The choice between a facility-based model of competition and a service-based one has been at the heart of the regulatory debate since its inception: economists have largely discussed the issue and clarified the pros and cons of each solution. But the regulatory practice has not greatly profited...

From mid-eighties, due to the decline of public enterprises, the European integration process and the globalisation of the economies, in the utilities' sector, regulation has replaced the traditional way of state intervention through industrial policy. Consequently, nowadays in many countries...