Exploring the Determinants of ‘Best Practice’ in Network Regulation: The Case of the Electricity Sector

In this paper we use a best practice index constructed from the survey responses of regulators in 40 countries to explore the determinants of outcomes in electricity network regulation. We construct a model of explained behaviour where we are particularly interested in understanding the impact of industry setting, political, and economic environments on the degree of best practice regulation. Our results suggest that political and economic institutions as well as the behaviour of regulators in neighbouring countries/states may be important determinants of outcomes; this also leads us to question whether one “best practice” model is in fact applicable to countries with very different political and economic contexts.