It never is transparent and simple why deregulation affects different industries more than others. Consider the impact of deregulation on the airline, banking, telecom and electricity industries. By some estimates, deregulation in the telecom, banking and airline industries has (so far, at least) provided more consumer welfare benefits than has electrical utility deregulation.
Studies also suggest that suppliers in the banking, telecom and airline industries might have reaped more benefits than suppliers in the electricity industry. We might speculate about why that has happened.
Crandall, Robert W., and John D. Haltiwanger. "The Deregulation of Network Industries: Theory and Evidence." Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, no. 2 (1994): 1-61.
Hausman, Jerry A. "Valuing the Effects of Regulation: Evidence from the Telecommunications Industry." The Journal of Law and Economics 36, no. 1 (1993): 1-38.
Morrison, Steven A. "The Airline Deregulation Revolution." The Brookings Institution Press, 2006.
Gillen, David W., and Michael W. Tretheway. "The Economic Effects of Airline Deregulation." The Review of Industrial Organization 14, no. 1 (1999): 1-49.
Joskow, Paul L. "Restructuring, Competition, and Regulatory Reform in the US Electricity Industry." The Journal of Economic Perspectives 19, no. 3 (2005): 77-98.
Borenstein, Severin, and Catherine Wolfram. "The Effects of Retail Electricity Competition and Deregulation." The Review of Economics and Statistics 87, no. 2 (2005): 291-305.
Barth, James R., Glenn R. Hubbard, and Robert A. White. "The Deregulation of the Banking Industry: Effects on Performance, Structure, and Competition." The Journal of Banking and Finance 24, no. 4 (2000): 679-709.
Berger, Allen N., and David B. Humphrey. "The Effects of Megamergers in Banking: Evidence from the 1990s." The Journal of Banking and Finance 27, no. 2 (2003): 297-341.
Some would undoubtedly say that although electricity generation and retailing are not natural monopolies, transmission functions remain natural monopolies. It never is clear that the second transmission facilities provider has a clear business case. And competition is difficult when a natural monopoly exists.
Others might argue that demand characteristics in the airline, telecom and banking industries are more elastic than for electricity.
Also, though all the four industries have regulatory oversight, the electricity market arguably remains more subject to government regulation. Regulators have become more comfortable with market outcomes for critical infrastructure such as banking, communications and air transport.
Regulators might be less convinced of the efficacy of deregulation in the electricity delivery business, even if retailing and power generation are more competitive. Regulatory costs can make it difficult for new entrants to compete in the market. Prices, for example, are generally set by market forces in the banking, telecom and airline industries. That is not so for electricity pricing, which remains regulated to a large extent.
The telecom, airline, and banking products also are arguably more elastic than electricity, and therefore more sensitive to price changes.
That does not preclude future changes for any of these industries. Still, until electricity transmission gets more competitive at the facilities level, less competition will be possible. And less competition tends to mean less consumer welfare creation.
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