November 2007

Rggi Auction Design Flaw: Separate Sealed-bid Auctions for Substitute Goods Poses Needless Risks for Bidders

Michael Giberson The RGGI auction design final report released in October 2007, which contains the proposed auction design for the sale of RGGI CO2 permits, overall presents a thorough examination of the market design problem and a well-thought out justification for their final design proposal. There is, however, one serious flaw that threatens the efficiency …

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Lyric/Glyndebourne Production of Handel’s Julius Caesar: Best.Opera.Ever

Lynne Kiesling Today my head is full of music, not economics (OK, most days my head is full of music …). Last night we saw Handel’s Julius Caesar in Egypt (Giulio Cesare in Egitto) at the Lyric. It’s the Lyric premiere of the David McVicar production from Glyndebourne in England. Wow. I was transfixed for …

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FCC Auction Design: An Assessment of 12 Years of Fcc Experimentation

Michael Giberson David Porter and Vernon Smith have put together an assessment of the FCC’s 12 years of experience with spectrum auction design, forthcoming in the Journal of Law Economics and Policy. From the introduction: Recent policy discussions regarding broadband Internet access have revived debates about various methods for allocating electromagnetic spectrum rights and the …

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Eu Disputes Allegation of Double Counting of Carbon Emission Permits

Michael Giberson Environmental markets consultancy E3 International released a report a few days ago indicating that many tradable permits were retired more than once in the EU carbon emission trading program: E3 International (E3) has analysed all the serial numbers of carbon allowances surrendered to date by liable participants in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme …

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Power Play: News Series Examines Texas Electric Power Industry Restructuring

Michael Giberson Marty Schladen, a reporter for The Daily News out of Galveston, Texas, has a four-part series on the state’s electric power restructuring. I’ve only just read the third article which offers a thumbnail sketch of the career of Samuel Insull (with unusual depth and context for a newspaper article): Insull revolutionized the electricity …

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Property Rights in “Californication”

Lynne Kiesling Here’s an interesting development: one of my favorite bands, Red Hot Chili Peppers, are suing Showtime for calling their new show starring David Duchovny “Californication”: “Californication is the signature CD, video and song of the band’s career, and for some TV show to come along and steal our identity is not right,” the …

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