1 Does Electricity Restructuring Work? Evidence from the U.S. Nuclear Energy Industry

To present an empirical test of the effectiveness of electricity restructuring in improving the electricity generation efficiency, I analyze the variation in productivity of 73 investor-owned nuclear power plants in the United States from 1992-1998. I find consistent evidence that high-cost plants are more likely to be restructured. Accounting for this policy endogeneity, survival analysis and two-stage least squares are used to implement a “pseudo ” randomization process to create exogenous variation in regulatory status. Overall, I find striking relationship exists between restructuring and the efficiency improvements, and that some efficiency gains have come about from the adoption in advanced technology. I