Deregulation Process Research Articles

Introduction: the role of central banks in economic development with an emphasis on the recent Argentinean experience

Almost all of the papers presented in this special issue were part of the annual conferences of the Banco Central de la Republica Argentina (BCRA) during the last couple of years, or are variations on the topics on which the authors presented during the Bank’s Annual Conference. They share a common theme, one that is relevant for the recent Argentinean experience, but that is also important for many developing countries, since it puts into question the role of central banks in the process of development. The papers suggest that central banks historically were not limited to fighting inflation and have, under certain circumstances, been relevant in promoting a broad process of development with price stability. 1 Throughout the history of central banking both in advanced and developing countries, financing governments, managing exchange rates, and supporting the productive sectors by using direct methods of intervention have been among the most important tasks of central banking and, indeed, in many cases, were among the reasons for their existence. The conventional independent central bank concerned only with inflation is, in a sense, radically out of step with the history and practice of central banking throughout most of its history. TherecentArgentineanexperience,infact,reflectsthisnotionthatcentralbankscanbe instruments of development. It is important to remember that during the Convertibility period (1991–2002) the BCRA was significantly limited in its ability to act as a lender of last resort, and that a process of liberalization, deregulation and privatization, together with the fixed exchange rate, resulted in unsustainable current account deficits and increasing external indebtedness which led to the default. After the crisis, and particularly after 2003, the economy grew at the highest rates in its recorded history, to a great extent as a result of the expansion of domestic demand. Even though the external conditions were favorable, it is important to note that other countries in South America had a more favorable shock to their terms of trade and still grew considerably less than Argentina. Further, the expansion of demand, and the reduction of unemployment rate from more than 22 percent to around 7 percent, went hand in hand with the maintenance of primary fiscal surpluses, 2 and higher real wages that permitted a considerable improvement in income distribution.

Identifying the Valuation Effects and Agency Costs of Corporate Diversification: Evidence from the Geographic Diversification of U.S. Banks

This paper assesses the impact of the geographic diversification of bank holding company (BHC) assets across the United States on their market valuations. Using two new identification strategies based on the dynamic process of interstate bank deregulation, we find that exogenous increases in geographic diversity reduced BHC valuations. We also find that the geographic diversification of BHC assets increased insider lending and reduced loan quality. Taken together, these findings are consistent with theories predicting that geographic diversity intensifies agency problems.

Uneven patterns in airport seat capacity distribution: a review

This paper reviews the literature on the uneven patterns of airport seat capacity. Seat capacity distribution studies are useful to show air travel possibilities and whether economic development is concentrated in some particular regions. During the last decades, seat capacity patterns have been reshaped by an increasing process of deregulation of the air traffic market and liberalization of the former flagship carriers. Overall, literature agrees that intra-continental seat capacity has tended to deconcentrate, meaning that seats are more equally spread along the airport population, while inter-continental seat capacity, the most valuable for the exchange of face-to-face information and global supply chains, has tended to concentrate in fewer airports. Hence, in quantitative terms inequality has decreased, although in qualitative terms it has increased.

Profit based unit commitment for GENCOs using parallel NACO in a distributed cluster

Deregulation process has created an intense competition with the participation of many generating companies (GENCOs) in a power market. Wholesale transactions (bids and offer) have to be cleared and settled in a shorter duration. Therefore, this necessitates for the system operator to quick and smarter decisions. In this problem formulation, profit based unit commitment (PBUC) problem aims in maximizing the profit of GENCOs. However demand satisfaction is not an obligation. Here, parallel nodal ant colony optimization (PNACO) approach mimicking ant's intelligence is used in the decision on committing generating units. The sub problem economic dispatch (ED) is carried out using parallel artificial bee colony (PABC) approach mimicking foraging behavior of bees. Profit based unit commitment (PBUC) must be obtained in less time even though there is a possible increase in generating units. Nowadays, as computing resources are available in plenty, effective utilization will be advantageous for reducing the time complexity for a large scale power system solution. The proposed approach uses a cluster of computers performing parallel operations in a distributed environment for obtaining the PBUC solution. The time complexity and the solution quality with respect to the number of processors in the cluster are thoroughly investigated. The effectiveness of the proposed approach for PBUC is first validated on a standard 10 unit system available in the literature and then analysis for computational efficiency using 1000 generating units, which is a duplicate form of standard 10 unit system.

