Brandts, J., Pezanis-Christou, P. and Schram, A. (2008). Competition with forward contracts: a laboratory analysis motivated by electricity market design Economic Journal, 118(525):192--214.
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Affiliated author
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Publication year2008
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JournalEconomic Journal
We use experiments to study the efficiency effects of adding the possibility of forward contracting to a spot market. We focus on the strategic implications of a forward market and consider both quantity and supply function competition. In both cases we compare the effect of adding a contract market to the introduction of an additional competitor. We find that, as theory suggests, for both types of competition the introduction of a forward market significantly lowers prices. The combination of supply function competition with a forward market leads to high efficiency levels.