The question non longer is if more competition should be introduced in the German water and sewerage sector. The issue rather is what kind of competition ought to be implemented. There are mainly three different approaches: Competition in the Market; Competition for the Market and the...

Due to recent legislation, Benchmarking in the German water and sewerage sector will be introduced as widely as possible. Under certain conditions this decision by the German Bundestag might help to improve the efficiency of the industry. I will define two sets of conditions. First, a useful...

There is a lack of competition in the German water and sewerage sector. According to economic theory levels of service can be expected to be inefficient. I will check this hypothesis and therefore take a closer look at various categories of levels of service. In analysing the internet pages of...

Since early 2009, electricity and gas distribution in Germany has been subject to incentive regulation designed to ensure greater efficiency in electricity and gas grid operation. However, it remains to be seen how changes to the regulatory framework will affect the investment behavior of...

Seit Anfang 2009 unterliegt die Energieversorgung in Deutschland der Anreizregulierung, durch die ein effizienter Betrieb von Strom- und Gasnetzen sichergestellt werden soll. Unklar ist allerdings, wie sich die veränderten regulatorischen Rahmenbedingungen auf das Investitionsverhalten der...

We extend the theory of monopoly regulation under imperfect information to the case of customer, rather than investor, ownership. The firm's manager can exert two types of effort - a contractible effort to reduce costs, and a non-contractible effort to increase quality. The former decreases...

Since early 2009, electricity and gas distribution in Germany has been subject to incentive regulation designed to ensure greater efficiency in electricity and gas grid operation. However, it remains to be seen how changes to the regulatory framework will affect the investment behavior of...

Since early 2009, power supply in Germany has been subject to incentive regulation designed to ensure greater efficiency in electricity and gas grid operation. However, it remains to be seen how changes to the regulatory framework will affect the investment behavior of distribution system...

In this paper, we analyze the strategic function of gas storage focusing on how gas storage decisions impact competition between gas companies on both spot and downstream markets. Using a two-tier oligopolistic structure, we first show that gas storage is actually used strategically even in a...

This paper develops a model of the regulator-regulated firm relationship in a regional natural gas commodity market which can be linked to a competitive market by a pipeline. We characterize normative policies under which the regulator, in addition to setting the level of the capacity of the...