Economic theory states that “free market” competition naturally achieves lower prices—thereby increasing efficiency and benefiting society. This is the first paper in the literature to use means testing to statistically analyze electricity prices, from 1970-2011, for states that...

The electric power industry is moving away from a regulated utility model, toward a deregulated marketbased model—thereby intending to improve system efficiency by reducing generation costs and customer prices, while at the same time improving capital expenditures and service reliability....

The goal of this paper is to test if the promised U.S. electrical system high reliability standards are being maintained, once states deregulate their electric utilities. This research is the first in the literature to combine states that offer retail choice, by deregulating their electric...