This book examines the ongoing transformation of public utilities, also known as network-based industries, in Western Europe and the United States. Examples are telecommunications, energy, and water distribution. Most of these network-based industries were until recently natural monopolies. Over the last two decades national governments have embarked upon privatization, deregulation and liberalization of their public utilities. The contributors in this volume examine the many related aspects, including:

• key characteristics and regulation of network based industries
• the emerging EU regulatory framework
• corporate strategies, industry dynamics, and organizational performance
• case studies from the telecommunications and water industries
• engineering competition versus engineering regulation.

This book provides a non-ideological and multidisciplinary overview of recent views and experiences with the liberalization, privatization and regulatory reform of public utilities in Europe and the United States. As such it will be of interest to scholars and researchers of institutional economics, and organizational studies, as well as regulators, policymakers and consultants involved in both studying and governing network-based industries.

About the Author
Edited by Emiel F.M. Wubben, Associate Professor in Strategic Management for the Management Studies Group, Wageningen University, the Netherlands and Willem Hulsink, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and New Business Venturing, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Reviews
'The introductory chapter by the editors is extremely wide-ranging and therefore very useful for any reader not yet introduced to the manifold intricacies of this topic. What is remarkable about this chapter is that three aspects are dealt with at the same time: the driving forces of the reform of network industries, the economics of pro-competitive regulation of them, and the political and institutional traps/complexities of this process. If this were not enough, it is done with a view on both the US and Europe. The remainder of the book shows, sometimes with painstaking detail, not only how difficult it is for regulators and their political masters but also for incumbents and not just for new entrants, as is always stressed. It shows the tricky question of extending reforms to the water and sewage sectors, how complex state/company interactions are in the first and later stages of reform and how hard it is to design 'regulation' properly in the second generation.' -- Jacques Pelkmans, College of Europe, Bruges and Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, Belgium



Book Information
ISBN 9781843763710
Author Emiel F.M. Wubben
Format Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
Publisher Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd