This paper compares the organisation of the university sector under private provision with the structure which would be chosen by a welfare maximising government. It studies a general equilibrium model where universities carry out research and teach students. To attend university, and earn...

We provide a general framework in which to determine the optimal penalty fee inducing the contractor to respect the contracted delivery date in public procurement contracts (PPCs). We do this by developing a real option model that enables us to investigate the contractor’s value of investment...

In this paper we analyse the affordability of water and energy for Italian households. We first document how the regulatory reform has changed the system of price setting, illustrating the dynamics of utility prices and of household expenditure in the period 1998-2005. We then discuss current...

Competition in public utility sectors has been encouraged in recent years throughout Europe. In this paper we try and analyse the welfare effects of these reforms in Italy, with particular attention to water and energy goods. The first step is to introduce a sensible measure of affordability of...

This paper reviews the progress made in the literature toward defining and measuring the affordability of utilities. It highlights the relative merits of alternate affordability metrics; the practical challenges to their operationalization, including the underlying data requirements; and their...

In this paper we analyse some distributional effects of the reforms of water and energy services in Italy. We first document the new regulation setting in these services, illustrating the dynamics of utility prices and of household expenditure in the period 1998-2005. We then propose a way to...

L’acqua è un bene pubblico essenziale in grado di generare una pluralità di domande spesso in concorrenza tra loro. Sebbene l’obiettivo di assicurare un accesso alla risorsa non subordinato alla “ability to pay” rimanga uno dei principi cardine dell’offerta, la riforma italiana del...

This paper concerns "profit-sharing" within an incomplete regulatory contract where a municipality delegates a risk-neutral firm to manage a local utility. Together with a price cap regulation (PCR) mechanism, the contract envisages the possibility of the municipality revoking the contract if...