Deregulation of the Russian railway freight market - learning from empirical results

Railway transport has confronted various changes during the last decades. Although the trend of deregulation spread worldwide in 1990s, Russia belongs to countries which have not totally liberalised market. Russian railway market has developed significantly since 2001 and today there are almost 2,000 companies offering railway services. However, the traction market's deregulation process is still incomplete. The market is confronting notable changes during the coming years. This research's main objective is to evaluate the progression of deregulation in the Russian railway freight market, highlight the confronted market entry barriers and reveal the national peculiarities. Research findings strengthen former knowledge and fortifies the Russian railway freight market has many national characteristics. As the main traits was noted importance of personal relations and close linkage with politics. Although market has many operators, undertakings are mainly leasing companies providing rolling stock for their customers. When considering the barriers to entry, as main hindering factors were regarded rolling stock, bureaucracy and needed capital. These follow the same path which has been noted in previous studies; Although Russian railway freight market has strong national peculiarities, the barriers to entry are the same like in Europe.

Urban policies, planning and retail resilience

Retail trade is a private-sector activity: its structure and location result mainly from the action of individuals and firms in a given time and space. However, planning and regulations, which translate the way collective interest relates to private interest, have a significant effect on the activity.When examining the relationship between retail and urban space in the last three decades, in what may be regarded as a process of general deregulation, it is possible to identify the continued relevance of public policies, plans and projects, although with differing intensity. This finding applies considering either those rules specifically designed for retail or those with a spatial focus on places where retail plays a significant role, as is the particular case of the “city centre”.Policy and planning are seen in this article in their relationship with retail and urban resilience, as the text deals with the way in which they influence the situation in the countries which were the object of study in the Replacis Euro-net research project: France, Portugal, Sweden and Turkey. The article intends to examine the role of the countries’ cultural framework in policy design and to demonstrate how regulations, planning systems and practices contribute significantly to understanding the differences in urban retail structure between these countries (and, in particular, in some of their cities).

Wybrane problemy wykonywania zadań oświatowych przez jednostki samorządu terytorialnego

Due to complex socio-economic structural factors education seen as a public task (executed by the State governmental administration and local government) becomes subject to privatisation and deregulation process, in line with the subsidiarity principle. The article discusses theoretic grounds for the issue of performing public tasks according to the classic perspective as well as the concept of new public management; it also presents doubts and concerns related to privatisation of public tasks and privatisation of performing public tasks. Basis problems of school management (instituting, administering and closure) have been outlined in light of doctrine and administrative courts’ jurisprudence. The articles sketches alternative institutional forms of educational tasks’ execution, including schools administered by non-public entities. Trends in the public and non-public compulsory school sector have been exemplified by the relevant statistics. Furthermore, the article describes the prospects of developments in schooling run by local government units as well as possible legal amendments and examples of already taken initiatives. Finally, the Author attempts to assess the proposals for legal foundation of privatisation of educational tasks, in terms of ensuring equal access to education and achieving social cohesion.

Liberalização econômica e universalização do acesso no transporte aéreo: é possível conciliar livre mercado com metas sociais e ainda evitar gargalos de infraestrutura

A liberalização econômica do transporte aéreo brasileiro trouxe visíveis benefícios ao setor, com preços mais baixos e maior popularização. Houve, entretanto, mais concentração da operação em grandes aeroportos e perda de cobertura regional. O presente trabalho tem por objetivo analisar a evolução do número de aeroportos servidos pelo transporte aéreo regular brasileiro, bem como os índices de concentração de operações e a cobertura ao longo do território nacional. Serão abordados aspectos contidos no processo de desregulação econômica que o mercado aéreo brasileiro sofreu nos anos 1990 e início dos anos 2000, fazendo com que o transporte aéreo nacional passasse a ser mais competitivo e eficiente, mas também com operação mais concentrada geograficamente. Estes fatores acarretaram benefícios e malefícios aos passageiros: por um lado, preços mais baixos, alta indução do tráfego aéreo e maior acessibilidade de novos segmentos de consumidores; por outro, crescimento acelerado pressionado das infraestruturas aeroportuária e do espaço aéreo - com decorrentes gargalos geradores de congestionamentos e atrasos - e piora na cobertura geográfica. Este estudo desenvolveu um modelo econométrico que possibilitou análise de potenciais variáveis explicativas da cobertura do transporte aéreo, bem como sua influência e impacto no número de aeroportos servidos.

