This paper provides up to date firm level analysis of the production technology and cost structures in the U.S. electric power generation industry. The paper applies an econometric approach into a dual restricted variable cost function within a “temporal equilibrium” framework. The Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation is used to estimate the cost structures in the electric power generation industry. This paper is empirically implemented using a panel data (1986-1998) on 32 nuclear power generations for major investor owned utilities. The major result indicates that most of electric utilities in the nuclear electricity generation industry overutilized capital in production over time. Technological progress may have slowed over the sample period of this study. The results also show that electric utilities with small generation were operating at decreasing returns to scale whereas those with large generation were operating at increasing returns to scale in the production of the electricity industry in the sample data.
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Paper provided by School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia in its series CEPA Working Papers Series with number
WP052004.
References listed on IDEAS Please 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.:
Lau, Lawrence J., 1978.
"Applications of Profit Functions,"
Histoy of Economic Thought Chapters,
in: Fuss, Melvyn & McFadden, Daniel (ed.), Production Economics: A Dual Approach to Theory and Applications, volume 1, chapter 3
McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought.
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