21.05.13 - Nachtspeicherheizungen, Peak-load Pricing und das Verbot von Ölkännchen in Restaurants

Dear students,

the German parliament decided last week to lift the ban on night storage heaters (see the article in this link, Google translation here). In the lecture we will discuss the relation between night storage heaters and peak-load-pricing. Another interesting aspect in this case is the positive theory of regulation.
The latter theory is obviously the only one, which can explain the recent ban on olive jugs (Ölkännchen) in restaurants. As the English Guardian writes: "The regulations (...) are part of an EU initiative to help olive oil producers hit by rising operating costs and falling profits in recent years." Obviously, even the EU commissioner has a hard time to come up with any efficiency argument to support this regulation. It's the political economy.