Shows
Forward Market DesignSoft-Floor Auctions: Harnessing Regret to Improve Efficiency and RevenueA soft-floor auction asks bidders to accept an opening price to participate in an ascending auction. If no bidder accepts, lower bids are considered using first-price rules. Soft floors are common despite being irrelevant with standard assumptions. When bidders regret losing, soft-floor auctions are more efficient and profitable than standard optimal auctions. Revenue increases as bidders are inclined to accept the opening price to compete in a regret-free ascending auction. Efficiency is improved since having a soft floor allows for a lower hard reserve price, reducing the frequency of no sale. Theory and experiment confirm these motivations from practice.2025-04-1313 min
Forward Market DesignCanadian Mobile Broadband: An Open Access FutureOn 7 April 2025, TheFutureEconomy.ca published Peter Cramton's "The Future of Mobile Broadband Can Arrive Early in Canada." Cramton envisions a future for Canada's mobile broadband through an "open access" model. It critiques the current regulatory landscape involving the CRTC and ISED, which the author argues creates complexities and hinders innovation. Cramton proposes a shift towards a market design where spectrum holders must sell a portion of capacity in an open-access wholesale market managed by an independent operator. He contends this would foster greater competition, lower rates, and increased investment, ultimately benefiting consumers, regulators, and mobile operators alike. Professor Cramton...2025-04-0814 min
Forward Market DesignBeyond the myths of social choice and a market design look at voting rulesThis episode discusses a foundational paper by David Pearce and an applied paper on voting rules by Peter Cramton and his co-authors.Economists’ conceptions of utility and welfare reflect misguided attempts to mimic the physical sciences. The resulting tangle of ideas about meaninglessness, cardinality, and measurability forms a pyramid of misunderstandings that supports the wildly inappropriate standard interpretation of Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem. This paper is a quick primer on seeing past the myths. A natural reading of Arrow’s Theorem resolves the tension between abstract social choice theory and practical welfare analysis.No election rules...2025-03-2424 min
Spectrum Policy PodcastAuction expert Peter Cramton proposes world-first MVNO solutionProfessor Cramton discusses how auctions approaches pioneered in the US electricity sector can help MVNOs in Thailand. 2025-02-1741 min
Forward Market DesignPolicy Tracker podcast with Peter Cramton on TIMO, the Thailand Independent Market OperatorIn this episode of the Spectrum Policy podcast, Martin Sims interviews Peter Cramton, an expert in spectrum auctions and economics. They discuss the proposal for a wholesale spectrum regulator in Thailand, exploring the evolution of spectrum auctions, the challenges faced by mobile communications, and the rise of satellite communications. Cramton emphasizes the need for competition in the Thai market and the potential benefits of a wholesale regulator to enhance market dynamics and consumer choice.TakeawaysPeter Cramton has been involved in spectrum auctions since 1982.Spectrum auctions have raised hundreds of billions for governments globally.The economics...2025-02-1733 min
Forward Market DesignUniversal service in Thailand. What policy is best?Peter Cramton's response to a telecommunications journalist on February 12, 2025, outlines a market-based approach to achieving universal service in the global communications market. He critiques traditional methods, such as buildout obligations or administratively allocated subsidies, and advocates for competitive procurement auctions, a system proven effective in the U.S. under the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). Cramton’s approach involves three key steps: (1) defining standard mobile and fixed broadband services (e.g., $50/month for mobile service with 10 Mbps speed and 15GB data), (2) identifying noneconomic areas where market forces fail to provide these services, and (3) conducting annual desc...2025-02-1212 min
Forward Market DesignFlow trading brings transparent and efficient pricing to electricity marketsTwo papers propose innovative market designs to improve efficiency and transparency in financial and energy markets. One paper models electricity market dynamics using a regime-switching model to simulate realistic price distributions and explore hedging strategies. The other paper introduces "Flow Trading," a novel market design that allows for portfolio trading, continuous-scaled limit orders, and frequent batch auctions, demonstrating its computational feasibility and addressing several weaknesses of existing systems. A third source suggests a forward energy market that aligns participant incentives with social welfare, enhancing competition and resilience and potentially replacing capacity markets. These papers collectively explore how market design...2025-02-0423 min
Forward Market DesignSan Diego’s coastal train is train is unsustainable. Why is SANDAG denying it?Over the past 20 years, it has become increasingly clear that the 61-mile San Clemente to San Diego segment of the coastal train is unsustainable. The region's coast is eroding at 6 inches annually. The train is a few feet from the bluff's edge in Del Mar and nearly in the surf in San Clemente. Twenty years of armoring at a cost approaching $1 billion have kept the train running most days, although outages are long and frequent. The Union-Tribune regularly reports on the coastal train and the efforts to relocate the rail away from the coast. Sadly...2025-01-3009 min
Forward Market DesignFive Wellesley Freshmen and a Jo's Remarkable StoryThis photo is from Webb House at Wellesley College in 1946. The five freshmen are Harriet Cramton, wife of Roger Cramton, Mollie Kramer Hughes, wife of 'Turk' Hughes, Nicole De Messiere, Joanna Rogers Macy, and Mitzi Shfrin. Mollie's music brought us together. She is playing a guitar in the photo. Forever friends, Nicole and Joanna, were high honor students. "Jo" was head of the Chapel and dismayed the Bible department. When she turned to Buddhism (an excellent choice), where she was a renowned scholar giving workshops the world over. She hiked into and out of Tibet on her own. Has...2025-01-3005 min
Forward Market DesignPeter Cramton believes he has a good idea to improve electricity marketsPeter Cramton contends that the forward energy market, as presented in Cramton, Peter; Brandkamp, Simon; Chao, Hung-po; Dark, Jason; Hoy, Darrell; Kyle, Albert S. et al. (2025): A Forward Energy Market to Improve Reliability and Resiliency, is a sound proposal to improve competition and innovation in today's restructured electricity markets. https://cramton.umd.edu/electricity/. He believes it is an excellent approach to achieving resource adequacy and improving resiliency in response to the challenges of the energy transition.He will pay $1000 to the first person who identifies a significant weakness in the forward energy market approach, assuming 1) the...2025-01-3022 min
