Section one of this paper discusses the problem of regulatory design in general terms, but with a special focus on economics in transition. Section two reviews problems of adjustment related to the telecommunications industry and the regulatory framework in which they are being addressed....

In section 1 we discuss the need for economic regulation in infrastructure industries and how this need is met in state-owned and privately owned utilities. In section 3 we discuss regulatory commitment and its implications for regulatory governance as well as the potential role of concession...

The plan of this short paper is the following. In section 2 we set out the necessary steps for an effective reform programme for the electricity supply industry (ESI) in a CIS country like Belarus. Reform programmes of this type are being pursued more or less actively in Russia, Kazakhstan and...

Since 1990, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have been under considerable pressure to develop explicit regulatory institutions. Initially, the main pressure for this policy came from the World Bank and other international lending agencies. Indeed, the requirement for an independent...

Over the last 10-15 years, a new standard model has taken hold for the economic framework for the operation of utilities. The new model has as its core that utility services will be: -provided by a set of commercialised companies; -monopoly (eg network) elements are separated from potentially...

Oftel has now been the regulatory agency for UK telecommunications for over 15 years. The FCC has regulated US telecoms for 67 years. Within the EU, regulatory agencies for telecoms now exist in all 15 EU member states. Over the last 15 years, the UK has seen an increase in the number of...

In recent years, there has been much interest in the use of auctions in utility service industries in the UK and in other countries. The most publicised examples have been franchise auctions eg. auctions for 3G mobile telecom spectrum, the UK auctions of railways operating franchises, etc....

This paper explores the similarity of the underlying economic problems that lead to the establishment of (a) independent central banks to operate national monetary policies and (b) independent regulatory agencies for telecommunications and other utility service industries. We show that, in both...

Successful electricity industry reform depends on the presence of an appropriately staffed regulatory agency for the liberalised sector. However developing countries can have resource contraints that make the establishment of an effective regulatory agency difficult. This paper attempts an...

The paper reviews a number of studies of the effectiveness of utility regulatory agency and governance arrangements for the electricity industry, particularly for developing countries. It discusses governance criteria and their measurement, both legal frameworks and surveys of regulatory...