Research On The Consumer Involvement In The Price Hearing Concerning Public Utilities

Public utilities price hearing as an important component part of public utility prices control, to a considerable extent, has become public topic, but, theoretically, the study of consumer in public utility prices hearing is still unfledged. On the base of information access, use and protection, this dissertation deals with the consumer participation on the public utility prices hearing from these three aspects of information, capacity and institution.This dissertation argues that the participation of consumer's interest groups in the price hearing has two main aspects of the role: Joining in the decision-making process of public utility prices by their own access and use of information as well as providing the information of value.For the basic framework of information, capacity and institution, the dissertation thinks that the decision-making process is essential a competing and selected process of interests. At the same time, the allocation of decision-making authority is essential the distribution "the right of speaking", which means the information and its application to a large extent. Therefore, the contents of the framework of information, capacity and institutional are: the institution design to make sure the game subjects have equal (but does not require the same) information; ensure the consumer interest group's ability to utilize the information; achieving the game subjects'effective confrontation on the basis of the establishment of adequate information use.For access to information, the key of designing system to reduce the information asymmetry between consumers and manufacturers is: (1) regulatory bodies and manufacturers should provide adequate and effective information, in order to effectively reduce the information asymmetry (2) through the participation of experts providing professional knowledge to reduce the information asymmetry between the two.For the use of information, consumer interest groups tend to free riding and internal division determines the characteristics of the lack of consumer participation, therefore, a system must be designed to fulfill effective participation of consumer interest groups. Such a system design is focusing on the carrier function of consumer organizations to assure the voluntary nature, representatives and professionalism of the consumers' represents. Because of the limited rational individual consumers, in practice, "consumer home" and credibility as its sole asset of consumer organizations have become the main carrier of the consumer prices of public utilities hearing, which main function is to select some representatives as from general consumer. Therefore, on the aspects of capacity, related main contents include: (1) the effective participation of consumer organizations; (2) selection of voluntary and certain professional consumer representatives, (3) the incentive and restraint on consumer representatives.For information protection, the right to speak is a power (influencing power). In the hearing of public utilities prices, the power of consumers embodies through the access and use of information. In order to ensure the participation of consumer utility's influence, we can account on a kind of system. Synthesizing varied national practices, these systems involved general independent regulatory bodies, multi decision-making after hearing, exclusive file system and judicial review system.On this basis, consumer participation in Chinese utility prices hearing is reviewed, and three improving ways are proposed through the information, capacity and institution. Correspondingly, the main framework is: the first chapter focuses on the relationship between the price control, price hearing and consumer participation, the key point is to introduce the target of utility price control and prices hearing model, which are the basis of later chapter on the major factors influencing consumer participation in public utilities prices. Chapter two focuses on the framework of information, capacity and institution, which stated the obtaining and use of information, protection of the consumer participation. It leads to the core of later four chapters. From Chapter three to Chapter five, dissertation discusses three aspects of information acquisition, use and the protection which are necessary to the participation of consumers on public utility price hearing from information, capacity and institution respectively. Continuing these four chapters'contents, Chapter six discusses the improving way of Chinese public utility prices hearing from the three aspects of information, capacity and institution. Chapter seven summarizes the full text of the basic viewpoints, and put forward an outlook.In order to effectively demonstrate the above viewpoints, concerning the object, this dissertation applied the use of game theory, research, and investigation as well as case analysis. On the game theory, the thesis thinks that the process of public utility prices hearing can be modeled as a group from the interests of consumers and manufacturers in regulatory agencies under the rules established by the participation of non-cooperative game. Under certain circumstances, due to the participation of experts, every participants based on the experts to provide authoritative information conclude to a consensus can lead to the cooperative game. In the survey research, the author based on the typical public utility implicit assumptions of passenger transport railroad, researches three major customers group of university students, commercial purpose, and migrant workers in the form of the questionnaire. Among them, university students are Liaoning University Law School junior students, commercial purpose group contains 30 lawyers from 3 law firms in Shenyang City law, migrant workers group has 120 workers from Dalian·Peace Coast construction site who are going to be back their home in Spring Festival. Through questionnaires and its analysis, the authors come by the first-hand information about consumer participation in the public utility prices hearing. In addition, the public utility prices hearing as an indispensable part of the decision-making process, the participation of consumers in practice has some more examples, the author choose some representative aspects to demonstrate the consumer participation.