Form Follows Function: On the Interaction between Real Estate Finance and Urban Spatial Structure

The fundamental connection between the spatial development of cities and financial markets is a topic that has received little attention from either urbanists or economists. In this short piece, I argue that part of the post-crisis recovery is predicated on a multi-faceted understanding of the subtle causal linkages between financial flows and urban morphologies. Following a historical contextualization of my main argument, I speculate about the key channels through which the dialectical relationship between capital, its regimes of accumulation and its unequal spatial distribution aff ect the urban fabric. I identify two separate economic processes and historical developments that have co-defined the nexus of real estate finance and urban systems. First, the process of financial globalization and deregulation has been instrumental to the financialization of real estate, and, second, post-Fordist forces of organizational fragmentation have altered the formational principles of core aspects of real estate development processes, including the role of architecture.

A Comeback for Capitalism

1970s however, all of this changed; and from now on became a word with positive public connotations. It could suddenly be found in advertisements, in business press, in speeches of CEOs, and so on. Most important, fundamentally Marxian claim that capitalism as a is global, unified, and coherent has been embraced by apostles of neoliberalism. This is their foundation for arguing that each nation has no choice but to engage in same process of privatization, deregulation, and public-sector retrenchment if it expects to prosper in an increasingly competitive global capitalist system (Block: 85). Block's essay appeared a decade ago, and if he had updated it today, he might have added that as popularity of term capitalism has continued in public sphere, its use among social scientists has declined. Today's sociologists, for example, tend to use such words as the economy, the market, entrepreneurship, corporations, and so on but rarely But this tendency to ignore capitalism may be about to change. When financial crisis hit United States, many academics felt a need to take a new look at theory of capitalism and see what it can add to understanding what is going on. By now, several years after collapse of Lehman Brothers, you can find quite a few attempts by sociologists and other social scientists to revive analyses of capitalism. The two works that will be reviewed in this essay belong to this group: a textbook on global capitalism by Miguel Centeno and Joseph Cohen, and a monograph on recent history of capitalism in Germany by Wolfgang Streeck. Global Capitalism: A Sociological Perspective , by Miguel Centeno and Joseph Cohen. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2010. 246pp. $22.95 paper. ISBN: 9780745644516.

The mixed blessing of a deregulatory endpoint for the public switched telephone network

Receiving authority to dismantle the wireline public switched telephone network (PSTN) will deliver a mixture of financial benefits and costs to incumbent carriers and also jeopardize longstanding legislative and regulatory goals seeking ubiquitous, affordable and fully interconnected networks. Even if incumbent carriers continue to provide basic telephone services via wireless facilities, they will benefit from substantial relaxation of common carriage duties, no longer having to serve as the carrier of last resort and having the opportunity to decide whether and where to provide service. On the other hand, incumbent carriers may have underestimated the substantial financial and marketplace advantages they also will likely lose in the deregulatory process. Legislators and policy makers also may have underestimated the impact of no longer having the ability to impose common carrier mandates that require carriers to interconnect so that end users have complete access to network services regardless of location.This paper will identify the potential problems resulting from prospective decisions by National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs), such as the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to grant authority for telecommunications service providers to discontinue PSTN services. The paper also will consider whether in the absence of common carrier duties, private carriers providing telephone services, including Voice over the Internet Protocol (VoIP), voluntarily will agree to interconnect their networks. The paper will examine three recent carrier interconnection issues with an eye toward assessing whether a largely unregulated marketplace will create incentives for carriers to interconnect networks so that consumers will have ubiquitous access to PSTN replacement and other broadband services.The paper concludes that private carrier interconnection models and information service regulatory oversight may not solve all disputes, or promote universal service public policy goals. Recent Internet interconnection and television program carriage disputes involving major players such as Comcast, Level 3, Fox, Cablevision and Google point to the possibility of increasingly contentious negotiations that could result in balkanized telecommunications networks with at least temporary blockages to desired content and services by some consumers.

