[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/regeco/v27y2005i3p281-308.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Price-Cost Margins and Profit Rates in New Zealand Electricity Distribution Networks Since 1994: the Cost of Light Handed Regulation

Author

Listed:
  • Geoff Bertram
  • Dan Twaddle
Abstract
From 1994 to 2003, New Zealand’s corporatized electricity lines networks operated with no industry regulator, but under the spotlight of mandatory information disclosure. As a result there exists a large body of detailed, audited and publicly available accounting data on the financial performance of these businesses. Using that data, this paper finds that price-cost margins have widened substantially since deregulation. We estimate the extent to which ‘‘light-handed regulation’’ has allowed profits to exceed the levels which would have been acceptable under the old rate-of-return regulatory framework, and find that the answer is about $200 million per year, on an ongoing basis. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2005

Suggested Citation

  • Geoff Bertram & Dan Twaddle, 2005. "Price-Cost Margins and Profit Rates in New Zealand Electricity Distribution Networks Since 1994: the Cost of Light Handed Regulation," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 281-308, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:regeco:v:27:y:2005:i:3:p:281-308
    DOI: 10.1007/s11149-005-6625-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11149-005-6625-4
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11149-005-6625-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen Martin, 1997. "Competition Policy: Publicity vs. Prohibition & Punishment," CIE Discussion Papers 1997-02, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Centre for Industrial Economics.
    2. Bushnell, James, 2005. "Looking for Trouble: Competition Policy in the U.S. Electricity Industry," Staff General Research Papers Archive 13140, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Paul Nillesen and Michael Pollitt, 2021. "Ownership Unbundling of Electricity Distribution Networks," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    2. Brandão, Roberto & Tolmasquim, Maurício T. & Maestrini, Marcelo & Tavares, Arthur Felipe & Castro, Nivalde J. & Ozorio, Luiz & Chaves, Ana Carolina, 2021. "Determinants of the economic performance of Brazilian electricity distributors," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    3. Collan, Mikael & Savolainen, Jyrki & Lilja, Emma, 2022. "Analyzing the returns and rate of return regulation of Finnish electricity distribution system operators 2015–2019," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    4. Paul L. Joskow, 2014. "Incentive Regulation in Theory and Practice: Electricity Distribution and Transmission Networks," NBER Chapters, in: Economic Regulation and Its Reform: What Have We Learned?, pages 291-344, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. O'Sullivan, Kimberley C. & Howden-Chapman, Philippa L. & Fougere, Geoff, 2011. "Making the connection: The relationship between fuel poverty, electricity disconnection, and prepayment metering," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 733-741, February.
    6. Filippini, Massimo & Wetzel, Heike, 2014. "The impact of ownership unbundling on cost efficiency: Empirical evidence from the New Zealand electricity distribution sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 412-418.
    7. O'Sullivan, Kimberley C. & Howden-Chapman, Philippa L. & Fougere, Geoffrey M. & Hales, Simon & Stanley, James, 2013. "Empowered? Examining self-disconnection in a postal survey of electricity prepayment meter consumers in New Zealand," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 277-287.
    8. Jamasb, Tooraj & Pollitt, Michael, 2007. "Incentive regulation of electricity distribution networks: Lessons of experience from Britain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 6163-6187, December.
    9. Paul Nillesen & Michael Pollitt, 2011. "Ownership Unbundling in Electricity Distribution: Empirical Evidence from New Zealand," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 38(1), pages 61-93, January.
    10. Paul L. Joskow, 2008. "Lessons Learned From Electricity Market Liberalization," The Energy Journal, , vol. 29(2_suppl), pages 9-42, December.
    11. Yang, Hangjun & Fu, Xiaowen, 2015. "A comparison of price-cap and light-handed airport regulation with demand uncertainty," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 122-132.
    12. Howden-Chapman, Philippa & Viggers, Helen & Chapman, Ralph & O’Sullivan, Kimberley & Telfar Barnard, Lucy & Lloyd, Bob, 2012. "Tackling cold housing and fuel poverty in New Zealand: A review of policies, research, and health impacts," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 134-142.
    13. Jamasb, Tooraj & Pollitt, Michael, 2008. "Reference models and incentive regulation of electricity distribution networks: An evaluation of Sweden's Network Performance Assessment Model (NPAM)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 1788-1801, May.
    14. Howden-Chapman, Philippa & Viggers, Helen & Chapman, Ralph & O'Dea, Des & Free, Sarah & O'Sullivan, Kimberley, 2009. "Warm homes: Drivers of the demand for heating in the residential sector in New Zealand," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 3387-3399, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:vuw:vuwscr:18938 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Lewis Evans & Graeme Guthrie, 2009. "How Options Provided by Storage Affect Electricity Prices," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 75(3), pages 681-702, January.
    3. David P. Brown & Andrew Eckert, 2017. "Electricity market mergers with endogenous forward contracting," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 269-310, June.
    4. Verena Hahn, 2000. "Antitrust Enforcement: Abuse Control or Notification?," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 69-91, July.
    5. Evans, Lewis & Counsell, Kevin & Guthrie, Graeme, 2006. "Options Provided by Storage can Explain High Electricity Prices," Working Paper Series 3943, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    6. Evans, Lewis & Guthrie, Graeme & Videbeck, Steen, 2006. "Assessing the Integration of Electricity Markets Using Principal Component Analysis: Network and Market Structure Effects," Working Paper Series 18938, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    7. Lewis Evans & Graeme Guthrie & Steen Videbeck, 2008. "Assessing The Integration Of Electricity Markets Using Principal Component Analysis: Network And Market Structure Effects," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 26(1), pages 145-161, January.
    8. Barquin, J. & Boots,M. G. & Ehrenmann, A. & Hobbs, B.F. & Neuhoff, K. & Rijkers, F. A. M., 2004. "Network-constrained models of liberalized electricity markets: the devil is in the details," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0405, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    9. repec:vuw:vuwscr:19042 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. James Bushnell, 2007. "Oligopoly equilibria in electricity contract markets," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 32(3), pages 225-245, December.
    11. Evans, Lewis & Guthrie, Graeme & Lu, Andrea, 2013. "The role of storage in a competitive electricity market and the effects of climate change," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 405-418.
    12. Evans, Lewis & Counsell, Kevin & Guthrie, Graeme, 2006. "Options Provided by Storage can Explain High Electricity Prices," Working Paper Series 19042, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    13. Pittman, Russell, 2007. "Restructuring the Russian electricity sector: Re-creating California?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 1872-1883, March.
    14. Ronald Harstad & Stephen Martin & Hans-Theo Normann, 1997. "Experimental Tests of Consciously Parallel Behaviour in Oligopoly," CIE Discussion Papers 1997-07, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Centre for Industrial Economics.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:regeco:v:27:y:2005:i:3:p:281-308. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.