Energy: Markets and Regulation is a valuable survey of current thinking on energy economics, focusing on the regulation of energy markets. It covers nearly every aspect of the energy sector, including both international and domestic U.S. markets in oil and coal and the particular U.S. conditions in natural gas and nuclear power. It deals with resource estimation and energy supply and demand, and environmental control. Economic and institutional analysis of current problems includes an exploration of their historical background.The thirteen original contributions are dedicated to MIT economist and energy analyst M. A. Adelman. Adelman is the dean of academic economists concerned with energy markets and the effects of government regulation. All who work and teach in this area have been influenced by his ideas and insightful analysis, and many of the chapters in the book draw on and expand his earlier work.
The preface by Charles P. Kindleberger and foreword by the editors outline the subject and introduce the essays. Their authors and topics are Paul R. Carpenter, Henry D. Jacoby, and Arthur W. Wright on the evolution of U.S. natural gas markets; G. Campbell Watkins on the interaction of U.S. and Canadian oil policies; Richard L. Gordon on world coal development; Martin B. Zimmerman on the problem of nuclear power in the United States; Paul W. MacAvoy on the EPA's record in controlling industrial air pollution; Robert W. Crandall and Theodore E. Keeler on public policies concerning the private auto; Philip K. Verleger, Jr. on the evolution of oil as a commodity; Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason and Robert S. Pindyck on the theory and experience of cartels in the international minerals markets; Paul Leo Eckbo on worldwide petroleum taxation; Zenon S. Zannetos on oil tanker markets; Gordon M. Kaufman on oil and gas supply assessment; Paul G. Bradley on mineral and petroleum exploration; and Ernst R. Berndt and David 0. Wood on the influence of energy price shocks on U.S. productivity growth.
