We study the impact of different regulatory contracts of electricity companies on their dividend policy. Using a panel of 106 publicly traded European electric utilities in the period 1986-2011 we link dividend pay-out and smoothing ratios to the implementation of different regulatory mechanisms...

We study the effect of state ownership on the market-to-book ratios of publicly traded European utilities observed from 1994 to 2005. We find that when the company is subject to independent regulation, state ownership is positively associated with firm value. This effect is strong and...

Italy is one of the OECD countries with the highest regulation in the different economy sectors. The recent measures are aimed at promoting, through the injection of competitiveness, the reduction of the italian efficiency gap that the EU institutions and leading analysts indicate as an...

Competitive tendering is a popular mechanism for the provision of local bus services when a major objective is subsidy savings. Despite uncertainties in the legal rules some competitive tendering was implemented in Italy since 1998. The evidence so far is that participants were limited in...