This paper tackles a fundamental question in electricity market design that affects billions in energy costs.
Most major electricity markets (US, EU) use "Pay-as-Clear" pricing where all producers get paid the highest accepted bid. The alternative is "Pay-as-Bid" where each producer gets their own bid amount.
The European Commission argues Pay-as-Clear promotes "efficiency and transparency." But this game-theoretic analysis finds Pay-as-Bid consistently yields lower worst-case prices, even though neither mechanism dominates in all scenarios.
The key insight: while Pay-as-Clear might have better best-case outcomes, Pay-as-Bid provides better worst-case guarantees - arguably more important for critical infrastructure.
Given the scale of electricity markets, even small efficiency gains could mean significant consumer savings. Makes you wonder why the industry standard persists despite the theoretical evidence.
(Spotted via my Research Paper widget on get-alfred.ai — thought it was worth a share.)
A new study finds that for students on aid the biggest motivator was a simple reminder of the rules to keep their scholarship. This leads to more credits and fewer dropouts compared to the other school of thought that assumes what motivates college students to succeed is the future salary.
I came across this on the research paper feed widget on https://get-alfred.ai and thought it was interesting and worth sharing
Hey HN – after years juggling 20+ tabs, inboxes, and scattered tools, I built alfred_ — a customizable internet dashboard that lets you unify everything that matters to you (news, research, markets, productivity, etc.) into a single, drag-and-drop interface.
It's inspired by the simplicity of iGoogle and the modularity of Notion — but built for 2025.
Still in early beta — would love your feedback or ideas on what widgets to build next.
Remember iGoogle? A homepage you could actually make your own — weather, stocks, RSS feeds, email, and more, all in one view. It was discontinued in 2013, and I’ve never really found anything that scratched the same itch… until now.
Just stumbled on alfred_, which feels like a reimagined version of that idea, built for 2025.
It’s a customizable dashboard with live widgets — market data, SEC filings, RSS readers, Pomodoro timers, research tools, and even AI integrations. You drag-and-drop what you need, and the whole thing syncs across devices (offline-first too).
Curious if anyone else misses this type of interface — a true command center for your digital life, not just another feed.
I built Skimz (https://skimz.ai) because I was tired of spending 70+ minutes daily on news consumption and still feeling like I was missing important developments.
The app distills news across markets, geopolitics, tech, health and more into a clean, skimmable format with citations. It's designed to be consumed in exactly 10 minutes each day.
Key features I implemented:
- Responsive layout that works well on any device
- Dark/light mode with theme persistence
- Citation links to original sources (work-in-progress)
- Offline-first architecture for reading on-the-go
- Structured sections that follow a consistent format daily
I'd appreciate any feedback, especially on the content tone and structure. Are there features you'd want to see in something like this? My goal was to create a tool that allows builders and founders to stay informed without turning news consumption into a part-time job. That way we can all spend less time scrolling and more time building the future.
Staying informed today feels like a full-time job: endless tabs, scattered sources, and click-chasing headlines.
On top of that, the average American spends 70 minutes a day keeping up on the news.
While Morning Brew attempted to address this issue, I never felt satisfied with the depth and coverage.
So I decided to try to fix this problem myself.
I built Skimz to cut through the noise with one smart, structured read in under 10 minutes.
No fluff, just facts.
Just the news that matters — all before your second coffee.
I'd appreciate your feedback on the format, content selection, and any areas for improvement. Hopefully some of you will find this useful and will be able to allocate more time to build going forward.
Most major electricity markets (US, EU) use "Pay-as-Clear" pricing where all producers get paid the highest accepted bid. The alternative is "Pay-as-Bid" where each producer gets their own bid amount.
The European Commission argues Pay-as-Clear promotes "efficiency and transparency." But this game-theoretic analysis finds Pay-as-Bid consistently yields lower worst-case prices, even though neither mechanism dominates in all scenarios.
The key insight: while Pay-as-Clear might have better best-case outcomes, Pay-as-Bid provides better worst-case guarantees - arguably more important for critical infrastructure.
Given the scale of electricity markets, even small efficiency gains could mean significant consumer savings. Makes you wonder why the industry standard persists despite the theoretical evidence.
(Spotted via my Research Paper widget on get-alfred.ai — thought it was worth a share.)