Public Utility Tariffs
| Date | 01 January 1934 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1934.tb02376.x |
| Published date | 01 January 1934 |
Public
Administration
Public
Utility
Tariffs
The Price Policies
of
German
Public Utiiity Undertakings.
By
H.
E.
BATSON:
ONE
of
the
things
that
makes
the Public
Utilities
a
particularly
interesting field to the student of realist economics is the perpetual
compromise between economic principle and political expediency-
or,
if
you will, social duty. On the one hand, for example, it
is
frequently
in
their interest to differentiate their charges as between one
class or group
of
customers and another: on the other hand, working
as
they do under
a
considerable degree
of
public responsibility or
public control, this is just what it
is
peculiarly difficult for them to
do.
So
what we get is
a
massive mixture of differing practices, as between
one type
of
service and another, or between one country and another
in respect of the same
type
of
service, and
as
between one undertaking
and another
of
the
same
class in the same country. When every
allowance is made for differences in local conditions-in demand
characteristics-there remains a charming assortment of anomalies
for which the most that can be
said
is that the various publics have
grown accustomed to them.
To
take one salient example,
why
is
water almost invariably supplied in this country on the basis
of
a
fixed
assessment and
in
Germany almost invariably
at
a
rate per gallon
measured by meter
?
Mr. Batson was enabled by the Garton Foundation to make a
study the price
or
tariff practices of German Public Utility under-
takings.
This
useful little
book
is the result. While mainly
addressing himself to the task of getting at the facts, he adduces and
discusses principles in a way which adds considerably to its value for
the thoughtful student. Clearly, Mr. Batson has the root
of
the matter
in him, and
a
certain sketchiness in the treatment
of
some major
issues of great importance was inevitable
if
his study
was
to
conform
to its indicated limits. The short chapter on
“
Management in
Germany
”
may be cited
as
an example.
He
gives
a
brief but useful
survey
of
the development of German Public Utility management,
and
of
the various forms with which experiments have been made:
company management, municipal management, the
“
mixed under-
taking,”
‘‘
improved public management
”
(the Regie), and
“
public
management in company
forrn.”
We want
to
know more about them
-how
they work, whether, as between one type and another, any
significant differences in policy and enterprise
or
in efficiency of
performance can be observed: and such information as there
is
on
these matters
is
not very accessible. Some day we may perhaps
hope for
a
fuller and more critical study by
Mr.
Batson in
this
field
:
for present purposes he invades it merely to provide the necessary
introduction to his study
of
price policies.
92
(Humphrey
Milford.)
Pp.
xx+z16.
12s.
6d.
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