Publications – Working Papers – Work in progress – Book Chapters and Policy Reports
Publications
Fabra, N., D. Rapson, M. Reguant, and J. Wang (2021) “Estimating the Elasticity to Real Time Pricing: Evidence from the Spanish Electricity Market”
American Economic Association Papers & Proceedings, forthcoming.
Fabra, N. and Montero, J.P. (2020) “Product Lines and Price Discrimination in Markets with Information Frictions“
Management Science, forthcoming.
Fabra, N. and Reguant, M. (2020) “A Model of Search with Price Discrimination”
European Economic Review 129.
Fabra, N. and Bian, X. (2020) “Incentives for Information Provision: Energy Efficiency in the Spanish Rental Markets”
Energy Economics 90.
Fabra, N. (2018) “A Primer on Capacity Mechanisms”
Energy Economics 75, 323-335.
Fabra, N. and García, A. (2015) “Dynamic Price Competition with Switching Costs”
Dynamic Games and Applications 5 (4), 540-567.
Fabra, N. and García, A. (2015) “Market Structure and the Competitive Effects of Switching Costs“
Economics Letters 126, 150-155.
Fabra, N. and Reguant, M. (2014) “Passthrough of Emission Costs in Electricity Markets”,
American Economic Review 104(9), 2872-2899. Extended abstract
Highlighted in the NBER Digest, March 2014
Highlighted at Nature Climate Change 4, 860, October 2014
De Frutos, M.A. and Fabra, N. (2012) “How to Allocate Forward Contracts: the case of electricity markets”
European Economic Review 56(3), 451-469.
Fabra, N., N.H. von der Fehr and M.A. De Frutos, M.A. (2011) “Market Design and Investment Incentives“
Economic Journal 121, 1340–1360.
De Frutos, M.A. and Fabra, N. (2011) “Endogenous Capacities and Price Competition: the Role of Uncertainty“
International Journal of Industrial Organization 29(4), 399-411.
Campos, E., N. Fabra and García, A. (2007) “Dynamic Auctions for On-demand Services”
IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics 37 (6), 878-886.
Fabra, N. and Creti, A. (2007) “Supply Security and Short-Run Capacity Markets for Electricity “
Energy Economics 29(2), 259-276.
Fabra, N. (2006) “Collusion with Capacity Constraints over the Business Cycle”
International Journal of Industrial Organization 24(1), 69-81.
Fabra, N., and Toro, J. (2005) “Price Wars and Collusion in the Spanish Electricity Market”
International Journal of Industrial Organization 23(3), 155-181.
Fabra, N., N.H. von der Fehr and Harbord, D. (2006) “Designing Electricity Auctions”
Rand Journal of Economics 37 (1), 23-346.
Crampes, C. and Fabra, N. (2005) “The Spanish Electricity Industry: Plus ca change…“
The Energy Journal 26.
Fabra, N. (2003) “Tacit Collusion in Repeated Auctions: Uniform versus Discriminatory auctions“
Journal of Industrial Economics L1(3), 271-293.
Fabra, N., N.H. von der Fehr and Harbord, D. (2002) “Modelling Electricity Auctions“
Electricity Journal 15(7), 72-81.
Working Papers
“Firms and Households during the Pandemic: What do we Learn from their Electricity Consumption?” (with Olympia Bover, Sandra García-Uribe, Aitor Lacuesta ad Roberto Ramos).
We analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on electricity consumption patterns in Spain. We highlight the importance of decomposing total electricity consumption into consumption by firms and by households to better understand the economic and social impacts of the crisis. While electricity demand by firms has fallen substantially, the demand by households has gone up. In particular, during the total lockdown, these effects reached -29% and +10% respectively, controlling for temperature and seasonality. While the electricity demand reductions during the second wave were milder, the demand by firms remained 5% below its normal levels. We also document a change in people’s daily routines in response to the stringency of the lockdown measures, as reflected in their hourly electricity consumption patterns.
CEPR Vetted and Real-Time Papers, Issue 63, 7 January 2021.
“The Energy Transition: An Industrial Economics Perspective”
I survey some of the recent developments in the analysis of the Energy Transition from an Industrial Economics approach. My focus is on the power sector, and in particular, on the regulatory and market design challenges triggered by the expansion of intermittent renewables with almost zero marginal costs.
“Technology-Neutral versus Technology-Specific Procurement“ (with Juan Pablo Montero)
“Degrowth versus Decoupling: Competing strategies for carbon abatement?” (with Aitor Lacuesta and Mateus Souza)
We compare the “degrowth” versus the “decoupling” strategies for carbon abatement, by leveraging the COVID-19 crisis as a natural experiment. Our focus is on the Spanish economy, and in particular, on its power sector. The GDP loss (degrowth) attributable to the pandemic was around 133 Billion Euros, which compared to total emissions reductions (20.4 Million Tons), gives an implicit cost of carbon in the thousands. In turn, power-sector CO2 emissions went down by 3.8 Million Tons (almost 5%). Investing in renewables to achieve similar abatement would have an implicit cost of carbon closer to 57 Euros/Ton.
