Publications

Hard-linking a Top-down Economic Model with a Bottom-up Energy System for an Oil-exporting Country with Price Controls

Science Direct

Olivier Durand-Lasserve, Axel Pierru, Hossa Almutairi, Abdullah AlJarboua, Shreekar Pradhan, Frederic Murphy

Sectoral and Economy-Wide Effects of Domestic Energy Price Reforms in Saudi Arabia

Olivier Durand-Lasserve, Hossa Almutairi, Abdullah AlJarboua, Frederic Murphy, Shreekar Pradhan, Axel Pierru

This paper simulates the sectoral and economy-wide consequences of deregulating energy prices in Saudi Arabia. Our analysis is based on KAPSARC’s general equilibrium energy model (KEMGE), a new hybrid computable general equilibrium model (CGE). The model examines the effects of…

Durand-Lasserve, Olivier

Almutairi, Hossa

AlJarboua, Abdullah

Murphy, Frederic

Pradhan, Shreekar

Pierru, Axel

Optimal Policies for Managing Oil Revenue Stabilization Funds: An Illustration Using Saudi Arabia

Science Direct

We develop an analytical approach that offers insights into how governments can better manage an oil-revenue stabilization fund. The model maximizes the expected intertemporal utility of households and consists of decisions that are a function of the fund level and…

Nader AlKathiri, Tarek Atalla, Frederic Murphy, Axel Pierru

Implementing Alternative Pricing Policies in Economic Equilibrium Models Using the Extended Mathematical Programming Framework

Bertrand Rioux, Abdullah AlJarboua, Frederic Murphy, Axel Pierru

Standard economic optimization models represent markets in perfect competition. They are commonly used, though they may not accurately represent real-world policies and regulations. Equilibrium models built using a mixed complementarity problem (MCP) approach are capable of simulating more flexible pricing…

Rioux, Bertrand

AlJarboua, Abdullah

Murphy, Frederic

Pierru, Axel

The Costs and Gains of Policy Options for Coordinating Electricity Generation in the Gulf Cooperation Council

IDEAS

We investigate the economic impacts of policies for coordinating electricity production in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) through electricity trade. The GCC countries have installed a network of high-voltage transmission lines that links Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and…

David Wogan, Frederic Murphy, Axel Pierru

The Economic Impact of Price Controls on China’s Natural Gas Supply Chain

Science Direct

Despite significant progress made by China in liberalizing its natural gas market, certain key areas such as market access and pricing mechanisms remain controlled by the government.

Axel Pierru, Kang Wu, Frederic Murphy, Philipp Galkin, Bertrand Rioux, Yan Li, Artem Malov, Felipe Feijoo

Measuring the Effects of Price Controls Using Mixed Complementarity Models

Science Direct

Frederic Murphy, Axel Pierru, Yves Smeers

The Costs and Gains of Coordinating Electricity Generation in the Gulf Cooperation Council Utilizing the Interconnector

David Wogan, Frederic Murphy, Axel Pierru

Countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have installed a network of high-voltage transmission lines, known as the GCC Interconnector, which links the member states of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Interconnector…

Wogan, David

Murphy, Frederic

Pierru, Axel

The Economic Impact of Price Controls on China’s Natural Gas Supply Chain

Bertrand Rioux, Philipp Galkin, Frederic Murphy, Axel Pierru, Kang Wu

Despite significant progress made by China in liberalizing its natural gas market, certain key areas such as market access and pricing mechanisms remain heavily monopolized or controlled by the government. To assess how such distortions impact the market, we developed…

Rioux, Bertrand

Galkin, Philipp

Murphy, Frederic

Pierru, Axel

Wu, Kang

Can adoption of rooftop solar panels trigger a utility death spiral? A tale of two U.S. cities

Energy Research and Social Science

The growing penetration of distributed energy generation (DEG) is causing major changes in the electricity market. One key concern is that existing tariffs incentivize ‘free riding’ behavior by households, leading to a cycle of rising electricity prices and DEG adoption,…

Iqbal Adjali, Patrick Bean, Rolando Fuentes, Frederic Murphy, Steven O. Kimbrough, Mohammed Muaafa

Managing Oil Revenue Stabilization Funds: A Framework for Developing Policies

Nader AlKathiri, Frederic Murphy, Axel Pierru

Oil revenue stabilization funds provide short-run protection against oil revenue fluctuations – in the way that Saudi government deposits and reserve at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) have historically served as a buffer to decouple government budget from oil…

AlKathiri, Nader

Murphy, Frederic

Pierru, Axel

Asian premium or North Atlantic discount: Does geographical diversification in oil trade always impose costs?

