Documents

Political and regulatory risk: Is it a serious problem? Can it be limited? Report of the Risk Commission
The Regulatory Policy Institute’s Better Government Programme was established to focus on practical proposals for improving accountability and transparency in UK and EU policy and regulatory processes. Consideration of political risk – uncertainty arising from actions or the structure of policy or regulatory processes – falls naturally within that remit and is topical at a time when considerable attention is being paid to risk assessment and management as an integral part of directors’ and financiers’ duties.
The Risk Commission was originally assembled under the aegis of the Social Market Foundation. The work was subsequrntly transferred to the RPI

Better Government Report: Political and regulatory risk: Summary
Consideration of political risk – uncertainty arising from actions or the structure of policy or regulatory processes – is topical at a time when considerable attention is being paid to risk assessment and management as an integral part of directors’ and financiers’ duties. The RPI assembled a group of politicians, former officials and Special Advisers, and corporate and City specialists to work with us in assessing the evidence.

Competition Policy, Innovation and Technological Change
Speech to the Hertford Seminar in Regulation, ‘New challenges in competition policy’

The nature of regulatory risk
Regulatory risk is a controversial topic. Firstly, does the presence of an industry regulator create regulatory risk, and, secondly, if regulatory risk does exist, should investors be compensated in the form of extra return? This study investigates these issues for UK regulated businesses, and, importantly, it also investigates whether the notion of regulatory risk should be widened to include the actions of one industry regulator imparting risk upon the whole regulatory sector. Capital market data is collected in connection with an announcement concerning a possible change in the regulatory regime for elctricity companies. We find substantial evidence of a consistent market reaction to the announcement acroos the electricity and water industries, with less compleeing evidence for other regulated companies. The market reaction is not explained as an adjustment for systematic risk. Therefore the conclusions from this evidence are that regulatory risk is present, that this risk may not be confined to an industry, and it is risk that does not require compensation in the form of additional return – it is unsystemic risk.

Regulatory risk and cost of capital: summary of views of interveiwees
Between July 1995 and January 1996 a series of one-to-one reviews were carried out with all the regulatory bodies, seven investment analysts, five companies each in the electricity and water industries, British Gas (BG), British Telecom (BT and British Airports Authority (BAA). Issues focused on the sources and nature of risk, the cost of capital and other pressing concerns of interviewees. This document provides a summary of the views expressed.

How regulation works: BT’s experience
A personal perspective on the regulatory relationships, their workings, and their effects on the way business operates, including: remarks of a somewhat theoretical kind about the nature of regulation in a free market economy; an examination of the way in which ideas on what regulation is about have been incorporated into the regime for telecommunications and how these ideas have actually worked in practice; and some proposals for reform

Political Intervention versus L’Etat de Droit Economique: The issue of convergence of competition policies in Europe
It could be argued that 35 years after the signing of the Treaty of Rome, European competition policy is on the verge of fulfilling its

The effects of regulation in the UK beer market
From time to time UK governments and their agencies have been concerned about the level of competion in the beer market, and, in particular, whether competition is sufficiently effective to ensure that, given the government tax take, prices are kept low in relation to costs.

Regulatory interventions for promoting investments in environmentally benign energy technologies
The costs and effectiveness of two CO2 emission control policies in Japan