This book brings together academics and experts on Turkish network industries. It provides fundamental information on the current developments regarding regulation of the different network industries in Turkey. Turkey has gone through a liberalization process in most of the network industries during the past 20 years. In most of them, independent regulatory authorities have been established, but some network industries are still remaining under the central or local government regulatory regime. As a result, there is now a very complicated regulatory regime in place which makes Turkey’s regulatory system difficult to understand for practitioners, academics, lawyers, researchers and investors. This book offers unique insight into Turkey’s regulatory regime in various network industries. It also offers a historical background to regulation, a description of the current regulatory regimes, as well as an analysis of the foreseeable evolutions. The book covers all the important network industries in Turkey. No similar book is available on the market to date. Moreover, the book provides an extensive analysis of the current regulatory regimes in the energy, the transport, and the telecommunications industries. This book should be of interest to anyone wishing to understand Turkish regulation and will be very helpful handbook to researchers who are interested in regulation of network industries not only in Turkey but also in other developing countries, as Turkey is quite representative of other emerging countries. Readers will acquire a thorough understanding of the state of play of the Turkish network industries and their regulation.

The Political Economy of Regulation in Turkey brings together leading international scholars and experts on Turkey and regulatory reform to provide essential information on the recent Turkish experience and its relation to competition policy. After the 1980 liberalization reform, Turkey tried to introduce competition in many industries, but network industries have remained as monopolies. At the end of the 1990s, regulatory reform was initiated and independent regulatory agencies have been established by the government. Comprehensive discussions of these network industries, in particular airlines, electricity, natural gas, telecommunications and environment regulations, are offered. The contributors inquire how economic theory and historical analyses can enlighten the character of market processes and the role for government action in these industries, and the contributions shed light on the very recent changes in the regulatory structure and important legal cases that shape the future of regulated industries. This book discusses these issues in an international perspective and relates the Turkish experience to other similar countries, such as in Eastern Europe and Central America. This book serves as a useful guide to those who want to understand major changes in Turkey and regulatory reforms in other emerging markets, making it of interest to researchers and PhD students concerned with regulatory economics, the Turkish economy, and economic policy in emerging markets.

The Political Economy of Regulation in Turkey brings together leading international scholars and experts on Turkey and regulatory reform to provide essential information on the recent Turkish experience and its relation to competition policy. After the 1980 liberalization reform, Turkey tried to introduce competition in many industries, but network industries have remained as monopolies. At the end of the 1990s, regulatory reform was initiated and independent regulatory agencies have been established by the government. Comprehensive discussions of these network industries, in particular airlines, electricity, natural gas, telecommunications and environment regulations, are offered. The contributors inquire how economic theory and historical analyses can enlighten the character of market processes and the role for government action in these industries, and the contributions shed light on the very recent changes in the regulatory structure and important legal cases that shape the future of regulated industries. This book discusses these issues in an international perspective and relates the Turkish experience to other similar countries, such as in Eastern Europe and Central America. This book serves as a useful guide to those who want to understand major changes in Turkey and regulatory reforms in other emerging markets, making it of interest to researchers and PhD students concerned with regulatory economics, the Turkish economy, and economic policy in emerging markets.

The unique challenges associated with understanding network industries requires insights from a range of disciplinary perspectives, namely economics, engineering, law, and political science. This book analyzes the de- and re-regulation of the network industries and the regulatory challenges these industries will face in the future. Network industries are characterised by economics that entail limiting effects on competition and market creation, and the book highlights the drivers behind their liberalization as well as the inherent need for regulation as liberalization unfolds. By way of an historical approach, the author offers insights into the distinctive approaches between Europe and North America in the past whilst also presenting the pervasive role digitalization increasingly comes to play. A concise overview of the state of thinking about the network industries, this book will be vital reading for researchers, advanced students and practitioners.

Cutting through the confusion around the nature and implications of digitalization, this book explores the rise of the new digital networks, how they affect traditional infrastructure, and how they will eventually need to be regulated. The authors examine how digitalization affects infrastructures in telecommunications, transport, and energy, and how digital platforms establish themselves as a new network on top of and in addition to traditional ones. Complex concepts are introduced through short and colorful stories about the founders of the most popular platforms (Google, Facebook, Skype, Uber, etc.) and how they grew to positions of power, drawing parallels with century-old traditional network industries’ monopoly power (AT&T, General Electric, etc.). The authors argue that these digital platforms strongly interfere with traditional infrastructures that are heavily regulated and provide essential services for society – meaning that digital platforms should be considered as a new and much more powerful type of infrastructure and will require regulation accordingly. A global audience of policy makers, public authorities, consultants, lawyers, students, and academics, as well as anyone with an interest in these digital platforms, will find this book enlightening and essential reading.

Turkey offers an interesting case study, both when it comes to the practice and the regulation of digitalization, as it combines a Western economic and legal system with an emerging country approach to digitalization. This co-edited volume examines the history, policies, economics, and various regulations of digitalization in Turkey. The chapters provide a comprehensive overview of how digitalization has developed in Turkey and how digitalization has come to be regulated, inspired by EU legislation yet with a “Turkish touch”. It explores the take up of digitalization by industry, society, and government, before delving into examples from FinTech and cryptocurrency, to social media and e-commerce, and yielding lessons for comparable emerging countries. Covering all the relevant aspects of digitalization, this book will be of interest to academics and students, particularly to those with an interest in innovation, economics of digitalization, policy, and regulation.