Efficiency and restructuring in regulated energy networks: evidence from Germany and the US [Elektronische Ressource] / vorgelegt von Borge Hess

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Informations

• Publié par: technische_universitat_dresden
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 62
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 7 Mo

Extrait

Efficiency and Restructuring in
Regulated Energy Networks:
Evidence from Germany and the US

Dissertation


vorgelegt von

Dipl.-Volkswirt Borge Hess
(geb. 02. Juni 1977)

am 26. Februar 2008

an der

Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaften
der Technischen Universität Dresden

zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades
Doctor rerum politicarum (Dr. rer. pol.)


Verteidigt am 10. Dezember 2009



Betreuender Hochschullehrer /
1. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Christian von Hirschhausen
(TU Dresden)
Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Wieland
(TU Dresden)
Prof. Dr. Andreas Stephan
(Jönköping International Business School) Abstract
Although the German framework of incentive-based energy regulation appears to be well-defined
because it draws from international experience and eliminates several present drawbacks existing with
revenue-cap regulation doubts of industry and politicians concerning the application of benchmarking
techniques and more importantly, the future industry structure, remain. The regulation scheme is based
on experience with energy sector reforms in the US due to it being a precursor in this regard, e.g. by
introducing incentive-based regulation as early as 1994 and publishing the relevant data in a very
detailed way.
This thesis therefore brings together the two issues of certain efficiency measurement problems and
the industry restructuring in Germany and the US in order to contribute to the current discussion of
robust benchmarking and to provide political implications related to the industry’s structure.
Therefore, the application of DEA and SFA constitutes the heart of the whole study. These techniques
are applied on German electricity DSOs as well as on data for US electricity DSOs and US gas TSOs.
The application to US data can then be used to derive information about business strategies and their
success in a sector that is being restructured. The US experience will lead to relevant German policy
implications with respect to the future structure of the energy industry in Germany.

Key words: electricity, natural gas, distribution, incentive regulation,
benchmarking, efficiency analysis, Data Envelopment Analysis
(DEA), Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA), mergers & acquisitions,
Germany, USA
I Acknowledgements
I am deeply grateful to my advisor, Christian von Hirschhausen, for his support in writing the thesis
and the opportunity to present research work associated to this thesis on international conferences and
to participate in several interesting workshops.
Furthermore, I would like thank those researches that introduced me to the subject of this thesis for
their effort and many fruitful discussions: Harold Fried, Subal Kumbhakar, Spiro Stefanou, Loren
Tauer, and especially to Andreas Stephan for agreeing additionally to be an examiner of my thesis. I
also acknowledge Helmut Seitz who kindly agreed to support my dissertation.
Many thanks go to my colleague Astrid Cullmann for intensive conversations and for her support all
the time. Moreover, I am grateful to my fellow colleagues at Dresden University of Technology,
especially Jan Abrell, Gunnar Dittrich, Elisabetta Fiorentino, Gerhard Kempkes, Maria Nieswand, and
Carsten Pohl, as well as Annika Frohloff, Christian Growitsch, and Ferdinand Pavel for discussions
and their help at different stages throughout my work.
Finally, I wish to thank my parents and my friends for their mental support.


Dresden, February 2008 Borge Hess

II Content
Abstract .................................................................................................................................................... I
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. II
Content .................................................................................................................................................. III
List of Figures ........................................................................................................................................ V
List of Tables ......................................................................................................................................... VI
List of Appreciations ............................................................................................................................ VII
List of Symbols .................................................................................................................................. VIII
1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Motivation ............................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Outline ..................................................................................................................................... 6
2 Analytical Foundations of Production Economics .......................................................................... 7
2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 7
2.2 Production Technology ........................................................................................................... 7
2.2.1 Set-Theoretic Representation ............................................................................................ 7
2.2.2 Production Frontiers .......................................................................................................... 9
2.2.3 Input Distance Functions ................................................................................................... 9
2.2.4 Cost Frontiers .................................................................................................................. 11
2.3 Technical and Cost Efficiency............................................................................................... 12
2.4 Economies of Scale ............................................................................................................... 15
3 Benchmarking Approaches ........................................................................................................... 16
3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 16
3.2 Overview ............................................................................................................................... 16
3.3 Non-Parametric Frontier Approaches.................................................................................... 18
3.3.1 Data Envelopment Analysis ............................................................................................ 18
3.3.2 Investigating Potential Gains from Mergers .................................................................... 21
3.3.3 Outlier Detection and Bootstrapping Procedures ............................................................ 24
3.4 Parametric Frontier Approaches ............................................................................................ 26
3.4.1 Stochastic Frontier Analysis ............................................................................................ 28
3.4.2 Panel Data Models ........................................................................................................... 30
4 Efficiency and Restructuring in Germany ..................................................................................... 36
4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 36
4.2 Industry Restructuring in the German Electricity Industry ................................................... 37
4.3 Literature Review .................................................................................................................. 38
4.4 Data ....................................................................................................................................... 40
4.5 Evaluating Structural Differences ......................................................................................... 42
4.5.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 42
4.5.2 Methodology .................................................................................................................... 42
4.5.3 Hypotheses and Model Specification .............................................................................. 44
4.5.4 Empirical Results ............................................................................................................. 47
4.5.5 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 50

III 4.6 Evaluating Potential Gains from Mergers ............................................................................. 51
4.6.1 Introduction ...............................................................................................