This book addresses the EU as powerful driver of the wave of privatizations in the network industries and public services since the early 1990s. Based on theoretical arguments and empirical studies it examines the impact of these policies on what is regarded as the normative pillars of the...

In this chapter, we aim to establish whether liberalization and accompanying regulatory arrangements have delivered the expected efficiency gains. In section I, we discuss the theoretical issues and demonstrate that ‘marketable’ yet simplistic arguments in favour of liberalization tend to...