Centre for Competition Policy
High quality independent research into competition policy and regulation
CCP Faculty
Professor Catherine Waddams
Email: c.waddams@uea.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1603 59 3740 Location:
Biography
Catherine Waddams (formerly Price) is a faculty member of the Centre for Competition Policy and Professor in Norwich Business School, which she joined in 2000. She was director of CCP until July 2011. From 1995 to 2000 she was founding Director of the Centre for Management under Regulation and Professor in Warwick Business School, and prior to that senior lecturer in economics at the University of Leicester. She has held visiting positions at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Copenhagen and the University of Cambridge.
Her research interests are in the area of Industrial Organization, and she has published widely on privatization, regulation and the introduction of competition, especially in energy markets. She is particularly interested in the distributional impact of regulatory reform, and consumer choice in newly opened markets, both in the UK and elsewhere.
She is a Non Executive Director of the Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat). and a member of the expert advisor panels of the UK Regulators Network and of Which?’. From 2001 to 2009 she was a part-time member of the UK Competition Commission.
Career History
Selected Recent Publications
Consumer Choice and Industrial Policy: a study of UK Energy Markets (with Monica Giulietti and Mike Waterson), The Economic Journal, 115(506), pp 949–968, October 2005
Introducing competition and deregulating the British domestic energy markets: a legal and economic discussion (with Michael Harker), Journal of Business Law, pp 244-268, May 2007
Measuring Potential Gains from Mergers among Electricity Distribution Companies in Turkey using a Non-Parametric Model (with Necmiddin Bagdadioglu and Thomas Weyman-Jones), The Energy Journal, 28(2), pp 83-110, 2007
Does Ownership Unbundling Matter? Evidence from UK Energy Markets (with Steve Davies), Intereconomics, 42(6), 297-301, November/December 2007
Service Quality in Regulated Monopolies (with Bitten Brigham and Lin Fitzgerald), Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 79(2), pp 197-225, 2008
The Future of Retail Energy Markets, The Energy Journal, special edition in honour of David Newbery, 125-147, 2008
The Impact of Electricity Market Reform on Consumers (with Khac Pham), Utilities Policy, special edition on reform in South East Europe, 17, 1, 43-48, 2009
Competition Remedies in Consumer Markets (with Luke Garrod, Morten Hviid and Graham Loomes), Loyola Consumer Law Review, 21, 4, 439-495, 2009
Do Consumers Switch to the Best Supplier? (with Chris M. Wilson), Oxford Economic Papers, 62: 647-668, 2010
Innovation and regulation in energy supply (with Elizabeth Hooper), Economic Affairs, 2, June, 13-20, 2010
Objective and Subjective Measures of Fuel Poverty (with Karl Brazier and Wenjia Wang), Energy Policy, 49, 33-39, 2012
Non-discrimination clauses in the retail energy Sector (with Morten Hviid), in The Economic Journal, 122, F236-252, 2012
Nonlinear Pricing and Tariff Differentiation: Evidence from the British Electricity Market (with Stephen Davies and Chris M. Wilson) The Energy Journal, 35, 1, 57-77, 2014
Well-functioning markets in retail energy (with Morten Hviid), European Competition Journal, 10, 1, 167-179, 2014.
Customer Involvement: Frontier or Smokescreen?, The Network Industries Quarterly, vol 16, no 1, 2014
Non-discrimination clauses: their effect on GB Retail Energy Prices 2005-2013 (with Minyan Zhu), The Energy Journal, 37, 2, pp 111-132, 2016
Empirical Evidence of Consumer Response in Regulated Markets (with Minyan Zhu), Journal of Competition Law and Economics, 12, 1, pp 113-149, 2016
Current working papers
Consumer behaviour in the British retail electricity market(with Miguel Flores), CCP research paper 13-10 http://competitionpolicy.ac.uk/documents/107435/107587/13-10+Flores+%26+Waddams+%28Complete%29/4f25262f-8b14-48c1-9048-b443e5b338be
Measuring Consumer Inertia in Energy (with David Deller, Monica Giulietti, Joo Young Jeon, Graham Loomes and Ana Moniche) presented at Energy Industry at a Crossroads: preparing the low carbon future at Toulouse, 4-6 June 2014, see report below
Selected books and reports
Affording Gas and Electricity: Self disconnection and rationing by prepayment and low income credit consumers and Company attitudes to social action (with Dudley Cooke, Alessandra Ferrari, Monica Giulietti and Diane Sharratt), Electricity Association, March 2001
Utility Privatisation and Regulation: A Fair Deal for Consumers? (co-editor with Cecilia Ugaz) and author of two chapters: UK Utility Reform, Distributional Implications and Government Reform (with Alison Young); and Access by the Poor in Latin America’s Utility Reform: Subsidies and Service Obligations (with O. Chisari and A. Estache), Edward Elgar, 2003
Assessing the Effectiveness of Potential Remedies in Consumer Markets, a report for the Office of Fair Trading (with Luke Garrod, Morten Hviid and Graham Loomes), 2008
