Vol. 16, No. 2
Maria Kopsakangas-Savolainen:
Quantity versus Price Competition in the Deregulated Finnish Electricity Markets (pp. 51–60)
Abstract
The main motivation to deregulate Finnish electricity markets and introduce competition to the industry was to improve efficiency and obtain lower prices. In this paper we use a numerical simulation model in order to analyse the impact of market structure to the wholesale price of electricity. We solve Cournot equilibrium and Bertrand equilibrium. The results indicate that in some circumstances deregulation might actually lead to higher prices instead of lower ones. This happens if Cournot competition is realised and consumers do not react to the competition by becoming more price sensitive. If, however, price elasticity of demand increases deregulation will lead to the lower prices and higher production regardless of the market structure.
(JEL: D43, L11, L94)
Lennart Berg:
Deterministic Seasonal Volatility in a Small and Integrated Stock Market: The Case of Sweden (pp. 61–71)
Abstract
Using daily data for the Swedish stock market for the last two decades, it appears that no distinct and firm deterministic seasonal pattern for the conditional volatility for the Swedish stock market has been found. The daily turnover in the Swedish stock market has an impact on and to some extent eliminates seasonal patterns in conditional volatility. We can also conclude that a feedback from the US stock market to the conditional volatility in the Swedish market exists. The evidence from a simulation with 400 different trading rules also supports the hypothesis of a weak form of market efficiency.
(JEL: G14)
Mikael Bask:
Technical Trading at the Currency Market Increases the Overshooting Effect (pp. 72–80)
Abstract
It is shown in this letter that the magnitude of exchange rate overshooting is larger than in Dornbusch (1976) when chartists are introduced into the model. Specifically, the extent of overshooting depends inversely on the planning horizon. The latter follows from explicitly modelling the behavior of practitioners: for shorter planning horizons, more weight is placed on technical analysis, while more weight is placed on fundamental analysis for longer planning horizons.
(JEL: F31)