Why Regulate Utilities? informs and revises economic thought about regulation and regulatory changes. Showing that state regulation governed the behavior of local politicians as well as utilities, Werner Troesken gives empirical muscle to the idea that regulatory commissions act like administered contracts. Synthesizing and extending the new institutional economics, he builds a comprehensive model of institutional change and political economy.

Why Regulate Utilities? promotes sensitivity to a relevant past. Highlighting institutional arrangements once hidden by the shadows of the past, it demonstrates how utility markets operated in the years before state regulation. Emphasizing the importance of historical context, Werner Troesken suggests that producer support for a particular law or regulation need not imply that the law or regulation is inefficient or contrary to the public interest.