IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-11-00062.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Imperfect competition in the international coal industry – does it matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Raymond Li

    (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

Abstract

The market for coal is of increasing significance in policy discussions on carbon reduction. Because the coal market has become increasingly internationalized, and because of the importance of coal in energy generation for industrial purposes and the limitations and costliness of alternative cleaner technologies, the use of multi-country, multi-sectoral computable general equilibrium (CGE) economic models is very popular for the evaluation of policies. These types of models frequently contain generic market structure assumptions that enhance the general applicability of the models but may limit their value for specific issues. This article evaluates the effects of imperfect competition in the international coal market under the CGE modeling framework. The results generated under various market structure scenarios are very similar, indicating that the structure of the international coal market does not play a significant role in determining the policy simulation outcomes. It can be concluded that coal-related CGE analyses can make use of the simple but robust perfect competition assumption and priority can be given to issues other than the underlying international coal market structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Raymond Li, 2012. "Imperfect competition in the international coal industry – does it matter?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(3), pages 1821-1830.
  • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-11-00062
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2012/Volume32/EB-12-V32-I3-P176.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roberto Roson, 2006. "Introducing Imperfect Competition in CGE Models: Technical Aspects and Implications," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 28(1), pages 29-49, August.
    2. Clemens Haftendorn & Franziska Holz, 2008. "Analysis of the World Market for Steam Coal Using a Complementarity Model," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 818, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Kolstad, Charles D. & Abbey, David S., 1984. "The effect of market conduct on international steam coal trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 39-59.
    4. Francois, Joseph F., 1998. "Scale Economies And Imperfect Competition In The Gtap Model," Technical Papers 28718, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    5. Graham, Paul & Thorpe, Sally & Hogan, Lindsay, 1999. "Non-competitive market behaviour in the international coking coal market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 195-212, June.
    6. Willenbockel, Dirk, 2004. "Specification choice and robustness in CGE trade policy analysis with imperfect competition," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 1065-1099, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Trüby, Johannes, 2013. "Strategic behaviour in international metallurgical coal markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 147-157.
    2. Hecking, Harald & Panke, Timo, 2014. "Quantity-setting Oligopolies in Complementary Input Markets - the Case of Iron Ore and Coking Coal," EWI Working Papers 2014-6, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    3. Oyamada, Kazuhiko, 2013. "Parameterization of applied general equilibrium models with flexible trade specifications based on the Armington, Krugman, and Melitz models," IDE Discussion Papers 380, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    4. Roberto Roson, 2006. "Introducing Imperfect Competition in CGE Models: Technical Aspects and Implications," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 28(1), pages 29-49, August.
    5. Bajo-Rubio, Oscar & Gomez-Plana, Antonio G., 2005. "Simulating the effects of the European Single Market: A CGE analysis for Spain," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 689-709, September.
    6. Elbehri, Aziz & Hertel, Thomas, 2006. "A Comparative Analysis of the EU-Morocco FTA vs. Multilateral Liberalization," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 21, pages 496-525.
    7. Lorenczik, Stefan & Panke, Timo, 2016. "Assessing market structures in resource markets — An empirical analysis of the market for metallurgical coal using various equilibrium models," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 179-187.
    8. Paulus, Moritz & Trueby, Johannes & Growitsch, Christian, 2011. "Nations as Strategic Players in Global Commodity Markets: Evidence from World Coal Trade," EWI Working Papers 2011-4, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    9. Oyamada, Kazuhiko, 2014. "Neutrality in the choice of number of firms or level of fixed costs in calibrating an Armington-Krugman-Melitz encompassing module for applied general equilibrium models," IDE Discussion Papers 465, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    10. Betarelli, Admir Antonio & Domingues, Edson Paulo & Hewings, Geoffrey John Dennis, 2020. "Transport policy, rail freight sector and market structure: The economic effects in Brazil," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 1-23.
    11. Johannes Truby and Moritz Paulus, 2012. "Market Structure Scenarios in International Steam Coal Trade," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    12. Oyamada, Kazuhiko, 2015. "Behavioral characteristics of applied general equilibrium models with an Armington-Krugman-Melitz encompassing module," IDE Discussion Papers 525, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    13. Oyamada, Kazuhiko, 2014. "Behavioral Characteristics of Applied General Equilibrium Models with an Armington-Krugman-Melitz Encompassing Module," Conference papers 332442, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    14. Lorenczik, Stefan & Malischek, Raimund & Trüby, Johannes, 2017. "Modeling strategic investment decisions in spatial markets," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 256(2), pages 605-618.
    15. Kazuhiko Oyamada, 2014. "Behavioral Characteristics of Applied General Equilibrium Models with Flexible Trade Specifications Based on the Armington, Krugman, and Melitz Models," EcoMod2014 6704, EcoMod.
    16. Wolfgang Britz & Roberto Roson, 2018. "Exploring Long Run Structural Change with a Dynamic General Equilibrium Model," Working Papers 2018: 12, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    17. 武田 史郎, 2007. "貿易政策を対象とした応用一般均衡分析," Discussion Papers (Japanese) 07010, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    18. Lee, Donna J. & Zhang, J., 2006. "Estimating Global Environmental Implications of Agricultural Trade Liberalization: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis," 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia 25290, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Böhringer, Christoph & Garcia-Muros, Xaquin & Gonzalez-Eguino, Mikel & Rey, Luis, 2017. "US climate policy: A critical assessment of intensity standards," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(S1), pages 125-135.
    20. Kym Anderson, 2005. "On the Virtues of Multilateral Trade Negotiations," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 81(255), pages 414-438, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    GTAP-E model; imperfect competition; international coal market;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q4 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy

    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:ebl:ecbull:eb-11-00062. 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: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.