This study provides an empirical test of price mimicking among regulated utilities. Since publicly owned water utilities in Sweden are governed by a cost-of-service regulation, prices in neighboring municipalities should not affect the own price other than through spatially correlated cost...

Filing of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University to the Federal Trade Commission for the FTC's June 9, 2015 workshop on "The “Sharing” Economy: Issues Facing Platforms, Participants, and Regulators." The Mercatus Center at George Mason University is dedicated to advancing knowledge...

This paper argues that the sharing economy — through the use of the Internet and real time reputational feedback mechanisms — is providing a solution to the “lemons problem” that many regulations, and regulators, have spent decades attempting to overcome. Section I provides an overview...

The rise of the sharing economy has changed how many Americans commute, shop, vacation, and borrow. It has also disrupted long-established industries, from taxis to hotels, and has confounded policymakers. In particular, regulators are trying to determine how to apply many of the traditional...

Although competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) collectively have gained considerable market share since the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, many entrants into local telecommunications have stumbled or failed. Some argue that competitive local telephony will eventuate only if...

To date, most residential customers to the Internet have used dial-up modems with a top speed of about 56.6 kbps [kilobits per second]. In the past two years broadband access has become available via cable modems offered by the local unregulated cable provider and via digital subscriber lines...

While the electricity industry is currently experiencing a regime shift from state regulation to competitive markets for generation, a number of questions regarding the change in regulatory environment in the electricity industry during the beginning of this century remain unsettled. This paper...

Economic regulation, including competition policy, is not an end in itself but a means to an end, and must ultimately have a positive impact on the economy as a whole. However, this positive impact needs to be broad-based or inclusive, particularly in the context of South Africa given its legacy...

The paper examines the economic and regulatory factors that led to an explosion in the wholesale power prices, supply shortages, and utility insolvencies in California's electricity sector. A necessary first step in determining the lessons learned from the California electricity crisis is a...

We examine the impact on inter-regional trade in eastern U.S. electricity markets arising from the FERC-supported creation of Independent System Operators (ISOs). Our analysis focuses on the PJM ISO (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and other states) and its trade with the New York ISO and...