The Impact of the Regulatory Reform Process on R&D Investment of European Electricity Utilities

Konferenzbeitrag

The aim of this paper is to give deeper insights into the impact of regulatory reforms and privatization on R&D spending of electricity utilities. Building on a panel data set including the biggest European utilities from eight EU-countries over a period from 1985 until 2010, we find a strong negative influence of privatization and also a negative overall impact of regulation on R&D investment. Nearing competition has a dampening effect on R&D spending, but once the market and regulatory framework conditions have been established, higher levels of competition positively influence R&D. Our results further indicate that the relation between competition and innovative investment can be described as inverted U-shaped. Finally, we could not find any evidence that (ownership) unbundling and incentive regulation affect R&D expenditures of the utilities.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Beiträge zur Jahrestagung des Vereins für Socialpolitik 2013: Wettbewerbspolitik und Regulierung in einer globalen Wirtschaftsordnung - Session: Regulated Industries ; No. A14-V3

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Legal Monopolies and Regulation or Deregulation ; Economics of Regulation ; Electric Utilities

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Schmitt, Stephan ; Kucsera, Denes
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft
• (where): Kiel und Hamburg
• (when): 2013

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/80035
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET