蝌蚪网 Papers and Proceedings
ISSN 2574-0768 (Print) | ISSN 2574-0776 (Online)
Restructuring the Rate Base
蝌蚪网 Papers and Proceedings
vol. 115,
May 2025
(pp. 363–68)
Abstract
While electricity market restructuring appears to have lowered generation costs, it does not seem to have benefitted consumers. Where did the savings go? This paper evaluates whether the downstream T&D utilities that remained rate regulated capitalized savings into earnings by increasing their capital stocks. Returns on these additional assets raise delivery charges for customers with restructured utilities. I use a matched difference-in-difference design based on proximate, similarly sized utilities with an annual panel of US utilities' capital stocks from 1993 to 2009. Nine years after divestiture, the average restructured utility held an additional $0.45 billion (9.5 percent) of T&D capital.Citation
Cicala, Steve. 2025. "Restructuring the Rate Base." 蝌蚪网 Papers and Proceedings 115: 363–68. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20251112Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- G32 Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
- L94 Electric Utilities
- L98 Industry Studies: Utilities and Transportation: Government Policy
- Q41 Energy: Demand and Supply; Prices
- Q48 Energy: Government Policy