In the past decades, several countries have introduced reverse auctions for allocating universal service or public mission subsidies in various industries. Examples include urban transport, air transport and telecommunications. Recently, such mechanisms have also been envisioned in liberalized...

This paper investigates how the choice of public expenditure instrument is affecting capture in the public education sector. We analyze data on two public funding schemes in Madagascar. We find that there is much more capture of in-kind than of cash transfers. Capture of both instruments...

The not-for-profit, fully debt-funded and large scale outsourcing of Glas Cymru (GC) is unique in the England and Wales context, representing a fascinating case in water industry structure and regulation. This paper examines the suitability, desirability and wider feasibility of the GC model,...

The third European gas liberalization package (the 3rd Package) is intended to facilitate access to gas storage through the introduction of functional and legal unbundling in the storage sector. This article will challenge this new regulatory regime from two perspectives. First, this new regime...

In this paper we attempt to analyse the independence of five Belgian regulatory agencies. In the theoretical part we cover the existing literature and find that independence is frequently used as a proxy for credibility. In the empirical part we use the framework constructed by Johannsen (2004)...

The current debate among policy makers, regulatory analysts, and industry concerns the insufficient investment activities within the area of regulated utilities and emphasises the necessity of analyzing the interdependencies between systematic risk and regulatory activities. This article deals...

The Regulatory Framework concerning electronic communications networks and services in the European Union transposes the concept of collective dominance under Article 82 of the EC Treaty into electronic communications regulation as collective significant market power. However, it is of academic...

One of the main objectives of reforms in infrastructure sectors, comprising deregulation, restructuring and private-sector participations, is the introduction of competition. In turn, effective regulation is one of the key elements for reform's success. But regulation is prone to corruption and...