Published December 1986
| Submitted
Discussion Paper
Open
Steam-Electric Scale Economies and Construction Lead Times
- Creators
- Rothwell, Geoffrey S.
Chicago
An error occurred while generating the citation.
Abstract
There was a widespread belief in the 1970s that the construction of coal and nuclear generating units exhibited positive economies of scale. Recent empirical literature has confirmed this belief for coal plants. But these studies have not considered the relationships among cost, plant size, and the building period. This paper derives and estimates a model in which construction cost and lead time are jointly determined. Constant returns to scale are not rejected for nuclear units. While coal units may exhibit positive returns to scale, because larger plants take longer to build, these returns are lower than previously estimated.
Additional Information
In the preparation of this paper I was greatly aided by J. Dubin and N. Rose, by my dissertation committee: R. Gilbert, T. Keeler, J. Quigley, and P. Ruud, and by others, including L. Cohen, K. Eastman, J. Henly, P. Joskow, J. Kerkvliet, R. Noll, J. Pencavel, J. Robinson, R. Rogers, and the Applied Microeconomics Seminar at Stanford University. The errors that remain are my own. Research was funded by grants from the Center for Economic Policy Research at Stanford University and the Environmental Quality Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.Attached Files
Submitted - sswp627.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 81333
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20170911-164339811
- Stanford Center for Economic Policy Research
- Environmental Quality Laboratory
- Created
-
2017-09-12Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2019-10-03Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Social Science Working Papers, Environmental Quality Laboratory
- Series Name
- Social Science Working Paper
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 627