IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpb/memodm/143.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Market failures and government policies in gas markets

Author

Listed:
  • Machiel Mulder
  • Gijsbert Zwart

Abstract

In the past, the European gas market was dominated by state-owned monopolists but since the start of the liberalisation, privatisation and re-regulation in the early 1990s, the market has fundamentally changed. Nevertheless, governments are still involved in the gas industry, not only in gas exporting countries such as Russia, but also in a country like the Netherlands where the government has imposed a cap on production from the main gas field (Groningen) as well as owns shares in the main wholesale trader (Gasunie Trade & Supply) which has the obligation to accept all gas offered by producers on the small fields. In the main report of this project we present a cost-benefit analysis of the Dutch gas-depletion policy.In this memorandum we explore the natural-gas market more broadly, looking for factors why government intervention may be needed using the welfare-economic approach according to which government intervention should be based on the presence of market failures. After a brief description of the main characteristics of the gas industry, we systematically analyse sources of market failures, such as geopolitical factors, economies of scale and externalities, and finally go into the question which policy options may be chosen to address those market failures.

Suggested Citation

  • Machiel Mulder & Gijsbert Zwart, 2006. "Market failures and government policies in gas markets," CPB Memorandum 143, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpb:memodm:143
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cpb.nl/sites/default/files/publicaties/download/memo1430.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marc Pomp & Victoria Shestalova & Luiz Rangel, 2005. "Switch on the competition; causes, consequences and policy implications of consumer switching costs," CPB Document 97, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    2. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, April.
    3. Paul Joskow & Jean Tirole, 2007. "Reliability and competitive electricity markets," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 38(1), pages 60-84, March.
    4. Helm, D R & Kay, J & Thompson, D J, 1988. "Energy policy and the role of the state in the market for energy," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 9(1), pages 41-61, February.
    5. Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1976. "Monopoly and the Rate of Extraction of Exhaustible Resources," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(4), pages 655-661, September.
    6. Dominique Finon & Catherine Locatelli, 2002. "The liberalisation of the European gas market and its consequences for Russia," Post-Print halshs-00177828, HAL.
    7. Unknown, 2005. "Forward," 2005 Conference: Slovenia in the EU - Challenges for Agriculture, Food Science and Rural Affairs, November 10-11, 2005, Moravske Toplice, Slovenia 183804, Slovenian Association of Agricultural Economists (DAES).
    8. Dominique Finon & Catherine Locatelli, 2002. "The liberalisation of the European gas market and its consequences for Russia," Post-Print halshs-00187059, HAL.
    9. Machiel Mulder & Gijsbert Zwart, 2006. "Government involvement in liberalised gas markets; a welfare-economic analysis of Dutch gas-depletion policy," CPB Document 110, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    10. Shmuel S. Oren, 1997. "Economic Inefficiency of Passive Transmission Rights in Congested Electricity Systems with Competitive Generation," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 63-83.
    11. Asche, Frank & Osmundsen, Petter & Tveteras, Ragnar, 2002. "European market integration for gas? Volume flexibility and political risk," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 249-265, May.
    12. Oecd, 2003. "The Benefits and Costs of Structural Separation of the Local Loop," OECD Digital Economy Papers 76, OECD Publishing.
    13. Machiel Mulder & Victoria Shestalova & Mark Lijesen, 2005. "Vertical separation of the energy-distribution industry; an assessment of several options for unbundling," CPB Document 84, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    14. Toman, Michael A., 1993. "The economics of energy security: Theory, evidence, policy," Handbook of Natural Resource and Energy Economics, in: A. V. Kneese† & J. L. Sweeney (ed.), Handbook of Natural Resource and Energy Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 25, pages 1167-1218, Elsevier.
    15. Myerson, Roger B. & Satterthwaite, Mark A., 1983. "Efficient mechanisms for bilateral trading," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 265-281, April.
    16. R. H. Coase, 2013. "The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 837-877.
    17. Correlje, Aad F. & Odell, Peter R., 2000. "Four decades of Groningen production and pricing policies and a view to the future," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 19-27, January.
    18. Bushnell, James, 2004. "California's electricity crisis: a market apart?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1045-1052, June.
    19. Tanga McDaniel & Karsten Neuhoff, 2002. "Auctions to gas transmission access: The British experience," Working Papers EP06, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    20. Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh (ed.), 1999. "Handbook of Environmental and Resource Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 801.
    21. Rob Aalbers & Victoria Shestalova & Sander Onderstal, 2004. "Better safe than sorry? Reliability policy in network industries," CPB Document 73, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    22. Machiel Mulder & Gijsbert Zwart, 2006. "Government involvement in liberalised gas markets; a welfare-economic analysis of Dutch gas-depletion policy," CPB Document 110.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    23. C. Withagen & A. de Zeeuw, 1999. "Imperfect Competition in Natural Resource Markets," Chapters, in: Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh (ed.), Handbook of Environmental and Resource Economics, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    24. Paul Joskow & Jean Tirole, 2004. "Competitive Electricity Markets," Working Papers EP53, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    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. Machiel Mulder & Gijsbert Zwart, 2006. "Government involvement in liberalised gas markets; a welfare-economic analysis of Dutch gas-depletion policy," CPB Document 110.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    2. repec:dau:papers:123456789/5204 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Wissner, Matthias, 2009. "Smart Metering," WIK Discussion Papers 321, WIK Wissenschaftliches Institut für Infrastruktur und Kommunikationsdienste GmbH.
    4. Chaton, Corinne & Creti, Anna & Villeneuve, Bertrand, 2009. "Storage and security of supply in the medium run," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 24-38, January.
    5. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4808 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Machiel Mulder & Gijsbert Zwart, 2006. "Government involvement in liberalised gas markets; a welfare-economic analysis of Dutch gas-depletion policy," CPB Document 110, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    7. Gijsbert Zwart & Machiel Mulder, 2006. "NATGAS: a model of the European natural gas market," CPB Memorandum 144, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.

