We develop a theoretical model of long-run investment decisions on capacity in the context of a liberalized electricity … the level of capacity that maximizes social welfare, and compare it to a decentralized outcome. We show that in the … absence of any regulation, private investment decisions on capacity unambiguously lead to a socially sub-optimal outcome, and …

) enjoy higher levels of efficiency and have the potential to generate positive spillovers. At the same time, the entry of …