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• Practice Areas
  • Cost of Capital
  • Competition Policy
  • Economic Regulation
  • Litigation Support, Dispute Resolution
  • Impact Assessment and Policy Evaluation

Economic Regulation

The UK led the way in developing modern techniques of economic regulation and has also been at the centre of financial regulatory policy.  Many of these ideas have now become established parts of EU policy

Providing expert advice on economic regulation has always been a core part of our work.

Types of Study

Market studies:  Market definition determines whether or not a firm is likely to possess market power and so be a candidate for regulation.  Our studies can then establish when a market is sufficiently competitive for price controls to be removed.

Efficiency:  In order to establish price limits, regulators need to decide whether costs are at efficient levels.  Economic and econometric studies of the efficiency levels achieved by comparable firms allow this judgement to be made.

Bottom-up engineering/economic models can help inform the judgements of efficiency.

Rate of return:  The regulated businesses which operate efficiently must be allowed to recover their cost of capital. We are leading advisors in this complex area.

Forms of control:  We have advised on the roles and responsibilities of regulatory authorities, whether profit or price should be controlled, the precise forms of price or revenue control, and how to provide incentives for efficient capital expenditure.

Our studies have ranged from the minute application of controls (e.g. how to calculate and apply a correction factor) to a compendium of control techniques.

Our Clients

On these issues, our clients in this field have included all the UK economic regulators, and many regulators in other countries, and the European Commission.  In the financial sector, we have advised the FSA, the EC, the European Parliament and the City of London.

Our Experts

Our in-house experts are:  Dermot Glynn, Jonathan Green, Stephen Topping, Andrew Lilico, Iona McCall, Maurizio Conti, Pau Salsas, Chiraag Darbar and Lucy Broomfield. 

Primary contacts: Dermot Glynn, Stephen Topping.