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This research aims to explore the factors associated with the decisions of brinjal (aubergine) farmers to participate in large wholesale markets and estimate the impact of large wholesale markets participation on producers’ prices in the Jashore and Narsingdi districts of Bangladesh. A linear probability model (LPM) was used to identify the factors associated with decisions to participate in large wholesale markets, and propensity score matching (PSM) was applied to estimate the impact of large wholesale markets on producer prices. The results showed that the decision to participate in a large wholesale market is significantly associated with years of schooling, farm size, the distance from the farm to the large wholesale market, road quality from the farm to the market, access to extension services, market information, group marketing, trust-based credit, yield, and transportation cost. Moreover, this study consistently showed that participation in a large wholesale market had a positive effect on producer price. Therefore, this study suggests the policy implication that comprehensive strategies must be adopted by the government to increase small-scale farmers’ participation in large wholesale markets and improve the welfare of these farmers.

The advent of distributed energy resources (DERs), which include small conventional and renewable generation units, energy storage, and flexible loads in distribution network needs distributed coordination for effective management. In this paper, a stochastic transactive management framework is proposed to minimize overall cost and avoid network constraints violation at the distribution network level. This framework includes day‐ahead scheduling of electric vehicles and air conditioning loads under demand response aggregators (DRAs), and DERs under distributed generation owners (DGOs) into day‐ahead wholesale market in a network managed by a distribution network operator (DNO). An agent called distribution independent system operator (DISO) is responsible for coordination among DRAs, DGOs, and DNO. A heuristic step‐size update approach is proposed to calculate the Lagrange multiplier iteratively and improve the convergence speed. This framework is modeled as a quadratic constraint programming (QCP) problem and solved using the GAMS solver. Simulation results on a modified 33‐bus system with considerable penetration of loads and DERs, shows that the suggested framework can efficiently reduce the iterations to converge and returns an optimal schedule. And demonstrate the effect of network congestion, demand, and generation uncertainties on the resulting objective values of the agents and magnitude of the Lagrange multiplier values.

In April 2003 the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission proposed a complicated market design--the Wholesale Power Market Platform ( WPMP )--for common adoption by all US wholesale power markets. Versions of the WPMP have been implemented in New England, New York, the mid-Atlantic states, the Midwest, the Southwest, and California. Strong opposition to the WPMP persists among some industry stakeholders, however, due largely to a perceived lack of adequate performance testing. This study reports on the model development and open-source implementation (in Java) of a computational wholesale power market organized in accordance with core WPMP features and operating over a realistically rendered transmission grid. The traders within this market model are strategic profit-seeking agents whose learning behaviors are based on data from human-subject experiments. Our key experimental focus is the complex interplay among structural conditions, market protocols, and learning behaviors in relation to short-term and longer-term market performance. Findings for a dynamic 5-node transmission grid test case are presented for concrete illustration. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Wholesale markets, wholesalers, and processors play critical but underappreciated roles in shaping food systems. Most conventional research on food provisioning analyzes value chains in terms of their structure, conduct, and performance. We contend that a practices lens can illuminate how food systems are produced and reproduced through the emergence of new wholesale practices relating to quality, trust, and risk, and provide more nuanced understandings of how markets and trading shape and are shaped by food system transformations. Applying a practices lens to the analysis of these changes can help identify new ways of steering food systems toward more sustainable outcomes.

Heavy metal contamination of fish is a serious public health concern worldwide, including in Bangladesh. In this study, six commonly consumed fish species namely Hilsha ( Tenualosa ilisha ), Kachki ( Corica soborna ), Punti (Puntitus ticto ), Taki (Channa punctatus ), Meni (Nandus nandus ), and Tengra ( Mystus tengara ) were analyzed for arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), and nickel (Ni), by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The fish samples were collected from wholesale markets in Dhaka city, the main business hub of Bangladesh where the fishes converged from countrywide and are redistributed to the whole city. The metal concentration varied among the studied fish species. Hilsha, the national fish of Bangladesh, contained the highest As among the other fishes of this study, whereas Zn, Cd, Cu, Mn, and Ni were the highest in Kachki, and Pb and Cr were the highest in Tengra. The probable source of metal accumulation in the fish species may be the river or marine water that can be contaminated by industrial waste, pesticide, and/or fertilizer use in agriculture and/or commercial fish feeds. All analyzed fish species showed serious heavy metal pollution, having high average pollution load index (APLI) values (> 1). The estimated daily intake (EDI) values for the metals were lower than the maximum tolerable daily intake (MTDI). The hazard index (HI) for all the fish species was above 1 for adults, showing non-carcinogenic health risks. The target carcinogenic risk (TCR) values were below the acceptable limit (10 −4 ) for most of the metals, indicating safe for consumption with respect to the risk of cancer.

