GRA 5915 The Political Economy of Regulation

APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2012/2013

GRA 5915 The Political Economy of Regulation

Responsible for the course
Kjell A Eliassen

Department
Department of Accounting - Auditing and Law

Term
According to study plan

ECTS Credits
6

Language of instruction
English

Introduction
This is one of four courses dedicated to core questions in political economy, in this case competition policy and market regulation. The course is primarily designed for students in the MSc in Political Economy programme and therefore assumes some knowledge of political processes and policymaking.

The central themes include the regulatory state, comparative competition policy and sector regulation.

Learning outcome
The course takes theories of regulation as its starting point, addressing the rationales and motivations for economic regulation and centering on the evolution of competition policy and sector regulation, as well as changes in the light of liberalisation and de-regulation.
The course covers several aspects of the regulatory state with respect to the different sectors, such as the degree of liberalisation; questions related to self-regulation, flexibility and indirect regulation; regulatory competition, cooperation and/or convergence; as well as the legal, administrative and political bases for regulation and questions of political intervention, transparency, political or legal appeals and review processes and regulatory reform.
Three broad sectors are the subject of thorough analysis: the ICT sector (telecoms, communications and the media), the energy sector (oil, gas and electricity) and financial services and capital markets. Central questions concerning regulatory reform include: What kind of regulation or competition policy is necessary in order to make markets work as desired? Who demands and supplies regulation? To what extent do existing institutions (at different levels) shape the trajectories of regulation and regulatory change?

Prerequisites
GRA 5912 or an equivalent course on EU policy.

Compulsory reading
Books:
Freiberg, Arie. 2010. The tools of regulation. Federation Press
Jordana, Jacint and David Levi-Faur, eds. 2005. The politics of regulation : institutions and regulatory reforms for the age of governance. Edward Elgar

Other:
-During the course there may be hand-outs and other material on additional topics relevant for the course and the examination.
A list of compulsory readings will be provided on It's learning or in class.


Recommended reading
Books:
Baldwin, Robert and Martin Cave. 2012. Understanding regulation : theory, strategy, and practice. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press
El-Agraa, Ali M., ed. 2011. The European Union : economics and policies. 9th ed. Cambridge University Press
Gerber, David J. 2001. Law and competition in twentieth century Europe : protecting Prometheus. New ed. Clarendon Press
Newbery, David M. 1999. Privatization, restructuring, and regulation of network utilities. MIT Press
Ogus, Anthony. 2004. Regulation : legal form and economic theory. New ed. Hart

Other:
Individual journal articles and book chapters available in the library and/or electronically will be recommended as further reading.


Course outline
1. Theories of regulation (normative, positive and institutional). Economic and social regulation. Network regulation, utilities and public services. Regulatory reform. Independent regulatory agencies, and principal/agent issues.
2. Comparative public policy and regulation: Economic policy and regulation in Western Europe and the USA. Privatisation, liberalisation and de-regulation, and challenges for sector regulation. Transparency, accountability and democratic control.
3. Regulation and liberalisation in a global economy. The international dimension of regulation. Regulatory competition and cooperation.
4. Comparative competition policy: National (incl. Norwegian, US), European Union and international.
5. Sector regulation. Specific aspects of and case studies from the ICT sector (telecoms, communications and the media), the energy sector (oil, gas and electricity) and financial services and capital markets.

Computer-based tools
It's learning

Learning process and workload
A course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of 160-180 hours.

Please note that while attendance is not compulsory in all courses, it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on the course homepage/It's learning or text book.


Examination
In class assessment (30%) and written paper (70%, individual).
Both parts of the evaluation need to be passed in order to get a grade in the course.

Specific information regarding student evaluation beyond the information given in the course description will be provided in class. This information may be relevant for requirements for term papers or other hand-ins, and/or where class participation can be one of several elements of the overall evaluation.

This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam elements) and one final exam code. Each exam element will be graded using points on a scale (e.g. 0-100). The elements will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the course. You will find detailed information about the point system and the cut off points with reference to the letter grades on the course site in It’s learning.

Examination code(s)
GRA 59151 accounts for 100 % of the final grade in the course GRA 5915.

Examination support materials
A bilingual dictionary.
Exam aids at written examinations are explained under exam information in our web-based Student handbook. Please note use of calculator and dictionary. http://www.bi.edu/studenthandbook/examaids

Re-sit examination
It is only possible to retake an examination when the course is next taught.
The assessment in some courses is based on more than one exam code.
Where this is the case, you may retake only the assessed components of one of these exam codes.
Where this is not the case, all of the assessed components of the course must be retaken.
All retaken examinations will incur an additional fee.

Additional information
Honor Code
Academic honesty and trust are important to all of us as individuals, and represent values that are encouraged and promoted by the honor code system. This is a most significant university tradition. Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the ideals of the honor code system, to which the faculty are also deeply committed.

Any violation of the honor code will be dealt with in accordance with BI’s procedures for cheating. These issues are a serious matter to everyone associated with the programs at BI and are at the heart of the honor code and academic integrity. If you have any questions about your responsibilities under the honor code, please ask.

Semesters

Translations