Institutional Commitment Problems and Regional Autonomy: The Catalan Case

This article examines what constitutional arrangements are more likely to facilitate the transfer of effective decision-making power to the regional level. We show that certain constitutional arrangements can result in institutional commitment problems between regional minority and national majority groups, which in turn influence levels of regional autonomy across regions. Specifically, we examine how the depth and scope of decentralization depend on the presence of federal agreements and the availability of institutional guarantees that make the federal contracts credible. Analyzing regional-level data, we show that regions where identity minority groups are majoritarian enjoy more regional autonomy when the commitment problem has resulted in a satisfactory national accommodation. Our findings highlight two important scenarios. The first occurs when the institutional commitment problem is solved, and regional minority groups are granted substantial levels of regional autonomy. The second scenario takes place when the commitment problem is not institutionally accommodated, and hence regional minority groups have systematically lower levels of autonomy. This article illustrates that both federal contracts and credible agreements are important tools to understand regional decision-making powers.

The Credible Commitment Problem in the Third-Party Mediation of the Mindanao Peace Process, 1975–2014

Negotiated settlements of civil wars are challenging since incompatibilities take a long time to resolve. Many scholars have approached this puzzle by identifying information asymmetry and commitment problems as critical deterrents to resolution. Similarly, this article argues that third-party mediation could improve or worsen the parties’ credible commitment problems, as illustrated in the Mindanao peace process mediation that spanned almost four decades. Following a contingency framework in analyzing third-party mediation, this article analyzes existing reports, statements, and peace process agreements using a process tracing methodology. The article argues that the success of a peace process could be attributed to how mediation resolves the parties’ credible commitment problems, which are evident in three aspects of the peace process: getting the parties to negotiate, the use of mediator leverage, and the promise of third-party monitoring and enforcement.

Impact of demand response programs in unit-commitment problems in energy optimization

Demand response is currently being tested by the Brazilian independent system operator, ONS, and by the trading chamber, CCEE. The program considers the reduction of consumption of some registered clients, as an alternative to dispatching thermal power plants according to merit order. The DESSEM computational tool, developed by CEPEL, is currently run by the ONS to define the next-day dispatch for the whole country. The results obtained using an academic version of DESSEM are used to benchmark and compare DESSEM's performance to relocate the load of demand offered by the operator to different clients under different configurations of the power system. Pros and cons are analyzed for different mathematical formulations, particularly regarding their impact on prices, operating costs, and computational times. Special attention is paid to determining the robustness of the considered models for a variety of optimality requirements for solving the unit-commitment problem.

Allies or Commitment Devices? A Model of Appointments to the Federal Reserve

We present a model of executive-legislative bargaining over appointments to independent cen-tral banks in the face of an uncertain economy with strategic economic actors. The model highlights the contrast between two idealized views of Federal Reserve appointments. In one view, politicians prefer to appoint conservatively biased central bankers to overcome credible commitment problems that arise in monetary policy. In the other, politicians prefer to appoint allies, and appointments are well described by the spatial model used to describe appointments to other agencies. Both ideals are limiting cases of our model, which depend on the level of economic uncertainty. When economic uncertainty is extremely low, politicians prefer very conservative appointments. When economic uncertainty increases, politicians’ prefer central bank appointees closer to their own ideal points. In the typical case, the results are somewhere in between: equilibrium appointments move in the direction of politician’s preferences but with a moderate conservative bias.

Territorial wars and absolute outcomes

Why do some wars end with an absolute outcome, with state death or regime change? I argue that we are more likely to see absolute outcomes when we have territorial disputes with the potential for credible commitment problems and asymmetric disputants. In the absence of credible commitment problems, disputes are less likely to recur, and states are unlikely to seek to absorb the opponent state or remove its government. Among more symmetric disputants, states cannot impose an absolute outcome, and we are more likely to see recurrent disputes in the face of credible commitment problems. Only in very asymmetric dyads are we likely to have both the required willingness and opportunity to impose absolute outcomes to attempt to solve a credible commitment problem over territorial conflict.

Unit Commitment with Ancillary Services in a Day-Ahead Power Market

This paper integrates Discrete Particle Swarm Optimization (DPSO) and Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) to propose a DPSO-SQP method for solving unit commitment problems for ancillary services. Through analysis of ancillary services, including Automatic Generation Control (AGC), Real Spinning Reserve (RSR), and Supplemental Reserve (SR), the cost model of unit commitment was developed. With the requirements of energy balance, ancillary services, and operating constraints considered, DPSO-PSO was used to calculate the energy supply of each source, including the associated AGC, RSR, and SR, and the operating cost of a day-ahead power market was calculated. A study case using the real data from thermal units of Taipower Company (TPC) and Independent Power Producers (IPPs) demonstrated effective results for the “summer” and “non-summer” seasons, as classified by TPC for the two charging rates. According to the test cases in this research, costs without ancillary services in non-summer and summer seasons are higher than those with ancillary services. The simulation results are also compared with the Genetic Algorithm (GA), Evolutionary Programming (EP), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), and Simulated Annealing (SA). DPSO-PSO shows effectiveness in solving unit commitment problems with enhanced sorting efficiency, and a higher probability of reaching the global optimum.