Benchmarking the Performance of the UK framework supporting consumer empowerment through comparison against relevant international comparator countries, a report for the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (with Michael Harker, Pinar Akman, Liza Lovdahl Gormsen and Judith Mehta), 2008
Consumer Choice in the Water Sector (with Kerry Clayton), published by Ofwat as part of their Future Regulation project, 2010 http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/publications/commissioned/rpt_com_1010fplchoice.pdf
Benefits and costs of introducing tariff choice in uncontested markets – A Report for Ofwat (with Kerry Clayton and Catherine Webster), published by Ofwat October 2011, http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/future/monopolies/fpl/rpt_com20111012ccp_tariff.pdf
Public Service Obligations and Competition (with Michael Harker and Antje Kreutzmann) Centre on Regulation in Europe, 2013 http://www.cerre.eu/publications/public-service-obligations-and-competition#sthash.7hKrTQSr.dpuf
Criteria to define essential telecoms services - Literature review (with Richard Cadman, Michael Harker and Antje Kreutzmann-Gallasch), a report for Ofcom. 2013http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/affordability/Ofcom_Lit_Review.pdf
Who Switched at The Big Switch and Why? (with David Deller, Monica Giulietti, Joo Young Jeon, Graham Loomes and Ana Moniche) 2014 http://competitionpolicy.ac.uk/documents/8158338/8194340/Big+Switch+-+Results.pdf/2e01588d-6564-4e28-b06d-233eaad389c4
The Affordability of Utilities in the EU (with David Deller), Centre on Regulation in Europe Report, October 2015, http://competitionpolicy.ac.uk/documents/8158338/11137336/C+Waddams+%26+D+Deller+-+Affordability+Report+October+2015.pdf/6f344e11-e756-40fa-9218-e081cfd8f6fc
All Publications
(2017)
Switching Energy Suppliers: It’s Not All About the Money,
UEA Repository(Working paper)
(Published)
(2017)
Collective Switching and Possible Uses of a Disengaged Consumer Database,
Centre for Competition Policy
(Commissioned report)
(Published)
(2017)
Report into UK Energy Expenditure Shares - A Long Term View,
Centre for Competition Policy
(Other report)
(Published)
(2016)
Empirical evidence of consumer response in regulated markets,
in Journal of Competition Law and Economics
12
(1)
pp. 113-149
Full Text UEA Repository(Article)
(Published)
(2016)
Non-discrimination clauses: their effect on British retail energy prices,
in The Energy Journal
37
(2)
Full Text UEA Repository(Article)
(Published)
(2015)
Affordability of Utilities' Services: Extent, Practice, Policy,
Centre on Regulation in Europe
(Commissioned report)
(Published)
(2014)
Nonlinear pricing and tariff differentiation: Evidence from the British electricity market,
in The Energy Journal
35
(1)
pp. 57-77
UEA Repository(Article)
(Published)
(2014)
Well-functioning markets in retail energy,
in European Competition Journal
10
(1)
pp. 167-179
Full Text UEA Repository(Article)
(Published)
(2014)
Customer Involvement: Frontier or Smokescreed?,
in The Network Industries Quarterly
16
(1)
pp. 3-5
UEA Repository(Article)
(Published)
(2014)
Who Switched at the Big Switch and Why?,
Centre for Competition Policy
(Other report)
(Published)
(2013)
Behavioural Economics in Competition and Consumer Policy,
ESRC Centre for Competition Policy
UEA Repository(Book)
(Published)
(2012)
Non-discrimination clauses in the retail energy sector,
in The Economic Journal
122
(562)
pp. F236-F252
Full Text UEA Repository(Article)
(Published)
(2012)
Effect of regulatory reform on the efficiency of mobile telecommunications,
in CCP Working Paper
UEA Repository(Article)
(Published)
(2012)
Objective and subjective measures of fuel poverty,
in Energy Policy
49
pp. 33-39
Full Text UEA Repository(Article)
(Published)
(2011)
Benefits and costs of introducing tariff choice in uncontested markets – A Report for Ofwat,
UEA Repository(Working paper)
(Published)
(2011)
Equity, Fuel Poverty and Demand (maintaining affordability with sustainability and security of supply),
in The Future of Electricity Demand.
Cambridge University Press
pp. 298-371
ISBN 9781107008502
UEA Repository(Chapter)
(Published)
(2010)
Non-discrimination clauses in the retail energy sector,
UEA Repository(Working paper)
(Published)
(2010)
Consumer Choice in the Water Sector,
UEA Repository(Working paper)
(Published)
(2010)
Do consumers switch to the best supplier?,
in Oxford Economic Papers
62
(4)
pp. 647-668
Full Text UEA Repository(Article)
(Published)
(2010)
Innovation and regulation in energy supply,
in Economic Affairs
2
pp. 13-20
Full Text UEA Repository(Article)
(Published)
Key Research Interests
Catherine's research interests are in the area of Industrial Organization, and she has published widely on privatization, regulation and the introduction of competition, especially in energy markets. She is particularly interested in the distributional impact of regulatory reform, and consumer choice in newly opened markets, both in the UK and elsewhere.