DEADLINE 13 June - International Summer School in Applied Environmental and Regulatory Economics, Italy, 5 - 16 September 2011

International Summer School in Applied Environmental and Regulatory Economics
THE REGULATION OF LOCAL PUBLIC SERVICES
Turin, Italy
5th-16th September. 2011

THE REGULATION OF LOCAL PUBLIC SERVICES
An international study experience on local regulatory issues

Scope and objectives
The idea of a summer school on the regulation of local public services dates back to
1996-1997, well before the birth of Fondazione per l’Ambiente that currently manages it.

At that time in Italy, and in Europe too, tariff regulation was widely debated for
national network services as electricity, gas, telephone and railways, but rather neglected at local level for waste, water, district heating , sport facilities and so on. Furthermore, graduate and post graduate courses did not adequately cover this kind of topic.

At the same time, policy makers and public opinion believed more and more in the necessity to go beyond the outdated local public monopolies established as a longa-manus of municipalities in all European Countries. In Italy, for example, this secular trend stemmed out from the wave of “Socialismo municipale” at the beginning of the last century.

In this context, the course is designed to provide the students with the basics of the
theory of regulation that are applied to real case studies for a deeper understanding of
regulatory issues and debates. Main topics are information asymmetries, industrial cost analysis and tariff setting, regulator’s capture, quality concerns, mechanism design and incentive contracts, the links and trade-offs between environmental and industrial policies within the national and European legislation framework.

Who can attend?
The School is addressed to undergraduate students at their last year, graduate students and officials from the Public Administration (municipalities, counties, regional
bodies) and regulatory agencies in charge of tariff setting for waste, water, district heating, sport facilities and other regulated local services.

Course structure
The course lasts two weeks and is articulated in three parts:
1. theoretical module: the rationale of regulation and available instruments
2. economic analysis of regulated services
3. case studies (with a virtual regulatory final report prepared by attendants)

Modules content
1. Theoretical module: the rationale of policy interventions
- Regulatory theory from origins to principal-agent and incentive design;
- Natural / legal monopolies and market failures;
- Regulation Authorities at local level: constraints;
- Regulatory targets: price/demand, costs, profits, quality;
- Regulatory instruments and policies;
- Special focus: user charges setting, goals and instruments;
- Special focus: ownership, privatization, governance, tendering

2. Economic analysis of regulated services
2.1 Economic and financial evaluation techniques for regulatory goals:
- Public and private costs;
- Cash flows;
- Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return, Payback, Break-even analysis;
- Sensitivity analysis;
- Risk analysis.
2.2 Industry analysis:
- in this module an industrial analysis of selected sectors is conducted to describe and classify the regulatory instruments to be used for the desired social/economic goals.

3. Case studies
- Meeting with local utility managers;
- Visits to plants, infrastructures, facilities (landfill, water treatment plants, district heating);
- Collection and elaboration of economic and financial data;
- Analysis of the main regulatory instruments;
- Outline of a regulatory scheme and user charges setting;
- Presentation of the final reports developed by students.

The participation fee (accommodation included) is:
• € 150 for payment receipt returned before the 1st of July 2011
• Free participation to ISSAERE 2011 and free accommodation for attendants from new EU Member States (post 2004) and non OECD countries

Deadline for application is fixed on June, 13th 2011.

For further information and registrations, visit Summer School's website here