Rethinking public service regulation after the crisis (2025)

The Regulation of Utility Infrastructure and Services

, and Rich Gentry for their background research. We would also like to thank the World Bank staff and attendees at the review meetings at Eynsham Hall and Arlie House for their helpful suggestions and comments. The authors take responsibility for all errors and omissions. This paper was first published with the title: "Annotated Reading List for a Body of Knowledge on: The Regulation of Utility Infrastructure Services." If you have any questions or comments on this initiative, please contact the World Bank Task Manager, Lorenzo Bertolini, at lbertolini@worldbank.org. The Regulation of Utility Infrastructure and Services: An Annotated Reading List Table of Contents INTRODUCTION NOTE ON REFERENCES OVERVIEW OF UTILITY REGULATION CHAPTER I. GENERAL CONCEPTS Case Studies Chapter I Cases by Topic Area A. Rationale for regulation, including regulation of monopolies and oversight of competitive markets, public interest theory, interest group theory, and the difference between normative and positive theories of regulation. B. Rationale for reform of utility markets (e.g. fiscal constraints, technological change, policy innovations, incentives for efficiency) and the elements of market reform, including private participation, liberalization, and regulation.

The Politics of Public Services in European Regulation

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

Although the goal of market integration has not actually been challenged in recent years, it has nevertheless increasingly come to be considered incomplete and in need of complementary goals which serve the general interest by promoting social cohesion and equality . The debate has been conducted in various areas, such as in the fight against unemployment and poverty and in the provision of public utilities. In the latter case, regarding the provision of energy, water, communication and transport, the debate was sparked by the privatisation of public monopolies and their infrastructure networks, and the deregulation of service provision. The network industries which had traditionally been shielded from competition and were run within national boundaries were dramatically transformed. This change -which in some countries resulted from European legislation -was meant to induce more producer competition, improved productivity, more consumer choice in the supply of network services, and lower prices (Bergman et al. 1998:4). However, it has triggered concerns over the maintenance of general-interest goals in service provision, i.e., over safeguarding the accessibility, equality, continuity, security and affordability of these services after liberalisation.

Local utilities and public services in Europe: challenges and opportunities

Local utilities represent one of the least studied subject among the disciplines focused on the transformations of network industries and, more generally, on the delivery of local public services (LPS). This deficit of attention is not due to a lack of relevance, as publicly owned corporations and institutional public-private partnership represent an important phenomenon in many European countries such as Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries, just to name a few. More likely, scholars overlooked public utilities because they constitute a difficult topic to deal with. There is no homogeneous legal framework at the European level and each Member State has its own tradition in regulating the utilities. Moreover, even within each national context, reliable databases on local utilities often do not exist and, in any case, it is very difficult to undertake cross-country comparisons. The four articles in this special issue of the Network Industries Quarterly confirm the multifaceted nature of this subject and open the floor for future reflections on the role of local utilities and regulation of LPS in Europe. Citroni, Lippi and Profeti highlight the political nature of local utilities. At the crossroad between public ownership and market environment, local utilities stand out as complex agents that are influenced but also able to affect local regulation. In this light Di Giulio and Galanti describe the ongoing regionalization of local public services in Italy. The other two contributions focus on two classical features concerning the regulation of these kinds of markets. Ida and Talit provide insights on the building of a market for bus and coach lines in Israel as a driver of efficiency. Sokołowski explores the potential of local utilities as agents of policy effectiveness in improving energy security.

LIBERALIZATION AND PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC UTILITIES: ORIGINS OF THE DEBATE, CURRENT ISSUES AND CHALLENGES FOR THE FUTURE

Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 2008

'Public services/Public enterprises'. Over the past two decades CIRIEC contributed some recognized theoretical and empirical studies dealing with the functioning, governance and reform of public enterprises, based on an international perspective. * Résumé en fin d'article; Zusammenfassung am Ende des Artikels; resumen al final del artículo.

Utilities in the European Community: A Regime in Transition

Futures: The Journal of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Technology Management, 1992

This article examines the prospects for the European electricity and telecommunications utilities in the EC policy framework. It places EC developments in the broader context of institutional and technological change and assesses the consequences of these changes for consumers and suppliers as well as the utilities themselves. It considers the extent to which the historically national framework for these utilities may be superseded by an EC regime, and explores some of the tensions between integration and competition.

Business-Regulatory Relations: Learning to Play Regulatory Games in European Utility Markets

Governance, 2005

Although regulation is on the rise in the European Union, the liberalization of the telecommunication and energy markets has not created a uniform European Regulatory model. The principle focus of this article is to examine the interaction and regulatory learning between national regulatory authorities and business in the U.K. and German utility markets to assess the degree of convergence and demonstrate how the regulatory relationship has evolved beyond that envisaged in the initial delegation of powers to the regulator. The article shows that independent regulatory authorities have moved from distant and often confrontational relationships with business to strategic working relationships driven by exchanges of information and reputation building and that regulatory learning and trust have evolved at distinct speeds in sectors and countries depending on the number of regulatory authorities in a market place, the degree to which there are concurrent powers between authorities, their discretion in the consultation process, and the length of time that regulatory authorities had existed. Consequently, significant variance is continuously seen in the businessregulator relationships in comparing the young legalist German regulatory authorities with the established independent and discretion-based regulators in the U.K.

The Issues Raised by the Experience of Utility Privatization in the Uk

Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 1996

The UK utilities have all had a change of ownership over the last decade and a half Does it really change things and, if so, i n what ways? In fact, very little research has been carried out on this much copied experiment and evidence on efficiency gains is not that strong. But two main things have * My thanks to Liz Barrett for extensive help with this paper and to Spencer Livermore for much of the work on the data. Peter Vass of the Centre for Regulated Industries and Michael Waterson of Warwick University gave helpful comments. ** Rbume' en fin &article; Zusammenfassung am Ende des Artikels; reslimen a1 fin del articulo.

Restructuring and privatizing electric utilities in Eastern Europe

The Economics of Transition, 1994

The Metamorphoses of Universal Service in the European Telecommunications and Energy Sector: A Trans-Sectoral Perspective

German Law Journal

Universal service has a pivotal role in market liberalization and competition on both sides of the Atlantic. It is central to the European thinking on markets and public service and is an inevitable element of market liberalization and sectoral competition rules. The universal service aims at preserving the public service in a competitive environment. The paper analyzes this cornerstone of the European thinking from a comparative and trans-sectoral perspective, demonstrating that the concept of universal services should be fundamentally re-conceptualized in EU electronic communications and energy regulation.

Liberalization of Electricity Markets and Public Service Obligations in the Energy Community

2012