We develop a simple, yet general, model that admits as special cases several key analyses of the design of regulatory policy in the presence of asymmetric information. In doing so, we help to identify the central differences and similarities among the diverse analyses in the literature.

Electricity customers who install solar panels often are paid the prevailing retail price for the electricity they generate. We show that this "net metering" policy typically is not optimal. A payment for distributed generation (w) that is below the retail price of electricity (r) will induce...