- Kyiv School of Economics
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- Open lecture with Russell Pittman on “The Economics of Restructuring Network Industries”
Description
Kyiv School of Economics invites students to the Open lecture with Russell Pittman, Director of Economic Research in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, on “The Economics of Restructuring Network Industries”. It will be held on October 17 at 15.30 at Kyiv School of Economics.
Abstract
Many of the most important sectors of the economy may be characterized as network industries. This is especially the case for the old “natural monopoly” sectors: electricity, railways, natural gas, water, and telecoms. For at least 30 years, a lively debate has gone on among economists concerning how to restructure these industries in order to encourage the development of competition, thus reducing the costs to the economy of both monopoly and regulation. The debate, which shows no signs of being settled any time soon, includes the question of whether to separate the industries into monopoly network and competitive operations sectors, whether and what to privatize, and how to insure the potentially contradictory goals of affordability for the population and long-term investments for viability and improvement. This lecture will discuss the fundamental issues included in these debates, with a focus on their application to the Ukrainian railway and electricity sectors.
About the speaker
Russell Pittman is Director of Economic Research in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He is also a visiting professor at the Kyiv School of Economics and the New Economic School (Moscow). Among his most influential papers have been those on U.S. railways regulation in the 2010 Journal of Regulatory Economics and Administrative Law Review, on infrastructure reform in transition countries in the 2003 Journal of Industry, Competition, and Trade, on the IBM antitrust litigation in the 1984 International Journal of Industrial Organization, and on the measurement of productivity in the presence of negative externalities in the 1983 Economic Journal. Professor Pittman consults regularly with antitrust enforcers and economic reformers in transition and developing economies, including the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine. He served on
- the core team of the World Development Report 2002, Building Institutions for Markets,
- the advisory group for the 2002 project of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Development Assistance Strategies in the 21st Century,
- the team of experts for the Russian Regulatory Reform Review carried out by the OECD and the European Conference of Ministers of Transport in 2003-2004, contributing as one of the three principal authors of its report, Regulatory Reform of Railways in Russia, and
- the team of external advisors for the 2013 project of the Asian Development Bank on the restructuring of the Mongolian railway.
Date and time: October 17, 15:30.
Language; English
Location: Kyiv School of Economics, 92-94 Dmytrivska str, room 408.