Price Effects of Across-State Regulation of U.S. Electric Utilities

• Published in: Review of industrial organization Vol. 18; no. 3; pp. 337 - 350
• Main Author: SAVITSKI, DAVID W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Kluwer Academic Publishers 01.05.2001; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Campaign contributions; Commissioners; Competition; Corporate profits; Cost recovery; Customers; Economic competition; Economic regulation; Electric rates; Electric utilities; Electricity; Franchises; Industrial organization; Industrial regulation; Interest groups; Jurisdiction; Memoranda of understanding; Population density; Price regulation; Pricing; Public services; Public utilities; Regulation; Revenue regulations; State regulation; Studies; U.S.A; Utilities; Voting; United States > US
• ISSN: 0889-938X; 1573-7160
• DOI: 10.1023/A:1007887718198

Investor-owned utilities (IOUs) serving multiple states are subject to multiple public service (utility) commission (PSC) regulation. Focusing on relative rates of an IOU across PSCs isolates regulatory effects. This analysis examines 38 such multistate IOUs from 1995. For the residential-commercial customer comparison, elected PSC commissioners, Republican-appointed commissioners, PSC jurisdiction over municipally-owned utilities (an indirect IOU competitor), and IOU home-state status are associated with a higher relative rate, whereas more PSC employees per capita and population density are associated with a lower relative rate. The commercial-industrial comparison results are largely reversed, but are similarly robust.