Title

The financial and operational impacts of FERC Order 636 on the interstate natural gas pipeline industry

Authors

Authors

D. Finnoff; C. Cramer;S. Shaffer

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

J. Regul. Econ.

Keywords

gas pipeline; expense preference; regulation; EXPENSE-PREFERENCE BEHAVIOR; ELECTRIC UTILITIES; OPEN-ACCESS; EFFICIENCY; MANAGEMENT; SAVINGS; MARKET; FIRMS; COSTS; Economics

Abstract

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Order 636 fundamentally altered the regulatory and operational environment of the natural gas industry in 1992, as the culmination of several directives aimed at relaxing regulation and fostering competition. We hypothesize that gas pipeline firms subsequently changed their operational and financial behavior in ways consistent with reduced balkanization, increased competition, and reduced expense preference behavior. Our results indicate that these firms have become more homogeneous financially but less so operationally We find evidence that the marginal profitability of various pipeline activities has responded more to financial market conditions than to the regulatory environment.

Journal Title

Journal of Regulatory Economics

Volume

25

Issue/Number

3

Publication Date

1-1-2004

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

243

Last Page

270

WOS Identifier

WOS:000189240100002

ISSN

0922-680X

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