'Measuring' Independent Regulatory Authorities : A Review

In the past two decades, the thesis of the quot;rise of the regulatory state in Europequot; has been widely discussed in the literature because of changes in the role of the State that have recently occurred. On the one hand, the State retreats from sectors such as utilities, where it was highly interventionist, but on the other hand it regulates the liberalized markets with less intrusive instruments. This implies a shift in the very functions of the State, notably from stabilisation and redistribution to regulation towards quot;authorized agentsquot; called Independent Regulatory Authorities (IRAs). In this paper we have summed up the literature on IRAs' performance distinguishing some approaches concerning analysis on IRA's performances. We have introduced the investment-looking approach that focuses on the regulatory arrangements necessary to sustain private investment. Then we have reconsidered the dominant approach that, deriving from original contribution of Levy and Spiller and of Baldwin and Cave, as reformulated by Pontarollo and Oglietti, offers an institutional analysis of IRA's activities and results. For what concerns infrastructure industries the main contribution is due to Stern and Holder, but further refinements are furnished in our review. Finally, we have made a list of further contributions which may be collected with previous approaches