The empirical literature on the cost structure of the electric utility industry traditionally focused on the measurement of specific technological properties: i) scale economies in generation or distribution; ii) multi-product (or horizontal) economies of scope at the downstream stage; iii)...

In the last decade a new regulatory framework for electric utilities, aiming at a gradual liberalization of the sector, has been set in Europe. The promotion of competition among generators implies the need to separate power generation from downstream transmission and distribution activities....

Empirical studies on the cost structure of Public Transit Networks are mainly based on specialized firms providing urban or intercity services. In this study we estimate a translogarithmic variable cost function to assess the behaviour of returns to scale and the impact of network...

The quality of the institutional environment is a crucial issue in understanding the effective outcome of fiscal decentralization initiatives. However, there has been so far very little work on the subject. In this paper we contribute to fill this gap by considering the municipalities belonging...