Regulatory Economics And Quantitative Methods

Regulatory Economics and Quantitative Methods comprises original contributions by leading researchers working on issues relating to regulation in Latin America. They focus on regulation in infrastructure industries and attempt to show how quantitative analysis can contribute to more effective regulation. In particular, they discuss central issues relating to the measures used for benchmarking natural monopolies, incentives and contractual arrangements used in the regulatory environment and the impact of regulation and regulatory processes.

The analysis throughout the book is both theoretical and applied, with numerous illustrations drawn from various infrastructure sectors such as electricity, water, telecommunications and ports. An innovative feature of the contributions is the link they make between solving the practical problems faced by regulators in various sectors and in helping them to improve the design of policy.

The book will be of great interest to academics and students of regulatory economics, as well as those interested in the application of econometrics and general equilibrium modelling. It will also be of interest to government officials and regulators in Latin America, Africa and Eastern European Countries.

Contents:

Preface

1. Introduction and Overview
Omar O. Chisari

2. Bottom-up or Top-down Benchmarking in Natural Monopoly Regulation: The Case of Chile and the United Kingdom
Andrés Gómez-Lobo

3. Labour Productivity Change Estimates as an Input for X-Factors
Martín A. Rossi

4. Monopoly Regulation, Chilean Style: The Efficient Firm Standard in Theory and Practice
Álvaro Bustos and Alexander Galetovic

5. Estimation of Productive Efficiency Based on Non Parametric Techniques: The Case of Electricity Distribution in Argentina
Paula Margaretic and Carlos Romero

6. Evolution of Mexico’s Port Efficiency in a Multiproduct Context: A Distance Function Approach
Lourdes Trujillo and Maria Manuela González

7. Lessons from Computable General Equilibrium Models Applied to Regulatory Economics
Omar O. Chisari, Antonio Estache and Carlos Romero

8. The Effectiveness of Competition Policy in Argentina, Chile and Peru During the 1990s
Paula Maragaretic, Maria Fernanda Martínez and Diego Petrecolla

Index