IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ebg/iesewp/d-0864.html

Do firms sell forward for strategic reasons? An application to the wholesale market for natural gas

Author

Listed:
  • van Eijkel, Remco

    (University of Groningen)

  • Moraga-González, Jose L.

    (IESE Business School)

Abstract

Building on a model of the interaction of risk-averse firms that compete in forward and spot markets, we develop an empirical strategy to test whether oligopolistic firms use forward contracts for strategic motives, for risk-hedging, or for both. An increase in the number of players weakens the incentives to sell forward for risk-hedging reasons. However, if strategic motives are also relevant, then an increase in the number of players strengthens the incentives to sell forward. This difference provides the analyst with a way to identify whether strategic considerations are important at motivating firms to sell forward. Using data from the Dutch wholesale market for natural gas, where we observe the number of players, spot and forward sales, and churn rates, we find evidence that strategic reasons play an important role in explaining the observed firms' (inverse) hedge ratios. The data also lend support to the existence of a learning effect by wholesalers.

Suggested Citation

  • van Eijkel, Remco & Moraga-González, Jose L., 2010. "Do firms sell forward for strategic reasons? An application to the wholesale market for natural gas," IESE Research Papers D/864, IESE Business School.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebg:iesewp:d-0864
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.iese.edu/research/pdfs/DI-0864-E.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Weigt, H. & Willems, Bert, 2011. "The Effect of Divestitures in the German Electricity Market," Other publications TiSEM 7bbea5b0-7489-416f-8767-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Bohland, Moritz & Schwenen, Sebastian, 2022. "Renewable support and strategic pricing in electricity markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    3. van Koten, Silvester & Ortmann, Andreas, 2013. "Structural versus behavioral remedies in the deregulation of electricity markets: An experimental investigation motivated by policy concerns," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 256-265.
    4. Moritz Bohland & Sebastian Schwenen, 2020. "Technology Policy and Market Structure: Evidence from the Power Sector," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1856, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    5. David P. Brown & David E. M. Sappington, 2023. "Employing gain-sharing regulation to promote forward contracting in the electricity sector," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 63(1), pages 30-56, April.
    6. Chloé Le Coq & Sebastian Schwenen, 2020. "Financial contracts as coordination device," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 241-259, April.
    7. Geert Van Moer, 2024. "Secret Bilateral Forward Contracting," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(2), pages 807-847, June.
    8. Motta, Massimo & Hansen, Stephen, 2012. "Vertical Exclusion with Endogenous Competiton Externalities," CEPR Discussion Papers 8982, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Gallego, Camilo A., 2025. "Economic effects in wholesale electricity markets from endogenous long-term forward contracts indexed to spot conditions," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    10. Argenton, Cédric & Willems, Bert, 2015. "Exclusion through speculation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-9.
    11. David P. Brown & David E. M. Sappington, 2023. "Market Structure, Risk Preferences, and Forward Contracting Incentives," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(4), pages 1146-1202, December.
    12. Linda Cohen & Amihai Glazer, 2014. "Forward Markets to Spur Innovation," Working Papers 131405, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics.
    13. Van Moer, Geert, 2019. "Electricity market competition when forward contracts are pairwise efficient," MPRA Paper 96660, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. David P. Brown & Andrew Eckert, 2018. "Analyzing the Impact of Electricity Market Structure Changes and Mergers: The Importance of Forward Commitments," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 52(1), pages 101-137, February.
    15. David P. Brown & Andrew Eckert & Douglas Silveira, 2023. "Strategic interaction between wholesale and ancillary service markets," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, , vol. 24(4), pages 174-198, December.
    16. David P. Brown & David E. M. Sappington, 2023. "Load-Following Forward Contracts," The Energy Journal, , vol. 44(3), pages 187-222, May.
    17. Aichele, Markus, 2014. "Strategic investment, forward markets and competition," University of Tübingen Working Papers in Business and Economics 76, University of Tuebingen, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, School of Business and Economics.
    18. Mats Kröger & Karsten Neuhoff & Sebastian Schwenen, 2025. "Contracts in Crisis: The War in Ukraine and Long-Term Contracts in Energy Markets," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2118, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    19. David P. Brown & Andrew Eckert, 2017. "Electricity market mergers with endogenous forward contracting," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 269-310, June.
    20. Spindler, Christian & Woll, Oliver & Schober, Dominik, 2018. "Sharing is not caring: Backward integration of consumers," ZEW Discussion Papers 18-006, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • G13 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Contingent Pricing; Futures Pricing
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L95 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Gas Utilities; Pipelines; Water Utilities

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ebg:iesewp:d-0864. 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: Noelia Romero (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ienaves.html .

    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.