This paper evaluates changes in electricity generation costs caused by the introduction of market mechanisms to determine production in the United States. I use the staggered transition to markets from 1999 to 2012 to estimate the causal impact of liberalization using a differences-in-difference design on a comprehensive hourly panel of electricity demand, generators’ costs, capacities, and output. I find that markets reduce production costs by 5 percent by reallocating production: gains from trade across service areas increase by 55 percent based on a 25 percent increase in traded electricity, and costs from using uneconomical units fall 16 percent. (JEL L51, L94, L98, Q41, Q48)

中文翻译：

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美国发电市场不完善与监管不完善

本文评估了在美国引入市场机制来确定生产所引起的发电成本变化。我使用从 1999 年到 2012 年向市场的交错过渡，在电力需求、发电机成本、容量和输出的综合小时面板上使用差异设计来估计自由化的因果影响。我发现市场通过重新分配生产将生产成本降低了 5%：在交易电力增加 25% 的基础上，跨服务领域的贸易收益增加 55%，使用不经济单位的成本下降 16%。(JEL L51, L94, L98, Q41, Q48)