Independence, Investment and Political Interference: Evidence from the European Union

dc.contributor.authorCAMBINI, Carlo
dc.contributor.authorRONDI, Laura
dc.date.accessioned2011-07-06T09:05:18Z
dc.date.available2011-07-06T09:05:18Z
dc.date.issued2011
dc.description.abstractThis paper examines the implications of “modern” regulatory governance - i.e. the inception of Independent Regulatory Authorities (IRAs) - for the investment decisions of a large sample of EU publicly traded regulated firms from 1994 to 2004. These firms provide massively consumed services, and this is why governments are highly sensitive to regulatory decisions and outcomes. We therefore analyse and empirically investigate if: i) the inception of IRAs reduces the time-inconsistency problems that lead regulated firms to underinvest, and ii) governments’ political orientation and residual state ownership interfere with investment decisions. To control for potential endogeneity of the key institutional variables, we draw our identification strategy from the political economy literature. Our results show that regulatory independence has a positive impact on regulated firms’ investment while private vs. state ownership is not significant. We also find that, under executives at the extreme of the political spectrum, government interference in the functioning of the IRA is likely to re-introduce instability and uncertainty in the regulatory framework, thus undermining investment incentives.en
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.issn1028-3625
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1814/18058
dc.language.isoenen
dc.relation.ispartofseriesEUI RSCASen
dc.relation.ispartofseries2011/42en
dc.relation.ispartofseriesFlorence School of Regulationen
dc.relation.ispartofseries[Communications and Media]en
dc.rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subjectInstitutionsen
dc.subjectFirm investmenten
dc.subjectPrivate and State ownershipen
dc.subjectRegulatory independenceen
dc.subjectGovernment's political orientationen
dc.titleIndependence, Investment and Political Interference: Evidence from the European Unionen
dc.typeWorking Paperen
dspace.entity.typePublication
eui.subscribe.skiptrue
person.identifier.other34166
relation.isAuthorOfPublicatione8dca8bb-d73e-47e9-bd7f-423ebf61ca6b
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscoverye8dca8bb-d73e-47e9-bd7f-423ebf61ca6b
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