
The key question dealt with in this report is whether and how governments should be involved in taking measures regarding security of energy supply. In order to answer this question, we developed a framework for cost-benefit analysis and applied this framework to a number of policy options. Read also the press release and accompanying�document ' Increasing the reliability of electricity production: a cost-benefit analysis '. The options chosen vary from government investments in strategic oil stocks to financial incentives for consumers to reduce their consumption of electricity. The set of options comprises several types of governmental action, including subsidies, regulation and government investments. Moreover, the selection includes measures meant to address risks on all three major energy markets: oil, natural gas, and electricity. The general picture following from the cases studied is that security of supply measures are hardly ever beneficial to welfare: benefits of policy measures do generally not outweigh costs. From an economic point of view, therefore, it would be often wiser to accept consequences of supply disruptions than to pursue security of supply at any cost. This implies that governments should exercise caution in imposing measures regarding security of supply. If serious market failure is detected, careful attention should be paid to the design of the corrective measure. Establishing and maintaining well-functioning markets appears to be an efficient approach in realising a secure supply of energy. That approach would include removal of entry barriers, securing equal access to essential facilities and increasing transparency of markets.Download Info
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Paper provided by CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis in its series CPB Special Publication with number 51.Length:
Date of creation: Mar 2004
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:cpb:spcial:51
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Related research
Keywords:Find related papers by JEL classification:
- D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis
- D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
- H43 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Project Evaluation; Social Discount Rate
- L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities
- L95 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Gas Utilities; Pipelines; Water Utilities
- Q32 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Exhaustible Resources and Economic Development
- Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2004-03-22 (All new papers)
- NEP-COM-2004-03-22 (Industrial Competition)
- NEP-DEV-2004-03-22 (Development)
- NEP-MIC-2004-03-22 (Microeconomics)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Tishler, Asher, 1993. "Optimal production with uncertain interruptions in the supply of electricity : Estimation of electricity outage costs," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 1259-1274, August.
- Pablo Serra & Gabriel Fierro, 1996.
"Outage Cost in Chilean Industry,"
Documentos de Trabajo
10, Centro de Economía Aplicada, Universidad de Chile.
- Serra, Pablo & Fierro, Gabriel, 1997. "Outage costs in Chilean industry," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 417-434, October.
- Robert S. Pindyck, 2001. "The Dynamics of Commodity Spot and Futures Markets: A Primer," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 1-30.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Joan Canton & �sa Johannesson Lind�n, 2010. "Support schemes for renewable electricity in the EU," European Economy - Economic Papers 408, Directorate General Economic and Monetary Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
- Machiel Mulder & Gijsbert Zwart, 2006. "Government involvement in liberalised gas markets; a welfare-economic analysis of Dutch gas-depletion policy," CPB Document 110, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
- Arie ten Cate & Mark Lijesen, 2004. "The Elmar model: output and capacity in imperfectly competitive electricity markets," CPB Memorandum 94, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
- Mark Lijesen, 2004. "Increasing the reliability of electricity production: a cost-benefit analysis," CPB Document 52, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
- Rob Aalbers & Victoria Shestalova & Sander Onderstal, 2004. "Better safe than sorry? Reliability policy in network industries," CPB Document 73, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
- Berndes, Goran & Hansson, Julia, 2007. "Bioenergy expansion in the EU: Cost-effective climate change mitigation, employment creation and reduced dependency on imported fuels," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 5965-5979, December.
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