Forward Market DesignPeter, "Are all golfers idiots?"This is a fun take on the distribution of intelligence across professions.2025-01-3015 min
Forward Market DesignComparision of Platform Take RatesPeter Cramton asked three questions of Perplexity.AI about platform take rates. 1) Companies often take a percentage when the platform they provide to others is used for financial transactions. For example, Substack takes 10% and its payment processor, Stripe, takes 2%. Google Ads takes about 40% from sellers and buyers combined in the Google Ad Exchange. What are some other examples of "take rates" across industries? 2) Why are some take rates higher than others? 3) Is there any evidence that Google's high take rate is enhanced from its anti-competitive behavior? The answers produced a six page pdf including citations. He then...2025-01-2829 min
Forward Market DesignThailand Independent Mobile Operator to foster competition and innovationSummaryIn this conversation, Peter Cramton discusses the complexities of the Thai telecom market, focusing on the duopoly between AIS and True. He introduces the concept of TIMO, a proposed independent market entity designed to enhance competition and consumer choice. Cramton draws parallels with the electricity market to illustrate how market design can improve efficiency and responsiveness. The discussion also addresses potential implementation challenges and the political landscape surrounding regulatory changes. Ultimately, the conversation emphasizes the need for innovative solutions to foster a more dynamic telecom market in Thailand.TakeawaysCramton proposes TIMO...2024-12-2716 min
Forward Market DesignAn open access global communications marketAn open-access market design is presented to manage network congestion and optimize network use and value. Open access eliminates the walled-garden approach; instead, it commoditizes communications network capacity while decentralizing access to a transparent wholesale market. It ensures that scarce capacity is put to its best use by providing a platform for efficient trade. The market operates without friction using flow trading. It allows participants to bid persistent piecewise-linear downward-sloping demand curves for portfolios of products, gradually adjusting positions toward targeted needs. Flow trading allows fine granularity of products in time and location, creating complete markets. Liquidity and computational...2024-12-2415 min
Forward Market DesignA forward energy marketElectrifying nearly everything is necessary as the world transitions to net zero carbon emissions. Electricity demand will double with rapid innovation in supply and demand. As the share of intermittent renewables, primarily solar and wind, grows and extreme weather events become more frequent, balancing supply and demand every second becomes more challenging. Restructured wholesale markets provide real-time balancing. The market determines clearing prices that balance supply and demand, motivating operations to maximize social welfare. Prices vary by time and place. Electricity prices, typically about $40 per megawatt-hour, may be negative when renewable production is high and thousands of...2024-12-2314 min
Clixed Off!Episode 177 – The Crossover you didn’t ask forEpisode 177 – The Crossover you didn’t ask for
Hosts – Daniel, Tylor, Alex and Special Guest Scott Cramton
In this EP we have Scott on, its fun. Trust us.
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Auxxit is a buy sell discuss platform built to help users connect and find great deals.
Whether you’re a seller a buyer...2022-05-021h 43
Game Changer - the game theory podcastWhat keeps our lights on? Strategic interactions in the electricity market | with Peter CramtonIn this episode, we talk to Peter Cramton about the electricity market. We discuss the 2021 Texas electricity crisis that left millions of Texans without electricity for four extremely cold days. Peter explains how understanding the crisis is important for markets everywhere. He shares with us that a reliable gas supply is essential for resilient electricity and Europe must reduce its dependence on Russian gas. Peter Cramton is Professor of Economics at the University of Cologne and the University of Maryland. His research is focused on auctions and market design. Applications include communications, electricity, and financial markets. His innov...2022-03-1536 min
Energy Unplugged by AuroraEP.68 Peter Cramton, Professor of Economics at the University of CologneIn this episode, our CEO John Feddersen is joined by Peter Cramton, Professor of Economics at the University of Cologne to discuss the future of power markets.
Peter is one of the world’s foremost experts on electricity systems economics, he’s been a leading thinker in market design across energy, telecommunications and health procurements in the US, Europe and beyond. Since 1983, he has conducted research on auctions and market design, with a focus on the design of complex markets to best achieve goals. Between 2015-2021, he was an independent director of the board of the Electric Relia...2021-10-141h 02
FSRPeter Cramton on promoting international climate agreementsPeter Cramton is a professor both at the University of Maryland and the European University Institute, here he gives his opinion on how to promote international climate agreements.
An interview by Christoph Graf, Research Assistant at FSR Climate, recorded 22 October during FSR Climate 2015 Annual Conference.
“The coalition of the willing has to include the United States, Europe, India, China, Brazil… all the large countries who are emitting large amounts of carbon”
“I think that the political will is growing, and what will is growing… and what will help it grow is an effective instrument”2015-10-2707 min
FSRPeter Cramton talks decarbonisation | Energy Today with JM GlachantPeter Cramton, Professor at the University of Maryland and the EUI, is an expert in market design. Here he talks with Jean-Michel Glachant about global decarbonisation negotiations.
Recorded 9 September 2015
"The international negotiations have today been ineffective at addressing decarbonisation, and the basic problem is the process that they're using in the negotiations. They are not taking advantage of what we know about how to promote cooperation in negotiations"
"The pledges are inadequate. They are essentially what are in the self-interests of the countries."
"Price carbon - I will, if you will."
"Rather than making individual pledges, the parties should be...2015-09-1008 min