The deregulation process of the electricity sector has led to competition in wholesale and retail markets. In particular, retailers submit bids to wholesale markets to satisfy the energy needs associated with portfolios of end-use customers. This paper describes a strategic process for retailers bidding in a wholesale market composed of a day-ahead market, an intraday market, and a balancing market. It considers a market design that involves a hybrid model for the intraday market, based on daily auctions and a continuous procedure. The paper also presents a computational study to illustrate and test both the market design and the strategic bidding process of retailers. The results confirm the advantages of considering a continuous intraday market, show that bidding in short-term markets is more beneficial than bidding in medium-term markets, and indicate important aspects to consider when selecting customers to add to the portfolios of retailers.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are transforming the business models and entrepreneurial ecosystems of different economic activities. As a result, the survival of some of these activities, especially physical markets, is under threat. This article aims to shed light on the distinct e-commerce mechanisms of wholesale markets that enable transforming and upgrading their ecosystem. The study combines insights from the scholarly debate on ecosystems, wholesale markets, and e-commerce with the empirical findings of a case study (a wholesale fruit market in Chongqing, China). By exploring the mechanisms and outcomes of e-commerce, this article shows that ICT adoption can be a threat as well as an opportunity for wholesale markets. On the one hand, transaction costs and marketing channel power might make physical wholesale markets less attractive for wholesalers and customers. On the other hand, network effects and business model innovation can enhance the traditional wholesale advantages of physical markets, in turn transforming and upgrading this traditional ecosystem into an entrepreneurial one.

The feedstock seasonality has been poorly studied in the anaerobic digestion process. The seasonality could disturb the digestion process stability, mainly for fruit and vegetable waste. In this study, three seasonal waste mixtures generated in wholesale markets were reduced to 10, 6, and 4 mm to assess the influence of seasonality and particle size reduction on anaerobic biodegradability. The methane yield ranged between 298 and 465 mL CH 4 g VS −1 (volatile solids). Waste mixtures produced in spring at 10-mm particle size presented higher methane production than in autumn/winter and summer, i.e., 32% and 61%, respectively. Methane production decreased with reducing particle size for waste produced in spring from 482 ± 12 to 310 ± 1 mL CH 4 g VS −1 . In contrast, waste produced in autumn/winter and summer did not show high differences among different sizes. Despite these differences, mixtures with the smallest particle size presented the highest methane production rate. Graphical abstract

Integration among domestic markets is a necessary condition for economic efficiency and it ensures maximum gains for all agents in the marketing chain (producers, consumers, and intermediaries). This paper uses an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model to test for market integration across wholesale markets of paddy in Chhattisgarh - a state in eastern India where a large share of the population is engaged in paddy cultivation. Using monthly data from 2004 to 2016, the study does find evidence of significant horizontal price transmissions among markets both within and across different districts of the state. However, the speed of price adjustments to long-run equilibrium is found to be slow. This indicates that market integration within the state is, at most, weak and, therefore, it is not advisable to excessively rely on price-support policies without initiating market reforms for improved integration. Interestingly, the findings about price transmission (and market integration) are found to be sensitive to the choice of paddy variety: different varieties sold in the same mandi show no evidence of interdependence. Finally, the study identifies lead, lag and isolated markets within the state. Given the imperfections and inequities that exist in the implementation of agricultural price policies (especially in terms of access to support prices) across India, these findings can act as crucial inputs for reassessing policy interventions.

Rising levels of variable renewable energy (VRE) in Australia’s National Electricity Market have been driven by a 20% renewable energy target by 2020. This certificated renewable portfolio standard has successfully driven new investment, allocated risk amongst buy- and sell-side market participants and met overall policy objectives. But a policy vacuum for achieving long-term CO2 emission targets post-2020 has led to sub-national and, potentially, national governments initiating contract-for-differences (CfDs) to drive further investment activity in new plant—with virtually no coordination between the jurisdictions. In a gross pool energy-only market setting, replacing on-market transactions between retailers and generators with off-market transactions between governments and generators may have unintended side-effects vis-à-vis market stability. In this article, an energy-only gross pool is modeled with rising levels of off-market government-initiated CfDs, with a specific focus on spot and forward contract market outcomes. Model results show that as VRE plant enters, coal plant exit, and on-market firm hedge contracts historically supplied by coal plant are progressively replaced by off-market CfDs. In the event, while a tractable equilibrium can be maintained in the spot market, shortages of “primary issuance” hedge contracts emerge in the forward market. Any shortage of hedge contract capacity is likely to raise forward contract price premiums above efficient levels, force price-elastic customers into accepting unwanted spot market exposures and may unintentionally foreclose non-integrated (2nd tier) energy retailers, all of which harms consumer welfare. A wide-ranging program of government CfDs may therefore not be compatible with an energy-only market design.