Materials from Conferences

Documents

The regulation of water public services in France

In France, the debate on regulation of public services often excludes the water sector, one of the few sectors not affected by post-war nationalisation. The industry is decentralisied, with quality and price placed on the large number of communes. The 1990s saw increasing social demands in favour of better regulaton.

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Documents

New regulations for public services in competition

This is an introduction to a book (edited by Claude Henry, Michel Matheu and Alain Jeunemaitre and published by OUP 2001) assessing new forms of public regulation in Europe and indicating what has already been learned and suggesting the questions that need to be addressed.

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Documents

Co-operation among energy regulators in the European Union

This paper addresses the questions of how and why do European energy regulators co-operate.It is divided into five sections: a description of the legal framewrorks and market structures of electricity and natural gas in the EU; why energy regulators have been introduced by most Member States and why different institutional formats have been adopted; why co-operation among energy regulators is necessary; the main objectives of the Council of European Energy Regulators; the role of regulators within the political and institutional framework of the EU.

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Documents

Developments in regulatory principles: the UK experience

Developments in the principles of utility regulation are assessed in the light of UK experience. The incentives-rent extraction model of price regulation, multi-product pricing and access pricing, rules for spot markets, structural regulation and the problem of regulatory commitment are discussed using a unified theoretical framework.

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Documents

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.

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Documents

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.

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Documents

Problems of regulating environmental externalities

Environmental regulation is defined as regulation undertaken to protect environmental standards. The precise objectives are, however, frequently far less clear, sometimes even to the regulator. Definition of precise objecives of the regulation is a crucial first step.

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Documents

The optimal control of global warming

This paper integrates a simple model of the global economy with a model of the global climate in order to calculate the associated evolution of global warming over the very long term. It includes both a brief non technical overview of the model and a detailed description of the model.

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Documents

Notes on energy prices and regulatory policy

Energy prices are a much favoured target of public policy, subject to price controls in franchised monopoly markets, with a levy applied to electricity generated from fossil-fuel generating sets passed over to the operators of nuclear power stations.

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Materials from Conferences

Wither gas regulation?

Three papers based upon presentations at a seminar held at Hertford College, Oxford in February 1992. The presentations were intended to offer rather different perspectives on gas regulation.

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