Abstract
The strong incentive to reduce costs under price cap regulation may create incentives for a regulated firm to reduce delivered service quality levels. Corrective measures, such as service quality standards or a service quality adjustment factor in the price cap formula may mitigate against this tendency. In this paper, we explore the properties of a regulatory scheme in which a Laspeyres index of prices and qualities is employed by the regulator.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Brennan, T. J. “Regulating by Capping Prices,” Journal of Regulatory Economics, 1, 1989, pp. 133–148.
Cowan, S. “Price-Cap Regulation,” Swedish Economic Policy Review, 9, 2002, pp. 167–188.
Currier, K. “Natural Monopoly Regulation in the Presence of Cost Misreporting,” Atlantic Economic Journal, 32, 2004, pp. 49–61.
Currier, K. “Strategic Firm Behavior Under Average-Revenue-Lagged Regulation,” Journal of Regulatory Economics, 27, 1, 2005, pp. 67–79.
De Fraja, G., Iozzi, A. “Bigger and Better: A Dynamic Regulatory Mechanism of Optimum Quality,” Centre for Economic Policy Research discussion paper 4502, 2004, http://www.cepr.org.
OFGEM, Electricity Distribution Price Control Review: Initial Consultations, OFGEM: London, 2003
Public Service Commission of Utah (PSCUT).“Changes to Proposed New Rule R746-352,” 2001, http://www.psc.state.ut.us/rules/352aprilcpr.htm.
Sappington, D. “Regulating Service Quality,” Journal of Regulatory Economics, 27, 2, 2005, pp. 123–154.
Sappington, D.E.M., and Sibley, D.S. “Strategic Nonlinear Pricing Under Price Cap Regulation,” RAND Journal of Economics, 23, 1992, pp. 1–19.
Sheshinski, E. “Price, Quality and Quantity Regulation in Monopoly Situations,” Economica, 43, 170, 1976, pp. 127–137.
Vasington, P. “Incentive Regulation in Practice: A Massachusetts Case Study,” Review of Network Economics, 2, 4, 2003, pp. 451–465.
Vogelsang, I. “Incentive Regulation and Competition in Public Utility Markets: A 20-Year Perspective,” Journal of Regulatory Economics, 22, 1, 2002, pp. 5–27.
Vogelsang, I., and Finsinger, J. “A Regulatory Adjustment Process for Optimal Pricing by Multiproduct Monopoly Firms,” Bell Journal of Economics, 10, 1979, pp. 157–171.
Weisman, D. “Price Regulation and Quality,” Information Economics and Policy, 17, 2, 2005, pp. 165–174.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Currier, K.M. Quality-Adjusted Laspeyres Price Caps: A Graphical Analysis. Atl Econ J 34, 481–490 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11293-006-9041-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11293-006-9041-y