Marcos Fernández-Gutiérrez

The race for international markets: Were privatized telecommunications incumbents more successful than their public counterparts?

Selling off formerly state-owned telecommunications incumbents played a major role in governments’ privatization programmes from the 1980s. One major consequence was that, from the late 1990s, a number of incumbents emerged as the world’s largest Multinational Corporations (MNCs). Despite the importance of this transformation, the determinants of telecommunications internationalization have not been fully analysed. We contribute to the emerging literature on this topic by testing the importance of ownership on the extent of telecommunications internationalization through an analysis of the uneven path to privatization and internationalization of the 22 major incumbents in the OECD. Our results demonstrate that privatization was not a significant factor when explaining internationalization patterns. Using cluster analysis, we show how telecommunications incumbents characterized by diverse ownership arrangements (public, private and mixed) were able to transform themselves into world-class operators.

Is Market-Oriented Reform Producing a “Two-Track” Europe? Evidence from Electricity and Telecommunications

The European Commission has formally recognised that adequate provision of basic household services, including energy, communications, water and transport, is key to ensuring equity, social cohesion and solidarity. Yet little research has been done on the impact of the reform of these services in this regard. This article offers an innovative way to explore such questions by analysing and contrasting stated and revealed preferences on citizen satisfaction with and expenditure on two services, electricity and telecommunications, in two large countries, Spain and the United Kingdom. In telecommunications, but to a much lesser extent in electricity, we find evidence that reform has led to a “two-track” Europe, where citizens who are elderly, not working or the less-educated behave differently in the market, with the result that they are less satisfied with these services than their younger, working, better-educated, counterparts.

Including vulnerable groups in financial services: insights from consumer satisfaction

The crisis brought into relief problems within the financial sector which seriously affected consumer trust. This paper provides new evidence on the experiences of two socio-economic groups associated with potential vulnerability – the less educated and the elderly – with financial service markets across Europe. We find that the less educated and the elderly are less satisfied and experience greater difficulties than other consumers as regards complaining, comparing offers, or switching, in the mortgage, and investment product and bank account markets, respectively. This evidence is of use to policy-makers seeking ways of improving financial regulation from a consumer perspective.

Vulnerable consumers and satisfaction with public services: does country matter?:

Within Public Administration, increased attention is being paid to ‘vulnerable citizens’ – groups of citizens who, for reasons beyond their control, are disadvantaged in comparison to other citizens – when consuming public services. Initial research focused on how citizens’ socio-economic background shapes their behaviour and satisfaction. Citizens, however, take decisions within a context, but we know little about how their experiences differ depending on their country of residence. We comparatively analyse the experience of vulnerable citizens in telecommunications and electricity markets in three large European Union countries, selected to represent ‘advanced’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘laggard’ stages of reform. We first establish that citizens’ socio-economic characteristics matter for patterns of expenditure and perceptions of service affordability and then show how citizen vulnerability differs depending on country context. Results are useful to practitioners seeking to target regulation to improve the experiences of vulnerable citizens. Points for practitioners Practitioners recognize that public service reform has brought with it greater market complexity and choice, and that this poses challenges to citizens, particularly vulnerable citizens. Initial empirical work demonstrated that citizens’ socio-economic background affects their satisfaction; however, we know little about how this vulnerability is shaped by country context. We analyse electricity and telecommunications markets in three large European Union countries, establishing that consumers’ socio-economic background matters for citizens’ expenditure and perceptions of service affordability, and then demonstrating that country context also influences these experiences. Less-educated, elderly and non-employed citizens experience more frequent problems with these services than other citizens, and the country context conditions these experiences significantly.