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The purpose of this study is to review the current status and related issues on the market reform of Japanese electric power industry after Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster. We also discuss the future policy direction for the market reform.

This research compares the reform process of Japanese electric power industry with that of European Union (EU) nations. Then, this study discusses policy issues on the Japanese market reform based upon our comparative analysis.

Japan may learn many things from the market liberalization process and institution of EU nations. In the learning process, it is necessary to pay attention to industrial differences between Japan and the EU nations. Each country has its own unique features on fuel mix, business environment as well as supply and demand relationship. Such differences may influence a desirable policy direction for each nation’s market reform. The international comparison discussed in this study indicates the importance of a step-by-step approach in which Japan can gradually incorporate European experiences into the Japanese market reform.

Since this study focuses upon the Japanese market reform, the empirical findings may have limited policy implications. The implications obtained from Japanese experience need additional thought in shifting them to other nations. Such an extension will be an important future task of this study.

This study discusses the current policy issues and future direction on the Japanese electricity market reform. This study also suggests its future direction. Previous research has never discussed the Japanese experience. Policy makers, corporate leaders, and individuals in the world, who are involved in the energy industry, have been paying attention to the Japanese future energy direction after Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster. This study provides such a future energy direction on Japanese market reform from European experience.

In the early 1990s, the Thai government initiated a process of reform of the electricity industry with the argument that such reform would improve the performance of the industry and contribute to enhancing the overall economic prosperity. The purpose of this paper is to examine the veracity of this argument by analysing both the technical and environmental performance of the Thai electricity industry.

A data envelopment analysis‐based methodology is employed in this study to measure the productivity of the Thai electricity industry, for the period 1980‐2006. This method enables the decomposition of productivity changes into technical and efficiency changes, and hence enables one to determine if changes in productivity are due to electricity reform (efficiency gains) or due to autonomous technological improvements.

The study reveals that the increase in the productivity of the Thai electricity industry over the period 1980‐2006 was mainly driven by technological improvements and that industry reform has had insignificant impact on productivity. Further, the impacts of electricity reform on the environment appear to be relatively modest – this too was driven by government regulation that supports the use of less environmentally detrimental fuels for electricity generation by the private producers, rather than electricity reform.

The analysis in this paper contributes to the literature on productivity and efficiency, by applying the DEA method to a time series data for a single industry. Additionally, the analysis of environmental performance of the Thai electricity industry – to the best of knowledge of the authors – is the first of its kind for the Thai electricity industry.

The paper seeks to examine the evolution of regulatory accounting within the context of the Brazilian electricity sector reforms. The paper traces the process of the reforms and the development of the regulatory accounting system.

The paper is based on data collected from various documents including those published by the regulator (such as laws, resolutions and technical notes), as well as information from distribution companies and other government agencies.

It is found that regulatory accounting played different roles under the different electricity sector reforms implemented in Brazil. For example, regulatory accounting was minimally used during the first reform, and this brought a range of problems of implementation and consolidation of the electricity sector model. However, regulatory accounting played an essential role in the regulatory framework under the second reform, and this in part contributed to addressing some of the problems of the sector.

This is the first study that describes and explains the Brazilian electricity sector reforms by analysing the so‐called core issues in regulatory accounting and tariff review process. The paper contributes to the literature by providing a broader picture of the interconnection between regulatory accounting and the regulator's objectives.

Regulatory and institutional changes, restructuring and/or privatization of the erstwhile vertically integrated electricity networks have been adopted by all Sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries in their pursuit of rural and urban electrification, poverty reduction and economic growth. But advances with the reforms remain limited and the results are at best debatable. The purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons for the unsuccessful implementation of deregulation in Sub‐Sahara electricity markets.

