Due to recent legislation, Benchmarking in the German water and sewerage sector will be introduced as widely as possible. Under certain conditions this decision by the German Bundestag might help to improve the efficiency of the industry. I will define two sets of conditions. First, a useful...

In this paper we examine the emergence over the last two decades in the EU of a dominant policy paradigm on the reform of network industries. We consider the broad recommendations by the OECD and the European Commission, and the Directives adopted by the European Union on the reform of some...

Starting from an industry where production is provided by a public monopolist, we look at the effects on the consumers' surplus of a sequence of reforms in network industry. Using a simple comparative statics framework, we find indifference conditions in consumers' surplus between respectively...

Este texto analiza la política pública neoliberal de mercantilización en Colombia, de los servicios públicos domiciliarios (SPD). Se hicieron tres estudios de caso y se analizó el comportamiento del sector estatal, después de la promulgación de las leyes 142 y 143 de 1994. La...

We compare the economic efficiency of a publicly-owned utility directly controlled by the government with a publicly-owned utility regulated by a public utility commission (PUC). Regulation by a PUC is modelled as a Nash equilibrium of a game between two principals, the government and the PUC,...

Due to recent European developments the question may no longer be if more competition should be introduced in the German water and sewerage sector. The issue rather is what kind of competition ought to be implemented. There are mainly three different approaches: Competition in the Market;...

This paper studies the relationship between operational costs and state ownership in Indian railways between 1874 and 1912. We find the move to state ownership significantly decreased working expenses. The cost declines are not driven by anticipation effects, changes in reporting standards, or...

This paper studies the optimal price structure in the postal sector when worksharing is available (e.g., for collection, sorting and transportation). In particular, we compare the optimal worksharing discount to the ECPR discount. Classification JEL : L9, L51, L32

This study was prepared by Andreas Kuhlmann, while he was working with the Ifo Institute for Economic Research. It was completed in September 2006 and was accepted as a Ph.D. thesis by the Economics Department of the University of Munich. The subject of this study is the analysis of network...

El documento presenta una revisión de la literatura sobre empresas públicas y regulación, con el objetivo de establecer las características fundamentales que debería contener esta última para atender a las particularidades de dichas empresas. Identificar las diferencias entre empresas...