Static and Dynamic Efficiency in the European Telecommunications Market. The Role of Regulation on the Incentives to Invest and the Ladder of Investment

In this paper we provide evidence on the effectiveness of European National Regulatory Authorities in applying the basic principles of the ladder of investment in telecommunications. The analysis discusses and compares the regulatory approach adopted in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom; our dataset covers the period from January 2005 to July 2007. The results we get from our analysis are not easy to interpret given the peculiarities of the different national markets, but we can conclude that in most cases the policies adopted by National Regulatory Agencies are in many, if not most, cases compatible with the ladder of investment.