NERA Economic Consulting

francesco.lopasso@nera.com
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Education

PhD in economics, University of Chicago
MA in economics, University of Chicago
Diploma, Scuola Enrico Mattei, Italy
JD, Universitá di Torino, Italy

Experience

Dr. Lo Passo is Director and head of NERA's Rome office. He has broad experience in privatization processes in Italy and throughout the world obtained when working for the Italian Treasury and Bain.

Since joining NERA in 2001, Dr. Lo Passo has specialized in the application of regulatory economics principles to energy, transport, telecommunications, and other businesses in Italy and throughout the world. Dr. Lo Passo has been Senior Advisor on energy to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Dr. Lo Passo's clients include leading companies in the energy, transport, and telecommunications sectors, investment banks, and institutional bodies in major European countries, Turkey, South Africa, and the Middle East. Dr. Lo Passo has advised his clients on regulatory issues including tariff design, cost of capital estimation for regulated companies, capacity payments, gas transmission tariffs, network codes, revenue neutrality mechanisms, unbundling of regulatory accounts, design and implementation of a competitive mechanism for electricity procurement, and incentive mechanisms for renewable energy sources. He has also supported his clients in defining their regulatory strategy during market reforms.

Dr. Lo Passo's recent projects include:

• Estimation of gas value in Italy using different methodologies
• Estimation of gas price in Russia using a netback approach
• Evaluation of regulatory risks for a storage project in Northern Europe
• Review of the Green Certificate trading scheme in Italy and evaluation of the impact of proposed alternative mechanisms on generators
• Design and implementation of electricity procurement for non-eligible customers in Italy
• Tariff design for a regulated utility in Romania
• Use of LRIC methodology to determine access tariffs to local loop
• Estimation of the regulatory asset base for a European airport company
• Assistance in drafting the regulatory financial model for airport aviation charges in South Africa
• New regulatory framework for airports in Italy
• Review of the price cap for a European motorway company

Prior to joining NERA, Dr. Lo Passo served as a Member of the Council of Experts for the General Manager of the Italian Treasury, Dr. Mario Draghi. He also held positions at CONSOB, the Italian Security Exchange Commission, and management consulting company Bain.

Dr. Lo Passo has authored numerous articles for technical journals. He attended the University of Chicago, where he received a PhD and MA in economics. He also has a JD (with High Honors) from the University of Turin.

Languages

English
Italian