June 2010

What the Maryland Psc’s Rejection of Bg&e’s Smart Grid Proposal Reveals About Regulation

Lynne Kiesling Last week the Maryland Public Service Commission rejected Baltimore Gas & Electric’s proposed project to install over 2 million digital electric or gas meters, change the retail electricity rate structure to incorporate time-of-use pricing and peak-time rebates, and recover the meter capital costs through a surcharge on residential retail bills. BG&E’s ambitious and …

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David Warsh on Complexity and Economics

Lynne Kiesling David Warsh’s Economic Principals column this week is about complexity, and the study of complexity in economics. It is as informative and insightful as Warsh’s columns usually are, despite its selective coverage. He highlights some ideas that I think are important for the future direction of economics — the isolation of the twin …

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More Rule/market Design Recommendations for International Football-soccer

Lynne Kiesling Like Mike the other day, I have been thinking about possibly Pareto-improving rule changes in international soccer; like Richard Epstein I have always thought about sports rules (and league organization and market structure) as interesting market design issues. Take, for example, the unintended changes in ice hockey and American football after the introduction …

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Electric Vehicle Recharging: Is the Energy Too Cheap to Meter?

Michael Giberson Competitive retail power company NRG plans to offer an “all you can eat” electric vehicle recharging plan in Houston early next year, expanding the offer to the Dallas area a little later.  Likely too few electric vehicles will show up in Houston in the next year or so to make much of a …

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Soccer Rules As a Market Design Problem

Michael Giberson Hadn’t actually thought of the rules of professional sports leagues as a market design issue before, but Richard Epstein’s column in Forbes proposing rule changes for soccer suggests the idea.  Epstein suggests a couple of changes, drawing on basketball and hockey for inspiration: First, he says goals scored in the run of play …

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Rejoice: Another World Cup, Another Ball Controversy

Michael Giberson The World Cup is well underway, and with it another controversy over the new ball designed by Adidas for the tournament.  The Wikipedia page on the ball documents some of the complaints, as usual most of them from goalkeepers: As with the Adidas Fevernova and Adidas Teamgeist at the two previous tournaments, the ball has …

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When Should a Solar Power Installer Be Treated Like a Regulated Public Utility?

Michael Giberson In Arizona, solar power installation company SolarCity has been told it must be regulated as a public utility if it employs a financing arrangement it has developed, a “solar services agreement,” to sell its services to non-profit entities. Usually SolarCity builds solar power systems and provides financing and ongoing monitoring services, but doesn’t …

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