Public utilities and the internationalization of the economic system

Abstract

1The heterogeneity of public utilities supply models in EuropeThe evolution of state intervention in the economies of European countries has produced a heterogeneous system of public regulation. Public enterprise, for instance, has played di¡erent roles in di¡erent national contexts, and has often been considered a tool of economic policy. The di¡erent institutional outlines of national and local public utilities produce a regulative heterogeneity on the European continent, and this situation creates problems both for the economic and the institutional integration of European states.In this paper we will discuss network public utilities (NPUs) sectors, which include sectors such as: telecommunications, production and supply of electricity and natural gas, rail and air transport, and postal systems^all characterized by the presence of a network system as a fundamental input.The di¡erent national experiences of state intervention in the NPU sector have generated clear di¡erentiations with regard to the organizational and behavioural models of the industries involved.Until a few years ago, the di¡erent institutional solutions for NPU were mostly based on the model of the vertically integrated public &CIRIEC 1997. Published by Blackwell Publishers,