Institute of Public Utilities Industry Advisory Board (annual support since 2002)

Risk and regulation in water utilities: a cross-country comparison of evidence from the CAPM

Structure, regulation, and pricing of water in the United States: A study of the Great Lakes region

The ironic economics and equity of water budget rates

Risk and risk allocation have always been central issues in public utility regulation. Unfortunately, the term “risk” can easily be misrepresented and misinterpreted, especially when disconnected from long-standing principles of corporate finance. This book provides those in the regulatory policy community with a basic theoretical and practical grounding in risk as it relates specifically to economic regulation in order to focus and elevate discourse about risk in the utility sector in the contemporary context of economic, technological, and regulatory change. This is not a “how-to” book with regard to calculating risks and returns but rather a resource that aims to improve understanding of the nature of risk. It draws from the fields of corporate finance, behavioral finance, and decision theory as well as the broader legal and economic theories that undergird institutional economics and the economic regulatory paradigm. We exist in a world of scarce resources and abundant uncertainties, the combination of which can exacerbate and distort our sense of risk. Although there is understandable impulse to reduce risk, attempts to mitigate may be as likely to shift risk, and some measures might actually increase risk exposure. Many of the concepts explored here apply not just to financial decisions, such as those by utility investors, but also to regulatory and utility decision-making in general.

Risk Principles for Public Utility Regulators (Public Utility Regulation)

Michigan State University has been working to advance the common good in uncommon ways for more than 150 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU focuses its vast resources on creating solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.

Michigan State University

Dr. Janice Beecher (beecher@msu.edu) was appointed as Director of MSU's Institute of Public Utilities in 2002, bringing more than thirty years of applied research experience to the position. Her areas of interest include regulatory principles, institutions, governance, and pricing and she specializes in the water sector. She is a frequent author, lecturer, and participant in professional forums and Editor of the journal Utilities Policy (Elsevier). She co-authored the book Risk Principles for Public Utility Regulators (MSU Press). Dr. Beecher is presently serving on the U.S. EPA’s Environmental Finance Advisory Board and previously served on Michigan's 21st Century Infrastructure Commission. She has also advised the state and cities on water policy, pricing, and affordability. She previously held positions at The Ohio State and Indiana Universities and the Illinois Commerce Commission. She is a faculty member in MSU’s Department of Political Science and holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Northwestern University.

Academic journal management and research editing

Environmental and resource policy and regulation

Water industry structure, privatization, and pricing

Theory and practice of public utility regulation

Regulatory institutions, governance, policy, and ethics

Social dimensions of public utility networks

Rates, rate design, and affordability of utility services

Interdisciplinary conceptual and analytical frameworks

DOE Rejects NARUC Invites on Coal, Nuke Bailout

MSU Scholar Appointed to National Environmental Advisory Board

MSU Scholar Appointed to New State Infrastructure Commission

Director of the Institute of Public Utilities

December 2017 – Water Quality in Grand Ledge
Interview with Dr. Janice Beecher, MSU Dept. of Economics

Janice Beecher Interview

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