The Institutional Economics of Reflexive Governance in the Area of Utility Regulation

Abstract

Regulation of utilities in the XXI Century is challenged by the fast pace of change notably the acceleration of innovation, the restructuring of industry as sets of modular chains and the spreading of new information and communication technology. Living in this world of rapid and renewed changes regulators are also challenged by the basic characteristics of their institutional embeddedness. In the real world, far from being the alpha and the omega of regulation, regulators only act in a multilevel and multichannel frame of regulatory institutions. However regulators can bring a core piece of "reflexive governance" to favour the new industry and institutions' changes. It is by building "knowledge platforms" on an "open forum" model.