Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 10th Sept 2026, 07:04:50pm CEST (Norway)
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Daily Overview |
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Electricity markets Location: Auditorium O: Terje Hansen Session Chair: Till Fladung, ifo-Institut for economic research | |
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Power Play: Balancing Efficiency and Protection in Fixed vs. Variable Electricity Pricing 1: Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), Italy; 2: RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment, Italy; 3: University of Milan; 4: University of Brescia Fixed-term retail energy contracts protect end users from market fluctuations but can create market distortions, implicitly subsidizing consumption when prices increase. Imperfect information, inattention, and adjustment costs can affect the targeting of these implicit subsidies and their impact on efficient energy use. Using high-frequency consumption and billing data from an Italian utility, we study the behavior of consumers being defaulted from fixed-price into variable-price contracts during a period of high prices. We find that electricity demand is rather inelastic. Consumers adapt their consumption to price shocks with persistent lag and show limited awareness of their contract status. Their reaction also includes, to a small extent, searching the market for better offers. Fixed pricing helps prevent bill defaults and installment payments. We show that fixed-price contracts could have distributional implications by favoring smaller households with lower energy consumption per occupant. | |