Consumer-inclusive economic regulation: water pricing under different regulatory regimes

This paper investigates whether and how different regulatory regimes for water pricing incorporate mechanisms for consumer inclusion. A literature review suggests that the more separation between policymaking and economic regulation, the higher the incorporation of regulatory governance principles such as transparency, accountability and participation. Our comparative case studies of the system of self-regulation in The Netherlands, the bipartite negotiation model in Spain, and the Scottish model of independent regulation provides additional empirical evidence to this hypothesis.