This book is a collection of papers from the Beesley Lecture series on regulation held jointly by The IEA and the London Business School in the autumn of 2001. The chapters in this volume are revised versions of the papers given in the series and they are, as usual, followed by comments made by the chairman; the chairman in most cases being the regulator. Since the early days of the Lectures on Regulation in the early 1990s, a great deal of experience has accumulated of how and how not to design and operate regulatory systems. This growing experience is reflected in the increasing detail and sophistication of the papers given in this series.

Introduction by Colin Robinson

UK Transport policy, 1997-2001 by Stephen Glaister

Chairman’s comments by Tom Winsor

Electricity: regulatory developments around the world by Stephen Littlechild

Chairman’s comments by Eileen Marshall

Prospects for gas supply and demand and their implications with special reference to the UK by Alexander G Kemp and Linda Stephen

Chairman’s comments by Callum McCarthy

The ingredients of effective competition policy by Irwin Stelzer

Chairman’s comments by Derek Morris

Regulatory incentives and deregulation in telecommunications by Leonard Waverman

Chairman’s comments by David Edmonds

An end to economic regulation by Robert W Crandall

Chairman’s comments by Penelope Rowlatt

Mutualization and debt-only vehicles: which way for RPI-X regulation?

by David Currie

Chairman’s comments by Philip Fletcher

International mergers: the view from a national authority by John Vickers

Liberalising postal services by John Dodgson

Chairman’s comments by Graham Corbett