IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/enejou/v23y2002i1p97-116.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Le Tarif Vert Retrouvé: The Marginal Cost Concept and the Pricing of Electricity in Britain and France, 1945-1970

Author

Listed:
  • Martin Chick

Abstract

This article compares the development of marginal cost pricing in the French and UK nationalised electricity industries between 1945 and 1970. Asking why French ‘marginaliste’ economists like Allais and Boiteux enjoyed more influence than their UK counterparts like Meade, political decisions concerning the organisation of the electricity industries, the differing influence of industrial and consumer interests, and the early postwar choices of hydro and thermal investment in France, are advanced as explanations. In the UK, the Treasury pushed nationalised industries towards marginal cost pricing, requiring them to earn rates of return on existing investment and to subject the proposed investment to test discount rates during the 1960s. The paper closes by arguing that these different routes to marginal cost pricing in the French and UK nationalised electricity industries had significant effects on later government and public attitudes towards the privatisation and liberalisation of the national electricity industry and market.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Chick, 2002. "Le Tarif Vert Retrouvé: The Marginal Cost Concept and the Pricing of Electricity in Britain and France, 1945-1970," The Energy Journal, , vol. 23(1), pages 97-116, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:23:y:2002:i:1:p:97-116
    DOI: 10.5547/ISSN0195-6574-EJ-Vol23-No1-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5547/ISSN0195-6574-EJ-Vol23-No1-5
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5547/ISSN0195-6574-EJ-Vol23-No1-5?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
    ---><---

    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:sae:enejou:v:23:y:2002:i:1:p:97-116. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: SAGE Publications (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.