IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/enejou/v38y2017i2p77-106.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Liberalization and Environmental Policy on the Financial Returns of European Energy Utilities

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel J. Tulloch
  • Ivan Diaz-Rainey
  • I. M. Premachandra

Abstract

European energy utilities face a range of policy induced challenges that are materially affecting their financial returns. Accordingly, in this paper we examine the impact of liberalization, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and security of supply legislation on European energy utilities’ returns between 1996 and 2013. We implement an event study portfolio analysis using a comprehensive list of major regulatory changes, the largest utility sample to date, and a novel asset pricing model that controls for sector-level stock-market, term premium, and commodity risk factors. The results show EU policies that focus on liberalization and energy efficiency have a significant negative impact on the energy sector’s financial returns. This reflects changes in the fundamental risk-reward trade-off of European energy utilities and investors’ recognition of the economic impact of EU legislations on the sector. Contrary to assertions by the financial press, renewable energy objectives have no significant impact on returns at sector-level; the impact is mostly concentrated on the natural gas utilities. Our results highlight a tension between liberalization and environmental objectives, negatively impacting the sector’s ability to raise the estimated $2.2 trillion investment capital needed to ensure reliable and increasingly environmentally-friendly energy supply.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel J. Tulloch & Ivan Diaz-Rainey & I. M. Premachandra, 2017. "The Impact of Liberalization and Environmental Policy on the Financial Returns of European Energy Utilities," The Energy Journal, , vol. 38(2), pages 77-106, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:38:y:2017:i:2:p:77-106
    DOI: 10.5547/01956574.38.2.dtul
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5547/01956574.38.2.dtul
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5547/01956574.38.2.dtul?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tooraj Jamasb and Michael Pollitt, 2005. "Electricity Market Reform in the European Union: Review of Progress toward Liberalization & Integration," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Special I), pages 11-42.
    2. Austin, David H, 1993. "An Event-Study Approach to Measuring Innovative Output: The Case of Biotechnology," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(2), pages 253-258, May.
    3. Koch, Nicolas & Bassen, Alexander, 2013. "Valuing the carbon exposure of European utilities. The role of fuel mix, permit allocation and replacement investments," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 431-443.
    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. Guesmi, Khaled & Si Mohammed, Kamel & Tiwari, Sunil, 2024. "Green horizons: Enabling the energy transition through climate change policies," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).

    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. Daniel J. Tulloch, Ivan Diaz-Rainey, and I.M. Premachandra, 2017. "The Impact of Liberalization and Environmental Policy on the Financial Returns of European Energy Utilities," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    2. Daniel J. Tulloch & Ivan Diaz-Rainey & I. M. Premachandra, 2020. "Modelling Sector-Level Asset Prices," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-32, June.
    3. Daniel J. Tulloch & Ivan Diaz-Rainey & I.M Premachandra, 2018. "The impact of regulatory change on EU energy utility returns: the three liberalization packages," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(9), pages 957-972, February.
    4. Balint, T. & Lamperti, F. & Mandel, A. & Napoletano, M. & Roventini, A. & Sapio, A., 2017. "Complexity and the Economics of Climate Change: A Survey and a Look Forward," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 252-265.
    5. Ding, Haina, 2015. "Innovation strategies and stock price informativeness," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 491, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
    6. Yu-Shan Chen & Ke-Chiun Chang, 2009. "Using neural network to analyze the influence of the patent performance upon the market value of the US pharmaceutical companies," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 80(3), pages 637-655, September.
    7. Stephen G. Dimmock & Jiekun Huang & Scott J. Weisbenner, 2022. "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your High-Skilled Labor: H-1B Lottery Outcomes and Entrepreneurial Success," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(9), pages 6950-6970, September.
    8. Marino, Marianna & Parrotta, Pierpaolo & Valletta, Giacomo, 2019. "Electricity (de)regulation and innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 748-758.
    9. McGahan, Anita M. & Silverman, Brian S., 2006. "Profiting from technological innovation by others: The effect of competitor patenting on firm value," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 1222-1242, October.
    10. Hirschey, Mark & Richardson, Vernon J., 2001. "Valuation effects of patent quality: A comparison for Japanese and U.S. firms," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 65-82, January.
    11. Victor Ajayi & Michael Pollitt, 2022. "Changing times - Incentive regulation, corporate reorganisations, and productivity in Great Britain’s gas networks," Working Papers 023, The Productivity Institute.
    12. Danilo Cascaldi-Garcia & Marija Vukotic, 2022. "Patent-Based News Shocks," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(1), pages 51-66, March.
    13. Bondarev, Anton & Weigt, Hannes, 2017. "Sensitivity of energy system investments to policy regulation changes: Application of the blue sky catastrophe," Working papers 2017/08, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    14. Mara Madaleno & Victor Moutinho & Jorge Mota, 2015. "Time Relationships among Electricity and Fossil Fuel Prices: Industry and Households in Europe," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 5(2), pages 525-533.
    15. Verena K. Dutt & Christopher A. Ludwig & Katharina Nicolay & Heiko Vay & Johannes Voget, 2019. "Increasing tax transparency: investor reactions to the country-by-country reporting requirement for EU financial institutions," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(6), pages 1259-1290, December.
    16. Chen, Hao & Cui, Jian & Song, Feng & Jiang, Zhigao, 2022. "Evaluating the impacts of reforming and integrating China's electricity sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    17. McConnell, Dylan & Forcey, Tim & Sandiford, Mike, 2015. "Estimating the value of electricity storage in an energy-only wholesale market," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 422-432.
    18. Lyu, Chenyan & Do, Hung Xuan & Nepal, Rabindra & Jamasb, Tooraj, 2024. "Volatility spillovers and carbon price in the Nordic wholesale electricity markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    19. Alfredo Alcayde & Raul Baños & Francisco M. Arrabal-Campos & Francisco G. Montoya, 2019. "Optimization of the Contracted Electric Power by Means of Genetic Algorithms," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-13, April.
    20. Green, R. & Lorenzoni, A. & Perez, Y. & Pollitt, M., 2006. "Benchmarking Electricity Liberalisation in Europe’Benchmarking Electricity Liberalisation in Europe," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0629, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.

    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:38:y:2017:i:2:p:77-106. 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: 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.