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This timely research review explores the main issues surrounding competition and regulation in electricity markets. The industry is experiencing irresistible forces for change driven by energy policy objectives; a reassessment of market regulation in the face of high energy prices and the response to consumer pressure to agree on what constitutes a fair price for energy. This research review identifies the key articles that underpin the debate across the industries supply chain (generation, supply and networks) and from a regulatory perspective (including market power and incentive regulation) followed by a consideration of the overall impact of liberalisation and future developments.

This extensive research review conveys the leading scholarly ideas on modern regulatory governance since 1871. The review lays out the rationales for and critiques of technocratic governance in industrialized societies. It traces the evolution of regulatory institutions, highlighting the most recent era of globalization, deregulation, privatization and regulatory innovation before examining influential frameworks for understanding regulatory culture in action, assessing the impacts of regulatory policies, and explaining regulatory change.

The diverse array of authors and topics reviewed makes this research review an indispensable tool to study one of the most cited economic theories of the 20th century.

Regulatory economics has become increasingly important over the last quarter of a century, in part as a result of the wave of privatization, starting in the UK, which made the regulation of monopoly of much greater interest. The discipline has also become more rigorous, increasingly employing powerful analytical and econometric methods. This research review examines some of the leading contributions to the literature on this subject.