“Storing Power: Market Structure Matters” (with David Andrés-Cerezo)
We asses firms’ incentives to operate and invest in electricity storage facilities under different market structures, including competitive and strategic storage owners in the cases in which the storage owner is integrated with a dominant electricity producer or it is a stand-alone firm. The results are key to understand how to regulate electricity storage, an issue which is critical for the deployment of renewables in electricity markets.
“Market Power and Price Discrimination: Learning from Changes in Renewables Regulation“ (with Imelda)
We assess the role of forward contracts and arbitrage in mitigating the market power of dominant producers. This question is particularly relevant for the renewables’ policy debate, as alternative pricing schemes (Feed-in-Tariffs, Feed-in-
“Auctions with Unknown Capacities: Understanding Competition among Renewables” with Gerard Llobet (February 2020)
We analyse equilibrium bidding behaviour in uniform-price auctions in which each firm’s capacity is stochastic and is private information. We use the model to shed light on the performance of renewables-dominated electricity markets.
“Antitrust Fines in Times of Crisis” with Massimo Motta (January 2013) CEPR Discussion Paper 9290
Work in Progress
“On the Competitive Effects of Retention Strategies”
Retention offers allow firms to price discriminate across consumers with different willingness to switch: prices decrease for those consumers who are more likely to switch, but increase for those who are less likely to switch. In competitive markets, retention offers strengthen competitive pressure. However, if markets are not very competitive, they make them even less so.
Book Chapters
Fabra, N. and Motta, M. (2017) “Assessing Coordinated Effects in Merger Cases”
Handbook of Game Theory and Industrial Organization, (Corchon and Marini Eds.) Edward Elgar.
Policy Reports
In English:
Fabra, N., Matthes, F., Newbery, D. and Rüdinger, A. (2015) “The Energy Transition In Europe: Lessons from Germany, the UK and France”
A CERRE report
Fabra, N., Moraga, J.L. (2015) “Energy security and sustainability: what role for gas in the Energy Union?”
A CERRE Discussion Paper
Fabra, N. and M. Motta (2013) “Coordinated Effects in Merger Cases”
A report for the Mexican Competition Authority and the World Bank
Courty, P., N. Fabra, C. Fumagalli, M. Motta (2004) “Identical Price Categories in Oligopolistic Markets: Innocent Behaviour or Collusive Practice?”
A report for the Italian Competition Authority
In Spanish:
Fabra, N. (2018) “Mercados eléctricos y mecanismos de capacidad: cuándo, cómo y por qué”
Papeles de Energía nº6, 53-76
Fabra, N. (2018) “La Transición Energética en el Sector Eléctrico: un imperativo para el medio ambiente y para la economía”
Cuaderno de Trabajo Transición energética en España – Una propuesta desde la socialdemocracia, Fundación Pablo Iglesias
Fabra, N. (2018) “La Unión Energética: Instrumento para la Transición Energética en Europa”
Revista de Economía ICE
Fabra, N. (2014) “Funcionamiento y Diseño de los Mercados Eléctricos: ¿Qué nos enseña la Teoría de Juegos?”
Economía Industrial 393, 25-32
Fabra, N, J.P. Montero, and M. Reguant (2013) “Competencia en el Mercado Eléctrico Chileno”
A report for the Fiscalía Nacional Económica de Chile
Fabra, N. and J. Fabra Utray (2012) “El Déficit Tarifario en el Sector Eléctrico Español”
Papeles de Economía Española 134
Fabra, N. and J. Fabra Utray (2010) “Competencia y Poder de Mercado en los Mercados Eléctricos”
Cuadernos Económicos del ICE 79, pp. 17-43
Fabra, N. (2010) “Modelo Energético Sostenible”
Chapter 17 in “La Ley de Economía Sostenible y la Reformas Estructurales: 25 propuestas”, FEDEA
Fabra, N. and J. Fabra Utray (2009) “Un Diseño de Mercado para el Sector Eléctrico Español”
Papeles de Economía Española 121, 141-158
Fabra, N. “El Funcionamiento del Mercado Eléctrico Español bajo la Ley del Sector Eléctrico”.
Chapter 10 in “Del Monopolio al Mercado. La Comisión Nacional de Energía: diez años en perspectiva”.
Fabra, N. (2006) “La Electricidad: Mercados, Inversiones, y Garantía de Suministro”
Economía Industrial 364, 63-74