Universität zu Köln

Hecking, Harald (2015). Four Essays on the Economics of Energy and Resource Markets. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

The thesis at hand seeks to improve the understanding of resource and energy markets, their specific characteristics and their interaction with each other. Therefore, the thesis includes four research papers on the markets for natural gas, coking coal, iron ore, electricity and heat. Each paper, representing one chapter of this thesis, addresses one or more of the specific characteristics outlined above. Chapter 2 assesses the effects of a supply shock on the world market for natural gas. Motivated by the modeling of gas supply as a spatial Cournot oligopoly, the paper investigate the vulnerability of different gas importing countries to price increases during a supply shock. It seeks to evaluate the countries' strategic positions during a crisis, which are mainly influenced by their access to gas infrastructure and resource endowment. Chapter 3 deals again with supply-side oligopolies. However, the paper presented here does not account only for one market but rather for two interacting markets. The research is motivated by the need for complementary inputs in steel production, namely iron ore and coking coal. Interestingly, some of the biggest mining companies play a major role in both markets. Therefore, it assesses the optimal business strategy for these oligopolists: to optimize the iron ore and the coking coal division on a firm-level or on a division-level? Chapter 4 also investigates the interaction between two different markets: here, the European markets for gas and power. The research is motivated by the hypothesis that CO2 reduction policies in the power sector, such as the EU-ETS, subsidies for renewables or a coal tax, do not only influence the power market but also have feedback effects on the oligopolistic gas market. The analysis is driven by the question on how climate policies affect the price elasticity of the power sector's gas demand and, therefore, gas prices. If climate policies would, for example, decrease the gas price then they may even be able to decrease the overall power system costs. Chapter 5 assesses the CO2 abatement costs of the German heat market for private households. The research is motivated by households making long-term investment decisions about heating technologies. However, these decisions are not solely based on monetary criteria, but also on household preferences. Accounting for both preferences and expenditures of private households, welfare-based CO2 abatement costs of climate policies are derived.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Hecking, Harald hhecking@gmx.de UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-59301
Date:	19 January 2015
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Management, Economy and Social Sciences
Divisions:	Externe Einrichtungen > An-Institute > Associated Institutes of the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences > Institute for Energy Economics
Subjects:	Economics
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Natural Gas, Power, Coal, Iron Ore, Heat, Modelling, Energy Market Modeling, Optimization, Market power, Cournot, Resources, Policy Analyses English
Date of oral exam:	16 January 2015
Referee:	Name Academic Title Höffler, Felix Prof. Dr. Growitsch, Christian PD Dr.
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/5932