Designing utility regulation involves trade-offs between different goals of contract design. Prioritising one objective may come at the cost of assigning a lower priority to another objective. This study compares four regulatory frameworks in terms of how they each prioritise different goals of contract design. While revenue-cap regulation can be said to minimise transaction costs, it also assigns a lower priority to coordination of production. Conversely, the frameworks that explicitly incorporate stakeholder engagement or negotiation prioritise coordination of production while assigning a lower priority to minimisation of transaction costs.

中文翻译：

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平衡公用事业监管目标的合同设计观点

设计效用法规涉及合同设计不同目标之间的权衡。确定一个目标的优先级可能会以为另一个目标分配较低的优先级为代价。本研究比较了四个监管框架，它们各自如何确定合同设计的不同目标的优先级。可以说收入上限监管可以最大程度地减少交易成本，但它也将生产协调的优先级降低了。相反，明确包含利益相关者参与或谈判的框架将生产协调置于优先地位，同时为降低交易成本分配了较低的优先级。