http://www.rossparker.com my personal homepage Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:32:57 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://www.rossparker.com/2008/07/26/restraining-utility-prices-is-rarely-a-good-idea/ http://www.rossparker.com/2008/07/26/restraining-utility-prices-is-rarely-a-good-idea/#comments Sat, 26 Jul 2008 04:23:02 +0000 Ross http://www.rossparker.com/?p=27 Reading an comment-piece about Californian water shortages on Forbes.com reminds me of my work on the Dominican electricity system a couple of years ago. Artificially restrained prices are common to both markets, (although in Santo Domingo, there were the additional problems of institutional disorganisation and widespread consumer theft). I can’t help but wonder for how long societies will continue to be surprised to discover that keeping utility prices low by regulatory fiat leads to over-consumption and shortage.

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