Many states initiated electricity liberalization and deregulation in the 1990s, but retail competition for residential customers has remained sluggish, and innovation in products, services, and pricing has been uncommon. The restructuring efforts yielded lackluster results largely because they failed to lift regulations that hinder experimentation by producers and consumers.

L. Lynne Kiesling is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics and the Social Enterprise in the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Economic PolicyEconomyFree Market EconomicsLaw and LibertyPrivatizationProperty Rights, Land Use, and ZoningPublic ChoiceRegulationScience and Public PolicyTelecom and Internet Policy
Other Independent Review articles by L. Lynne Kiesling
Winter 2015/16 The Connected Home and an Electricity-Market Platform for the Twenty-First Century
Summer 2014 U.S. Energy Policy and the Pursuit of Failure
Fall 1996 Public Goods and Private Communities: The Market Provision of Social Services