In recent decades, all infrastructures have undergone significant restructuring. This worldwide phenomenon is often labelled 'liberalization' and although expectations were high with respect to lower prices, greater efficiency and innovation, the expected gains have not always been fully realised. This extensive, state-of-the-art Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the various experiences of liberalization across different sectors, regions and disciplines. The multidisciplinary approach focuses on the economic, political and institutional aspects of liberalization, as well as to a lesser extent on technological issues. As such, it constitutes a unique contribution as this broad overview is often lost in the sector specific, country-focused and purely disciplinary approaches prevalent in the current literature. Sectors explored include telecoms, the Internet, energy and transport, whilst the truly global perspective incorporates unique case studies from an array of developed and developing countries including the US, China, India and the EU.The International Handbook of Network Industries will become the definitive volume for academics researchers and students of economics, political science and law interested in infrastructure regulation. It will also prove a valuable guide to practitioners and policymakers involved in liberalization and competition.
Author(s): Finger, Matthias; Kunneke, Rolf W.
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Year: 2011
Language: English
Pages: 536
Tags: Business networks Infrastructure Economics Strategic alliances
Cover
Copyright
Contents
Contributors
1 Introduction
PART I GENERIC ASPECTS OF INFRASTRUCTURE LIBERALIZATION
2 Basic economic principles of infrastructure liberalization: a transaction cost perspective
3 A general framework for regulation and liberalization in network industries
4 From ‘service public’ to universal service: the case of the European Union
5 Evolution and design of institutions supporting liberalization
6 The institutional economic history of infrastructure industries, 1830–1990: ideology, technology, geopolitics?
PART II SECTOR STUDIES
7 Liberalization in the telecom sector
8 Liberalization in radio spectrum management
9 Liberalization and the Internet
10 The liberalization of electricity markets
11 Trends in gas
12 The oil industry: a dynamic patchwork of approaches?
13 Reforming railways
14 Liberalization of air transport
15 Road infrastructure and institutional reform: tolling and pricing
16 Public transport liberalization: achievements and future directions
17 Maritime ports
18 Liberalization in the water sector: three leading models
19 Liberalization in the postal and delivery sector
PART III COUNTRY AND REGIONALSTUDIES
20 Liberalization of network industries in the European Union: evolving policy issues
21 Liberalization and regulation of telecoms, electricity, and gas in the United States
22 The liberalization of infrastructures in Latin America
23 Reform of China’s energy and telecommunications sectors
24 Infrastructure reforms in India: an analysis of successes and failures
25 Liberalization of infrastructures in Russia
26 Recent Australian infrastructure liberalization
27 Infrastructure liberalization: challenges to the new economic paradigm in the context of developing countries
Index
