The EU Taxonomy is a classification system for sustainable economic activities and a framework for various regulatory initiatives. Its primary objectives are to enhance transparency, to reduce greenwashing and ultimately to redirect capital toward more sustainable activities. However, since its introduction, market participants have raised concerns about whether the benefits justify the costs. This ...
We examine the impact of the war in Ukraine on long-term contracts in energy markets. We find that traded contract volumes fall by 65 percent in the first months of the war. A collapse in bilateral trading contributes most to this decline. To protect themselves from price shocks, firms increasingly turned to long-term contracts already before the war. In sum, our results show that the market continued ...
We provide an auction-theoretical analysis of Green Public Procurement (GPP) as a preferential program aimed at stimulating investment in green technologies. We find that GPP incentivizes more competitive firms to invest. We also show that GPP can be an optimal mechanism for a procurer who cares about minimizing the purchasing price while triggering green investment.
Competition authorities increasingly rely on economic screening tools to identify markets where firms deviate from competitive norms. Traditional screening methods assume that collusion occurs through secret agreements. However, recent research highlights that firms can use public announcements to coordinate decisions, reducing competition while avoiding detection. We propose a novel approach to...
This paper examines the “right” geographic definition of relevant markets by analysing how excise tax pass-through varies with local competition in the retail gasoline market of Athens, Greece. Using a natural experiment from three unanticipated and exogenous fuel tax hikes in 2010 and detailed station-level price data, we show that average pass-through is almost complete and invariant to the...
Bank transition plans (TPs) are becoming vital tools for assessing financial institutions' climate resilience and readiness for a sustainable economy. The EU’s 2024 Capital Requirements Directive 6 mandates that banks develop TPs for prudential oversight, with supervisors required to evaluate them. In response, the European Banking Authority (EBA) has issued guidelines to support banks in...
