Data and Code for: Do Two Electricity Pricing Wrongs Make a Right? Cost Recovery, Externalities, and Efficiency

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Severin Borenstein, University of California-Berkeley; James B Bushnell, University of California-Davis

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  AEJEP2019-0758DataArchiveVER2.nosync 11/07/2022 10:41:PM

Project Citation: 

Borenstein, Severin, and Bushnell, James B. Data and Code for: Do Two Electricity Pricing Wrongs Make a Right? Cost Recovery, Externalities, and Efficiency. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2023. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2023-09-26. https://doi.org/10.3886/E158242V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary Economists favor pricing pollution in part so that consumers face the full social marginal cost (SMC) of goods and services. But even without valuing externalities, retail electricity prices typically exceed private marginal cost, due to a utility's need to cover average costs.  Furthermore, due to costly storage, the marginal cost of electricity can fluctuate widely hour-to-hour, while retail prices do not.  We show that residential electricity rates exceed average SMC in most of the US, but there is large variation, both geographically and temporally.   This finding has important implications for pass-through of pollution costs, as well as for policies to promote dynamic pricing, alternative energy and reduced electricity consumption.
Funding Sources:  View help for Funding Sources Google; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms Electricity pricing and costs
JEL Classification:  View help for JEL Classification
      L51 Economics of Regulation
      L94 Electric Utilities
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 2014 – 2016
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 2017 – 2021
Universe:  View help for Universe Residential retail electricity prices, wholesale electricity prices, electricity quantities, electricity generation, electricity emissions, expenditures on selected utility public purpose programs
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) administrative records data; geographic information system (GIS) data; program source code

Methodology

Collection Mode(s):  View help for Collection Mode(s) other
Unit(s) of Observation:  View help for Unit(s) of Observation Distribution utility by state
Geographic Unit:  View help for Geographic Unit Continental US

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Published Versions

V1 [2023-09-26]

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