Download or read book Regulating Power The Economics of Electrictiy in the Information Age written by Carl Pechman and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modem industrial society functions with the expectation that electricity will be available when required. By law, electric utilities have the obligation to provide electricity to customers in a "safe and adequate" manner. In exchange for this obligation, utilities are granted a monopoly right to provide electricity to customers within well-defmed service territories. However, utilities are not unfettered in their monopoly power; public utility commissions regulate the relationship between a utility and its customers and limit profits to a "fair rate of return on invested capital. " From its inception through the late 1970s, the electric utility industry's opera tional paradigm was to continue marketing electricity to customers and to build power plants to meet customer needs. This growth was facilitated by a U. S. energy policy predicated upon the assumption that sustained electric growth was causally linked to social welfare (Lovins, 1977). The electric utility industry is now in transition from a vertically integrated monopoly to a more competitive market. Of the three primary components (generation, transmission, and distribution) of the traditional vertically integrated monopoly, generation is leading this transformation. The desired outcome is a more efficient market for the provision of electric service, ultimately resulting in lower costs to customers. This book focuses on impediments to this transformation. In partiCUlar, it argues that information control is a form of market power that inhibits the evolution of the market. The analysis is presented within the context of the transformation of the U. S.

Download or read book Understanding Electric Utilities and De Regulation written by Lorrin Philipson and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 1998-09-10 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides a thorough review of the past, present and future of the wholesale and retail electic power industry. It includes tutorial chapters on electric utility function and structure, electricity and power, the uses of electric power, and more. The authors provide a simple but complete discussion of de-regulation and explain the structure of the de-regulated electric power industry, including the competitive wholesale and retail levels, the retail energy services sector, and more.

Download or read book Atomic Energy Costing written by Warren Young and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the centennial year of the birth of Sir John Cockcroft, first master of my Cam bridge College, Churchill, and the first man to split the atomic nucleus by artificial means, it is indeed relevant to consider the outcome of his efforts at developing atomic power. From the earliest days of the construction of Calder Hall-the first nuclear power station in Britain-and the establishment of the British Atomic Re search Center at Harwell, and the Chalk River Nuclear Station in Canada, through the "Windscale" nuclear accident in Britain, up to the present, when some 20% of UK energy is derived from nuclear power, the Cockcroft legacy is felt. As the British historian Mark Goldie put it, in the "pure and sanguine 1950s," Cockcroft had almost absolute "faith in 'peaceful atoms' and in the boundless, almost cost free, energy that atoms would soon produce" (Goldie, 1997, p. 21). But, as the eminent economist Frank Hahn recalled, "the only failing Cockcroft had" was "that he wasn't up to much in economics. " Indeed, Hahn recalled that he "had to explain" to Cockcroft "the economic notion of optimum durability" as it related to the "interest rate" in the context of building Churchill College with "hand-made bricks. " After his explana tion, as Hahn recalled "Cockcroft smiled and proceeded to order more hand-made bricks" (Hahn, 1997, p. 27).

Download or read book Regulation and Economic Analysis written by R.L. Gordon and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Regulation and Economic Analysis: A Critique Over Two Centuries argues that long experience with the practice of regulation creates a broad anti-intervention consensus among economists. This consensus is based on comparison of real intervention to real markets rather than an ideological preconception. It is shown that economic theory can support all possible positions on intervention. Much theory is too abstract to support any policy position; many arguments about how intervention might help contain qualifications expressing doubts about whether the potential can be realized; many theories illustrate the drawbacks of intervention. The vast literature on these issues concentrates either on specific cases or polemics that exaggerate both sides of the argument. Regulation and Economic Analysis seeks to show the depth of the discontent, develop interpretations of economic theory that follow from skepticism about statism and provide selected illustrations. The discussion begins with examination of general equilibrium theory and proceeds to discuss market failure with stress on monopoly and particularly what is deemed excessive concern with predatory behavior. International trade issues, transaction costs, property rights, economic theories of government, the role of special institutions such as contracts, the defects of macroeconomic and equity arguments for regulating individual markets, environmental economics and the defects of public land management policies are examined.

Download or read book Regulation Under Increasing Competition written by Michael A. Crew and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Regulation Under Increasing Competition brings together practitioners, regulators, and economists to examine the important policy and regulatory issues facing the telecommunications and electricity industries. This volume reviews such topics as competitive entry, stranded costs, pricing and market mechanisms. It provides a unique perspective on problems in a newly deregulated environment.

Download or read book Deregulation of Electric Utilities written by Georges Zaccour and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deregulation of Electric Utilities reviews the main issues relating to the changing environment in the utility industry. Topics covered in depth include compensation for stranded costs, efficiency gains, institutional design, pricing, economics of scale, and network externalities. In addition, this book assesses early experiences in electricity deregulation in continental Europe, New Zealand, North America, and the United Kingdom.

