New regulation on strategic behaviour in network-based industries

This paper starts by establishing that change processes like liberalization and privatization in the world of network-based utilities have been accompanied by considerable and harmful strategic behaviour. In many cases, regulators have been set up to counter this strategic behaviour. It is doubtful whether regulators would manage to do so if they actually have to operate on the basis of widely accepted concepts, such as independence, ride-guided behaviour and transparency. This work presents a new interpretation of independence, rule-guided behaviour and transparency that would enhance the regulator's effectiveness without too many adverse consequences.