In an upcoming column for the December issue of the Wiley journal, Natural Gas and Electricity, NERA Senior Vice President Dr. Jeff Makholm examines differences in how country-specific energy market structures and institutions shape the actions of local governments and interest groups. For example, major US infrastructure projects have relied heavily on private funds since the 1840s and Congress, guided by the US Supreme Court, used the following century to invent the institutions needed to square the use of private capital for public services.

Countries with newly privatized utilities have little of this history and fewer of the institutions to as reliably safeguard private investments. Both local histories and local institutions matter a lot in making international comparisons in energy markets, particularly when it comes to making sense of why democratic governments act as they do to regulate their own energy industries.

Makholm, Jeff D. (2015, December). Utility Regulation Principles Vary Widely Country to Country. Natural Gas & Electricity 32/5, ©2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., a Wiley company.