Gas industry reforms and consumers' prices in the European Union: An empirical analysis

摘要

The paper offers an exploratory empirical analysis of the impact on consumers’udwelfare of the reforms of the gas industry in EU-15 area. After considering the keyudfeatures of the natural gas industry and of its reform in selected countries, we studyudthe relationship between regulatory reform indicators and price dynamics by meansudof panel data techniques. We find that none of the relationships between priceuddynamics and regulatory reform indicators is robust to different econometricudspecifications. Our findings suggest that until now there is limited evidence ofudbeneficial effects of a standard package gas industry reforms for the Europeanudconsumers. Country specific factors and price inertia seem to be more importantudthan the reforms as determinants of consumers’ prices.