Roberto Roson

Two-Sided Markets: A Tentative Survey

A recent literature, dealing with special markets characterized by bilateral network externalities, is summarized and critically assessed. Specific features of these markets, in terms of pricing principles and externalities, are discussed first. Afterwards, several issues related to competition between platforms are considered. Finally, implications for competition policy and prospects for future research are briefly discussed.

Platform competition in two-sided markets: the case of payment networks

In this article, we construct a model to study competing payment networks, where networks offer differentiated products in terms of benefits to consumers and merchants. We study market equilibria for a variety of market structures: duopolistic competition and cartel, symmetric and asymmetric networks, and alternative assumptions about multihoming and consumer preferences. We find that competition unambiguously increases consumer and merchant welfare. We extend this analysis to competition among payment networks providing different payment instruments and find similar results.

Climate Change Feedback on Economic Growth: Explorations with a Dynamic General Equilibrium Model

Human-generated greenhouse gases depend on the level of economic activity. Therefore, most climate change studies are based on models and scenarios of economic growth. Economic growth itself, however, is likely to be affected by climate change impacts. These impacts affect the economy in multiple and complex ways: changes in productivity, resource endowments, production and consumption patterns. We use a new dynamic, multi-regional Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model of the world economy to answer the following questions: Will climate change impacts significantly affect growth and wealth distribution in the world? Should forecasts of human-induced greenhouse gases emissions be revised, once climate change impacts are taken into account? We found that, even though economic growth and emission paths do not change significantly at the global level, relevant differences exist at the regional and sectoral level. In particular, developing countries appear to suffer the most from climate change impacts.

Economic impacts of climate change in Europe: sea-level rise

This paper uses two models to examine the direct and indirect costs of sea-level rise for Europe for a range of sea-level rise scenarios for the 2020s and 2080s: (1) the DIVA model to estimate the physical impacts of sea-level rise and the direct economic cost, including adaptation, and (2) the GTAP-EF model to assess the indirect economic implications. Without adaptation, impacts are quite significant with a large land loss and increase in the incidence of coastal flooding. By the end of the century Malta has the largest relative land loss at 12% of its total surface area, followed by Greece at 3.5% land loss. Economic losses are however larger in Poland and Germany (

Climate change impacts in Europe. Final report of the PESETA research project

483 and

Climate change and economic growth: impacts and interactions

391 million, respectively). Coastal protection is very effective in reducing these impacts and optimally undertaken leads to protection levels that are higher than 85% in the majority of European states. While the direct economic impact of sea-level rise is always negative, the final impact on countries’ economic performances estimated with the GTAP-EF model may be positive or negative. This is because factor substitution, international trade, and changes in investment patterns interact with possible positive implications. The policy insights are (1) while sea-level rise has negative and huge direct economic effects, overall effects on GDP are quite small (max −0.046% in Poland); (2) the impact of sea-level rise is not confined to the coastal zone and sea-level rise indirectly affects landlocked countries as well (Austria for instance loses −0.003% of its GDP); and (3) adaptation is crucial to keep the negative impacts of sea-level rise at an acceptable level.

The Impact of Temperature Change on Energy Demand: A Dynamic Panel Analysis

The PESETA research project integrates a set of high-resolution climate change projections and physical models into an economic modelling framework to quantify the impacts of climate change on vulnerable aspects of Europe. Four market impact categories are considered (agriculture, river floods, coastal systems, and tourism) and one non-market category (human health). Considering the market impacts, without public adaptation and if the climate of the 2080s occurred today, the EU annual welfare loss would be in the range of 0.2% to 1%, depending on the climate scenario. However, there is large variation across different climate futures, EU regions and impact categories. Scenarios with warmer temperatures and higher sea level rise result in more severe economic damage for the EU. Southern Europe, the British Isles and Central Europe North appear to be the most sensitive regions to climate change. Northern Europe is the only region with net economic benefits, mainly driven by the positive effects in agriculture. Concerning the contribution to the overall effects, coastal systems, agriculture and river flooding are the most important ones.

Systemic Input-Output Computation of Green and Blue Virtual Water ‘Flows’ with an Illustration for the Mediterranean Region

An integrated assessment model (ENVISAGE), including a CGE-based economic module and a climate module, is used to assess the effects of a variety of economic impacts induced by climate change. These impacts include: sea level rise, variations in crop yields, water availability, human health, tourism, energy demand. Two scenarios are compared: a baseline growth path, disregarding any climate change effect, and a counterfactual case, accounting for the impacts. The model assesses the overall magnitude of the impacts, their regional distribution, and the contribution of each specific impact to the overall variation of income and welfare. Results (e.g., on real GDP) show that climate change impacts are substantial, especially for developing countries and in the long run.

Seasonal temperature variations and energy demand

This paper presents an empirical study of energy demand, in which demand for a series of energy goods (Gas, Oil Products, Coal, Electricity) is expressed as a function of various factors, including temperature. Parameter values are estimated econometrically, using a dynamic panel data approach. Unlike previous studies in this field, the data sample has a global coverage, and special emphasis is given to the dynamic nature of demand, as well as to interactions between income levels and sensitivity to temperature variations. These features make the model results especially valuable in the analysis of climate change impacts. Results are interpreted in terms of derived demand for heating and cooling. Non-linearities and discontinuities emerge, making it necessary to distinguish between different countries, seasons, and energy sources. Short- and long-run temperature elasticities of demand are estimated.

Uncertainty in Climate Change Modeling: Can Global Sensitivity Analysis Be of Help?

The term virtual water refers to the volume of water used in the production of a commodity or service. Accordingly, virtual water ‘trade’ is the amount of water ‘embedded’ in commodities being transferred from one place to another as a consequence of trade. This paper argues that the conventional methods so far adopted for the computation of virtual water ‘flows’ (based on Hoekstra and Hung 2002) have considered only direct water usage and not sufficiently distinguished between blue and green water resources. This has brought about flawed estimates of virtual water ‘flows’, thereby limiting the usefulness of the virtual water concept as a tool for informing water policy. A novel approach for computing virtual water ‘flows’ which applies the Input–output (IO) methodology to account for both direct and indirect water consumption, and simultaneously distinguishes between the different typologies of water, is presented. The study upholds that the integration of these two methods can not only provide a more robust framework for quantifying virtual water ‘flows’, but also enhance the relevance of the concept as a tool for water resource management policy. The implications of these alternative estimation methods are here illustrated using data referring to 11 Mediterranean economies and 7 internationally traded agricultural commodities.