ZEW Discussion Papers

The U.S. airline industry has recently experienced a substantial consolidation trend. Three larger and several smaller mergers within the last ten years raise the immediate question after the welfare…

In the current discussion on policy measures to alleviate competitive disadvantages of unilateral climate policies, border measures are discussed as one possible instrument. The assessment of the economic…

The role of the finance minister differs in various aspects from that of the remaining cabinet members. His main task is to enforce overall budgetary objectives. Depending on the organization of the budget…

In 2009, Germany has introduced a new debt brake which aims at constraining the buildup of new public debt for both the federal and the state level. While the new rule is enshrined in the federal constitution,…

This paper examines the local impacts of renewable energy carrier promotion by the German feed-in tariffs scheme "Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz" for the German State of Baden-Wuerttemberg by using an…

As shown by R. Hahn (1984), free allocation to a firm with market power equal to the amount of permits the firm uses in a competitive equilibrium can prevent welfare losses under market power. In this paper an…

In this paper, the role of intermediaries, e.g. banks, under quantity based regulation with tradeable permits is examined. An example is the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). In the EU ETS, the total…

Despite the high CO2 emission intensity of fossil and especially coal fired energy production, these energy carriers will play an important role during the coming decades. In Germany, nuclear energy has to be…

In contrast to residential electricity markets in Germany, the entry of newcomers in residential natural gas markets is not frequently observed. Newcomers might face difficulties in purchasing gas on the…