NETWORK INDUSTRIES AND SOCIAL WELFARE by Massimo Florio ( 9780199674855 )

Item Details

Title:

NETWORK INDUSTRIES AND SOCIAL WELFARE
THE EXPERIMENT THAT RESHUFFLED EUROPEAN UTILITIES

By:

Massimo Florio

Format:

Hardback

List price:

£140.00

Our price:

£135.80

Discount:

3% off

You save:

£4.20

ISBN 10:

019967485X

ISBN 13:

9780199674855

Availability:

Usually dispatched within 1-3 weeks.

Delivery rates

Stock:

Currently 0 available

Publisher:

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pages:

432

Description:

This book offers a careful scrutiny of energy and telephony reforms and their social impact on households in 15 countries across Western Europe. It concludes that the benefits for consumers are limited and it discusses the reasons why the European reform experiment of network industries is not living up to its promises.

Synopsis:

A dramatic change of ownership, regulation, and organisation of essential public services, such as electricity, gas, and telecommunications, has taken place in Europe in less than 20 years. This was not the outcome of spontaneous adaptation, but an entirely top-down policy experiment, mainly conceived in London during Mrs Thatcher's years, then pursued in Brussels - the 'capital' of the European Union - and imposed on more or less reluctant players by laws, directives, regulations, and administrative and judicial decisions. The European reform paradigm revolves around three pillars: privatisation, unbundling, and regulated liberalisation of network industries. These industries, despite the reforms, are still special, as they include core natural monopoly components (the electricity grid, the gas pipelines, the telephony networks, etc.), are often based on complex system integration of different segments (for example of electricity generation, transmission, distribution and retail supply), and offer services that have critical social and economic importance, from heating to internet.This book offers a careful scrutiny of energy and telephony reforms and prices paid by households in 15 countries across Western Europe. It attempts to answer such questions as: Are the consumers in Europe happier than they were before the reforms? Do they pay less? Do they get a better quality for the services? Network Industries and Social Welfare provides an overview of the main facts, the conceptual issues, and of the empirical evidence on pricing, perceptions of quality of service, and the issues of utility poverty and social affordability. It suggests that the benefits of the reforms for the consumers have often been limited and that governments should reconsider their overconfidence in regulated market mechanisms in network industries.

Illustrations:

35 Figures, 45 Tables

Publication:

Imprint:

Oxford University Press

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

APPLIED WELFARE ECONOMICS