Download or read book Incentive Regulation for Public Utilities written by Michael A. Crew and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is based on two seminars held at Rutgers on October 22, 1993, and May 6, 1994 entitled `Incentive Regulation for Public Utilities'. These contributions by leading scholars and practitioners represent some of the best new research in public utility economics and include topics such as the theory of incentive regulation, dynamic pricing, transfer pricing, issues in law and economics, pricing priority service, and energy utility resource planning.

Download or read book The Economics of the Antitrust Process written by M.B. Coate and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the antitrust process and how that process affects the efficiency of antitrust law enforcement. The contributors share a wide range of experiences in the antitrust process, including academia, the legal environment, and both private and public sectors. The book deals first with merger activities, followed by non-merger enforcement initiatives and concludes with an examination of the future role of antitrust.

Download or read book Health Care Policy and Regulation written by Thomas A. Abbott III and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 5 care reforms. Part II: Price Regulation The second partofthis volume examines the role ofprice regulation in controlling health care costs. It contains three chapters. In chapter seven, I examine the alternatives for regulating pharmaceutical prices. In chapter eight, Jack Hadley examines the impactofvarious forms ofhospital price regulation; while in chapter nine,MarkPaulyexaminestheroleofpriceregulation incontrollingphysician fees. Chapter seven focuses on the issue of regulating pharmaceutical prices. There are two key issues examined in this paper. First, is there a clear need for price regulation, and second, can price regulation work in this industry? In response to the first question, I come to the conclusion that the proponents ofprice regulation have not really proven their case. Although the financial returns in the pharmaceu tical industry have been slightly higher than expected during the 1970s and 1980s, there is not overwhelming evidence of"price gouging" or excessive profits on the part of the industry. In response to the second question, the answer is clearly no. The traditional approaches to price regulation will not have the intended affect of eliminating excess profits from the industry while maintaining the incentives for research and development. First, rate-of-return regulation, the most natural approach, would result in many adverse incentives-includingexcessive investment in research and developmentinorderto inflatetheratebaseused tocalculatedtheallowablereturns.

Download or read book Emerging Competition in Postal and Delivery Services written by Michael A. Crew and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emerging Competition in Postal and Delivery Services brings together practitioners, postal administrators, the courier industry, regulators, academic economists and lawyers to examine important policy and regulatory issues facing the postal and delivery industries. This volume reviews such topics as cost and productivity analysis, universal service and entry, demand analysis and the structure of postal payment system, price regulation and competition.

Download or read book Regulation and Macroeconomic Performance written by Brian L. Goff and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This project grew out of a recognition that I could fmd no aggregate measure of the amount of regulation beyond crude proxies such as the number of pages in the Federal Register. As I began to address this specific issue. I became much more aware of two things -- the enormity of regulation in the u.s. economy and the relative absence of economic research into the macroeconomic consequences of those regulations. While I would have readily granted the idea that many economist'> knew more about regulation than I did, I would have thought my knowledge of regulation to be at least up to the average economist's. My graduate training in the early to mid 1980s included special attention to the field of "public choice" and related topics, all of which occasionally explored regulatory topics. Moreover. I had at least a passing knowledge of the debates concerning deregulation in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Because of this, my own ignorance of regulation's actual expanse and its aggregate consequences startled me and heightened my interest in expanding empirical research into regulation as a macroeconomic influence. The more I thought about graduate macroeconomics classes and texts, the more that I realized the exclusion of regulation as a macroeconomic topic in spite of its massive scale and far-reaching tentacles.

Download or read book Incentive Regulation and the Regulation of Incentives written by Glenn Blackmon and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The class is theory of price regulation assumed that the regulator knows the fIrm's costs, the key piece of information that enables regulators to pressure fmns to choose appropriate behaviors. The "regulatory problem" was reduced to a mere pricing problem: the regulator's goal was to align price with marginal cost, subject to the constraint that revenues must cover costs. Elegant and important insights ensued. The most important was that regulation was inevitably a struggle to achieve second-best outcomes. (Ramsey pricing was a splendid example. ) Reality proved harsh to regulatory theory. The fmn's costs are by no means known to the regulator. At best, the regulator may know how much is currently spent to provide services, but hardly what costs would be if the fmn vigorously pursued effIciency. Even if the current cost curve were known to the regulator, technologies change so swiftly that today's costs are a very poor indicator of tomorrow's, and those are the costs that will determine the fIrm's future decisions. With the burgeoning attention to information considerations and game theory in economics, the regulator's problem of eliciting host information about cost has received considerable attention. In most cases, however, it has been in context that are both static and stylized; such analyses rarely capture many of the essential elements of real world regulatory issues. This volume represents a fresh approach. It reflects Glenn Blackmon's twin strengths, a keen analytic mind and important experience in the regulatory arena.

