In the natural gas industry, competition and contracting are gradually replacing monopoly and regulation. In this volume, many leading economists who follow the gas industry present their views on current and future industry trends. To help regulators and industry leaders better understand these changes and to reform regulation, the authors apply economic theories of contestable markets, public choice, transaction costs and dynamic entrepreneurship to the gas industry. The issues addressed in this work are crucial, not just for the gas industry, but for all industries that have traditionally been treated as regulated monopolies.

JERRY ELLIG is Assistant Professor of Economics at George Mason University's Program on Social and Organizational Learning and Associate Director of the Center for Market Processes. Prior to joining the faculty at George Mason, he served as Research Director at Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation in Washington, DC. He has authored numerous articles in journals such as the Antitrust Bulletin, Journal of Regulatory Economies, Transportation Law Journal, and Contemporary Policy Issues, and is coauthor of Municipal Entrepreneurship and Energy Policy (1994).
JOSEPH P. KALT is Ford Foundation Professor in International Political Economy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He has served as codirector of the Harvard Study on the Future of Natural Gas Policy and on the staff of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. He is the author of Drawing the Line on Natural Gas Regulation (Quorum Books, 1987), The Economics and Politics of Oil Price Regulation (1981), and coauthor of Petroleum Price Regulation (1979).

Foreword
Introduction: The New World Gas Regulation by Jerry Ellig and Joseph P. Kalt
The Historical Perspective
The Distortions and Dynamics of Gas Regulation by Robert L. Bradley, Jr.
Deregulation or Regulatory Change? by Michael A. Crew
The Open Access Debate
The Uneasy Case of Mandatory Contract Carriage in the Natural Gas Industry by David J. Teece
In Defense of Open Access by Ronald N. Lafferty and Richard P. O'Neill
Dynamic Efficiency and Regulatory Reform
Intrastate Pipeline Regulation: Lessons from the Texas Experience by Jerry Ellig
Texas Pipelines and Federal Regulation by J. Rodney Lemon
New Transactions in the Gas Market
The Expanding Domain of the Nonjurisdictional Gas Industry by Catherine G. Abbott
Reducing Risk, Shifting Risk, and Concealing Risk: Why Are There Long-Term Gas Contracts? by Robert J. Michaels
Incentive Regulation
Incentive Regulation for Natural Gas Pipelines: A Positive Step in Rate Design by Adam B. Jaffe and Joseph P. Kalt
The Future of Incentive Ratemaking by Kenneth W. Costello
When is Competition Workable?
The Scope of Deregulation for Natural Gas Pipelines and the `Workable Competition' Standard by Dan Alger
Market Structure, Measurements, and Deregulation by Wayne T. Brough
Private Contracting and Regulation
A Brave New World: Private Contracting as a Regulatory Alternative by Arthur De Vany
Regulatory Reform, the Regulatory Compact, Contracting, and All That by Richard A. Bilas
Bibliography
Index