The paper examines the experiences with deregulation of the electricity industries in developed and developing economies and surmises on the factors that have contributed to the success of reforms in some industrialized countries and identifies the factors that have contributed to the failure of reforms in SSA. The “evidence‐based economics” (EBE) methodology is used to analyze the existing models of regulation and their differences particularly as they are practiced in SSA and developed economies. A gap analysis is realized by highlighting the differences between best practices and the existing level of knowledge. Two case studies are analyzed and the collection of information is assessed in a way that is useful for the development and implementation of the most appropriate models of regulation for SSA.

The paper finds that the current trend to the regionalization of the electricity markets in SSA and the creation of regional power pools make possible the creation of a genuine regional electricity market which would provide new opportunities for the adoption and adaptation of more advanced models of regulation (2‐G and/or 3‐G) similar to the ones currently employed by some developed economies in Europe and North America. To do so, regulators in SSA need to adopt a more dynamic approach to regulation.

Given the comparative approach of this paper, it is not possible to prove that SSA countries will succeed in their electricity reforms by adopting the 2‐G and 3‐G regulatory models. Nonetheless, if they do follow the dynamic approach to regulation, as suggested in the paper, their chances to succeed are much better.

The analysis of this paper has major implications for governments, regulators, shareholders, customers and employees of the electricity industry. A better understanding of the reasons for the failure of previous reforms and the identification of major advantages and disadvantages of the electricity markets in SSA provide new opportunities and challenges. The success of the application of the 3‐G model may increase the competitiveness of the electricity industry and productive capacity of Sub‐Saharan countries.

Electricity is an essential input in any industrial and commercial process. Its availability reduces costs, enhances productivity and creates jobs in other sectors. The social well‐being of Sub‐Saharan countries would increase by adopting the 3‐G model suggested in this paper.

To the best of the author's knowledge, there are no recent studies dealing with the same issues particularly for Sub‐Sahara Africa. This paper fulfils the gap that exists in the literature.

This study aims to explore the complex, multi-level institutional dynamics of smart city reforms and projects and their potential sustainability pressures on the implementation of a management accounting system in an Egyptian state-owned enterprise (SOE), which has a politically sensitive institutional character.

This study adds to institutional management accounting research using a multi-level perspective of institutional dynamics in the smart city context. Data were collected from an interpretive case study of an Egyptian SOE that was under socio-political sustainability pressures to implement a smart electricity network project in New Minya city.

Smart city projects have formed social and political sustainability pressures, which introduced the enterprise resource planning (ERP) network as a new management accounting system. A new (complex and multi-level) management accounting system was invented to reinvent the sustainable city as an “accounting city” (which appeared rhetorically as a “smart city”). “Smart” being the visibility and measurability of the sustainability performance of the collective body, which calls the city and its connectivity to different institutional levels brought out in a city network project for the ERP-enabled electricity distribution.

This study examines a single case study from a single smart city and identifies the accounting community’s need for multiple and comparative case studies to further analyse the potential impact of smart city reforms and projects on the sustainable implementation of management accounting systems.

City policymakers and managers may benefit from the practical findings of this interpretive field-based case study in planning, implementing and monitoring smart city projects and objectives.

Individual and collective well-being may be enhanced through new management accounting forms of multi-level local governance and increased political, field and organisational sustainability.

This study provides important insights into the sustainability dynamics of management accounting in achieving smart city reforms. The achievement of sustainability management accounting systems has connected to multiple ERP roles at different institutional levels, which resulted in accommodating the socio-political objectives of smart city projects.

The purpose of this paper is to address the question of how a developing country, like Mexico, can reform its electricity industry at the same time as addressing climate change issues.

The objective is to provide a tool that policy makers could use to make better and more informed decisions if they decide to liberalise the power sector in Mexico. The problems they would face are difficult to address in an analytically tractable way using conventional economic models. Also, these problems are too idiosyncratic to solve by translating empirical experience from other markets. In response, a system dynamics model has been developed in order to test the impact of a range of different environmental and energy policies.

The paper finds that a reform setting where competition is allowed in fossil fuel technologies; while the public company (CFE) keeps control of hydro and nuclear capacity produce the most well rounded scores in terms of efficiency, CO2 emission reductions and political feasibility. The results could improve the policy implementation process by shedding light on the circumstances and policy choices that can exacerbate or minimise effects.

