The EU Water Framework Directive stipulates the principle of cost recovery, including environmental and resource costs, for European water services. Yet a definition of member states' precise obligations is highly controversial. This particularly holds true for the question whether the request...

In the German wastewater sector, innovations are often regarded to be the key to both more efficient service provision and reduction of environmental and health-related problems. However, it is unclear what factors foster these innovations. One possible candidate factor is increased competition...

This paper seeks to disaggregate concerns about energy security within the wider European neighbourhood from the nation-state to the household, and particularly to poor households in the transition and developing economies of the former Soviet Union. It argues that two decades of...

We study a long-term relationship between a risk-neutral firm that has been delegated to manage a local utility project and a regulator that has always the option-to-revoke the delegation. We show that when the threat of revocation is credible and the cost of exercising it is not too high, the...

Nach einer Welle der Privatisierung öffentlicher Dienstleistungen in den 1980er und 1990er Jahren möchten viele Gemeinden jetzt wieder stärker die Daseinsvorsorge direkt gestalten. Dabei stellt sich die Frage 'privat oder staatlich' nur bei solchen Angeboten, die tatsächlich öffentliche...

Das Gemeinwesen braucht öffentliche Güter: die Wasserversorgung genauso wie den Kindergarten. Doch die öffentlichen Einrichtungen sind unterfinanziert. Deshalb lebt der Staat schon länger von seiner Substanz. Auf Dauer untergräbt diese Entwicklung die Grundlagen unseres Alltagslebens: Die...