In recent decades, network industries around the world have gone through periods of de- and re-regulation. With vast amounts of sometimes conflicting research carried out into specific network industries, the time has come for a critical over-arching assessment of this entire industry in order to provide a platform of understanding to aid future research and practice. This comprehensive resource provides an orientation for academics, policy makers and managers as to the main economic, regulatory and commercial challenges in the network industries. The book is split into sections covering market, policy, regulation, management perspectives, whilst all of the key network industries are covered, including energy, transport, water and telecommunications. Overseen by world-class Editors and experts in the field, this inter-disciplinary resource is essential reading for students and researchers in international business, industrial economics and the industries.

In recent decades, network industries around the world have gone through periods of de- and re-regulation. With vast amounts of sometimes conflicting research carried out into specific network industries, the time has come for a critical over-arching assessment of this entire industry in order to provide a platform of understanding to aid future research and practice. This comprehensive resource provides an orientation for academics, policy makers and managers as to the main economic, regulatory and commercial challenges in the network industries. The book is split into sections covering market, policy, regulation, management perspectives, whilst all of the key network industries are covered, including energy, transport, water and telecommunications. Overseen by world-class Editors and experts in the field, this inter-disciplinary resource is essential reading for students and researchers in international business, industrial economics and the industries.

We discuss education as a process of human capital formation and thus highlight the economic importance of education. It is the main goal of this volume to provide clues for optimum school organization and institutions, such as incentive structures and competition. We provide a framework to study educational production and the implications of multiple teacher effort dimensions on optimum incentive contracts. The influence of spatial competition on education and its effect on school choice and educational achievement is discussed in a separate model. In a dynamic general equilibrium framework with overlapping generations and probabilistic aging we discuss the effects of population aging on education decisions in the presence of a pay-as-you-go pension system. As a response to population aging, in a small open economy with a fixed interest rate, our simulation shows that GDP is depressed due to an adverse effect on skill choice and labor supply. Postponed retirement is a potentially dampening policy measure due to its encouragement of human capital formation.