STRUCTURAL-CHANGES IN THE UNITED-STATES ELECTRIC UTILITY INDUSTRY AND THE SCARCITY RENT OF COAL IN-USE

Previous studies show that environmental regulations have caused significant decline in productivity and increases in the cost of electricity generation for the US coal-fired electric utilities. No analysis, thus far, measures the effect of such productivity decline on the scarcity rent of coal in-use. This paper shows that due to environmental regulations the basic cost structure of the coal-fired electric utilities have undergone a structural change resulting in increases in the scarcity rent of coal in-use. © 1991, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.