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The concept of light-handed regulation, including light-handed approaches to the regulation of airport services, is discussed. The rationale for the economic regulation of airport services and the traditional approaches used for economic regulation of airport charges are summarized. The evolution of international practice of light-handed regulation is outlined, including the experience with minimal regulation across monopoly industries in New Zealand and the acceptance of “negotiated settlements” in utility industries in North America. General reasons for moving to light-handed regulation of airports include the disadvantages of the price cap approach in practice and the benefits of facilitating greater negotiation between airports and users. Comparisons are made between alternative approaches to light-handed regulation of airport services, including price and quality of service monitoring, information disclosure regulation and negotiate-arbitrate regulation, approaches that have been applied to airport services in Australia and New Zealand. The role and nature of the incentives under each approach are discussed. The chapter concludes that whether light-handed regulation provides a suitable alternative approach to direct regulation depends on the market circumstances and the design characteristics of the light-handed approach.

With significant changes in the aviation industry, various airport–airline arrangements have been formed to achieve alternative objectives. However, no consensus has been reached on such arrangements’ economic effects and the associated optimal public policy. This chapter aims to provide an interpretive review of the common types of airport–airline arrangements, the different modeling approaches used and key conclusions reached by recent studies. Our review suggests that airport–airline arrangements can take diverse forms and have been widely used in the industry. They may allow the airport and its airlines to internalize demand externality, increase traffic volume, reduce airport investment risks and costs, promote capacity investment, enhance service quality, or simply are a response to the competition from other airport–airline chains. On the other hand, such vertical arrangements, especially for those exclusively between airports and selected airlines, could lead to collusive outcomes at the expenses of non-participating organizations. The effects of such arrangements are also significantly influenced by the contract type, market structure and bargaining power between the airport and airline sectors. While case by case investigations are often needed for important economic decisions, we recommend policy-makers to promote competition in the airline and airport segments whenever possible, and demand more transparency or regulatory reporting of such arrangements. Policy debates and economic studies should be carried out first, before intrusive regulations are introduced.

The COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity to review net neutrality and the notion that bright light rules are necessary to hold broadband providers from exercising market power. The 2015 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Open Internet Order asserted that broadband providers have the capability and incentive to harm their customers and third-party service providers. It imposed a set of rules to control broadband providers’ offers, prices, and traffic management. The 2017 FCC vacated all but the transparency provisions of the OIO, restoring the oversight of broadband to the FTC.

This paper offers a review of the evidence regarding the effects of net neutrality regulation, including an investigation of the incidence of violations, or lack thereof, during the 2020 pandemic in the United States. It provides a review of the net neutrality literature and the international research on broadband provider behaviour during COVID-19. The paper presents original research conducted with FCC and FTC reports and a survey of news stories. Brief reviews of federal data on network performance and broadband adoption provide additional context. Given the limited incidence of violations that could be uncovered for the period, the paper suggests why broadband providers behaved opposite to regulatory advocates’ predictions. Contrary to many policy assertions, broadband providers did not block or throttle service, nor did they increase prices arbitrarily or decrease quality. Broadband providers appeared to expand availability, lower broadband prices, and make more networks available, frequently without customer charge. The paper suggests how policy could be updated to reflect the actual behaviour of broadband providers.

Against the background of international telecommunications liberalization and declining settlement payments for many developing countries, charging arrangements for Internet interconnection services (IIS) have become a controversial issue. Following on from the author’s article in the previous issue of info, which reviewed the complaints and counter‐arguments regarding whether current charging arrangements for Internet interconnection are inequitable and subject to anti‐competitive behaviour on the part of Internet backbone providers, this paper reviews proposals for action and makes a number of recommendations as to how to move the debate usefully forward, including a number of positive measures that developing countries can take themselves, as well as measures requiring cooperation among complainant and “complacent” countries.

The financial crisis has been something of a turning point in the regulatory response to financial crime around the world. The failure of light‐handed regulation and risk assessment by both industry and regulators made the operation of financial regulatory agencies almost untenable, often leading to calls for their replacement by more effective agencies. The purpose of this paper is to assess the nature of this regulatory challenge.

The paper discusses some of the case studies that have emerged from the dark side of regulatory and enforcement policies in recent times.

A culture of minimal regulation of financial markets meant that many undesirable practices (such as insider trading, foreign corrupt practices, tax avoidance, money laundering and other frauds) were able to avoid detection until public outrage led to regulatory and prosecutorial agencies being prompted into action following the collapse of financial markets.

More detailed studies of particular institutions will be necessary; this will become possible as the current financial crisis subsides.

This paper explores some of the factors behind this state of affairs and makes policy recommendation in regard to the need for more effective internal controls and monitoring measures within the modern financial corporation.

This paper aims to examine whether the mode of privatisation and the subsequent ownership structure affects post‐privatisation performance.

Utilising a theoretically derived sample of two matched telecommunications firms in New Zealand and Australia, and non‐parametric analysis of financial data, the performance of two forms of privatisation are compared: full privatisation via direct sale to foreign anchor investors versus partial privatisation via a domestic share issue restricting foreign ownership.

Concentrated ownership through direct sales to foreign owned anchor investors is not more efficient or profitable, nor does it result in increased capital investment; it does, however, result in higher dividend payouts.

These findings contradict the accepted wisdom and dominant theory in the field that full privatisation outperforms partial privatisation, and that FDI transfers firm‐specific ownership advantages enabling the recipient to outperform domestically owned firms. However, the findings are applicable to the two firms and countries studied and future studies need to extend these to the wider population of privatised firms.

While privatisation will improve organisational performance, the choice of whether to privatise by direct sale to anchor investors and foreign owners versus a partial share issue privatisation and keeping a domestic focus will have post‐privatisation performance implications.

A more nuanced understanding is provided of the performance implications of modes of divestiture and ownership structures in advanced economies.

This study investigates the impact of the enhanced continuous disclosure regime introduced in December 2002 on several measures of information risk in NZX‐listed stocks. We employ two microstructure models and an intraday data set to measure information risk in a sample of 71 stocks. Our empirical results show that the reforms enacted in December 2002 had no significant effect on either the level of information‐based trading or the adverse selection component of market spreads in our sample of NZX‐listed stocks.

The purpose of this paper is to throw a new light on the online adult entertainment industry and help remove the stigma associated with it.

An ethnographic approach was taken, with participant observation and in-depth interviews with a number of informants.

This is an environment where female performers can enjoy good income opportunities and work in a safe environment. It also provides a high level of job security for technical support staff.

The study used a sample sample size with no access to clients.

It is important that UK regulation remains light handed to avoid pushing the industry off shore.

The paper provides new data on the working environment in camming studios and positive aspects of job security and the equitable distribution of profits.