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Regulatory Agencies: Impact on Firm Performance and Social Welfare

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  • Antonio Estache
  • Martin A. Rossi

Abstract

We explore the relation between the establishment of a regulatory agency and the performance of the electricity sector. We exploit a dataset comprising firmlevel information on a representative sample of 220 electric utilities from 51 development countries for the period 1985 to 2005. Our results indicate that regulatory agencies are associated with more efficient firms and with higher social welfare.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio Estache & Martin A. Rossi, 2009. "Regulatory Agencies: Impact on Firm Performance and Social Welfare," Working Papers ECARES 2009_010, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    • Handle: RePEc:eca:wpaper:2009_010
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    9. Estache, Antonio & Goicoechea, Ana, 2005. "How widespread were private investment and regulatory reform in infrastructure utilities during the 1990s?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3595, The World Bank.
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    Cited by:

    1. Corton, Maria Luisa & Berg, Sanford V., 2009. "Benchmarking Central American water utilities," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(3-4), pages 267-275, September.
    2. Graziano Abrate & Fabrizio Erbetta & Giovanni Fraquelli & Davide Vannoni, 2015. "The cost of corruption in the Italian solid waste industry," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 24(2), pages 439-465.
    3. Luis Andres & José Luis Guasch & Sebastián Lopez Azumendi, 2009. "Regulatory Governance and Sector Performance: Methodology and Evaluation for Electricity Distribution in Latin America," Chapters, in: Claude Ménard & Michel Ghertman (ed.), Regulation, Deregulation, Reregulation, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. repec:tur:wpapnw:4 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Kate Bayliss, 2009. "Private Sector Participation in African Infrastructure: Is it Worth the Risk?," Working Papers 55, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    6. Massimo Finocchiaro Castro & Calogero Guccio & Giacomo Pignataro & Ilde Rizzo, 2018. "Is competition able to counteract the inefficiency of corruption? The case of Italian public works," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 45(1), pages 55-84, March.
    7. Pollitt, Michael & Stern, Jon, 2011. "Human resource constraints for electricity regulation in developing countries: Developments since 2001," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 53-60, June.
    8. Santiago Levy & Michael Walton, 2009. "No Growth without Equity? Inequality, Interests, and Competition in Mexico," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13263, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Regulatory agency; performance; electricity; private ownership.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities

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