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Utilities have long been essential for societies, supplying basic services for nations, organizations and households alike. The proper functioning and regulation of utilities is therefore critical for the economy, society and security. History provides an invaluable insight into important issues of the economic and social regulation of utilities and offers guidance for future debates. However, the history of utility regulation – which speaks of changing, diverse and complex experiences around the world – was sidelined or marginalised when economists and policy-makers enthusiastically embraced the question of how to reform the utilities from the 1970s. This book examines in depth the complex regulation and deregulation of energy, communications, transportation and water utilities across Western Europe, the United States, Australia, Brazil, China and India. In each case, attention is drawn to the changing roles of the state, the market and firms in the regulation, organization and delivery of utility services. This book was originally published as a special issue of Business History.
Covering issues such as deregulation, privatization, organizational reforms, and competition policy, Regulatory Reform of Public Utilities provides a comprehensive summary of regulatory reforms in Japanese public utility industries. Fumitoshi Mizutani expertly explores the main regulatory structures and regulatory reforms in eight Japanese public utility industries: electric power, gas utility, water supply, railways, local bus, postal services, telecommunications, and broadcasting. There are also separate chapters on yardstick regulation, universal service obligations, privatization and structural reforms, and private sector involvement Ð all important issues in Japanese regulatory reform. This unique study reveals that regulatory reform in Japan has distinctive features. It seeks to fill the information gap and widen understanding in the international community in relation to the Japanese experience with regulation and reform of public utility industries. This informative book will prove invaluable to postgraduate students, policymakers, and researchers in fields such as regulation, empirical industrial organization, and public policy.
Excerpt from Public Utilities Their Cost New and Depreciation The valuation of public utility undertakings is a mixed question of fact, judgment and law. A comprehensive treatment of this subject requires the combined knowledge of the engineer, the economist and the lawyer. The following pages, written by an engineer, cannot be offered as an authoritative discussion of the legal questions involved. On the other hand the engineer, who is called upon to prepare and present most of the figures required by courts and commissions as evidence of the value of the property of such undertakings, must have a sufficient knowledge of the legal questions that are at issue to enable him to obtain properly...