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Incentive Regulation and Efficient Pricing

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  • Monica Giulietti
  • Catherine Waddams Price

Abstract

**: One objective of introducing incentive regulation to the newly privatized UK utilities over the past 20 years was to encourage efficient pricing structures. Caps have been imposed on average price levels, giving firms freedom to rebalance amongst prices within the basket. We test how firms have responded to the incentives within such discretion through an extensive review of the relative prices charged within UK price capped industries. We find surprisingly little response to these incentives, suggesting that strategic behaviour dominates short‐term profit incentives even after the introduction or threat of competition.

Suggested Citation

  • Monica Giulietti & Catherine Waddams Price, 2005. "Incentive Regulation and Efficient Pricing," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(1), pages 121-149, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:annpce:v:76:y:2005:i:1:p:121-149
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1370-4788.2005.00273.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Otero, Jesus & Waddams Price, Catherine, 2001. "Incumbent and entrant response to regulated competition: signaling with accounting costs and market prices2," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(2-3), pages 209-223.
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    Cited by:

    1. Vitor Miguel Ribeiro, 2014. "Anticipating the long-term ideology of a policymaker," FEP Working Papers 553, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    2. Stephen Davies, Catherine Waddams Price, and Chris M. Wilson, 2014. "Nonlinear Pricing and Tariff Differentiation: Evidence from the British Electricity Market," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    3. Scheele, Ulrich, 2007. "Privatisierung, Liberalisierung und Deregulierung in netzgebundenen Infrastruktursektoren," Forschungs- und Sitzungsberichte der ARL: Aufsätze, in: Gust, Dieter (ed.), Wandel der Stromversorgung und räumliche Politik, volume 127, pages 35-67, ARL – Akademie für Raumentwicklung in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft.
    4. Catherine Waddams Price & Alison Young, 2001. "UK Utility Reforms: Distributional Implications and Government Response," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2001-10, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Giulietti, Monica & Otero, Jesus, 2002. "The timing of tariff structure changes in regulated industries: evidence from England and Wales," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 71-99, March.
    6. Anna Bottasso & Maurizio Conti, 2009. "Price cap regulation and the ratchet effect: a generalized index approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 32(3), pages 191-201, December.
    7. Starkie, David, 2005. "Making airport regulation less imperfect," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 3-8.
    8. Adler, Nicole & Forsyth, Peter & Mueller, Juergen & Niemeier, Hans-Martin, 2015. "An economic assessment of airport incentive regulation," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 5-15.

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