公用企业滥用行为与"混合型"管制改革

公用企业滥用垄断地位行为是管制改革和中国反垄断法中的核心问题.本文采用线性城市模型证明,管制改革中纵向经营在位企业具有采取排他性行为对新企业实行市场封锁的激励.在此情况下,混合型管制体制具有相对的效率优势.中国自然垄断行业具有自然垄断、行为垄断和行政垄断三重交织的特点,垄断性公用企业具有特殊的滥用行为产生机理和滥用行为方式.反公用企业滥用行为应建立"混合型"管制体制模式,将深化行业管制体制改革和反垄断执法有机的结合起来.     

民营化与我国城市公用事业关系研究

民营化是我国城市公用事业进一步发展的出路所在.本文以此为研究出发点,立足于席卷全球的"民营化"浪潮和发达国家城市公用事业成功的民营化实践.通过对我国城市公用事业的现状、与民营化的关系及民营化过程中的问题进行研究,力图构建适应我国城市公用事业良性、快速发展的民营化模式.     

城市公用事业项目市场化运营中的风险管理

当前我国正在广泛采用市场化运营的方式推进对城市公用事业项目的建设。在公用事业项目市场化运营的热潮中,必须注意防范和规避各种风险。通过风险管理的手段加强公用事业项目的建设可以更好地保障公用事业项目市场化运营的成效。     

The cost effectiveness of zonisamide as adjunctive therapy in adult partial seizure epilepsy

Summary

Many patients with epilepsy continue to have partial seizures requiring add-on antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Zonisamide, a broad-spectrum AED, has recently entered the European market and must be compared with the current standard of care. The objective of this study was to determine the cost effectiveness of zonisamide as treatment for adults with uncontrolled partial epilepsy in Scotland. A Markov decision model was developed from the perspective of the Scottish National Health Service. Outcome measures included quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and costs in GBP.

Patients treated with zonisamide had a 15-year incremental cost of £20 and 0.026 additional QALYs compared with patients treated with levetiracetam. These modest differences result in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio for zonisamide of £761/QALY.

We conclude that zonisamide is a cost-effective treatment for adult patients with refractory partial epilepsy being treated according to Scottish treatment patterns and costs, assuming a willingness to pay of £20,000/QALY.     

Yardstick and incentive issues in UK electricity distribution price controls

Electricity distribution is a primary candidate for regulation since it is a natural monopoly whose costs it would be inefficient to duplicate in a competitive market. In the UK since privatisation of the electricity industry in 1990, this regulation has emphasised incentives for cost efficiency through the use of RPI‐X price capping applied to 14 regional distribution businesses. The paper examines the issues that have arisen in implementation, including the practice of bench‐marking the operating and capital expenditures of different companies. It analyses how the price set at the beginning of each review period depends on the determination of cost yardsticks, the weighted average cost of capital and the regulatory asset base of the companies. The analytical model is used to evaluate Ofgem's 1999 Distribution Price Control Review and compares it with other European distribution price regulations.     

城市公用事业公共定价与绩效管理

城市公用事业改革是当前我国经济体制改革的重点和难点。其改革不仅涉及到经营及运作模式的转变,也涉及到管理体制的转型。就各国公用事业管理的方法及经验来看,价格监管是其最重要的监管方式和手段之一。本文主要从公共管理的视角出发,借鉴和运用绩效管理的理论和方法,以公共定价为切入点,分析了我国城市公用事业的特征及现行定价机制中存在的问题,就如何完善我国城市公用事业公共定价机制提出了几点政策建议。     

Bringing competition to urban water supply*

This paper proposes a market‐based reform that would introduce competition into the provision of urban water. This proposal calls for a decoupling of infrastructure control and ownership of water whereby the property rights to water would be transferred to private hands. The proposal involves periodically allocation (e.g. by auction) of existing water stock held in urban catchments to virtual suppliers who then compete in providing bulk water. This change when coupled with effective third party access and retail competition would lead to a competitive market for the provision of urban water. The approach aims to address concerns over inefficient pricing and infrastructure provision under the current arrangement.     

The accuracy of long-term earnings forecasts in the electric utility industry

This paper examines the accuracy of various methods of forecasting long-term earnings growth for firms in the electric utility industry. In addition to a number of extrapolative techniques, Value Line analyst forecasts are also evaluated. Value Line analyst forecasts for a five-year time horizon are found to be superior to many of the extrapolative models. Among the extrapolative models examined, implied growth and historical book value per share growth rate models performed best. These results provide strong support for using Value Line growth forecasts in cost of capital estimates for electric utilities in the context of utility rate cases. Value Line forecast errors could be explained by changes in dividend payout ratios, the firm's regulatory environment and bond rating changes.     

公用事业民营化进程中的政府规制重构

民营化逐渐成为西方国家公用事业改革以及政府治理模式变革的基本潮流，并对后发展中国家的行政改革产生了巨大的示范作用。转型中国的公用事业民营化在约束条件、目的、绩效评估等方面与发达国家有所区别；对政府合理边界的确定是民营化改革成功的关键，要以破除行政性垄断为突破口、依法规制为核心、适当放松规制为原则、建立相对独立的规制机构为保障重构政府规制体系，促进公用事业的发展。     

Sensitivity analysis of efficiency rankings to distributional assumptions: applications to Japanese water utilities

This article examines the robustness of efficiency score rankings across four distributional assumptions for trans-log stochastic production-frontier models, using data from 1221 Japanese water utilities (for 2004 and 2005). One-sided error terms considered include the half-normal, truncated normal, exponential and gamma distributions. Results are compared for homoscedastic and doubly heteroscedastic models, where we also introduce a doubly heteroscedastic variable mean model, and examine the sensitivity of the nested models to a stronger heteroscedasticity correction for the one-sided error component. The results support three conclusions regarding the sensitivity of efficiency rankings to distributional assumptions. When four standard distributional assumptions are applied to a homoscedastic stochastic frontier model, the efficiency rankings are quite consistent. When those assumptions are applied to a doubly heteroscedastic stochastic frontier model, the efficiency rankings are consistent when proper and sufficient arguments for the variance functions are included in the model. When a more general model, like a variable mean model is estimated, efficiency rankings are quite sensitive to heteroscedasticity correction schemes.