IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/33038.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Infrastructure regulation: what works, why, and how do we know?

Author

Listed:
  • Clifton, Judith
  • Díaz-Fuentes, Daniel
  • Fernández Gutiérrez, Marcos
  • Revuelta, Julio

Abstract

Public infrastructure services have been subject to dramatic regulatory reform since the 1980s in the European Union, particularly privatization, at the national level, and increased liberalization and deregulation, via the Single Market Programme. Despite this ambitious reform programme, there are signs that regulation is not always working. The Commission itself has recognised the limits of reform undertaken so far. Recently, it drew up a list of 23 sectors which were both crucial for economic growth and significantly “malfunctioning” in the Single Market. This list included major public infrastructure services - energy, gas, telecommunications and transportation. Work is ongoing to identify the causes of this “malfunctioning” and it is intended that new regulation will be implemented to improve this situation. As part of efforts to make these markets perform better, policy-makers are turning their attention to better understanding the consumer. Previously, regulation was usually based on that economic theory which assumed consumers were rational and selfish, but this is now being questioned using insights from Behavioural Economics. The Directorate General for Health and Consumers is moving towards a more eclectic approach to economics. In this light, this paper analyses regulatory reform of public infrastructure services from a user-consumer perspective. Stated (derived from Eurobarometer) and revealed (Household Budget Survey) preferences of consumers as regards public services are analyzed with a view to better understanding consumer behaviour. By contrasting stated and revealed preferences, new insight into consumer behaviour can be gained for use in the design of future regulation of infrastructure services in many countries world-wide. The new evidence generated can be used as a basis for the development of new consumer or user-related regulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Clifton, Judith & Díaz-Fuentes, Daniel & Fernández Gutiérrez, Marcos & Revuelta, Julio, 2009. "Infrastructure regulation: what works, why, and how do we know?," MPRA Paper 33038, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:33038
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/33038/1/MPRA_paper_33038.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/33046/1/MPRA_paper_33046.pdf
    File Function: revised version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emanuele BACCHIOCCHI & Massimo FLORIO & Marco GAMBARO, 2008. "Telecom prices, regulatory reforms, and consumers’ satisfaction: evidence for 15 EU countries," Departmental Working Papers 2008-10, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano, revised 20 Jun 2008.
    2. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2002. "What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 402-435, June.
    3. Carlo Vittorio FIORIO & Massimo FLORIO, 2008. "Do you pay a fair price for electricity? Consumers’ satisfaction and utility reform in the EU," Departmental Working Papers 2008-12, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    4. Steven Van de Walle, 2006. "The impact of public service values on services of general interest reform debates," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 183-205, June.
    5. Carlo Vittorio FIORIO & Massimo FLORIO & Silvia SALINI & Pieralda FERRARI, 2007. "European consumers’ attitudes on services of general interest: accessibility, price and quality," Departmental Working Papers 2007-04, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    6. Kahneman, Daniel, 2002. "Maps of Bounded Rationality," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2002-4, Nobel Prize Committee.
    7. Judith Clifton & Francisco Comín & Daniel Díaz Fuentes, 2005. "‘Empowering Europe'S Citizens’?," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 417-443, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Filippo Belloc & Antonio Nicita & Pier Luigi Parcu, 2011. "Deregulating Telecommunications in Europe: Timing, Path-Dependency, and Institutional Complementarities," RSCAS Working Papers 2011/47, European University Institute.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Clifton, Judith & Díaz-Fuentes, Daniel & Fernández Gutiérrez, Marcos & Revuelta, Julio, 2011. "Bringing Citizens Back In: Renewing Public Service Regulation," MPRA Paper 33051, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Judith Clifton & Daniel Díaz‐Fuentes & Marcos Fernández‐Gutiérrez & Julio Revuelta, 2011. "Is Market‐Oriented Reform Producing A ‘Two‐Track’ Europe? Evidence From Electricity And Telecommunications," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 82(4), pages 495-513, December.
    3. Judith Clifton & Daniel Díaz-Fuentes & Marcos Fernández-Gutiérrez & Julio Revuelta, 2011. "The new regulation of public infrastructure services in the European Union. Challenges for territorial cohesion," ERSA conference papers ersa11p1416, European Regional Science Association.
    4. Fiorio, Carlo V. & Florio, Massimo & Perucca, Giovanni, 2013. "User satisfaction and the organization of local public transport: Evidence from European cities," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 209-218.
    5. Simona GRASSI & Riccardo PUGLISI, 2008. "Regulation and consumer satisfaction from public services: an individual fixed effects approach," Departmental Working Papers 2008-21, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    6. Clifton, Judith & Díaz-Fuentes, Daniel & Fernández-Gutiérrez, Marcos, 2013. "How consumers’ socio-economic background influences satisfaction: Insights for better utility regulation," MPRA Paper 47271, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Fiorio, Carlo V. & Florio, Massimo, 2011. "«Would you say that the price you pay for electricity is fair?» Consumers' satisfaction and utility reforms in the EU15," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 178-187, March.
    8. Abel Brodeur, 2012. "Smoking, Income and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Smoking Bans," Working Papers halshs-00664269, HAL.
    9. Paul De Grauwe, 2014. "Animal Spirits and Monetary Policy," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Exchange Rates and Global Financial Policies, chapter 18, pages 473-520, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    10. Senik, Claudia, 2009. "Direct evidence on income comparisons and their welfare effects," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 408-424, October.
    11. Carlo Borzaga & Ermanno Tortia, 2004. "Worker involvement in entrepreneurial nonprofit organizations. Toward a new assessment of workers' perceived satisfaction and fairness," Department of Economics Working Papers 0409, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    12. Roman A. Ohrenstein, 2007. "The Talmudic Doctrine of “The Benefit of a Pleasure”: Psychological Well‐Being in Talmudic Literature," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(4), pages 661-680, October.
    13. Andrew E. Clark, 2018. "Four Decades of the Economics of Happiness: Where Next?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(2), pages 245-269, June.
    14. Botond Kőszegi & Matthew Rabin, 2006. "A Model of Reference-Dependent Preferences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(4), pages 1133-1165.
    15. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde, 2009. "Homo Reciprocans: Survey Evidence on Behavioural Outcomes," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(536), pages 592-612, March.
    16. Guven, Cahit & Senik, Claudia & Stichnoth, Holger, 2012. "You can’t be happier than your wife. Happiness gaps and divorce," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 110-130.
    17. McDonald, Rebecca & Powdthavee, Nattavudh, 2018. "The Shadow Prices of Voluntary Caregiving: Using Panel Data of Well-Being to Estimate the Cost of Informal Care," IZA Discussion Papers 11545, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Thi Truong An Hoang & Andreas Knabe, 2021. "Time Use, Unemployment, and Well-Being: An Empirical Analysis Using British Time-Use Data," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 2525-2548, August.
    19. Jolanda Hessels & José María Millán & Concepción Román, 2015. "The Importance of Being in Control of Business: Work Satisfaction of Employers, Own-account Workers and Employees," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 15-047/VII, Tinbergen Institute.
    20. Joachim Merz & Tim Rathjen, 2011. "Intensity of Time and Income Interdependent Multidimensional Poverty: Well-Being and Minimum 2DGAP – German Evidence," FFB-Discussionpaper 92, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)), LEUPHANA University Lüneburg.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Regulation; Infrastructure; Public Service; Consumer behaviour. European Union;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L96 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Telecommunications
    • D18 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Protection
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • L95 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Gas Utilities; Pipelines; Water Utilities
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities
    • L98 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:33038. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.