The EU regulatory framework for e-communications was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council in 2002, and became applicable from 2003. It has three primary objectives: (1) to promote competition; (2) to develop the single market; and (3) to promote citizens' rights. The European...

Negotiated settlements have become a frequently used alternative to contested proceedings when setting prices charged by public utilities under the US rate-of-return regulatory model. The behavior of the representatives of consumer advocates and the firms during settlement negotiations determine...

La existencia de empresas públicas es un fenómeno habitual y económicamente significativo en la mayoría de los países. En este trabajo se analiza la existencia de empresas estatales en la región y en Uruguay, considerándose los motivos para su creación; las propuestas de reforma surgidas...

The economics of federalism is a broad discipline with more than five decades of experience. It may shed light on how regulatory jurisdiction is allocated in EU electricity and telecommunications markets. Specifically, this paper assesses the evolution of reform up to and including the third EU...

This article starts by surveying the literature on economic federalism and relating it to network industries. Some new developments (which focus on the role of inter-jurisdictional externalities and multiple objectives) are then added and used to analyze regulatory arrangements in...

Regulation of the cable television industry was marked by remarkable periods of deregulation, re-regulation, and re-deregulation during the 1980s and 1990s. Using FCC firm-level survey data spanning 1993 to 2001, we model and econometrically estimate the effect of regulation and competition on...

In recent years we have witnessed several reforms in network industries, as privatization, regulatory changes and opening to competition in certain segments of the value chain. In sectors such as electricity and gas, this opening to competition is possible only in certain activities (i.e....

Maintaining rapid economic growth depends increasingly on productivity gains, particularly in the service sector. Competition has an important role to play in achieving such gains. However, Korea’s development strategy has tended to weaken competition and has left a legacy of government...

Empirical work shows that competition is important for promoting economic growth. However, in Japan the promotion of competition has long been compromised by ministerial guidance and exemptions from the competition law. Thus, the level and growth of productivity have been low in many...

The research question addressed by this paper is a simple one: are European consumers happy with the services provided by the utilities after two decades of reforms? We focus on electricity, gas, water, telephone in the EU 15 Member States. The variables we analyse are consumers’ satisfaction...