[Background and aims of this position paper] Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, it has become ever clearer that it poses an enormous challenge for society. The lockdown imposed on large parts of public life, which hit all social groups and institutions relatively abruptly with a wide range of...

The dividend (Gordon) growth model (DGM) is a simple stock valuation equation in four variables: (1) price; (2) next-period cash flow; (3) a perpetual and constant rate of growth in the periodic cash flow; and (4) a perpetually-constant discount rate. The DGM can be expressed to equate the...

This paper estimates the distribution-led regime of the US economy for the period 1947–2019. We use a time varying parameter model, which allows for changes in the regime over time. To the best of our knowledge this is the first paper that has attempted to do this. This innovation is...

This paper estimates the distribution-led regime of the US economy for the period 1947–2019. We use a time varying parameter model, which allows for changes in the regime over time. To the best of our knowledge this is the first paper that has attempted to do this. This innovation is...

A critical aspect of public utility regulation is the determination of the allowed return on equity (“ROE”) incorporated in rates which is intended to match the utility’s cost of equity required to finance its assets. This is one of the more contentious parts of ratemaking as the cost of...

Utility tokens are digital currencies that serve as the only accepted means of payment for services and products provided through a blockchain-based platform. They finance the development of their product or service, reward and incentivize early adopters and network promoters, align economic...

In this discussion paper I review and discuss the main economic and technical issues affecting the Regulatory WACC assessment in the sector of regulated utilities. I focus on three main compelling issues (the estimation of the risk-free rate, the treatment of risky debt, the calculation of the...

Industrie 4.0 findet auch im Einkauf statt. Die zu beobachtenden Veränderungen auf der prozessualen, organisatorischen und technischen Ebene werden unter dem Begriff Einkauf 4.0 zusammengefasst. Zu diesem Thema wurden bereits einige wertvolle theoretische und empirische wissenschaftliche...

Successful network utility privatisation requires incentive-based regulation that allows investment to be adequately rewarded from unsubsidised revenues while maintaining quality, and restructuring that permits effective competition for the network services. The potential for success and the...

In this paper, we propose a tractable model to study the impact of path-dependent reference points on optimal trading strategies of a realization utility investor. We find that when reference points are adaptive to prior paper gains and losses, two interesting effects arise endogenously: (a)...

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically shown that a localized disease can be transmitted to the broader population, nationally and worldwide. This Article analyzes how to design regulation to help control that transmission. To that end, we first observe that existing healthcare regulation...

Prior research proposes that a monopolist with private information inflates their reported costs under rate regulation to extract an informational rent. Using a sample of U.S. electric utilities from 1990-2011, we first confirm an unexpected increase in operating expense during rate review...

Regulation as a practice, profession and discipline has progressed considerably over the last four decades. Regulation has shed its image of being a dull, rigid and highly legalistic way to achieve policy outcomes. Indeed, policymakers around the globe have embraced the versatility that...

Electric utilities can reduce sulfur dioxide emissions through a variety of strategies such as adding scrubbers, switching to low- sulfur coal, or shifting output between generating plants with different emissions. The cost of achieving a given emission target can be minimized using a market for...

There is much recent debate about extending the purposes of investor-owned firms to embrace the wider interests of a variety of stakeholders. Network regulatory decisions already involve extensive use of centralised social cost-benefit analysis to capture some aspects of public value. A gap...

An agency that fails to adequately consider the costs and benefits of its proposed regulatory changes increasingly places its rules at risk upon judicial review. Over the last couple of decades, courts have begun to expect agencies to use regulatory analysis techniques like cost-benefit analysis...

Economic theory states that “free market” competition naturally achieves lower prices—thereby increasing efficiency and benefiting society. This is the first paper in the literature to use means testing to statistically analyze electricity prices, from 1970-2011, for states that...

This paper finds that coherent regulatory policies can boost investment in network industries of OECD economies. Rate-of-return regulation is generally thought to result in overinvestment, while incentive regulation is believed to entail underinvestment. Yet, previous empirical work has...

The regulatory bodies responsible for oversight of investor-owned energy utilities are ill-equipped to regulate climate adaptation in the energy sector; but they may be the only institutions with authority to do so. In 2018, the California Public Utilities Commission initiated the first...

The paper provides an empirical discussion of the national emergency utilization rate (NEUR), which is based on a “national emergency” definition of potential output and is published by the US Census Bureau. Over the peak-to-peak period 1989–2019, the NEUR decreased by 14.2 percent. The...

U.S. colleges and universities have for some time joined the privatization movement where university functions and assets are turned over to private contractors. Here we present a case of a 50-year comprehensive energy concession agreement by The Ohio State University that generated an up-front...

Current discussions about how to regulate platforms revolve around the extent to which existing frameworks can and should be applied to modern-day platform firms and business models. We outline and explain the economic and strategic features of platforms, and compare and contrast them to utility...

Many property-casualty insurers are subject to an elaborate state-based regulatory regime that enforces prohibitions against “excessive” and “unfairly discriminatory” rates. Extensive economics research suggests that this regulation is not in the public interest. Building on this...

Excessive regulatory accumulation has long been a concern of policymakers, and over the past 40 years, many presidents and members of Congress have taken steps to address this issue. Every recent president beginning with Carter issued or reaffirmed executive orders that set requirements for...

The bloom is off the Big Tech rose. It seems nearly the entire political spectrum is angry with Amazon, Google and Facebook for one reason or another. This has led to a great deal of discussion on whether and how to regulate (or even break up) these platforms, including whether they should be...

Most businesses recoup their investments in property, plant, and equipment from theincome they earn from using those assets. When changes in markets, technology, or regulations reduce income from those assets or increase operating costs, businesses may not recover their full investments in those...

The regulatory and operating context of energy networks is dynamic and constantly evolving. Achieving a multitude of economic, environmental, social and policy objectives is a challenging task for the sector regulators. In 2010, the UK energy regulator Ofgem replaced its approach to energy...

In the United States, all newly developed drugs undergo a lengthy review process conducted by the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These regulatory delays are costly for drug manufacturers and patients. We collected data on review times of drugs approved between 1999 and 2005 and...

The majority of utility token fundraising models (Initial Coin Offerings, ICOs) de facto favor speculation over consumption. The public interest is hence to protect investors' rights by application of a new or traditional regulatory regime to such offerings. However, given that ICOs and crypto...

In many parts of the world, it is commonplace for wealthy families and successful entrepreneurs to parlay a relatively small financial investment into control of a sprawling corporate empire through the use of a pyramid-like structure in which they directly control a firm that owns a dominant...

Countries exiting conflict and fragility face many urgent priorities and almost invariably suffer from substantial infrastructure deficits. There is typically very little infrastructure investment during periods of fragility and conflict, and existing installations are often damaged or...

Regulators of many countries try to find the “true” WACC of Electricity, Gas, Water… activities. All their documents have in common a main confusion: they do not differentiate among expected, required, historical, and regulator allowed returns, which are 4 very different concepts. Most of...

In two-sided markets, instead of joining the platform simultaneously, two groups could join the platform sequentially. Under monopoly, the commitment case is equivalent to the no commitment case. With competing firms, there are two cases to consider. For case 1, if the two groups are...