Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. BACKGROUND -- III. A MODEL OF A POLITICAL PRICE CYCLES IN A REGULATED INDUSTRY -- IV. EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE -- V. CONCLUDING REMARKS -- Appendix 1. List of Countries Included in the Empirical Work -- REFERENCES.

This paper develops a model of political regulation in which politicians set the regulated price in order to maximize electoral support by signaling to voters a pro-consumer behavior. Political incentives and welfare constraints interact in the model, yielding an equilibrium in which the real...