Flawed Competition Policies: Designing ‘Markets’ with Biased Costs and Efficiency Benchmarks

Rather than the endogenous, tournament-type regulation based on mean costs proposed by Shleifer almost twenty years ago, regulators have opted for market designs based on exogenously determined efficiency comparisons reflected in fixed productivity adjustments. These productivity assessments are based only on estimates of technical efficiency improvements derived from estimated production frontiers. Utilities’ prices and potential profits are driven by this externally determined market. This paper examines the impacts on utility efficiency rankings from variations in peer group frontier regulation in Europe and Australia as well as in its use in the U.S. Despite the potential for distortions caused by long periods with non-market prices, these regulatory applications measure only technical efficiency, leaving moot the assessment of optimal input selection. We examine both technical and allocative efficiency variations among firms from the different cost specifications employed by regulators involving output, factor inputs, and costs. How are rankings impacted when only subsets of total costs (e.g., O&;M, not capital or system losses) are used to gauge efficiency? Does the use of partial measures of capital relying on physical specifications impact efficiency rankings? Are rankings affected when comparisons are made independently one input at a time? Is the efficiency frontier stable? Finally, we compare alternative yardstick measures to a simple ranking on relative (total) cost per unit.     

环境规制、技术创新与中国火电行业的效率提升

基于效率的视角,本文对2004年中国30个省(自治区、直辖市)火电行业的环境规制进行分析。首先利用三阶段DEA模型排除经营环境与统计噪音对中国火电行业效率的影响,然后从非规制、弱规制、强规制三个层次分析环境规制程度与中国火电行业效率的关系。实证结果表明,环境规制可以提升中国火电行业整体的效率水平,总体上存在技术创新激励效应,但并非适用各个地区。最后本文根据环境规制与技术效率的关系,将中国各地区火电行业的发展模式划分为内力驱动环境友好型、环境弱友好型和外力推动环境友好型三种,并给出各自适应的规制建议。     

基于产业链效率的煤电纵向规制模式研究

本文认为，我国煤电产业链受到内生的纵向外部性和外生的需求强波动性的影响．政府在对其制定规制政策时必须基于这两种特性。同时，在评价规制政策有效性时需要以产业链整体效率为基准。本文归纳了7种煤电纵向价格规制模式，并在此基础上提出了“基于产业链规制”的概念。我们认为，将对电价的规制延伸到对电煤价格的规制是现阶段我国煤电产业链价格规制的最优选择。这不仅可以解决煤炭纵向价格双轨制带来的矛盾，还有利于资源的有效利用。为确保规制延伸的有效性，本文还对相关辅助政策提出了建议。     

政府监制与电力监管

阐述了政府管制的内涵及研究视角,论述了电力监管作为政府管制的重要组成部分的组成要素、基本任务、主要内容和监管体系。     

管道输煤现状及黑山煤矿管道输煤可行性分析

介绍了国外管道输煤技术的应用以及国内管道运输现状,管道输煤关键技术的分析研究。结合黑山煤矿的开发及下游市场需求,对黑山煤矿管道输煤项目的技术可行性进行初步分析,在煤矿开发及下游市场需求稳定的前提下,采用管道输煤技术上是可行的、经济上合理、市场需求稳定。     

Taxation by Regulation and Regulation by Taxation: The Case of Local Cable TV Regulation

Until late 1986, municipalities played a major role in cable television regulation.Municipalities not only regulated pricing and quality decisions but also taxed cablesystems in the forms of in-kind and in-cash concessions. These activities appear tofit well with the concept of taxation-by-regulation, which concludes that consumerwelfare is reduced because of the rent seeking behavior of local politicians. At thesame time however, the notion of regulation-by-taxation is equally plausible. Thatis, politicians may use taxation as a means to regulate the activity of a monopoly bylimiting monopoly rents and improving consumer welfare. This article empiricallyseparates these two effects and investigates the implications for consumer welfare.     

移动商务的特征与效益分析

移动商务是一种新型的电子商务交易方式。本文就移动商务的概念、特征以及移动商务所能带来得效益等方面,作详细的阐述。     

价格规制合同设计中信息租金与配置效率的协调方式

网络产业所具有的自然垄断特性使政府规制成为必要，但在信息不对称的情况下，被规制企业所具备的信息优势使政府在设计规制合同时必须面对和解决逆向选择问题。本文在考虑了参与约束和激励约束的基础上，通过建立含有信息租金的社会福利最大化目标函数，分析了企业信息租金的存在形式及其与配置效率的冲突关系，并提出了政府如何在提高资源配置效率和减少企业信息租金之间进行选择的协调方式。     

Efficiency and Firm Ownership: Some New Evidence

The paper investigates the effect of state ownership on efficiency of firmsusing an econometric model that allows for the separation of technical from allocative efficiency in adynamic setting. The estimation results, based on a sample of international airlines, suggest that state ownershipis associated with lower technical and allocative efficiency. State ownership's effect on technical efficiencyis mainly a dynamic one – lowering the rate of cost decline, whereas its effect on allocativeefficiency is static – raising the level of costs. Thus lower technical, rather than allocative, efficiency isthe main reason for state-owned firms to be less efficient than their private counterparts.     

