For many countries, recent reforms in telecommunications represent a restoration of the private provision and competition that prevailed in the early part of the 20th century. At that time, just as today, telephone service in countries with competing private providers was superior to service in...

We show that the many unusual features of China's financial markets are consistent with a government choosing regulations to maximize a standard type of social welfare function. Under certain conditions, these regulations are equivalent to imposing explicit taxes on business and interest income,...

Modern microeconomics foundations of industrial regulation policies were developed during the second half of the 19th century. One of the main theoretical and applied debates which is still an issue today concerns natural monopolies. Railroads were at the center of these debates, because of...