    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. Paul Joskow & Jean Tirole, 2005. "Merchant Transmission Investment," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 233-264, June.
    2. Andrade de Sá, Saraly & Daubanes, Julien, 2016. "Limit pricing and the (in)effectiveness of the carbon tax," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 28-39.
    3. Schipperus, Ouren T. & Mulder, Machiel, 2015. "The effectiveness of policies to transform a gas-exporting country into a gas-transit country: The case of The Netherlands," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 117-127.
    4. Machiel Mulder & Gijsbert Zwart, 2006. "Government involvement in liberalised gas markets; a welfare-economic analysis of Dutch gas-depletion policy," CPB Document 110.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    5. Machiel Mulder & Gijsbert Zwart, 2006. "Government involvement in liberalised gas markets; a welfare-economic analysis of Dutch gas-depletion policy," CPB Document 110, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    6. Holmberg, Pär & Newbery, David, 2010. "The supply function equilibrium and its policy implications for wholesale electricity auctions," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 209-226, December.
    7. Moszoro Marian W., 2016. "Coasean Quality of Regulated Goods," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 16(4), pages 1-13, October.
    8. van Witteloostuijn, Arjen & Brakman, Steven & van Marrewijk, Charles, 2007. "Welfare distribution effect of a price reduction in the Dutch gas transport market: A scenario analysis of regulatory policy, market form and rent allocation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 6299-6308, December.
    9. Steven G. Medema, 2020. "The Coase Theorem at Sixty," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(4), pages 1045-1128, December.
    10. András Kiss, Adrienn Selei, and Borbála Takácsné Tóth, 2016. "A Top-Down Approach to Evaluating Cross-Border Natural Gas Infrastructure Projects in Europe," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Sustainab).
    11. Stephanie Rosenkranz & Patrick W. Schmitz, 2007. "Can Coasean Bargaining Justify Pigouvian Taxation?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(296), pages 573-585, November.
    12. Paul Joskow & Jean Tirole, 2006. "Retail electricity competition," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(4), pages 799-815, December.
    13. Andrés Abeliuk & Gerardo Berbeglia & Pascal Van Hentenryck, 2015. "Bargaining Mechanisms for One-Way Games," Games, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-21, September.
    14. Élodie Bertrand, 2006. "La thèse d'efficience du « théorème de Coase ». Quelle critique de la microéconomie ?," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 57(5), pages 983-1007.
    15. Paul A. Brehm & Eric Lewis, 2021. "Information asymmetry, trade, and drilling: evidence from an oil lease lottery," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(3), pages 496-514, September.
    16. Alain‐Désiré Nimubona & Jean‐Christophe Pereau, 2022. "Negotiating over payments for wetland ecosystem services," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(3), pages 1507-1538, August.
    17. Gérard Mondello & Evens Salies, 2016. "Tort law under oligopolistic competition," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03459225, HAL.
    18. Deman, S., 2000. "The real estate takeover: Application of Grossman and Hart theory," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 175-195.
    19. Malik Curuk & Suphi Sen, 2023. "Climate Policy and Resource Extraction with Variable Markups and Imperfect Substitutes," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(4), pages 1091-1120.
    20. Alex Robson & Stergios Skaperdas, 2008. "Costly enforcement of property rights and the Coase theorem," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 36(1), pages 109-128, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Q3 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation
    • Q4 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy
    • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics
    • L5 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy

    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:cpb:memodm:143. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cpbgvnl.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.