Privatisation by the Back Door: the case of the higher education policy in Israel

The purpose of this study is to seek to understand the process of privatisation and deregulation of Israel's higher education system which had been until the late 20th century predominantly public.Since 1994, public and governmental agencies became major clients of private universities. Thus the public sector played a major role in the expansion of international universities and in the operation of their academic programmes and became their major financial source. This partnership between the public and the private sector could be explained by the following: the increased demand for higher education by native born Israelis and the large flux of immigrants from the former USSR and Ethiopia on the one side, and the socialist ideology which deeply rooted in the Israeli society, to enable for everyone who wishes to attain higher education to find a place in the undergraduate system (particularly the population of the developmental towns and minority groups) on the other, pushed the Israeli government to expand its boundaries. Israel's public universities have been subjected to relax admissions requirement, which they refused to do.Another reason is the increasing demand from the public service in general and particularly from the education service that having a BA degree would increase the teacher salary and it does not matter whether the degree comes from an Israeli university(with its higher standards) or from a branch of an international university(with its lower standards). That explains the expansion and diversification that occurred in the higher education system in Israel. The 1998 Branches Act stipulating that any overseas institution intending to open an off shore branch must obtain a licence from the Council of Higher Education. The new regime demonstrates the paradox in higher education policy, on one side privatisation by the backdoor, on the other, regulation and control by the Israeli government.

Formación y producción periodística en Internet: desafíos y perspectivas en el escenario brasileño

This paper discusses the job market, and analyses online and multimedia composition in Brazilian cybermedia. It also reflects on the key changes that occurred in Brazilian journalism with the advent of the Internet, which have led to a process of journalistic deregulation through the rupture of historically construed rules, protocols and conventions. It also looks at the professional profiles emerging in this context and examines how this scenario influences the way future journalists are trained.

The Mixed Blessing of a Deregulatory Endpoint for the Public Switched Telephone Network

Receiving authority to dismantle the wireline public switched telephone network (“PSTN”) will deliver a mixture of financial benefits and costs to incumbent carriers. Even if these carriers continue to provide basic telephone services via wireless facilities or the Internet, they will benefit from the likely substantial relaxation of common carriage duties, no longer having to serve as the carrier of last resort and having the opportunity to decide where and what services they will provide going forward. On the other hand, incumbent carriers may have underestimated the substantial financial and marketplace advantages they also will lose in the deregulatory process. Incumbent carriers often obscure or dismiss as insignificant the substantial privileges and benefits accruing from their status as telecommunications service providers. Common carrier responsibilities include duties to interconnect with other carriers, provide service on transparent and nondiscriminatory terms and offer some low margin services. But this legal status also guarantees wireline local exchange carriers access to billions of dollars in annual universal service funding, zero or low cost access to rights of way and radio spectrum, accelerated depreciation and other tax benefits, the ability to vertically integrate throughout the “food chain” of telecommunications services and dominant status in the administration of telephone numbers, standard setting and other policy issues. Incumbents will strive to capture deregulatory benefits while retaining the many benefits previously reserved for common carriers. This paper will identify the potential problems resulting from an FCC decision to grant authority for telecommunications service providers to discontinue PSTN services. The paper also will consider whether in the absence of common carrier duties, carriers providing telephone services, including Voice over the Internet Protocol (“VoIP”), voluntarily will agree to interconnect their networks. The paper will examine Internet peering and other types of network interconnection with an eye toward assessing whether a largely unregulated marketplace can ensure ubiquitous access to PSTN replacement services. The paper concludes that private carrier interconnection models and information service regulatory oversight may not solve all disputes, or foreclose price discrimination for functionally the same type of service. Recent Internet interconnection and television program carriage disputes involving major players such as Comcast, Level 3, Fox and Cablevision, point to the possibility of increasingly contentious negotiations that could result in balkanized telecommunications networks with reversed or reduced progress in achieving universal service goals. The paper also concludes that rural access to VoIP and other voice communications services could end up costing significantly more than what urban residents pay, an efficient, but politically risky outcome.

