Ashley Brown

Handbook for Evaluating Infrastructure Regulatory Systems

More than 200 new infrastructure regulators have been created around the world in the last 15 years. They were established to encourage clear and sustainable long-term economic and legal commitments by governments and investors to encourage new investment to benefit existing and new customers. There is now considerable evidence that both investors and consumers-the two groups that were supposed to have benefited from these new regulatory systems-have often been disappointed with their performance. The fundamental premise of this book is that regulatory systems can be successfully reformed only if there are independent, objective and public evaluations of their performance. Just as one goes to a medical doctor for a regular health checkup, it is clear that infrastructure regulation would also benefit from periodic checkups. This book provides a general framework as well as detailed practical guidance on how to perform such regulatory checkups.

Confusing means and ends: framework of restructuring, not privatization, matters most

Although a great deal of emphasis has been put on it, privatization of infrastructure is only a means to an end, and not an end in and of itself. The goal is a more efficient sector delivering quality service while fulfilling its social responsibilities. Privatization is onlyan effective means towards the achievement of that result if it is done in the context of an appropriate market and regulatory/legal framework. In the absence of such a framework, privatization can, as experience has demonstrated, compound problems. There are a number of explanations as to why privatization has been carried out in the absence of a proper framework. Those explanationsare useful to explore because they point to incentives to which many governments have been attracted, but which proved to be dangerous pitfalls. Some of the consequences of these attractionshold lessons for other governments and lenders to learn. The critical issue in reforming infrastructure industries is not privatization, but rather the framework within which restructuringoccurs.

Advances in the treatment of pediatric obsessive–compulsive d-cycloserine with exposure and response prevention

291 ISSN 1758-2008 10.2217/NPY.12.38

Regulators, policy-makers, and the making of policy: who does what and when do they do it?

The formation of independent regulatory agencies for infrastructure has led to considerable controversy in many countries over the respective roles of government policy-makers and of ‘independent’ regulators. The fact that independent regulatory agencies are not only new entities, but also new concepts, has contributed to a lack of clarity on their role in policy formulation. The issue is often characterized as distinguishing between the setting and implementation of policy. That characterization, however, is not very useful. For a variety of reasons relating to politics, expertise, inability to be prescient, transparency, jurisprudence, imprecision in wordsmithing, and finance, the issue is perhaps better defined in terms of two levels of policy-making, macro and micro. The former is the domain of government policy-makers, while the latter seems best suited for regulators. While government always retains the ultimate responsibility for the formulation of policy, it is best to delegate nuanced policy decisions, micro policy, to regulators. Doing so makes for less politicization, more predictability, more transparency, and more informed decision-making.

The Future of D-Cycloserine and Other Cognitive Modifiers in Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders.

Variants of exposure therapy are effective for treating obsessive-compulsive and related disorders (OCRDs). However, significant numbers of patients do not respond adequately to exposure therapy resulting in continued distress and functional impairment. Therefore, novel approaches to augmenting exposure therapy are needed to adequately treat non- and partial-responders. Emerging research suggests that interventions that augment learning and memory processes associated with exposure therapy (i.e., extinction training) may display promise in enhancing treatment response in OCRDs. As the most studied example, d-cycloserine (DCS) is a relatively safe cognitive enhancer that appears to accelerate treatment gains associated with exposure therapy. This article reviews research on the use of DCS and other putative cognitive modifiers as they relate to the treatment (or prospective treatment) of obsessive-compulsive disorder and other OCRDs.

The Duty of Regulators to Have Ex Parte Communications

Abstract By confining regulators to judicial constraints when they are acting in a legislative capacity, the Herculean task of directing the path of electricity restructuring is being undertaken under rules that require decision-makers to be utterly passive and only minimally inquisitive. Regulators should be free, when acting in their quasi-legislative capacities, to act like legislators and not like judges.

Concessions, Markets and Public Policy in the Brazilian Power Sector

Reforming, reducing, and eliminating parts of the encargos embedded in electric tariffs in Brazil, will allow for sending better price signals to customers and market participants alike, dramatically increase transparency, promote more efficient pricing, remove a major economic burden from customers, and ultimately lead to greater competition in the electricity marketplace.

Honey, I shrunk the franchise!

Abstract Detroit Edisons suit to halt the Michigan Commissions limited retail wheeling experiment could result in two ironies: (1) Edison may still be required to wheel to retail customers, but at rates less likely to be fully compensatory, and (2) its generation will be more devalued than it would have been without the suit.