Abstract
Together with Judge Greenen’s famous ruling of 1984 which led to the dismemberment of ATT, the privatisation of the UK electricity industry is perhaps one of the most important attempts to radically modify a sector which had hitherto enjoyed a monopoly regime. The attempt therefore merits study, even though the period which has passed since the decisions (the White Paper Privatising Electicity was published in 1988 and the implementation provisions, the Energy Act, came out in 1989) is too short to allow conclusions to be drawn about a process — that of introducing competition — which was conceived of as gradual from the very outset. The problems to be examined beside being numerous and very complex should be treated in a variety of approaches so much so that they require a certain amount of caution. They range from the standard problem of the theory of the firm which considers the advantages and disadvantages of the market versus a hierarchal system, to oligopolistic behaviour, the main issue of industrial economics, and financial, regulatory policy and ecological questions.
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© 1997 Servizio Italiano Pubblicazioni Internazionali Srl
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Grassini, F.A. (1997). An Attempt to End Monopoly: the Privatisation of the UK Electricity Industry. In: Baldassarri, M., Macchiati, A., Piacentino, D. (eds) The Privatization of Public Utilities. Central Issues in Contemporary Economic Theory and Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25255-8_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25255-8_5
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