Symposium on regulation and competition in utility industries: introduction

This collection of papers examines regulation and competition issues in the UK water, gas and electricity industries. These are three vitally important network industries that have undergone significant structural change over the last 15 years and where efforts to extend competition continue in those parts of the industries not deemed to be naturally monopolistic. This is a timely collection, given recent price reviews of the electricity distribution and water companies and the current Transco review. Further, current regulatory issues, such as implementation of the 2000 Utilities Act and the possible structural changes to water companies as some attempt to move away from the equity model, have far-reaching implications. A significant length of time has elapsed since the burst of privatisation activity in the 1980s, and most companies have been subject to two price reviews. As such, it is an appropriate time to reflect on the UK experience from which lessons are being drawn as regulatory regimes are designed and implemented around the world.

Policy instruments and greenhouse gas emissions from transport in the UK

A major focus of concern about the environment and the prospects for sustainable development is the transport sector. This sector has been growing rapidly, and growth is forecast to continue. Moreover, transport’s environmental consequences often appear to be difficult to control. In particular, transport is the fastest-growing contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the UK, especially through the growth in road traffic. There is also concern about the health consequences of more localised emissions. In this paper, we review the impact of the sector on atmospheric pollution, and consider the alternative impacts of the different policy instruments available. The paper models the impact on passenger transport of the fiscal instruments adopted by the government, and contrasts them with alternative policies that have been advocated.

Comparing Individual-Specific Benefit Estimates for Public Goods: Finite Versus Continuous Mixing in Logit Models

Multi-attribute stated preference data, derived through choice experiments, is used to investigate the consequence of a finite number of preference groups in a sample of Yorkshire Water residential customers on the conditional distributions of willingness to pay in the sample. The research focuses on ‘public good’ values, and retrieves the implicit customer specific welfare measures conditional on a sequence of four observed choices. We assess and contrast the sample evidence for the presence of a finite number of 2, 3, 4 and 5 latent preference groups (classes), and contrast these with the presence of a continuous distribution of parameter estimates using mixed logit models. The main focus is the conditional valuations in the form of marginal values for the consequence of waste water handling and treatment, namely: river water quality, area flooding by sewage, presence of odour and flies, and other water related amenities.Choice experiments, Mixed logit, Latent classes, Individual-specific estimates, Non-market valuation

Threat-Based Competition Policy

Competition policy, contestable markets,