IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v30y2008i3p679-687.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A test of vertical economies for non-vertically integrated firms: The case of rural electric cooperatives

Author

Listed:
  • Greer, Monica L.

Abstract

This paper seeks to evaluate unrealized economies of vertical integration for rural electric cooperatives. Given the well-established network economies that are inherent in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity, the coops long-standing choice of market structure is questionable (especially if their strategy is welfare maximization). Organized as either generation-and-transmission or distribution-only, the traditional measures of vertical economies will not work. Thus, I have devised an alternative method by which to measure such economies and find that, on average, cost savings in excess of 39% could have been realized had the coops adopted a vertically integrated structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Greer, Monica L., 2008. "A test of vertical economies for non-vertically integrated firms: The case of rural electric cooperatives," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 679-687, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:30:y:2008:i:3:p:679-687
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140-9883(06)00094-6
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark J. Roberts, 1986. "Economies of Density and Size in the Production and Delivery of Electric Power," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 62(4), pages 378-387.
    2. Greer, Monica Lynne, 2003. "Can rural electric cooperatives survive in a restructured US electric market? An empirical analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 487-508, September.
    3. Gilsdorf, Keith, 1994. "Vertical integration efficiencies and electric utilities: A cost complementarity perspective," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 261-282.
    4. Williamson, Oliver E, 1971. "The Vertical Integration of Production: Market Failure Considerations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(2), pages 112-123, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Paul Nillesen and Michael Pollitt, 2021. "Ownership Unbundling of Electricity Distribution Networks," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    2. Gugler, Klaus & Liebensteiner, Mario & Schmitt, Stephan, 2017. "Vertical disintegration in the European electricity sector: Empirical evidence on lost synergies," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 450-478.
    3. Fetz, Aurelio & Filippini, Massimo, 2010. "Economies of vertical integration in the Swiss electricity sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1325-1330, November.
    4. Thomas P. Triebs & David S. Saal & Pablo Arocena & Subal C. Kumbhakar, 2016. "Estimating economies of scale and scope with flexible technology," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 173-186, April.
    5. Sven Heim, Bastian Krieger, and Mario Liebensteiner, 2020. "Unbundling, Regulation, and Pricing: Evidence from Electricity Distribution," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Special I).
    6. Ohler, Adrienne M., 2014. "Behavior of the firm under rate-of-return regulation with two capital inputs," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 61-69.
    7. Gilcrease, Winston & DiCosmo, Valeria & Padovan, Dario, 2022. "Trends of rural electric cooperatives in the United States from 1990 to 2019: An empirical analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    8. Hueth, Brent & Jang, Heesun, 2016. "Ownership, Pricing, and Productivity: Evidence from Electric Distribution Cooperatives," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 239254, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Heesun Jang, 2020. "Ownership, pricing, and productivity: the case of electric distribution cooperatives," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 977-1001, August.
    10. Goto, Mika & Inoue, Tomohiro & Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki, 2013. "Structural reform of Japanese electric power industry: Separation between generation and transmission & distribution," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 186-200.

    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. Massimiliano Piacenza & Davide Vannoni, 2009. "Vertical And Horizontal Economies In The Electric Utility Industry: An Integrated Approach," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 80(3), pages 431-450, September.
    2. Gugler, Klaus & Liebensteiner, Mario & Schmitt, Stephan, 2017. "Vertical disintegration in the European electricity sector: Empirical evidence on lost synergies," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 450-478.
    3. Roland Meyer, 2012. "Vertical Economies and the Costs of Separating Electricity Supply--A Review of Theoretical and Empirical Literature," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    4. Goto, Mika & Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki, 2009. "Productivity growth and deregulation of Japanese electricity distribution," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 3130-3138, August.
    5. Casarin, Ariel A., 2007. "Efficient industry configurations in downstream gas markets. An empirical assessment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 312-328, March.
    6. Kwoka, John E., 2002. "Vertical economies in electric power: evidence on integration and its alternatives," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 653-671, May.
    7. Goto, Mika & Inoue, Tomohiro & Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki, 2013. "Structural reform of Japanese electric power industry: Separation between generation and transmission & distribution," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 186-200.
    8. Delmas, Magali & Tokat, Yesim, 2003. "Deregulation Process, Governance Structures and Efficiency: The U.S. Electric Utility Sector," Research Papers 1790, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    9. Jara-Diaz, Sergio & Ramos-Real, Francisco Javier & Martinez-Budria, Eduardo, 2004. "Economies of integration in the Spanish electricity industry using a multistage cost function," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 995-1013, November.
    10. Sergio Jara-Díaz & Francisco Ramos-Real, 2011. "The effect of output specification on the optimal policy design for electric utilities," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 62-81, August.
    11. Ramos-Real, Francisco Javier, 2005. "Cost functions and the electric utility industry. A contribution to the debate on deregulation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 69-87, January.
    12. Banterle, Alessandro & Stranieri, Stefanella, 2008. "The consequences of voluntary traceability system for supply chain relationships. An application of transaction cost economics," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 560-569, December.
    13. de Bragança, Gabriel Godofredo Fiuza & Daglish, Toby, 2017. "Investing in vertical integration: electricity retail market participation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 355-365.
    14. Heugens, P.P.M.A.R. & Kaptein, S.P. & van Oosterhout, J., 2007. "Contracts to Communities: A Processual Model of Organizational Virtue," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2007-023-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    15. Simon Schumacher & Stephan Paul, 2017. "Capital Markets Union – Promising Prospects for Corporate Financing?," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 18(3), pages 289-304, August.
    16. Fetz, Aurelio & Filippini, Massimo, 2010. "Economies of vertical integration in the Swiss electricity sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1325-1330, November.
    17. L. Lambertini, 2013. "Coordinating Static and Dynamic Supply Chains with Advertising through Two-Part Tariffs," Working Papers wp874, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    18. Sudipto Bhattacharya & Sergei Guriev, 2006. "Patents vs. Trade Secrets: Knowledge Licensing and Spillover," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 4(6), pages 1112-1147, December.
    19. Yutaka Suzuki, 2021. "Collusion, Shading, and Optimal Organization Design in a Three-tier Agency Model with a Continuum of Types," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 22(2), pages 317-365, November.
    20. Max Zongyuan Shang & Ken McEwan, 2021. "The make‐or‐buy decision of feed on livestock farms: Evidence from Ontario swine farms," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 69(3), pages 353-368, September.

    More about this item

    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:eee:eneeco:v:30:y:2008:i:3:p:679-687. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    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.