Conference prof. Dr. Bernhard Mahlberg
| 5 May, 2016 | ||
| 12:00 pm |
Title: Size, Subsidies and Technical Efficiency in Renewable Energy Production: an Empirical Study of Austrian Biogas Plants.
Speaker: Bernhard Mahlberg
Date: 05/05/2016 12:00 h
Location: Sala de Seminarios, Edificio Torretamarit
Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to measure the efficiency of biogas plants in Austria and identify causes of inefficiency. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is applied on a representative sample of 86 biogas plants covering about one third of the installed electric capacity of Austrian biogas plants. By comparing each plant with all other plants, DEA provides a relative performance measure and identifies the plants operating efficiently. In a second-stage regression analysis the effects of subsidies and other environmental variables on efficiency are investigated. The main results are: i) 34% of biogas plants in our sample are technically efficient, 40% are scale efficient and 50 % are purely technically efficient; ii) small biogas plants (≤100 kW) are scale inefficient exhibiting increasing returns to scale; iii) plants with an enclosed digestate storeage unit are more efficient; iv) the relationship between production subsidies and pure technical efficiency is significantly negative; v) the correlation between investment subsidies and pure technical efficiency is negative but insignificant. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that production subsidies provide a disincentive to managerial effort of plant operators.
Brief Bio:
Bernhard Mahlberg is Senior Researcher at the Institute for Industrial Research (IWI) and Lecturer at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien). Prior to joining the IWI he worked at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (first as Research Assistant at the Department of Economic Theory and Policy and then as Assistant Professor at the European Institute) and the Austrian Institute of Economic Research. His thesis quantified the effects of the single European market on Austrian and German insurance companies. The main research interests of Bernhard Mahlberg are efficiency and productivity analyzes with data envelopment analysis, Energy and Environmental Economics and Applied input-output models.
26 April 2016
