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Rethinking public service regulation after the crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Judith CLIFTON
  • Daniel DÍAZ FUENTES
  • Marcos FERNÁNDEZ GUTIÉRREZ
  • Julio REVUELTA

Abstract

Regulatory reform of utilities in the European Union (EU) from the 1980s, including liberalization and privatization, were supposed to bring about greater choice and quality, along with lower prices for consumers. And yet even the reform architects, the European Commission, admitted in 2008 that not all the supposed benefits of reform had borne fruit. One major concern is that citizens – cast as consumers – do not always take full advantage of the new array of services on offer. Behavioural Economics has been brought in by the Commission to help explain this. But how do citizens behave in the “market place” of public services? Analysing consumption patterns and expressions of satisfaction in two major EU countries – Spain and the UK – we show when and how socio-economic factors, including age, gender, place of residence and employment, affect public service consumption. Bottom-up regulatory policies, considering this heterogonous response - could be introduced to improve existing standard top-down models, in order to improve citizens’ decisions vis-à-vis public service consumption, ever more important in times of austerity and crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Judith CLIFTON & Daniel DÍAZ FUENTES & Marcos FERNÁNDEZ GUTIÉRREZ & Julio REVUELTA, 2010. "Rethinking public service regulation after the crisis," Departmental Working Papers 2010-35, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    • Handle: RePEc:mil:wpdepa:2010-35
    as

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    File URL: http://wp.demm.unimi.it/files/wp/2010/DEMM-2010_035wp.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oecd, 2006. "Report on a Roundtable on Demand-side Economics for Consumer Policy," OECD Digital Economy Papers 116, OECD Publishing.
    2. Judith Clifton & Daniel Díaz‐Fuentes, 2010. "Evaluating Eu Policies On Public Services: A Citizens' Perspective," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 81(2), pages 281-311, June.
    3. Daniel Kahneman, 2003. "Maps of Bounded Rationality: Psychology for Behavioral Economics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(5), pages 1449-1475, December.
    4. Judith Clifton & Francisco Comín & Daniel Díaz Fuentes, 2005. "‘Empowering Europe'S Citizens’?," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 417-443, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Regulation; infrastructure; consumers; satisfaction; European Union;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis

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