Regulatory instruments have long been understood to have a powerful effect on investment, and part of the motivation for introducing higher-powered regulatory regimes and contracts was to reduce incentives for inefficiency and over-investment (gold plating) inherent in cost-plus regulatory...

Regulation is an information problem. In this paper we show that benchmarking can have an important role to play in extracting information and providing efficiency incentives. However, the effectiveness of this role depends both on the credibility of the regulator to undertake a comparative...

This book focuses on the diversity of electricity reforms in Western Europe, drawing evidence from ten European Union memberstates plus Norway and Switzerland as associate members. The contributors analyse the various ways of introducing competition in the European electricity industries, and...