Regulation and Cost Inefficiency

The well known Averch Johnson effect states thatrate-of-return regulation will induce costinefficient production. This paper examinesregulation induced inefficiency in broad set ofenvironments including arbitrary regulatorymechanisms, multiple outputs/inputs, uncertainty,time dynamics, price discrimination, and more. Ishow that the Averch Johnson effect appliesthroughout a wide variety of settings. Despite thegenerality of framework, my analysis is trulyelementary and does not rely on Kuhn–Tucker analysisor three dimensional graphics. I also provideresults and discussion which clarifies the limits toAverch and Johnson-like insights in practicalapplications.     

Productivity Change,Technical Progress,and Efficiency Improvement in Telecommunications

Implementation of incentive regulation intelecommunications requires the accurate measurementof the change in productivity. An approach isintroduced that not only provides a measure of thechange in productivity but also allows for adecomposition into two mutually exclusive andexhaustive components – changes in technicalefficiency over time and shifts in technology overtime. Using annual data on four output measures andsix input measures for the period 1988 to 1998 fornineteen individual local exchange carriers, theresults indicate that productivity increased by about5.0 percent per year. This growth is due primarily toinnovation rather than improvements in efficiency. Ofthe nineteen LECs in the sample, thirteen wereoperating efficiently throughout the entire 1988–1998period. Of the remaining six, two showed a slightimprovement in efficiency while the efficiency of fourdeclined. In the aggregate, however, there wasvirtually no change in efficiency. Finally, acomparison is made between two methods of estimatingthe change in productivity. The conventional growthaccounting approach yields a lower estimate of therate of change in productivity than does the Malmquistindex approach. The difference between theseestimates is interpreted as the lower bound of thebias associated with the conventional growthaccounting approach to measuring the growth inproductivity.     

Efficiency gains and myopic antitrust authority in a dynamic merger game

This paper models a sequential merger formation game with endogenous efficiency gains in which every merger has to be submitted for approval to the Antitrust Authority (AA). Two different types of AA are studied: first, a myopic AA, which judges a given merger without considering that subsequent mergers may occur; and, second, a forward looking AA, which anticipates the ultimate market structure a given merger will lead to. By contrasting the decisions of these two types of AA, merger policy implications can be drawn. In particular, the efficiency offence argument does not find any justification under a forward looking AA.     

问责制、最优预防与健康和安全管制的经济分析

作为民主政治制度的问责制首先在我国健康和安全管制领域引入而引起社会的广泛关注。虽然通过对官员的问责以追求一个最低乃至于零的事故概率，是一个人本政府理念的体现，但在既定的技术和资源条件下，这一追求并非是最优的选择。从效率上说，一个社会从而政府管制的最优预防水平，是在边际预防成本等于边际预期事故成本这一点上。所以，虽然问责制对中国民主政治制度的建设具有重要意义，但在健康和安全管制领域它并非是一个有效的制度安排。     

神华集团煤炭产运销一体化运营模式分析

文章结合分工理论、运输经济学理论以及交易费用理论分别从分工演进、生产性质、交易性质等3个视角对神华集团的煤炭产运销一体化运营模式进行了分析。认为,神华集团煤炭产运销一体化运营属于一种链网组织,在我国经济发展的现阶段,神华集团的链网组织是分工演进的必然结果,并且该组织形式有效降低了生产成本和交易费用。但是,神华集团链网组织与市场之间的边界需要通过权衡内部生产成本与交易费用之和与市场交易费用之间的差异来进行界定。     

我国煤炭输送方式经济性方面的研究工作

煤炭运输方式的经济性问题是制定能源产业政策的基本理论问题之一,为此回顾了我国五十年代以来的部分有关研究工作,对不同时期的部分研究实例从研究方法、技术方案和研究结论三个方面进行了对比分析,揭示了不同研究工作在基本原理方面的一致性和技术方案方面的差异性,以及由此造成的研究结论的异同。     

公交移动电视传播内容的研究

本文主要是对近年来新兴的公交移动电视的节目定位和传播内容进行研究,并结合地方特点给出改进的方案。     

信用、信息与规制——守信/失信的经济学分析

本文针对中国现实经济中的广泛存在的失信现象，从经济学特别是信息经济学的角度，分析了信用的性质，失信的种类与原因，防止失信的市场机制与政府规制。本文的主要观点是，从信息的角度分析信用问题是个很好的视角。     

浅析原油管输计量中的几个问题

在原油管输计量交接过程中,造成油品计量误差的主要因素有温度、压力、密度、含水及流量计系数5个方面。在分析各种误差产生原因的基础上．提出了降低计量误差的措施,     

能源输送格局评价新方法及其实证研究

提出一种分析和评价能源输送格局的新方法,通过建立能源矩概念和指标,揭示其构成要素,可以更准确、全面地描述和评价能源输送格局的特征和发展变化趋势。运用该方法对发电能源矩进行了实证研究,定量分析了未来10年发电能源矩变化趋势,分析了发电能源矩结构调整以及对未来能源输送格局的影响。研究结论为我国构建合理的能源综合运输体系提供了有价值的参考。