Effects of Regulation on Utility Financing: Theory and Evidence
研究了监管如何影响公用事业公司的融资决策，发现监管不仅改变融资环境，还促使企业通过策略性融资影响定价，且这种影响随经济条件和各方适应而变化。
This paper examines the financing decisions of regulated public utilities. It is argued that the regulatory process affects utility financing choices both by conditioning the environment in which these choices are made and by creating opportunities for firms to influence the regulated price through strategic financing behavior. The nature of this regulatory effect continually changes, however, as economic conditions change and as regulators, firms and consumers adapt to one another's decisions. The direction of the impact on utility financing, therefore, may differ both over time and across regulatory jurisdictions. This theory of regulatory influence is tested by examining several episodes in the financing experience of U.S. electric utilities from 1912 to 1979. Evidence of a regulatory effect on utility financing is found particularly for the early years of state commission regulation. Examples of an adaptive response pattern on the part of regulators, firms and consumers are also cited.