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Privatisation in the EU Energy Sector: The Never‐Ending Story
Author(s) -
Stagnaro Carlo
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
economic affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.24
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1468-0270
pISSN - 0265-0665
DOI - 10.1111/ecaf.12081
Subject(s) - energy sector , electricity , competition (biology) , economics , empirical evidence , market economy , energy (signal processing) , electricity market , international economics , economic system , engineering , ecology , philosophy , statistics , mathematics , epistemology , electrical engineering , biology
Following the wave of privatisation that started in Britain's energy sectors in the early 1980s, much progress has been made but the results still fall short of the potential benefits. In this paper both the theoretical arguments and the existing empirical evidence on privatisation in the energy sector are examined, with particular reference to European experience. The paper also presents some additional empirical analysis on the effect of privatisation on competition in the electricity market. Although not fully satisfactory, the analysis seems to be consistent with theoretical arguments. In particular, ‘mostly privatised’ industries tend to be associated with incumbents having lower market shares.