Is the prevailing wholesale market design in Europe and North America comparable?

The differences between the prevailing wholesale market design in Europe and North America should not be exaggerated. Furthermore, the tendencies in Europe are such that the differences will continue to fade. This paper discusses day-ahead auction participation and the treatment of network constraints and non-convexities in Europe in comparison with North America. For the moment, the most relevant difference is the treatment of network constraints. Europe has a less efficient design in dealing with the network, but is deploying this design on a more efficient scale.