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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- About the Authors
- Deregulatory Takings and the Regulatory Contract
- 1 The Nature of the Controversy
- 2 Deregulation and Network Pricing
- 3 Quarantines and Quagmires
- 4 The Regulatory Contract
- 5 Remedies for Breach of the Regulatory Contract
- 6 Takings and the Property of the Regulated Utility
- 7 Just Compensation for Deregulatory Takings
- 8 The Efficient Component-Pricing Rule
- 9 The Market-Determined Efficient Component-Pricing Rule
- 10 Answering the Critics of Efficient Component Pricing
- 11 The Equivalence Principle
- 12 TSLRIC Pricing and the Fallacy of Forward-Looking Costs
- 13 Deregulatory Takings and Efficient Capital Markets
- 14 Limiting Principles for Stranded Cost Recovery
- 15 Deregulation and Managed Competition in Network Industries
- 16 The Tragedy of the Telecommons
- References
- Case Index
- Name Index
- Subject Index
16 - The Tragedy of the Telecommons
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- About the Authors
- Deregulatory Takings and the Regulatory Contract
- 1 The Nature of the Controversy
- 2 Deregulation and Network Pricing
- 3 Quarantines and Quagmires
- 4 The Regulatory Contract
- 5 Remedies for Breach of the Regulatory Contract
- 6 Takings and the Property of the Regulated Utility
- 7 Just Compensation for Deregulatory Takings
- 8 The Efficient Component-Pricing Rule
- 9 The Market-Determined Efficient Component-Pricing Rule
- 10 Answering the Critics of Efficient Component Pricing
- 11 The Equivalence Principle
- 12 TSLRIC Pricing and the Fallacy of Forward-Looking Costs
- 13 Deregulatory Takings and Efficient Capital Markets
- 14 Limiting Principles for Stranded Cost Recovery
- 15 Deregulation and Managed Competition in Network Industries
- 16 The Tragedy of the Telecommons
- References
- Case Index
- Name Index
- Subject Index
Summary
PROPERTY RIGHTS are the foundation of a market economy. Only a well-defined system of property rights allows for the exchange of goods and services in the marketplace and provides incentives for investment in all manner of business ventures. Our theme is the economic importance of legal protection of property rights from government takings. We express concern that as deregulation proceeds in telecommunications and electric power, regulatory agencies are attempting to erode those constitutional protections for private property and are pursuing a government taking of unprecedented proportions through a carefully structured sequence of deregulatory programs.
FOUR EPIGRAMS FOR PROTECTING PRIVATE PROPERTY IN NETWORK INDUSTRIES
The analysis that we present is neither an apologia for regulation nor a defense of monopoly. To the contrary, our overriding concern is the protection of private property as the foundation of a competitive economy. Our analysis of deregulatory takings in the light of the constitutional defense of property rights is meant as a criticism of regulators who seek to use their authority to effect taxes and income transfers “off the books.” We strongly favor moving from a regulated regime to a competitive market in the network industries as quickly as possible. That transition, however, requires loosening regulatory controls not only on entry, but also on the incumbent utilities. The need to compensate the incumbent utility for past, present, or future regulatory obligations does not mean that competition should be delayed.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Deregulatory Takings and the Regulatory ContractThe Competitive Transformation of Network Industries in the United States, pp. 535 - 566Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997
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