Multi-year regulatory rate plans are becoming more common. An agreement to "stay out" of the rate revision process removes an option for the utility company or regulatory commission to request a modification to tariff rates in response to changes in interest rates. We develop an objective...

Using prices obtained from shopbots, we test several hypotheses regarding the economics of information and optimal search. We find that price dispersion is positively (negatively) related to product price and the number of sellers in cross-sectional (time series) analysis. Price dispersion...