Regulation in Services: OECD Patterns and Economic Implications

Giuseppe Nicoletti

No 287, OECD Economics Department Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: The paper looks at patterns of regulation in service industries and explores their implications for service performance. Focusing on restrictions to market mechanisms, a map of the state of service regulation in OECD countries is provided, based on data recently collected and summarised by the OECD. The paper also surveys the available cross-country empirical evidence on the effects of regulatory reform on service productivity, prices and innovation. Finally, it discusses ways in which regulation can encourage competition, efficiency and investment in those segments of the service industries where non-competitive elements persist. The main conclusions reached are: i) in the past two decades OECD governments extensively reformed regulatory environments in both competitive and network service industries, generally making them closer to market mechanisms; ii) however due to differences in initial conditions and in the pace of reform, within each service industry the dispersion of ... Cette étude analyse les approches réglementaires dans les secteurs des services et explore leurs implications pour les performances sectorielles dans les pays de l’OCDE. En concentrant l’attention sur les restrictions imposées aux mécanismes de marché, l’étude décrit l’état de la régulation des services en 1998 à partir des données récemment rassemblées par l’OCDE. L’étude examine aussi l’évidence empirique concernant les effets de la réforme de la réglementation sur la productivité, les prix et l’innovation dans les services. Enfin, elle analyse la manière dont la régulation peut encourager la concurrence, l’efficience et l’investissement dans les marchés des services où il existe encore des segments non-concurrentiels. Les principales conclusions sont : i) au cours des deux dernières décennies les gouvernements de l’OCDE ont réformé d’une façon extensive les réglementations concernant les services purement concurrentiels et les services de réseaux ; ii) pourtant, à cause de ...

Keywords: competition policy; industrie de réseau; liberalisation; libéralisation; network industries; politique de la concurrence; privatisation; privatisation; regulation; regulatory reforms; réforme de la réglementation; réglementation; services; services (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K23 L43 L50 L51 L80 L9 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001-02-08
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:287-en

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