Econometric model of maintenance, utilization, scrapping and capital use in the US electric power industry: implications for the consequences of air quality regulation

Thesis/Dissertation · Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:5008531

Smith, V H

This study examines the determinants of capital-use decisions in the US electric power industry in a context that permits variability in the rate at which capital goods are depreciated. A dynamic theoretical model of the capital-use decision of a monopoly firm or industry was used to obtain an empirical model of capital use in which maintenance, utilization, scrapping, the total demand for capital services and the user cost of capital are endogenous. The empirical model was estimated using annual data for the US electric power industry for the period 1946 to 1982 under a variety of assumptions about the dynamic structure of the model. Future expected values for exogenous variables were obtained from simple autoregressive models. The empirical model itself was nonlinear and estimated using SAS three-stage nonlinear procedures. Results indicate that a simultaneous framework for the analysis of capital-use decisions, including scrapping and replacement, is appropriate and that firm decisions about all aspects of capital use are affected by changes in relative prices.

• Research Organization: North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5008531
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
ELECTRIC UTILITIES
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
CAPITAL
COST
DECISION MAKING
DEPRECIATION
MAINTENANCE
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
REGRESSION ANALYSIS
ECONOMICS
MATHEMATICS
PUBLIC UTILITIES
STATISTICS
296000* - Energy Planning & Policy- Electric Power
290200 - Energy Planning & Policy- Economics & Sociology