Energy Economics

We develop a Global Oil Trade Model (GOTM) to examine the ability of large crude oil exporters or importers to influence inter-regional price differentials by allocating their sales or purchases respectively among different crude oil consuming or producing regions. The…

Nader AlKathiri, Tilak Doshi, Frederic Murphy, Yazeed Al Rashed

How do Price Caps in China’s Electricity Sector Impact the Economics of Coal, Power and Wind? Potential Gains from Reforms

Energy Journal

China imposes maximum prices by plant type and region on the electricity that generators sell to utilities. We show that these price caps create a need for subsidies and cross-subsidies, and affect the economics of wind power. We model the…

Bertrand Rioux, Philipp Galkin, Frederic Murphy, Axel Pierru

Efficient industrial energy use: The first step in transitioning Saudi Arabia’s energy mix

Energy Policy

In Saudi Arabia, industrial fuel prices are administered below international prices and firms make decisions based on low energy prices, increasing domestic energy demand. This analysis explores alternative policies designed to induce a transition to a more efficient energy system…

Walid Matar, Frederic Murphy, Axel Pierru, Bertrand Rioux, David Wogan

A tutorial on building policy models as mixed-complementarity problems

Interfaces

After 50 years of development, building and solving mixed-complementarity problems (MCPs) have become commonplace for policy models that analyze markets. These models are used to develop policies that reshape markets, or introduce markets that replace other organizational forms. In this…

Frederic Murphy, Axel Pierru, Yves Smeers

Economic impacts of debottlenecking congestion in the Chinese coal supply chain

Energy Economics

The fast pace of development in China’s coal industry created bottlenecks in its transportation infrastructure. These bottlenecks likely affected not only China’s domestic coal market, but also global coal markets. In this paper, we estimate the costs and consequences of…

Bertrand Rioux, Philipp Galkin, Frederic Murphy, Axel Pierru

Potential Gains From Reforming Price Caps in China’s Power Sector

Bertrand Rioux, Philipp Galkin, Axel Pierru, Frederic Murphy

When energy sectors transition from government-controlled to market-driven systems, the legacy regulatory instruments can create unintended market distortions and lead to higher costs. In China, the most notable regulatory throwback is ceilings on electricity prices that generators can charge utilities,…

Rioux, Bertrand

Galkin, Philipp

Pierru, Axel

Murphy, Frederic

Can Adoption of Rooftop Solar PV Panels Trigger a Utility Death Spiral?

Iqbal Adjali, Rolando Fuentes, Frederic Murphy

The growing penetration of distributed energy resources (DER) such as solar and wind power is causing major changes in the electricity market. One key concern is that existing tariffs incentivize ‘free riding’ behavior by households, which leads to a cycle…

Adjali, Iqbal

Fuentes, Rolando

Murphy, Frederic

Economic Impacts of Debottlenecking Congestion in the Chinese Coal Supply Chain

Philipp Galkin, Frederic Murphy, Axel Pierru, Bertrand Rioux

China’s coal industry grew at unprecedented rates during the first decade of the 2000s in order to support equally unprecedented economic growth. In that type of environment, it is impossible for the capacities of every link in the supply chain…

Galkin, Philipp

Murphy, Frederic

Pierru, Axel

Rioux, Bertrand

Asian Premium or North Atlantic Discount: Does Geographical Diversification in Oil Trade Always Impose Costs?

Shahad Alarenan, Frederic Murphy, Ziyad Alfawzan, Nader AlKathiri

It is popularly believed that importers of oil diversify their suppliers to achieve security of supply and that exporters diversify their customer base to achieve security of demand. However, this diversification comes at a cost, compared with buying from or…

Alarenan, Shahad

Murphy, Frederic

Alfawzan, Ziyad

AlKathiri, Nader