Coordination Under Uncertain Conditions: An Analysis of the Fukushima Catastrophe

Masahiko Aoki and Geoffrey Rothwell

Governance Working Papers from East Asian Bureau of Economic Research

Abstract: This paper analyzes the impacts of the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, which were amplified by a failure of coordination across the plant, corporate, industrial, and regulatory levels, resulting in a nuclear catastrophe, comparable in cost to Chernobyl. It derives generic lessons for industrial structure and regulatory frame of the electric power industry by identifying the two shortcomings of a horizontal coordination mechanism : instability under large shock and the lack of “defense in depth.†The suggested policy response is to harness the power of “open-interface-rule-based modularity†by creating an independent nuclear safety commission and an independent system operator owning the transmission grids in Japan. We propose a transitory price mechanism that can restrain price volatility while providing investment incentives.

Keywords: Japan; coordination mechanism; horizontal coordination mechanism; Fukushima (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L22 L43 L94 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene
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Working Paper: Coordination Under Uncertain Conditions: An Analysis of the Fukushima Catastrophe (2011)
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