制度如何促进市场发展:来自美国天然气管道运输产业的经验

How Institution Affects the Development of Market:Evidence from Natural Gas Transportation Industry in the US

美国是当今世界天然气产业发展最为成熟的国家之一,管道作为天然气产业链中联系上下游最为关键的部分,长期以来是美国联邦政府监管的重点。梳理百年来美国天然气管道监管制度演化,并在此基础上借鉴新制度经济学分析方法,基于交易费用与资产专用性、科斯市场、集体行动以及可信承诺的概念框架,剖析了围绕管道的制度如何促进了美国天然气市场发展。研究表明,美国天然气市场的繁荣关键在于将天然气管道界定为受到美国宪法保护的私有财产,吸引了私有资本的投资,促进了监管制度的完善和创新,最终演化出运输权交易的“科斯市场”,推动了竞争性天然气市场的发展。美国监管制度的创新与发展这一过程并非政府的预设,而是几十年来地区分销商等压力集团集体行动的结果。在根本意义上,普通法体系下的美国最高法院扮演了产权保护的可信承诺机制,为其最终形成有利于天然气产业与市场发展的监管制度奠定了坚实的基础。

The United States is the most mature country in the development of natural gas industry in the world.As the most critical part of the natural gas industry chain connecting upstream and downstream,pipeline has long been the focus of federal government regulation.With a survey of the evolution of the US natural gas pipeline supervision system in the past century,this paper adopts the analysis method of new institutional economics and analyzes how the system around the pipeline promotes the development of the US natural gas market based on the conceptual framework of transaction cost and asset specificity,Coase market,collective action and credible commitment.The research shows that the key reason for the prosperity of the US natural gas market is that the natural gas pipeline is defined as a private property protected by the US Constitution,and thus investment of private capital is attracted,the regulatory system is improved and innovated,and finally the"Coase market"of transportation right trading is evolved,which facilitates the development of the competitive natural gas market.The innovation and development of American regulatory system is not the preset of the government,but the result of the collective action of pressure groups such as regional distributors in recent decades.In a fundamental sense,the United States Supreme Court under the common law system plays a credible commitment mechanism for property rights protection,which has laid a solid foundation for its final formation of a regulatory system conducive to the development of the natural gas industry and market.