Electricity prices and public ownership : evidence from the EU15 over thirty years

This paper studies the impact of corporate ownership on residential net-of-tax electricity prices, when the ownership effect is separated from the liberalisation effect and from other drivers of change. After a discussion of a simple conceptual model, and of earlier literature, we use IEA and OECD data for the EU15 over nearly three decades. Panel econometrics suggests that, after controlling for other factors, public ownership is associated with lower residential net-of-tax electricity prices in Western Europe. The impact of liberalisation on prices is smaller and more uncertain.