ZEW Researcher Honoured with Best Paper Award

Sven Heim, researcher in the ZEW Research Group “Regulation and Competition”, was honoured with the Best Paper Award at the 8th International Energy Industry Meeting (IEWT) in Vienna, Austria, in February 2013. The conference is considered the largest and most renowned conference on energy economics in the German-speaking world. An international jury awarded Heim’s paper “Do Discriminatory Auctions Favour Collusive Behaviour? – Evidence from Germany’s Market for Reserve Power“. The paper analyses a dramatic price increase on the German market for reserve power which cannot be attributed to increasing costs alone. According to the results presented in the paper, the price increase is due to a strategic interaction between the two most powerful providers on the German market, who abuse the pay-as-bid rule. The paper thus provides new insights regarding the ideal design for auctions on energy markets. It will shortly be published as ZEW Discussion Paper.