Jenaer Schriften zur Wirtschaftswissenschaft The Economics of Self-regulation in Telecommunications under Sunset Legislation

Overregulation is one major obstacles to the free and innovative development of markets, even if these markets needed regulation after the privatization of a former monopolist. As a radical change of the regulatory regime could endanger it as a whole, the objective is to find a transitory regime which is limiting regulatory errors. One way is combining the regulatory instruments of sunsetregulation and self-regulation. We discuss conditions for successful selfregulation under sunset legislation. We conclude that a fast moving market such as the telecommunications sector should be subject to such an innovative regulatory regime. JEL Classification: L 50, L 96 * We thank Mark Oelmann and Stefan Voigt for helpful comments.