The Institutional Economics of Reflexive Governance in the Area of Utility Regulation

Regulation of utilities in the XXI Century is challenged by the fast pace of change notably the
acceleration of innovation, the restructuring of industry as sets of modular chains and the spreading of
new information and communication technology. Living in this world of rapid and renewed changes
regulators are also challenged by the basic characteristics of their institutional embeddedness. In the
real world, far from being the alpha and the omega of regulation, regulators only act in a multilevel
and multichannel frame of regulatory institutions. However regulators can bring a core piece of
“reflexive governance” to favour the new industry and institutions’ changes. It is by building
“knowledge platforms” on an “open forum” model.