Download or read book Pricing and Regulatory Innovations Under Increasing Competition written by Michael A. Crew and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume focuses on incentive regulation and competition. While much of the regulatory action is taking place in telecommunications, the impact of competition and the resultant regulatory change is being felt in other traditional public utilities including electricity. The book reviews topics including price caps, incentive regulation, market structure and new regulatory technologies.

Download or read book Opening Networks to Competition written by David Gabel and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Gabel and David F. Weiman The chapters in this volwne address the related problems of regulating and pricing access in network industries. Interconnection between network suppliers raises the important policy questions of how to sustain competition and realize economic efficiency. To foster rivalry in any industry, suppliers must have access to customers. But unlike in other sectors, the very organization of network industries creates major impediments to potential entrants trying to carve out a niche in the market. In traditional sectors such as gas, electric, rail, and telephone services, these barriers take the form of the large private and social costs necessary to duplicate the physical infrastructure of pipelines, wires, or tracks. Few firms can afford to finance such an undertaking, because the level of sunk costs and the very large scale economies make it extremely risky. In other newer sectors, entrants face less tangible but no less pressing constraints. In the microcomputer industry, for example, high switching costs can prevent users from experimenting with alternative, but perhaps more efficient hardware platforms or operating systems. Although gateway technologies can reduce these barriers, the installed base of an incumbent can create powerful bandwagon effects that reinforce its advantage (such as the greater availability of compatible peripherals and software applications). In the era of electronic banking, entrants into the automated teller machine· (A TM) and credit card markets face a similar problem of establishing a ubiquitous presence.

Download or read book X Efficiency Theory Evidence and Applications written by Roger S. Frantz and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My interest in X-Efficiency (XE) dates back to 1978. At the time, I was writing the dissertation for my Ph. D. at Washington State University. My dissertation was concerned with the role of attitudes in the school-to-work transition among young men. I was advised by Professor Millard Hastay (a member of my committee) to look at Leibenstein's "new" book, Beyond Economic Man. One of the things that caught my attention was his behavioral description of (selective) rationality. It seemed that Leibenstein' s behavioral description of a (selectively) rational individ ual was very similar to what psychologists such as Abraham Maslow were reporting as being the product of a particular motivational system. In other words, I was impressed with the idea that what Leibenstein was referring to as X-inefficiency was being discussed by psychologists as "the way it (often) is. " So from the beginning I always considered the concept ofX-(in)efficiency to be a valuable one for understanding human behavior. I have since come to believe that this is particularly true when considering behavior in non-market environments, i. e. , within the firm. Work on this book, however, can most realistically said to have started with work which I began in 1982 while I was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University. Professor Leibenstein suggested that I consider how some empirical evidence which was being cited as evidence for the role of property rights might also be consistent with XE theory. (The consistency, in both directions, is considerable.

Download or read book The Crisis in Telecommunications Carrier Liability written by Barbara A. Cherry and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My curiosity with the economic efficiency and social benefits of provisions used by telecommunications carriers to limit their liability to customers for damages arising from service interruptions and network outages is a longstanding one. It began with the changing state regulatory environments in the late 1980's while representing AT&T as an attorney before numerous state legislatures in the Midwest. As telecommunications carriers faced the ramifications of deregulation, several legal consequences came to the fore. One important consequence was the impact of changing regulatory rules and requirements on the carriers' abilities to continue to limit their liability for damages to customers in a non-tariffed world. As a result, one of my responsibilities while employed by AT&T was to syek legislative relief in some state jurisdictions which would enable the continued use of limited liability provisions notwithstanding other deregulatory developments in the industry. In my capacity as an attorney, I succeeded in this task in the few jurisdictions for which I was given the charge. However, as an economist, these efforts piqued my interest regarding the economic effects of such limited liability provisions on consumer interests. What liability rules for the industry would really better serve general societal interests? As my career evolved, which involved returning to graduate school to pursue my Ph. D. and becoming the Director of Public Policy Studies at Ameritech, I had the opportunity to pursue interdisciplinary research in telecommunications policy issues.

Download or read book The Future of the Telecommunications Industry Forecasting and Demand Analysis written by David G. Loomis and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of this book, Future of the Telecommunications Industry: Forecasting and Demand Analysis, is to describe leading research in the area of empirical telecommunications demand analysis and forecasting in the light of tremendous market and regulatory changes. Its purpose is to educate the reader about how traditional analytic techniques can be used to assess new telecommunications products and how new analytic techniques can better address existing products. The research presented focuses on new products such as Internet access and additional lines and new techniques such as hazard modeling, adaptive forecasting and neural networks. The scope of this volume includes new telecommunications products, new analytical techniques, and a review of market changes in the US and other countries. Some of the most critical questions facing the industry are addressed here, such as the impact of competition, customer churn, rate re-balancing, and early assessment of new products. The research includes a variety of different countries, products and analytic tools.