A simulation of this kind would increase the understanding of these kinds of policies by providing structured insights into key uncertainties. They can also foster new ideas – in the energy sector have underpinned major policy initiatives. But results should be taken with caution, as complete validation of models is impossible.

These results add to the policy implementation literature. For the case of Mexico that has not engaged in a specific model of deregulation, the use of simulation model would be very useful to predict flaws in the design of the new regulation and to prevent unwanted scenarios to happen.

A judicious implementation of an electricity reform can help achieve lower carbon emissions reductions which would be beneficial against the climate change problem.

To the author's knowledge, the approach of analysing ex ante the environmental outcome of electricity reform using a simulation model in a developing country has not been treated in literature.

The objective of the paper is to analyse the economic justification of introducing deregulation to Israel's regulated electricity market and infer whether such a policy change makes sense for the country.

The paper employs an analytical model of electricity market equilibrium under regulation and deregulation. It considers two technologies – coal‐fired generators and combined cycle gas turbines, and two time‐of‐day prices – peak and off‐peak. It analyzes pricing, revenues, profits and consumer surplus both for the regulated industry and the deregulated industry where firms compete, during the peak and off‐peak periods, according to the Cournot conjecture. The model is then applied to the Israeli case.

The analysis shows that a workably competitive electricity market with financially viable firms does not improve net benefits to Israeli society. A deregulated market is likely to yield smaller net benefits than a regulated market, and certainly a smaller consumer surplus. This happens since efficiency improvements in generation costs under deregulation will not be sufficient to compensate for the reduction in consumer surplus due to higher electricity prices under deregulation.

The simplifications used in the analytical model for ease of analysis and presentation could have influenced some results.

The findings of the paper would have significant relevance for electricity sector deregulation in Israel and other regions that currently have a regulated electricity sector (e.g. Hong Kong, Africa, and many parts of North America).

The value of the paper lies in its ability to demonstrate the inherent weaknesses of the deregulation policy through an analytical model.

The objective of the present study is to evaluate and analyse the performance of Indian electricity distribution utilities post the implementation of landmark Electricity Act 2003.

Stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) that incorporates exogenous influences on operational efficiency is adopted in the present study. Specifically, a stochastic frontier production function model with a technical inefficiency effects model (Battese and Coelli, 1995) is chosen as a preferred model. In this model, the function that explains the inefficiency scores is estimated in a single stage with the production technology. This avoids the problem of inconsistency which is possible in the two-stage approach.

The sample involved 52 Indian electricity distribution utilities for seven-year period from 2006 to 2013. Major findings of SFA show that Indian electricity distribution utilities post the implementation of Electricity Act (2003) had, on average, experienced efficiency improvement during the observed period. The overall mean technical effciency score is estimated as 78.5% which indicates that there exist wide scope for effciency improvement in the sector. Further, the empirical findings also indicate that publicly owned distribution utilities obtain average technical efficiencies of 71.3%, which is lower than privately owned distribution utilities, which achieve average technical efficiencies of 85.7%.

Power supply quality indicators such as SAIFI, SAIDI, CAIFI, etc. and unobserved heterogeneity also influence the efficiency analysis of electricity distribution utilities. Hence, these parameters as explanatory variables can be incorporated in the future work.

The results obtained from this empirical study would likely be helpful for utility managers and policymakers to know how well they are performing, and how a better corporate strategy a particular utility can formulate to improve its operational efficiency and also its position in the marketplace.

This paper is amongst the first significant attempts that implement SFA approach to the panel dataset over a longer period of time – 2006 to 2013, so, as to evaluate and analyse the operational efficiency of Indian electricity distribution utilities in a single framework after the enactment of Electricity Act (2003). Unlike previous studies, this study investigates the degree to which various exogenous (or environmental) factors influence efficiency levels in these utilities.