Electricity is one of the last U.S.industries in which competition is replacingregulation. We briefly review the technologyfor producing and delivering power, the historyof electricity policy, and recent state andinternational experience. We then outline themajor questions facing policymakers as...

We analyze performance and outcome of principal-agency relationships in an environment with pollution externalities and technological progress. We assume that firms may not purposely violate the pollution control regulations but nonetheless generate some pollution due to negligence. The models...

Economic models of enforcing environmental law have incorporated varying assumptions about regulatory objectives. This paper examines the consequences of different attitudes toward the benefits and costs of pollution control on the part of regulators who have limited powers and resources. We...

In many markets governments set minimum quality standards while some sellers choose to compete on the basis of quality by exceeding them. Such ‘high-quality’ strategies often win public acclaim, especially when ‘environmental friendliness’ is the dimension along which firms are...

This paper shows that an advertising ban is more likely to increase – rather than decrease – total consumption when advertising does not bring about a large expansion of market demand at given prices and when it increases product differentiation (thus allowing firms to command higher...