Is pharmaceutical policy evidence-informed? A case of the deregulation process of nicotine replacement therapy products in Finland

ObjectiveThis qualitative study aims to identify the key dimensions of the political argumentation in the debate leading up to the deregulation of nicotine replacement therapy products (NRT) in Finland in 2006. The deregulation was introduced by the Amendment of larger package of changes in medical legislation prepared in 2005. MethodsAll publicly available documents of the legislative process introducing NRT deregulation and interviews of 12 Members of Finnish Parliament conducted in spring 2006 were analyzed by inductive content analysis. ResultsNRT deregulation was introduced to decision-makers as a safe intervention to increase smoking cessation and thus provide public health benefits. However, a whole variety of other features were brought into debate: NRT characteristics, principle change in prevailing medical legislation, use of evidence and the political process. Finally, the expected public health benefits of the decision were not directly informed by any evidence. ConclusionsThis study provides an example of the use of public health benefits as justification for decision-making. However, the decision can include other aspects, less brought up in its preparation stage. Our study addresses the need for policymakers to critically evaluate the evidence, its suitability in decision-making context and raise awareness of the principles of evidence-informed policy-making.

Regulation and competition issues in Thai electricity sector

This paper explores the issues related to regulatory reform and liberalisation leading toward competition in the Thai electricity sector, which is still under the monopoly control of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Following an overview of the current market structure of the Thai electricity sector, the process of liberalisation and deregulation that contributes to the uncompetitive market structure under SOEs’ control is examined. The author asserts that there are problems within the Energy Commission and the Energy Industry Act BE 2550 (2007) that contribute to the continuance of an uncompetitive electricity supply. Possible reforms to the Thai electricity regulation are proposed with the aim of creating market competition and efficiency in the Thai electricity sector.

Importance of a Resilient Air Services Network to Australian Remote, Rural, and Regional Communities

Rural, regional, and remote settlements in Australia require resilient infrastructure to remain sustainable in a context characterized by frequent large-scale natural disasters, long distances between urban centers, and the pressures of economic change. A critical aspect of this infrastructure is the air services network, a system of airports, aircraft operators, and related industries that enables the high-speed movement of people, goods, and services to remote locations. A process of deregulation during the 1970s and 1980s resulted in many of these airports passing into local government and private ownership, and the rationalization of the industry saw the closure of a number of airlines and airports. This paper examines the impacts of deregulation on the resilience of air services and the contribution that they make to regional and rural communities. In particular, the robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness, and rapidity of the system are examined. The conclusion is that while the air services network has remained resilient in a situation of considerable change, the pressures of commercialization and the tendency to manage aspects of the system in isolation have contributed to a potential decrease in overall resilience.

The Valuation Effects of Geographic Diversification: Evidence From U.S. Banks

This paper assesses the impact of the geographic diversification of bank holding company (BHC) assets across the United States on their market valuations. Using two novel identification strategies based on the dynamic process of interstate bank deregulation, we find that exogenous increases in geographic diversity reduce BHC valuations. These findings are consistent with the view that geographic diversity makes it more difficult for shareholders and creditors to monitor firm executives, allowing corporate insiders to extract larger private benefits from firms.

The Valuation Effects of Geographic Diversification: Evidence from U.S. Banks

This paper assesses the impact of the geographic diversification of bank holding company (BHC) assets across the United States on their market valuations. Using two novel identification strategies based on the dynamic process of interstate bank deregulation, we find that exogenous increases in geographic diversity reduce BHC valuations. These findings are consistent with the view that geographic diversity makes it more difficult for shareholders and creditors to monitor firm executives, allowing corporate insiders to extract larger private benefits from firms.

The role of organisational culture in the resource-based view: an empirical study of the Spanish nuclear industry

The generalisation and intensification of the deregulation processes in the electric power sector that began in most Western countries in the 90s have given rise to a previously non-existent field of research. This is particularly the case of nuclear power plants, which are currently undergoing significant cultural changes affecting their safety. This work aims to examine this emerging concern from an alternative viewpoint using the theoretical approach of the cultural organisation model. This enables cultural theories to be connected with the Resource-based view, and assigns culture the essential function of reflecting the dynamic social interaction which protects the uniqueness of the competences.