IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/regeco/v51y2017i2d10.1007_s11149-017-9322-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Regulatory arbitrage and the FERC rate settlement process

Author

Listed:
  • George Briden

    (Snake Hill Energy Resources, Inc.)

  • Jonathan Lesser

    (Continental Economics, Inc.)

Abstract

We demonstrate that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) regulatory procedures for natural gas pipelines, specifically its rate-refund policy, induces regulatory arbitrage that leads to economic distortions. Specifically, we demonstrate that the rate refund policy causes pipelines effectively to “extort” ratepayers through the addition of economically inefficient capital investment, akin to “gold-plating” investments. We estimate the potential magnitude of this arbitrage impact on ratepayers to be between $400 and $700 million annually. Counterintuitively, however, we demonstrate that the presence of this arbitrage opportunity leads to underinvestment in pipeline capacity, thus negating one of the principal purposes of rate regulation. We further demonstrate that FERC could easily eliminate this regulatory arbitrage by setting the refund interest rate to the pipeline’s as-filed weighted average cost of capital.

Suggested Citation

  • George Briden & Jonathan Lesser, 2017. "Regulatory arbitrage and the FERC rate settlement process," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 184-196, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:regeco:v:51:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s11149-017-9322-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11149-017-9322-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11149-017-9322-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11149-017-9322-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Littlechild, Stephen, 2012. "The process of negotiating settlements at FERC," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 174-191.
    2. Zajac, E. E., 1972. "Lagrange multiplier values at constrained optima," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 125-131, April.
    3. William J. Baumol & Alvin K. Klevorick, 1970. "Input Choices and Rate-of Return Regulation: An Overview of the Discussion," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 1(2), pages 162-190, Autumn.
    4. Elizabeth E. Bailey & Roger D. Coleman, 1971. "The Effect of Lagged Regulation in an Averch-Johnson Model," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 2(1), pages 278-292, Spring.
    5. Kafoglis, Milton Z, 1969. "Output of the Restrained Firm," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(4), pages 583-589, Part I Se.
    6. Takayama, Akira, 1969. "Behavior of the Firm under Regulatory Constraint," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 255-260, June.
    7. Zajac, E E, 1970. "A Geometric Treatment of Averch-Johnson's Behavior of the Firm Model," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 117-125, March.
    8. El-Hodiri, Mohamed & Takayama, Akira, 1973. "Behavior of the Firm Under Regulatory Constraint: Clarifications," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(1), pages 235-237, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mirucki, Jean, 1980. "Comportement de l'entreprise réglementée: étude de l'hypothèse Averch-Johnson [Behavior of the Regulated Firm: A Study of the Averch-Johnson Hypothesis]," MPRA Paper 27669, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 1982.
    2. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:12:y:2002:i:10:p:1-9 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Mirucki, Jean, 1980. "Vérification des conditions d'efficacité dans la production chez Bell Canada [Checking the conditions of efficient production in Bell Canada]," MPRA Paper 30147, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jun 1980.
    4. Michael R. Caputo & M. Hossein Partovi, 2002. "Reexamination of the A-J effect," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 12(10), pages 1-9.
    5. Robert W. Kling, 1989. "General Equilibrium Effects of Regulation," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 33(2), pages 53-59, October.
    6. Schober, Dominik & Weber, Christoph, 2015. "Refinancing under yardstick regulation with investment cycles: The case of long-lived electricity network assets," ZEW Discussion Papers 15-065, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    7. Dominik Schober, 2013. "Refinancing under Yardstick Regulation with Investment Cycles–The Case of Long-Lived Electricity Network Assets," EWL Working Papers 1321, University of Duisburg-Essen, Chair for Management Science and Energy Economics, revised Jun 2013.
    8. Louis Alessi, 1974. "Aneconomic analysis of government ownership and reculation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 1-42, September.
    9. James Giordano, 1983. "The Changing Impact of Regulation on the U.S. Electric Utility Industry, 1964-1977," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 91-101, Apr-Jun.
    10. Alberto Alesina & Silvia Ardagna & Giuseppe Nicoletti & Fabio Schiantarelli, 2005. "Regulation And Investment," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(4), pages 791-825, June.
    11. Guthrie, Graeme, 2006. "Regulating Infrastructure: The Impact on Risk and Investment," Working Paper Series 18946, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    12. Majumdar, Sumit K., 2016. "Debt and communications technology diffusion: Retrospective evidence," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 458-474.
    13. David P. Baron & Robert Taggart Jr., 1978. "Regulatory Pricing Policies and Input Choices Under Uncertainty," Discussion Papers 315, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    14. Ingo Vogelsang, 2012. "Incentive Regulation, Investments and Technological Change," Chapters, in: Gerald R. Faulhaber & Gary Madden & Jeffrey Petchey (ed.), Regulation and the Performance of Communication and Information Networks, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Sumit K. Majumdar & Rabih Moussawi & Ulku Yaylacicegi, 2019. "Mergers and Wages in Digital Networks: a Public Interest Perspective," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 583-615, December.
    16. Kent Fellows, "undated". "Capital Input Decisions under Rate of Return Regulation," Working Papers 2014-37, Department of Economics, University of Calgary, revised 06 Nov 2014.
    17. William P. Rogerson, 1989. "Optimal Depreciation Schedules for Regulated Utilities," Discussion Papers 852, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    18. Armstrong, Mark & Sappington, David E.M., 2007. "Recent Developments in the Theory of Regulation," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 27, pages 1557-1700, Elsevier.
    19. Graeme Guthrie, 2006. "Regulating Infrastructure: The Impact on Risk and Investment," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 44(4), pages 925-972, December.
    20. Milton Russell & Robert Shelton, 1974. "A model of regulatory agency behavior," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 47-62, December.
    21. David P. Baron & Raymond R. De Bondt, 1980. "Factor Price Changes," Discussion Papers 417, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Arbitrage; Regulation; Averch-Johnson;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D4 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design
    • K2 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law
    • L5 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:regeco:v:51:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s11149-017-9322-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.