Explaining Incumbent Internationalization of the Public Utilities: Cases from Telecommunications and Electricity
Explaining incumbent internationalization of the public utilities: Cases from telecommunications and electricity Judith Clifton, Daniel Díaz-Fuentes, Marcos Gutiérrez and Julio Revuelta ∗ One major consequence of the reform of public service utilities in the European Union since the 1980s - particularly privatization, liberalization, deregulation and unbundling - was that a number of formerly inward-looking incumbents in telecommunications and electricity transformed themselves into some of the world’s leading multinationals. Now, reform was a prerequisite for their internationalization, substantially changing the business options available to incumbents. However, the precise relationship between reform and incumbent internationalization is contested. In this paper, three dominant political economy arguments on this relationship are tested. The first claims that incumbents most exposed to domestic reform (liberalization and privatization) would internationalize most. The second asserts that incumbents operating where reform was limited or slower-than-average would exploit monopolistic rents to finance aggressive internationalization. The third argument claims that a diversity of paths would be adopted by countries and incumbents vis-à-vis reform and internationalization, differences being explained by institutional features. After compiling an original database on extent of incumbent internationalization, alongside OECD data on ownership and liberalization, we deploy correlation and cluster analysis to seek explanations for internationalization. Evidence is found in favor of the third hypothesis. Internationalization as a response to reform took diverse forms in terms of timing and extent. This can therefore be best explained using a country, sector and firm logic. Key words: Utilities, European Union, internationalization, liberalization, privatization. ∗ Department of Economics, Universidad de Cantabria, Av de los Castros s.n., Cantabria D39005, Spain.
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